This study examined the ecological validity of role-played dating interactions. Forty-five male undergraduates, categorized into low-, medium-, and high-frequency dating groups, participated in four heterosexual social (heterosocial) situations in a laboratory. Two situations were role plays simulating dating interactions, and two were more naturalistic waiting-period interactions. Controls for confederate familiarity and role-play order were used. Judges rated subjects as more skillful in role plays than waiting periods and rated low'-frequency daters as more anxious than high-frequency daters. High-frequency daters rated themselves as more skillful than did low-frequency daters. Subjects rated the waiting-period interactions as more like "real life" and their behavior in waiting periods as more representative of everyday heterosocial interactions. However, analyses of variance did not result in major differences between role plays and waiting periods, and correlational analyses indicated that the relative ranking of subjects was similar in role plays and waiting periods. Implications for the use of roleplay assessments in the heterosocial skill area are discussed. Curran (1977) and Hersen and Bellack (1977) have recently pointed out numerous methodological flaws in heterosexual social (heterosocial) anxiety and skill research, with a major and pervasive weakness being the lack of validity data on many of the assessment instruments. The data that are available provide inconsistent support for any given measure's validity. Because appropriate evaluation of selection and treatment procedures relies on the reliability and validity of assessment techniques (Paul, 1969), the lack of basic psychometric data on the assessment procedures seriously limits the validity of research in this area.Many investigators have used role plays of various common interactions to assess heterosocial anxiety and skill; for example, sitting in a pizza parlor waiting for a pizza (Curran, 1975), initiating a conversation Requests for reprints should be sent to

Despite the widely held belief that paranoid behavior is associated with good premorbid adjustment, low chronicity, and high current functioning in psychiatric inpatients, inconsistencies in the literature suggest that supportive evidence may be an artifact of the measurement model commonly used to index paranoid status. In a sample of 497 nonorganic inpatients selected from 19 treatment units, paranoid behavior, when measured by a dimensional/cumulative model, was not found to indicate higher functioning and associated relationships, but simply to reflect a narrower class of problem behavior. Only when paranoid status was defined using a traditional model based on the predominance of the defining class of behavior did paranoid subjects demonstrate better premorbid adjustment, lower chronicity, and higher levels of functioning than nonparanoid subjects. Serious problems exist in the use of information obtained from traditional predominance/class models for either theoretical or practical purposes.

Two groups (A*-28) of nonprofessional trainees, selected from a high unemployment area, received training in the conduct of two highly specified institutional treatment programs. The first group received sequential training with the professional staff first conducting academic instruction, followed by on-the-floor practicum. The second group received abbreviated academic instruction by the professional staff integrated with clinical observation, followed by on-the-floor practicum supervised by experienced technicians. All trainees were evaluated for two six-week periods of clinical performance, one period while still under instructor supervision and one period while functioning independently. Goodness of performance was determined from continuous 10minute time samples obtained by trained observers. Although the sequential/ professional mode of training had previously been found to be associated with higher academic test performance, the integrated/technical mode of training was found to be associated with better on-tho-floor performance. Both groups of trainees performed better on the social-learning than on the milieu program, although goodness of performance was remarkable in both. Goodness of performance was maintained for both groups in both programs after supervision was faded. The relationship of attitudinal differences, academic performance, and civil service ratings with objective performance was also investigated.

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This study tested the efficacy of the Cystic Fibrosis Family Education Program, a cystic fibrosis self-management program, on improving participants' knowledge, self-efficacy, self-management behavior, health, and quality of life. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest nonequivalent comparison group design was employed. Participants made up 104 patient-primary caregiver dyads from the intervention site cystic fibrosis center and 95 from the usual care comparison center. The intervention, a self-paced print curriculum based on social cognitive theory, targeted behavioral capability, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations and was implemented as an integral part of medical care. Parents, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescents received separate materials on respiratory, nutrition and malabsorption, communication, and coping issues. Significant intervention effects were found on the knowledge scores for caregivers, adolescents, and children; caregiver and adolescent total self-management scores; Child Behavior Checklist total score; one parent coping scale score; the modified NIH score; NIH pulmonary factor 1; and the Brasfield total score. Significant interaction effects were evident in the self-efficacy scores for caregivers and children.