The "REST" program: a new treatment system for the oppositional defiant adolescent

This study compared the REST (Real Economy System for Teens) program with traditional talk therapy in the treatment of oppositional defiant adolescents. The REST program uses rules for five target behaviors: room care, personal hygiene, completion of chores, abusiveness, and safety violations. Objective measures and subjective parental ratings were taken. Twenty-five adolescents were assigned to each therapy group. In the REST program the adolescent was provided with only food and shelter. The adolescent had to earn money through the REST allowance program to pay for everything else. Earning the allowance was made contingent upon compliance with all rules for the five target behaviors. The results showed significantly greater improvement on all target behaviors for the REST program than for traditional therapy. In addition, parents of adolescents in the REST group reported that their adolescents seemed happier, more relaxed, and closer to them.     

What does the cook and medley hostility scale measure? Affect, behavior, and attributions in the marital context

The Cook and Medley (1954) Hostility (Ho) scale has been used in several important studies evaluating potential health consequences of hostility. A relative lack of compelling information about the construct validity of the Ho scale, however, has raised concerns about the appropriate interpretation of previous research. In this study, 60 married couples discussed a low conflict topic, a high conflict topic, and then a second low conflict topic. High Ho men responded to the high conflict topic with significant increases in self-reported anger and anxiety and overt hostile behavior, but low Ho men did not. Furthermore, compared to low Ho men, high Ho men blamed their wives more for their usual disagreements on the high conflict topic and saw their disagreement-engendering behavior as more intentional. Among women, Ho scores were weakly related only to overt hostile behavior. Finally, couples consisting of two low Ho persons displayed a uniquely agreeable interactional style.     

The moral reasoning of juvenile delinquents: A meta-analysis

To test the hypothesized immaturity of juvenile delinquents' moral reasoning, the results of 15 studies of the moral reasoning of juvenile delinquents were integrated quantitatively using meta-analysis. Hedges and Olkin (1985) methods were used to (a) compute effect sizes, (b) test the homogeneity of the obtained effect sizes, and (c) test the statistical significance of the pooled mean effect size. The results supported the hypothesis that the moral reasoning of juvenile delinquents is immature. It was concluded that several other issues are in need of investigation.     

The effects of varying fins in Müller-Lyer and Holding illusions

Summary Five experiments were conducted to determine how distortion of spatial position induced by unidirectional Müller-Lyer fins varied as a function of angle and length of fins. Research employing Cornsweet's staircase method yielded ambiguous results, but psychophysical methods of magnitude estimation, paired comparisons, and production showed conclusively that distortions of position are affected by angle and length of fins in a manner similar to that found in distortions of length. It was concluded that similar strategies are employed in processing attributes of length and position and that a theory based on averaging of attributes within an attentional field describes the performance of real observers.Experiments 1 and 2 were reported in a Master's thesis submitted by Nancy Smith to the University of Manitoba in 1987.     

Influences of Destructive Personality Information on Decision Making1

This study examined the effects of information about a landlord's personality on juror judgments for a landlord-tenant civil trial. The personality information manipulated was specifically relevant to destructive acts. Alternative versions of witness testimony were used to describe a landlord either high or low on need for power. treating people as objects, and negative life themes. This information strongly influenced aspects of the schema for this case constructed by the individual mock jurors. Destructive personality information caused dislike of the landlord and lowered the credibility of his story. If the landlord treated people as objects, the credibility of the tenant's story and positive evaluations of the tenant increased. Juror judgments about relative fault were strongly shifted by destructive personality information. An empirical model for juror decisions indicated a dynamic interplay of story components and fault judgments.     

Racial Attitudes and the Death Penalty1

This study investigated the relationship between overt and subtle forms of racism with Whites' recommendations for capital sentencing of Black and White offenders convicted of murder. White participants (n= 104) viewed 5 other “jurors” (all Whites or 4 Whites and 1 Black) on videotape individually presenting their decisions to vote for the death penalty in the case. It was hypothesized that the bias of high prejudice-scoring participants would be overt, but that the pattern for low prejudice-scoring participants would be more complex. As predicted, among high prejudice-scoring participants, Black defendants received stronger recommendations for the death penalty than did White defendants. Among low prejudice-scoring White participants, Black offenders received stronger recommendations for the death penalty only when a Black juror advocated the death penalty.     

Religion and the use of animals in research: some first thoughts

Religious traditions can be drawn on in a number of ways to illuminate discussions of the moral standing of animals and the ethical use of animals in scientific research. I begin with some general comments about relevant points in the history of major religions. I then briefly describe American civil religion, including the cult of health, and its relation to scientific research. Finally, I offer a critique of American civil religion from a Christian perspective.