According to the National Institutes of Health, "Translational research includes …the process of applying discoveries generated during research in the laboratory, and in preclinical studies, to the development of trials and studies in humans… [and] research aimed at enhancing the adoption of best practices in the community. Following this…

The author agrees with Critchfield's ("Translational Contributions of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior," "The Behavior Analyst," v34, p3-17, 2011) thesis (to paraphrase): Behavior analysis must adapt; we cannot simply will ourselves into greater social relevance. Critchfield focused on the survival of the basic research arm of behavior…

Problem: It has been suggested that gambling-related research more closely examine vulnerable population segments. Research indicates that college students are particularly vulnerable to experiencing disordered gambling behavior. Methods: We examined the gambling behavior and gambling-related Transtheoretical Model (TTM) construct (i.e., stage of…

Adolescent pregnancy is examined from 2 viewpoints: (1) the marital status of young adolescent girls who become mothers at a too young age is less relevant to the social problem of adolescent pregnancy than the attendant adverse effects, i.e., adolescent pregnancy, per se, rather than illegitimacy is the social problem; and (2) too early marriage…

A study to determine if the socioeconomic status of community leaders influences their ability to recognize poverty revealed that the average leader does not seek out controversial problems but rather is passive" and merely encourages people to work together. (JB)

The emphasis of this NIMH report is to improve our understanding of the origins of violence and to suggest ways of acting on that knowledge to reduce the incidence of crime and violence in American society. Also included in this volume are details of work aimed at reducing the toll of such problems as alcoholism and suicide among our citizens; a…

Discusses the thesis that the administration of physical punishment to children may pre-dispose them to violence as adults. Child-rearing practices, physical punishment within the schools, modeling of violent behavior by adults, and the self-fulling prophecy, i.e., you are bad,'' are types of practices considered. (LK)

Six articles focus on various aspects on violence in American society. Titles are "Evolving a Science of Violence,""Violence by Youth; Violence Against Youth,""Victims and Aggressors in Marital Violence,""Television Violence, Victimization, and Power," and "Violence in Business Settings." (DB)

Assumptions of applied behavior analysis are presented: (1) good practice should be good research; (2) behavioral goals, procedures, and effects should be socially validated; and (3) a systems perspective should be adopted when focusing on behavior analysis and intervention. (Author/JAC)

Three exploratory studies were aimed at describing the purposes of lies and the consequences of lying. Data were collected through a partly open-ended questionnaire, a content analysis of several tape-recorded interviews, and a large-scale survey. The results showed that two of every three lies were told for selfish reasons, while three of every…

Examines current sexual behavior, the social changes that have led to current sexual attitudes, and the trends developing in sexual relationships. (RK)

To test the hypothesis that residents of larger cities are less helpful to strangers than are residents of small towns, three New Zealand towns with varying population densities were studied for helping behavior. The research confirms that population density is a reliable predictor of non-helping behavior. (RE)

With the exception of intra-family murder and child abuse, there has been very little research on violence between family members. However, preliminary results of this study indicate that even at age 17 and 18, 62 percent of siblings had hit each other during the previous 12-month period. Also, physical fights between husband and wife have…

Describes a classification system based on interpersonal and economic resources which provides insight into the social problems of modern culture. Concreteness versus symbolism and particularism versus universalism are the coordinate pairs into which six categories of resources--love, services, goals, money, information, and status--are plotted.…

Issues that impact on the ability of behaviorists to be effective in solving social and community problems are discussed, including use of legislative initiatives to bring about behavior change, sustaining interventions with local resources, and the possible rewards from employing collaborative methods in behavioral research. (JDD)