Medical information can improve health, and there is an enormous amount of health information available on the Internet. A randomized clinical trial tested the effectiveness of an intervention based on social-cognitive theory to improve information use among people living with HIV/AIDS. Men and women (N = 448) were placed in either (a) an…

The author found it very satisfying to reread "Toward a technology of 'nonaversive' behavioral support," written in 1990 by Rob Horner and seven of his colleagues. Their predictions of the critical themes for advancing positive behavior support (PBS) ring true. Fifteen years have passed since the publication of this article, and much has happened…

The return to drug seeking, even after prolonged periods of abstinence, is a defining feature of cocaine addiction. The neural circuitry underlying relapse has been identified in neuropharmacological studies of experimental animals, typically rats, and supported in brain imaging studies of human addicts. Although the nucleus accumbens (NAcc),…

Neuroscientific approaches to drug addiction traditionally have been based on the premise that addiction is a process that results from brain changes that in turn result from chronic administration of drugs of abuse. An alternative approach views drug addiction as a behavioral disorder in which drugs function as preeminent reinforcers. Although…

Combining psycholinguistic technologies and systems analysis created advances in motivational profiling and numerous new behavioral engineering applications. These advances leapfrog many mainstream statistical research methods, producing superior research results via cause-effect language mechanisms. Entire industries explore motives ranging from…

Selecting a statistical framework for a behavioral study has profoundly different results than does a linguistically framed research strategy. The linguistic strategy overcomes many limitations inherent in statistical strategies and offers more meaningful results. Inferential statistical studies often discuss how the findings "explain" the results…

This paper summarizes the experiences of a teaching psychologist who is frustrated with the lack of resources for research at rural colleges. Rural college administrators often reject proposals for psychological research, choosing to commit their institutions purely to teaching. Because psychological laboratories are too expensive for marginally…

Power refers to the probability that a statistical test will yield statistically significant results. In spite of the close relationship between power and statistical significance, there is a consistent overemphasis in the literature on statistical significance. This paper discusses statistical significance and its limitations and also includes a…

A study investigated how people make indirect refusals ("You don't need to move the bookcase" meaning "No, I won't help you move it"), and the types of information used to do so. Two experiments were conducted. The first asked 130 students (third, fifth, and eighth graders as well as college undergraduates) to write refusals to…

This report presents some results from various empirical research projects within nursing education carried out during the late 1960's and the early 1970's at Malmo School of Education, University of Lund (Sweden). It is noted that a wide range of methods has been used in dealing with the following issues: curriculum analysis; construction of…

To measure how the complexity of a television image affects the viewer's ability to identify or recognize visual details within the image, two coders rated the form complexity of 30 public service announcements, basing their evaluation on the familiarity of the images in the announcements, the rate at which they presented new information, and the…

A discussion of the public image and academic reputation of psychology covers three topics: general public skepticism of the field, the introductory psychology course, and undergraduate education in psychology. Public skepticism about psychology stems from: the nature of the field as one encompassing a diversity of viewpoints and theories; the…

Reports of the use of behavior modification in the classroom are reviewed, with special attention given to whether or not generalization of the effects of the behavior modification programs was obtained. The authors develop a set of 15 proposed "rules" for obtaining generalization of the effects of behavior modification procedures. (Author)

This ethnographic study of a self-contained classroom of eight-, nine-, and ten-year-olds examined sexual differences in peer interactions. Within the observed classroom, males and females established separate social systems which had only limited contact with each other. Males were found to interact with significantly more classmates than…

Explores the predictability of friendly, cooperative behavior of school children over a 5-week period. The basis for the predictions was the children's others-concept, as measured by the Paired Hands Test. In three tasks out of five the high others-concept children showed a higher frequency and greater proportion of task-related and friendly…