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The use of stimulus/modeling videotapes in assertive training for homosexuals.

The purpose of this study was to develop and apply an experimental approach for teaching assertive behaviors in selective problematic interpersonal situations encountered by homosexuals. Specifically, the approach explicates a treatment format that combines the use of stimulus/modeling videotapes with behavioral rehearsals, videotape feedback, and home assignments. Results of a single-subject interrupted time-series analysis suggest that the client displayed significantly more assertive behaviors on four of the six criterion measures. The findings further suggest that with contextual modification this interventive format can be applied to a variety of sexual behavior patterns.

Adult↗

Social-skills training to modify abusive verbal outbursts in adults.

Social-skills training was used to modify abusive verbal outbursts displayed by two adult psychiatric patients. Five target behaviors--looking, irrelevant comments, hostile comments, inappropriate requests, and appropriate requests were monitored during role-played situations. Social-skills training, consisting of behavior rehearsal with modelling, focused instructions, and feedback, was introduced in a multiple-baseline design across individuals. Training improved all target behaviors. The improved behavior generalized to: (1) novel scenes role-played with the original respondent, (2) training and novel scenes role-played with a different respondent, and (3) interpersonal situations on the hospital ward.

Adult↗

Severe classroom behavior problems: teachers or counsellors.

This experiment was designed to determine the relative effectiveness of teacher and counselling approaches in the reduction of disruptive or inappropriate classroom behavior. Inappropriate classroom behavior frequencies of 12 academically low achieving, seventh-grade, black male students, with a reported high rate of inappropriate classroom behavior, were recorded. Three groups, with nearly equal mean inappropriate behaviors, were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: behavioral counselling, client-centered counselling, or no counselling. Each counselling group received fifteen 30-minute counselling sessions, at a rate of two to three times a week. In addition to counselling, all students subsequently received teacher approval within the classroom. Results indicated that the teacher was able to reduce inappropriate behavior more than any counselling group. There were also indications that behavioral counselling, but not client-centered counselling, was moderately helpful in reducing inappropriate classroom behavior.

Adolescent↗

In vivo effects of peer modeling on drinking rate.

One female subject drank beer with four female confederate models and two participant observers in a small town tavern. A single subject repeated measures reversal design was used. Condition 1 indicated subject baseline drinking rate. For the first intervention one confederate modeled at a rate 50% less than the subject's baseline rate. Interventions II and III were identical to Intervention I except that two confederates modeled at a rate 50% less than the subject's baseline rate for Intervention II and four confederates modeled at a rate 50% less than the subject's baseline rate for Intervention III. Interventions were separated by returns to baseline. The study was concluded with a final return to baseline. There was no change in subject drinking rate as a function of either one or two confederates modeling the 50% rate. However, when four models drank at the lower rate, subject drinking rate matched that of the four confederate models. Implications and suggestions for further research on modeling are presented.

Adult↗

Telephone conversational skills training with socially isolated, impaired nursing home residents.

We evaluated the effectiveness of a comprehensive training program for enhancing the conversational skills of socially isolated, impaired elderly nursing home residents. A multiple baseline design across behaviors was used to train four subjects (aged 87, 85, 68, and 66), on four content-related conversational components: expressing common courtesies, making positive self-disclosures, asking questions, and making interjections and acknowledgements. Training procedures included instructions, modeling, behavior rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement. Results showed positive effects with all four subjects; in two cases, changes were significant enough to affect untrained observers' perceptions of the elders' conversational skills.

Aged↗

Sex of model and sex of subject in reduction of snake avoidance.

The effects of sex of experimenter on approach to a snake were assessed in both modeling and non-modeling conditions. Subjects were selected on the basis of a pretest in which they indicated that they would never pick up a harmless snake depicted on one of eight color slides of animals. 72 subjects (36 males and 36 females) served in one of 8 groups (4 groups of males and 4 groups of females). Each group of 9 subjects served in one of the following conditions: (a) a non-modeling condition with the same sex experimenter, (b) a non-modeling condition with an opposite sex experimenter, (c) a modeling condition with the same sex experimenter, and (d) a modeling condition with an opposite sex experimenter. All experimenters were selected to be attractive. Analysis of variance for scores on a 19-step sequence of approach yielded a significant interaction of sex of experimenter by sex of subject (F = 4.18, df = 1/64, p less than .05). All other comparisons were non-significant. Results indicate that an attractive experimenter of the opposite sex increases approaching a snake particularly by male subjects.

Animals↗

The assessment and training of assertive skills with drug addicts: a preliminary study.

The effects of a short-term behaviorally-oriented assertion training program were evaluated with a sample of drug-abuse patients concurrently involved in an ongoing inpatient program. Assertion questionnaire and verbal performance data were obtained from both a treatment and a no-treatment group prior to and following 3 weeks of assertion training. The results indicated consistent and significant group differences on the verbal behavior variables, but not on the questionnaire data. The results also suggested that the assessment of assertion by situationally defined problem areas may be more accurate and sensitive to change than a more general definition and assessment of assertive behavior.

Adult↗

Social learning strategies.

In most studies of social learning in animals, no attempt has been made to examine the nature of the strategy adopted by animals when they copy others. Researchers have expended considerable effort in exploring the psychological processes that underlie social learning and amassed extensive data banks recording purported social learning in the field, but the contexts under which animals copy others remain unexplored. Yet, theoretical models used to investigate the adaptive advantages of social learning lead to the conclusion that social learning cannot be indiscriminate and that individuals should adopt strategies that dictate the circumstances under which they copy others and from whom they learn. In this article, I discuss a number of possible strategies that are predicted by theoretical analyses, including copy when uncertain, copy the majority, and copy if better, and consider the empirical evidence in support of each, drawing from both the animal and human social learning literature. Reliance on social learning strategies may be organized hierarchically, their being employed by animals when unlearned and asocially learned strategies prove ineffective but before animals take recourse in innovation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Approaches to the study of traditional behaviors of free-living animals.

I review literature on four different approaches to the study of traditions in animals: observation of free-living animals, laboratory experiment, armchair analysis, and field experiment. Because, by definition, a tradition entails social learning of some kind, it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to establish that a behavior is in fact traditional without knowledge of how it develops. Observations of free-living animals often provide strong circumstantial evidence of a tradition. However, even in the view of several researchers who have studied possibly traditional behaviors in natural populations, observation alone has not proven sufficient to show that social learning contributes to development of behaviors of interest. The relevance of laboratory experiments to the understanding of the development of behaviors in free-living animals is always open to challenge. Armchair analyses of field data can produce interesting hypotheses but cannot test them. Field experiments to determine how behaviors of interest develop in population members provide a promising way forward.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

[Inhibited aggression as a behavioral disorder in children and possibilities for therapy exemplified by an integrative therapy model].

Practical applications of an integrated therapy model based on theoretic aspects of the etiology of aggressive behavior disorders are exemplified by the case of an extremely unassertive child. The range of symptoms was regarded from a psychoanalytical as well as a behavioral point of view and a treatment plan based on both theoretical assumptions was developed. In this multistage treatment model, the psychoanalytical method of interpretation was combined with modeling techniques. The child's fear of aggressive conflicts was significantly reduced and age-specific assertive behavior was established. The deficits caused by the child's social and emotional socialization were largely compensated, providing her with the chance of a positive developmental growth without symptoms.

Aggression↗

The effects of being imitated and awareness on the behavior of introverted and extroverted youth.

Introverted and extroverted preadolescents (N equals 34) were seated at a box with 6 holes in the top surface and presented the following conditions: (a) baseline - the subject dropped marbles 1 at a time in any holes he wished; (b) imitation - the subject and experimenter alternated dropping marbles, with the experimenter imitating the subject if he dropped his marbles at a hole designated a priori for imitation; (c) imitation plus awareness - this was identical to the previous condition except that the subject was told that he was being imitated at the designated hole; and (d) extinction - the experimenter dropped her marbles in a prearranged random order. As predicted, under the imitation-plus-awareness and extinction conditions extroverts responded significantly more at the holes at which they were imitated than did introverts.

Awareness↗

The neural basis of imitation is body part specific.

Imitation is an important constituent of the behavioral repertoire of human beings. We use imitation for learning motor skills, for facilitating comprehension of other persons' actions and mental states, and as a communicative reference to actions or people. Although some non-human species display imitative behaviors, none of them equals the versatility and perfection of human imitation. The versatility and apparent ease of human imitation is, however, not at all self-evident when one considers the neural and cognitive transformations that must be accomplished for successful imitation. Imitation of meaningless gestures poses a particular challenge for our brain, because similarity between the body of the model and one's own body must bridge fundamental differences between the perspective and modalities of perceiving and controlling one's own and other bodies. We analyzed the locations of left-hemisphere lesions disturbing imitation of meaningless gestures and found a clear-cut body part specificity. Disturbed imitation of finger postures was associated with anterior lesions including the opercular portion of the inferior frontal gyrus, whereas disturbed imitation of hand postures was associated with posterior lesions affecting the inferior parietal lobule and temporo-parieto-occipital junction. These locations do not correspond with known somatotopic maps of motor representations. Rather, they argue for an intermediate step of processing interpolated between perception and execution of gestures as has been suggested by the mirror neuron and the body part coding hypotheses.

Adult↗

[Emergence and development of competence in young children].

BACKGROUND: The childhood emergence and development of motor behavioural skills is imperfectly understood despite intensive study. This report is of the development of motor skills and social behaviour in young children. POPULATION AND METHODS: 17 infants (9 boys and 8 girls) in good health, aged 8 to 11 months at the beginning of the research, were studied. They were observed in groups of 6 for 30 minutes, in a special area fitted out with climbing structures, once every two weeks for one year. Their movements and behavior were filmed. RESULTS: 1) Motor skills which allow the "conquest" of climbing structures and complex social behaviors (multimodal interactions, imitations, cooperations, anticipations of behaviors) had developed by the time the children were 12 months old and were first examined. 2) From 12 to 14-15 months old, they consolidated these motor skills and the frequency of imitations and multimodal interactions increased markedly. 3) From 14 to 18 months old, they assumed the standing position more and more during ascents and descents and the frequency and diversity of imitations and cooperations increased sharply. 4) There was relatively little aggressive behavior at all ages. CONCLUSIONS: Motor skills and social behavior appear earlier and are more complex in children moving freely among their peers in a special setting than previously reported for developmental scales.

Aging↗