Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: An Update on the 1982 Reference List

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior -     

“Talking in a New Way”: Older Individuals' Experiences of Group Work in an Acute Psychiatric Ward

Group work is frequently used in mental health, however qualitative studies on service-users' views are rare. Semistructured interviews explored 12 participants' experiences of a café-style social group and a mutual-aid group offered on an older persons psychiatric ward in Christchurch, New Zealand. The values of the strengths-based approach underpinning the groups were reflected back in the experience of an affirming environment, an exchange of strengths, and the capacity to change. The appeal of the café-style may be culturally specific to European women however, reinforcing the importance of an awareness of culture and diversity.     

Building Grounded Theories of Management Action

This paper presents a structured approach to grounded theory-building. It is aimed at 'mode 2' (Gibbons et al., 1994) management researchers, in particular those who analyse recollections of past events, often recorded in interview data, to develop explanations of management action. Two characteristics of mode 2 enquiry - transdisciplinarity and an emphasis on tacit knowledge - make grounded theory potentially attractive to mode 2 researchers. However, the approach offered here differs in two important ways from the much-cited universal grounded theory model originated by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and later proceduralized by Strauss and Corbin (1990). First, it acknowledges that the form of theories of management action which will satisfy the contemporary demands of mode 2 research is different from the form of integrated sociological theory for which the original grounded theory approach was developed. Second, it takes account of differences between the ontological assumptions underlying the use of retrospective data for analysing management action, and those associated with participant observation, the pivotal strategy of grounded theory's symbolic interactionist roots. The result is a simplified, more direct approach which works for the specific purpose of generating useful, consensually valid theory.     

The Effects of a Delay of Noncontingent Reinforcement during a Pairing Procedure in the Development of Stimulus Control of Automatically Reinforced Vocalizations

Children with autism and related disabilities frequently fail to develop echoic repertoires. Among the ways in which treatment approaches vary is the extent to which automatic reinforcement is utilized. The present experiment was designed to test the efficacy of a procedure that incorporates automatic reinforcement and socially mediated reinforcement in the development of an echoic repertoire. The implementation of this treatment package resulted in an increase in the vocal play and echoic behavior for two participants, each of whom had very limited verbal repertoires. The study was conducted as a multiple probe across sounds design. Vocal play for Participant 1 increased from baseline rates as low as .2 per min to 4.5 per min during treatment, and her percent correct echoic behavior increased from 0% to at least 90% on both sounds. Participant 2 showed rapid gains in echoic control on one sound before requiring dismissal from the study. Interobserver agreement on the occurrence of target vocals equaled 100%. The results of this study have implications for which procedures to use in the establishment of echoic, echoic mand, and mand repertoires.     

Skinner’s Verbal Behavior: A Reference List

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The language literature contains many citations to Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior (1957), however, most of them are negative and generally unsupportive. The...     

Discrimination Against Women Teachers: Does it Persist?

Promotion rates of men and women who were teaching in primary and secondary schools in 1979 were compared to establish whether or not prima facie evidence existed for charges of ongoing unfair discrimination against women teachers whose experience and qualifications were similar to those of men. It was found that such prima facie evidence still exists in primary school promotions. Three hypotheses are offered: The large proportion of unqualified persons among women primary teachers adversely affects the professional standing of the qualified women as well; country service is even more unpopular among women than among men in primary than in high schools, because one and two teacher schools are mainly primary schools; junior primary teaching is not valued equally with the teaching of the upper primary years. On the other hand it was found that women entrants into high school teaching in 1970 had just as much likelihood of promotion as their equally experienced male colleagues. Doubt is thus thrown on the validity of claims made by the South Australian Institute of Teachers and by the Department of Education of South Australia for women teachers in High Schools to be exempt from the terms of the Sex-Discrimination Act so that more women may be appointed to Deputy Principalships in such schools.     

"Talking in a new way": older individuals' experiences of group work in an acute psychiatric ward

Group work is frequently used in mental health, however qualitative studies on service-users' views are rare. Semistructured interviews explored 12 participants' experiences of a café-style social group and a mutual-aid group offered on an older persons psychiatric ward in Christchurch, New Zealand. The values of the strengths-based approach underpinning the groups were reflected back in the experience of an affirming environment, an exchange of strengths, and the capacity to change. The appeal of the café-style may be culturally specific to European women however, reinforcing the importance of an awareness of culture and diversity.