George Spivack

Interpersonal problem-solving in young children: A cognitive approach to prevention

An interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) intervention, designed to reduce and prevent impulsive and inhibited behaviors in black low socioeconomic status (SES) 4- and 5-year-olds, was implemented by teachers and evaluated over a 2-year period. In the first year, 113 children were trained and 106 were not. The 131 still-available in kindergarten were divided into four groups: Twice-trained (n = 39); Once-trained, Nursery (n = 30); Once-trained, Kindergarten (n = 35), and Never-trained controls (n = 27). Findings showed that (a) ICPS impact on behavior lasted at least 1 full year, (b) training was as effective in kindergarten as in nursery, and (c) for this age and SES group, 1 year of intervention had the same immediate behavior impact as 2. Further, well-adjusted children trained in nursery were less likely to begin showing behavioral difficulties over the 2-year period than were comparable controls, highlighting implications of the ICPS approach for primary prevention.

Interpersonal problem solving as a mediator of behavioral adjustment in preschool and kindergarten children

Abstract An experimental model tested the mediating function of interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills on behavioral adjustment in preschool and kindergarten children. Relative to controls, nursery-trained youngsters improved in three such skills, kindergarten-trained in two. In both the nursery- and kindergarten-trained groups, increased ability to conceptualize alternative solutions to interpersonal problems significantly related to improved social adjustment. Consequential thinking also emerged as a clear behavioral mediator, especially among kindergarten-aged youngsters. Improvement in behavior could not, however, be attributed to change in causal thinking skills. Having identified two significant behavioral mediators in young children, a beginning has been made to isolate specific thinking skills, which, if enhanced, can contribute to healthy social adjustment and interpersonal competence at an early age.

Interpersonal cognitive problem solving and primary prevention: Programming for preschool and kindergarten children 1

Abstract A competence‐building model of primary prevention was evaluated on 131 inner‐city black nursery and kindergarten children over a two year period. The major question is whether enhancing interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) skills of four‐and five‐year‐olds could improve inhibited and impulsive behaviors when they already exist, and prevent them from emerging when they do not. Findings suggest that ICPS training does reduce and prevent such behaviors, that the ICPS and behavioral impact of such programming lasts at least one full year following intervention, and that for youngsters not trained in nursery, kindergarten is not too late. However, more children do begin kindergarten at a better behavioral van‐tagepoint if lCPS‐programming is implemented a year earlier, in nursery.

The Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scales A Study of the Nature and Organization of Achievement Related Disturbed Classroom Behavior

Footnotes for fhis article can b e found immediately following references. We assume that classroom behavior, insofar as it reflects attitudes and motivations regarding school learning and achievement, is significant and important to educators and professional persons who are involved in the intellectual growth and academic development of the child. Teachers and guidance counsellors are frequently called upon to make reports about or evaluations of how a child is behaving in class. Report card systems often request that the teacher supplement grades with ratings or comments about classroom behavior that purportedly help to explain the grade given. Similar reports of behavior are often requested by professionals outside of the school system who may come into contact with the student. The management of the classroom, with its frequent connotation of maintaining control over the students, is a frequent topic of discussion among teachers. Many students have certain behavior “reputations,” particularly those students who pose problems. Other student behaviors raise rather baffling questions for the teacher, who wishes to understand what the behavior may mean so as to respond appropriately. With the surge of interest in recent years in “special” education, there has been a heightened focus on disturbed or problem behavior in the classroom. This increased interest can be seen in the rapid development of the profession of school psychology, in publications i n . the area of academic techniques with atypical children, and in studies dealing with prediction of emotional problems that might interfere with academic success (e.g., Bower, 1959). The rapid increase in the development of psychological services in schools has focused attention upon early recognition and remediation.

The Cognition of Social Adjustment

Over the past decade, and especially the past few years, there has been a surge of interest in interpersonal problem solving among those involved in clinical and developmental issues. This interest has been stimulated in part by our attempts to identify, measure, and enhance a set of thinking processes we all have come to call interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills (ICPS). The purposes of this chapter are (1) to outline the theory and assumptions underlying this work, (2) to describe ICPS skills that have been or are in the process of being identified, (3) to introduce the notion of non-ICPS thought and its possible relationship to ICPS thought, and (4) to describe formal training programs and informal dialoguing techniques that have been found to enhance ICPS and subsequent behavioral adjustment.

The Assessment of Achievement-Related Classroom Behavior

Hahnemann Community Mental Health Center Philadelphia, Pennsylvania This study was part of an extensive inquiry into the relationship between children’s classroom behavior and their academic success or failure in grades kindergarten through 12. (Spivack & Swift, 1966; Swift & Spivack, 1967a). The initial purpose of the project was to learn how disturbed classroom behaviors are organized in both normal and special classes and to assess the correlation between these behaviors and achievement, intelligence, age, sex, and (among abnormal children) clinical diagnosis. First, teachers were asked to describe the behaviors of the children in their classrooms. Then a factor analytic technique was used to organize the observed behaviors into meaningful clusters (factors). Twelve behavioral factors evolved, ten of which

Syndromes of Disturbed Classroom Behavior: A Behavioral Diagnostic System for Elementary Schools

I The authors express appreciation to Dr. Perry Scheinok and his staff at the Computer Center of Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital for their assistance. The contribution of the third author was supported by USPHS grants 5-RO1-GM-16193 and USPHS PR-15. 2 Now at the Division of Computer Research and Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md. In the inaugural issue of this journal, the investigators presented the results of a factor analytic study of the classroom behavior of normal and abnormal (special education) elementary school children (Spivack & Swift, 1966). This was the first of a series of studies, the primary aims of which were to better understand the nature

Clarifying the relationship between academic success and overt classroom behavior.

Using the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale, a device developed to identify achievement related classroom behaviors in kindergarten through sixth grade, 298 ratings were made of children designated as achievers and underachievers at the fifth grade level. Achievement criteria were subtest scores on a group test and teacher assigned report card marks. The analysis of the relationship between classroom behavior and the achievement criteria indicates that when a child is underachieving, this is evident not only in the grade or test scores he receives but also in his broader functioning in the classroom. In addition to the poor achievement scores they receive, underachievers are clearly different, in terms of maladaptive overt behavior, from their achieving peers. This is particularly true when the achievement criterion is the teachers judgment of the quality of the childs efforts.

Achievement Related Classroom Behavior of Secondary School Normal and Disturbed Students.

How can the educator be helped to focus upon achievement related classroom behavior in an organized, reliable, and communicable fashion? Academically related behaviors were described by teachers of regular (public school) and special class (emotionally disturbed) junior-senior high school students. An initial 102 item scale was used by teachers to rate 882 regular class and 672 special class youngsters. The result was a 45 item scale defining 13 factors, 12 common to both the regular and special class groups. All of the 13 factors were significantly correlated with academic achievement in the special classes, 12 of the 13 in regular classes. The results were interpreted in terms of the relevance of behavior to academic success or failure.

Interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS): A competence‐building primary prevention program

Summary This paper provides a description of Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving, a competence‐building primary prevention program. The theory underlying the program is described and an outline, including excerpts from actual scripts, is provided.