Four studies analyzing body-rocking in individuals with mental retardation found: (1) rocking chairs are not necessarily preferred and produce higher amplitude rocking; (2) body-rocking characteristics were stable over a 21-month period; (3) when compared with body-rocking college students, persons with mental retardation engage in more…

Three studies analyzed stimulus feedback and the concept of control with three children and two adults having autism. The first study explored feedback from spinning tops, while the second and third emphasized control of various stimuli including spinning tops. Results indicate that autistic individuals' common interest in spinning tops is…

Explores the role of biological causation in the development of behavioral outcomes. Genes and other biological structures constitute complex behavior, but the behavior of complex organisms cannot be derived from the biogenetic units of which it is composed. (SLD)

The facial stereotypies of adults diagnosed as having mental retardation and tardive dyskinesia were examined through a kinematic analysis of videotaped lip and tongue movements. The high degree of movement variability found suggests that low variability of discrete properties of movement kinematics may not be a defining feature of stereotypies.…

Studied leisure behavior patterns over 3 years during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood with data for 954 participants from the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. Leisure pattern stability was the most common pathway into young adulthood. Discusses gender differences. (SLD)

Taking a meta-theoretical perspective, this article presents a critical analytical model through which human knowledge, existence, and behaviour can be understood. The article describes the meta-theoretical model and then explains how this model applies to the evolution of seminal family therapy theories.

In this article, the author describes three major temperament categories of infants and toddlers, and why each calls for particular insights and attention. For infants, the temperaments are cautious, fussy, and easygoing. For toddlers, the three most prevalent temperaments are fearful/shy, irritable/active/fussy, and easy. This paper also contains…

We discuss the relationship between sleep, dreams, and memory, proposing that the content of dreams reflects aspects of memory consolidation taking place during the different stages of sleep. Although we acknowledge the likely involvement of various neuromodulators in these phenomena, we focus on the hormone cortisol, which is known to exert…

Kappa (Cohen, 1960) is a popular agreement statistic used to estimate the accuracy of observers. The response of kappa to differing baserates was examined and methods for estimating the accuracy of observers presented. Results suggest that setting a single value of kappa as "minimally acceptable" (i.e., a criterion value) is not useful in ensuring…

Goal-setting effects on selected performance behaviors of 5 collegiate rugby players were assessed over an entire competitive season using self-generated targets and goal-attainment scaling. Results suggest that goal setting was effective for enhancing task-specific on-field behavior in rugby union. (Contains 1 figure.)

Fritz Redl (1902-1988) originated the life space model of therapeutic intervention with children who display angry and defiant behavior. His methods were honed by decades of direct work with highly aggressive youth. Redl observed that the same surface behavior could spring from very different underlying problems, thus requiring different…

The behaviours of infants were observed using home videos, in an attempt to identify social difficulties characteristic of infants with autistic disorder. Three groups of infants were analysed: 15 infants who had later been diagnosed with autism, 15 infants who had a developmental or language delay, and 15 typically developing infants. Social…

Background: The talk of persons with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) often features distinctive forms of repetition (echophenomena). Although often characterized as meaningless or inappropriate, there is evidence that such practices can sometimes have communicative functions. Aims: To investigate the interactional organization of repetition…

This study utilized a dynamic cumulative family risk model to explain changes in adolescent functioning. We used a person-centered approach to detect patterns of academic, emotional, and behavioral functioning and the stability of these patterns using two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,173). Four adjustment…

While much work has shown that aggressive and disruptive behavior in schools may be reinforced by friends and, for some individuals, enhanced social status in the classroom, few studies have examined these phenomena at school entry. This study sought to examine aggressive behavior patterns in kindergarten children in relation to other individual…