A technique for controlling behavior in natural life settings

A behavior control technique is presented, consisting primarily of having a patient give up some portion of his reinforcers (usually money) with the understanding that he must behave in therapeutically prescribed ways in his natural environment to re-earn the reinforcers. The critical features and requirements of the technique are discussed, various applications are suggested, and implications for research are drawn.     

Generalization of relative competence mediating conformity across differing tasks

Subject correctness and group agreement were initially varied for college subjects performing a multiple-choice informational task (Canadian Knowledge Inventory). On a subsequent perceptual task (Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices), the dependent variable of conformity was assessed to examine generalization of relative competence formed on the informational task. It was seen that: (1) Those who perceived themselves to be less competent than the group on the first task exhibited the greatest level of conformity on the second task, thus replicating previous research on perceived relative competence as a determinant of conformity; (2) suspicion reduced conformity.     

Decentration as a means for reducing aggression after exposure to violent stimuli

Studied the effects of decentration as a self-control process to reduce the aggression subsequent to exposure to filmed violence. 48 Belgian French-speaking military recruits were run in four groups of subjects. Two saw either aggressive or neutral slides without special instructions. The other two groups saw only aggressive slides but one underwent the decentration training while the fourth one performed a subsidiary task instead. The famous ‘weapons effect’ is replicated for those subjects who did not receive the special instructions (<.025 one-tailed test) and decentration significantly reduces aggression (<.05 one-tailed test). The absence of a change in the meaning of the slides is interpreted in terms of reappraisal of the stimuli. Besides practical questions, theoretical implications are raised concerning the social context of viewing filmed violence.     

Psychojargon in the psycholegal report: Ratings by judges,psychiatrists, and psychologists

Questionnaires designed to measure the perceived value of technical terminology for psycholegal reports were completed by 67 judges, 78 forensic psychiatrists, and 126 forensic psychologists. Judges were asked for ratings of the degree to which each term aids their understanding, and clinicians were asked for ratings of the likelihood that they would use each term in a report for the court. Rank-ordered ratings of the 45 terms were highly correlated among the three respondent groups, suggesting that forensic clinicians are generally aware of the problem of using incomprehensible psychojargon. Empirical ratings can be helpful in distinguishing between comprehensible and incomprehensible psychojargon for psycholegal use.     

Painfulness decreases the discriminability of electric shock

Two experiments were designed to investigate the relation between the reported painfulness and the discriminability of pairs of electric shocks for which the ratio between the higher and the lower intensity was held constant. In both experiments, subjects first gave category ratings of the painfulness of single shocks in the range 40 to 4.8 mA. Then, in a discrimination experiment, they were required to identify the stronger of a pair of intensities presented in succession. The proportion of correct responses (Experiment 1) or the proportion of area under the receiver operating characteristic (Experiment 2) increased between a low-intensity pairing and a medium-intensity pairing and decreased between a medium-intensity pairing and a high-intensity pairing for subjects who rated the highest intensities as strongly painful. Subjects who gave moderate- or weak-pain ratings for the high-intensity shocks showed no significant increase or decrease in accuracy between the medium- and high-intensity pairings. Time-order errors were observed in Experiment 1. The proportion of trials on which the second stimulus of the pair was identified as the stronger increased monotonically as a function of stimulus magnitude. The results are discussed in the context of psychological assessment of analgesic procedures.     

Psychological re-evaluations: A survey of practices and perceptions of school psychologists

The practice of psychologically re-evaluating students receiving special education services has been mandated by P.L. 94–142 and further operationalized by state departments of education. Intuitively, such a requirement appears sound, for psychologists occasionally make mistakes, children change over time, and efficacy of special education services is variable. Yet given the other mandated practices, such as yearly IEP updates, and the fact that many school psychologists spend a majority of their time testing, we wondered how important three-year psychological re-evaluations are considered by school psychologists. In the present study 40 psychologists across four states were surveyed concerning their perceptions and practices regarding re-evaluations. The psychologists' responses to a 16-item questionnaire indicated that re-evaluations comprised a substantial portion of their evaluations, involved a considerable amount of time, and were perceived as an important check on a child's diagnosis and placement. Re-evaluations and initial evaluations were described as involving nearly identical tests and related activities.     

Inhibition from semantically related primes: Evidence of a category-specific inhibition

The phenomenon of inhibition from generating successive items within a category, reported by A. S. Brown (1981), was examined in two experiments. Subjects responded on target trials by either generating targets (e.g., generating BASS to B when it followed the category name FISH, Experiment 1) or reading them (reading BASS when it followed the category name FISH, Experiment 2). Prior to target trials, all subjects received priming trials consisting of either one or four exemplars from a single semantic category, which could be either the same category as the target’s category (related priming condition) or an unrelated category (unrelated priming condition). In both experiments, different groups of subjects either read or generated primes. When primes were read, target response times (RTs) were always facilitated in the related priming condition compared with in the unrelated priming condition. However, when primes were generated, this facilitation from related primes was eliminated, except in the one-prime condition, when targets were also generated. When primes and targets were both generated, RTs in the related priming condition were slower following four primes than following one prime. Thus, category-specific inhibition from multiple related primes is greatest when both primes and targets must be actively retrieved.     

Problem-Solving Appraisal and the Prediction of Depression During Pregnancy and in the Postpartum Period

Based on the presumed mood-regulatory properties of the problem orientation component delineated in the social problem-solving model, a positive problem orientation was predicted to influence ongoing levels of positive and negative affect during pregnancy. Higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect would then in turn predict depression during pregnancy and in the postpartum period. This hypothesis was tested in 100 women. Path analyses supported the predicted relation of the problem orientation components to trait affectivity, and indirectly to peripartum and postpartum depression. Trait negative and positive affectivity was also associated with peripartum depression, and indirectly with postpartum depression, as expected. Implications for the integrated social problem-solving model are discussed. Recommendations for assessment and counseling interventions with expectant women are offered.