A problem behaviour which had been maintained on a variable reinforcement schedule was first put onto a continuous schedule and subsequently treated by extinction. The rapid response to extinction was judged to have been due to the prior move to a CRF schedule. Reasons for the emergence and maintenance of problem behaviours in certain situations are discussed.

In an earlier edition of this journal (vol. 22, 111–123) William R. Miller persuasively defends his motivational interviewing approach (Miller, 1983) against the claim that it is “manipulative”, at least in the pejorative sense of that term. This critique of Miller's methods and his response to it is explored as a new manifestation of a longstanding conflict between (cognitive) behaviourism and psychoanalysis, a conflict that seems to lie at the very heart of psychological science, restricting the professional development of us all. It is argued that our own discipline could benefit from some form of motivational intervention to enable cognitive-behaviourists and psychodynamicists to communicate genuinely and more fully with each other. Some suggestions for steps in this direction are provided.

This study compared complaints management training and cognitive therapy (reattribution) in treating panic disorder. Both treatment groups received three sessions with initial psychoeducation. Thirty patients with panic disorder took part in the study. Assessments were carried out before and after treatment and again at a 4-week follow-up. Both groups showed similarly significant improvements and maintenance of the clinical change over the follow-up period. It is concluded that the initial psychoeducation, which conveyed to patients the cognitive-behavioural model of panic disorder, contributed to the treatment outcome.

This study explored the beliefs held by 17 individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia on the identity and cause of their problems using a semi-structured interview. Just over half of the sample considered their main difficulty to be something other than a psychiatric or psychological problem. Nevertheless, all participants reported having at least one problem, and a range of views concerning the causes of these problems were elicited, with an average of five causal factors endorsed. This suggests that traditional insight scales fail to capture the complex subjective models of understanding held by individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

This report describes a placebo strategy which engendered a reasonable degree of positive expectation in 10 Generalized Anxiety Disorder patients and was perceived by them as being credible, sensible and appropriate at pre- and post-therapy and at six month follow-up. The significant improvement noted on a range of measures suggests that the strategy is not inert.

Treatment programmes involving a very brief period of Restitution and/or Positive Practice as derived from the overcorrection rationale, coupled with differential reinforcement of other behaviours, were successfully implemented with six severely mentally handicapped children who displayed either self-injurious or self-stimulatory behaviours. The reduction in the period of time devoted to Restitution and/or Positive Practice from the 20 min traditionally used to approximately 1 min is seen as beneficial in that it reduces demands on direct care-givers' time and stamina, while concurrently allowing an increase in the number of times the child associates the undesirable behaviour with its aversive consequences. The importance of positive reinforcement, the care necessary when using punishment procedures, however brief, in an institutional setting and the attitudes of direct care-givers are discussed.

Clinicians faced with the problem of finding the most effective treatment of individual patients often express disappointment and frustration when turning to the research literature for guidance. Treatments and measures reported are often standardised, may be carried out for a fixed period irrespective of response, and use atypical - even ‘analogue’ populations, while variables of most clinical interest - such as individual differences - are symbolically relegated to the error term of the ANOVA. One reaction to this is to dismiss the experimental method as irrelevant to clinical problems, usually in favour of intuition in one guise or another, as a more satisfying and creative activity. It is unfortunately true that rigorous experiment is no guarantee of rapid success in generating valid theory or successful application in the clinic - however it is the only available route to cumulative progress. To utilise it most effectively requires both awareness of relevant clinical questions by the research worker, and willingness to utilise experimental or ‘quasi-experimental’ (Campbell & Stanley, 1966) methods on the part of the clinician, rather than to retreat to the non-experimental and untestable position of the pre-scientific psychotherapists.

Persistent night-time disturbance in a small dog was treated by extinction. The difficulties of carrying out the programme, which in this case necessitated the use of an associate therapist, are discussed. Although a reversal design was not employed and therefore contingency control could not be indisputably demonstrated, the programme was judged to have been successful.

The effects of instructions and reinforcement on the handwriting of a 13-year-old boy in special education were studied. Both variables were found to be effective. A simple scoring method was used. It was found that the scoring system was easily learned by the child, and was sufficiently reliable to merit continued use under certain circumstances.

Correlations were evaluated between personality factors, as measured by the EPI, and treatment outcome in obsessional–compulsive patients. The results suggest that extraverts have a slightly better outcome than introverts when treatment is carried out with a time-limit. After treatment to criterion extraversion failed to correlate with outcome. The Neuroticism scale (N) correlated with assessment variables before treatment as well as after. There was, however, an indication that high N scores were predictive of elevated anxiety ratings after treatment. None of the results applied to the sub-group taking clomipramine at the time of assessment.

Entering the betting shop environment may be influenced not only by economic motives (Hess and Diller, 1969) but also by early learning within the family (Bergler, 1957) and by the contingencies operative in the wider social environment (Newman, 1972).

A case study is described which illustrates the use of behavioural techniques in a family intervention where the patient had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia. The relative merits of behavioural techniques and the difficulties encountered in applying them are noted.