Richard A. Steffy

A Comparison of Child Molesters and Nonsexual Criminals: Risk Predictors and Long-Term Recidivism

The present study compared the long-term recidivism of 191 child molesters and 137 nonsexual criminals. Overall, 83.2% of the nonsexual criminals and 61.8% of the child molesters were reconvicted during the 15- to 30-year follow-up period. The two groups tended to be reconvicted for distinct types of offenses. Almost all sexual offense recidivism was in the child molester group (35% vs. 1.5% in the nonsexual criminal group). The nonsexual criminals, in contrast, were responsible for almost all the nonsexual violent recidivism. In general, prior offenses of a specific type predicted future offenses of the same type. Overall, the results support the utility of developing specialized approaches for understanding and managing child molesters.

Aversive and cognitive factors in the modification of smoking behaviour.

Abstract This study investigated the role of verbalization and behavioural rehearsal procedures in an aversive conditioning behaviour therapy for smokers. Experimental conditions, contrasted with an insight control condition, featured combinations of overt or covert verbalizations describing the smoking act and the use or omission of behavioural rehearsal of the smoking act concomitant to an avoidance conditioning procedure. Substantial improvement was obtained, and continued in the follow-up, from a particular combination of behavioural rehearsal and covert verbalization. In this condition S s were trained to smoke a cigarette while imagining themselves to be in a social situation, and while making a sub-voca description of their smoking behaviour. These results have led to the speculation that the manipulation of covert events and behavioural rehearsal of the deviant act may be important adjuncts of the aversive paradigm by virtue of the greater generalizability of the self-generated cues to extra-therapy situations.

Smoking modification procedures tailored to subject characteristics

Explanations of treatment were devised to capitalize on the individual differences of smoking clinic clientele volunteering for a standard aversive conditioning treatment. The experimental design permitted study of the interactions of specially tailored explanations and the individual difference dimensions from which the commentaries were derived. The primary goal of the study was to contrast the utility of an internalized “willpower”-oriented approach to smoking control with an externalized environmentbased approach to self-control and to analyze the relative worth of these procedures for clients falling at the high and low end of the Rotter LOC scale. Also, procedures designed to induce dissonance gave an opportunity to test the application of a dissonance model and, in post hoc analyses, to study the interaction of the dissonance-inducing procedure with pretreatment levels of dissonance as measured by Keutzers ECD scale. The results failed to show promise for the control manipulation or its interaction with LOC scores, but the dissonance procedure alone and in interaction with the ECD scores produced positive findings. It was noticed that greater levels of induced dissonance produced greater reductions in smoking, and that the best improvements occurred in subjects with high natural dissonance scores who received the low dissonance procedures, and low dissonance score subjects who received the strong dissonance induction.

AN EARLY CUE SOMETIMES IMPAIRS PROCESS SCHIZOPHRENIC PERFORMANCE

BACKGROUND The simple reaction time task THE SIMPLE reaction time task is well known for its sensitivity to schizophrenic pathology. The precision of the procedure, the replicability of results, and the salience for theorizing about the nature of attentional deficits in schizophrenic pathology have made it a virtual “north star” of schizophrenia research.1 In its basic form the task has three primary stimulus features comprised of two signals with a delay interval between. The first signal is an alerting or “ready” signal designed to announce the beginning of each trial. Following that signal there is a delay of preparatory interval during which the subject has been asked to wait vigilantly for the second stimulus which serves as a signal-to-respond. The response is generally a finger lift or a retraction from a telegraph key. These task features have been studied to learn how procedural variation interacts with schizophrenic pathology. The latency of response, recorded in milliseconds, is generally used to assess experimental and subject variation. Maximum attention has been given in the literature to the study of two of these features. The signal-to-respond or imperative signal has been investigated in terms of the intensity,2 the modality,3 and the modality relationship among trials.4 The delay interval, or preparatory interval, has been investigated in relation to the length of the delay and the predictability of the various delays used across trials. 5 Studies of these two features have provided support for various theoretical constructions of schizophrenic pathology, for example, SHAKOW~ and ZUBIN.6.

EEG slow frequency and WISC-R correlates.

On the basis of slow frequency indices obtained from computerized EEG assessments, 36 children were ranked the highest and 23 the lowest in a heterogeneous population of children involved in a brain-behavior assessment program. WISC-R results show the high or excess slow frequency group to have low verbal and normal performance subtest scores, while those with the least slow frequency activity were above normal on verbal and performance scores. Discriminant function analyses of the WISC-R profiles significantly separated the two EEG groupings, with the Information Subtest and Verbal IQ the best discriminating measures. The results suggested that diffuse EEG slow frequency reflected a “maturational lag.” Cluster analyses showed that the subtest profile was constant independently of IQ. Other findings indicated that the presence of excessive slow frequency activity was associated with less electrophysiological and psychometric differentiation.

Operant behaviour modification techniques applied to a ward of severely regressed and aggressive patients.

Behaviour modification techniques featuring token-economy procedures were used successfully to treat a ward of severely regressed and aggressive female psychotic patients. In case history fashion, this paper has reported on the character of the population treated, the nature of the procedures employed, and a set of outcome measures. The outcome measures reported fall into three classes: 1) target behaviours associated with meal- and bed-time, 2) standardized measures of adjustment and, 3) success rater after a two-year follow up. In the light of the original level of pathology and difficulty in management of these patients and the shortage of personnel to care for them, it has been concluded that these behaviour modification procedures are a most promising therapeutic agent.

EEG "maturational lag" profiles: follow-up analyses.

Nineteen children who had EEG diffuse slow frequency profiles suggesting a maturational lag were retested 1 to 2 years later receiving both EEG and psychometric assessments. They were compared to 18 children who also had been tested previously but did not have the slow frequency profile. Children with the maturational lag profile displayed varying degrees of EEG developmental change upon retest;i.e., some showed the expected developmental change while others remained the same. Within this group, there were significant relationships between the degree of EEG change and psychometric scores. Those that demonstrated the most EEG change had higher psychometric indices, and these relationships were not obtained in the comparison group. These findings suggest developmental heterogeneity with respect to brian maturation as measured by the EEG and also suggest that test-retest EEG data can clarify a maturational lag diagnosis.

Prepreparatory interval effects on redundancy deficit reaction time patterns in schizophrenic and normal subjects using the embedded-set procedure

The relative influence of genuine “redundancy deficit” and the artifactual effects of prepreparatory interval on measures of the redundancy deficit reaction time pattern (faster reaction time on trials with long preparatory intervals when the interval is of predictable vs. unpredictable length) was investigated in a study using the “embedded-set” procedure. Twenty normal and 20 schizophrenic subjects received two series of reaction time trials containing embedded sets (blocks) of four isotemporal 1-, 3-, and 7-second trials. The 7-second blocks (the blocks of interest for the calculation of redundancy deficit) were preceded by long prepreparatory intervals in one condition and by short intervals for the second. Each subject received both conditions, with the orders counterbalanced. The results indicated redundancy deficit for both schizophrenics and normals with short prepreparatory intervals, but in neither group with long prepreparatory intervals. This suggests that redundancy deficit in the embedded-set procedure (which is normally heavily biased with short prepreparatory intervals) may be more related to the enhancing effect of short prepreparatory intervals on the first (unpredictable) trial of the set than to impaired performance on the fourth (predictable) trial. The finding of similar effects in both schizophrenic and normal subjects raises questions about the specificity of redundancy deficit to schizophrenic reaction time performance. The results were discussed with reference to the original “long run” reaction time procedure for studying the same phenomenon, and theoretical issues related to the interpretation of results from the two procedures were considered.

Priorities for professional training in the 90s: Perspectives of directors of psychology training programs.

Priorities for Professional Training in the 90s: Perspectives of Directors of Psychology Training ProgramsLYNN ALDEN, KERRY MOTHERSILL, RICHARD STEFFY, ROBERT MCILWRAITH, RHONA STEINBERG, LINDA MCMULLEN, AND GEORGE TASCA Canadian Council of Professional Psychology ProgramsAbstractThe directors of professional training programs in psychology offer a unique perspective on the challenges facing psychology. On one hand, these directors are members of programs that are struggling to maintain standards in the face of funding cuts and program reorganization; on the other hand, they bear primary responsibility for ensuring students are prepared for careers in psychology in the 21st century. This paper presents a systematic examination of the opinions of these directors about the issues of primary importance facing their training programs today. Training directors whose programs are members of the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs (CCPPP) completed a survey questionnaire and then participated in a day - long discussion as part of a CCPPP workshop. There was good agreement between the directors of doctoral programs and internship settings regarding the issues of greatest importance to their programs. Directors saw their priorities as honing the clinical training that they offered to students and ensuring that their programs survived. Program expansions and revisions were clearly of lower priority. Issues identified at the recent Mississauga Conference received mixed support.The 90s have seen significant changes in Canadian federal and provincial government policies for funding education and social services. These changes have direct impact on psychology training programs. Both academic graduate programs and predoctoral internship programs are faced with reductions in funding and, particularly in the case of predoctoral internships, with program reorganizations that increasingly force training faculty and staff to do more with less. At the same time, changes in the marketplace for psychological services, as well as changes in training models and treatment techniques, increasingly require training staff to reformulate their programs to prepare students for careers in 21st century psychology.Given the number of challenges facing psychology today, training program directors are feeling the need to define their priorities so that program modifications will be proactive and systematic. It is particularly useful at this point for the Canadian training community to exchange ideas so that programs can work together to establish and meet national training priorities. The first steps in this task are to understand how training faculty and staff across Canada view the challenges facing their programs and to identify the issues they judge to be most important.The Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs (CCPPP) is an independent organization developed in 1977 by Park Davidson to serve as the interface between academic programs and internship training sites and to create an arena for program directors to exchange ideas about professional training. The CCPPP, with its 69 member programs, reflects a good cross - section of Canadian academic and internship training programs in clinical psychology and includes some counselling psychology programs as well. One part of the CCPPP mandate is to target member concerns and develop services that meet those concerns. Over the past year, the executive of the CCPPP have been working to identify the priorities of Canadian training programs as they face the challenges of the 90s. This paper describes the results of our efforts to identify those issues considered highest priority by Canadian training programs today.The information presented here was collected through a two - step process. First, directors of CCPPP member programs were surveyed and asked to rate which of a variety of issues were of greatest concern to their training programs. …

Intensity of Imperative Signal Influences on Redundancy Deficit and Latency in Process Schizophrenics

The resilience of the redundancy deficit pattern of schizophrenic reaction time performance was explored by examining the resistance of redundancy deficit to an experimental manipulation of imperative signal intensity. Aversive levels of stimulation have been used to alter motivation and shown to normalize schizophrenic performance in other research. In this study, 20 schizophrenic patients were administered a reaction time task under conditions of usual motivation and, 1 day later, under conditions of aversive motivation induced by high decibel levels of stimulation. The redundancy deficit pattern was observed with usual motivation but not with so-called biological motivation. The results are discussed from the points of view of the utility of redundancy deficit as an index of vulnerability to schizophrenia, implications for attentional and motivational theories of schizophrenia, and finally, in terms of the more general role of aversive stimulation in schizophrenic deficit. The finding that redundancy deficit is ameliorated by aversive motivation is consistent with theories suggesting that schizophrenics respond primarily to negative motivation. Garmezys suggestion that the common denominator of the multiplicity of schizophrenic deficits may lie in motivational factors, particularly the prepotent avoidance motive, is supported by these results.