This paper presents a quantitative description of the activity of the Australian Behaviour Modification Association, as reflected in conference presentations from 1978 to 1987 and publications in Behaviour Change from its inception to 1988. The results reveal a number of pleasing and displeasing aspects of behavioural research and other activities over the past ten years. These findings are discussed with reference to the next decade, with specific suggestions for directions and priorities.

Sport psychology interventions generally derive from strategies developed in clinical contexts. This paper describes the use of a graded hierarchy, with fading of response induction aids at each step, in treating avoidance behaviour arising in a sporting context. A twelve-year-old gymnast was treated for a simple phobia following a fall.

The effects of a token program implemented in the home by a teacher were examined. The effects of a home token program were evaluated using a multiple baseline design across reading, spelling and handwriting lessons while disruptive behaviour was recorded. The results indicated that inappropriate behaviours decreased when the token program was implemented. Follow-up data indicated some increase in inappropriate behaviours. Spelling performance was higher in the student's classroom during the token program in the home than during baseline. This indicated some generalisation from the home token program to academic responding in the classroom.

Primary nocturnal enuresis in a nine-year-old boy with Down's Syndrome was treated successfully with an enuresis alarm. A criterion of four consecutive dry weeks was reached after fourteen weeks and the child remained dry at six-month and twelve-month follow-up. Treatment included a gradual withdrawal phase. The study replicates others showing that a simple ‘bell and pad’ procedure can suffice. Client, family and procedural variables associated with success and failure of alarm treatments are discussed.

Cognitive-behavioural group treatment programs for agoraphobia were held over a sixteen-month period, and waiting lists were generated. Retrospective analysis of the data revealed the apparent importance for attrition of such factors as the availability of helpers and the timing of treatment programs. Suggestions are offered to reduce waiting list attrition.

Cognitive factors, such as the accessibility of schematic categories, have been shown to bias interpretation of information about other's behaviour. In this study, the effects of diagnostic category accessibility on subjects' causal attributions for an interviewee's behaviour were investigated. In order to activate a specific diagnostic category, making it more accessible for information encoding, mental health students completed a short test. Half answered questions about victims of rape attacks; the other half answered questions about the diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder. All subjects then rated their attribution for a female interviewee's non-verbal behaviour along four dimensions: Internality, Stability, Globality, and Controllability. Results indicated an interaction between type of course and experimental condition. Psychology undergraduate students in the Rape Victim condition tended to make more stable and global attributions than did Psychiatric Nursing and Masters of Psychological Medicine students. In addition, a significant main effect was found on the Controllability dimension. The subjects in the Personality Disorder condition rated the cause as significantly more controllable than did the subjects in the Rape Victim condition. Implications of the results are discussed.