Male and female bystanders witnessed a violent theft in the course of a bogus "ESP Experiment." In addition to the subjects' sex, two experimental manipulations were orthogonally crossed. The subject was either the only one to witness the emergency, or witnessed it with an additional participant (diffusion of responsibility), and the subject's…

Urban Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC's) are faced with large case loads and long waiting lists. Clients failing the initial appointment represent a significant loss of staff time and resources to CMHC's. Despite the high rate of failed initial appointments reported, no studies have looked at means of reducing the failure rate. In the…

The present paper describes an alternate response to the problem of juvenile status offenders (JSO). The intervention is based on a psychological conception of the problem rather than a legal one. Specifically, family therapy is the core of the intervention strategy. An evaluation of this program is reported. (Author)

This study evaluates the impact of personal-social counseling upon student behavior change. The primary concern was a measure of the effect of a counselor-initiated humanistic-intervention paradigm upon identified personal-social problem areas of nonreferred Black junior high school students. (Author)

A methodology is reported by which primary-grade children experiencing school maladjustment problems are classified according to specific problem types. Findings suggest that a generalized helping approach is likely to be differentially effective with different problem types. (Author/PC)

Reported is a preliminary paper on research currently in progress to investigate the effectiveness of written paradoxical and linear messages given to couples within the context of marital enrichment. There are several reasons for incorporating written communication into clinical practice, e.g., they are more difficult to ignore, forget or distort…

Investigated effects of interviewer use of positive or negative self-disclosure and interviewer-subject sex pairing on subjects' perceptions of the interviewer and of their own behavior. Results indicated interviewers disclosing negative information about themselves were perceived as significantly more empathic, warm, and credible than…

Worker and caller behaviors are studied and compared in sample of 100 suicide calls to three crisis intervention centers. Verbal behaviors of workers and callers are substantially different, leading to the conclusion that crisis intervention is dissimilarly practiced between centers but similar within them. (Author)

Interventions of family therapy trainees (N=19) with a videotaped simulated family and with families they were treating were coded. Evidence suggests the frequency with which family therapists trained in the dynamic interactional approach use interpretation might predict their success with families otherwise likely to terminate treatment…

Discusses school programs and practices that prevent or remedy problem behavior in elementary school students by enlisting volunteers to provide caring relationships and extend the support base for meeting student needs. Describes planned research to document program outcomes as well as the experiences of participants in such activities, and to…

A Sex of Subject x Sex of Counselor interaction in the desensitization of test anxiety among 44 college students suggested consideration of the sex variable. Results showed significant treatment effects by both male and female counselors and a significant interaction effect by the male counselor with female subjects. (Author)

Crisis intervention programs for persons experiencing the sudden death of family members or surviving natural disasters have been advocated as methods of primary prevention, although few have actually been implemented. A program utilizing nurses to deliver grief intervention to parents losing a baby to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was…