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Behaviour Modification with Children: The Generalisation Trap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Ronald S. Drabman ,
J. Scott Allen Jr. ,
Kenneth J. Tarnowski ,
Susan J. Simonian  and
Debra Elliott
Ronald S. Drabman*
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi Medical Center
J. Scott Allen Jr.
Affiliation:
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Kenneth J. Tarnowski
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve Universityand MetroHealth Medical Center
Susan J. Simonian
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve Universityand MetroHealth Medical Center
Debra Elliott
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
*
Division of Psychology, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 North State Street, Jackson MS 39216–4505, USA
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Abstract

In order to encourage research in generalisation, Drabman, Hammer, and Rosenbaum (1979) introduced a framework to categorise the various generalised effects of child behaviour therapy. Sixteen different potential classes of generalisation were identified. To ascertain the current status of generalisation in the child behaviour therapy literature and further encourage generalisation research, we reviewed articles that appeared in 28 journals over the past 12 years. Of 15,141 studies, only 424 involved children and presented data on generalisation. Results indicated that: (a) a small percentage of studies both involved children and presented data on generalisation (2.77%), (b) of these studies, most failed to meet our methodological criteria for demonstrating generalisation, (c) the generalisation map categories of time, maintenance, setting, and setting-time were the most frequently encountered, (d) there was a significant increase in reported instances of maintenance generalisation effects over the past 10 years when compared with data from our earlier paper, and (e) generalisation data were found concerning 15 of the 16 map classes. Implications of these data, methods of conceptualising generalisation, the generalisation trap, and antecedent strategies for promoting generalisation are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 1990 , pp. 163 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1990

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References

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