Describes Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, a behavioral family therapy approach for the psychological treatment of preschool children and their parents that emphasizes the integration of traditional child play therapy techniques within a behavioral framework of parent-child therapy. Implications for the treatment of a broad range of childhood…

The "Education of the Developmentally Young" course is an inservice training course for staff using behavioral techniques in their work with persons with severe learning difficulties. Evaluation of the course by trainees and instructors found that the course is highly valued and develops important skills, but has some deficiencies. (Author/JDD)

Evaluated behavioral and cognitive methods, relative to control condition, for treating 27 elderly insomniacs. Both treatment methods produced significant improvement on main outcome measure of awakening duration. Stimulus control yielded higher improvement rates than either imagery training or control condition on awakening duration and total…

The study evaluated the effects of a time-efficient reinforcer assessment package with three preschoolers with autism. Systematic assessment of children's reinforcers for correct responding virtually eliminated nontargeted maladaptive behaviors, and yielded expected improvements in accuracy. (Author/DB)

Discusses ways that school counselors can empower children of alcoholics (COAs) by teaching them new ways of behaving and coping skills. Proposes that counselors can assist COAs through the use of cognitive behavior therapy in the school setting. Describes characteristics of COAs and family roles of hero, scapegoat, lost child, placater, and…

Used cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), with religious content (RCT) or without (NRCT), to treat 59 depressed patients. RCT and pastoral counseling patients reported significantly lower posttreatment depression and adjustment scores than did either NRCT or control group. CBT differences were due largely to superior performance of nonreligious…

The Milestone Reinforcer Survey was developed to assess reinforcer preferences of adults with mild to profound retardation living in community settings. Psychometric properties of the survey were established with 120 adults. The total reinforcer scores were found to be internally consistent, consistent across raters, and stable over time.…

Depressed clients (n=117), stratified for severity, completed 8 or 16 sessions of manualized treatment, either cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CB) or psychodynamic-interpersonal psychotherapy (PI). On most measures, CB and PI were equally effective, irrespective of severity of depression or duration of treatment. Found evidence of some…

Commends Shapiro et al.'s (this issue) article comparing psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy with cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating depression. Questions uncritical support of equivalent outcomes conclusion and implicit rejection of differential efficacy among psychotherapies as function of patient variables. Contends that Shapiro et al.…

Responds to comments by Norcross and Rossi (this issue) concerning Shapiro et al.'s (this issue) article comparing psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy with cognitive-behavioral therapy in treating depression. Contends that power of analyses in original study was sufficient to address substantive questions at issue. (Author/NB)

Women reporting severe premenstrual symptoms were allocated nonrandomly to cognitive-behavioral coping skills treatment (n=13), nonspecific treatment (n=12), or waiting-list group (n=12). Compared with controls, coping skills group reported significant reductions in premenstrual symptomatology and irrational thinking at posttreatment and 9-month…

This study, with a young autistic child and a young adult with profound mental retardation, demonstrated the effectiveness of a gradual, changing criterion process of stimulus shaping in training subjects to independently perform tasks with relatively high task requirements. (DB)

The field of behavior analysis has not learned how to develop interventions that rely on positive reinforcement for all participants, including the normal adults who implement them. Thus, the field has not learned how to avoid evoking countercontrol. Establishment of collaborative relationships with the people targeted for help is suggested. (JDD)

Randomly assigned 47 asymptomatic, healthy gay men to cognitive-behavioral stress management condition or assessment-only control group 5 weeks before notification of human immunodeficiency virus antibody status. Individual difference analyses suggest that psychological buffering and immunomodulating effects of treatment may be attributable, in…

A script fading procedure was effectively used to teach 4 children (ages 9 and 12) with autism to initiate interactions with peers. Increased initiations (to within normal levels) generalized to a different setting, and for three of the children were maintained at two-month follow-up. (Author/DB)