Two federal agencies proposed conflict-of-interest guidelines that would require scientists supported by government money to file financial-disclosure forms and universities to review those forms and eliminate conflicts of interest. The National Institutes of Health and the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration proposed the…

This article proposes a model for the functional analysis of aggression in school-age children and youth. The model incorporates multimodal data collection and data triangulation to generate credible hypotheses regarding the functions of aggression. Key features include operational definitions of target behaviors, examination of the environmental…

Generalization across three stimulus parameters (therapist, setting, and demands) was examined for five men with severe/profound mental retardation whose self-injurious behavior was maintained by escape from task demands. Variables were held constant during the escape extinction treatment. Full or partial generalization to novel situations was…

Describes the core constructs of attachment theory, namely, the attachment system and secure-base behavior. Discusses contextual factors thought to be crucial in development of individual differences in attachment, especially maternal sensitivity, and considers child characteristics, especially temperament, that may contribute to the attachment…

Two studies had parents describe the characteristics of the most prosocial two- and five-year olds they knew and rate the relative importance of each attribute in defining a child as prosocial. Results indicated more similarities than differences between the two age groups and suggested that research has underrepresented the rich repertoire of…

This essay discusses the evaluation of the relationship between the nervous system and emotion regulation, introducing vagal tone as a measurable organismic variable that contributes to individual and developmental differences in the expression and regulation of emotion. (MDM)

This study of 105 12-month olds replicated 4 similar studies that showed that infants in day care are at risk for insecure attachment. Failure to reproduce significant results suggests that the research literature on infant day care and attachment may be biased by the unavailability of "file drawer" studies--unpublished data showing no…

Incorporating statistical process control (SPC) methods into applied behavior analysis is discussed. It is claimed that SPC methods would likely reduce applied behavior analysts' intimate contacts with problems and would likely yield poor treatment and research decisions. Cases and data presented by Pfadt and Wheeler (1995) are cited as examples.…

Examines how the contributions of animal research are presented in eight of the most widely used introductory psychology textbooks. The authors show that, with the exception of principles of conditioning and learning, the contributions of animal research are often not explicitly acknowledged or are obscured to look like they had been obtained with…

A review of literature from 1983 to 1992 suggests that a more complete understanding is now possible of the information needs, uses, and information-seeking behavior of the humanities scholar. A current portrait of humanities scholars suggests that this client group is more diverse than previously assumed. (Author/JKP)

This paper explores the controversy surrounding gentle teaching, with particular reference to the relationship between gentle teaching and applied behavior analysis. Advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed, and it is suggested that gentle teaching and applied behavior analysis need not be regarded as mutually exclusive…

Maintains that (1) research questions must address intra- and extraorganism contextual relations and must be multidisciplinary in scope; (2) research must be sensitive to contextual variability and individual differences; and (3) scholars must develop empirically generative models linking the development of human beings with changing contexts. (BC)

Reasons for the failure to adopt behavior-analytic teaching strategies include the perception that behavior analysis is coercive and controlling, difficulties in implementation, university factors, and marketing problems. The goal of dissemination of these strategies could be met through creating motivational conditions and devising marketing…

This response to EC 603 649 argues that the field of applied behavior analysis does train a large number of practitioners and administrators and a few researchers, that graduate programs already vary research training and practice training, and that both practicing and research behavior analysts need to be taught the logic of experimental control.…

This response to EC 603 649 agrees that the field of applied behavior analysis has a low success rate in teaching productive researchers but argues that the corrective action should involve doing a more effective job of teaching students how to be successful researchers in nonacademic settings. (JDD)