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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Western Michigan University

2002

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Testing The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Activation Therapy In The Treatment Of Acute Unipolar Depression, Jenifer M. Cullen Dec 2002

Testing The Effectiveness Of Behavioral Activation Therapy In The Treatment Of Acute Unipolar Depression, Jenifer M. Cullen

Dissertations

The present study sought to investigate the clinical effectiveness of Behavioral Activation (BA) Therapy, the behavioral activation component of Beck's Cognitive Therapy (CT; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Seventeen adults seeking mental health services for Unipolar Depression were recruited from the Kalamazoo and Southwestern Michigan regions. All participants were randomly assigned to either (a) an Immediate Treatment Group, or (b) a waitlist control group, while both received 10 weeks o f BA therapy. Depressive symptomatology for both conditions were assessed at pretreatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996), the …


The Effects Of Group Size On Incentive Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis, Angelica C. Grindle Dec 2002

The Effects Of Group Size On Incentive Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis, Angelica C. Grindle

Dissertations

A meta-analysis was conducted to examine the effects of group size on incentive effectiveness using data obtained from incentive systems implemented in 13 companies. Other predictor variables included the organizational level targeted for improvement, long/short-term profitability type, company number, and length of exposure to the incentive system. The main dependent variable was the monthly score for each measure of performance. Three types of meaningful comparisons were defined for these data: (1) Between-Group - Within-Company comparisons in which a performance measure was in place in two or more units of an organization; (2) Between-Group - Across-Company comparisons in which a performance …


Social Anxiety: Attentional Bias In Reaction To Emotional Faces Before And After Participation In A College Level Public Speaking Course, Scott Walter Maieritsch Aug 2002

Social Anxiety: Attentional Bias In Reaction To Emotional Faces Before And After Participation In A College Level Public Speaking Course, Scott Walter Maieritsch

Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a semester-long public speaking course in reducing the self-reported levels of communication anxiety and social anxiety among college students enrolled in such a course. The current study also sought to replicate and extend a recent line of research that has demonstrated that highly socially anxious individuals show an attentional bias away from emotional faces under conditions of social-evaluative threat. The current study extended this line of research by conducting the same reaction time procedure with participants in a pretest/post-test design. The project was designed to determine if groups (rating high vs. …


An Examination Of The Effects Of Fluency Training On Retention, Distractibility, And Generativity, Victoria Mary Pellettiere Apr 2002

An Examination Of The Effects Of Fluency Training On Retention, Distractibility, And Generativity, Victoria Mary Pellettiere

Dissertations

The Precision Teaching movement grew out of a commitment to use frequency as a universal measure of behavior, as well as the desire to employ research methods derived from the experimental analysis of behavior in education (Lindsley, 1991). One component of instruction employing the precision teaching model is fluency training that typically involves exposing learners to the training materials until they have met criteria for both accuracy and speed. Proponents of fluency training ascribe a number of specific benefits to this instructional tool. Lindsley (1992, 1995) and others (Binder, 1993, 1996; Haughton, 1981b) suggested that fluency training enhances retention, endurance, …


Lever-Press Acquisition By Rats: Effects Of Some Historical Variables, Susan M. Snycerski Apr 2002

Lever-Press Acquisition By Rats: Effects Of Some Historical Variables, Susan M. Snycerski

Dissertations

Traditionally, behavior analysts and behavioral pharmacologists have emphasized the study of steady-state behavior, while neglecting behavior in transition. In the last 10 years, researchers in these fields have begun to investigate behavioral transitions, particularly the transition from near-zero to above-zero responding involved in response acquisition. This research has focused on variables (e.g., reinforcement delay) that affect acquisition and on procedures (e.g., resetting vs. nonresetting delays) used to assess acquisition. Most studies of acquisition have provided their subjects with behavioral histories prior to testing for acquisition, but few have systematically investigated the importance of historical variables. Consequently, the present study examined …