Training juvenile probation officers in behavior modification: Knowledge, attitude change, or behavioral competence?

Training community-based, asian-american mental health personnel in behavior modification

“…The participants' behavioral analyses were scored independently by two raters trained in the use of a standardized 44-item checklist which was expanded from an earlier study (Burkhart, Behles, & Stumphauzer, 1976). Interrater reliability was an established .97.…”

An evaluation of three approaches to the teaching of a behavioral therapy

“…Reports on the training of behavior therapists can be grouped as to those that have evaluated programs designed to train the well-rounded, independent behavioral clinician (Musante & Najjar, 1973;Poser, 1972) and those that train a particular type of change agent to apply a limited set of procedures with a specific target population, e.g., attendents with the inpatient retarded (Gardner, 1972), parents with acting-out children (Nay, 1975) ; teachers with students (Kazdin, 1974) and parole officers with parolees (Burkhart et al, 1976). Recent reviews concur that trainee progress must be evaluated on both cognitive and objective behavioral (unbiased observers) measures to meet minimal methodological standards (Loeber & Weissman, 1975;Matarazzo, 1978).…”

“…In recent years, the demand for professional training in behavioral therapy has increased rapidly (Johnson & Bornstein, 1974). Although there has been a good deal of theoretical and descriptive literature on the optimal learning conditions for the acquisition of behavioral therapist skills, little sound research has evaluated current training practices (Bernstein & Karan, 1978;Burkhart, Behles, & Stumphauzer, 1976;Loeber & Weissman, 1975;Matarazzo, 1978). Research on a corollary question, how best to evaluate the competence of behavioral therapists, is equally rare (Wright, Horlick, Bouchard, Mathieu, & Zeichner, 1977).…”

“…A variety of methods have been used to evaluate the impact of training in behavior therapy : Knowledge of behavioral principles as assessed by written tests (Burkhart et al, 1976;Gardner, 1972;Wright et al, 1977); trainee ratings of satisfaction with diverse aspects of the training experience (Burkhart et al, 1976;Kuehnel et al, 1978;Musante C Najjar, 1973); attitudes toward mental illness (Paul et al, 1973) ; a survey of subsequent professional activities (Poser, 1972) ; observation of interaction with a simulated client (Wright et al, 1977) ; and observation of interaction with actual patients (Gardner, 1972;Paul et al, 1973). Finally, as Matarazzo (1971 and Truax, Carkhuff, and Kodman (1965) indicate, the ultimate question is whether patients tested by differentially trained therapists actually improve at different rates.…”

“…The lecture format proved superior on a paper-and-pencil test of the trainees' knowledge of behavior modification principles. Burkhart et al (1976) found that juvenile probation officers who received a 6-week behavior modification course did not differ significantly from the no-training control group on paper-and-pencil measures of knowledge and attitude. However, trained officers performed significantly better when required to write up a behavioral analysis and treatment plan upon completion of an interview with a trained confederate parolee.…”