The problem drinking continuum was devised to illustrate different kinds of alcohol-related problems, without implying irreversibility, progression, or the presence of a unitary disease. It is one way of conceptualizing alcohol dependencies that has been fruitful in outpatient counseling, residential care, alcohol education, and training programs.…

Investigated the active components of covert positive reinforcement that consisted of an S-R modality, a reinforcement procedure, and a demand for expectancy of success. Results of the behavioral avoidance test indicated that subjects in the overt S-R modality groups approached closer to the rat. (Author)

This study investigated the sleep of 28 young blind and 22 sighted children (ages 4 to 36 months) whose parents completed the Sleep Habits Questionnaire. It found that the blind children had significantly more sleep problems related to bedtime and behaviors during the night than did the sighted children. (Author/DB)

A parent-report questionnaire, the Child Routines Inventory (CRI), was administered to 1,492 parents with children between 8 and 72 months of age. Results indicated that frequency of compulsive-like behaviors is more common among 2-, 3- and 4-year olds than among children younger than 1 year or over 4 years of age. Findings are relevant to a…

A theory of timing is proposed, based on the observation that signals of reinforcement elicit adjunctive behaviors. Transitions between these behaviors are described as a Poisson process. These behaviors may come to serve as the basis for conditional discriminations of the passage of time. (SLD)

This study of 12 residents of a treatment facility for individuals with mental retardation examined cycles in occurrences of self-injurious behavior (SIB) and aggression both within and across individuals. The study confirmed that such behavior tended to be rhythmical, with cycles of three-month and five-month periods consistently observed for…

The nature of certain aspects of emotion (as viewed from a control-theory perspective on behavior) is explored, focusing on the feedback-based processes through which people self-regulate their actions to minimize discrepancies between actual acts and desired or intended acts. (SLD)

Many psychologists assert that boys are in dire straits in U.S. society, but in fact, there is no evidence of an emotional or behavioral epidemic for either sex. If there is any truth to the claim that boys are in trouble, it results from practices that foster aggression. It is a mistake to regard either gender as "fragile." (SLD)

Presents a method for examining the Targeted Dysfunctional Behavior (TDB) cycle to help therapists and clients identify many possibilities for bringing about change, especially in the beginning of treatment. Theoretical rationale, stages of the cycle, and model are described with examples. The TDB cycle is outlined. (Author/EMK)

Although the concepts of greed and selfishness have often been used in discussions about human nature, there seems to be little attention to these characteristics in the disciplines of psychology and counseling. Considers characteristics of greed and selfishness as encountered in counseling from a multidisciplinary perspective and identifies…

Disagreements and conflicts in families with disruptive children often reflect rigid patterns of behavior that have become overlearned and automatized with repeated practice. These patterns are mindless: They are performed with little or no awareness and are highly resistant to change. This article introduces a new, mindfulness-based model of…

This rejoinder discusses some common points raised in the commentaries of this special issue of JOBM, including (1) different definitions of positive and negative, (2) use of the terms reinforcement and establishing operation, and (3) concerns over the abandonment of behavior analysis for mentalistic research. In addition, a people-based approach…

Recent research has shown that a group-level analysis can inform our understanding of school bullying. The present research drew on social identity theory and intergroup emotion theory. Nine- to eleven-year olds were randomly assigned to the same group as story characters who were described as engaging in bullying, as being bullied, or as neither…

The authors examined internal representations of conditional strategies for a situation of object conflict in 849 adolescents and young adults between the ages of 11 and 19 years. To examine participants' expectations of strategy use, the authors developed questionnaires that depicted a variety of contexts in which 2 people wanted an object that…

The goal of the study reported here is to gain a better understanding of the role of belief systems in the approach phase to mathematical problem solving. Two students of high academic performance were selected based on a previous exploratory study of 61 students 12-13 years old. In this study we identified different types of approaches to…