Carr E G, Newsom C D, Binkoff J A
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1976;4(2):139-53. doi: 10.1007/BF00916518.
This study attemped to isolate some of the stimulus variables that controlled the self-destructive behavior of a psychotic child. In Experiment 1, the child was exposed to several demand and nondemand situations. In Experiment 2, the situation containing demands was modified so that demands now occurred in the context of a positive, ongoing interaction between the child and the adult therapist. The rates of self-destructive behavior underwent several orderly changes: (1) Rates were high in demand situations and low in nondemand and modifieddemand situations; (2) rates decreased sharply when a stimulus correlated with the termination of demands was introduced; and (3) rates of self-destruction typically showed gradual increases within each of those sessions which contained only demands. These results were interpreted as suggesting that (1) self-destruction, under certain circumstances, may be conceptualized as an escape response which is negatively reinforced by the termination of a demand situation and (2) certain modifications of the social environment may provide discriminative stimuli for behaviors other than self-destruction, thereby decreasing this behavior.
本研究试图分离出一些控制一名患有精神病儿童自毁行为的刺激变量。在实验1中，让该儿童接触几种有要求和无要求的情境。在实验2中，对包含要求的情境进行了修改，使要求现在出现在儿童与成年治疗师之间积极的持续互动背景下。自毁行为的发生率发生了几次有序变化：（1）在有要求的情境中发生率高，在无要求和修改后的要求情境中发生率低；（2）当引入与要求终止相关的刺激时，发生率急剧下降；（3）在仅包含要求的每个时段内，自毁发生率通常呈逐渐上升趋势。这些结果被解释为表明：（1）在某些情况下，自毁可被概念化为一种逃避反应，因要求情境的终止而得到负强化；（2）社会环境的某些改变可能为除自毁行为之外的其他行为提供辨别性刺激，从而减少这种行为。
