Behavior Modification

A recently developed statistical method for single-case subject designs based on classical test theory was used to examine the efficacy of imaginal exposure treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in four Vietnam veterans. The method was sensitive to intraindividual changes across different outcome measures even when relatively few data points were available. Two veterans clearly improved from exposure and maintained their gains at 3-and 15-month follow-ups. One veteran improved marginally, whereas one veteran's symptoms worsened. Changes in heart rate monitored over the first two imaginal exposures indicated that veterans with greater heart-rate habituation responded better to exposure than did veterans with less or no habituation. The results suggest that the statistical method illustrated here has some advantages over other methods (e.g., visual inspection, time-series analysis) for examining clinical interventions in single-case designs.

The effectiveness of two simple strategies designed to reduce the aversive effects of implicitreward conditions (i.e., rewarding only one child of a pair, although both are performing a set task), as previously reported by Sharpley, were tested with 96 Grade 3 and 4 children of both genders. The task used as the dependent variable was timed digit-symbol exercises, and the reward for successful performance was verbal praise and feedback of results. Data indicated that both of the strategies designed to reduce the previously reported aversive effects of implicit rewards were successful but that there was still evidence that direct application of the reward was more reinforcing than implicit conditions. Hypothetical explanations for these findings are discussed, and children's cognitive evaluations of comparative reward conditions are suggested as an important but often overlooked causal variable in child behavior modification procedures.

This study extends previous research by examining the social impact of assertiveness upon differentially assertive subjects under more naturalistic assessment conditions. Forty-five low-and 45 high-assertive undergraduate, Caucasian females interacted with a female confederate who displayed unassertive, assertive, or empathic-assertive behaviors in the context of conflict resolution. Subsequent to the interactions, the Interpersonal Evaluation Inventory, the Interpersonal Judgment Scale, and a postexperimental questionnaire assessed the subjects' perceptions of the confederate's behavior and other aspects of the study. The results suggest that in a live conflict situation, assertiveness is regarded less favorably on some dimensions of interpersonal attraction than is unassertiveness. Also, low-assertive subjects experienced more anxiety and personal sacrifice during their interaction with the confederate than did high-assertive subjects. High-and low-assertive individuals did not differ in their compliance with assertive requests, thus calling into question the behavioral validity of the Assertion Inventory. Finally, the implications of these results for research and training are discussed.

The effects of different psychotropic medications were examined for the control of behavior problems associated with dementia in three elderly nursing home residents. A reversal design was used in which the medications were introduced and withdrawn, and their effects were assessed on various resident behaviors using behavioral and motor performance assessments. All medications were effective in decreasing aberrant behaviors, but they also increased sedation in all three subjects. Performance on the motor assessments decreased for all subjects after the introduction of medication and improved after the medication was withdrawn. The results highlight the utility of behavioral assessment strategies for assessing the effects of psychotropic medication on elderly nursing home residents.

The present investigation empirically evaluated whether self-reported assertiveness and role-play assertiveness were associated with interpersonal success in a group of 30 boys. Using a known-groups methodology, 15 popular boys and 15 rejected boys completed self-report and role-play measures of assertiveness. Behaviors traditionally associated with assertiveness, as well as new inductively determined behaviors, were observed and coded. Popular boys demonstrated significantly higher levels of both traditional and inductive behaviors. Moreover, total scores on the inductive behavioral code correlated significantly with self-reported assertiveness, whereas total scores on the traditional code did not. An initial approach to the empirical validation of treatment targets is provided, and the importance of this process for clinical assessment is underscored.

A system of direct instruction, the Criterion Referenced Curriculum (CRC), was evaluated with five regular fourth-grade students. A multiple-baseline experimental analysis showed a functional relationship between the use of the CRC and improved math performance in multiplication, subtraction, and division. Participants demonstrated an immediate improvement in math performance, either an improving performance trend or an increase in level of correct answers, whenever the CRC was introduced following the baseline conditions.

Behavioral, nonpsychoanalytic interventions for phobic conditions have shown to be quite effective in the reduction of symptomatology. This case documents that a combination of systematic desensitization, visual imagery, and in vivo exposure can reduce a phobic condition of 40 years duration. This intervention was shown to be effective even though the individual carried a concomitant diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The relation of image-marking estimates of body width (IM) to actual widths, to other indices of body-size perception, and to measures of body satisfaction were examined using data obtained in a nonclinical sample of 200 women. The results of regression and correlational analyses were as follows: (a) actual widths accounted for only a small proportion of the variance in TM estimates, (b) the variance in IM estimates remaining after actual width was accounted for was not meaningfully related to other body-image indices, and (c) actual widths were more highly correlated with other body-image indices than were differences between estimated and actual widths (IM estimate-actual width). The current results suggest that most of the variance in IM estimates is error variance. Possible methodological confounds, which may bias women's estimates of body widths in the direction of overestimation, are discussed.

We investigated whether the efficacy of directed rehearsal could be enhanced by increasing a student's motivation through task variation. The efficacy of three conditions (directed rehearsal, directed rehearsal combined with task variation, and no-training control) on the spelling performance of four students with learning disabilities was compared in an altemating treatments design. Following each spelling error during the directed rehearsal condition, the teacher pronounced the word, the student pronounced the word, the teacher said aloud each letter of the word, and the student said aloud each letter of the word as he wrote the word correctly. This sequence was repeated five times. The same procedure was used during directed rehearsal plus task variation, except that previously learned words were alternately presented with new words. Results showed that although the two training conditions were more effective than no training, there was no difference between the two training procedures in terms of the cumulative number of words learned to criterion. This study showed that the addition of task variation to directed rehearsal does not increase the spelling proficiency of learning disabled students.