Search

The present study evaluated the extent to which a low-cost, antitheft intervention impacted theft and sales in a multiple baseline design across two grocery stores. Previous research has measured the impact on theft of items that have a sign indicating their high theft rate and stickers next to or on the items. In contrast, this study tracked four intervention groups: a group directly marked with a sign and ribbons, two indirectly targeted groups (sign-only and a group down the aisle from the sign-only), and a group with no intervention. Results indicated the largest decrease in theft for one of the indirectly targeted groups, from 45 total items stolen to 13, compared to a smaller decrease in theft (i.e., 64 to 40) for the directly targeted sign and ribbons products. Implications of these findings for applying behavior-based antitheft interventions in retail businesses are discussed and future research is proposed. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

The present case study examines how culture can influence behavior-based safety in different organizational settings and how behavior-based safety can impact different organizational cultures. Behavior-based safety processes implemented in two culturally diverse work settings are described. Specifically, despite identical implementation plans, similarities and differences in the actual implementation of the two behavior-based safety processes are presented with an emphasis on the effects of employee-driven decisions. Data on both implementations and outcome measures are provided. The results are discussed with respect to the potential impact of specific cultural variables.

The present case study examines how culture can influence behavior-based safety in different organizational settings and how behavior-based safety can impact different organizational cultures. Behavior-based safety processes implemented in two culturally diverse work settings are described. Specifically, despite identical implementation plans, similarities and differences in the actual implementation of the two behavior-based safety processes are presented with an emphasis on the effects of employee-driven decisions. Data on both implementations and outcome measures are provided. The results are discussed with respect to the potential impact of specific cultural variables. KEYWORDS. Behavior-Based safety, employee-driven decisions, culture, participation

This paper is written in response to the paper by Geller (2002) contained in this volume. Geller proposes that OBM needs to establish its foundation by entertaining research methodologies, concepts, and content areas from other areas of psychology. However, less consistent with his position, in this commentary it is suggested that OBM must maintain its philosophical roots in behaviorism. To accomplish this, it is proposed that (a) concepts from outside the behavior analytic literature need to be explicitly interpreted as environment-behavior interactions, not person-behavior interactions and (b) to be viable our graduate training should focus more on this perspective. KEYWORDS. Organizational behavior management, industrial/organizational psychology, racial behaviorism, environment-behavior interactions

This paper details concerns with the potential misuse of the term 'response generalization' in the behavioral safety literature. Stokes and Baer's (1977) technologies of generalization and the basic literature on response induction are used to make the claim. Ludwig and Geller's (2000) Journal of Organizational Behavior Management special issue describing their work with pizza delivery drivers is used as an example. The potential problems of non-technical use of language in a technological behavioral science are briefly discussed. Finally, Baer, Wolf, and Risley's (1968, 1987) criteria of applied behavior analysis are re-visited in this context in hopes of calling researchers of organizational behavior management to more closely align their work with the tradition of applied behavior analysis. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: Website: KEYWORDS. Response generalization, behavioral safety, organizational behavior management, applied behavior analysis

Ways to increase the delivery of a special thank-you card following behavior that protected the environment or helped another person were addressed. In Study 1, direct rewards for the target behavior were compared with indirect rewards for making a promise to emit the target behavior. Rewards for promising to give out thank-you cards resulted in the most participation and led to the most cards used per participant. In Study 2, students in one class received coupons for a raffle if they signed a petition to hand out two or more thank-you cards (indirect rewards). In a second class, students got one opportunity to win prizes in a raffle for each card delivered (direct rewards). Significantly more cards were distributed in the Direct Reward condition. However, significantly more students handed out at least one card in the Indirect Reward condition. Implications for encouraging college students to support pro-environment and pro-social behaviors are discussed.

An A-B-A reversal design with a long-term follow-up evaluated a community-wide commitment and incentive program to improve pedestrian safety. The campaign encouraged residents of a college community to sign promise cards to use crosswalks when crossing campus roads and to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks when driving. Crosswalk use increased during a 6-week intervention period to 68% (n = 1,718) from a baseline mean of 58% (n = 2,038). Driver-yielding behavior significantly increased throughout the study, from a baseline mean of 23% (n = 979) to a mean of 44% (n = 272) for 2 weeks after the removal of intervention materials and termination of publicity. Observations of crosswalk use and yielding behavior 1 year after the intervention revealed that crosswalk use returned to near baseline levels (61%, n = 1,954), but driver-yielding behavior (53%, n = 602) remained high, substantially about the baseline. Recommendations for institutionalizing pedestrian safety campaigns are offered.

A multiple intervention level hierarchy was evaluated with systematic implementation of successive interventions over a period of two years. Successive applications of written prompts, goal-setting, goal-setting plus feedback, and promise-card commitment interventions did not significantly impact the safety-belt use of 556 employees at a manufacturing plant in southwest Virginia. A modest increase in safety-belt use (from 59% to 68%) occurred only when a promise-card commitment strategy was combined with an incentive/reward strategy. These data support a multiple intervention level hierarchy which suggests that repeated attempts to change behavior with interventions at the same level of intrusiveness will not affect behavior uninfluenced by the first attempt at that level. A flow of behavior change model (Geller, 1999) is used to explain the impact of interventions on people at different stages of readiness for behavior change and to extend the multiple intervention level model. Suggestions are given for selecting the most appropriate behavior change strategy for large-scale applications. KEYWORDS: Safety, safety belt use, written prompts, safety slogans and celebration, assigned goal, goal plus feedback, promise card, promise card plus incentive/reward

Methods of generalization (Stokes & Baer, 1977) are applied to investigate contingencies that produce long-term response maintenance in large-scale behavioral interventions for industrial safety. It is proposed that characteristics representing four methods originally outlined by Stokes and Baer (1977) have an additive effect on the duration and amount of response maintenance obtained. To evaluate the validity of this conceptualization, a sample of occupational safety research published in refereed journals between 1974 and 1996 is described and analyzed. Regardless of intervention technique, noteworthy. consistencies among all studies successful at producing maintenance were the use of on-site workers to administer the program and general feedback in the context of multiple target behaviors; or a single-target behavior that was easy and convenient to emit. It is recommended that applied behavior analysts set out to program response maintenance at the expense of publishing fewer short-term demonstrations of functional control. KEYWORDS. Response generalization methods, long-term response maintenance, large-scale industrial safety interventions, behavioral safety

An in-vehicle information system (IVIS) was used to videotape drivers (N = 61) without their knowledge while driving 22 miles in normal traffic. The drivers were told that they were participating in a study of direction following and map reading. Two data-coding procedures were used to analyze videotapes. Safety-related behaviors were counted during consecutive 15-s intervals of a driving trial, and the occurrence of certain safety-related behaviors was assessed under critical conditions. These two methods of data coding were assessed for practicality, reliability, and sensitivity. Interobserver agreement for the five different driving behaviors ranged from 85% to 95%. Within-subject variability in safe driving was more pronounced among younger drivers and decreased as a function of age. Contrary to previous research that has relied on self-reports, driver risk taking did not vary significantly as a function of gender. These results are used to illustrate the capabilities of the technology introduced here to design and evaluate behavior-analytic interventions to increase safe driving. DESCRIPTORS: driving safety, observation methodology, instrumented vehicle, participant reactivity

Comments on authors Sonia M. Goltz and Amy Hietapelto's article about operant Analysis of power interpretation of resistance to change in organizations. Working operational definition of resistance to change; Correspondence between comments in training and participation in the change process; Evaluation of both overt behaviors and corresponding verbal behaviors.

We used the Barnum Effect (Dickson & Kelly, 1985) to teach principles of research and to promote participation in 2 undergraduate psychological research methods courses. During the first week of class, 2 instructors presented themselves as experts in graphology and collected handwriting samples from students. Subsequently, each student received the same ambiguous one-size-fits-all personality assessment, presumably based on his or her handwriting. The students completed questionnaires about their perceptions of graphology prior to and immediately after receiving their personality assessments and 8 weeks later. Students significantly increased their ratings of graphology as a science after receiving their personality assessments, then lowered their ratings significantly after debriefing. We used the demonstration to teach various aspects of displaying and interpreting data and to highlight the pitfalls of pseudoscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]