Positive Social Responses Research Articles

Understanding the lack of understanding: Invalidation from the perspective of the patient with fibromyalgia

Patients with fibromyalgia have difficulty with the invisibility and medically unexplained character of the syndrome. Disbelief, lack of acceptance, and stigmatization by their spouse, family, colleagues, the health care system, and society are key issues in their lives. Nevertheless, the components of this phenomenon that we term "invalidation" are not clear. The aim of our study was to identify the definition and structure of invalidation as perceived by patients with fibromyalgia. A hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to examine everyday invalidation experiences of patients with fibromyalgia. Ninety-four statements about invalidation that were derived from interviews and a card-sorting (Q-sort) technique provided the input for this cluster analysis. The hierarchical structure of invalidation showed a higher-order distinction between statements reflecting "discounting" and "understanding." Discounting was subdivided into the components "denying" and "patronizing" (consisting of "lecturing" and "overprotecting"). Understanding was subdivided into "supporting" and "acknowledging." These higher-order constructs were further subdivided into 15 lower-order clusters that reflected cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects of invalidation. Invalidation as perceived by patients with fibromyalgia includes active negative social responses (denying, lecturing, and overprotecting) as well as a lack of positive social responses (supporting and acknowledging) with respect to the patient and the condition of the patient. This definition of invalidation provides a basis to quantify invalidation and to study its impact on symptom severity, quality of life, therapy adherence, therapy outcome, and other important aspects of fibromyalgia.

Psychosocial Aspects of Pain-Related Life Task Interference: An Exploratory Analysis in a General Population Sample

To assess perceptions of the interfering effects of chronic pain upon the frequency of eight activities of daily living, and to examine the psychosocial correlates of these perceptions. The areas assessed included social life, recreation, sleep, household chores, working at a paid job, self-care, exercise, and routine physical activities. A telephone survey of U.S. English-speaking adults was conducted using a random digit dialing recruitment procedure. The data are cross-sectional. A national sample of adult men and women aged 25-80 years was recruited. A total of 9,759 persons were screened for the presence of chronic pain. Of the 3,050 found eligible, a total of 2,407 adults with chronic pain completed measures of pain interference and its psychosocial correlates. Participants provided responses to the Profile of Chronic Pain: Screen (PCP: S) and to the Profile of Chronic Pain: Extended Assessment (PCP: EA) battery. The PCP: S measures key aspects of chronic pain, and the PCP: EA assesses pain attitudes and beliefs, coping, and positive and negative social responses to pain. Regression analyses revealed that pain severity, along with factors assessed by the PCP: EA (including catastrophizing, fear of pain, guarding, and control beliefs), accounts for 16-40% of the variance in perceptions of functional task interference. Although pain severity is consistently related to life task interference, several psychosocial variables make incremental contributions to the perception of pain's deleterious influence on daily task functioning.

An evaluation of multiple dependent variables across distinct classes of antecedent stimuli pre and post functional communication training.

Abstract Functional analyses of problem behavior for 4 young boys with developmental delays showed that problem behaviors were maintained by both negative and positive reinforcement. Functional communication training was conducted with one set of training stimuli in which the child's mother presented a work task in the family living room. Pretreatment probes were conducted with up to 10 sets of generalization stimuli that varied across tasks, settings, and people. Post treatment probes were conducted across the same generalization stimulus sets. Results for four dependent variables (problem behavior, task completion, manding, and social interactions) indicated that (a) problem behavior occurred across some but not all generalization stimulus sets during pretreatment; (b) following training, reductions of 90% or greater were observed within the context of the training stimuli; (c) reductions in problem behavior were observed for 70% of the post treatment generalization stimulus sets, but the reductions were not as large (M = 61%) as those observed with the training stimuli; and (d) the most consistent change observed during post treatment probes of generalization stimulus sets was increased task completion. Parents of all participants completed a behavior rating form and reported reductions in problem behavior across activities. Keywords: stimulus generalization, FCT, response generalization, developmental disabilities, severe problem behavior. ********** Functional communication training (FCT) has been an effective procedure for reducing the occurrence of problem behavior and increasing appropriate communicative responses for people who engage in destructive behaviors that are maintained by social stimuli, such as gaining attention, gaining access to preferred items, or escaping task demands (e.g., Brown et al., 2000; Carr & Durand, 1985; Fisher, Kuhn, & Thompson, 1998; Hanley, Iwata, & Thompson, 2001; Wacker et al., 1998). To date, the majority of research on FCT has focused on the effects of treatment within a specific training context, and the evaluations have been limited to the short-term effects of FCT on the occurrence of problem behavior and appropriate communication. To further evaluate FCT, analyses are needed on both stimulus generalization (e.g., responding across untrained antecedent stimuli such as persons, tasks, and settings) and changes in other positive social responses, such task completion and social interactions, following the completion of FCT. A few studies have evaluated the effects of FCT on behavior beyond the training context (Durand & Carr, 1991, 1992; and Durand, 1999). Durand and Carr (1991) demonstrated that reductions in problem behavior and increases in appropriate communication were maintained across untrained contexts (classroom settings, novel care providers) following FCT for 3 boys whose problem behavior was maintained by escape from academic demands. The reductions in problem behavior were maintained across non-trained stimuli over a 2-year period for 2 of the 3 participants without additional training. Similarly, Durand (1999) taught students with severe disabilities to use augmentative communication devices in their classroom to request stimuli that had been identified as maintaining problem behavior. In each case, FCT resulted in increased use of the communication device and a reduction in problem behavior in the classroom. Furthermore, use of the device increased and problem behavior decreased in community settings following the completion of FCT. Derby et al. (1997) evaluated the effects of FCT across multiple dependent variables including problem behavior, manding, toy play, and positive social behaviors with 4 young children over a 2-year period. Derby et al. demonstrated that the effects of FCT were not limited to problem behavior and manding, which were consequated directly within the FCT package. The results showed that gains in toy play and positive social behaviors occurred and were maintained for the 2-year period. …

Are physically embodied social agents better than disembodied social agents?: The effects of physical embodiment, tactile interaction, and people's loneliness in human–robot interaction

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of physical embodiment in human–agent interaction. Experiment 1 ( N = 32 ) shows positive effects of physical embodiment on the feeling of an agent's social presence, the evaluation of the agent, the assessment of public evaluation of the agent, and the evaluation of the interaction with the agent. A path analysis reveals that the feeling of the agent's social presence mediates the participants’ evaluation of the social agent. Experiment 2 ( N = 32 ) shows that physical embodiment with restricted tactile interaction causes null or even negative effects in human–agent interaction. In addition, Experiment 2 indicates that lonely people feel higher social presence of social agents, and provide more positive social responses to social agents than non-lonely people. The importance of physical embodiment and tactile communication in human–agent interaction and the diverse role of social robots, especially for the lonely population, are discussed.

Psychological “resilience” and its correlates in chronic pain: Findings from a national community sample

The display of effective functioning despite exposure to stressful circumstances and/or internal distress is often termed ‘resilience’. The study of resilience is believed to provide information about the nature of illness adaptation that is distinct from that obtained via the analysis of clinically impaired groups. In recent years, the concept of resilience has seen only limited exploration in the chronic pain literature. This article describes a multi-step procedure that first identifies resilience among chronic pain sufferers selected from a national sample of adults and then examines a set of its psychological correlates. Using the Profile of Chronic Pain:Screen (PCP:S), administered to a national sample of adults with chronic pain, a resilient subsample was identified on the basis of high scores on a Severity scale (at least 1 SD above the mean) combined with low scores (at least 1 SD below the mean) on scales assessing Interference and Emotional Burden. An age- and gender-matched non-resilient subsample was then selected who scored high (at least one standard deviation above the mean) on Severity, Interference, and Emotional Burden. The results of a series of comparisons between the resilient and non-resilient groups revealed significant differences favoring resilient individuals in coping style, pain attitudes and beliefs, catastrophizing tendencies, positive and negative social responses to pain, and health care and medication utilization patterns. The findings provide a preliminary foundation for further research aimed at understanding the nature and causal underpinnings of resilience in persons with chronic pain.

Promoting Prosocial Behaviours Among Preschool Children With and Without Disabilities

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program on promoting prosocial behaviours among preschool children with and without disabilities. The intervention was carried out with three integrated groups of children, each comprised of one child with a disability and two peers without disabilities, created from three mainstreamed preschool classrooms. The intervention was successful in promoting increases in positive social interactions among the children with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. For two of the three groups the children with disabilities engaged in an equal or greater percentage of positive social initiations than their peers without disabilities. Increases in positive social responses to positive social initiations were similar for children with and without disabilities. Intervention phase behavioural changes generalised to both immediate group conditions, but did not generalise to deferred classroom conditions. Variabili...

The effects of peer social initiations on the social behavior of withdrawn maltreated preschool children

The present study evaluated the treatment and generalization effects of implementing a peer social initiation intervention with four severely withdrawn maltreated pre-school children. Positive social response and initiation data were collected across the treatment (a playroom) and the natural classroom setting. A reversal design superimposed on a multiple baseline was used to evaluate the effectiveness. The results indicated increases in positive social responses and initiations across treatment and generalization settings. Follow-up data for two children indicated time and setting-time generalization effects. Teacher reports validated treatment gains.

Possession Episodes in Young Children's Social Interactions

Abstract This naturalistic study examined the relationships between possession episodes and other social behaviors. Twenty children were observed in 240 social interactions that occurred during free play in their preschool classroom. The interactions were analyzed for behaviors related to possession, affiliation, prosociability, and aggression. The findings suggest that possession episodes are positively associated with agonistic behaviors and negatively related to positive social responses both situationally and dispositionally. First, disputes following possession claims frequently resulted in the termination or disruption of the social interaction. Moreover, a comparison between children's behaviors in interactions that contained a possession episode and in those that did not revealed that more aggression and fewer prosocial and affiliative behaviors occurred in the possession interactions. Second, in an analysis of individual social patterns, children who frequently engaged in possession disputes enga...

Group interpersonal skills training in a natural setting: an experimental study

This study assessed effectiveness of group interpersonal skills training conducted in a natural setting with nonanalogue clients. Subjects ( Ss) in a behavioral-training condition received 4 hr of instruction consisting of modeling, behavioral rehearsal, coaching, feedback and reinforcement. Training focused on positive and negative social responses and on initiating interactions, as well as reacting to interactions initiated by others. Subjects in a discussion-control condition engaged in focused discussion of interpersonal concerns but received no experiential practice. Within a pre-test-post-test control group design, subjective and objective measures were used to assess training effects. When compared to Ss involved in group discussion. Ss participating in group behavioral training revealed greater pre- to post-test changes on selfreported probability of engaging in selected interpersonal responses and on objective measures of eye contact, speech duration, positive affective responses, use of no-statements, compliance, refusals and requests for new behavior. Support for generalization of training is presented and methodological issues are discussed.

SOCIAL AND PLAY RESPONSES OF FIRST-BORN AND LATER-BORN INFANTS IN AN UNFAMILIAR SITUATION

Responses to a stranger and to a novel toy were measured in 12 first-born infants and 6 infants whose next sibling was 6 or more years older. Also tested were 18 later-borns whose age-spacing to next sibling was 5 years or less and who were matched to the other infants in age, sex, and socioeconomic status of parents. Subjects ranged in age from 38 to 56 weeks and were cared for predominately by their mothers. First-born and widely spaced infants were found to pause longer before picking up the toy, to play less, to cry more, and to smile later and less often than later-borns with preschool siblings. It was concluded that infants exposed to few persons tend to show more fear and fewer positive social responses toward strangers than do infants exposed to many.

A Program of Research on the Dimensions and Antecedents of Emotional Dependence

The problem set for this paper is to outline a program of research which focuses upon an assumed continuity between early childhood conditions and those consequent social behaviors of children which typically have been labeled dependence. In particular, emphasis is placed upon behaviors which are employed apparently to gain such positive social responses from other persons as those involving attention, approval, affection, reassurance, and nearness, and upon the early conditions under which they develop. While it is probable that knowledge of the processes underlying emotional dependence will be critical to the understanding of a substantial portion of the social behavior of children and adults, very little is known either about the dimensionality or the antecedents of that behavior class. The principal focus of this paper is upon child behavior; however, the major problems raised may be considered a subclass of general behavior problems and hence continuous with questions characteristically raised about adaptive behaviors exhibited in simple settings both by infrahumans and humans. Since the theories of social development which do not have their origins in such basic considerations of learning appear to approach the earliest conditions for the development of dependence in a less articulate manner, selected descriptive concepts and postulates which stem from work on general behavior problems are emphasized in this paper. Relatively little emphasis is placed upon concepts at other than simple levels of analysis (e.g., personality characteristics of the mother, her acceptance of the child, social class membership), which appear to be employed in many theories and researches on children's dependence, and index conditions which would qualify early dependence learning. However, it is expected that the reader will bring to mind such concepts, theories and research findings as they are required. A systematic ordering scheme would appear requisite to any research program of intended generality and significance. It is preferable that such 1 The writer is grateful to Mr. D. M. Baer for his valuable aid in the preparation of this paper.