Interpersonal and emotional problem solving among narcotic drug abusers.

Interpersonal problem solving: Problem conceptualization and communication use

“…For example, an event is or is not a problem, or it is one type of problem or another. Numerous categorical schemes for interpersonal problems exist (e.g., Appel & Kaestner, 1979;Barker, 1984;Baxter & Wilmot, 1985;Jacobson, Waldron, & Moore, 1980;Kelley, Cunningham, & Stambul, as reported in Kelley, 1979;Levant, 1984;Klein & Hill, 1979;Newman & Langer, 1981;Parod & Parod, 1968;Peterson, 1983;Umana, Gross, & McConville, 1980). On the other hand, the dimensional viewpoint permits degree.…”

What is problem solving? A review of theory, research and applications

“…The groups studied have included emotionally disturbed boys differing in popularity (Higgins and Thies, 1981a); prison inmates judged as 'successful' or as 'misfits' within their institution (Higgins and Theis, 1981b); university students varying in levels of depression (Gotlib and Asarnow, 1979); and narcotic drug abusers rated as having good versus poor prospects of recovery (Appel and Kaestner, 1979). Deficient problem-solving skills have also been shown to be associated with such diverse difficulties as unplanned pregnancies (Flaherty et al, 1983;Steinlauf, 1979), suicide attempts (Asarnow et al, 1987;Schotte and Clum, 1987), agoraphobia (Brodbeck and Michelson, 1987), and depression amongst older adults (Kleftaras, 2000).…”

Offense-Focused Problem Solving

“…Research in this area has evaluated the hypotheses of Spivack and his colleagues by performing studies in which psychiatric patients (Platt, Siegal, & Spivack, 1975;Platt & Spivack, 1972a, 1972b, adolescent heroin users (Platt, Scura, & Hannon, 1973), adult opiate users (Appel & Kaestner, 1979), adult prison inmates (Higgins & Thies, 1981), and suicidal psychiatric patients (Schotte & Clum, 1987) were compared with nonclinical control groups. In each case, significant differences were identified between experimental and control samples, with experimental samples possessing more component problem-solving skills and/or exercising them more effectively.…”