GENERALIZING ARTICULATION TRAINING WITH TRAINABLE MENTALLY RETARDED SUBJECTS1

A multiple-baseline technique was used to evaluate generalization effects during articulation training with trainable mentally retarded subjects. Four target words were selected for each subject on the basis of whether the subject could articulate the word correctly when it was modelled but could not articulate the word correctly in response to a picture of it. Five different settings were selected for generalization probing and training for each subject. In Setting 1, Experimenter 1 initiated training sequentially on all four target words for each subject. Other experimenters probed for correct articulation generalization in four other settings. Training was initiated in these four other settings sequentially only if correct responding failed to generalize to a setting. Results indicated that it was necessary to initiate training on at least three of the four selected target words in at least one additional setting with an additional trainer before correct responding generalized to untrained settings.     

The development of the items-easy (Ie) and items-difficult (Id) subscales for the MMPI-A

This research involves the development, validation, and cross-validation of the Items-Easy (Ie) and Items-Difficult (Id) subscales for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A; Butcher et al., 1992). These subscales were designed to assess the degree to which reading comprehension deficits may be responsible for significant elevations of validity Scale F and the standard clinical scales on adolescents' MMPI-A profiles. A difference score, bared on the two 13-item subscales, was created in order to compare subjects' responses to subsets of the more comprehensible (Ie) and less comprehensible (Id) items within the test. Hit rate, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive power, and negative predictive power were calculated on the basis of simple (Id - Ie) and weighted (3Id - 1Ie) difference scores for the validation (N = 495) and cross-validation (N = 264) samples, and for specific high-F profile subsamples. Although some of the indices reflected classification accuracy as high as 95%, none of the indices yielded consistently high results across the various samples and subsamples. It has been concluded that the Ie and Id subscales should be used only for research purposes at this time.     

Idioms in sentences: Effects of frequency,literalness, and familiarity

This study investigated the relationship between subjective frequency of literal usage (literalness), subjective frequency of figurative usage (familiarity), and mean Kucera and Francis (1967) word frequency for idiom phrases. Kucera and Francis frequency was found to be independent of both familiarity and literalness. Furthermore, it was found that literalness, but not the Kucera and Francis frequency of the words in the phrase, affected reading time for literal uses of idioms. For figurative uses of idioms, familiarity and written frequency interacted. A model of idiom processing consistent with the current results and previous results is proposed. In addition, subjective familiarity and literalness norms are provided for 245 idioms.Portions of the normative study were based upon subjects in Schweigert and Cronk (1992).     

Gender differences in reasoning ability measured by letter series items

Letter series and number series tests, consisting of items based on identical rules, were administered in a counterbalanced design to 320 (160 female and 160 male) undergraduates in order to investigate the gender differences in inductive reasoning ability measured by letter and number series tests. Results indicated that female college students obtained significantly higher (p<.05) means on letter series tests, but showed no such superiority on number series.     

Suffering and healing: An interpretation of the Buddhist doctrine of the four noble truths

The Buddha's method of spiritual release is crystallized in the Four Noble Truths. The Four Truths profile the condition of an individual's life. It explains the cause of suffering, the means through which an individual residing in a transient world can extract oneself from samsara and propel oneself into an abiding spiritual reality or nirvana. This four stage method parallels the principles of diagnosis, etiology, recovery or health, and therapeutics, which are employed by physicians in their clinical practice. This article is a reflection on this method and its practical application.     

Gender differences in the development of relationships during late adolescence

Until recently, inadequate measures of affiliation need and relationship closeness hindered investigations into the social development of adolescents. For example, assumptions about gender differences (Douvan & Adelson, 1966; Gilligan, 1982) and age-related changes (Dunphy, 1972; Erikson, 1968; Newman & Newman, 1976) in affiliation need and relationship closeness have remained virtually untested. To better understand adolescent social behavior and test these assumptions, recently developed measures of affiliation need and interpersonal closeness were used to examine seventy-four 18- to 20-year-olds. In support of Erikson's theory, need for social comparison declined with age for both sexes. However, in support of Gilligan's theory, not only were females more attached to their partners, but these gender differences were most pronounced for the 18-year-olds. Finally, Dunphy's (1972) assumption that adolescents' need for stimulation peaks around age 18 or 19 and then declines, and Newman and Newman's (1976) position that need for emotional support declines in later adolescence, held true--but only for females.     

Clinical controversy and the domains of scientific evidence

The diversity of mental health care "schools" or therapeutic perspectives poses problems in selecting and using any single therapeutic perspective. This article describes the genesis of clinical controversy--that is, how two or more therapeutic perspectives of the same clinical situation can be so different yet not necessarily differ in outcome. Ideas drawn from contemporary philosophy of science show how different "schools" derive separate, incompatible sets of scientific evidence from the same clinical situation. The school or theory determines (in part) not just what evidence is used, but what evidence is actually perceived. The authors conclude by recommending a pluralistic approach to mental health care; they map out some consequences of this pluralism and suggest some strategies for minimizing the disadvantages of "mixing and matching" therapeutic perspectives.     

Control of gait initiation

The initiation of gait from a standing posture by 6 subjects, who took controlled-length steps, was analyzed. Using an inverted pendulum model, we found that the duration of gait initiation was independent of gait velocity. This finding suggests that subjects' biomechanical constants are the determining factors for initiating movement. Both the instantaneous velocity of the center of gravity at the end of the first step (resulting in the propulsive forces measured on the ground) and the steady-state velocity (resulting in the step length and frequency) varied with step length, whereas step frequency did not. But step frequency and progression velocity were linked, for step frequency always increased in parallel with increased progression velocity. We interpret the correlation between velocity and frequency variations to be a peripheral expression of the posturodynamic control of the step parameters by the progression forces.     

A comparison of five-factor personality dimensions in males with sexual dysfunction and males with paraphilia.

We compared personality profiles of men with sexual dysfunction (n = 51) to those of age-matched men with a primary diagnosis of paraphilia (n = 51) employing the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), a measure of the five-factor model. Preliminary analyses in a large sample of patients in a sexual behaviors consultation unit supported the reliability and factorial validity of the NEO-PI for this population. Analysis of variance showed significant differences between the dysfunctional and the paraphilic groups on two of the five NEO-PI domains, Neuroticism (N) and Agreeableness (A). The group personality profile of the sexually dysfunctional men was comparable to the normative sample of the NEO-PI, except for a slight elevation in N. By contrast, men with paraphilia had a personality profile marked by high N, low A, and low Conscientiousness (C). Treatment implications of the average personality profile of the sexual dysfunction group and the distinctive personality profile of paraphilic men are discussed.     

Assessment of coping: an empirical illustration of the problem of inapplicable items

The prevalence and effects of inapplicable items on the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOC) were studied. Three hundred seventy-six college students completed the WOC twice, referring to both heterogeneous (i.e., different types of) and homogeneous (the same) stressors. In addition to the standard procedure for administering this questionnaire, subjects were asked to identify items that were inapplicable to the stressors with which they were coping. Item inapplicability ranged from 2.1% to 83.9%, with a mean of 21.5% inapplicability across all WOC items. Application of a correction for item inapplicability demonstrated that situational effects are confounded by this phenomenon and may not hold up when the correction is applied. Implications of these findings include the possibility that previous research has over- or misidentified situational effects on coping.