APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS AND STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL?

This paper examines Pfadt and Wheeler's (1995) suggestions that the methods of statistical process control (SPC) be incorporated into applied behavior analysis. The research strategies of SPC are examined and compared to those of applied behavior analysis. I argue that the statistical methods that are a part of SPC would likely reduce applied behavior analysts' intimate contacts with the problems with which they deal and would, therefore, likely yield poor treatment and research decisions. Examples of these kinds of results and decisions are drawn from the cases and data Pfadt and Wheeler present. This paper also describes and clarifies many common misconceptions about SPC, including W. Edwards Deming's involvement in its development, its relationship to total quality management, and its confusion with various other methods designed to detect sources of unwanted variability.     

The given of achievement and the reluctance to assent: Argument and inquiry in the post-postmodern world

Changes in the social, political, and intellectual climate worldwide portend radical changes in how humans view themselves and their world. This essay argues that the twenty-first century will usher in apost-postmodern age. The new epoch will be one in which argument practices more closely resemble their modernist forbears. The given of achievement will overcome the postmodern reluctance to assent. Argument will be practiced against the backdrop of realist philosophical frameworks and will be viewed as contributing to the accretion of knowledge.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Speech Communication Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, November 1991.To assert that moral, aesthetic, and factual arguments are statistically derived, is not to argue that there is no such thing as absolute goodness, beauty, or truth. It is to declare that these ultimate values have little relevance in practical argument.- Daniel McDonald     

Objective assessments of quality of life: How much do they agree with each other?

Information was collected on 14 objective measures of service quality in 15 staffed houses for people with learning disabilities. Measures or dimensions of the measures were grouped under six headings: (1) quality of housing; (2) social and community integration; (3) social interactions; (4) development; (5) activity; and (6) autonomy and choice. Rank order correlation coefficients were calculated to explore the extent to which different quality assessments within each category agreed. Overall, there was a reassuring level of agreement. Some of the lack of agreement found could be attributed to the fact that, even though addressing the same general area, measures were focused on subtly different facets of the phenomenon under study. Other disagreement seemed to stem from the interaction between the nature of the information and the process for obtaining it. Comparisons between measures which required staff to give an opinion about how the setting was organized, and those which either required staff to comment on resident activity or employed independent observation, tended to disagree. The study illustrates that the basis for translating a multidimensional definition of quality into measurable terms is developing. Further research to examine the interrelationship between measurement approaches is warranted.     

Job-role quality and women's psychological well-being: Locus of control and social support as moderators

Despite the recognition that the stress-buffering effect of social support may in part be due to its relation to locus of control, no study on women's roles to date has considered both locus of control and social support in the prediction of psychological functioning. The present study was intended to test the three-way interaction between job-role quality, locus of control and support in relation to two measures of women's psychological well-being (happiness and symptoms of distress). This study was based on cross-sectional data. In the English sample of 109 employed women, the results provided evidence of the threee-way interaction between job challenge, locus of control and work support in predicting happiness. Neither locus of control nor work support independently moderated the effects of job challenge. However, locus of control and work support combined interactively to moderate the impact of job challenge on happiness. As predicted, support interacted with job challenge only for internals; no such interaction effect was observed for externals. For distress, no significant interaction was found.     

Managing stress and managing illness: Survival and quality of life in chronic disease

Interest has been steadily building in the impact of stress on psychological and physiological functioning, in particular on immune system responses, furthering the concept of a strong connection between the mind and the body. Implications for prevention of disease onset or treatment of stress-induced illness or immunocompromised conditions have been explored through the implementation of stress management techniques. Cognitive behavioral stress management interventions, biofeedback, relaxation, guided imagery, hypnosis, individual and group psychotherapy, aerobic exercise, and guided self-efficacy treatment are briefly reviewed to identify possible treatment mechanisms that may affect immune function and promote quality of life. The application of behavioral techniques to reduce distress and sharpen coping skills has great promise in reducing the costs associated with chronic disease and in enhancing quality of life among those afflicted.Presented at the APA Presidential Miniconvention, To Your Health: Psychology Through the Life Span, Session VIII, Assuring a Healthy Lifestyle: Psychology Delivers. Chair: Diane J. Willis, Ph.D. The third author received partial funding through the Terry Fox Research Fellowship 5257, National Cancer Institute of Canada.     

Argumentation and Interpersonal Justification

There are distinct but legitimate notions of both personal justification and interpersonal justification. Interpersonal justification is definable in terms of personal justification. A connection is established between good argumentation and interpersonal justification.     

Control of responding by sounds of different quality: an evolutionary analysis.

Two experiments investigated the acquisition of discriminations between two acoustic stimuli of different quality (noise bursts vs. a 2-kHz pulsed signal) when features of the everyday environment were incorporated into the experiments. In Experiment 1, rats were trained, using food, to press a lever. Throughout all sessions, 5-s trials of noise bursts (the random stimulus) were presented, after variable intertrial intervals, through a remote speaker mounted outside the experimental enclosure. The noise burst occurred randomly with respect to reinforcement of lever pressing and had no programmed relationship to the animal's behavior. When lever pressing was established, the 2-kHz signal was presented through a speaker adjacent to the response lever according to a different set of variable intertrial intervals. A response in the presence of the 2-kHz signal terminated the trial and was reinforced. The 2-kHz signal acquired control of responding within the first few trials, whereas the random stimulus exerted no control of responding. In Experiment 2, rats were trained to press the lever in the presence of the 2-kHz signal presented through the adjacent speaker on a variable intertrial interval. After 14 sessions, 5-s trials of noise bursts (random stimulus) were presented through the remote speaker on the second variable intertrial interval. The random stimulus initially elicited exploratory behavior, which then rapidly declined. Subsequently, the random stimulus exerted no or weak control of responding. The introduction of the random stimulus had no effect on responding in the presence of the adjacent stimulus. In Experiments 3 and 4 the random stimulus was presented through the adjacent speaker, and the stimulus correlated with reinforcement was presented through the remote speaker. In both experiments, there was persistent control of responding by the random stimulus and slow development of control by the stimulus correlated with reinforcement. In Experiment 5, both stimuli were presented through the adjacent speaker. There was persistent control of responding by the random stimulus.