The beginning of the Index Society, as recorded in its early minutes and first annual report. H. B. Wheatley was a prime mover. He wrote the minutes, acclaimed the Society’s birth and recorded its ...untimely death.
The text of a talk given to the Society of Indexers in March 1990, with the inclusion of comments from the audience. Examines how and why indexes made by authors to their own books may differ from ...those made by professional indexers.
Coercive interaction patterns involve a sequence of events in which two individuals deliver and withdraw aversive stimuli that systematically reinforce reciprocal dysfunctional behavior. Patterson ...(1982) and his colleagues, in their pioneering work with families, first defined a coercive interaction model. This descriptive study extends Patterson's model to interactions of adults with severe disabilities and residential support staff. Three adults with severe intellectual disabilities and severe problem behavior and two support staff who worked with each resident were selected as subjects for this study, forming six resident/staff dyads. One support staff withdrew from the study, leaving five resident/staff dyads. Approximately 12 observation sessions were videotaped for each resident/staff dyad, and observation sessions averaged 17 minutes each, for a total of 16 hours of videotaped interactions across the five dyads. Resident/staff interactions were coded based on mutually exclusive and exhaustive behavior-response classes. The coded data were then analyzed to identify "initial request strings" in which staff made a request followed by a sequence of reciprocal resident/staff responses. Dominant initial request string patterns were identified and conditional probabilities were computed. These patterns were then compared to the coercion pattern described by Patterson (1982). The results demonstrate that two dyads presented a distinct pattern of coercion. The resident in these two dyads used negative reinforcement procedures to train both staff to remove difficult demands, and staff inadvertently trained the resident to perform problem behaviors. Two other dyads demonstrated constructive interaction patterns. Staff were less likely to reward problem behavior and the resident rewarded appropriate staff behavior. The fifth dyad presented a more complex pattern in which some elements of the coercion model were observed. The results have both theoretical and applied importance. They support the extension of Patterson's model of coercion to the interactions of adults with disabilities and support staff. The applied implications of the results extend to (a) enhancing procedures for functional assessment, (b) developing behavior support plans, and (c) constructing policies on the use of behavioral support in community environments.
