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Historically, anxiety has been a dominant subject in mainstream psychology but an incidental or even insignificant one in behavior analysis. We discuss several reasons for this discrepancy. We follow with a behavior-analytic conceptualization of anxiety that could just as easily be applied to emotion in general. Its primary points are (a) that languageable humans have an extraordinary capacity to derive relations between events and that it is a simple matter to show that neutral stimuli can acquire discriminative functions indirectly with no direct training; (b) that private events can readily acquire discriminative functions; (c) that anxiety disorders seem to occur with little apparent direct learning or that the amount of direct learning is extraordinarily out of proportion with the amount of responding; and (d) that the primary function of anxious behavior is experiential avoidance. We conclude that the most interesting aspects of anxiety disorders may occur as a function of derived rather than direct relations between public events and overt and private responses with avoidance functions. Implicit in this conclusion and explicit in the paper is the assertion that anxiety is a suitable subject for behavior-analytic study.

The present investigation evaluated the utility of classroom-based functional and adjunctive assessments of problem behaviors for 2 adolescents who met diagnostic criteria for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comorbid oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). For children with ADHD-ODD, environmental classroom variables, when systematically manipulated by teachers, were related to the occurrence and nonoccurrence of problem behaviors. Classroom interventions derived from information that was obtained during functional and adjunctive assessments and from subsequent analyses resulted in substantial reductions in problem behaviors. Teacher and student consumer satisfaction ratings indicated that the interventions were effective and feasible in the classroom setting.

This study evaluated the effects of performance feedback on levels of treatment integrity in school-based behavioral consultation. Three teachers employed in a residential treatment community were responsible for treatment implementation. Treatment integrity was defined as the percentage of 2 minute intervals during which contingent teacher reinforcement for student on-task behavior was directly observed. Teacher and child behavior were monitored across baseline, traditional consultation, and consultation with performance feedback conditions in a multiple baseline design. Following a Problem Identification Interview and Problem Analysis Interview (Bergan, 1977), mean levels of treatment integrity for the three teachers ranged from 9% to 37%. The addition of a performance feedback package increased treatment integrity for all three teachers to levels ranging from 60% to 83%. The findings contribute to a growing literature supporting the need for direct assessment of treatment integrity in school-based consultation research and practice.School-based behavioral consultation is, to paraphrase Mark Twain, a good talk spoiled. The interaction typically begins with a consultant and teacher discussing a student's inappropriate behavior, which can be very rewarding (Baer, 1977;Witt, 1990). Often, however, the student's problem behavior is attributed to the "inappropriate" behavior of the teacher (e.g., attention), and the consultant recommends a "new" response (e.g., ignoring the behavior, time out) instead. Because this new This article is based on a dissertation submitted by Kevin M. Jones in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD degree. We are grateful for the assistance of Mary Young, Catherine DeSalvo, and the participating teachers and students.

Early basic research showed that increases in required response effort (or force) produced effects that resembled those produced by punishment. A recent study by Alling and Poling determined some subtle differences between the two behavior-change strategies, but also confirmed that increasing required effort is an effective response-reduction procedure with enduring effects. In this paper we summarize basic research on response effort and explore the role of effort in diverse applied areas including deceleration of aberrant behavior, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oral habits, health care appointment keeping, littering, indexes of functional disability, and problem solving. We conclude that renewed interest in response effort as an independent variable is justified because of its potent effects and because the political constraints imposed on punishment- and reinforcement-based procedures have yet to be imposed on procedures that entail manipulations of response effort.

Many psychologists believe a Kuhnian revolution-a competitive event between incommensurate paradigms in which a winner displaces losers after chaotic upheavalhas occurred in psychology. Cognitive psychology is said to be displacing behavioral psychology and psychoanalysis, but few published data support this thesis. Social science citation records from the leading journals in cognitive psychology, behavioral psychology, and psychoanalysis between 1979 and 1988 were analyzed. Results show an increasing trend for cognitive psychology but also high citation rates with no downward trends for behavioral psychology. Citation rates for psychoanalysis are not as high, but indications of decline are marginal. These findings do not support the Kuhnian displacement thesis on changes in modern psychology.

Behavior analysis is a generic science, and Skinner's vision for it was that it would become a mainstream force, relevant for most if not all human concerns, major and minor. Clearly his vision has not been realized. Determining why this is the case would require a complex multifactorial analysis. One likely factor is that the majority of its basic science findings have been obtained from the study of rats and pigeons. Another likely factor, one directly addressed by this paper, is that the majority of its applied science findings have been obtained from the study of people in only one tail of the normal distribution. Regardless, those outside the field see the relevance of behavior analysis to general human affairs as very limited. Whether the path behavior analysis is on will lead to widespread perception of mainstream relevance anytime soon seems doubtful. An alternative route would involve integrating it with a field that has already made the trip successfully. A premier example involves primary medical care. This paper argues for the integration of behavior analysis with pediatric primary care, sketches a method for its accomplishment, and uses diurnal enuresis to illustrate the requirements of the method.

We evaluated the effects of aversive taste treatment of thumb sucking on untreated trichotillomania (habitual hair pulling) in two children who chronically pulled their hair and sucked their thumbs. A combination of withdrawal and nonconcurrent multiple baseline designs showed that, concomitant with the successful treatment of thumb sucking, hair pulling was also eliminated. The results suggest an efficient method for changing behaviors that are difficult to treat directly.