The noneffects of contingent reinforcement for attending behavior on work accomplished

Past studies have shown that disruptive behavior can be eliminated and attending behavior accelerated in an academic setting. The relationship between these behaviors and academic performance is not well understood. The effects of behavioral and performance contingencies on classroom behavior and on academic performance were investigated. The subjects, third-grade students from an inner city elementary school, were exposed to a series of conditions including baseline, behavior contingencies, performance contingencies, and a mix of behavior and performance contingencies using a reversal design. The students worked 100 randomly selected mathematics problems for 20 minutes each day during each period. Behavioral contingencies improved attending and decreased disruptions but did not improve performance. Performance contingencies increased per cent correct problems but attending declined and disruptions increased. The combined contingencies increased both performance and attending. The experiment was replicated with another class of children varying the sequence of conditions and the amount of token reinforcement that could be earned. The findings emphasized the importance of designing specific contingencies for specific target behaviors. Behavioral contingencies did not have the positive effect on performance often implied, nor were performance contingencies alone able to maintain acceptable classroom behavior

Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Maladaptive Behaviors: Examination of Deliberate Self-Harm, Disordered Eating, and Substance Misuse in Two Samples

Data from two studies were utilized to examine whether the co-occurrence of maladaptive behaviors thought to serve an emotion regulating function would be associated with greater emotion regulation difficulties compared to one or none of these behaviors. Study 1 included an undergraduate sample (N = 119; 76 % female) and Study 2 included a sample of patients receiving treatment at a residential substance abuse treatment facility (N = 82; 48 % female). Subgroups were created based on the presence or absence of the following maladaptive behaviors: (a) deliberate self-harm (DSH) and disordered eating (Study 1); and (b) DSH, disordered eating, and substance misuse (Study 2). Subgroup differences in mean levels of emotion regulation difficulties (overall and six dimensions) were evaluated for each study. In Study 1, individuals who reported clinically-relevant levels of both DSH and disordered eating had more difficulties with emotion regulation (overall and three dimensions) compared to those who reported neither behavior. In Study 2, individuals who reported clinically-relevant levels of both DSH and substance misuse had more difficulties with emotion regulation (Study 2; overall and five dimensions) compared to those with only substance misuse. Overall, the results of these studies support the hypothesis that the co-occurrence of clinically-relevant maladaptive behaviors is associated with greater difficulties regulating emotions than the presence of only one maladaptive behavior (or no maladaptive behaviors). These findings suggest that clinical interventions targeting emotion regulation skills may be particularly useful for individuals who display a pattern of co-occurring maladaptive behaviors

Disputes and Going Concerns in an Institution for "Troublesome" Boys

Everett C. Hughes's classic concept of a "going concern" should stand for both entire institutions and for chains of activities within institutions. In this article the author explores this expanded version of Hughes's concept to show how staff and residents in a youth care setting interweave everyday concerns-meals, lessons, breaks, meetings, or other mundane but concerted projects-with interpersonal disputes. The author thereby offers a more nuanced understanding of how antagonist actors in institutions invoke daily affairs. The author also raises questions about the conditions under which adults can impose concerns for youth in care to preserve social order and the conditions under which youth can make trouble to criticize adults' imposed concerns