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PubMedDate not supplied

Enhancing the recognition and production of facial expressions of emotion by children with mental retardation.

The ability to recognize and respond appropriately to facial expressions of emotion is essential for interpersonal interaction. Individuals with mental retardation have problems not only in recognizing but also in accurately producing facial expressions of emotion. In Experiment 1, directed rehearsal was used to teach six boys with mild and moderate mental retardation to increase their ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion. In addition, their ability to produce the six basic facial expressions of emotion was periodically assessed throughout the study. The results showed that the boys' accuracy in recognizing facial expressions of emotion increased rapidly with instruction and that their increased accuracy was maintained at 8- and 12-week assessments following the termination of instruction. However, their increased levels of recognition did not generalize to the production of these emotions. In Experiment 2, four boys who had participated in the first study were provided with directed rehearsal training in the production of the six basic facial expressions of emotion. Their ability to produce facial expressions of emotion increased with instruction and was maintained following the termination of instruction. In addition, independent raters judged that the boys' production of these emotions matched the emotions that they were required to produce, suggesting a socially valid behavior change. These studies showed that the ability of children with mental retardation to recognize and produce facial expressions of emotion can be enhanced through instruction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Media guidelines on the reporting of suicide.

There is strong evidence for the existence of the Werther effect, or the phenomenon of an observer copying suicidal behavior he or she has seen modelled in the media. As a consequence, a number of countries have developed guidelines that promote responsible reporting of suicide. Using nine such guidelines as examples, this paper demonstrates that they tend to have similar content (emphasizing, for example, that suicide should not be glamorized or sensationalized and that explicit descriptions should be avoided, and stressing the importance of providing information about help services), but differ in the way in which they have been developed (e.g., the extent to which media professionals have been involved) and implemented (e.g., whether their "roll-out" has involved a considered dissemination strategy). The paper also reviews the evidence from evaluations of media guidelines, and concludes that it is too limited to determine whether the guidelines have had an impact on the behavior of media professionals or on completed and attempted suicide rates. It makes recommendations for further evaluative work, and suggests that the lessons from well-designed evaluations should be shared.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1991

[Therapy of speech development delay in mentally retarded children].

Twenty-one mentally retarded children participated in 40 language training sessions each that were based on behavior therapy. The training program had four levels of difficulty. The appropriate level for a given child was determined by evaluation of the child's spontaneous speech. Of the 21 children, 8 started with a 6-week waiting period. During this time they had 40 sessions of occupational therapy. The effect of the waiting period and of therapy on the children's speech was assessed by analysis of spontaneous verbal utterances and by specially constructed imitation tests. The children were tested before the waiting period and before and after therapy. Whereas the waiting period by itself had no significant effect, the therapy led to a significant increase in the mean length of utterances (in morphemes) and to highly significant improvement on the imitation tests.

Child↗
PubMed2004

Mimicry and prosocial behavior.

Recent studies have shown that mimicry occurs unintentionally and even among strangers. In the present studies, we investigated the consequences of this automatic phenomenon in order to learn more about the adaptive function it serves. In three studies, we consistently found that mimicry increases prosocial behavior. Participants who had been mimicked were more helpful and generous toward other people than were nonmimicked participants. These beneficial consequences of mimicry were not restricted to behavior directed toward the mimicker, but included behavior directed toward people not directly involved in the mimicry situation. These results suggest that the effects of mimicry are not simply due to increased liking for the mimicker, but are due to increased prosocial orientation in general.

Female↗
PubMed1980

A scalogram analysis of behavioral strategies in severely and profoundly retarded adults.

The present study was designed to provide empirical evidence for an assumed order sequence of five behavioral strategies in 75 severely and profoundly retarded adults. A behavioral strategy was defined as a set of task-related behaviors each of which is controlled by the same stimulus properties of the materials. Four sets of tasks were used to measure four of the five strategies. Multiple presentation modes were employed to enhance the Ss' understanding of the demand characteristics of the tasks. A scalogram analysis revealed that the four sets of items met the requirements for a cumulative scale. Additional analyses were performed to identify individual items measuring a specific behavioral strategy. The obtained results indicated that most items measured one strategy although not always the one for which they were designed. The additional value of the described classification system over other, more traditional measures, is discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

The impact of anger between adults on siblings' emotions and social behavior.

Peer and sibling dyads (older children = 5-7 years; younger children = 2-5 years) were presented with simulations of friendly, angry, and resolution interactions between a male adult and the mother in the context of play sessions. Expressions of positive effect increased among female siblings during the anger period and continued to be more common in the resolution period than in other groups. Prosocial behavior among male siblings greatly increased in the resolution period, with siblings generally more prosocial towards each other than peers in this period. The findings suggest that siblings may attempt to buffer each other from the stress of exposure to adults' discord.

Anger↗
PubMed2005

Intervention groups for adolescents with conduct problems: is aggregation harmful or helpful?

Past research has suggested that the aggregation of deviant peers during treatment may cause harmful effects (T. J. Dishion, J. McCord, & F. Poulin, 1999). This study compared the effectiveness of problem-solving skills training groups in which all members had conduct problems ("pure" group condition) with groups that consisted of adolescents with and without behavior problems ("mixed" group condition). Participants were 139 sixth- and seventh-graders (mean age = 12.7; 63% male; 55% White) enrolled at public middle schools. Pre-, post-, and 6-month follow-up data were collected, along with intervention process variables. Results showed that, contrary to the deviancy training hypothesis, adolescents in the pure-group condition engaged in more adaptive in-session behavior and received lower scores on the parent and teacher ratings of externalizing behavior at postintervention than those in the mixed-group condition. Mediation analyses showed that the deviancy training that occurred in the mixed-group condition accounted for their worse postintervention scores, findings consistent with the deviancy training hypothesis.

Achievement↗
PubMed2005

Evaluation of a high school peer group intervention for at-risk youth.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of Reconnecting Youth, a prevention program for at-risk high school youth. Data are from a large, independently evaluated effectiveness trial in two diverse urban school districts. A total of 1,218 students participated; 50% were male; average age was 15. We tested whether positive efficacy trial effects could be replicated, and whether any negative behavioral effects occur when clustering high-risk youth. Although mixed program effects were observed at immediate post-intervention, only negative effects were found at 6-month follow-up. These effects included less optimal scores on measures of GPA, Anger, School Connectedness, Conventional Peer Bonding, and Peer High-Risk Behaviors. Overall, we found little support for the use of this social-influence--model intervention aimed at increasing school connectedness for high-risk youth. Further, this study provides evidence that clustering high-risk youth in preventive interventions has the potential for iatrogenic effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Information and aggression in fishes.

Aggressive interactions between fishes commonly take place in a social environment in which uninvolved individuals (bystanders) have an opportunity to gather information about interactants. Signals frequently used during such interactions are designed to transmit information about resource-holding power and/or intention. They are generally related to the level of escalation reached and the eventual outcome of a fight. We consider here the information available in signaling and nonsignaling aspects of aggressive interactions. We focus, in particular, on information available to bystanders. We summarize evidence that bystanders alter their behavior toward interactants on the basis of information acquired while bystanding, and we discuss the sources of information that may result in this change of behavior. In particular, we distinguish eavesdropping (i.e., extracting information from signaling interactions) as a subset of bystanding (i.e., extracting information from all available sources). We conclude that considerations of aggressive strategies should include potential costs and benefits resulting from wider social contexts in which aggression occurs.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1976

[Parental influence to the smoking habits of juveniles (author's transl)].

A questionnaire was administered to 640 juveniles to get informed about their and their parents smoking behavior. 424 questionnaires could be evaluated, the results and conclusions are reported. Parental smoking habits, especially of their father's are very important influencing factors for the smoking behavior of their children. In their efforts to reduce or to stop smoling the juveniles are looking and seeking for qualified informations as well as support by friends. Physicians, parents, teachers and educators play an important role as key-persons in this respect.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Social perspective taking and use of discounting in children's perceptions of others' helping behavior.

The authors investigated the relationship between children's ability to take the social perspective of another and their use of the causal attribution principle known as discounting in assessing others' kindness in helping. The participants (N = 153), 7 to 16 years old, were interviewed in a township bordering Johannesburg. Each participant was administered 2 perspective-taking tasks and a series of vignettes, based on prosocial versus self-interested motives, assessing perceptions of kindness in helping. A significant relationship was established at p < .01 between social perspective-taking ability and use of discounting, such that participants at higher perspective-taking levels judged helpful behavior as significantly less kind than did their peers when the behavior was motivated by self-interest. This finding is interpreted in terms of literature suggesting that advances in perspective taking facilitate the recognition of the manipulative function of externally offered incentives. Observations are made regarding the cross-cultural investigation of these variables.

Altruism↗
PubMed1991

Development and evaluation of a presurgical preparation program.

Three presurgical preparation programs were developed and evaluated in an Australian hospital utilizing an additive component design. The component basic to all three preparation programs was modeling. This technique was compared with the additional components of teaching child coping skills and parent coping skills via videotape. Subjects were 28 children between the ages of 4 and 13 years who were scheduled for elective surgery. Anxiety of both the children and parents was assessed by self-report and behavior observation. Results indicated that there was no further anxiety reduction by the addition of child and parent coping skills. Results are discussed in terms of the viability of teaching coping skills via videotape particularly to parents. Methodological difficulties associated with research in this area are examined.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Are effective teachers like good parents? Teaching styles and student adjustment in early adolescence.

This study examined the utility of parent socialization models for understanding teachers' influence on student adjustment in middle school. Teachers were assessed with respect to their modeling of motivation and to Baumrind's parenting dimensions of control, maturity demands, democratic communication, and nurturance. Student adjustment was defined in terms of their social and academic goals and interest in class, classroom behavior, and academic performance. Based on information from 452 sixth graders from two suburban middle schools, results of multiple regressions indicated that the five teaching dimensions explained significant amounts of variance in student motivation, social behavior, and achievement. High expectations (maturity demands) was a consistent positive predictor of students' goals and interests, and negative feedback (lack of nurturance) was the most consistent negative predictor of academic performance and social behavior. The role of motivation in mediating relations between teaching dimensions and social behavior and academic achievement also was examined; evidence for mediation was not found. Relations of teaching dimensions to student outcomes were the same for African American and European American students, and for boys and girls. The implications of parent socialization models for understanding effective teaching are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1984

Training mildly handicapped peers to facilitate changes in the social interaction skills of autistic children.

We evaluated the effects of a peer-training strategy, consisting of direct prompting and modeling, on the occurrence and duration of interactions between autistic students and nonautistic peer-trainers. Data were obtained in both training and generalization settings. The results of a multiple-baseline design across students demonstrated that:the direct prompting procedure produced immediate and substantial increases in the occurrences and durations of positive social interactions between the peer-trainers and autistic students; these increases were maintained across time at levels above baseline during subsequent free-play probes; these findings were judged by teachers to be socially valid; untrained peers increased their interactions with the autistic students in three of the four groups; generalization of behavior change across settings occurred only after specific programming; and interactions between untrained peers and peer-trainers decreased following training. Variables that may account for the results and the implications of these findings for peer-mediated interventions are discussed.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1977

Sign language and multisensory input training of children with communication and related developmental disorders.

This report deals with the preliminary findings of a research project on simultaneous communication and multisensory input in the treatment of six autistic and communication disordered children. The children, aged 5 to 12, were taught manually signed English and speech using a multisensory-intrusion approach. The hypothesis was that such a technique would serve to alleviate the children's difficulties in information processing, organization of experience, and affect. The dependent measures were behavioral ratings derived from both structured (teaching) and unstructured (free play) sessions. The results indicate that the children manifested a consistent acquisition of sign lanuage, which in some cases transferred into verbal communication skills. Moreover, statistical analyses of some of the observed socioaffective behaviors (i.e., nonsolitary play, interaction with peers and adults, exploration, and detachment) revealed tendencies supportive of the hypothesis. The variability of the data preclude any categorical statement in relation to the hypothesis. However, the preliminary results strongly support the continuation of the study.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1985

Effects of familial pain models on pain complaints and coping strategies.

Recent evidence has underscored the effect of the number of parental pain models in an individual's environment on the frequency of current complaints about pain, yet little is known about the effect of number of familial pain models on other aspects of a person's pain behavior and on coping with pain. The present study assessed the effect of pain models by giving a questionnaire to 224 college students. Analysis showed that the number of familial pain models was related to the perception of pertinent secondary gains but not to the methods used to cope with pain.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Peer and parental influences on adolescents' substance use: a path analysis.

Five hundred and seven 14-to-16-year-old students gave self-report responses to a substance use questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed adolescents' use, preferences, and norms and also their perceptions of their parents' and peers' use and norms in relation to alcohol, tobacco, and tea/coffee. Path analysis revealed that adolescents' internalization of parental and peer pressures is a stronger predictor of substance use than are direct effects. Internalized effects occur by means of preferences rather than norms, and peer pressure is predominantly through modeling behavior, whereas parental influence is through perceived normative standards. Peers' influence is stronger in relation to tobacco use, parental influence is stronger in relation to tea/coffee use, and both are equally important in relation to alcohol use. These findings are discussed in relation to preventive strategies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Keeping time: effects of focal frontal lesions.

This study examined the performance of 32 normal subjects and 39 patients with focal lesions of the frontal lobes on two simple timing tasks-responding in time with a tone that regularly repeated at a rate of once every 1.5s, and then maintaining the same regular response rhythm without any external stimulus. The hypothesis was that lesions to the right prefrontal cortex would disrupt timing performance. The two main findings were (1) an abnormally high variability in the timing performance (both self-timed and tone-timed) of patients with lesions to the right lateral frontal lobe, particularly involving Brodmann area 45 and subjacent regions of the basal ganglia; (2) an increase in the variability of timing performance as the task continued in patients with lesions to the superior medial regions of the frontal lobe. These findings indicate that the right lateral frontal lobe is crucially involved in the ongoing control of timed behavior, either because of its role in generating time intervals or in monitoring the passage of these intervals. In contrast, the superior medial regions of the frontal lobe are necessary to maintain consistent timing performance over prolonged periods of time.

Acoustic Stimulation↗