Practicum students' verbal responses to different clients.

Studied 24 counselor trainees' verbal behavior in 2 initial interview settings, one each with an active and a passive client. Using E. J. Amidon's classification system for verbal behavior of counselors, a trained O recorded 7 categories of indirect influence behavior (e.g., trainee accepting or clarifying feelings), 3 categories of direct influence behavior (e.g., trainee giving directions) during 3-6 sec units of verbal interaction. Client type was developed from a system of mild pathology. When trainees engaged different client types, verbal interaction differed significantly in 5 of 7 categories describing trainee talk, in total trainee talk, in trainee direct and indirect influence, in total and kind of client talk, and in silence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why talk? Comment on Savage-Rumbaugh et al.

Replies to the E. S. Savage-Rumbaugh et al (see record 1984-22384-001) article on chimpanzee language acquisition, arguing that inherent in the concept of human language is the assumption that language is an instrument for the carrying out of certain purposes, such as communication and the free expression of ideas. Apes may be trained to produce behaviors that exhibit properties of human linguistic behavior. Evidence exists, however, that the motivational and intentional bases of the language acquired by ape and child differ profoundly. Insofar as these differences exist, they imply that apes and children are doing something different when they "talk." If they are doing something different, then it is not clear what to make of the formal properties shared by their talk, even when those properties include properties of human referential behavior. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggression toward female partners by at-risk young men: The contribution of male adolescent friendships.

Deviancy training was examined as a risk factor for physical and psychological aggression toward a female partner among boys and young men in the Oregon Youth Study. Hostile talk about women during videotaped male friendship interactions was hypothesized to indicate a process by which aggression toward women is reinforced within male peer networks. Both antisocial behavior and hostile talk were predicted to be associated with later aggression toward a female partner. Prospective developmental models were tested from 9–10 years of age through young adulthood. Findings indicated that the relation of deviant peer association in adolescence and later aggression toward a partner was mediated by antisocial behavior; observed hostile talk about women with male peers explained additional variance in aggression toward a partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From in-session behaviors to drinking outcomes: A causal chain for motivational interviewing.

Client speech in favor of change within motivational interviewing sessions has been linked to treatment outcomes, but a causal chain has not yet been demonstrated. Using a sequential behavioral coding system for client speech, the authors found that, at both the session and utterance levels, specific therapist behaviors predict client change talk. Further, a direct link from change talk to drinking outcomes was observed, and support was found for a mediational role for change talk between therapist behavior and client drinking outcomes. These data provide preliminary support for the proposed causal chain indicating that client speech within treatment sessions can be influenced by therapists, who can employ this influence to improve outcomes. Selective eliciting and reinforcement of change talk is proposed as a specific active ingredient of motivational interviewing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential preference for companionship under threat.

It was hypothesized that Ss under stress are motivated: (a) to evaluate the appropriateness of their emotional behavior, (b) to clarify the ambiguity of the external stimulus situation, (c) to prefer a companion who is expected not to rearouse fear or to exert normative pressures. In a 2 X 2 experimental design, ambiguity was induced by varying the probability that Ss would be subjected to painful shocks. They had the opportunity to talk or not to talk when choosing to wait together. Information was given about the emotional state of the other Ss present. 60 female Ss volunteered. The predictions were confirmed: the greater ambiguity and the opportunity to talk produced a significantly greater tendency to affiliate. All Ss showed the least preference for a highly fearful person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapist Alliance-Building Behavior Within a Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Anxiety in Youth.

Explored the specific behavior of therapists contributing to a child client's perception of a therapeutic alliance with youth (n = 56) who received a manualized cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety disorders. The first 3 sessions were coded for 11 therapist behaviors hypothesized to predict ratings of alliance. Child, therapist, and observer alliance ratings were gathered after the 3rd and 7th therapy sessions. "Collaboration" positively predicted early child ratings of alliance, and "finding common ground" and "pushing the child to talk" negatively predicted early child ratings of alliance. Although no coded therapist behaviors predicted early therapist ratings of alliance, "collaboration" and "not being overly formal" positively predicted therapist alliance ratings by Session 7. Child, observer, and therapist ratings of alliance were significantly correlated. Results are discussed with regard to the identified behavior of the therapist as a step toward the identification of empirically supported strategies for building a stronger child-therapist alliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioural demands direct attentional strategies: The 1993 Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive Science.

The Banff Annual Seminar in Cognitive-Science (BASICS) was founded in 1982 and has met each spring since then in Banff, Alberta, Canada. BASICS was originated to provide an informal atmosphere for the in-depth discussion of a wide variety of research topics within the broadly defined domain of cognitive science. The purpose of the present paper is to summarize and find commonalties among the individual abstracts which follow. The first speaker, Norman Brown began his talk with the premise that a valid model of the estimation process is essential to an understanding of the process of encoding and representing event frequency. In the second talk, John Duncan continued the theme as to how psychological processes are selected according to the current demands of behaviour. The third talk of the first day of the conference was by Nancy Kanwisher. This investigator has been in the forefront of the journals lately for her work with the phenomenon known as repetition blindness (RB). The final talk of the first day of BASICS was given by one of the most prominent figures in the study of visual attention, Anne Treisman. The first talk of the second day of the conference was given by Tom Carr. Carr's talk was aimed at understanding the process by which new information is integrated into the semantic memory system. The last talk of the conference was by Robert Rafal whose work examines the neuropsychological aspects of visual attention. The emerging theme of this year's conference, that humans exercise strategic control over attentional mechanisms, was addressed by all the speakers in a way that proved highly informative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and disinhibition

This review investigates research evaluating the disinhibition hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that in a sober state behavior is inhibited. When people are influenced by alcohol the inhibitions are supposed to be weakened and the motivating drives are postulated to become disinhibited and potent to influence behavior. This report reviews the effect of alcohol on nerve functions, on human sexuality, aggression, eating behavior, psychological conflicts, fluency in talk, social anxiety, violent crimes and the interaction of alcohol and social norms. It has been shown that individual subjective experiences sometimes indicate disinhibition (reduction of the forces holding back impulses) and objective behavior in some respects was different when the subject was intoxicated, but the mechanism that mediates behavior is not clear. It seems to be difficult to measure independently the forces restraining (inhibiting) the driving forces (uncontrolled impulses) at the same time as measuring these driving forces. The review concludes that there is no unambiguous support of the disinhibition hypothesis. An alternative hypothesis that seems to explain many behaviors in an inebriated individual is the 'time out' hypothesis which states that drunken behavior is influenced more by norms about what it should be than by the pharmacological effect of alcohol.     

Effects of behavioral (reinforcement) and advice-giving counseling on information-seeking behavior.

Conducted a 2 * 3 factorial nested design study in which 4 counselors provided reinforcement or persuasive advice-giving to increase information seeking by 20 high and 20 low self-esteem undergraduates. A nonactive control group of 10 Ss was included. The 2 experimental groups were scheduled for 2 counseling interviews 1 wk. apart. A 3rd structured interview was scheduled 2 wk. later so all Ss could report their information-seeking behavior outside the interviews. Results demonstrate that behavioral reinforcement counseling is superior to advice-giving on 4 criterion measures: (a) counselees exhibited significantly higher frequency of verbal information-seeking behavior in the interview; (b) they engaged more in eventual information-seeking activities outside the interview (frequency and variety); (c) verbal and "eventual" information-seeking behaviors were significantly and positively correlated (generalization effect); and (d) student-counselor talk ratio was significantly higher. (44 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of talk in children's peer collaborations.

The role of talk in children's peer collaborations using a computer-based scientific reasoning task was investigated in this study. Seventy 4th-grade students were assigned to work alone or with a same-sex partner for 1 20-min session. Half of the children in each condition (alone and dyads) were asked to talk as they worked, and half were not. Significant performance differences between groups were present, although there were no significant differences in experimental activity. Talk dyads generated better hypotheses than no-talk alones and no-talk dyads, and talk alones did not generate better hypotheses than no-talk alones. Analyses of children's talk showed that talk dyads produced more talk overall and more interpretive types of talk than talk alones. The importance of peer collaborations as a social context that supports interpretive cognitive processes was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of information and reinforcement on the conversational behavior of chronic psychiatric patient dyads.

Conducted 2 experiments to determine if the conversational behavior of 3 male and 1 female chronic psychiatric patients could be increased through either reinforcement or the provision of information about potential topics of conversation. Each experiment utilized 1 dyad in a withdrawal design or a combined changing criterion and withdrawal design. For 3 of the 4 Ss a positive reinforcement contingency was used, while for the 4th an avoidance contingency was used. Conversation was defined as talk between the members about a specified topic of general interest with eye contact at least once every 15 sec. Only reinforcement increased conversational behavior. Information about the specified topics was ineffective in spite of the fact that the information was comprehended and was relevant to the topics. Additional results demonstrate the ineffectiveness of instructions and the potential usefulness of the infrequently used changing criterion design. The avoidance of extended conversation effectively reinforced a specified duration of initial conversation. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and verbal conditioning effects.

In line with the studies on the conditioning of verbal behavior and their reference to psychotherapy, the present study investigates the effects of Autonomy (as measured by the EPPS) upon verbal conditioning. The hypothesis was made that Autonomy would interfere with susceptibility to verbal conditioning. Ss were interviewed, being asked to talk about themselves; E reinforced (said "um-hmm" and nodded head) under 3 conditions, viz., when S made positive self-statements, negative self-statements, or reinforced randomly throughout the interview. The results indicate that by responding selectively, an interviewer can influence the verbalization of S; in this instance, reinforcement was effective in producing a significant effect on positive self-statements, but not negative ones. Meaning of results are discussed with relation to other research and an attempted formulation. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3CJ41B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The therapeutic use of ball play in psychotherapy with children.

Describes how ball play—noted as one of the earliest and most enduring forms of play—can be used as a directive play therapy technique to facilitate talk therapy with children. Four stages of the ball play therapy process are outlined: (1) rapport building, (2) creating a therapeutic context, (3) pacing and punctuating the dialogue, and (4) anchoring a solution. The author illustrates, using case examples, how the integration of ball play with talk therapy can be an effective intervention in psychotherapy with children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of chronic unemployment and acute psychological stress on sexual arousal in men.

Ten unemployed (high-chronic-stress) and 9 employed (low-chronic-stress) men were exposed to 2 erotic videotapes (EVs) in the laboratory. Acute stress was induced by telling the Ss that they would have to give a talk on their own sexual behavior and fantasies. Half the Ss were told about the talk before seeing either EV; the other half were told in between the 2 EVs. The unemployed Ss achieved less penile tumescence than the employed Ss when stressed prior to erotic stimulation. Presentation of the stressor between the EVs produced no differences between employed and unemployed Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Secondary baby talk: Judgments by institutionalized elderly and their caregivers.

60 care receivers (aged 62–100 yrs) and 39 of their caregivers judged vocal nonverbal messages prepared from audiotapes of caregivers interacting with their co-workers and elderly nursing home residents. The relationship between these judgments and, respectively, the functional ability of the aged judges and the expectations of the elderly held by the caregivers were investigated. The stimulus tape judged consisted of 3 types of messages: caregivers' speech to care receivers in baby talk, caregivers' speech to care receivers not in baby talk, and speech to other caregivers assumed to be in normal adult speech. For the elderly judges, lower functional ability scores were associated with a greater liking for baby talk speech as compared to other speech, but no relationships were found for their judgments of "soothing" or "irritating." For caregivers, expectancy was associated with their predictions of residents' liking for baby talk speech and caregivers' endorsements that adult speech would not be effective for interacting with care receivers. Results suggest that variations in caregiver expectancy may operate through a common social stereotype of the elderly. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive talk training in an adult with traumatic brain injury

Social skills often create a barrier to placement in less restrictive environments for persons with TBI. This case study illustrated the use of a positive talk program in the treatment of a person with long-standing social skill deficits. Occupational therapy intervention with speech-language consultation began with an evaluation of the cognitive barriers that influenced the client's social behavior. Work with the client's concrete concept formation, decreased memory, and poor generalization skills led to the development of the positive talk training program described. Through an understanding of the underlying cognitive deficits that influenced the client's behavior, the clinical team was able to develop an individual treatment plan. The intervention resulted in modification of behavior that would have required placing the client in a restricted environment. In the final analysis, the client's social skills improved to a level where he could be discharged to a less restrictive environment.     

Making psychology a household word--Just for kids.

Forums where children and preteens are engaged in a discussion with a psychologist can convey that psychologists understand emotions and behavior and empathically respond to human experiences. KidTalk With Dr. Mary--The Call-In Talk Show Just for Kids is one such medium created to promote emotional awareness and social competency in young people. The potential for the format of the talk show to be used in community-based preemptive intervention programs is discussed in various contexts. Anecdotal material is provided to illustrate ways in which the program has led children and preteens to link the need for assistance, catharsis, objectivity, and a corrective emotional experience with a query to a psychologist, thus making psychology a household word--just for kids. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)