Lynn Hickey Schultz

The Value of a Developmental Approach to Evaluating Character Development Programmes: An outcome study of Facing History and Ourselves

An outcome study of the Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO) programme is used to illustrate a developmental evaluation methodology developed by the Group for the Study of Interpersonal Development (GSID). The GSID approach to programme evaluation of character development programmes embeds the evaluation into a theoretical framework consonant with the theoretical underpinnings of the programme, using measures sharing the same theoretical assumptions as the practice. The subjects in this study were students in eighth-grade social studies and language arts classes in public schools located in suburban and urban communities in the United States. The sample included 346 subjects in 14 FHAO classes (212 FH AO students) and eight comparison classes (134 comparison students). A 10-week Facing History and Ourselves curriculum was taught in the FH AO classrooms either in late winter or spring. The study demonstrated that eighth-grade students in Facing History classrooms showed increases across the school year in relationship maturity and decreases in racist attitudes and self-reported fighting behaviour relative to comparison students, although these findings were complicated by interaction effects with gender. The gains Facing History students made in moral reasoning and in civic attitudes and participation were not significantly greater than the comparison students, although there was a significant difference between the groups on the civic measure at post-test. The study highlights the benefits of using a developmental measure of social competence to evaluate character development programmes that are based on similar assumptions.

Fostering friendship : pair therapy for treatment and prevention

A great number of children and adolescents face a world of violence and isolation. In this book, the members of the Group for the Study of Interpersonal Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Judge Baker Childrens Center in Boston describe in detail an innovative intervention and prevention method, pair therapy, that is designed to address these issues by helping children develop healthy interpersonal relationships. Pair therapy is a relationship-oriented treatment modality that addresses the social context of the difficulties encountered in growing up in todays world. This approach has been developed not only as a therapeutic intervention in day and residential treatment centers but also as a prevention method that can be used in public schools, day care centers, and other contexts. This practical volume meets the demand for an accessible, hands-on guide to the pair method. The theoretical foundations of the approach are also presented in an accessible fashion here. The techniques described in this book model a relationship-building process between an adult professional and two children. This process replicates the social relations that happen naturally in healthy and happy interactions and long-term relationships among well-cared-for children in safe and secure communities. This book will be useful for a number of disciplines that deal with younger children and adolescents: social work, education, school and group therapy, and human development. It offers educators, therapists, and other practitioners in a wide variety of settings the opportunity to learn how to develop a pair therapy program. It will also be an indispensable tool in the libraries of mental health practitioners who counsel youth beyond ordinary clinical treatment.

Bridging the gaps in child-clinical assessment: Toward the application of social-cognitive developmental theory☆

Abstract Child-clinical assessment has traditionally relied on a set of techniques that fail to specify the links between intellect, affect, and behavior, making their articulation dependent on the interpretive skill of the clinician. In this paper, we attempt to illustrate how assessment approaches derived from the study of social-cognitive development and its relation to social behavior may help to bridge these gaps in a more direct fashion. We begin by sketching a conceptual model of the development of a particular form of social behavior—namely, interpersonal negotiation strategies (INS)—and its social-cognitive underpinnings. The model has served as the theoretical foundation for both interview and rating scale assessment techniques, which evaluate INS development in thought and action, respectively. We describe these assessment techniques, present a summary of the evidence supporting their internal and external validity, and describe and illustrate the ways in which various profiles of performance on the measures may carry implications for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Adolescent Ego-Development Trajectories and Young Adult Relationship Outcomes

Adolescent ego-development trajectories were related to close-relationship outcomes in young adulthood. An adolescent sample completed annual measures of ego development from ages 14 through 17. The authors theoretically determined and empirically traced five ego-development trajectories reflecting stability or change. At age 25, the sample completed a close-relationship interview and consented for two peers to rate the participants’ego resiliency and hostility. Participants who followed the profound-arrest trajectory in adolescence reported more mundane sharing of experiences, more impulsive or egocentric conflict-resolution tactics, and less mature interpersonal understanding in their young adult relationships, and their young adult peers described these participants as more hostile. Participants who attained or maintained higher levels of ego development in adolescence reported more complex sharing of experiences, more collaborative conflict-resolution strategies, and greater interpersonal understanding, and their young adult peers rated them as less hostile and as more flexible.

Bridging the gap between interpersonal thought and action in early adolescence: The role of psychodynamic processes

This study examines the relations among style and development level of four interpersonal and intrapsychic processes: interpersonal thought, self-reported interpersonal action, mechanisms of defense, and object representation. Subjects were 25 girls and 25 boys from the eighth grade of an urban public school System. All four constructs were measured along developmental and stylistic dimensions. Both interpersonal thought and self-reported action processes were measured with the hypothetical and real-life interpersonal negotiation strategies interviews of Selman and colleagues. Defensive process was measured with a questionnaire revised to include Vaillants developmental analysis of defense mechanisms as well as assessment of style of defense (internalizing vs. externalizing). Object representation style and level were measured with constructs and instruments of Blatt and colleagues. The results supported the main hypothesis: Levels of defense mechanisms and object representation independently predicted level of self-reported interpersonal action, even when controlling for level of interpersonal thought (which also predicted action). This suggests that if there are gaps between interpersonal thought and action levels, the relative level of maturity of psychodynamic processes helps explain action level. In contrast, there were few relationships among the stylistic components of the four constructs, although each style construct was related to its associated level construct. Contrary to hypotheses, no gender differences were found on any of the composited level or style variables. The study suggests operational links between structural-developmental and psychodynamic aspects of personality.

Interpersonal Thought and Action in the Case of a Troubled Early Adolescent

Barney is a 15½-year-old boy who for many years has had a serious “attitude problem”; more recently, however, his attitude has improved. For the past 8 years he has attended a special day school for children and early adolescents with behavioral and/or social-emotional difficulties. The year Barney has just completed will be his last at the school; the joint educational-clinical team that monitors his progress has decided he is ready to try a return to public high school. Barney has improved considerably during the last 2 years in both his academic performance and his behavior. The change in Barney’s academic work is apparent in standardized achievement test scores and teacher reports. The change in his interpersonal thought and behavior—in the way he deals with his teachers and peers and with his own feelings under stress—is more uniquely documented. For the past 3 years Barney has participated in two research projects based on separate (though related) aspects of psychosocial development. These projects have tracked Barney’s progress in both interpersonal “thought” by which we mean social-cognitive capacity or understanding of hypothetical conflicts, and interpersonal “action,” meaning actual conduct or social behavior.