Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-solving Skills Research Articles

Involvement and outcomes in short-term interpersonal cognitive problem solving groups

This study examined the extent to which patterns of involvement in interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) groups were predictive of improvements in ICPS skills. Thirty-one 7–8-year-old children were assigned to experimental or control groups. Participants in the experimental group participated in six sessions of ICPS group work. All participants were tested for the ICPS skills of alternative solutions thinking (AST) and consequential thinking (CT) immediately before and after the group work period. As predicted, the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in AST and CT skills than the control group. Means-end thinking was significantly correlated with improvements in AST and CT, level of involvement and positive behaviour within the groups were predictive of improvements in AST but not CT. Findings indicated the importance of group dynamics for ICPS outcomes and are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical implications.

Training Disadvantaged Rural Children for Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills

KEYWORDS Interpersonal cognitive problem solving; intervention; disadvantaged; preschool children ABSTRACT The present study was conducted with low income group disadvantaged rural preschool children in Hisar. Sixty children from two villages participated in the research. Children from Village 1 constituted the sample for Control Group; children from Village 2 constituted the sample for Experimental Group. These children were matched on the basis of their pre-testing scores. Pre-post, control-experimental research design was used. Intervention training was provided to Experimental Group children for a period of three months to promote their Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving skills. Results of the present study indicate that, at post-testing, after intervention training, performance of experimental group children improved significantly, whereas, there was no improvement in control group children who did not receive any intervention.

Interpersonal cognitive problem-solving and childhood social competence

The relationship between interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills and social competence in middle childhood was examined taking into account mental age, socioeconomic status, and impulsivity. Sixteen clinically referred preadolescents were compared with 32 normal youngsters of the same age. Social adjustment was measured by the Achenbach Child Behavior Cheklist (1978a) and Teacher Report Form (Edelbrook & Achenback, 1984), and problem-solving was measured by the Children's Means-Ends Problem-Solving Procedure (Platt & Spivak, 1975). Problem-solving was evaluated on six qualitative dimensions, the total mean of the six dimensions for six stories, and consistency across the stories. The socially well adjusted subjects were better problem solvers overall and, in particular, were more effective and appropriate and less aggressive. The data support the efficacy of qualitative assessment of problem solving.

Interpersonal problem-solving skills and classroom behavioral adjustment in learning-disabled adolescents and comparison peers

Teaching interpersonal problem-solving skills to learning-disabled (LD) students is thought to improve the classroom adjustment of these students. However, very few studies have determined the relationship between such skills and adjustment. Thirty mainstreamed LD adolescents and thirty non-LD classmates in two suburban middle-class New Jersey school districts were administered the Platt and Spivack (1977) test of five interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) skills (J. Platt & G. Spivack, Measures of Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving. A Manual, Philadelphia: Hahnemann MH/MR Center), and their teachers rated each of the students on the School Behavior Checklist. LD adolescents scored significantly lower than non-LD peers on four of the five ICPS skills. No significant differences were found between the groups on the five School Behavior Checklist subscales that measure classroom social behavior. Few significant correlations were found between the ICPS skills and classroom adjustment for either the LD or non-LD students.

Children's social problem-solving skills, behavioral adjustment, and interventions: A meta-analysis evaluating theory and practice

Meta-analyses were performed to examine reported relations between children's interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) skills and adjustment, and to specify the effects of ICPS training. In general, the relation between ICPS and adjustment appears robust, and interventions yield clear increases in ICPS skills. Intervention effects on behavioral adjustment are somewhat more equivocal; meta-analytic results differ depending on whether behavioral ratings or observations are the dependent variables. Age of subject, source of publication, and expertise of investigator are boundary conditions for the meta-analysis regarding ICPS and adjustment; teacher/child dialogues on ICPS principles in real-life situations, expertise of investigator, source and quality of publication, and length of interventions mediate magnitude of certain intervention effects. Further research is needed where data were sparse, as in follow-up data and effects of intervention for various special populations.

Effects of Social Problem-Solving Training and Self-Instruction Training With Aggressive Boys

Twenty aggressive boys received either an 18-session anger coping intervention (AC) or an 18-session intervention in which anger coping was preceded by self-instruction training on impersonal problem solving and academic tasks (AC-SIT). Anger coping emphasized training in interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills. Although, contrary to the hypothesis, there were no significant differences between the two conditions in their abilities to reduce passive off-task classroom behavior, the AC-SIT groups did tend to produce stronger reductions in this behavior. The AC groups were significantly more effective in reducing disruptive-aggressive off-task classroom behavior than were the AC-SIT groups. Both forms of cognitive behavioral treatment produced significant increases in on-task classroom behavior, reductions in parents' ratings of boys' aggression, and increases in boys' self-esteem.

Training Preschool Children in Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving Skills

Abstract Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving training, developed to teach children how (rather than what) to think and therefore how to solve their own interpersonal problems, was used in a study over three years conducted in Newaygo County, Michigan to evaluate its impact on low-income preschool children. Overall, trained children improved in both their ability to solve interpersonal problems, and in their classroom behavior. Control children showed no such systematic improvement. The relationships between problem-solving ability and classroom behavior were observed directly and found to be positively related. The findings of these three studies indicate that interpersonal problem-solving training is useful with low-income, rural children.

Assessing social competencies in lower income preschool children

This study examined social competencies in 4-year-old, lower income, nonwhite preschool children in a replication of work by Shure, Spivack, and Jaeger. Age differential interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills were investigated, i.e., ability to generate alternative solutions to interpersonal problems, consequential thinking, and school achievement as they relate to behavioral adjustment ratings by teachers and independent observers. A teacher's rating of a child as aberrant or adjusted predicted an independent observer's rating of that child in a naturalistic setting. Children who were rated as adjusted by their teachers had significantly higher scores on an achievement inventory than those children who were rated aberrant, but the study did not find the predicted relationship between problem-solving thinking and adjustment.