Behavior Modification

Behavioral assessment and interventions have found an increasing range of applications in both research and applied work with youth sport populations. Behavioral assessment has been used for both descIiptive and program evaluation purposes, and one of its major uses has been in the study of coaching behaviors and their effects on young athletes. Operant and cognitive-behavioral interventions have been targeted at both athletic and psychosocial outcomes, and they have proven to be effective in both areas. Unresolved issues and promising areas for future research are discussed, and it is concluded that the sport environment is an ideal naturalistic laboratory for behavioral research and interventions.

In recent years, the importance of including ethnically diverse populations in psychological research has been increasingly emphasized. The purpose of this survey was to examine the extent to which behavioral psychology has recognized issues of ethnic diversity in its published literature. Content analyses were conducted of all articles published in Behavioral Assessment from 1984 through 1992, BehaviorModification from 1977 through 1993, and Behavior Therapy from 1970 through 1993. Overall, only 1.31% of the articles published in the three journals focused on U.S. ethnic minority groups. Possible explanations for the lack of attention on ethnic minority groups are posited, and suggestions for ameliorating this problem are provided.

Functional communication training was used to replace multiply determined problem behavior in two boys with autism. Experiment 1 involved a functional analysis of several topographies of problem behavior using a variation of the procedures described by lwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, and Richman. Results suggested that aggression, self-injury, and disruption were multiply determined (i.e., maintained by both attention and access to preferred objects). Experiment 2 involved a multiple-baseline design across subjects. The focus of intervention was to replace aggression, self-injury, and disruption with functionally equivalent communicative alternatives. Both boys were taught altemative "mands" to recruit attention and request preferred objects. Acquisition of these altemative communication skills was associated with concurrent decreases in aggression, self-injury, and disruption. Results suggest that multiply determined challenging behavior can be decreased by teaching an alternative communication skill to replace each assessed function of the problem behavior.

A computer-assisted cognitive training program was used to treat a 13-year-old Caucasian male with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The subject was administered a cognitive training computer program, Captain's Log, for 35 sessions. Pre/post differences on the Conners Parent Rating Scale revealed a decrease on all subscales. The scores on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale were less conclusive. Electrophysiological testing on the A620 EEG/Neurofeedback revealed a reduction in EMG, theta, and beta wave amplitudes. However, the theta/beta ratio increased. A 7-month follow-up revealed that most of the acquired gains were maintained, but at a slightly lower level.

The authors conducted brief assessments in an outclinic setting to identify the functional properties of severe tantrums in three preschool-age boys with language delays. For one child, tantrums were sensitive to positive reinforcement in the form of access to preferred tangible stimuli (toys and preferred food). For a second child, tantrums also were sensitive to positive reinforcement but in the form of maternal attention and access to preferred stimuli (toys). The third child's tantrums were multiply controlled. For each participant, alternative communicative responses were identified and reinforced as replacements for tantrums. Results showed that brief functional analyses of tantrums serve as viable assessment options in outclinic settings. Further, identification of the functional properties of tantrums allowed for selection of replacement behaviors, which may be particularly useful for children with communication delays.

The present study attempts to extend recent research on the relation between hoarding and obsessive-compulsive experiences. In both college student and community samples, hoarding was associated with higher scores on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). The relationship was stronger among the community sample, in which there was a greater range of compulsive symptoms and hoarding behavior. Hoarding was also associated with higher levels of general psychopathology as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory but not by the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder subscale from the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II or by a measure of ordinary risk taking. Among a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 31% reported hoarding obsessions and 26% reported hoarding compulsions on the YBOCS symptom checklist. These frequencies are similar to those found elsewhere and suggest that, although not as frequent as the classical symptoms of OCD, hoarding is a common symptom among OCD patients.