The nature of problem solving has been a difficult one to pin down, with much of the focus placed on hypothetical cognitive structures based on technological metaphors that change as quickly as the currently popular technologies after which they are modeled. While behavior analysts have made use of several effective instructional methodologies to…

Despite consensus that development shapes every aspect of coping, studies of age differences in coping have proven difficult to integrate, primarily because they examine largely unselected age groups, and utilize overlapping coping categories. A developmental framework was used to organize 58 studies of coping involving over 250 age comparisons or…

Objective: To examine changes in observed communication after therapy termination in distressed couples from a randomized clinical trial. Method: A total of 134 distressed couples were randomly assigned to either traditional behavioral couple therapy (TBCT; Jacobson & Margolin, 1979) or integrative behavioral couple therapy (IBCT; Jacobson &…

Objective: Depression is associated with poor social problem solving, and psychotherapies that focus on problem-solving skills are efficacious in treating depression. We examined the associations between treatment, social problem solving, and depression in a randomized clinical trial testing the efficacy of psychotherapy augmentation for…

Many researchers have studied the effects of game-based learning (GBL) (eg, Annetta, Minogu, Holmes & Cheng, 2009; Kiili, 2007). However, empirical process analyses of long-term applications of GBL in a school setting are much less common. A process analysis of GBL in a school setting allows us to better understand the role of games in…

The logistic person response function (PRF) models the probability of a correct response as a function of the item locations. Reise (2000) proposed to use the slope parameter of the logistic PRF as a person-fit measure. He reformulated the logistic PRF model as a multilevel logistic regression model and estimated the PRF parameters from this…

We report a randomized trial of a revised Behavioral Family Systems Therapy for Diabetes (BFST-D) intervention. Families of 104 adolescents with diabetes were randomized to standard care (SC) or to 6 months of an educational support group (ES) or BFST-D. Family communication and problem-solving skills were assessed at 0, 6, 12, and 18 months by…

Presents methodologies for diagnostic problem solving, including clinical diagnosis using the DSM-IV, multiaxial empirically based assessment, and behavioral assessment. Reviews these approaches within the context of methodological and conceptual issues pertaining to the construct of treatment utility. Argues that clinical diagnosis and…

Discusses weakness of traditionally accepted measures of political efficacy and presents a new measure based on problem solving. Political efficacy is defined as the feeling that an individual political action can have an impact on the political process. (Author/KC)

Evaluates the Nominal Group Technique as a method for structuring a problem solving group's communication. The technique is evaluated in terms of its ability to produce more potential solutions to a problem than an interacting group and in terms of the perceived satisfaction of the participants. (JMF)

This report describes the cognitive procedures which a group of Australian stipendiary utilize in court to make decisions. The study was based on an assumption that magistrates represent a group of professionals whose work involves making decisions of human significance, and on an assumption that the magistrates' own perceptions of their ways of…

The importance of decision making to organizational existence has provided ample justification for many forms of research into the complex decision making process. The decision making process in modern, large organizations draws inputs from and provides outputs to many smaller internal decision units. Incompatible or conflicting inputs and outputs…

The adolescent problems inventory (API) was designed to identify strengths and weaknesses in the personal and interpersonal skills repertoires of adolescent boys. API responses of institutionalized delinquent boys were rated as less competent than responses of nondelinquent teenage boys from a public high school. The inventory's characteristics…

Uses the Job Loss Coping Behavior Scale to examine the coping behavior of 131 unemployed male and female managers. Results indicate that men have higher job-search efficacy than women. Encourages career counselors to be mindful of this and to help unemployed women to develop proactive job-search behaviors and skills. (MKA)

In its original formulation, dissonance reduction was postulated as a mode for resolving behavior-attitude discrepancies. One mode of resolution has been demonstrated in the forced compliance paradigm, whereby a subject rectifies a counterattitudinal behavior with an actual belief, resulting in moderating beliefs. A forced compliance situation was…