Human rights and applied psychology

Applied and community psychology necessarily involves the consideration of human rights issues. The problems experienced by many of the clients of applied psychologists result from human rights abuses, the provisions of the Human Rights Act (1998) relate to the everyday practice of applied and community psychologists, and psychologists have a distinctive perspective on human rights. For psychologists, human rights reflect formalized systems for ensuring that people's basic needs are satisfied. Declarations of human rights and legal provisions therefore represent, for psychologists, codifications of how we collectively understand our relationships and social obligations. It is therefore argued that psychologists should positively advocate for the application of psychological science to these issues. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

B. F. Skinner's Utopian Vision: Behind and Beyond Walden Two

This paper addresses B. F. Skinner's utopian vision for enhancing social justice and human well-being in his 1948 novel, Walden Two. In the first part, we situate the book in its historical, intellectual, and social context of the utopian genre, address critiques of the book's premises and practices, and discuss the fate of intentional communities patterned on the book. The central point here is that Skinner's utopian vision was not any of Walden Two's practices, except one: the use of empirical methods to search for and discover practices that worked. In the second part, we describe practices in Skinner's book that advance social justice and human well-being under the themes of health, wealth, and wisdom, and then show how the subsequent literature in applied behavior analysis supports Skinner's prescience. Applied behavior analysis is a measure of the success of Skinner's utopian vision: to experiment.     

Deconstructing consumer behaviour: theory and practice

This paper challenges the conventional opposition, or distinction, between consumer behaviour theory and practice. This binary dualism, it is argued, is predicated on a simplistic ‘either/or’ logic that ignores the effects theory and practice have on each other. Furthermore, it obscures a hierarchical relationship between academic researchers and marketing practitioners in which basic research is more dominant and privileged than applied research. In response to these criticisms, an alternative ‘both/and’ logic is proposed for exploring the interrelationships between consumer behaviour theory and practice and new social relations among consumer researchers. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications.     

GENTLE TEACHING AND APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: A CRITICAL REVIEW

In recent years, there has been a growing controversy surrounding gentle teaching. This paper explores the nature of this controversy with particular reference to the relationship between gentle teaching and applied behavior analysis. Advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed, and it is suggested that gentle teaching and applied behavior analysis need not be regarded as mutually exclusive approaches to working with persons with mental retardation.     

Evaluating treatment effects in single-subject behavioral experiments using quality-control charts

Quality-control charts can be particularly useful in identifying treatment effects and patterns of behaviors in single-subject behavior-analytic experiments that cannot be determined by visual inspection of their graphs. Using an example from the behavior analysis literature the quality-control charts identified the presence of treatment effects across phases as well as the presence of trends within and between phases. The ease of their calculations suggest use of them by behavior analysts whenever the effects of particular interventions are questionable.     

Varieties of relaxation methods and their unique effects

This paper reviews literature on specific effects of various relaxation methods, and of differences between varieties of two widely-used (and widely modified) methods: progressive relaxation and autogenic training. There is considerable evidence for modality-specific effects. Muscularly-oriented methods have the greatest effects on the musculoskeletal system, autonomically-oriented methods on the autonomic nervous system, etc. Modified methods of Jacobson's progressive relaxation technique have a greater cognitive and less muscular focus than Jacobson's original method, and Norris and Fahrion's autogenic feedback training de-emphasizes hypnotic components of autogenic training compared with Schultz and Luthe's original method. Hypotheses are presented regarding differential effects of these modifications on clinical outcome, on their appeal and usefulness to individuals with various personality profiles, and on possible negative side effects.     

Academic on a mission: Run and run and run

Challenges the distinctions we make between research/scholarship and practice. Recognizes and values the complimentarity of teaching, research, practice, and public policy. Tells how I have tried to approach creating opportunities to integrate those activities in my role as a community psychologist in an academic setting. Describes some of the lessons I have learned from my two decades of practice. This article is a very close approximation to my Distinguished Contribution to Practice in Community Psychology award address at APA in Toronto, August 1996. That talk included numerous overheads, which reason demands I omit. I thank Jim Sorenson and George Albee who, each in their own way, showed me that university professors can be passionate about their work and extend their reach beyond the perimeters of the campus. I thank Heather Barton, Krista Hopkins, Jennifer Heigel, and Anne Salassi for being such good ambassadors and for my most meaningful source of professional satisfaction: turning students on to careers as community psychologists and preventionists. I thank the Virginia prevention community for two decades of working together toward a common mission and the College of William and Mary for supporting my life’s work. Finally I thank John Morgan for his friendship and his affirming introduction, State Michaels for her help with the original talk, and Beverly Peterson for always being there. I am deeply honored.     

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.     

Teaching problem solving skills to teachers-in-training: An analogue experimental analysis of three methods

This analogue study sought to determine the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods for teaching problem solving skills to teachers-in-training. Three instructional conditions (didactic, didactic + modeling, and didactic + modeling with rehearsal/feedback) and a control condition were compared on measures of problem identification and problem analysis. Results indicated that the didactic + modeling and didactic + modeling with rehearsal/feedback conditions were superior to didactic training in teaching problem-solving skills. Discussed are possible explanations for differences between the instructional conditions, the implications of these findings, limitations of this study, and directions for further teacher-training research in problem solving.