The relative power of Positive and Negative Punishment as predictors of anxiety and depression was investigated within the gender-specific population of Prostate Cancer patients. As well as being a more powerful predictor of total test scores, Positive Punishment was also a stronger predictor of the presence of clinical levels of anxiety and depression. Examination of the particular Positive Punishment events that were significantly associated with clinical anxiety and depression showed considerable overlap, supporting the concept of a combined anxiety-depression disorder. Suggestions for behavioural interventions with this patient group are made.

Effective behaviour change is based on understanding the reasons for difficult behaviour. However, current functional analytic technology is often limited in its effectiveness in the clinical setting because the focus is on labelling and classifying behavioural outcomes rather than conducting a detailed analysis of the manner in which these outcomes assist the client to operate in the environment. The effectiveness of existing functional analytic techniques might be enhanced by moving the focus of the investigation from identifying the consequent variables that impact on behaviour to systematically exploring client–environment interactions as well as the manner in which the client experiences the consequences of his/her actions. One potential method (Valued Outcomes Analysis) that provides a framework for the systematic investigation of the effects of ‘inner skin’ factors on the incidence of behavioural difficulties is described here.

Although several previous scales have been developed to measure the presence and effects of the stressful demands encountered by university students, most of these have been validated with samples drawn from US universities, commonly using only undergraduate psychology students. In addition, many of the items used are from scales designed for application within general adult populations, with little focus upon the specific stressors met by students. In order to identify what are the major changes these students encounter that they find stressful, a sample of 32 university students from different degree areas within an Australian university was individually interviewed using a standardised protocol. Results indicated that (unlike US data) these students found dislocation to family, friend and partner relationships most stressful, followed by the time demands of study and financial restrictions. Limitations of the study, future research directions and implications for counsellors are discussed.

School psychologists who contribute to the assessment of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are required by various Australian state government authorities to use standardised testing of cognitive skills, adaptive behaviour and some autism-based symptomatology to demonstrate the eligibility of those children for support funding in the school environment. However, this process does not always address the needs of parents and teachers for detailed and particular analysis of the reasons for the pervasive behavioural difficulties often shown by children with an ASD. Such difficult behaviour has been shown to contribute to high levels of stress among caregivers and often prevents the child with an ASD from successful school inclusion. Therefore, it would be advantageous for parents and teachers to have access to information obtained from an analysis of the child's behavioural difficulties as one outcome of the formal testing process that is conducted to examine the possible presence of an ASD. This paper presents a brief example of how a basic behavioural investigation might be incorporated into the assessment of children with a suspected ASD.

Traditional Functional Analytic procedures rely upon the identification of one or two ‘target’ behaviours for examination via observation and analysis. From these data, multiple functions are identified for each target behaviour via antecedent-behaviour-consequence data collection. However, although these methodologies have been shown to be effective with a wide range of inappropriate behaviours in classrooms, they have limitations when the inappropriate behaviours are so many and varied that selection of one or two as ‘targets’ becomes unreliable in terms of obtaining an accurate representation of the child's overall behavioural repertoire. A variation on this procedure is described and data from a case example are presented as a suggested alternative way of obtaining the kind of data required for effective classroom management of difficult behaviour.

There have been some challenges to the reliance upon data from randomised controlled clinical trials when identifying ‘evidence-based’ psychotherapy treatments. Similarly, data show that use of treatment manuals does not result in uniform and beneficial outcomes, that some evidence-based treatments are little better than non-specific counselling and that the search for those therapies or components that are effective has been largely fruitless. In an attempt to extend the debate about evidence-based treatments and drawing upon those aspects of cognitive and behavioural therapies that have been shown to be effective in most settings, this article describes valued outcomes analysis and therapy as a means of assisting clients to understand their own behaviour as (sometimes unwanted) adaptations to environmental demands and then to learn alternative ways of achieving the goals they pursue. A case illustration is provided.

In a replication of a previous study of the incidence and contributing factors in anxiety, depression and stress in Victorian parents of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a sample of 107 Gold Coast parents completed a questionnaire that assessed their demographic backgrounds, anxiety and depression scores on standardised inventories, and also tapped several aspects of those factors that may have contributed to their wellbeing. Over 90% of parents reported that they were sometimes unable to deal effectively with their child's behaviour. Nearly half of the participants were severely anxious and nearly two thirds were clinically depressed. Factors that emerged as significant in differentiating between parents with high versus low levels of anxiety and depression included access to family support, parents' estimation of family caregivers' expertise in dealing with the behavioural difficulties of a child with ASD, and parental health. Parents' suggestions for personal support services are reported, and some comparisons across the data from the two states are made, with suggestions for further research into parent support mechanisms.

The number of students who are identified as experiencing behavioural difficulties in the mainstream school setting is growing. However, current efforts by teachers to address these behavioural difficulties are seriously limited because of lack of training in the procedures for assessing and working with difficult behaviour. This paper will argue that the apparent failure of traditional “behaviour modification” in producing positive changes in difficult behaviour lies in its prescriptive application of general strategies to specific student problems. This approach to behaviour change is ineffective because it is not based on an understanding of the reasons for difficult behaviour. The functional assessment framework for investigating and understanding student difficulties will be presented as a more efficient means of changing the behaviour problems that occur in the classroom. At the foundation of this framework is the assumption that meaningful and long-term changes to difficult behaviour can only result from teaching the student to behave differently rather than focusing on the elimination of problem behaviour.