On terms and procedures: Fluency

Fluency is a metaphor for flowing, effortless, well-practiced, and accurate performance. Current practice in fluency building involves increasing the frequency of free-operant performances. Free-operant performance is defined as continuous responding in the presence of discriminative stimuli that are either varied or not varied from response to response. Free-operant performance is also distinguished from discrete-trial performance. Frequency-building procedures are also described, including defining the learning channel and stimulus control topography of a component performance (called a pinpoint), selecting an appropriate timing period, and displaying stimuli so that no performance ceilings occur. During frequency building, frequencies of pinpoints are continuously charted on standard celeration charts. Frequencies are increased to empirically derived performance standards, or aims, that predict retention, endurance, stability, application, and adduction of performance. Frequency is also described as a dimension of performance, not simply its measurement. Frequency building is described as possibly facilitating contingency adduction.     

Recognition of Facial Expressions of Emotion by Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Interpreting and responding appropriately to facial expressions of emotion are important aspects of social skills. Some children, adolescents, and adults with various psychological and psychiatric disorders recognize facial expressions less proficiently than their peers in the general population. We wished to determine if such deficits existed in a group of 133 children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The subjects were receiving in-patient psychiatric services for at least one of substance-related disorders, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders or disruptive behavior disorders. After being read stories describing various emotional reactions, all subjects were tested for their ability to recognize the 6 basic facial expressions of emotion depicted in Ekman and Friesen's (1976) normed photographs. Overall, they performed well on this task at levels comparable to those occurring in the general population. Accuracy increased with age, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, or clinical diagnosis. After adjusting for age effects, the subjects diagnosed with either adjustment disorders, mood disorders, or disruptive behavior disorders were significantly more accurate at identifying anger than those without those diagnoses. In addition, subjects with mood disorders identified sadness significantly more accurately than those without this diagnosis, although the effect was greatest with younger children.     

Factors Facilitating and Impeding Growth of Psychology in South Asia with Special Reference to India

The growth of psychology in South Asian countries has been impeded by the lack of intellectual climate, scarcity of resources, and poor professional support. These proximate factors are embedded in a socio-cultural milieu of pervasive poverty, collectivism, and centralized control of resources. The cultural factors get a free hand because of the inappropriate nature of Western psychology, which is being transplanted as a greenhouse plant. Psychologists can come out of this greenhouse and develop an appropriate science by addressing societal problems from indigenous perspectives. If they do so, the same cultural factors would either facilitate the growth of psychology or be contained to a great extent.     

Event-specific attributions and daily life events as predictors of depression symptom change

A prospective study was conducted to investigate whether event-specific attributions, either alone or in interaction with daily life events predict depression symptom change, and whether this is affected by systematic variation in intertest intervals. Baseline measures of attributional style, event-specific attributions, life events, and depression were administered to 96 adults enrolled in a cigarette-smoking cessation program who were readministered the event-specific attributions, life events, and depression measures 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks later. Results indicated that (a) the interaction between event-specific attributions and life events was a better predictor of depression symptom change than were event-specific attributions alone; (b) event-specific attributions and life events demonstrated a tendency to predict depression symptom change over 2 and 4 weeks but not over 6 and 8 weeks; (c) the stability and globality of event-specific attributions was associated with the number of reported life events; and (d) baseline attributional style predicted event-specific attributions 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks later.     

The impact of parental divorce on the attainment of the developmental tasks of young adulthood

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of parental divorce on young adult development. One hundred twenty-five participants provided demographic information and completed the PAFS-Q (college version) and the conflict subscale of the Family Environment Scale. Results indicate that parental divorce and family conflict significantly affect developmental task attainment. The interactions between sex and age and family structure (i.e., single-parent or stepfamily) were also significant predictors of post-divorce task attainment. Implications of these results for therapists as well as recommendations for future research are provided.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the annual conference of the American Psychological Association, Los Angles, California, August 1994.     

Perceptual Ambiguity, Gender, and Target Intoxication: Assessing the Effects of Factors That Moderate Perceptions of Sexual Harassment

Subjects read a passage which described an interaction between a man and a woman at an office party. The woman was either sober or intoxicated, and eventually the man engaged in 1 of 3 behaviors which involved varying degrees of sexual innuendo and/or aggression: (a) verbal comment, (b) verbal request, and (c) nonverbal physical display. The results indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of target person's intoxication in the nonverbal-display condition. On the other hand, in the verbal-comment and verbal-request conditions, subjects in the intoxicated-target-person condition perceived the initiator more favorably than subjects in the sober-target-person condition. In addition, they indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of target-person intoxication level in the nonverbal-display condition. On the other hand, in the verbal-comment and verbal-request conditions, male subjects were more favorable toward the initiator than toward female subjects.     

An Ounce of Prevention: A Model for Working with Couples At-Risk for Battering

Literature on preventing spousal battering before it starts is virtually non-existent. This article describes a prevention of abuse program that targets couples at-risk for battering. At-risk couples and the process of engaging them in couples counseling are described. The prevention model is based on a Bowenian approach that focuses on partner differentiation and reducing emotionality and promoting rational thinking. It is assumed that increasing differentiation decreases the risk of spousal battering. The various techniques used to facilitate differentiation are presented as well as a case example illustrating a successful prevention of abuse experience.