Gender, Power, and Relationship Ethics In Family Therapy Education

Awareness and sensitivity about gender issues have central positions in family therapy education. Traditionally gender relationships have been treated as either a reflection of cultural values and norms or as a dynamic of the way that men and women deal with the other sex. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study that examines the meaning and enactment of gender issues in the supervisory process in family therapy. Based on that study, the authors developed a strategy for raising issues of gender equity in clinical training and describe the effects of that strategy on one practicum.Professor of Family and Child Sciences and the director of the Interdivisional Program in Marriage and Family Therapy at Florida State UniversityAn associate professor of Family and Child Sciences and the co-director of the Family Policy and Research Unit in the Family Institute at Florida State University     

SOCIAL-SKILLS TRAINING TO MODIFY ABUSIVE VERBAL OUTBURSTS IN ADULTS

Social-skills training was used to modify abusive verbal outbursts displayed by two adult psychiatric patients. Five target behaviors—looking, irrelevant comments, hostile comments, inappropriate requests, and appropriate requests were monitored during role-played situations. Social-skills training, consisting of behavior rehearsal with modelling, focused instructions, and feedback, was introduced in a multiple-baseline design across individuals. Training improved all target behaviors. The improved behavior generalized to: (1) novel scenes role-played with the original respondent, (2) training and novel scenes role-played with a different respondent, and (3) interpersonal situations on the hospital ward.     

STACKING THE DECK: TEACHING SOCIAL SKILLS TO RETARDED ADULTS WITH A MODIFIED TABLE GAME

This study developed and evaluated a social skills training program for institutionalized mildly or moderately retarded and dually diagnosed individuals. Social skills were conceptualized as requiring an action or reaction within six skill areas: compliments, social interactions, politeness, criticism, social confrontation, and questions/answers. The program taught social skills using a commercially available table game, Sorry, and a specially designed card deck. Each card represented one of the skill areas and was designed to train either an actor or reactor response. The program featured response specific feedback, self-monitoring, individualized reinforcers, and individualized performance criterion levels. A multiple baseline across two groups (N = 3 per group) revealed that the game contingencies increased social skills in all targeted areas. After training, the subjects displayed their newly learned skills at or above their trained levels in two different settings with novel persons present. Although untargeted, the complexity of the subjects' responses increased across conditions, since there was a steady increase in the number of words they used per response. The program appears to be a viable means of training social skills since it uses standardized training procedures, requires only one facilitator, and is in itself a social situation that may encourage interactions with peers, cooperation, competition, and politeness.     

SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING WITH CHILDREN: PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Three learning disabled children, selected on the basis of peer sociometric ratings and teacher referral, received social skills training. A group training procedure consisting of coaching, modeling, behavior rehearsal, and feedback was used to teach children the target behaviors of eye contact and appropriate verbal responses. A multiple baseline analysis across target behaviors was used to demonstrate treatment effectiveness on role-play scenes trained during treatment sessions. Duration of speech was measured as an untrained, corollary measure. The following measures were also obtained during baseline, posttreatment, and 1-mo follow-up for the experimental subjects and three control subjects: (a) performance on role-play scenes not trained during treatment sessions; (b) behavioral observations in a free play setting, and (c) sociometric ratings. In addition, the trained and untrained role-play scenes were administered by novel experimenters following treatment. The results indicated that socially unskilled, learning disabled children can be taught to respond appropriately to role-play situations. However, improved performance did not generalize to the natural school setting and treatment did not effect ratings of peer acceptance. The implications of these findings for future social skills training with children are discussed.     

TEACHING A PARENT TO TRAIN A SPOUSE IN CHILD MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES

This study analyzed several aspects of the training of a mother and father in child management techniques for use with their 6-year-old severely developmentally delayed son. The mother received clinic training in procedures for increasing her son's independent dressing skills; subsequently, she was asked to teach the same procedures to her husband with no assistance from the trainer. For both parents, procedures were introduced sequentially across two components of parent behavior in a multiple baseline design. Examinations were made of (a) the effectiveness of initial child management training on the mother's behaviors, (b) her ability to teach the same techniques to her husband independently, (c) the generalization of both parents' skills from the training setting (a dressing task) to two untrained activities (eating and toy use), and (d) the impact of training on the child's behavior. Results showed that the mother learned to implement the trained procedures and successfully communicated them to her husband, as evidenced by substantial positive changes in both parents' behaviors after being introduced to the child management skills. Both parents showed some generalization to the untrained activities, and their written comments following training indicated they understood the procedures. Clear-cut improvements were observed in the child's attending and independent performance of dressing and toy use skills concurrent with parent training. A 2-year follow-up report indicated that both parents retained their knowledge of skills taught, continued to use the procedures, and rated the training as very helpful in teaching the child self-help skills.     

SOCIAL VALIDATION AND TRAINING OF EMERGENCY FIRE SAFETY SKILLS FOR POTENTIAL INJURY PREVENTION AND LIFE SAVING

A multifaceted behavioral program designed to teach emergency fire escape procedures to children was evaluated in a multiple-baseline design. Five children were trained to respond correctly to nine home emergency fire situations under simulated conditions. The situations and responses focused upon in training were identified by a social validation procedure involving consultation with several safety agencies, including the direct input of firefighters. Training, carried out in simulated bedrooms at school, resulted in significant improvements in both overt behavior and self-report of fire safety skills. The gains were maintained at a post-check assessment 2 weeks after training had been terminated. The results are discussed in relation both to the importance of social validation of targets and outcomes and the implications for further research in assessing and developing emergency response skills.     

INVOLVING INSTITUTIONAL STAFF IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF SIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS WITH PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS

A program to involve institutional staff in developing manual sign language skills with profoundly retarded persons was evaluated. In Experiment 1, six direct care staff, with close supervision, taught a small repertoire of signs to six profoundly retarded residents who had not benefited from previous training in vocal language. Training was conducted in a group format using instructions, modeling, manual guidance, contingent reinforcers, and feedback. During training, all residents learned to identify pictures of objects with manual signs. Generalization observations during unstructured times on the residents' living unit indicated that staff used their signing skills with the residents in addition to their vocal interactions but the residents did not increase their signing or vocalizing. In Experiment 2, the residents' skills in signing with real objects on their living unit as opposed to pictures of objects were evaluated and provided with additional training where necessary. Results indicated that all participating residents learned to communicate with signing during structured interactions on their living unit, and the skills maintained during follow-up assessments ranging from 39 to 49 weeks. Results are discussed regarding the variable generalization effects noted as well as the general benefits and disadvantages of teaching manual signing skills to profoundly retarded persons.     

The effects of various rater training procedures on the perception of social skills and social anxiety

Procedures for the behavioral assessment of social skills typically rely on judges' perceptions of subjects' behavior in several simulated situations. This study examined two methodological variables which could influence the degree of situational specificity perceived by social skill judges. Forth-eight judges were presented videotapes of 15 actors who role played responses to eight simulated social situations. Half of the judges viewed the situations in a sequential fashion and the remaining half viewed the tapes grouped by situations. The second factor of this design included three different expectancy conditions included in an analogue training procedure. Differences in observed variability were examined for both social skill and social anxiety constructs. Order of stimulus presentation had no effect on variability. The expectancy manipulation significantly increased variability among social skill ratings but had no effect on reliability.This study was supported in part by the Veterans Administration.     

The relevance of specific conversational behaviors to ratings of social skill: An experimental analysis

Research on the social effectiveness of specific conversational behaviors is reviewed and a new study is presented. Eight versions of the same tape-recorded conversation between a man and a woman were prepared in a 2×2×2 design, where the woman systematically varied her conversation either high or low on questions, compliments, and 4-sec latencies. Subjects listened to one of these tapes and rated the female's social skill. Results of the major social skill variable showed that high questions and high compliments elicited higher skill ratings. The effect of low latencies was only marginally significant. While other factors such as personal appearance or self-evaluation differences may also be important, this study suggests that it may be valuable to include assessment and training relevant to compliments and questions (and possibly latencies) in programs for women who are socially anxious.     

EFFECTS OF SELF-MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND REINFORCEMENT ON THE TRANSFER OF IMPROVED CONDUCT IN THE ABSENCE OF SUPERVISION

The instruction, maintenance, and transfer of training of social skills of 3 seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents were accomplished by a self-management training and reinforcement package. During baseline sessions these students, who were covertly filmed in their classroom, averaged over 90% off-task or socially inappropriate behavior while their teacher was out of the room. They showed similar behaviors when walking between classes, unattended by their teacher. Treatment was introduced in the classroom and consisted of social skills and self-management training and reinforcement. Treatment procedures included instruction, modeling, and role playing of social skills, as well as self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement for correct approximations of these skills. After 5 weeks of training, all subjects demonstrated substantial improvements in the classroom during the teacher's absence and when distracted by other students; however, transfer of social skills did not occur to the between-class setting until students were given explicit instruction to initiate self-managing procedures in this setting.