In education, as in the area of mental illness, the first application of behavior modification began with the treatment of the severely retarded and the autistic. By 1970 behavioral principles were being applied to normal children in the home and regular classes in schools. While behavior modification has been accepted to some degree in special…

The document describes a behavior modification program for adolescents in a residential treatment center and presents results of research which illustrate positive results. The self-instructional program focuses on teaching the adolescent self-verbalizations which are conducive to supportive behavior. Five phases are required. First, the…

Current status and new developments in behavioral assessment for clinicians and researchers are discussed. The field of behavioral assessment has attained a recognizable identity in recent years. Behavioral assessment can be defined as the identification of meaningful response units and their controlling variables for the purposes of…

Two adolescent boys with a history of rapidly increasing obesity participated in a behavioral weight reduction program. The multi-dimensional treatment package consisted of those behavioral techniques most often shown to be effective in treating obese adults (programed behavior management and stimulus control instructions, self monitoring of daily…

Commitment is a self-control technique to induce weight loss. Tow targets of commitment contingencies, completion of the study and behavior change, were examined among 42 female and 3 male subjects who made a monetary deposit to enroll in the 10-week program. The treatment consisted of self-monitoring of eating and exercise behavior. Subjects were…

Depression has been one of the last categories of psychopathology to be seriously investigated. A self-control behavior therapy program for depression was evaluated against a therapist-control behavior therapy program in an attempt to isolate the effects of control on alleviation of depression and to improve research designs. Clinically depressed…

A study was conducted to determine the effects of student locus of control on perceptions of and resistance to teacher influence attempts. Subjects, 302 college students, were provided with 22 sets of Behavior Alteration Messages and were instructed to rate on a 1-5 scale "how frequently your teacher uses statements of each type to get you to…

The Multidimensional Behavior Rating Scale (MBRS) was constructed to assess symptoms of depression across seven modalities: behavior, affect, sensation, imagery, cognition, interpersonal relationship, and drugs. Subjects (N=33) were matched by level of depression on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Depression Scale to either a…

This paper reviews evidence of the success of behavior intervention approaches which teach students with challenging behaviors alternative functional communication behaviors. Research supporting the view that challenging behavior is a form of nonverbal communication is reviewed, noting the importance of identifying what such individuals are…