Relapse prevention is a multimodal, cognitive-behavioural approach to treating, among other types of clients, child molesters. Rather than positing a cure as the outcome of treatment, it emphasises self-management and personal responsibility for avoiding or coping with situations that threaten self-control. The motivation to use these self-control strategies is likely to vary according to beliefs about the causes of their offending behaviour, particularly as a function of the degree to which they are seen as controllable. Fifteen child molesters, classified as preferential or situational type, and familial or nonfamilial, from the Kia Marama unit at Rolleston Prison reported on their causal beliefs concerning their offence-related behaviour at four points in their description of their most typical or recent relapse. This assessment was carried out at four points in the 35-week relapse-prevention based treatment program.

All participants made clinically positive changes in their causal ascriptions over treatment. Preferential participants judged the cause of their offending to be less controllable, and more stable at the time of offence, and more global than situational offenders. Compared with non-familial participants, incestuous participants evaluated the cause of their offending to be less stable at the time of their offence and less global across all the assessment points. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of attributional assessment as an interim measure of progress, particularly with respect to motivation to avoid reoffending.

This study examined the effects of tactile stimulation on self-injurious behaviour (SIB) in a 10-year-old boy with developmental disabilities. SIB occurred at high rates during unstructured play, suggesting an automatic reinforcement, sensory stimulation function. Noncontingent application of an alternative source of tactile stimulation produced only modest reductions in SIB, but contingent removal of the objects used to obtain tactile stimulation produced clinically significant reductions.

Preliminary data are provided on two new instruments in the field of traumatic stress, namely the Penn Inventory and the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The Penn Inventory is a 26-item self-report scale developed for use with a range of trauma populations. The CIDI-PTSD is a draft module currently being trialed and eventually to be included in the full version of the CIDI interview. Participants comprised 30 Australian Vietnam combat veterans, who also completed the Impact of Event Scale and the Mississippi Scale for PTSD (M-PTSD). The Penn Inventory demonstrated good congruent validity and was comparable to the M-PTSD in diagnostic accuracy. Both scales tended to overdiagnose. The CIDI-PTSD performed disappointingly, showing relatively low sensitivity and specificity. Implications for the appropriate use of these instruments are discussed.

Extinction is a well-researched behavioural procedure that is used to reduce in frequency, or eliminate, behaviour that is judged to be inappropriate or excessive. Typically, the procedure is implemented contingent upon the exhibition of the behaviour targeted for change. In the present study, the effects of an accidental extinction procedure on pokey players' behaviour are discussed. Extinction is deemed “accidental” in that the procedure came into effect as the result of a power failure. Results demonstrate a gradual reduction in attempts to operate the poker machines over the extinction period, as well as an increase in the collateral behaviours of beverage (primary alcohol) consumption, cigarette lighting, and social interactions. Implications of this study for further research are discussed.

Studies examining the musical mood induction procedure (MMIP) currently typically involve the experimenter preselecting a piece of music for use with all subjects. This assumes that the same piece of music will be equally effective at eliciting low mood for all subjects. The validity of this assumption was evaluated among 12 bulimic and 12 control women. Subjects listened to seven preselected pieces of music and rated them according to how likely it would be that the piece of music would help them to lower their mood / feel sad. Analysis showed that subjects were highly individual in their responses, and that it could not be assumed that the same piece of music would be equally effective at eliciting low mood across subjects.

Self-management techniques have been shown to be less labour intensive than other intervention procedures and to produce changes in behaviour that endure. Autistic children have been successfully taught to use self-management techniques across a variety of settings. The present study used an AB design with a follow-up to assess whether self-monitoring could be successfully employed to reduce inappropriate questioning behaviour in a high-functioning autistic adolescent. Results show that self-monitoring was associated with a reduction in questioning behaviour and a qualitative change in the questions asked. These findings are discussed in relation to their possible implications for the successful integration of autistic children into the mainstream.

A chronic case of insomnia treated by paradoxical intention is reported. All previous attempts at treatment, including progressive muscle relaxation, had failed. When a behavioural analysis was conducted and treatment was selected according to the analysis, full recovery resulted and was maintained through long follow-up. The case study illustrates a clinically useful way to choose the treatment technique when many techniques exist to treat a presenting problem.