Interpersonal Skills Training to Reduce Aggressive and Delinquent Behavior: Limited Evidence and the Need for an Evidence-Based System of Care

The prevention of aggressive and delinquent behavior during childhood and adolescence is one of the highest priorities for public health and crime prevention. The most common approach to preventing or treating these conduct problems has been to provide interpersonal skills training to the affected youth. This paper reviews all randomized controlled trials evaluating interpersonal skills training programs as an intervention to reduce conduct problems. Research shows that such programs have weak empirical support as isolated interventions. An alternative evidence-based system of care is described. Such a system would include behavioral parent training and behavioral classroom-based interventions for young children at risk of developing problems, as well as multisystemic family therapy or multidimensional treatment foster care for chronic delinquents. Within such a network of services, interpersonal skills training could play an important supportive role. Such a system holds the greatest promise for reducing the prevalence of aggressive and delinquent behavior in communities.     

假设检验思维过程中的启发式策略研究

本研究运用自编的一个关于规则发现的计算机程序研究了大学生问题解决过程中形成假设、设计实验、实施检验三个阶段上的“假设———检验”的思维过程。结果发现,规则差别对规则发现有显著影响,反馈方式在本实验条件下没有主效应,启发式是假设检验过程中的重要思维策略     

Exploring collaborative problem solving in adulthood

Collaborative problem solving occurs in situations in which two or more individuals cooperate in appraising, representing, and solving a variety of cognitive tasks. Collaborative groups are the context for much everyday cognitive activity in adulthood. Collaboration has been explored as a means through which older adults may maintain high levels of performance, perhaps compensating for individual-level cognitive and neurological decline. This study explored the effects of collaboration (group size) and adult age on solving both fixed- and unrestricted-alternatives 20 Questions tasks. Younger (M=24.3 years) and older (M=67.9 years) adults were randomly assigned to one of three homogeneous group size conditions: individuals, dyads, and tetrads. Results indicated some dissociation between individual-level performance (poorer for older adults) and collaborative performance (better for older adults). For the fixed-alternatives task, older adults produced more of the relatively inefficient hypothesis-scanning questions than did younger adults. In contrast, older collaborative groups produced more of the efficient constraint-seeking questions than hhpothesis-scanning questions, and an amount equivalent to that of younger adults. Overall performance for the difficult unrestricted-alternatives task was less efficient for both younger and older adults. The roles of task type, group characteristics, and adult age are discussed.     

Training generalized improvisation of tools by preschool children

The development of new, "creative" behaviors was examined in a problem-solving context. One form of problem solving, improvisation, was defined as finding a substitute to replace the specifically designated, but currently unavailable, tool ordinarily used to solve the problem. The study examined whether preschool children spontaneously displayed generalized improvisation skills, and if not, whether they could be trained to do so within different classes of tools. Generalization across different tool classes was monitored but not specifically trained. Five preschool children participated in individual sessions that first probed their skill at improvising tools, and later trained and probed generalized improvisation in one or more of three tool classes (Hammers, Containers, and Shoelaces), using a multiple-baseline design. All five children were trained with Hammers, two were trained in two classes, and two were trained in all three tool classes. Four of the five children improvised little in Baseline. During Training, all five showed increased generalized improvisation within the trained class, but none across classes. Tools fabricated by item combinations were rare in Baseline, but common in Training. Followup probes showed that the training effects were durable.     

评执行功能的问题解决理论

对执行功能的定义存在着多种理论观点,但由于执行功能的含义广泛,该领域仍缺乏一个统一明确的定义。鉴于已有的各种理论的不足,该文着重介绍了Zelazo等人提出的研究执行功能的新思路：根据问题解决的理论框架来构建执行功能的概念,从而把执行功能的不同方面就其功能暂时整合在一个统一的框架中。根据这个问题解决的框架,执行功能是一个由问题解决的四个阶段组成的宏观概念：问题表征、计划、执行、评价。这种观点承认执行功能内在的复杂性和层次性,并引导我们深入地研究各亚功能之间的相互作用,有助于我们将该领域内各种不同的研究结果整合起来;但这种理论本身也存在值得商榷的地方,不能毫无批判地接受。     

Involvement and outcomes in short-term interpersonal cognitive problem solving groups

This study examined the extent to which patterns of involvement in interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) groups were predictive of improvements in ICPS skills. Thirty-one 7–8-year-old children were assigned to experimental or control groups. Participants in the experimental group participated in six sessions of ICPS group work. All participants were tested for the ICPS skills of alternative solutions thinking (AST) and consequential thinking (CT) immediately before and after the group work period. As predicted, the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in AST and CT skills than the control group. Means-end thinking was significantly correlated with improvements in AST and CT, level of involvement and positive behaviour within the groups were predictive of improvements in AST but not CT. Findings indicated the importance of group dynamics for ICPS outcomes and are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical implications.     

复杂问题解决：探索人们如何控制复杂动态系统

复杂问题解决研究的目的是探索人们如何处理复杂、动态任务。Dorner作为该领域的先驱,将计算机模拟情境作为研究工具,后来的研究者从不同的角度进行复杂问题解决研究。本文介绍了复杂问题解决研究的发展历史,总结了复杂问题解决情境的特征,包括动态性、复杂性、模糊性以及时间滞后性,进一步比较了复杂问题解决与自然决策和动态决策的差别。在此基础上,从控制系统的个体要求以及系统特征等方面总结了在Dorner的个体差异比较范式下复杂问题解决研究的进展。最后提出复杂问题解决研究的展望。     

精益生产向心理学提出的新课题

精益生产是一种先进的生产管理技术,该技术在企业中的实施向心理学提出了诸多的新课题,包括思维模式的转变、员工的激励和团队精神的培养、对于知识丰富领域问题解决的研究、专门知识的作用和获取、人性论的研究、以及工业心理学、社会心理学和心理测验的应用等。