Wediko Transitions Project

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Research at Wediko Children’s Services 
 Wediko’s commitment to improving the lives of vulnerable youth is illustrated not only in its direct ser­vice programs, but also in its continuing investment in basic and applied research. A wide range of publica­tions, dissertations, and presentations have been based on studies at Wediko, reaching researchers in person­ality, developmental, and clinical psychology, as well as practitioners in school and mental health settings. Some have been reprinted in the Year Book of Psychiatry and Applied Mental Health (2003) and The Reference Guide to Counseling Children and Adolescents: Prevention, treatment, outcomes (2000). Others have appeared in flagship American Psychological Association journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

 

Research at Wediko can be traced to the work of those who helped create the program. Robert Young and colleagues evaluated treat­ment techniques in the summer program (Young, Miller, & Verven, 1951). Howard J. Parad examined the need for uniform recording and reporting practices (Parad & Young, 1953). The early 1980s sig­naled the emergence of a research program with a dual emphasis on evaluating behavior change (H. W. Parad, 1983) and on basic processes in personality and social development (Wright, 1983). Under the research di­rectorship of Jack Wright of Brown University, re­search at Wediko has examined issues of central importance to understanding children’s psycho-social adjustment. Specific topics have included the cross-situational organization of children’s prosocial and problem behaviors, social status in children’s peer groups, gender differences in aggression and adaptive behaviors, and how people’s concepts of psychopa­thology change with age and clinical expertise.

A central theme of the research is that children’s behaviors, and more broadly their personalities, cannot be understood without attention to the interpersonal contexts in which they are embedded. Research at Wediko beginning in the late 1980s led investigators to ad­vance a “contextual” model of traits that conceptu­alizes personality as patterns of if…then links between social contexts and children’s responses to them (Wright & Mischel, 1987; 1988; Wright & Dawson, 1989; Shoda, Mischel, & Wright, 1989; 1993a,b, 1994; Mischel & Shoda, 1995). This model continues to shape how re­searchers think about complex individual differences in behaviors such as anxiety, hostility, aggression, and prosocial behavior (see Van Mechlen & Kiers, 1999; Vansteelandt, 1999).
 
In the last decade, Audrey Zakriski at Connecticut College and other collaborators have played increasingly important research roles, in part by expanding a contextual view of personality into a model of child clinical assessment (Wright, Lindgren & Zakriski, 2001; Wright & Zakriski, 2001; 2003; Wright, Zakriski, & Drinkwater, 1999; Zakriski, Wright & Underwood, 2005). This approach raises questions about dominant assessment practices that broadly summarize children’s behavior problems over contexts. It also offers methods for studying the variability in children’s behavior problems that can identify children with distinct psychosocial profiles and treatment needs. Currently, this contextual framework is being extended to the study of treatment outcomes. Rather than focusing on the overall “amount” of change, as is common in outcome research, ongoing Wediko research emphasizes the need to understand the interpersonal dynamics of how change occurs. Accumulating evidence (Zakriski, Wright, & Parad, 2005, 2006, 2007ab) suggests that only by distinguishing between multiple change pathways is it possible to interpret what overall change means or predict whether it will transfer to other settings.
Federal and state guidelines call for functional analysis of behavior and empirically-based educational plan­ning, but assessment methods have not kept pace with policy mandates. One key goal for Wediko is to make empirical data more clinically useful within the setting; another is to make methods we have developed more widely available to other professionals. For many years, the Wediko Behavior Observation System (WBOS) enabled staff to provide extensive field data needed to assess children’s social interactional patterns (Wright et al., 1999; Zakriski et al., in press). Supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, the WBOS was redesigned in 2006 so that field data could be collected more efficiently using handheld computers. This gave researchers and clinical staff immediate access to empirical data on children’s social adjustment, data that could then be used in clinical supervi­sion, family consultations, and end-of-summer reports. Paper and pencil contextual assessment methods were also developed and extended to home and school to help monitor transfer of treatment gains. By developing methods for studying behavior that are both efficient and contextually sensitive, Wediko research will be able to help professionals in other settings respond to mandates for empirically-based assessment and plan­ning.

Much as Howard Parad and Robert Young empha­sized over 50 years ago, Wediko remains committed to the systematic study of troubled youths. In the decades to come, Wediko will continue to be a model of clinical-research integration—by serving the immediate needs of children in treatment, by helping professionals evaluate the services they provide, and by contributing to basic research on children’s socio-emotional development.

Selected References

Highlighted references are can be viewed by clicking the link.  Other references can be obtained by contact the webmaster.
 
Wright, J. C.,  Zakriski, A. L., & Hartley, A. G. (2011). Reassessing the Assessment of Change in At-Risk Youth: Conflict and Coherence in Overall versus Contextual Assessments of Behavior. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 33, 215-227.
 
Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Cardoos, S. (2011). Evaluating Deviancy Training within Residential Treatment: Individual and Group Effects of Peer-Nominated Deviant Talk.  Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.
 
Hartley, A. G., Zakriski, A. L., & Wright, J. C. (2011). Probing the Depths of Informant Discrepancies: Contextual Influences on Divergence and Convergence. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 40, 54-66.
Ayduk, O., Rodriguez, M., Mischel, W., and Wright, J. C. (2007). Verbal intelligence and self-regulatory competencies: Joint predictors of boys’ aggression. Journal of Research on Personality, 41, 374-388.
Cardoos, S.L., Zakriski, A.L., Wright, J.C., & Parad, H.W. (2008). Group treatment for aggressive and delinquent youth: Does peer interaction reinforce deviant behaviors? Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 24, 1-6.
 
Cardoos, S., Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Parad, H. W. (2009). Deviant Talk in Residential Treatment: Individual and Group Influences. Poster presented at the Society for Resarch on Child Development, Denver, CO.
 
Choukas-Bradley, S. C., Banducci, A. N., Metcalfe, L. M., Wright, J. C., & Zakriski, A. L. (2008, March). Reassessing the assessment of change: Disentangling the social interactional processes that mediate behavior change in at-risk youth. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA.
 
Choukas-Bradley, S., Banducci, A. N., Metcalfe, L. A., Wright, J. C., & Zakriski, A. L. (2008). Reassessing the assessment of change: Disentangling the social interactional processes that mediate behavior change in at-risk youth. Poster presented at the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Choukas-Bradley, S., Metcalfe, L. A., Wright, J. C., Zakriski, A. L., & Cardoos, S. (2009). Toward a Contextual Approach to the Study of Change: Linking Impressions, Standardized Assessments, and Behavior in Context.  Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development, Denver, CO.

Dawson, V. L., Zeitz, C., & Wright, J. C. (1989). Expert-novice differences in person perception: Evidence of experts' sensitivities to the organiza­tion of social behavior. Social Cognition, 7, 1-30.
 
DeBoer, L., Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Cardoos, S. (2009). Social Aggression Among Clinically Aggressive Youth: Gender Differences in Social Experiences and Treatment Impact. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development, Denver, CO.

Drinkwater, M., & Wright, J. C. (1997, August). Situations as cues to trait membership: Accuracy of context frequency judgments. Poster presented at Ameri­can Psychological Society, Annual Convention, Washington, DC.

Drinkwater, M., & Wright, J. C. (1996, May). Bayesian consistency vs. validity of personality judgments. American Psychology Society, Annual Conven­tion, San Francisco, CA.

Hartley, A. G., Cardoos, S. L., Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Mangones, J. A. (2008).  Detecting dispositional versus environmental influences on behavior change: A contextual analysis of change in response to residential treatment. Poster presented at the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Hartley, A., Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Parad, H. W. (2009). Understanding Sources of Cross-Informant Disagreement through Contextual Assessment. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development, Denver, CO.

Hartley, A. G., Wright, J. C., & Banducci, A. (2009). Integrating standardized methods with informal impressions in the assessment of personality change. Poster accepted for presentation at the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco.

Hayes, S. T. (1994). Age differences and individual differences in the accuracy of person perception. Doctoral dissertation. American University.

Horowitz, L. M., Wright, J. C., Lowenstein, E., & Parad, H. W. (1981). The prototype as a con­struct in abnormal psychology. Journal of Ab­normal Psychology, 90, 568-574.

Kretsch, N. S., Olds, K. M., Wright, J. C., Zakriski, A. L., & Cardoos, S. L. (2008).  Effects of Person-Group Similarity on Children's Social Experiences during Short-Term Residential Treatment.  Poster presented at the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts. 

Kruger, L.J., Fagley, N.S., Maher, C. A., & Parad, H. W. (1987). Implementing individualized counseling programs: Staff perceptions of important activities, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 18, 71-77.

Miller, L. C. (1967). Louisville Behavior Checklist for Males: 6-12 years of age. Psychological Re­ports, 21, 885-896.

Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1995). A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Recon­ceptualizing situa­tions, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in person­ality structure. Psycho­logical Review, 102, 246-268.

Murphy, G. L., & Wright, J. C. (1984). Changes in conceptual structure with expertise: Differences between real-world experts and novices. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 10, 144-155.

Parad, H. W. (1983). Behavioral consistency and change in children during and after short-term residential treatment: A multiple perspectives approach. Doctoral Dissertation. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Parad, H. J., & Young, R. A. (1953). Recording practices in a therapeutic camp, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 23, 358-368.

Rodriguez, M., Mischel, W., & Wright, J. C. (1989, March). Delay of gratification in normal and impulsive children. Paper presented at Eastern Psychologi­cal Association, New York, New York.

Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Wright, J. C. (1989). Intuitive interactionism and person perception: Effects of con­text-behavior relations on disposi­tional judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 41-53.

Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Wright, J. C. (1993a). The role of situational demands and cognitive competencies in behavioral organization and personality coherence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1023-1035.

Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Wright, J. C. (1993b). Links between personality judgments and con­textualized behavior patterns: Situation-behavior profiles of personality prototypes. Social Cogni­tion, 11, 399-429.
Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Wright, J. C. (1994). Intra-individual stability in the organization and patterning of behavior: Incorporating psycho­logical situations into the idiographic analysis of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 674-687.

Shoda, Y., Wright, J. C., & Mischel, W. (1986, March). A contingency model of cross-situational consis­tency in social behavior. Paper presented at East­ern Psychological Association, New York, New York.

Wright, J. C. (1990). An alternative paradigm for studying person perception accuracy: Simulated personalities. In N. Cantor & D. Buss (Eds.), Emerging Issues in Personality Psychology, New York: Springer-Verlag.

Wright, J. C. (1988a). Social acceptance and rejection in childhood: On being a social "misfit." Child Behavior and Development Letter, 4, 1-2.

Wright, J. C. (1988, April). A paradigm for studying the accuracy of person perception: Simulated person­alities. Invited address at the Conference on Emerging Issues in Per­sonality Psychology, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Wright, J. C. (1983). The structure and perception of behavioral consistency. Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.

Wright, J. C., & Dawson, V. L. (1988). Person perception and the bounded rationality of social judgment. Jour­nal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 780-794.

Wright, J.C., & Drinkwater, M. (1997). Rationality vs. ac­curacy of social judgment. Social Cogni­tion, 15, 245-273.

Wright, J. C., Giammarino, M., & Parad, H. W. (1986). Social status in small groups: Individual-group similarity and the social "misfit." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 523-536.

Wright, J. C., & Horowitz, L. M. (1980). Special needs children and their development during short-term residential care. Seventh Annual Re­port, Boys' Town Center for the Study of Youth Development at Stanford University, 64-70.

Wright, J. C., Lindgren, K. P., & Zakriski, A. L. (2001). Syndromal versus contextualized as­sessment of childhood psychopathology: Differ­entiating environmental and dispositional deter­minants of behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1176-1189.

Wright, J. C., & Maccoby, E. E. (1979). Behavioral consistency and change in emotionally disturbed children. Sixth Annual Report, Boys' Town Cen­ter for the Study of Youth Development at Stan­ford University, 79-84.
 
Wright, J. C., & Mischel, W. (1988). Conditional hedges and the intuitive psychology of traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 454-469.

Wright, J. C., & Mischel, W. (1987). A conditional approach to dispositional constructs: The local predictability of social behavior. Journal of Per­sonality and Social Psychology, 53, 1159-1177.

Wright, J. C., Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1986, March). The organization and perception of social behavior in a natural setting. Paper presented at Eastern Psy­chological Association, New York, New York.

Wright, J. C., & Zakriski, A. L. (2003a). When syndromal similarity obscures functional dis­similarity: Distinctive evoked environments of externalizing and mixed syndrome children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71, 516-527.

Wright, J. C., & Zakriski, A. L. (2001). A contextual analysis of externalizing and mixed syndrome boys: When syndromal similarity obscures func­tional dissimilarity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 69, 457-470.

Wright, J.C., Zakriski, A. L., & Fisher, P. A. (1996). Age differences in the correlates of perceived dominance. Social Development, 5, 24-40.

Wright, J.C., Zakriski, A. L., & Drinkwater, M. (1999). Developmental psychopathology and the reciprocal patterning of behavior and environ­ment: Distinctive situational and behavioral sig­natures of "internalizing," "externalizing," and "mixed" syndrome children. Journal of Consult­ing and Clinical Psychology, 67, 95-107.

Young, R. A., Miller, L., & Verven, N. (1951). Treatment techniques in a therapeutic camp. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 21, 819-826.

Zakriski, A. L., Cardoos, S. L., Wright, J. C., & Parad, H. W. (2008).  Deviant talk among young in residential treatment: Behavioral correlates and person-group influences on treatment effects. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Adolescence in Chicago, Illinois.

Zakriski, A.L., Coie, J.D., & Wright, J.C. (1992, April). The accuracy of children's sociometric self-perceptions in J. B. Kupersmidt (Chair), Multiple sources of information on children's peer relationships. Symposium conducted at the Con­ference on Human Development, Atlanta, GA.

Zakriski, A. L., & Wright, J. C. (1999). Standardized checklists obscure contextual determinants of child behavior. Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 15, 1, 6-7.

Zakriski, A.L., & Wright, J.C. (1991, April). Perceptions of dominance in children's groups: Age differences in the relation between aggres­sion, status and dominance. Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA.

Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J.C., & Parad, H.W. (2005, March). Understanding the Nature of Behavior Change in a Residential Treatment Program: Patterns of Adaptation to Therapeutic Interactions with Staff and Peers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, MA.

Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Underwood, M. K. (2006). Gender similarities and differences in children’s social behavior: Finding personality in contextualized patterns of adaptation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 844-855.

Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Parad, H. W. (2006). Intensive short-term residential treatment: A contextual evaluation of the “Stop-Gap” model. Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, 22, 1-6, 7.

Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J.C. & Parad, H. (2007a, March). Contextual assessment of behavior change in psychoeducational settings: Integrating theory, policy, and practice. Presentation to be delivered at the Independent Educational Consultants Association biannual meeting, Boston, MA.

Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., & Parad, H. W. (2007).  Contextual versus syndromal assessment of behavior change: Uncovering patterns of adaptation to clinical intervention. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development.
Zakriski, A. L., Wright, J. C., Underwood, M. K., & Parad, H. W. (2007). Integrating Context and Personality in the Study of Gender Differences and Similarities in Social Behavior. Poster presented at the Society for Research on Child Development.