Relates a case history of the stormy psychotherapy of a young man with borderline syndrome involving powerful self-hatred and self-destructive urges. Concludes that his progress in therapy was marked by distinct changes in the poetry he wrote for his therapist. (PA)

Describes quasiexperimental investigation constructed to examine effects of staff implementation of choice program on reduction of challenging behaviors of people with developmental disabilities residing in supported community residences. Results suggest that choice program implementation produced significant decreases in frequency and severity of…

Presents a counter position to Warren Throckmorton's article "Efforts to Modify Sexual Orientation: A Review of Outcome Literature and Ethical Issues." The position of this paper, simply put, is: there is no illness, there is no cure. (Author)

An ethnographic study of customer service call centers found that both desired and unintended outcomes are influenced by personal coping and organizational sustaining mechanisms. When organizations use behavioral control, a climate of resistance ensues. An alternative is to view call centers as learning sites. (SK)

The present study evaluated the effects of a lag differential reinforcement contingency on 2 students' activity selections using reversal designs. Results showed that the lag contingency was responsible for promoting increased novel selections, engagement in diverse activities, and greater progress with respect to programmed academic activities.

Background: Self-handicapping refers to the practice on the part of certain individuals to handicap their performance when poor performance is likely to reveal low ability. Noncontingent success (feedback that is inflated relative to performance) is more likely to promote self-handicapping behaviour than noncontingent failure (failure feedback…

Results of an analogue functional analysis indicated that noncompliant vocal behavior exhibited by a young girl with autism was maintained by negative reinforcement. Follow-up analyses suggested that the immediate escape contingency assessed in the demand condition did nor appear to maintain the behavior. Instead, noncompliant vocal behavior…

In schools and residential programs across the country, individuals with disabilities are victims of "aversive interventions" which are used to control challenging behaviors. This means that painful or dehumanizing procedures are used in response to behaviors that are judged to be unacceptable. Aversive procedures include the use of electric…

The clinical and research literature suggests that cognitive and behavioural therapies are particularly helpful in assisting clients overcome problem gambling behaviour. Several articles have described the efficacy of a range of cognitive interventions, especially provision of information regarding rates of return and the odds of games and the…

Borowski, Hunter, and Johnson (2001) found that an antecedent strategy such as white noise could decrease sleep awakenings for infants in the natural home environment. This study attempts to replicate the findings using an ABAB reversal design. A five month and one week old child, who had difficulty with waking an average of four times per night,…

The first wave of behavior therapy countered the excesses and scientific weakness of existing nonempirical clinical traditions through empirically studied first-order change efforts linked to behavioral principles targeting directly relevant clinical targets. The second wave was characterized by similar direct change efforts guided by social…

It is good that Peter Sturmey is scrutinizing the basis of cognitive therapy for people with intellectual disabilities. This response argues that behavioural therapies have always employed cognitive techniques and produced cognitive change but have omitted to measure them. It is further argued that unobservable variables are germane to scientific…

The effects of noncontingent matched stimulation (NMS) and response blocking on a boy's stereotypic behavior were evaluated using a multiple schedule that contained three 15-min components (preintervention, intervention, and postintervention). Results showed that stereotypy was always higher after response blocking than before response blocking…

We attempted to isolate the evocative effects of the establishing operation for positively reinforced problem behavior with 2 participants. The study consisted of three phases. First, a functional analysis identified tangible items (Participant 1) and attention (Participant 2) as maintaining problem behavior. Second, access to tangible items and…

This article focuses on the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management (IY TCM) intervention as an example of an evidence-based program that embeds fidelity and adaptation within its design. First, the core features of the IY TCM program along with the methods, processes, and principles that make the intervention effective are described. The…