Reasons why 133 competitively employed nonhandicapped and 8 mentally retarded food service workers lost their jobs were compared. The majority of mentally retarded workers lost their jobs for productivity reasons, with some associated secondary social problems while the nonhandicapped lost their jobs for both social and production problems.…

Examined the effects of three group leadership styles (structured T-group, rotating leadership, Rogerian) on the personal and interpersonal functioning of 67 counselor trainees. Results from the pretest, posttest, and 6-8 week follow-up suggest that differences among the groups could be attributed in part to group leadership styles. (Author/BL)

Leadership is the art of influencing others to want to do what the leader wants done. Leaders have good listening skills and are (1) fair, (2) goal-oriented, (3) good directors, (4) able to evaluate others, (5) responsible, and (6) skilled. (CH)

Compared treatment combining graduated exposure to fear-provoking situations and other-focused social skills with graduated exposure alone and with controls in 52 adults suffering from extreme shyness. Subjects receiving combination treatment improved significantly more on measures of community functioning and therapist ratings than did other…

A peer-initiation condition, in which confederates were taught to initiate interaction with three autistic four- year-olds, reliably increased the Ss's social responses. A teacher-antecedent condition, in which teachers prompted the autistic Ss to initiate with confederates who had been taught to reciprocate, increased the initiations and…

Reviews recent research on deceptive communication and presents a study to measure the influence of verbal cues, nonverbal cues, and interrogative probes on detectibility of deception. (MS)

Examines same-sex and opposite-sex touching as well as controlling touch. Concludes that females initiate more touching, both opposite- and same-sex, and that they specifically initiate more control touching. (MS)

Evaluated the effectiveness of a training group for health care workers (N=5) engaged in learning interpersonal skills. Two research confederates observed and recorded group process. While participants reported a positive experience to the trainer, a negative experience was reported among group members, suggesting the possibility of subject bias.…

Two learning disabled adolescents participated in training sessions designed to improve six social interaction skills (providing and accepting compliments, accepting instruction and criticism from a supervisor, providing constructive criticism, and explaining a problem to a supervisor). Ss increased these skills and generalized them to actual work…

Judges rating role-played responses to standardized interpersonal situations rated depressed and nondepressed psychiatric inpatients as having significant problems in social skills compared to normals, with no differences between patient groups. Subjects' self-ratings suggested that depressives and other psychiatirc groups may differ in…

Current conceptual and empirical advances in appreciation of normal patterns of friendship development are reviewed and integrated for insight into the meaning of social competence for young special needs children. Questions are posed for researchers as well as for practitioners seeking to enhance the social effectiveness of special needs…

Defined verbal behavior categories for clients (the Client Verbal Behavior System, CL-VBS), and for counselors (the Counselor Verbal Behavior System, CO-VBS), to match the categories in the Carkhuff and Ivey training models, in order to study the acquisition of the skills and their impact on client responses and outcomes. (Author/JAC)

Presents the theoretical, empirical, and practical foundations of a group stress management program to increase clients' effective coping with routine daily stressors. The program provides coping skills training through three components--relaxation training, cognitive restructuring, and social skills training. Discusses implications for social…

Observations of 245 severely mentally retarded target students revealed that the rate of social bids directed by these students to other students and by other students to them was significantly higher in integrated than in segregated social groups. (Author/CL)

A videotape-administered role play test of positive and negative assertion--the Behavioral Test of Interpersonal Competence for Children--was administered to 17 emotionally disturbed and 17 nondisturbed boys ages 9-11. Content of responses to positive, negative, and combined assertion scenes as well as incidence of inappropriate assertion on the…