The external behavior consultant should address these concerns: reducing the threat of outside intervention; meeting staff and administration expectations; supporting school philosophy; maintaining impartiality; and establishing credibility. A case study with a schizophrenic male, age 16, illustrates the importance of these organizational factors.…

Behavioral Marital Therapy (BMT) is clinically useful because it includes elaborating procedures, modifying the spouse's self-defeating cognitions, and moving toward early intervention and prevention. Each article in this issue of American Journal of Family Therapy focuses on innovations in BMT, either in research or practice. (Author/NRB)

A 10-session weight reduction program that included behavior modification, nutrition education, and exercise management was found to be effective in reducing weight. (Author/DLS) Journal Availability: C. V. Mosby Company, 11830 Westline Industrial Dr., St. Louis, MO 63141

Treatment of a child-abusing mother that used parent skill training and videotape feedback eliminated the physical abuse and provided a more appropriate relationship. (Author/SS)

Present-day prognosis of the outcome of psychosexual therapy is so uncertain that it is ethically unjust either to force individuals into therapy or to deny it to them. Presented at the annual convention of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, San Francisco, 13 December 1975. (Author)

Reciprocity counseling is a rapid reinforcement-based procedure developed for teaching marriage partners how to increase their individual happiness within their marital relationship. The major obstacle to implementing reciprocity techniques is convincing the partners to engage in the procedures, even if they feel these procedures appear contrived…

College teachers must take care not to treat students as a homogeneous, passive mass audience and equate lecturing with classroom control. Rather, they should judge teaching success by what students can do at course's end, reinforce desired intellectual behavior, test in ways that allow students to show abilities, and learn to interpret student…

People (n=103) with mild intellectual disabilities responded to several scales of anger, hostility, aggression, and personality. Results were consistent with earlier studies of relationships among anger, hostility, and aggression conducted with the general population. Findings suggest that people with intellectual disabilities may benefit from…

If school counselors give a typical Rational Emotive Therapy disputative response to the issue of fairness, students are not helped to develop a more reasonable and rational view on this issue. Describes discussion led by counselor emphasizing choice, acceptance, and the irrationality of the belief that the world is unfair. (LSR)

A study of a man (age 19) with severe developmental disabilities evaluated the effects of implementing extinction for some problem behaviors of a functional response class, with and without reinforcement of an alternative communication response. Results found that using extinction and functional communication training reduced all topographies of…

A study evaluated the effects of three active responding techniques (i.e., hand raising, choral responding, the response card) on students participation and on-task behavior in five preschoolers with attending problems. The response card technique was consistently more efficient for all five children across all dependent measures. (Contains…

This paper reviews what is known about the effectiveness of the more controversial use of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy with people who have mental retardation. It examines self-management approaches (problem solving, anger management, and cognitive therapy) and psychodynamic psychotherapy. The paper concludes that there has…

A study involving four children (ages 4-7) with developmental disabilities and severe opposition behaviors found that use of reinforcement for compliance in isolation was ineffective in bringing about significant improvement in child compliance. The addition of a graduated request hierarchy appeared to be associated with substantial changes in…

The role of archival data in planning intervention priorities is examined and efficacy research focusing on the three types of positive behavioral support (PBS) is evaluated: schoolwide (universal), specific setting, and individual student levels. Overall, findings were positive across all types of PBS, validating implementation of these…

The effects of two methods of negative reinforcement on three young children (ages two and three) with developmental delays and chronic food refusal were examined. Physically guiding the child to accept food contingent on noncompliance and nonremoval of the spoon until the child ate were tested. Both treatments were effective; however, parents…