Social skills training with mildly retarded young adults.

Described a social skills assessment and training model for use with mildly retarded young adults (N = 20). The assessment procedure examined social behavior in three types of social situations (e.g., conversational situation, cooperative task and assertive situation) with both male and female respondents. Group behavioral social skills training was compared with a no treatment control condition using various dependent measures collected in the in-vivo social situations. Group behavioral social skills training was more effective than the control condition in increasing positive social behavior, attention to the transaction, and degree of empathy. It was also more effective than a control condition in decreasing negative social skill behavior. A situation effect also was observed, which suggests a need for more focus on particular social skills and a need to address issues of generalization. A comprehensive social skills assessment and training model is discussed.

Psycho-social aspects of chronic pain in spinal cord injury.

The relationship between persistent pain in spinal cord injury and medical-descriptive, demographic, psychological and familial-social data was studied. Multiple linear regression and discriminant analysis were used to predict (1) presence or absence of pain; (2) severity of pain; (3) time post-injury onset of pain; (4) whether or not pain interfered with activities of daily living. The best combinations of predictor variables accounted for only 15 and 19% of the dependent measures pain vs. no-pain and onset of pain, respectively. The best combinations of predictor variables accounted for 43 and 44%, respectively of the dependent measures severity of pain and whether or not pain interfered with activities of daily living. Higher levels of subjective pain were associated with greater age, higher verbal intelligence, higher levels of anxiety and a more negative psycho-social situation. Persons who reported pain interfering with activities of daily living were more likely to be older, of higher intelligence, more depressed, clinically rated as experiencing greater levels of distress and immersed in a more negative psycho-social environment. The importance of psycho-social variables in the understanding of persistent spinal cord injury pain and the need for prospective studies along these lines are demonstrated.

An anlysis of three parameters of covert positive reinforcement.

Investigated the active components of covert positive reinforcement (CPR) with a 2 X 2 X 2 factorial design (N = 64) that consisted of an S-R modality (covert vs. overt), a reinforcement procedure (covert vs overt), and a demand for expectancy of success (high vs. low). Posttreatment and follow-up results of the Behavioral Avoidance Test indicated that generally Ss in the overt S-R modality groups approached closer to the rat than did those in the covert groups (N = 64). More importantly, the S-R modality X demand interactions reflected that those Ss in the two covert S-R modality groups under low demand evidenced less approach than those Ss in the other six groups (p less than .01). Self-rating measures of anxiety on the Self-Rating Rat Anxiety Scale and the Fear Intensity Scale reflected overall decrements of fear from pretreatment to posttreatment and follow-up. Follow-up analyses indicated that plans should be made for the generalization of treatment effects by varying the treatment setting and perhaps by employing multiple therapists.