THE EFFECTS OF MEAL SCHEDULE AND QUANTITY ON PROBLEMATIC BEHAVIOR

We present 2 case examples that illustrate the effects of meal schedule and quantity on displays of problematic behavior. In the first example, self-injury displayed by a toddler with severe developmental delays was maintained by parent attention, but only when he was satiated for food. When he was food deprived, self-injury decreased but did not appear to be differentiated across low or high social conditions. In the second example, crying and self-injury displayed by an elementary-aged girl with severe disabilities were correlated: Both behaviors were associated with food quantity, and neither behavior was responsive to social stimuli. These results replicate and extend previous findings demonstrating that meal schedule or food quantity can affect problematic behavior. In the present studies, brief functional analyses of aberrant behavior provided useful information for interpreting distinct patterns of behavior displayed by each child. We discuss these results in terms of the concept of establishing operations.     

Hermeneutic listening: An approach to understanding in multicultural conversations

Listening is crucial to reaching multicultural understanding. Borrowing from the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer we develop a hermeneutics of listening. To listen we must risk our prejudices, but these prejudices constitute our very identity. In this paper we attempt to answer the question, “Why Listen?” if listening is such a potentially dangerous activity.     

Preschoolers' responses to ongoing interadult conflict: The role of prior exposure to resolved versus unresolved arguments

Children's past experiences with interadult conflict are likely to influence their responses to ongoing arguments. Preschoolers' (4- to 5-year-olds) responses to interadult conflict were examined as a function of experimentally manipulated histories of exposure to resolved and unresolved arguments. Children were presented with two live arguments that were either resolved or unresolved, then they were presented with a third argument that was interrupted in progress (i.e., unresolved), and they were interviewed next. Children's overt-behavioral responses were videotaped and coded for distress level. The results support the notion that past experiences with conflict resolution ameliorate children's distress responses to ongoing arguments. In comparison to children previously exposed to unresolvedconflict, those exposed to a history of resolveddisputes were morelikely to (a) exhibit lowered behavioral distress, (b) predict a lower likelihood of a conflictual outcome for the couple's argument, (c) report less negative perceptions of the arguing adults, and were lesslikely to (d) endorse intervention in conflict through attempts to stop the disputes; (c) and (d) pertained only to girls. This research was supported in part by a Research Grant-in-Aid Award from Auburn University to the first author. We wish to thank the families for contributing their time and effort to this project and Jennifer Gibson and Linda Nicolotti for coding the overt-behavioral data.     

Coping strategies and psychological distress in cancer patients before autologous bone marrow transplant

The increased use of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) to treat a variety of cancers has led researchers to study psychological functioning of BMT patients. The majority of studies conducted, however, has focused on adjustment after transplantation. Cancer patients' use of coping strategies before undergoing this procedure may also relate to levels of psychological distress. Our aims were (1) to provide normative coping data, controlling for situation-specific variables with a homogeneous sample, targeted stressor, and fixed time point, using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire; and (2) to identify coping strategies associated with distress before high-dose chemotherapy. Subjects were 49 patients scheduled to receive high-dose chemotherapy and an autologous bone marrow transplant. Consistent with previous coping research, we found that escape-avoidance was related to psychological distress on several measures. Item endorsement analyses of the escape-avoidance subscale suggest that patients may have used more passive than active avoidance strategies. Subsequent participation in a longitudinal study was not affected by initial levels of avoidant coping.     

Personality,Self-Efficacy and Functioning in Management Teams: A Contribution to Validation

The relationship between individual difference variables and the contribution to team functioning was examined in 58 members of management teams. Extraversion and self-efficacy for working in teams were related to attraction to the team, which in turn was related to a rating of team effectiveness. Extraversion was also related directly to team effectiveness. The relationship between conscientiousness and team functioning was not clear. The results are considered supportive for the validity of self-efficacy for teams and extraversion as indicators of the ability and propensity of individuals to contribute to the functioning of management teams.     

WHY NO GUIDELINES FOR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION?

This paper reviews the guidelines for behavioral programs published by the National Association of Retarded Children. The review discusses a number of reasons why guidelines should not be enunciated for behavior modification, e.g., the procedures of behavior modification appear to be no more or less subject to abuse and no more or less in need of ethical regulation than intervention procedures derived from any other set of principles and called by other terms. The review recommends alternative methods for protecting the rights of clients who participate in behavioral programs. Specifically, behavioral clinicians, like other therapists, should be governed by the ethics codes of their professions; also, the ethics of all intervention programs should be evaluated in terms of a number of critical issues.     

The effect of head tilt on meridional differences in acuity: Implications for orientation constancy

Horn and Hill (1969) and others have reported that a small number of units in the cat visual cortex undergo changes in receptive field orientation associated with body tilt. Such units reportedly compensate for tilt and may represent a mechanism for human orientation constancy. To test this, we measured meridional differences in visual acuity for head-vertical and head-tilted viewing conditions. The results of Experiment 1 did not directly support or refute the involvement of tilt-compensatory units. The results of Experiment 2, in which we controlled for countertorsion of the eyes, showed that meridional acuity differences correspond to the retinal and not the spatial orientation of the stimulus. We conclude that tilt-compensatory cortical units are not involved in human orientation constancy. The physiological evidence indicating the existence of tilt-compensatory units in the visual cortex is also reexamined.     

Parental separation/divorce and adolescents: An examination of factors mediating adaptation

This study examined the relationship between differences in current adjustment as they related to a number of demographic, personal, and situational factors for 65 late adolescents/young adults who had experienced this life transition. Utilizing multiple regression analyses, several factors emerged as particularly salient mediators of the adolescents' postdivorce adjustment, including distance from home, coping style, family cohesion, conflict and organization, and the use of family members for support. The importance of clarifying the role of psychological and situational mediating factors in order to understand the consequences of parental divorce and to organize preventive and ameliorative efforts for this population is discussed.     

Stereotypes of traditional and nontraditional childbearing roles

Childless college students (135 male, 135 female) evaluated one of three childbearing orientations by means of an adjective check list (ACL) and multiple-choice questions. Participants read one of three paragraphs describing a hypothetical woman who was either pregnant and happy with the pregnancy, pregnant and not happy with the pregnancy, or intentionally childfree. Results showed favorable stereotyping of pregnant-happy, strongly unfavorable stereotyping of pregnant-unhappy, and no stereotyping of childfree. Implications for research on childbearing orientations are discussed, as are participants' own plans regarding marriage, employment, and parenthood.