FURTHER ANALYSIS OF PROBLEM BEHAVIOR IN RESPONSE CLASS HIERARCHIES

A functional analysis identified the reinforcers for 3 participants' problem behavior, but only relatively mild problem behaviors (e.g., screaming, disruption) were observed when all topographies produced tested consequences. We then conducted an extinction analysis in which specific topographies produced a reinforcer while all other topographies were on extinction. The extinction analysis confirmed that the same reinforcer identified in the initial functional analysis maintained more severe topographies of problem behavior (e.g., aggression). In addition, results of the extinction analysis indicated that 2 of the participants displayed patterns of responding consistent with a response class hierarchy hypothesis, in which less severe problem behavior frequently occurred prior to more severe topographies. The 3rd participant displayed a response pattern indicative of differential reinforcement effects.     

Preferences for Spousal Support Among Individuals With Cancer1

Although it is known that individuals have preferences for different forms or amounts of social support from others when dealing with life events, such preferences have not been subject to extensive empirical examination. We examined preferences for spousal emotional and instrumental support, as well as preferences for spousal control-encouraging responses, among 151 individuals with cancer. Dispositional and situation-specific factors were placed into a hypothetical model predicting support preferences. Results confirmed predictions: Preferences for emotional and instrumental aspects of support were related to dispositional (affiliative need), person (gender), and contextual (disease impairment) variables. As predicted, higher affiliative need predicted higher preference for emotional support. However, functional impairment did not predict preferences for more instrumental support, and this variable only predicted preferences for more emotional support among female patients. Individuals’ preferences for control encouragement from their spouses were associated with attributions of personal responsibility for solving general life problems and indirectly associated with internal locus of control. These results provide an initial conceptual model for understanding cancer patients’ preferences for support.     

Sym-Phenomenologizing: Talking Shop

In this essay I discuss the idea of deploying workshops in phenomenology -- i.e., teaching the discipline by practising it. I focus on the model proposed by Herbert Spiegelberg, the first person to give systematic attention to this idea and the first to institutionalize it over a period of several years. Drawing on my experience in several of the workshops he led at Washington University, St. Louis, I detail the method he recommended in preparation for a workshop I ten led at the inaugural meeting of To the Things Themselves at the University of New Hampshire.     

Book reviews

Muhammad: a short biography.Martin Forward, 1997. Oxford, Oneworld. 131 pp., pb. £8.99, ISBN 1 85168 131 0

Image of the Prophet Muhammad in the West: a study of Muir, Margoliouth and Watt. Jabal Muhammad Buaben, 1996. Leicester, The Islamic Foundation. 394 pp., hb. n.p., ISBN 0 86037 260 X, pb. n.p., ISBN 0 86037 261 8

Seven Doors to Islam: spirituality and the religious life of Muslims. John Renard, 1996. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, University of California Press. xv + 333 pp., pb. £13.95, ISBN 0 520 20417 4

Global Communication in Transition: the end of diversity?. Hamid Mowlana, 1996. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications. 233 pp., pb. n.p., ISBN 0 8039 4319 9

Islamic Fundamentalism. Abdel Salam Sidahmed & Anoushiravan Ehteshami (Eds), 1996. Boulder, Oxford, Westview Press. 284 pp. hb. £43.95, ISBN 0 8133 2429 7; pb. £14.95. ISBN 0 8133 2430 0

Political Participation and Identities of Muslims in Non‐Muslim States. W. A. R. Shadid & P. S. van Koningsveld, 1996. Kampen, KOK, Pharos. 239 pp., hb. FF69,50, ISBN 90 390 0611 3

Islams d'Europe: intégration ou insertion communitaire?. Robert Bistolfi & François Zabbal (Eds), 1995. Paris: L'Aube. 382 pp., pb. FF160, ISBN 2 87678 201 4

Sectarian Influences Within Islam in Britain: with reference to the concept of ’ummah’ and ‘community‘. Ron Geaves, 1996. Leeds, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds. 319 pp., £8.00 ISBN 1871 363 047

Political Islam: essays from the Middle East report. Joel Beinin & Joe Stork (Eds), 1997 Berkeley, University of California Press 395 pp. pb.. Make a Shield from Wisdom: selected verses from Nasir‐i Khusraw's Divan. Annemarie Schimmel (Ed. and tr.), 1993. London and New York, Kegan Paul International. vii + 103 pp., n.p., ISBN 0 7103 0455 2

The Shape of the Holy: early Islamic Jerusalem. Oleg Grabar, 1996. Princeton, Princeton University Press. xiv + 232 pp. with 84 illustrations in color and black‐and‐white, hb. $65, ISBN 0 691036535     

SCORE ON THE EXAMINATION FOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN PSYCHOLOGY AS A FUNCTION OF ATTRIBUTES OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Graduate programs' correlates with doctoral recipients' scores on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) were determined. Higher EPPP score was associated with larger faculty-to-student ratios, smaller clinical programs traditional as opposed to professional program orientation, and PhD rather than Psy D awarded Programs approved by the American Psychological Association and those that scored favorably on a number of objective indices also produced graduates with high EPPP scores Among the more frequently used admissions requirements median Quantitative score on the Graduate Record Examination correlated most highly with EPPP score.     

Parental Contributions to Preschoolers' Emotional Competence: Direct and Indirect Effects

The present study examines the contributions of (1) parental socialization of emotion and preschoolers' emotional interaction with parents to their emotional competence, and (2) parental socialization and child emotional competence to their general social competence. Both observational and self-report techniques were used to measure emotion socialization, emotional competence, and social competence of preschoolers (average age = 49.8 months) from 60 middle-socioeconomic-status families. Data were collected in both classroom and home settings. In general, the results suggest that parental modeling of expressive styles and emotional responsiveness to child emotions are important predictors of preschoolers' emotional competence and their overall social competence. Children whose parents were more affectively positive tended to display more positive emotion with peers, whereas children whose parents were more negative appeared less socially competent in the preschool. Parents who were better coaches of their children's emotions had children who understood emotions better. Age and sex moderated several of the study's key findings. The results are consistent with earlier research indicating that parental socialization of emotion impacts the child's emotional and social functioning both at home and in the preschool.     

Latent structure of the Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale: Confirmatory factor analyses

The dimensionality of alternate forms of the Sex-Role Egalitarianism Scale (SRES) was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. The subjects, predominantly Caucasian students from seven colleges in the United States and Canada, completed Form B (n = 1,351) and Form K (n = 633) of the instrument. A series of hierarchically nested measurement models was specified and evaluated. A hypothesized two-factor, second-order solution was deemed most appropriate for both forms: a higher order “Intimate Relationship Egalitarianism” factor that subsumes three first-order domain factors (marital, parental, and social-interpersonal-heterosexual roles) and a higher-order “Formal Relationship Egalitarianism” factor that subsumes two first-order domain factors (educational and employment roles). A preliminary report of this study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, June 1995, New York City.