CLINICAL BEHAVIORAL PHARMACOLOGY: METHODS FOR EVALUATING MEDICATIONS AND CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT

We evaluated methods for comparing the effects of dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), thioridazine (Mellaril), and contingency management in the control of severe behavior problems. A reversal design was used in which medications were systematically titrated and assessed in unstructured as well as structured settings with three clients. Subsequently, behavioral procedures including timeout, differential reinforcement of other behavior, and visual screening, were used in a multiple-baseline design across settings. The assessment and design methods were useful in comparing the interventions. Dextroamphetamine decreased inappropriate behaviors and improved academic behaviors in one client, but no reliable effects were observed in the other two clients. Thioridazine was variable across clients, settings, behaviors, and dosages. Contingency management produced consistent decreases in inappropriate behaviors and small improvements in academic performance.     

The effects of social motives on behavior in social dilemmas in two cultures

Subjects in Santa Barbara, California, and Groningen, The Netherlands, participated in a seven-person social dilemma game, presented in terms of a conservation of resources problem. Prior to their decision making in the social dilemma game, subject's social motive (altruistic, cooperative, individualistic, competitive) was assessed by means of two different classification procedures. On the basis of previous research findings American subjects were expected to display relatively more competitive social motives, and Dutch subjects relatively more cooperative ones. However, no indications of crosscultural differences were found neither with regard to the distribution of social motives nor with regard to the amount of resources taken for self in the social dilemma game. In both locations, competitive subjects took most resources for self, individualistic subjects took next most, cooperative subjects took less than individualists, and altruistic subjects took the least. In addition to predictive validity, indices of the convergent validity of two social motive assessment procedures were described.     

Development of organization in recall: A stages-of-learning analysis

An experiment is reported in which the effects of taxonomic organization on 7-year-old and 11-year-old children's free and cued recall of two- and four-category lists were examined. The data were analyzed using a stages-of-learning model that simultaneously delivers estimates of the impact of these manipulations on storage and retrieval components of recall. The results indicated that for the Grade 2 children providing a category label at the time of recall primarily enhanced storage whereas increasing the number of categories primarily enhanced retrieval. For Grade 6 children, on the other hand, the use of category labels to cue recall primarily enhanced retrieval, whereas increasing the number of categories affected both storage and retrieval in free recall, but only retrieval in cued recall. In addition, while older children were superior to younger children at both storing and retrieving information, age differences at retrieval were generally larger than those at storage.     

Three-state models of memory development: A review of advances in statistical methodology

A certain family of three-state Markov processes has been widely used in experiments on children's memory. Although the statistical machinery for these models is well developed in most respects, two shortcomings have been noted in recent literature reviews. First, the parameters of the models are not identifiable. Second, goodness-of-fit tests are laborious to execute and their sampling distributions are unknown. New procedures for dealing with these difficulties are reported.     

Control of children's observing responses by information feedback during visual discrimination learning

Four experiments examined the control of observing responses by information feedback during visual discrimination learning. Second-grade children participated in Experiment 1; kindergarten, second-, and fifth-grade children were subjects in Experiments 2 and 3, and grade 5 and adult subjects were tested in Experiment 4. In order to view the stimuli, subjects in Experiments 1, 2, and 3 activated lights in viewing boxes; in Experiment 4, stimulus fixations were measured using a corneal reflection technique. Fifth graders and adults observed the discriminative stimuli for longer times on trials following negative feedback than on trials following positive feedback; in contrast, kindergartener's observing was not affected by type of feedback. Second graders showed smaller and less reliable reactions to type of feedback than did older subjects. These results support the view that visual observing is controlled by cognitive processes associated with hypothesis testing.     

The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire: revision and validation

The present study presents a new, unit-weight scoring system for the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ). One hundred thirty-one college students completed the DEQ, the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The revised DEQ scales were shown to have substantial levels of internal consistency. The three subscales of the revised DEQ were significantly correlated with the BSRI masculinity and femininity scales but not with gender. Significant correlations were also obtained between DEQ anaclitic, DEQ introjective scales and the BDI.     

Prejudice and neurotic symptomatology among white South Africans

Van der Spuy and Shamley (1978) have assembled evidence suggesting chronically elevated levels of neurotic symptomatology among both white and black South Africans. They have argued that these elevated levels could be attributed to the experience of racial discrimination and prejudice. New data obtained from a reasonably representative national sample of white South Africans (N = 782) did reveal symptom scores substantially and significantly higher than scores previously reported for a large community sample in the United States. On the other hand, partial correlational analyses did not indicate any consistent pattern of association between antiblack prejudice and symptom scores among white South Africans. Therefore, intergroup conflict in a sharply stratified society may affect symptomatic levels in individuals by influencing the general quality of social life.     

Sex roles, gender, and fear

Male and female college students classified as masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated on the Bem (1974) Sex Role Inventory (N = 199) were given the Wolpe (1969) Fear Inventory. Significant differences in average fear scores were seen between men and women and between the four sex-role categories, with sex role and gender contributing equally to the variability. The argument is raised here that excessive fearfulness or fearlessness might be as much a product of sex-role conditioning as a product of gender.     

Stressful events and coping responses among older adults in two sociocultural groups

In this study of the way 32 men and women between the ages of 60 to 90 coped with stressful situations, two instruments were used: the Life Experiences Survey and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Overall, health-related concerns were more frequently reported by older adults than any other stressful event. When coping responses were categorized according to four modes--intrapsychic, inaction, direct action, and information seeking--the Appalachian group was found to use the information-seeking mode; the Cherokee group, the intrapsychic mode. Significant differences were found between males and females in coping modes and life-stress categories. When groups were combined, significant correlations were noted between life stress, particularly health-related stress, and the coping modes of intrapsychic and information seeking.     

Age and sex differences in the cooperative and noncooperative behavior of pairs of American children

Game playing behavior of same and mixed sex pairs of 5-, 8-, and 11-year-old American children was compared, using a game in which cooperative behavior maximized reward. Pairs of 8- and 11-year-old children were relatively more cooperative and attained significantly more Joint Reward Goals than 5-year-old pairs. Older pairs were not maximally cooperative, however, in terms of all the dependent measures; in adjusting for initial differences on practice trials, 5-year-olds and 8-year-olds took less time than the 11-year-olds, and 11-year-old pairs of boys took significantly more time than all other pairs. In addition, cooperative behavior increased across trials, especially for the 11-year-old children.