This paper presents a method for distinguishing between extinction and punishment effects. In extinction and punishment, different schedules of reinforcement or punishment are in effect when a given proportion of responses is blocked. Response patterns in treatment of hand mouthing in an adult with profound mental retardation suggest that a…

Antecedent conditions involving instructor's task demands and social comments were evaluated for three students with severe disabilities who exhibited problem behavior. An instructor emitted high rates of social comments and gradually faded in task demands. Social validity assessments indicated that substantial improvements were perceived in…

Describes treatment activities at the Boys Town Emergency Shelter Program for runaway and homeless youths. An examination of data collected from 100 shelter users indicated a high number of teaching interactions between staff and youths high levels of youth satisfaction with the staff; and a low frequency of youth disruptive behaviors in the…

Analysis suggests pharmacotherapy is superior to cognitive-behavior therapy in the treatment of severely depressed outpatients in the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program (TDCRP). This finding is neither robust across TDCRP sites nor consistent with findings from other studies. Argues that…

Addresses a few of the most important issues raised by N. S. Jacobson and S. D. Hollon and by D. F. Klein about the findings of the National Institute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program (TDCRP). Presents conclusions regarding these issues. Makes recommendations for new areas of investigation using the TDCRP…

Examined gender differences in the patterns of process use for smoking cessation using the Processes of Change Questionnaire. Results demonstrated the structure of the measure for men and women was invariant at the level of the variance-covariance matrices and that the hypothesized two-factor model fit the data. Only state of change predicted the…

Investigated the across-session patterns of session impact in treatments of 117 depressed clients who were randomly allocated to 8 or 16 sessions of cognitive-behavioral or psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy. After each session clients completed the Session Evaluation Questionnaire and 75 of the clients completed the Session Impacts Scale.…

This meta analysis reviewed 30 studies comparing child-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for antisocial behavior. Results showed that child-based CBT interventions had a small to moderate effect in decreasing antisocial behavior. Future research directions, including the integration of individual training into group therapy and the…

Programs serving troubled youth continuously struggle with the issue of using physical restraints and other coercive interventions. This paper revisits the issues and motivations surrounding restraint use. It offers an analytic perspective on the physical restraint cycle and the factors that tend to support its recurrence. (JDM)

Because youth who are in residential facilities are sometimes dangerous to themselves or others, there are times when physical restraints must be used for the safety of both residents and staff. But the use of restraints is coming under increased scrutiny because of potential dangers. In this article facilities share how training can help reduce…

This study examined the effectiveness of self-operated auditory prompts when used to decrease the off-task and aberrant behaviors of two 19-year-old students with moderate mental retardation. Previous findings were replicated to demonstrate that stimulus control can be achieved through self-operated auditory prompts in school and community…

Author recounts his career as a premier bibliographer of group work. He examines the development of his career and points out the importance of making the broad literature on group work easily accessible to practitioners. Stresses the active nature of group leadership and describes his leadership process. (Author/JDM)

This study describes the Behavioral Assessment and Technology Support Systems (BATSS) group who have been conducting functional analyses of disruptive behavior in children with emotional/behavioral disorders for 24 months in two school districts. Functional analysis outcomes and intervention data are presented on 3 male elementary school students.…

This article discusses the promise and practice of functional assessment, provides a critical review of the existing experimental literature in the area of emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD), and presents a research agenda that will lead to more informed decisions regarding the use of functional assessment in the schools. (Contains…

Restructuring an existing token economy (TE) in a psychiatric facility for children led to increased point-earning and decreased daily trips to seclusion. Restructuring occurred through operationalization of target behaviors and reduction of time between receipt of reinforcers and opportunity to exchange tokens. Results suggest changes in basic…