SEVERE CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS: TEACHERS OR COUNSELLORS

This experiment was designed to determine the relative effectiveness of teacher and counselling approaches in the reduction of disruptive or inappropriate classroom behavior. Inappropriate classroom behavior frequencies of 12 academically low achieving, seventh-grade, black male students, with a reported high rate of inappropriate classroom behavior, were recorded. Three groups, with nearly equal mean inappropriate behaviors, were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: behavioral counselling, client-centered counselling, or no counselling. Each counselling group received fifteen 30-minute counselling sessions, at a rate of two to three times a week. In addition to counselling, all students subsequently received teacher approval within the classroom. Results indicated that the teacher was able to reduce inappropriate behavior more than any counselling group. There were also indications that behavioral counselling, but not client-centered counselling, was moderately helpful in reducing inappropriate classroom behavior.     

Expert and referent power: A framework for understanding and maximizing consultation effectiveness

This paper describes consultation as an influence process and, in particular, describes the two forms of social power—expert and referent power—which allow school psychologists or any mental health professional to influence the consultees with whom they work. Several hypotheses are presented derived from social psychology research and theory on these forms of power which have practical importance for the school psychologist.     

U-statistic hierarchical clustering

A monotone invariant method of hierarchical clustering based on the Mann-Whitney U-statistic is presented. The effectiveness of the complete-link, single-link, and U-statistic methods in recovering tree structures from error perturbed data are evaluated. The U-statistic method is found to be consistently more effective in recovering the original tree structures than either the single-link or complete-link methods.     

Social Class and Reported Changes in Behavior After Job Loss

Reports were obtained from middle-class and working-class unemployed British men about change or lack of change since job loss in 37 different behaviors. The behaviors were grouped into Domestic Work, Domestic Pastimes, Other Pastimes, Book Reading, Recreations, Entertainment Through Money, and Social Contacts. Contrary to findings from 1930s research, significant increases in social contact and book reading were reported since job loss. Other significant increases were reported within all categories except Entertainment Through Money, where a significant decline was recorded. A number of social class differences were found. For instance, middleclass unemploycd men were significantly more likely than their working-class counterparts to report increased book reading for study and more visits to the public library. Working-class respondents were significantly more likely to report increased looking around shops without buying and reduced visits to the pub. Several significant associations between reported behavior changes and aspects of psychological and general health were observed.     

Participation by women in behavior analysis

The participation of women in behavior analysis as authors of articles published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) and the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA), as members of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABA), and as contributors to the 1982 ABA convention was examined. Since the inception of JEAB and JABA, men have appeared as authors far more frequently than women, although women have published relatively more frequently in the latter journal than in the former. Across years, there has been an upward trend in the proportion of JEAB authors who are female; this is not the case for all JABA authors, although it does hold for senior authors. In 1980-1981 and 1981-1982, females represented approximately half of ABA's student and affiliate members but less than a third of its full members. Approximately a third of the contributors to posters and symposia and a seventh of those delivering invited addresses at the 1982 ABA convention were women.     

Extinction of a phobia of physical examination in a seven-year-old mentally retarded boy—A case study

Counterconditioning is a process in which aversive stimuli that ordinarily evoke emotional or avoidance responses are paired with positive stimuli which evoke incompatible activities. Several sets of operations have been employed to induce these incompatible activities (e.g. food, Jones, 1924; relaxation. Grossberg, 1964; positive imagery, Lazarus and Abramowitz, 1962; pharmacological agents, Friedman, 1966; laughter, Ventis, 1973).Although the Counterconditioning process has been successfully applied to a wide variety of emotional disorders, special problems arise when the procedure is applied to the mentally retarded. First, because of the limitations in cognitive abilities, it is generally impossible to train the subject in either relaxation or positive imagery processes. Consequently, it is necessary to place the child in direct contact with the anxiety-inducing situation. Secondly, it is often difficult to find an anxiety-free situation which is incompatible with the anxiety-arousing situation and which can be practically implemented, particularly when the phobia involved is complex.The purpose of this paper is to describe a case whereby a phobic response of physical examination by male doctors in a 7–yr-old mentally retarded boy was extinguished by pairing the examination with an anxiety-free situation, i.e. an extremely comfortable relationship between the patient and a nurse on the ward. Previous research had indicated that parents and people who have positive relationships with a person might possibly serve as effective anxiety reducers in fear-provoking situations (Jersild and Holmes, 1935).