INCREASING COMPLEX SOCIAL BEHAVIORS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM: EFFECTS OF PEER-IMPLEMENTED PIVOTAL RESPONSE TRAINING

Two children with autism were taught to engage in a variety of complex social behaviors using peer-implemented pivotal response training (PRT), a set of procedures designed to increase motivation and promote generalization. Typical peers were taught to implement PRT strategies by modeling, role playing, and didactic instruction. After training, peers implemented the procedures in the absence of direct supervision in a classroom environment. After the intervention, both children with autism maintained prolonged interactions with the peer, initiated play and conversations, and increased engagement in language and joint attention behaviors. In addition, teachers reported positive changes in social behavior, with the largest increases in peer-preferred social behavior. Further, these effects showed generality and maintenance. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cultural attitudes: in contexts of argumentation and explanation

Traditionally, attitudes are supposed to predict behavior. However, due to their poor performance, we are sometimes advised to abandon the notion. The present study attempts to preserve the concept but takes attitudes to be evaluative goals accomplished through interactional, especially argumentative and explanatory activities. The paper uses reasoned-discourse analysis and demonstrates the attainment of positive attitudes towards the Dutch by expatriate Chinese intellectuals in the Netherlands by attending to a variety of argumentative and explanatory strategies in their interview talk. Results suggest that there is good empirical reason to believe that attitudes are accomplishments of communicating actors' rhetorical contextualizations.     

Primary health care for women: What is it and who provides it?

Recent federal policy has highlighted historically underrecognized women's health issues. Women comprise the majority of the population, especially the elderly. Women's health care needs, utilization patterns, and outcomes vary from those of men, and often among each other. Primary health care services for women are multidisciplinary and emphasize prevention, education, and early intervention as well as treatment. Psychologists and other primary health care providers can collaborate to provide their services in a cost-effective manner that optimizes quality of care and comprehensive health care.     

Evaluating pediatric psychology consultation services in a medical setting: An example

We examined the nature of referrals to a health center-based pediatric psychology service from 1990 to 1993 and assessed the satisfaction of health professionals with these services. Archival evaluation of 1467 records showed that over half of the consultation requests came from general pediatrics, pediatric neurology, and surgical services and that 70% of the psychological services were delivered on an outpatient basis. The most frequent referrals were for cognitive/neuropsychological evaluation and externalizing behavior problems. Pediatric psychology trainees were involved in 94% of the consultations. Survey of health professionals (n = 143) indicated very high overall satisfaction with the quality of services delivered. Presenting problems yielding the greatest likelihood for future consultation requests were behavior problems, child abuse, coping with illness, and depression/suicide. Results are discussed in the context of previous evaluations of pediatric psychology services and recommendations for future evaluation research.     

Analysis of long-term stress reactions in emergency room patients: An initial study

The psychological stress reactions of 44 family medicine patients who were treated in the emergency room were examined approximately a year after the event. Patients were assessed on several psychological measures, including one for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and on their perception of how stressful the event was initially and now. Results show continuing stress reactions related to the emergency room event. Three patients endorsed symptoms indicating full PTSD and 13 appeared to have at least partial PTSD. Age appeared to be a factor in the presence of stress symptoms and in degree of perceived communication with the physician.     

Health and behavior: The coming together of science and practice in psychology and medicine after a century of benign neglect

For thousands of years, physicians had available only a few drugs with which to minister to patients and the practice of psychology was an integral and therapeutically powerful component in the practice of medicine. Thus, good bedside medicine consisting of empathy, compassion, and a nurturant attitude toward the ill individual was a major component of the physician's armamentarium until relatively recently. However, the explosion in scientific knowledge in biology, physiology, chemistry, and microbiology which began a century ago and has continued through the twentieth century helped produce several generations of physician specialists and subspecialists with little knowledge of the powerful role psychological factors play in health and illness. As a result, practitioners of medicine and practitioners of psychology have had little or no contact during most of this century. However, as advances in microbiology, public health, and nutrition have eradicated many of the infectious diseases, infirmities associated with one's lifestyle have replaced the latter as the major causes of death today. One offshoot of this shift is that after a century of benign neglect, physicians and psychologists have rediscovered a common ground in the arena labeled health and behavior. Some factors responsible for these recent developments are highlighted.This article was an invited address delivered to a group of Japanese health psychologists as part of a Health Sciences Seminar in Tokyo on July 24, 1993. Concurrent with its publication here in English, it is being published in the Japanese language in the March 1994 issue of the journal,Japanese Health Psychology.     

Reflexive research and the grounding of analysis: Social psychology and the psy-complex

This paper is concerned with reflexivity in research, and the way research is grounded in the operations of the psy-complex in social psychology. A central argument is that qualitative research in general, and a focus on reflexivity in particular, requires theoretical grounding. Distinctions are drawn between ‘uncomplicated subjectivity’, ‘blank subjectivity’ and ‘complex subjectivity’; and the analytic device of the ‘discursive complex’ is described. It is argued that such theoretical grounding can usefully draw on developments in discourse analytic, deconstructionist, and psychoanalytic social research. The opposition between objectivity and subjectivity is deconstructed, and psychoanalytic conceptual reference points for an understanding of the discursive construction of complex subjectivity in the context of institutions are explored with particular reference to the location of the researcher in the psy-complex. The paper discusses the reflexive engagement of the researcher with data, and the construction of the identity of the researcher with reference to professional bodies. An analysis of a document produced by the British Psychological Society is presented to illustrate conceptual issues addressed in the first sections. This illustrative analysis is designed to show how the material is structured by a series of six discursive complexes, and that the institutional structure facilitates, and inhibits, certain forms of action and reflection.     

USING REINFORCEMENT-BASED METHODS TO ENHANCE MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT IN A VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION

The present study employed reinforcement-based methods to induce existing members to recruit new members to join a chamber of commerce. Three interventions took place during June and July of 3 successive years. The investigators trained chamber leaders to use reinforcement methods (e.g., contingent tokens) to reinforce recruitment and dues collections. All three interventions produced substantial increases in their targets.     

欧洲大陆法律心理学述评

对欧洲大陆国家的法律心理学发展状况作了述评。全文包括３部分：对相关概念（犯罪心理学、审判心理学、法律心理学、司法心理学）的辨析;欧洲大陆国家法律心理学的现状;简要评价。