INCREASING CALORIE CONSUMPTION IN CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC FIBROSIS: REPLICATION WITH 2-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

Three mildly malnourished children with cystic fibrosis and their parents participated in a behavioral group-treatment program that focused on promoting and maintaining increased calorie consumption. Treatment included nutritional education, gradually increasing calorie goals, contingency management, and relaxation training, and was evaluated in a multiple baseline design across four meals. Children's calorie intake increased across meals, and total calorie intake was 32% to 60% above baseline at posttreatment. Increased calorie consumption was maintained at the 96-week follow-up (2 years posttreatment). The children's growth rates in weight and height were greater during the 2 years following treatment than the year prior to treatment. Increases in pace of eating and calories consumed per minute were also observed 1 year posttreatment. These findings replicated and extended earlier research supporting the efficacy of behavioral intervention in the treatment of malnutrition in children with cystic fibrosis.     

The inferiority game: Perceptions and behavior

Other-sex perceptions and actual reported behavior of 318 college males and 287 college females were compared for four dating situations. The average degree of inaccuracy (disregarding direction) for males was 29.0%, while for women it was 12.5%. Conclusions support other research indicating superior role-taking ability on the part of females. The issues of cultural transmission and pluralistic ignorance are discussed as they affect male and female interaction. Important research implications for human relations and the family in particular are noted.     

Family origins of adolescent self-criticism and its continuity into adulthood

We used a prospective longitudinal design to examine the relation between parenting experiences at age 5 and level of self-criticism at age 12 and the stability of self-criticism from age 12 to age 31 in 156 subjects. The results showed that mothers' reports of parenting behaviors that reflect restrictiveness and rejection were related to the development of self-criticism, particularly when received from the same-sex parent. Partial correlational analyses revealed that the parenting-self-criticism relations remained significant when the mother's report of the child's early temperament was statistically controlled. The results also showed that for women, self-criticism was very stable from early adolescence to young adulthood. By contrast, there was no relation between self-criticism at ages 12 and 31 for men; however, there was a strong relation for men between age 12 self-criticism and inhibited aggressive impulses at age 31.     

Relations among cognitive,semantic, and syntactic variables in children's comprehension of the minimum distance principle: A 2-year developmental study

Theoretical issues regarding cognitive aspects of the semantic interpretation of two syntactic structures were examined. A 2-year study was conducted investigating possible developmental trends in children's sentence-processing strategies. Experimental materials incorporated two levels of role expectations and two levels of syntactic complexity. Subjects were initially 6–10 years old; 12 original subjects from each age group were retested a year later. Exceptional and typical syntactic structures were not of significantly different difficulty either year. Semantic and cognitive complexity, as reflected in the two levels of expectation, was significant both years (p<0.001). Performance improved, over the 12-month period, in all but the 7- to 8-year-old group (p<0.005). Results are discussed with reference to cognitive strategies in sentence processing.This article is based on research reported at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Educational Research Association, Ellenville, New York, October 29–31, 1975.     

Control-system theory and performance objectives

Behaviorism, the source of the concept of performance objectives, models behavior as an output emitted by an organism. Control theory suggests a different model, in which the stable patterns called behavior are perceptual variables stabilized against disturbances by variations in motor activities. Control theory provides a clear distinction between a learning model and a performance model. Learning is centered around the control of internal variables by means of changes in the organization of performance. Performance is centered around control of perceptual variables, which the experimenter or teacher must learn to share with the subject or student in order to understand what is being performed.     

On regulatory authority: Insights from durkheim

Émile Durkheim is recognized for his analysis of horizontal division of labor (that is, task specialization differentiating de jure equals). Vertical differences can also develop with structural differentiation, often taking the form of authority vested in regulatory agencies. But according to Durkheim, the conditions sufficient to produce specialized division of labor are not sufficient in themselves to produce regulatory structures. New regulatory agencies tend to emerge in environments characterized by directly attributable cost interdependence among a plethora of otherwise independent units.