Some data is nonetheless emerging, however. In Idaho, for example, the welfare rolls have dropped by 77%, the largest reduction in the nation (Egan, 1998). The maximum family benefit in Idaho is $276, regardless of the number of persons in the family, and there is a family lifetime cap of two years of receiving benefits. As the result of a number of interlocking cuts, many families have already lost benefits long before that deadline. Lacking a carefully designed evaluation, it is difficult to be certain of the outcomes, but even the Republican governor is now concerned that these changes may account, at least in part, for several recent social changes. For example, the number of reported child maltreatment cases in Idaho has escalated dramatically, and is now 3 times the national average. Given the well-established association between child maltreatment and poverty (see Mattaini, McGowan, & Williams), the governor is probably right. Grade school reading levels are dropping, and the prison population is climbing rapidly (an escalation of a long-term trend in the state, where the prison population has increased 10-fold in the past 25 years). Interestingly, the business community is opposed to an expansion of good-paying jobs, due to fears of driving up wages.
A core untested premise of welfare reform is that it will move people to self-sufficiency, from welfare to work. This notion has been challenged from the beginning; Gans (1995) estimated that nationally there are six to ten times as many poor, jobless persons as there are vacancies they might fill. Not surprisingly, then, less than 10% of those who have participated in the New York City workfare program appear to have found (much less kept) regular jobs (Firestone, 1996), and only 29% of those who have lost welfare benefits in New York State have found regular jobs in which they earned at least $100 in the 3 months after they left the rolls (Hernandez, 1998). Of the childless adults on Home Relief (General Assistance), only a fifth of New York City recipients who have lost benefits have found such employment. Research indicates that some programs do better, particularly those based on incentives (reviewed in Opulente & Mattaini, 1993, and (Mattaini & Magnabosco, 1997)), but the findings of those studies have largely been ignored in favor of more punitive alternatives (e.g., Kolbert, 1997).
A major problem, of course, is that recent welfare policy decisions have been based primarily on "values" and rule-governed rhetoric rather than outcome data (Klein, 1996; Mattaini & Magnabosco, 1997; Nackerud, Waller, Waller & Thyer, 1997; Thyer,1996). Although punitive, coercive approaches produce reliably worse outcomes than do incentive-based strategies, the former are currently far more common.
A better challenge for the scientist-advocate (Biglan, 1995; Seekins & Fawcett, 1986) is hard to imagine. It is long past time to begin to examine such issues from a rigorous cultural analytic stance, and to take action based on those analyses. For example, an analysis of the necessary structural antecedents required to support employment for a single mother clarifies that one is adequate child care. (See Figure 7.2, Mattaini & Magnabosco, 1997, for a graphic depiction of the interlocks involved). Such care is not, despite occasional political assurances to the contrary, often available for welfare mothers. For example, for mothers required to participate in the New York City workfare program, adequate care is lacking for 61%, and children are often placed in substandard care situations as a result of (illegal) threats and intimidation by eligibility workers who themselves are under enormous aversive pressures to move people into workfare, and ultimately off welfare (Swarns, 1998).
Something is wrong; in fact, many things are wrong. With regard to outcomes, one problem is that the issues have often been framed as involving choices between three supposedly competing goals: (1) protecting poor children, (2) encouraging "self-sufficiency" (or, perhaps better, social contribution) for their parents; and (3) saving money. A healthy society, however, clearly requires all three, and people are genetically prepared for such a society, as is clear from the history of early societies.
The science of cultural analysis suggests the possibility of an alternative approach in which society can begin by identifying the multiple aggregate outcomes desired, then move toward the construction of metacontingent interlocks that will support them. The key lies, as in many other behavioral realms, in taking a "constructional" (Goldiamond, 1974) rather than an adversarial or palliative approach.
Cultural analysts begin, then, with a different vision, one that encompasses all three of the outcomes identified above. The next step is to construct the interlocks required to support the practices and scenes that can produce those outcomes, and we are beginning to have the tools available to do so (Mattaini, 1996). Using welfare reform as an example, there are currently at least 4 steps that cultural analysts can take:
1) We can offer our science in the design of incentive arrangements supported by current data and well-established theory (how often have behavior analysts volunteered such assistance?).
2) We can participate in the construction of feedback loops (including indices) that could make the links between interlocking cultural practices and their aggregate outcomes clear to policymakers and the public.
3) Crucially, we can participate in the analysis and testing of possible establishing operations to potentiate the consequences of attention to those indices (in some ways, this is the most interesting scientific challenge).
4) We can design "consequence analysis" (Sanford & Fawcett, 1980) instruments that may be useful in helping stakeholders (policymakers, voters, and others) to make more thoughtful decisions. The World Wide Web may offer particular opportunities here; we will post a consequence analysis instrument on this site in the near future as an example, on which respondents will be given an opportunity to evaluate the multiple consequences (positive and negative) of directing more resources toward functional welfare arrangements.
An expanded discussion of these strategic directions will be posted here in a future edition. A more detailed discussion of the current science, and of how behavior and cultural analysts might pursue the actions identified is found in Mattaini and Magnabosco (1997). As cultural analysts, we are in a position to contribute from our power, and to facilitate others contributing from theirs as well, toward the collective construction of more functional cultural alternatives. Out of this constructional sharing of power, we are likely to find that "this country can afford to feed, shelter, clothe, and educate our children. And we cannot afford not to" (Mattaini & Magnabosco, p. 165).
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Egan, T. (1998, April 16). In Idaho, the poor fear they will go the way of state's Democrats. The New York Times.
Firestone, D. (1996, September 9). Workfare cuts costs but tracking new jobs poses problems. The New York Times.
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Hernandez, R. (1998, March 23). People not going from welfare into jobs, New York survey says. The New York Times.
Klein, J. (1996, August 12). Monumental callousness. Newsweek, 128, p. 45.
Kohlbert, E. (1997, February 10). Success story under wraps Welfare study. The New York Times.
Mattaini, M. A. (1996). Envisioning cultural practices. The Behavior Analyst, 19, 257-272.
Mattaini, M. A., & Magnabosco, J. L. (1997). Reworking welfare Untangling the web. In P. A. Lamal (Ed.), Cultural contingencies: Behavior analytic perspectives on cultural practices (pp. 151-167). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Mattaini, M. A., McGowan, B. G., & Williams, G. (1996). Child maltreatment. In M. A. Mattaini & B. A. Thyer (Eds.), Finding solutions to social problems: Behavioral strategies for change (pp. 223-266). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Nackerud, L., Waller, R. J., Waller, K., & Thyer, B. A. (1997). Behavior analysis and social welfare policy The example of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). In P. A. Lamal (Ed.) Cultural contingencies: Behavior analytic perspectives on cultural practices (pp. 169-184). Westport, CT: Praeger.
Opulente, M., & Mattaini, M. A. (1993). Toward welfare that works. Behavior and Social Issues, 3, 17-34.
Seekins, T., & Fawcett, S. B. (1986). Public policy-making and research information. The Behavior Analyst, 9, 35-45.
Swarns, R. L. (1998, April 14). Acute lack of day care hinders shift to workfare. The New York Times.
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5/6/98
In 1973 the first outcome study came into existence at UCLA. All of the treatment took place in the clinic. The ages of the children varied greatly from 3 to 9, the best thing that was found was that complex language could be taught. The least desirable thing that was found was that after treatment ended children regressed.
Dr. Lovaas believed that language was the pivotal behavior. In that if you focused all of your efforts on language skills and increased expressive, receptive, conversation, and complex language skills that all other skills would follow along. These skills being, toy play, peer play, and socialization which didn't happen. As a result of the 1973 study the next study that came out which was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology it was decided that treatment should be started with younger children. If you look at that there is a child who is nine and child who is six and child who is three and is there a magic number, or there a point at which it is less than optimal to begin treatment. The number that was picked, based on the 1973 study, was between two and four years of age.
In the next study the chronological age is 48 months or less. Treatment lasted for two to five years, 40 hours a week, and took place in the home. In the interim of those two studies it was found that the treatment worked better when the treatment used common objects from the home and those objects were still there after treatment ended. The only exclusionary criterion was that the child did not have any severe medical disorders and a prorated mental IQ of greater than twenty. Otherwise the child's autism was exacerbated by mental retardation. At intake when treatment was started the children's IQs averaged fifty four. There were three groups of children one group which received 40 hours of one to one therapy and two control groups. All three of those groups were massed on twenty pre-treatment variables, such as self stimulatory behavior, language, half of the children were functionally mute, and half of the children were ecolalic. There were nineteen children in the experimental group and nine of the nineteen or 47% achieved normal functioning. Because the sample group was so small variables outside of therapy may have determined a smaller recovery rate than is actually possible. Generally less formal samples have found somewhere slightly above a 50% recovery rate with this therapy. Parents became a much more integral part of therapy which did not happen in the 1973 study, parents averaged 2 to 5 hours of therapy.
The first control group which consisted of 20 children received 10 hours of therapy or less each week. Their IQs regressed at an average of five points. The second control group didn't receive therapy, they were received from an outside referral source and massed on the pre-treatment variables for the control for what is called placebo effects. What outside studies have found is that 2% of the children will spontaneously recover from autism and there is much research and data to support this theory.
In 1993 there was a follow up study to look at the same children who were in the 1987 study. All of the children had maintained their gains. Nine out of the nineteen achieved normal functioning, eight out of the nineteen were placed in language delayed classes and two out of the nineteen were placed in classes for children with autism. The outcome for those eight out of nineteen who were placed in language delayed classes is somewhat variable. In that over the course of time into adolescence and adulthood are able to hold a job and live independently or somewhat independently holding onto their gains and building upon. The two of the nineteen that were placed in the classes for children with autism are veryrepresentative of the children who have been treated at UCLA as a whole, in that 10% of the children acquire new behaviors slowly and plateau after a year or more of treatment and are placed in a classroom for children with autism.
There is a study currently underway at UCLA looking at the same group of children as adults. The reasons are clearly because there are more subtle tests available now that can closely measure the residual effects and signs of autism. Also the study will ask questions like are you happy, and are you divorced or married, and what is your life like. Most of those people will come into the clinic so that they can be seen, and from visual clinical inspection they are fine and the variability of their behavior is similar to that which could be seen in this room. So some people are introverted and some people are extroverted. Some individuals want to go out and participate in activities and some people want to stay home and read or listen to music.
There are current research projects which exist the largest of which is reading and writing research. There is a fully developed program for what we call auditory learners as opposed to what we call visual learners. Auditory learners develop a foundation of receptive and expressive language within the first three months of therapy. In verbal imitation they are able to give single word, two word utterances. They can perform one step commands such as stand, jump, turn around and sit. They can also do receptive object labels such as touch puzzle verses touch computer and they can also label them expressively like what is it, computer.
Visual learners are the children who in their first three months of therapy either fail to acquire verbal imitation skills or do so at a slow pace and they have a great deal of difficulty with those same auditory programs. In the past and with other treatment methodologies what was implemented with these children was sign language. Unfortunately, sign language has limited accessibility to the general populous. What was implemented was the reading and writing program. The purpose of the program was to teach children to communicate their wants and desires through reading and writing to the greatest extent possible. It also teaches them to communicate through a totally visual means, the grand hope of the reading and writing project is that by teaching children to cue into communication by a visual means will assist them to bridge the gap between visual and auditory.
There has been a great deal of success with these programs, although the research is not yet finished. So in effect we are still learning along the way as each of the programs is implemented. It has progressed to very high level in terms of programs within themselves there are over 500 programs, which is not to say that each child goes through 500 programs, but over the course of thirty five years of treatment programs have become very specific.
An example of the reading and writing program is for instance a child who has worked on verbal imitation for a year and a half and their length of utterance has never moved beyond three words " I see ball" even though everything possible has been tried. Through reading sight words which is not terribly complex being able to read a repertoire of sight words they read " I see a ball and a cat and a cup". The cards are faded out over the course of time, so that you can ask them to say and the child says " I see a ball and a cat and a cup". It is believed that they have a match in their mind, they can see those word cards, somewhere in biological subserts and neuro-chemicals it has stuck and so some children have been able to increase their verbalization so that they can engage in normal conversation as opposed to staying at a plateau with simple one word responses.
Another study that was conducted looked at emotionality. It looked at the changes in emotional affect over the course of time and one group was the best outcome group from the 1987 study, another was typical children and the last was the group placed in classrooms for language delays. What was discovered was that there was no significant differences in the emotional affect of the children in any of the groups, they were all pretty happy in general. The one significant difference was in the level of aggression and that was found by breaking down the various categories from the standardized assessments that exist and creating new categories. Another study which was completed was conducted by Dr. Tristam Smith who was the Assistant Director at the clinic. His purpose was to replicate the 1987 study because no study stands alone in a vacuum they all must be verified in replication. His study was not a true replication because there was a new principle investigator and the children came from the geographical area and the therapists came from the same catchment area. In his study the treatment consisted of thirty hours of one to one therapy. His results were within the 40th percentile and should be published some time soon. He is currently working at Washington State University where he is finishing the work on the study.
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Considerable efforts have been directed over the last decade toward moving the science of behavior beyond the analysis of individual-level actions, toward a science of cultural practices (Biglan, 1995), a science of applied cultural analysis (e.g., Glenn, 1988; Lamal, 1991). Most of this work has been interpretive and conceptual, although this level of analysis is increasingly useful in designing interventive strategies as well. We are in a position that is in some ways similar to that of applied behavior analysis three decades ago, and some of the advice given to that subdiscipline by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) is now applicable to cultural analysis as well. Perhaps particularly important are the suggestions that the field focus on work that is applied (important to man & society, and immediately important to subjects), analytic (involving believable demonstrations of control--while recognizing that in the real world this is often a matter of judgment), and conceptually systematic (have relevance to basic principles).
In particular, if cultural analysis is to be useful, it is important to move toward active demonstrations of effects that persuasively support the underlying principlesóa truly analytic science involving the manipulation of cultural-level variables. Useful though conceptual interpretations are, there is nothing like an experimental intervention to advance science. An interpretation of why one young man attacks another can be valuable, but a tested package to reduce youth violence is both more persuasive and often more socially useful.
There are several ways to move from a conceptual toward an active science. First, a good deal of work in organizational behavior management (see the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management) and behavioral community psychology provides useful starting points, although it has not always been conceptualized as involving cultural practices. This work can be mined for its lessons regarding the analysis and design of interlocking practices.
Second, given the complexities of cultural and permaclonic (Glenn, 1988; Harris, 1979) phenomena, we may benefit from the an approach that has worked well for the ecologistsó-miniaturization. Observations and interventions involving recursive, interlocking systems can often begin with very small examples (for example, an island with an area of a few square meters, Wilson, 1992), which can later be scaled up.
A third step toward a science of applied cultural analysis is the development of analytic tools that can help order the phenomena involved (Mattaini, 1996). This paper offers some possible tools for this work.
Before presenting these tools, I want to clarify my use of terms and analytic units, since this is an area that has not yet stabilized in the science. In discussing cultural-level phenomena, I am using Skinner's framework, within which all human behavior is selected at one or more of three levels the biological/genetic, the operant behavioral, and the cultural. In this perspective, any organized group has a culture, be it a family, a business organization, an ethnic group, or a nation, and people are members of many overlapping cultural entities.
As Glenn (1991) described them, cultural practices "involve repetition of analogous operant behavior across individuals of a single generation and across generations of individuals," and include verbal behaviors, production practices, actions characterizing gender or interracial relations, and so forth. A "culture," for Skinner (1984/87) consists of "the contingencies of social reinforcement maintained by a group." A cultural practice, therefore, is an operant behavior transmitted (and often maintained) by a culture. ("Operants" are roughly actions that "operate" on the environment and produce consequences.) As cultural practices are special cases of operants, Skinner suggested that the evolution of cultural practices "involves no new behavioral process."
A "scene," a term borrowed from Harris (1979), in this context is an instance or enactment of interlocking practices; many of the relevant contingencies may be outside the scene.
The core of applied cultural analysis is the construction of interlocking contingencies involved in increasing the incidence of desirable cultural practices and scenes, and secondarily reducing the incidence of undesirable ones. Glenn (1988) introduced the following diagram to depict the connections between interlocking cultural practices (on the left) and the aggregate outcomes of those practices (on the right):
A "metacontingency" exists when the incidence and prevalence of those practices is contingent on the aggregate outcomes. A metacontingent relation exists only if the aggregate outcomes reciprocally affect the practices that produce them. In other words, a feedback loop needs to exist, in which the aggregate outcomes function as active antecedents and consequences of at least some of the interlocking practices that produce them:
An analytic science seeks to provide explicit, functional specifications of the connections among the variables. This paper focuses, therefore, on clarifying and operationalizing the events occurring on the left side of Glenn's diagram, and specifying how the metacontingent connections between the left and the right are instantiated.
For example, the violence prevention program we are developing (the PEACE POWER! program) is an intervention package explicitly designed to affect the incidence of certain cultural practices in schools and communities, with the expectation that those changes will affect the aggregate outcomes. The conceptual chain involved is shown here:
Two cultural practices that the PEACE POWER! program is designed to increase in participating schools and communities are "recognition events" and the "sharing of power," (one subcategory of which is making constructive suggestions in situations like student council meetings). One scene whose incidence we would like to increase, therefore, is one in which a staff member gives recognition to a student for making a contribution:
In order to increase the incidence of this scene in a culture, a science of behavior needs to specify what antecedents and consequences for the student's action need to be designed, and what antecedents and consequences need to be designed for the staff member. Some of these may come from the actors present in the scene, but many involve interlocking practices on the part of other classes of actors (trainers, administrators, parents, the business community). By spelling these out in considerable detail, a science of cultural analysis can develop and test hypotheses specifying the components of potentially effective interventions. For example, our violence prevention research suggests that the following are some of the relevant antecedents and consequences for staff members:
PRACTICE: Increase incidence of Recognition events
ACTOR: Staff member
ANTECEDENTS:
ï Occasion: PEACE POWER! Planner
ï Occasion: Self Monitoring Chart
ï Occasion: Poster
ï Occasion: Key Chain
ï Occasion: Recognition Boards, point charts, etc.
ï Self-Instruction: Posters, written materials (Modules, articles, particularly with difficult populations)
ï Models: Administrators and supervisors who provide high levels of recognition of staff and kids
ï Motivating antecedents: Kids observed struggling
ï Motivating antecedent: Aversive exchanges with kids
CONSEQUENCES:
ï Positive changes in kid's behavior
ï Self-designed incentives within self-management plan
ï Recognition (verbal, private, public, rewards) from administrators and supervisors
ï Opportunities to present creative innovations
Graphic practice diagrams can help to elaborate the specifics. For example, voter registration drives conducted in human service agencies can be effective (Fawcett, Seekins and Silber, 1988). They are notoriously difficult to maintain, however. Cultural analytic tools can suggest why, and what might be required to institutionalize such practices. The following diagram traces some of the interlocks involved in the first step in voting (registration):
(For more detail, see Mattaini, 1996). Thinking again about the required feedback loop, a key question is, for whom, and how, does the rate of voting influence the actions of the key players shown in the figure above?
If voting rate affects the behavior of registration advocates and/or representatives of national organizations, and/or agency administrators, a metacontingency may be in place. If voting rate is not an active antecedent (e.g., establishing operation) or consequence, or is not functionally related to other practices that are, we would expect that the practices outlined in the diagram would extinguish, and they generally do.
Two current challenges for a science of cultural practices, an applied science of cultural analysis, then, are to find ways to explicitly explicate the functional connections among interlocking cultural practices in ways that suggest possible interventive strategies, and clarifying and potentiating the connections between those interlocking practices and their aggregate outcomes. Doing so may bootstrap an active, constructional approach to cultural analysis that may enable us to move further toward "acting to save the world" (Skinner, 1987)
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