Effects of a Dependent Group-Oriented Contingency on Middle School Physical Education Students’ Fair Play Behaviors

This study investigated the effects of a dependent group-oriented contingency on the supportive and non-supportive fair play behaviors of 6th grade students engaged in volleyball games as part of their physical education instruction. Six students, one male and one female per class, from three classes, identified as demonstrating low incidences of supportive behaviors during volleyball games, were participants in this study. A multiple baseline across classes design was used to examine the data. During baseline few incidences of non-supportive behaviors occurred among all six students. However, the participants seldom displayed supportive behaviors during games (i.e., encouraged each other). Following the introduction of the dependent group contingency, supportive behaviors for all participants increased. Follow-up data, collected in an alternative setting, indicated variable maintenance. The results are discussed in the context of group contingencies and social behaviors in sports.     

Caregiver involvement in applied behavior-analytic research: A scoping review and discussion

We conducted a scoping review to characterize the role of caregiver involvement in behavior-analytic research. We reviewed eight behavioral-learning journals from 2011–2022 for works that included children or caregivers as participants and characterized caregiver involvement as passive (implications for caregivers, input, social validity) and active (implementation, caregiver behavior, training, caregiver-collected data). The review identified 228 studies, and almost all (96.1%; n = 219) involved caregivers in some capacity; 94.3% (n = 215) had passive involvement (26.8% had only passive involvement; n = 61), 69.3% (n = 158) had active involvement (1.8% had only active involvement; n = 4), and 3.9% (n = 9) had neither passive nor active involvement. Involvement generally increased over publication years. The most common types of involvement were implications for caregivers, implementation, and input; caregiver-collected data were rare. We propose considerations when engaging caregivers in research and suggest new avenues of inquiry related to caregivers' treatment objectives and social validity, treatment implementers, and caregiver-collected data.     

New Developments in Understanding Skilled Performance

ABSTRACT— Skilled performance, whether it involves rapid and accurate motor movements (such as playing a video game or using a scalpel in the operating room) or a high degree of domain knowledge (such as finding a small tumor in an X-ray or writing a journal article) typically involves learning and practice over an extended period of time. In light of recent theory and empirical research, I consider two enduring issues associated with skill acquisition: whether individuals become more alike in performance or more different over the course of skill acquisition, and what the determinants of individual differences in skilled performance are. Two broad classes of tasks are considered: tasks that involve speed and accuracy of motor movements and tasks that primarily involve domain knowledge. Issues of practice, ability, and other determinants of skilled performance such as gender and aging are discussed.     

Rumination and attention in major depression

Up until recently, it had been assumed that attentional biases for negative information do not exist in depression. However studies using post-conscious exposure durations have produced contradictory results. The limitations of common attentional tasks, suitability of stimulus materials and differences in stimulus duration times may have contributed to these inconsistencies. We aimed to address many of these issues and examine attentional responses in major depression at two post-conscious exposure times. We also investigated possible roles for rumination and distraction in increasing and lessening attentional biases for negative information. We used a fully controlled experimental design to test the effects of both induced and trait rumination and distraction on attention in patients with major depression and healthy controls. Attention was assessed using the dot-probe task. The findings revealed an attentional bias for negative information in depressed patients only at the longer post-conscious exposure duration. Furthermore although this bias was not influenced by either induced or trait distraction, it was related to trait rumination. Overall, the results showed that depression is associated with a strategic attentional bias towards negative information and that this bias is stronger in individuals who habitually ruminate.     

A Case for Homogeneity of Personality at the Occupational Level

The forces of attraction–selection–attrition have been hypothesized to create homogeneity of personality within organizations, and vocational choice theory predicts that these forces lead to a ‘modal personality’ within given occupations. This study compared the homogeneity of a set of personality characteristics for 6582 incumbents from eight organizations in eight occupations. The results indicated that (1) the homogeneity hypothesis was supported both within organizations as well as within occupations; and (2) the homogeneity within occupations was higher than that found in organizations.     

Fathers' parenting hassles and coping: associations with emotional expressiveness and their sons' socioemotional competence

The present study examined fathers' daily parenting hassles and coping strategies to (a) determine their association with fathers' emotional expressiveness and (b) predict their sons' development of socioemotional competence. Fathers of 148 preschool‐aged boys reported on their parenting hassles, coping strategies, and emotional expressiveness; mothers also reported on fathers' emotional expressiveness; and teachers reported on boys' socioemotional competence. Parenting hassles were associated with less rational, more emotional, and more avoidance coping as well as negative emotional expressiveness. More emotional and less rational coping responses were related to more negative expressiveness, whereas more rational, more emotional, and less coping were related to more positive expressiveness. Fathers' negative expressiveness was predictive of their sons being rated as more aggressive and disruptive by their teachers. In addition, fathers' parenting hassles and coping both predicted teacher ratings of their sons' aggressiveness. Implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Euthanasia: A Buddhist perspective

This paper introduces basic Buddhist cosmology and ethical teachings, emphasizing the concepts of rebirth and Karma. There follows a discussion of the Buddhist view of illness and its causes. Using these introductory concepts, the Buddhist view on euthanasia is explored and contrasted with the views of Marvin Kohl, a leading proponent of euthanasia. It is shown that Buddhism prohibits euthanasia as an option for the terminally ill but instead advocates hospice care. The paper is offered to expand the current dialogue on bioethical issues beyond the Judeo-Christian perspective.     

A COMPARISON OF PEER-INITIATION AND TEACHER-ANTECEDENT INTERVENTIONS FOR PROMOTING RECIPROCAL SOCIAL INTERACTION OF AUTISTIC PRESCHOOLERS

We compared two procedures for improving the social interactions of three autistic children. In a peer-initiation condition, confederates were taught to initiate interaction with the autistic children. In a teacher-antecedent condition, teachers prompted the autistic children to initiate with confederates, who had been taught to reciprocate. Using an alternating treatment design, differential effects were found. The peer-initiation procedure reliably increased the social responses of the autistic children, whereas the teacher-antecedent condition increased the initiations and responses of the autistic children. In addition, longer chains of social interaction occurred during the teacher-antecedent condition.     

Measuring recognition memory.

Recent years have seen an expanded interest in recognition memory tasks. This resurgence of interest has also renewed concerns with measurement problems. Comparing 4 models of recognition memory, Snodgrass and Corwin (1988) found that measures of bias from the distribution-free (nonparametric) model were inadequate. However, their analysis was based on bias measures that can be shown a priori to be nonindependent of discrimination. This article traces the history of the nonparametric model and develops a better measure of bias. The consequence of developing this better measure is that the nonparametric model deserves serious consideration.