bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Community Reactions to Disaster
Authors: Stein Bernie
Published: March 2007

This article will describe ways in which communities react to severe crises, both on a local and on a national level. Based on experiences in Israel over the past 20 years, including recent traumatic events such as the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the terrorist suicide bombings, and on an intervention in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after the bombing of the Jewish Community Centre in July 1994, a model is presented to describe different stages of reaction. The importance of the creation and development of community prevention and intervention programs is stressed. Emphasis is placed on the role of the schools and the school psychologists in developing and implementing such programs, and on their critical role in dealing immediately with crisis situations and their aftermaths. The prevention program emphasizes the fostering of inner strengths and resources in children and teachers ('inoculation'), and makes provision for dealing with emotional support for the professionals in charge of helping the community in times of crisis. Finally, a model for the future development of the profession of school psychology into a broader community service is proposed.
The Adolescent Violence Survey
Authors: Kingery Paul M.
Published: March 2007

The research on youth violence and its prevention has been hampered by the lack of adequate scales to measure violence. The Adolescent Violence Survey was designed to fill that need. The Survey provides a 41-item violence scale with six subscales. The psychometric properties of the Survey were investigated in a sample of 1374 8th and 9th graders in a central US city of moderate size. The broader violence scale had an internal consistency of .95 (Cronbach's alpha) and a testretest reliability of .91 (Pearson r) over a 1-week period. Subscales include severe menacing, menacing language, inventive violence, common violence, impulsive violence, and passive aggression. All subscales were found to have stable factor structures, high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and approximately normal distributions. Demographic variables, violence-related attitudes, and broader patterns of delinquency explained 69 percent of the variance in the violence composite in a stepwise multiple regression analysis. The six violence subscales were found to represent a typology of violence styles distinguishable by their relationships to predictor variables. These differences yielded several hypotheses for future research. The Adolescent Violence Survey is recommended for the measurement of relatively common lowto moderate-level violent behaviors within the general population of middle-school and high-school aged youth.
Union Weakness in Hong Kong: Workplace Industrial Relations and the Federation of Trade Unions
Authors: Chan Andy W. , Snape Ed
Published: March 2007

This article examines the weakness of Hong Kong unions at the workplace, focusing on the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU). The FTU has adopted a more outward-looking approach to organizing, but some question the FTU's ability to balance the effective representation of workers with its association with the government, raising the question of whether the weakness of Hong Kong unions may be attributable to continued 'industrial pacifism'. The analysis suggests that the weakness of unions at the workplace may in some cases owe something to the policies of the unions, but that in general the causes of union weakness are rather more complex. In particular, management hostility towards unions makes it difficult for them to effectively represent their members, while employee apathy is a significant problem.
Union Democracy Revisited: Decision-Making Procedures in the Italian Labour Movement
Authors: Baccaro Lucio
Published: March 2007

This article cticly discusses a time-honoured thesis in the social sience literature, that membership control over union policy may be undesirable due to its potentially adverse effects on third parties and/ or society as a whole. Based on extensive field research in Italy, the article fast analyses the issue in general terms and then illustrates empirically two scenarios in which the presene of democratic decision-making procedures (that is, procedures which both involve the rank and file wurkers and give them ultiirate decision-msaking power) is not only compatible but even conducive to 'responsible'union behaviour while their absence leads to opposite outcomes. The two empirical illustrations examine the trajectory of centrali2ed bargaining in Italy between the lOSOs and 1990s and the tradeoffs facing the employees of two matched -paired factories in the Mezzogiorno, respectively.
Discourse for Normalizing What? The Learning Organization and the Workplace Trade Union Response
Authors: Huzzard Tony
Published: March 2007

Recent critics of organizational learning and its normative offshoot the 'learning organization'have posited that conceptualizations of organizations based on knowledge and learning constitute a rhetorical device enabling elites to assert different forms of control through a new 'normalizing discourse'. The article, while welcoming such critique, nevertheless asks whether it is adequate to dismiss the learning organization without proposing an alternative. Moreover, a case is made for serious evaluation of the extent to which learning might contribute to progressive development of the workplace. A comparison of two cases at manufacturing plants in northern Sweden suggests that while the learning organization may indeed be criticized as a 'normalizing discourse', in practice it does appear to be of some practical benefit to unions in the design of discursive arenas for humanization of the labour process and promoting payments systems that reward competence development.
Common Discourse? The Language of Industrial Democracy
Authors: Schuller Tom
Published: March 2007

Greater educational equality can help to redress the unequal distribution of power at the workplace. But the provision of expanded educational opportunity for new participants in the industrial decision-making process poses a challenge to the interests which currently determine the content and distribution of knowledge and skills. It entails the evolution of new concepts and therefore changes in the language of industrial government. Yet the determination of a qualitatively different form of education as an alternative to the dominant ideology contains its own tensions and even contradictions. Particular problems arise in connection with the role of education as a stimulator of aspirations, with the notion of collective learning, and with the relation between learners and those who determine what is learnt. All these combine to accentuate the difficulty of defining the content, character and institutional framework of education for industrial democracy.
Joint Health and Safety Committees in the United Kingdom: Participation and Effectiveness-A Conflict?
Authors: Leopold J. W. , Beaumont P. B.
Published: March 2007

There has been renewed interest in forms of employee participation in the United Kingdom. This paper examines aspects of one such form-employee participation in joint health and safety committees. After surveying the moves from a voluntarist to a statute based system of committees, the paper assesses the impact of recent UK legislation in creating new committees in manufacturing industry. Using data from a survey of 51 such committees the nature of employee participation and the relationship between employee representatives and the workforce is examined. Potential conflict between efficiency and democracy is probed, and weaknesses in the relationship between committee members and the shop floor are discussed.
Industrial Home Work in the United States: Historical Dimensions and Contemporary Perspective
Authors: Albrecht Sandra L.
Published: March 2007

The role that women workers have played throughout the industrialization of the United States has largely gone unrecognized. This article takes an historical look at one important form of labor, industrial home work, and traces its development and resurgence in its present day forms. Industrial home work, or wage labor in the home, has its roots in the putting out system or cottage industries. In the United States, such labor began with the commission system in textile production, and as such, was almost wholly female labor. And, since its origins, all the major forms of home work which have appeared in other industries have also been based on female employment. This article argues against the view that home work was a transitory phase in the industrialization process, and attempts to show that it has played an integral role from the very beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. To date, this wage labor in the home done by women has remained invisible and outside the discussions on industrialization in the United States. Until home work is integrated into these discussions, however, our understanding of the industrialization process in the United States will remain incomplete.
The Role of Culture and Ethnicity in the Degeneration of Democratic Firms
Authors: Russell Raymond
Published: March 2007

This paper is concerned with the oft-noted tendency for democratic workplaces to 'degenerate' over time. Prevailing theories of degeneration usually ascribe this tendency to a variety of economic incentives associated with the legal and capital structures of the firm. While acknowledging the tremendous power of these economic influences, this article demonstrates the importance of an additional set of ethnic and cultural factors that discussions of this problem are often inclined to overlook. This purpose is accomplished with the help of an analysis of the rapid degeneration of two taxi cooperatives that were formed in 1977 in the city of Los Angeles.
The Economic Crisis in Yugoslavia
Authors: Sik Ota
Published: March 2007

The Yugoslav economic system suffers under at least three avoidable systemic and political deficiencies. First, the plants' authority of income distribution leads to an inflationary development of incomes. Secondly, the lacking differentiation between wages and profits leads to unreasonable and demotivating differences between remunerations for same work. A system of profit participation different to basic wages would be necessary. Thirdly, the institutional basis for a reasonable macro economic policy is too weak, or rather, the influence of regional and republic authorities as well as of monopolistic plants is much too strong.
Limits of the Division of Labour. New Production and Employment Concepts in West German Industry
Authors: Kern Horst , Schumann Michael
Published: March 2007

The following article refers to empirical research conducted in West German industry some years ago. -First we inform roughly about the conceptual and empirical characteristics of our analysis (points 1 to 5). After that we describe the main findings (points 6 to 12). Our main argument is that we are at the turning point in the development of the strategies and methods of capitalist rationalization ('new concepts of production') a change which includes new forms in the use of labour within the main sectors of industry ('professionalization'). These new concepts offer openings for many workers in the major industrial areas. But they also have a dark side which is the rigid exclusion of other parts of the workforce. The lively reception our studies have met in West German scientific and political debate gives, in our eyes, summa summarum support to our position. The argument that, in fact, we have new concepts of production has never been disproved; and the disputes have concentrated on questions about the relevance of the change and how to handle the change politically. On the other hand and this is, for us, a convergence of ideas which is particularly important our arguments fit into the main results of analyses coming from new research and experiences obviously different from our own background. We refer mainly to Piore and Sabel (1984), but also to Baethge and Oberbeck (1986).
Trade Unions, Islam and Immigration
Authors: de Wenden Catherine Wihtol
Published: March 2007

The recent evolution of the relations between unionism and Muslim immigrants in the car industry reveals the visibility of Islam in traditional sectors of the French working class. It has progressively raised the question of the various forms of compatibility or not between Muslim practice and activity in unions. All types of attitudes have been observed in two surveys between forms of union involvement and religious behaviours. In the same way unions may adopt several forms of accommodation between their principle of secularity and the defence of working-class claims, when these encompass the recognition of Islam at work and the wish to negotiate the legitimacy of their common identity.
Political and Economic Determinants of Strikes in Israel: A Sectorial Comparison
Authors: Reshef Yonatan , Bemmels Brian
Published: March 2007

This paper presents a sectorial analysis of strike activity in Israel. Israel provides an interesting case for strike analysis because it comprises three distinct sectors with varying degrees of politicization in industrial relations. By comparing strike activity among the public, private and Histadrut (General Federation of Labour in Israel) sectors two questions are investigated: (a) how are strike patterns affected by aggregate economic and political measures; and (b) what is the relative importance of economic and political factors for strike activity in each sector? The results indicate that economic determinants are more important than political determinants in the private sector, but that political determinants are equally important in the Histadrut and public sector.
Puzzling Out the Post-Fordist Debate: Technology, Markets and Institutions
Authors: Elam Mark J.
Published: March 2007

This paper is an attempt to unravel the post-Fordist debate. This is perceived as a recurrent debate about the future of capitalism which rages especially fiercely during periods of crisis and transition. Three different perspectives on post-Fordism are identified and explored, each one evolving out of a particular tradition within classical political economy and stressing different driving-forces behind the historical development of capitalism. An underlying theme within the paper is the existence of significantly contrasting views about the openness of the new phase of capitalist development: disagreement over whether post-Fordism is primarily about the inevitable diffusion of a pervasive new discipline or the formation of strategic initiatives and the making of history.
The Work Expenence of Engineers in Singapore
Authors: Yun Hing Ai
Published: March 2007

This paper looks at the work experience of engineers in Singapore. In particular the study focuses on stress in the workplace with the view to identifying the major stress factors and to explaining them with reference to organizational dynamics and developments at the global level. Supporting data for the study were drawn from in-depth interviews with 30 engineers and a general survey of 234 engineers from the electronics industry.
Sweden's Road Back to Full Employment
Authors: Layard Richard
Published: March 2007

The article reviews the Swedish model in the context of international evidence on the determinants of unemployment. There are three main determinants. (1) How unemployed people are treated. Unemployment benefits available for long periods tend to encourage long-term unemployment. The humane alternative is to replace benefits for long-term unemployed people by a guarantee of work or training. This policy has served Sweden well, despite frequent arguments to the contrary. (2) How wages are determined. Where unions are strong, centralized is better than decentralized bargaining because it takes into account the common interest in low unemployment. Countries like Sweden which have strived for wage consensus have benefited. (3) High minimum levels of skill. Unless these are achieved, the solidaristic wage policy advocated in the Swedish model is bound to increase unemployment. Other proposed remedies for unemployment, such as lower employers' payroll tax, less employment protection, more work sharing and early retirement are unlikely to have much effect on unemployment.
The 'Classroom Hypothesis' and Individualization
Authors: Madsen Morten
Published: March 2007

Empirical studies of the 1970s and 1980s have verified Pateman's classical 'classroom hypothesis' on the relationship between conditions at work, participation in workplace democracy and ordinary democratic participation. However, a contemporary Scandinavian study questions such positive relationship. In this light it is the objective of this article to analyse whether the tendency to increased individualization among employees a significant trend in the industrialized countries in recent years affects the classroom hypothesis with a view to modifying the relationship between the various elements of the hypothesis. The analysis is based on comprehensive survey studies comprising members of trade unions affiliated to the Danish Federation of Trade Unions (LO). It is argued that the classroom hypothesis is valid for the coliectivistic orientated members but not for the individualistic.
Micro-Corporatism in South Korea: A Comparative Analysis of Enterprise-Level Industrial Relations
Authors: Lee Joohee
Published: March 2007

Due to institutional legacies of the authoritarian regime, South Korea after the transition to democracy failed to establish a neo-corporatist policy-making body at the national level. Instead, micro-corporatist practices that produced many publicized instances of labormanagement cooperation in individual enterprises substituted the failed neo-corporatist concertation. This article aims to clarify the mechanisms of micro-corporatism in South Korea. Case studies of three large firms illustrate how changes in management strategies and intemal union politics produced a combination of industrial peace and welfare-generating institutions at the firm level. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the economic and political implications of micro-corporatism.
European Diversity in the Use of Participation Schemes
Authors: Poutsma Erik , Huijgen Fred
Published: March 2007

This article presents an overview of participation schemes in companies in different European countries. It analyses the interrelationships between two forms of participation schemes: first, schemes for direct participation of employees, namely consultation and delegation both on individual and group level; and second, schemes for financial participation, namely employee ownership and profit sharing. We discuss the background to the diversity in practices by analysing survey data of establishments in ten European countries.
Revealed Preference between Reinforcers used to Examine Hypotheses about Behavioral Consistencies
Authors: Tustin Don
Published: March 2007

Newtechniques for measuring preference between reinforcers have emerged in a field known as behavioral economics. Preference is assessed from the relative shapes of reinforcer demand functions, shown in graphs in which rate of reinforcement is plotted against schedule requirement. In economic terminology, a schedule requirement sets the price of a reinforcer as it sets the numbers of responses needed to obtain a reinforcer. Relative shapes of demand functions for alternative reinforcers are interpreted using the principle of revealed preference, as the shape of a demand function reflects the numbers of responses emitted to obtain reinforcers at each schedule requirement. Individual preferences between reinforcers are measured from differences in shapes of demand functions. Demand functions from two single subject experiments are examined to assess the hypothesis that individuals may generate differently shaped demand functions for the same reinforcers. It is hypothesized that individual differences in reinforcer preference may be related to consistent differences in behavior such as those observed in personality traits.
A Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression
Authors: Lejuez C. W. , Hopko Derek R. , Hopko Sandra D.
Published: March 2007

The brief behavioral activation treatment for depression is a simple, cost-effective method for treating depression. Based on basic behavioral theory and recent evidence that the behavioral component may be the active mechanism of change in cognitive-behavioral treatments of clinical depression, the authors designed a treatment to systematically increase exposure to positive activities, and thereby improve affect and corresponding cognitions. This article describes the rationale for the treatment and provides the treatment in manual form to be utilized by patients in therapy.
Including Children with Autism in General Education Classrooms
Authors: Harrower Joshua K. , Dunlap Glen
Published: March 2007

Children with autism can benefit from participation in inclusive classroom environments, and many experts assert that inclusion is a civil right and is responsible for nurturing appropriate social development. However, most children with autism require specialized supports to experience success in these educational contexts. This article provides a review of the empirical research that has addressed procedures for promoting successful inclusion of students with autism. Strategies reviewed include antecedent manipulations, delayed contingencies, self-management, peer-mediated interventions, and other approaches that have been demonstrated in the literature to be useful. The article concludes with a discussion of future research needs.
Reducing Self-Injurious Behavior of Severely Retarded Individuals through Withdrawal of Reinforcement Procedures
Authors: Nunes Dennis L. , Murphy Robert J. , Ruprecht Michael L.
Published: March 2007

Self-injurious behavior is a serious problem among some of the profoundly and severely retarded. In Experiment I a retarded male was exposed to a contingent withdrawal of reinforcement procedure in an attempt to suppress his self-abusive behavior. Vibratory stimulation was used as the reinforcer. In Experiment II differential reinforcement of other behavior and contingent withdrawal of vibration were used to decrease the self-injurious behavior of a retarded girl. The results of both experiments indicated that vibratory stimulation can serve as an effective reinforcer for severely retarded individuals, and the contingent withdrawal of reinforcement can produce response suppression similar to that found under an application of aversive stimulus procedure.
The Effects of Daily Cost Feedback on Residential Electricity Consumption
Authors: Bittle Ronald G. , Valesano Robert , Thaler Greg
Published: March 2007

Thirty families were divided into two groups of 15 families each (A and B). Following a 12-day baseline period, daily feedback was provided to Group A families. Subsequent daily meter readings revealed that these families consistently used less electricity than the 15 families who were not receiving feedback (Group B). After 52 days the conditions were reversed and Group B families were provided with daily cost feedback while Group A families received no feedback. Following an initial reversal in consumption, Group B families once again used more electricity. However, a within-group analysis of the consumption of Group B families revealed that on days of comparable temperature levels, consumption was lower on feedback days than days in which no feedback was received. The fact that reversal of conditions did not produce reversals in consumption was attributed to the possibility of carryover effects of the initial feedback provided to Group A families. The results suggest that feedback is an effective way of reducing electricity usage and that efforts to promote energy conservation may be more effective if they are made when demands for energy are low.
Behavioral Treatment of Childhood Gender Disorders
Authors: Wolfe Barry E.
Published: March 2007

Social learning techniques recently have been applied to the problem of childhood gender disorders. This diagnosis has been applied mostly to young boys who show pronounced degrees of "feminine" behavior and interests, who avoid activities stereotypically associated with their gender, and who express the desire to become girls. A conceptual and empirical critique is offered of this small but developing treatment literature. Conceptual difficulties attributable to the mixing of psychoanalytic and behavioral frames of references and to the use of gender role stereotypes as a reference point for defining abnormal behavior make the interpretation of the reported treatment successes problematic. Much of the confusion in this research area could be dispelled if systematic attention were paid to what the so-called "feminine" behavior means to the boy. This could be achiieved by means of a functional analysis of the relationships between the boy's cognitions and behaviors and the contexts in which they occur.
Community Behavior Change
Authors: Meyers Andrew W. , Meyers Hugh H. , Craighead W. Edward
Published: March 2007

Behavioral models of community intervention are becoming increasingly prominent, but the application of behavior change procedures in community settings raises a number of practical and ethical problems. Basic impediments to program implementation are discussed and ameliorative recommendations are made. An emphasis is placed on broad assessment involving all elements of the community throughout program planning and conduct. Approaches to ethical issues in community behavior change are reviewed, and it is suggested that these ethical issues can only be adequately confronted by developing interventions designed to develop increasingly competent communities, skilled at assessing and modifying their own problem situations.
Differential Reinforcement in Coaching Tennis Skills
Authors: Buzas Hilary P. , Ayllon Teodoro
Published: March 2007

The present study compared the effects of correcting errors in a typical tennis class to selectively ignoring these errors while praising appropriate tennis performance. The effects of this behavioral procedure, differential reinforcement, were assessed using a multiple baseline design across subjects (three junior high students) and three tennis skills: forehand, backhand, and serve. The results demonstrated that differential reinforcement increased performance two to four times over baseline. These results extend the findings on differential reinforcement and suggest this procedure as a method for developing sports skills.
Behavioral Compensation
Authors: Simon Steven J. , Ayllon Teodoro , Milan Michael A.
Published: March 2007

When the consequences of a response become less reinforcing in the presence of one stimulus, reinforced responding in the presence of a second stimulus often increases. This phenomenon is called positive behavioral contrast. This research evaluated the effects of an analogous manipulation in an applied setting within the context of a classroom token economy. Seven severely to profoundly hearing impaired middle school students who were disruptive and low-achieving in math class served as subjects. After a pretoken economy baseline, token reinforcement was instituted at three learning stations. Reinforcement was then withdrawn from two of the three stations but continued at the remaining one. The results indicated that academic response rate increased at the station where reinforcement was continued while it decreased at the two stations where it was withdrawn. These effects were reversed when reinforcement was reinstated at all three stations. The reciprocal relationship between increases in academic performance and decreases in measures of classroom disruption previously reported in the literature was also replicated.
Behavioral Coaching in Classical Ballet
Authors: Fitterling James M. , Ayllon Teodoro
Published: March 2007

A review of the literature indicates the usefulness of operant methods to develop or enhance sports skills. This study extended the use of this approach to the acquisition of correct ballet skills by four subjects in a ballet class. Using a single case design, behavioral coaching was compared to the ballet instructor's method. Four ballet barre exercises (degage, frappe, developpe, and grand battement) were selected as the dependent variables. Execution of all four ballet skills increased from an average of 13% under the ballet instructor's method to a performance of 88% under the behavioral coaching. These results indicate that behavioral procedures are applicable to modifying artistic and creative behaviors such as those found in the fine arts.
Respiratory Relief Therapy
Authors: Longo David J. , Vom Saal Walter
Published: March 2007

A controlled experiment examined the effectiveness of Respiratory Relief Therapy in reducing public speaking anxiety in college students. The therapy employed two procedures: (a) a systematic desensitization paradigm in which the competing response paired with scene presentations was the relief experienced when the student breathed again after exhaling and holding his or her breath out for as long as possible; and (b) homework assignments to practice breathing deeply and regularly. In this study 60 speech-anxious college students were divided into three groups: a Respiratory Relief Therapy group; a Gradual Repeated Exposure group in which students imagined hierarchy items without initiating a competing response in order to control for placebo and expectancy effects; and a Waiting-List control group in which students were evaluated, waited four weeks, were evaluated again, and then offered treatment. Pre and postmeasures, including self-ratings of anxiety, physiological measures (GSR and pulse rate), and blind observer ratings of videotaped public speaking episodes, showed significantly greater reductions in public speaking anxiety in the Respiratory Relief Therapy group than in the other two groups on most measures, supporting the effectiveness of this procedure in reducing specific anxieties in a controlled experimental setting.
Multitreatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Checking in a Geriatric Patient
Authors: Junginger John
Published: March 2007

Behavioral treatment of an elderly woman with an obsessive-complusive disoder is discussed in an attempt to illustrate: (1) the value of verbal exposure to feared stimuli in the treatment of fears that are difficult to elicit reliably in vivo, and (2) the effectiveness of behavioral techniques with geriatric patients.
Gifted Students and Behavior Modification
Authors: Belcastro Frank P.
Published: March 2007

Research in the use of behavior modification with gifted students was conducted through computer searches and a review of the literature. The small number of studies using behavior modification with gifted students was noted. Among the various recommendations and conclusions made by the reviewer were that behavior modifications be used with gifted underachievers, the disadvantaged gifted, the culturally different gifted students, the maladjusted gifted students, and other academically gifted students in order to eliminate their maladaptive behaviors and to develop and strengthen their adaptive behaviors. Further recommendations were that behavior modification be used with greater frequency and at an earlier age with the academically gifted, that it be used to enhance the unique attributes of all the gifted, that it be used to teach research techniques to the gifted to make them more independent of low capability teachers, and that it be used with the culturally different to motivate them intellectually outside their hostile environment.
Sex Role Orientation
Authors: St. Lawrence Janet S. , Hansen David J. , Cutts Teresa F. , Tisdelle Debra A. , Irish Jean D.
Published: March 2007

In the present study college students (N = 279) completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory, then observed videotapes that showed a model handling several social conflict situations in an assertive or unassertive manner. Both male and female models were used. Subjects then completed a 26-item adjective checklist to evaluate the model they observed. Results indicated that neither subjects' sex role orientation nor models' sex influenced observers' social evaluations. The models' actual behavior was the most significant determinant of observers' reactions. Evaluations of the models also were influenced, although to a lesser extent, by observers' biological sex. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
The Prediction and Prevention of Relapse in Stuttering
Authors: Craig Ashley , Andrews Gavin
Published: March 2007

Some behavior therapy programs are sufficiently powerful to enable all subjects to reach the criterion of being symptom-free. Predicting who will relapse among such patients is important, for they could then be given extra or remedial treatment before relapse eventuates. We report on the success of a locus of control scale in predicting long-term outcome after successful treatment of stuttering. A group of 17 stutterers were scored on the Locus of Control of Behavior scale before and after treatment. Changes in this score during treatment successfully predicted the outcome in 15 of the 17 subjects 10 months later. This replicates an earlier finding. A further six stutterers who had been predicted as being at risk of relapse and who had indeed relapsed 10 months after treatment were given self-control therapy as part of a retreatment package. Ten months later the self-control therapy had appeared to have prevented relapse in four of the six subjects. Changes in the Locus of Control of Behavior scale during this retreatment successfully predicted outcome in five of the six subjects 10 months after treatment.
Positive Practice Overcorrection
Authors: Carey Robert G. , Bucher Bradley D.
Published: March 2007

Two studies of retarded adults residing in an institutional setting were performed to examine the results of reinforcement of correct practice of an appropriate behavior during positive practice. In each study specific motor tasks were trained using incidents of stereotypic behavior as the cue to begin positive practice of the motor task. Study I compared standard positive practice, without reinforcement, with a variant using reinforcement for unprompted correct practice. Correct performance of the task outside positive practice was reinforced in both conditions. Reinforcing correct positive practice yielded faster training of the motor task and an equivalent reduction of stereotypic behavior. Study II compared a condition in which reinforcement was available during both positive practice and regular task practice with a condition in which it was available in neither. Reinforcement produced superior effects for both acquisition and reduction, and produced fewer undesirable side effects. Possible applications of results and limitations of the study are also discussed.
Limitations of Operant Practice in the Study of Disease
Authors: Russo Dennis C. , Budd Karen S.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the practice of operant psychology in light of its evolutionary development and its extension into other scientific fields, most notably medicine. It asks whether insistence on the primacy of behavior, empiricism, observability, and direct physical causality benchmarks of the behavioral approach-limit the application of operant models to problems of disease. Several areas of current behavioral research in which extensions of the operant paradigm have been necessary in light of new data are reviewed. A selective review of biopsychosocial research suggests that diverse variables often interact in complex or idiosyncratic patterns to affect disease expression. In some cases, biological factors limit the extent of available behavior change, whereas in other cases behavioral strategies offer the potential to modify physiological systems. Our review indicates that scientific advances call for an expanded operant approach that incorporates multicausality, indirect mechanisms of control, and multielemental analysis. Nevertheless, given the broad analytic view of the operant paradigm, it offers a rich conceptual framework for exploration of behavioral medicine issues in concert with related scientific disciplines.
The Present Status of Operant Conditioning for the Treatment of Anorexia Nervosa
Authors: Bemis Kelly M.
Published: March 2007

Operant conditioning appears to be an effective short-term method of weight restoration in anorexia nervosa, although it may offer only modest advantages over alternative methods of inducing weight gain. Programs differ widely in the selection of treatment setting, target behaviors, positive and negative reinforcers, reinforcement schedules, facilitating conditions, and supplementary modalities employed, and it remains unclear how each of these variables may contribute to treatment outcome. The scarcity of long-term follow-up data after 20 years of investigation is puzzling; by default, the calculation of risk/benefit ratios has depended on the theoretical biases of the observer. The accumulation of clinical experience does appear to have had some moderating effect on the polarized positions initially assumed by the advocates and opponents of operant conditioning. The approach has gained acceptance as a useful but circumscribed component of multimodal treatment programs, and in recent years is often supplemented with a variety of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral strategies designed to deal with a broader range of anorexic symptomatology.
Behavioral Assessment of Child-Abusive and Neglectful Families
Authors: Hansen David J. , MacMillan Virginia M.
Published: March 2007

Recent developments and current issues in the behavioral assessment of child-abusive and neglectful families are described. Procedures for the assessment of target behaviors in a variety of areas that may be related to the occurrence of further maltreatment and improved family functioning are reviewed. The primary emphasis is on measures recently developed for maltreating populations, although some measures discussed were developed for nonmaltreating populations. A variety of issues that commonly arise in the assessment of maltreating families and future directions for practice and research are also addressed.
Behavioral Treatment of Child Abuse
Authors: Azar Sandra T. , Siegel Beth R.
Published: March 2007

This article reviews cognitive and behavioral treatment strategies that have been employed with parents who physically abuse their children. Using a developmental framework, a broadened view of abuse is presented that emphasizes targets for intervention that not only reduce aversive parental behavior but also increase behaviors that lead to more optimal child outcome. Interventions with maltreaters are then described, focusing on three periods of childhood -infancy, middle childhood, and adolescence. An argument is made for there being different goal parental behaviors during each of these periods, as well as unique child-based demands that act as obstacles to parents' successfully meeting these goals. Where behavioral treatments with abusive parents do not yet exist, treatments with similar parent populations are described. The article concludes with a discussion of the treatment issues facing the field in the future.
Self-Management Therapies and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Authors: Hinshaw Stephen P. , Melnick Sharon
Published: March 2007

The lack of sufficiency of the primary treatment modalities for children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)-operant behaviormodification procedures and psychostimulant medications-have prompted exploration of cognitive-behavioral self-management treatments as altematives or adjuncts. Although self-instructional treatments are not adequate interventions for such children, reinforcement-and rehearsal-based behavioral interventions can be combined with self-management approaches to supplement and extend the gains induced by behavioral procedures. After presenting background material regarding cognitive-behavioral treatments for ADHD, we present case material related to multimodality treatment, with focus on training in anger management and self-evaluation skills. We argue against unsubstantiated claims for the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions but contend that, when combined with pharnacologic and behavioral approaches, self-management procedures deserve consideration for the difficult social and behavioral problems of ADHD children.
Developmental Issues in Social-Skills Assessment and Intervention with Children and Adolescents
Authors: Bierman Karen Linn , Montminy H. Peter
Published: March 2007

In recent years, social-skills training has become an increasingly common intervention. Recipients of skill training programs have included children of all ages as well as adults, yet relatively few systematic attempts have been made to incorporate developmental considerations into program design and evaluation. Developmental research indicates that significant normative changes take place during the preschool, grade school, and adolescent years in domains such as the complexity of children's social reasoning, the focus and duration of their peer interactions, the nature of peer-approved (and disapproved) behaviors, the organization of the peer group, and the extent and nature of peer influence. Although a full understanding of the impact that these developmental changes may have on the effectiveness of various social-skills interventions awaits future research, the potential implications are numerous. In this article, developmental changes in children's peer relationships are reviewed. The implications that these changes may have for the assessment of social skills, for the design of skill training programs, and for future research are discussed.
Multifactor Behavioral Treatment of Chronic Sleep-Onset Insomnia Using Stimulus Control and the Relaxation Response
Authors: Jacobs Gregg D. , Rosenberg Paul A. , Friedman Richard , Matheson Jean , Peavy Guerry M. , Domar Alice D. , Benson Herbert
Published: March 2007

Sleep latency changes following behavioral interventions for sleep-onset insomnia are only moderate because the majority of insomniacs do not achieve good sleeper status at posttreatment. This study evaluated the efficacy of a multifactor behavioral intervention consisting of stimulus control and relaxation-response training (n = 10) compared to stimulus control alone (n = 10) for sleep-onset insomnia. Only the multifactor subjects' mean posttest sleep latency fell within the good sleeper range. They also exhibited a 77% improvement on mean sleep-onset latency compared to the stimulus control group (63%). Thus a multifactor intervention may be more effective than stimulus control alone for treatment of sleep-onset insomnia.
Culture and the Process of Person Perception: Evidence for Automaticity among East Asians in Correcting for Situational Influences on Behavior
Authors: Knowles Eric D. , Morris Michael W. , Chiu Chi-Yue , Hong Ying-Yi
Published: March 2007

The authors evaluate three models of the cognitive processes underlying person perception (i.e., the processes perceivers use to judge whether an actor’s behavior reflects a personal disposition), each of which implies a different way in which culturally instilled lay theories of behavior affect attributions. The models make distinctive predictions concerning how cognitive busyness will affect dispositional inference among members of different cultures. To test the models, the authors compared attributions of U.S. and Hong Kong perceivers for an expressive act under conditions of high and low cognitive busyness. Whereas cognitive busyness increased dispositionism among U.S. participants, it did not for Hong Kong participants. Findings from numerous measures combine to support the automatized situational correction model, which posits that holders of a situation-based lay theory of behavior (such as members of Chinese culture) have automatized the ability to correct attributions to personal dispositions to take into account situational influences.
Self-Enhancement: Is it Restricted to Individualistic Cultures?
Authors: Kurman Jenny
Published: March 2007

Two studies investigated how self-enhancement relates to interdependent and independent self-construals typical of collectivist and individualist cultures, respectively. Participants from three cultures were surveyed, two of them collectivist (Singaporean Chinese and Israeli Druze) and one individualist (Israeli Jews). Study 1 shows that the two collectivist cultures differ in their self-enhancement level among university students: Self-enhancement level among Singaporeans was weaker for academic self-enhancement and for other agentic traits. No cultural difference in self-enhancement of communal traits was found (N = 418). Study 2 replicated these results for high school students and evaluated the relations between self-construals, modesty, and self-enhancement. Regression analyses show that self-enhancement of agentic traits is predicted by independent self-construal and modesty (negatively), whereas self-enhancement of communal traits is predicted by interdependent self-construal (N = 362). The role of modesty norms in self-enhancement is discussed.
I Like it but I Don’t Know Why: A Value-Account Approach to Implicit Attitude Formation
Authors: Betsch Tilmann , Plessner Henning , Schwieren Christiane , Gütig Robert
Published: March 2007

The authors suggest a theory that predicts how summary evaluations about targets are implicitly formed and stored in memory and under which conditions they are used in attitude judgment. First, it is assumed that the mere encoding of value-charged stimuli is a sufficient condition to initiate implicit online formation of summary evaluations. Second, the authors claim that this process is summative. Accordingly, the intensities of the positive or negative responses evoked by the stimuli in the organism are thought to be accumulated and stored in a unitary memory structure. This hypothetical structure is called value account. Third, it is assumed that a value account is more easily accessible in memory than are concrete traces of past experiences. Therefore, attitude judgments should rely on value accounts, especially if cognitive capacities are constrained (e.g., due to time pressure). Three experiments that provide converging evidence for the value-account approach are reported.
The Role of Affect in the Mere Exposure Effect: Evidence from Psychophysiological and Individual Differences Approaches
Authors: Harmon-Jones Eddie , Allen John J. B.
Published: March 2007

Affective models of the mere exposure effect propose that repeated exposure to a stimulus increases the positive affect or reduces the negative affect toward the stimulus, whereas recent cognitive models propose that affect is not involved in the mere exposure effect. To test these competing predictions, participants repeatedly viewed photographs of women’s faces and then viewed these women again (familiar) and novel women (unfamiliar) while facial muscle region activity and brain activity were recorded. Familiar stimuli were rated as more likable and they evoked more zygomatic (cheek) muscle region activity than unfamiliar stimuli. Interactions with individual differences occurred. Persons reporting less positive affect and persons reporting more negative affect at baseline evidenced more zygomatic activity to the familiar than to the unfamiliar. Persons with relatively less left frontal cortical activation at baseline evidenced a tendency toward a greater mere exposure effect. These results suggest that repeatedly exposing persons to nonreinforced stimuli increases their positive affective reactions to those stimuli.