Using pretreatment and posttreatment assessments to enhance and evaluate existing treatment packages.

Pretreatment assessment data were used to enhance an existing treatment package to reduce aggression and to increase positive social interactions between a young boy and his peers. Based on the results of pretreatment assessments, additional reinforcement (differential reinforcement of alternative behavior with adult attention) and punishment (performing a nonpreferred task during time-out) components were added to an existing nonresetting differential reinforcement of other behavior (access to peers unless aggression occurred) plus time-out procedure. A posttreatment component analysis of the additional treatment components indicated that the reinforcement component facilitated positive social interactions and the punishment component suppressed aggression towards peers.     

The consequences of failing to imitate

Infants were shown three modeled acts presented in sequence. Imitation of one, two, or three of the modeled acts or failure to imitate was then observed. Distress was assessed prior to and following modeling. Infants who failed to imitate at least one act displayed a high level of distress. As a control, the same infants on another day observed the random manipulation of the stimuli. Distress failed to occur when the infants failed to imitate the scattering procedure. These results are discussed in terms of the child's development of internal standards. That is, during the latter part of the second year of life, infants show considerable distress when they fail to imitate coherent modeled acts. Since distress did not occur when the model simply scattered the stimuli, we assumed that interruption of play was not an incentive for distress. Deferred imitation was noted for older but not the younger cohorts.     

Cognitive career counseling for women

Developmental theories of career counseling conceptualize individuals proceeding in a sequential, orderly fashion throughout their career lives. Specific tasks are confronted and resolved as individuals pursue their career goals. Issues faced by women at each stage of the career cycle are often overlooked. This article describes the negative influence societal demands, role conflicts, and individual attitudes can have on women seeking careers. RET provides an essential cognitive component for reducing the internal and external attitudinal barriers in treating women for job related problems.Diana Richman, Ph.D. is Supervising psychologist at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy. She maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Queens.     

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS AND EXTINCTION OF DIFFERENT BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS EXHIBITED BY THE SAME INDIVIDUAL

Specific extinction procedures were matched to the function of two target behaviors displayed by the same individual, with results indicating that the matched extinction procedure suppressed the behavior for which it was designed. One of the target behaviors was exposed to an irrelevant extinction procedure, which produced no beneficial effects. These results support previous research indicating the need to match extinction procedures to the function of problem behavior.     

Recall of aggressive and withdrawn statements among young children: Social schema or meaningfulness

Two studies assessed the effects of type of sentence (aggressive vs. withdrawn) and meaningfulness level on the sentence recall of young children. In Study 1, normative data showed that the meaningfulness value of aggressive sentences was greater than that of withdrawn sentences and that meaningfulness and recall were positively related. In Study 2, subjects were tested for sentence recall in a 2 (aggressive vs. withdrawn sentences) x 2 (high vs. low meaningfulness)within subjects design. The sole significant effect was meaningfulness, with the superior recall of high relative to low meaningful sentences. Results are interpreted through a knowledge base model. This research was supported by the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund. Experiment 1 was presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA, and Experiment 2 was presented at the 1991 annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC.     

USE OF COMPONENT ANALYSES TO IDENTIFY ACTIVE VARIABLES IN TREATMENT PACKAGES FOR CHILDREN WITH FEEDING DISORDERS

We evaluated the separate components in treatment packages for food refusal of 4 young children. First, treatment packages were implemented until food acceptance improved. Next, a component analysis was conducted within a multielement or reversal design to identify the active components that facilitated food acceptance. The results indicated that escape extinction was always identified as an active variable when assessed; however, other variables, including positive reinforcement and noncontingent play, were also identified as active variables for 2 of the children. The results suggest that the component analysis was useful for identifying variables that affected food acceptance.     

Recall of aggressive and withdrawn statements among young children: Social schema or meaningfulness

Two studies assessed the effects of type of sentence (aggressive vs. withdrawn) and meaningfulness level on the sentence recall of young children. In Study 1, normative data showed that the meaningfulness value of aggressive sentences was greater than that of withdrawn sentences and that meaningfulness and recall were positively related. In Study 2, subjects were tested for sentence recall in a 2 (aggressive vs. withdrawn sentences) x 2 (high vs. low meaningfulness)within subjects design. The sole significant effect was meaningfulness, with the superior recall of high relative to low meaningful sentences. Results are interpreted through a knowledge base model. This research was supported by the Wake Forest University Research and Publication Fund. Experiment 1 was presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA, and Experiment 2 was presented at the 1991 annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC.     

Immediate memory functions in reading disability subtypes

This study examined immediate memory processes in specific reading disability subtypes. Three subgroups (n = 15 in each subgroup) of reading disabled children were examined: (a) perceptual-motor disorder, (b) verbal disorder-general, and (c) verbal disorder-specific (memory). The three groups were matched for age and full scale IQ. All children received a memory-for-colors task (Color Span Test) designed to evaluate intra- and intermodal serial memory functioning. Comparison of memory profiles for the three reading disability subtypes revealed that patterns varied depending on mode of stimulus presentation or response. Although all three groups performed considerably below normative levels on each of the four subtests of the Color Span Test, all subjects performed significantly better on verbally presented items than on visually presented items. The findings were interpreted to suggest that these reading disabled children may not consistently utilize verbal strategies for coding or retrieval of information when stimuli are visually presented.     

Imitation in toddlers as a function of motor and verbal aspects of modeling

This study investigated the effects of the motor and verbal aspects of modeling on imitation. The subjects were 2- and 3-year-old children (N = 96). The child's imitation responses were recorded during the play period that followed each modeled act. Each child observed the model in one of four modeling conditions. In Condition 1, the model "flew" a telephone while saying that he or she was flying an airplane. Imitation was recorded as motor if the child flew the telephone but was recorded as verbal and realistic if the child flew an airplane. In Condition 2, the model flew an airplane while saying that he or she was flying a telephone. Imitation was recorded as verbal if the child flew the telephone. In Condition 3, the model flew an airplane and said that he or she was flying an airplane. If the child flew an airplane, imitation was scored as motor, verbal, and realistic. In Condition 4, the model flew a telephone and said that he or she was flying a telephone. Imitation was scored as motor and verbal if the child flew the telephone but was scored as realistic if the child flew the airplane. In Condition 1, 2-year-olds displayed more motor imitation than 3-year-olds, and 3-year-olds displayed more verbal-reality imitation than 2-year-olds. Boys displayed more motor imitation than girls. There were no age or sex differences in Condition 2. In Condition 3, 2-year-olds imitated more than 3-year-olds, with 3-year-old girls imitating the least. In Condition 4, reality imitation was largely due to 2-year-old boys' imitation of masculine-type acts.     

Reporting Diagnostic Test Results to Patients and their Families

Summary

Clinical psychologists have been concerned about the proper presentation of their test results to everyone but the patient. Nevertheless, they bear an obligation to inform the patient of the findings, which, after all, were contingent upon his cooperation and effort. A method of presenting such data is described, which can be applied to school, vocational, and psychiatric disturbances. and one case is presented in detail. The method's efficacy is largely a function of the skill and experience of the counselor, the motivation of the client, the presence of a positive working relationship, and a respect for the person being tested.