Clients admitted to an alcohol abuse treatment program volunteered for social skills training related to difficult on-the-job situations. Modeling alone and modeling plus focused instruction were employed to improve several target behaviors. Addition of focused instructions greatly enhanced treatment effects. (Author)

Reports outcome measures obtained from patients, therapists, and clinical observers in the Penn Psychotherapy Project. The relationship between residual gain score and ratings of benefits suggest that posttreatment ratings of outcome take account of the fact that amount of change to be expected depends on initial level of functioning. (Author)

Subjects receiving nonaversive treatment were assigned to maintenance strategies: modeling, participant observing, or self-monitoring control. Subjects showed a mean smoking rate of 46% of baseline at one year and no significant relapse between six months and one year. Differences and correlations with attribution and other questionnaire measures…

The perceived social, behavioral, and health effects of phencyclidine (PCP) use among a sample of 200 users were studied. Results suggest that chronic PCP use has a destructive impact upon developmental processes by disrupting education and employment, impairing close relationships, contributing to criminal status, and otherwise impairing mental…

Type A behavior, also known as coronary prone behavior, should be identified in children as its lack of treatment could lead to coronary disease and death if the child continues the behavior into adulthood. (CJ)

Two conferences, Seaside I and Seaside II, were held to develop a professional support system to assist in improving the health education profession in Oregon. Due to the success of the first two conferences, two more were held in which conceptual models in nutrition, fitness, sexuality, and weight control were presented. (JN)

Reviews recent experimental studies of social learning therapies for drug abuse and examines the relationship between attention to generalization or maintenance issues and other factors. The behavior modification-behavior therapy literature exhibits consistent deficiencies in its clinical procedures for and methodological approach to…

Task-centered social work, like many other short-term treatment models, assumes that the degree of concentration on a problem is positively related to change. This study examines that assumption. (Author)

Women, self-referred for dental anxiety, were given four weeks of cue-controlled relaxation treatment. Nonorthogonal planned comparisons indicated significant decreases on dental anxiety, anxiety differential, and state anxiety scales, and systolic blood pressure. Participants reported that treatment was helpful in controlling anxiety when…

A three-stage model of marital enrichment designed to maximize valid effects and integrate participants' attitudinal and behavioral changes is presented. Goals of the three stages are differentiated; their advantages and limitations are discussed. Suggestions for well-designed research on the sequential model are presented. (Author)

Describes longitudinal changes in premature infants' behaviors after various forms of stimulation were given during a standardized neurological examination. Regardless of conceptional age, arousal level increased as the examination progressed. Conceptional age influenced rapidity of change from lower to higher states of arousal and determined the…

Describes an energy education project aimed at limited-resource families in Oklahoma. Program delivery was accomplished through mailed flyers, public meetings, and individualized instruction. Educational materials covered housing structure modification and behavior change. The "Choctaw Project" was judged to be a success. (CT)

Selected procedures of instruction from Social Skills in the Classroom were applied to class related social behaviors of four elementary and intermediate level behavior disordered students. Improvement occurred in all targeted behaviors. Functional relationships between teaching strategies and changes in the targeted behavior were established in…

The article discusses the management of out-of-seat behavior of children in special education. (PHR)

Addresses four major issues in developmental psychology: the preservation of structures over time; the psychological growth functions for emergent competences; the mechanisms of change in development; and the determinants of individual variation in psychological development. (Author/DB)