Vibrotactile thresholds measured at the finger

Absolute vibrotactile thresholds were determined over the distal pad of the middle finger and thenar eminence of the right hands of five Ss. Measurements were made using eight frequencies between 25 and 700 Hz and seven contactor sizes between .0008 and 1.3 cm². When plotted as a function of frequency, the threshold curve measured at the fingerpad with a .005-cm² contactor is U shaped, with a maximum sensitivity in the region of 250 Hz. When plotted as a function of contactor size, the threshold decreases at a rate of 3 dB per doubling of the area.     

U.S. television programming’s effects on aggressive behavior of children and adolescents

Discussions about the effects of television violence often fail to clearly define the nature of the effect and of the televised material. This article reviews the various facets of the issue and of the research that deals with them, focusing on one specific aspect that is often regarded as most crucial in public discussions and among researchers: the effect of actually televised entertainment programs on the aggressive behavior of children and adolescents. There is little research on that aspect of the issue and, in contrast to laboratory experiments on media violence, it does not show significant television effects. However, none of the existing studies reflect the changes in home entertainment available now as a result of cable television and VCRs and their possible effects on viewers.     

AN EVALUATION OF THE VALIDITY OF THE PERSONALITY RESEARCH FORM WITH FILIPINO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The cross-cultural validity of a North American personality inventory, namely, the Personality Research Form (Jackson 1984) was examined using 394 university students in the Philippines who were able to speak and read English. Scale validities, with self and peer ratings as criteria, were generally significant but modest. Moderate scale and peer rating reliabilities probably contributed to these results. Elevated scores on a PRF scale designed to detect careless responding suggested failure to understand instructions or insufficient motivation may also account for the findings. Interestingly, recalculating validities for subsamples comprising ‘dependable’ and ‘undependable’ subjects yielded no substantial differences in overall validity. Implications for cross-cultural personality assessment are discussed.     

Effects of topic knowledge on the allocation of processing time and cognitive effort to writing processes

Conditions of low and high knowledge about the topic of a writing task were compared in terms of the time and cognitive effort allocated to writing processes. These processes were planning ideas, translating ideas into text, and reviewing ideas and text during document composition. Directed retrospection provided estimates of the time devoted to each process, and secondary task reaction times indexed the cognitive effort expended. Topic knowledge was manipulated by selecting subjects in Experiment 1 and by selecting topics in Experiment 2. The retrospection results indicated that both low- and high-knowledge writers intermixed planning, translating, and reviewing during all phases of composing. There was no evidence that low- and high-knowledge writers adopt different strategies for allocating processing time. About 50% of writing time was devoted to translating throughout composition. From early to later phases of composing, the percentage of time devoted to planning decreased and that devoted to reviewing increased. The secondary task results showed that the degree of cognitive effort devoted to planning, translating, and reviewing depended on the task. Also, the high-knowledge writers expended less effort overall than did the low-knowledge writers; there was no difference in allocation strategy across planning, translating, and reviewing.     

Methylphenidate and cognitive therapy with add children: A methodological reconsideration

The present doubleblind study examined the effects of methylphenidate, cognitive therapy, and their combination in attention deficitdisordered (ADD) children. Four treatment groups were compared on measures of attentional deployment and cognitive style, tests of academic achievement, and behavioral rating scales. In contrast to a previous study conducted in this laboratory, children in this study were not receiving medication during posttesting. Results were interpreted to suggest that measurable effects of stimulant medication dissipate rapidly upon discontinuation of pharmacotherapy. The combination of methylphenidate and cognitive therapy was not found to be any more efficacious than either of the treatments studied alone. Discussion suggests that medication status at follow-up is an essential feature of research design.This research was supported in full by U.S. Public Health Service Grant No. MH 37-628 from the National Institute of Mental Health, Psychopharmacology Branch, and by Biomedical Research Award No. RR 0715807 from the National Institutes of Health, each awarded to R. T. Brown. Placebo and methylphenidate were supplied by CIBA-GEIGY, Summit, New Jersey. The authors are grateful to Dr. Rute Medenis and the entire staff at the University of Illinois Pediatrics Clinic for their valuable assistance and kind support throughout the project. The authors would also like to thank Avery L. Spunt, R.Ph., College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, for his assistance in packaging the medication and monitoring compliance; Arthur I. Neyhus, Ph.D., Coordinator of Child Study Facility, University of Illinois at Chicago, for his assistance in evaluation; and J. Scott Allen, Jimmy Bruce, Robert Miller, Michael Mazius, and Steven Orenczuk, for their assistance in training of the children.The contributions of these authors are equal.     

Acute care treatment services (acts): A model program for providing acute psychiatric services in a homelike environment in an institutional setting

The Acute Care Treatment Services (ACTS) Program at Anna Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna, Illinois, offers a unique, homelike environment for many of the institution's acute recipients. The relaxed, natural environment (i.e., pleasant cottages free from the disturbing behaviors often displayed by chronically mentally ill recipients) aims to stabilize acute recipients, expedite their return to the community, and reduce the likelihood of their later rehospitalization by linking them with necessary community mental health resources. Chisquare analyses demonstrated significantly fewer subsequent hospitalizations for ACTS recipients after their second readmission than that of statewide comparison groups. The viability of treating acute mental illness in a natural setting on an institution's grounds is discussed.     

Totemic therapy

Totemic therapists, those recognized as healers because of their identification with an ethnic subculture, religious group, or social cause, are a factor in modern society often overlooked or underestimated as a mental health resource. Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of totemic therapy, such therapists will be in increasing demand as pluralistic social trends continue. It is therefore realistic to ask how their skills may be increased and their services better utilized.Ronald R. Lee, Ph.D., was born in Melbourne, Australia, and received his Ph.D. in Pastoral Psychology from Northwestern University/Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in 1965. He is Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Counseling at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and is a Diplomate in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.     

SELF-CONTROL TRAINING IN THE CLASSROOM: A REVIEW AND CRITIQUE

Self-control training in classroom settings is becoming widespread. Establishing effective self- rather than externally controlled behavior modification programs in schools would enable children to control their own academic and social behavior, while enabling teachers to devote more time to teaching. The following components of self-control are reviewed in the present article: self-recording, self-evaluation, self-determination of contingencies, and self-instruction. Self-control strategies designed for the maintenance of appropriate classroom behavior, and issues associated with self-control training, such as the reliability of self-observation, response maintenance, generalization, and the role of external control, are examined. Finally, suggestions for maximizing the potential effectiveness of self-control training in the classroom (e.g., teaching self-observational procedures, teaching students to provide themselves with instructions and praise), as well as future areas for experimental investigation (e.g., social changes that may be associated with self-control procedures), are presented.     

Induced-compliance attitude change: Once more with feeling

The present study investigated the impact of the perception of emotion on attitude change in active participation situations. Subjects wrote counterattitudinal statements while their emotional experiences were independently manipulated by altering their facial expressions. Subjects who were led to experience additional negative affect changed their attitudes significantly more than did subjects who experienced no added emotional input. Conversely, subjects who were led to experience additional positive affect changed their attitudes significantly less than subjects in the other conditions. These results and their implications are discussed.     

Evaluation of Counselor Effectiveness

This literature review summarizes research in the general area of the evaluation of counselor effectiveness. Research into the role of the counselor continues, and is typically done in reference to a specific setting. The state of the art is such, however, that the evaluation of the counseling process continues to focus primarily on the presence or absence of the core facilitative conditions; program evaluation, conversely, is becoming more sophisticated. Counselor educators have focused on means of presenting counseling experiences and of providing feedback regarding trainee performance and evaluating that performance; much of this work has been directed toward the counseling practicum. The implications of the movement toward certification or licensure are discussed with reference to both practitioners and counselor educators.