Presents a framework and principles for counseling belligerent counselees, integrating moral reasoning and behavior contracting. Counselees move from the punishment stage to a trade-off and socially responsive stages through contracting aimed at improved behavior, recognizing that behavior causes consequences, inducing positive behavior through…

Evaluated the effects of a self-management intervention on the disruptive behavior of a first-grade student. Analysis indicated that low adult attention set the occasion for disruptive behavior. A self-management intervention, in which the child received adult attention contingent on appropriate behavior, reduced disruptive behavior. Implications…

Compared incarcerated recidivists and nonrecidivists enrolled in a cognitive behavioral therapy program to judge treatment effectiveness as a function of offense. Results indicate that recidivism was a significant predictor of change in pre- and postindirect hostility measures. Significant personality differences emerged for the offender…

Meta-analysis of 482 empirical studies on treatment of problem behaviors of individuals with mental retardation found that externally destructive behaviors are less successfully treated than socially disruptive and internally maladaptive behaviors. Also, response contingent procedures were significantly more effective than other procedures.…

The TFA model focuses on behavior as interaction of thoughts, feelings, and actions, and seems to be useful in understanding circumstances contributing to substance abuse. TFA's Helping Cycle, which contains six stages: (1) assessment; (2) interpretation; (3) intervention; (4) probing; (5) deliberating; and (6) closing, provides a procedure to…

Documents three problems with the behavioral adaption explanation (BAE) that, taken together, suggest that it cannot account for the probing effect, i.e., the finding that sources interrogatively probed appear more honest to message recipients than nonprobed sources. (TB)

Concerns about noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) are illustrated in a case study of a 13-year-old girl with severe mental retardation who was demonstrating severe aggression. Her NCR treatment produced an extinction burst and incidental reinforcement. A brief omission contingency was added to the reinforcement schedule, which resulted in decreased…

Examines contextual variables that affect treatment integrity. Considers change agent contingencies and describes a matrix of social interaction patterns among target children, direct change agents, and indirect change agents. Proposes that strategies described in the literature are equally applicable to change agents that increase fidelity of…

A multiple probe design across activities was implemented with a 32-year-old with severe developmental disabilities to teach him to request assistance to gain release from nonpreferred difficult activities. Generalization occurred to other tasks associated with escape. No generalization occurred in tasks that the learner engaged in challenging…

Results of a functional analysis indicated the self-injurious behavior (SIB) of a 12-year-old with severe mental retardation was maintained by escape from demands and access to listening to music. The effects of the presence and absence of music and a putative establishing operation were investigated. The presence of music was correlated with…

Although functional behavioral assessments (FBA) have long been considered "best practice" in the field of applied behavior analysis, their use by school psychologists has a much briefer history. To assist school psychologists in becoming better acquainted with FBA, this article overviews the conceptual foundations and underlying principles of FBA…

Analysis of 117 research articles reporting use of behavioral interventions with single subjects with autism concluded that behavioral treatments are effective in reducing problematic behaviors. Type of target behavior and type of treatment did not moderate average treatment effect. Reliability of observation, number of treatment data points, and…

A study examined whether a correlation existed between mood ratings and subsequent display of problem behavior in eight adults with mental retardation. Results indicated that bad mood ratings were highly predictive of problem behavior. When an induction procedure to improve mood ratings was implemented, dramatic decreases in problem behaviors…

A self-recording procedure to help three third grade behaviorally disordered students walk directly from regular to special education classes was evaluated. Students chose from an array of reinforcers for use when they had reached the classroom within a specified time. The intervention was effective in increasing the number of days students walked…

This study examined effects of restitution on object throwing behavior of an adolescent male with severe mental retardation. Restitution was shown to maintain throwing behavior. When the subject was not forced to pick up what he threw (no restitution), throwing dropped to zero and was maintained at a very low rate. (Author/PB)