Contributed papers selected by the program committees of various divisions of the association and published prior to their presentation at the convention.

Originally published in 1976, this volume is organized about two central themes: the experimental analysis of aggression, and the application of learning principles to the prevention and modification of delinquency. The chapters, all new and original at the time, demonstrate how the problems of aggression, which had been interpreted in diverse ways, can be analyzed under controlled laboratory conditions. In addition, the contributors offer an explanation of how behavior modification techniques, derived from this knowledge, can be used for preventive purposes. Because of the social nature of aggression and delinquency, behavior change techniques were principally aimed at modifying environmental influences. The contributions to this volume illustrate how behavioral scientists may aid in the understanding and amelioration of conditions that give rise to violence. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

In this volume, the author reviews the results of research on language performance and proposes a model of production and comprehension. Although recent developments in linguistics are taken into account, consideration of other requirements of a performance model leads to the conclusion that the grammar the speaker has in mind differs from the grammar as currently conceived of by most linguists. The author is also critical of recent computer simulations of language performance on the basis that they fall short of describing what goes on in human production and comprehension. The author therefore proposes that the basic issues must be rethought and new theoretical foundations reformulated, in order to arrive at a viable theory of language functioning. In developing the framework of the model presented in this book, requirements of flexibility in the performance mechanisms, the probabilistic nature of comprehension processes, and the interleaving of linguistic rules with context and knowledge of the world are emphasized.

To understand the process of psychotherapeutic change, one must look for the answers in the psychotherapeutic process itself. This process involves the exchange of communications between two (or more) participants, and as a result of the exchange, modifications in the personality and behavior of the patient are expected to occur. But what is the nature of the therapeutic messages? How do they produce changes in the patient? What aspects of the messages are important for therapeutic change? And if the therapeutic force is somehow encoded in the messages, where shall we look for it- in sentence structure, in emotional overtones, in gestures and body movements? The Process of Psychotherapy is divided into two major parts, dealing respectively with method and with systems. In Part I, the author presents an analysis of psychotherapy process research from a communications perspective, developing an incisive and detailed analysis of the methodological issues that confront researchers in this field and suggesting theoretical and empirical strategies for addressing these issues. Part II provides the first exhaustive and detailed summary of extant psychotherapy process systems. The author first deals with direct systems, those procedures of content analysis or rating scales that have been developed to assess the exchanges between therapists and patients. Seventeen major direct process systems are presented in detail and are summarized with ample citations to the literature. The final section of the book offers an exhaustive listing and concise description of various indirect measures of psychotherapy process, which do not assess the verbatim interview exchanges of the participants in therapy but rather assess the participants' perceptions via self-report or standard analogue procedures. This book is a basic, sophisticated, and exhaustive coverage of psychotherapy process and content analysis that will become the standard and authoritative source for anyone interested in the process of psychotherapy, whether as student, researcher, or practitioner.