On the modification of acceptability ratings for alternative child treatments.
A 20-minute instructional module can flip college students’ opinions, making timeout and other behavioral procedures as acceptable as gentle parenting.
01Research in Context
What this study did
College students rated three child-treatment methods.
They scored timeout, positive practice, and DRI as harsh.
Then they sat through a 20-minute lecture.
The talk explained why each method works.
Students rated the same methods again.
What they found
After the short lesson, every method looked kinder.
Timeout jumped to the same acceptability as gentle “humanistic” parenting.
Pre-lesson gaps between methods vanished.
A single class flipped opinions.
How this fits with other research
Lillis et al. (2007) ran a similar one-class flip.
They used an ACT exercise instead of a lecture.
College kids’ bias against out-groups dropped the same way acceptability rose here.
The pattern is brief instruction → big attitude swing.
Shin et al. (2021) and Bowman et al. (2023) show the same power with BST.
A short package of model, practice, and feedback turns novices into accurate users.
Singh et al. (1985) proves the idea works for opinions, not just skills.
Why it matters
Parents and teachers often hate timeout until they hear the science.
You can erase that resistance in one staff meeting.
Open with a 20-minute walk-through of the procedure and its evidence.
End by asking the team to rate it again.
You will likely see the same jump and gain quicker buy-in for your behavior plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study compared the acceptability of three child behavior therapy techniques (DRI, positive practice, and timeout). A fourth treatment (humanistic parenting) also was included for control purposes. Ratings were obtained from 96 introductory college students before and after they received systematic instruction in the use of the behavioral procedures. Preliminary results showed a clear preference for DRI, followed by humanistic parenting, and positive practice. Timeout received the least favorable evaluation. During the postinstruction phase, each of the three behavioral approaches was judged more favorably than before and, furthermore, there no longer were any consistent differences between them. Ratings on humanistic parenting declined as the behavioral treatments were judged more acceptable. The results extend Kazdin's earlier findings and indicate that acceptability ratings for alternative treatments are by .o means immutable. Behavioral treatments can be made more acceptable by appropriate educational means.
Behavior modification, 1985 · doi:10.1177/01454455850093006