Discusses the Morris and Suckerman report on experimental studies testing the Rogerian hypothesis that phobic desensitization occurs as a function of therapist warmth versus the behavioral explanation that desensitization is a function of reciprocal inhibition. Morris and Suckerman respond to the critique. (Author/EJT)

Reports on a behavior modification study conducted at Stanford University in California nearly 10 years ago. Details the project and provides follow-up data eight years later. (EJT)

Based on part of the author's unpublished doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, 1967.

The second of a two-part radio program on children in mental institutions presents transcripts of interviews with psychiatrists and emotionally disturbed adolescents. Subjects addressed include use of drugs, behavior modification, music, and theatre therapy in institutions. The transcript concludes with a narrated tour of Sheppard-Pratt, an…

In a study of behavior modification two Down's syndrome preschool children, the first a 5-year-old boy with autistic behavior patterns and the second a 4-year-old girl whose behavior problem was to reject other children, were examined. The first S was engaged in ball catching activities with a teacher with positive reinforcement (playing the S's…

In its relatively short history, instructional development has been greatly influenced by operant conditioning theory and methodology. This approach has been described by some as simplistic, inhuman, and inflexible. The humanistic approach, on the other hand, focuses on affective, emotional, and intellectual learning experiences. But it seems to…

To establish diagnostic criteria, 12 fire-raising or pyromaniac children (7-15 years old) were compared with 12 control students matched for age, sex, and intellect. Six diagnostic procedures, including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the Lowenstein Fire Raising Diagnostic Test, and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, were used to…

Reproduced here are symposia papers dealing with behavior theory and therapy. Behavior therapy attempts to apply the findings of experimental psychology and the laboratory to the clinic. It takes the principles of learning and scientific psychology and makes them useful therapeutically. The two orientations in this area are operant and classical…

Twenty-two subjects were asked to generate fifty numbers from 0 to 100 at ten second intervals. These subjects were then taught to imagine a pleasant scene or an aversive scene on cue from the experimenter. After practice imagining these scenes, subjects were again requested to give fifty numbers between 0 and 100. Group I was cued to imagine the…

This study investigated the effects of prior experience with contingent or noncontingent stimulation of infants' ability to learn different responses to control perceptual stimulation. In the pretest phase, baseline rates of level movement, panel press and vocal responding were determined for each of the twelve, 6-month-old infants in the study.…