2. PROFILE
Born in San Antonio TX to Mexican immigrant parents
Raised in El Paso
Discriminated against in school
Father opposed to higher education
First Latina to receive a PhD in Psychology in the U.S.
Valued learning theories and empiricism
Applied these principles to treat children with conduct disorders
Interest in minority health and multicultural perspectivesApril 13th 1931 – September 28th
2001
3. READING SUMMARY
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION AND THE BRAT
SYNDROME
Martha E. Bernal, John S. Durvee, Harold L.
Pruett, and Beverlee J. Burns
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
1968, Vol. 32, No. 4, 447-455.
4. JEFF THE BRAT
Subject and History
Jeff - 8 years old
IQ of 106
Vast vocabulary and knowledge
of general information
Disciplinary problem
Parents with marital problems
Symptoms
• Temper tantrums
• Physical attacks
• Bullying
• Odd phrases
• Rocking
• Inability to make friends
(Bernal, Durvee, Pruett, & Burns, 1968,
5. PROCEDURE
Pre-Observations
Meek and monotone mother
Pacify Jeff at all costs
Threats and demands from Jeff
Mother acquiesces to demands
No follow-through on
punishment threats
Jeff completely controlled his
mother
Treatment
Step 1 – Teach the mother to
“reduce her verbal output” and
ignore all of Jeff’s abusive
behavior
Step 2 – Teach the mother to
give cues associated with
physical punishment
Step 3 – Teach the mother to
identify and praise acceptable
behaviors
(Bernal, Durvee, Pruett, & Burns, 1968,
8. SUCCESS
“I had occasion to speak
harshly to Jeff, and now he
asks, ‘How do you feel?’ If I
say angry he is given an
explanation if he asks why,
but he knows. Together with
ignoring him, showing him I’m
really angry by voice is
working quite well. He
mumbles under his breath and
occasionally there is a bad
word, but he responds within
a reasonable time. No swats
necessary.”
“Freed of her terror of the boy,
she gradually grew to like
him, and he in turn began to
express affection. During
Week 18 the following
occurred after Jeff had gone to
bed:
‘He asked to talk to me. He asked if
he could take piano lessons. I told
him he had a bigger project first –
learning to get along with others,
including children – and in a few
years perhaps he could take
lessons. As I went out the door he
said, ‘I love you.” I replied the same
and told him how pleased I was with-Bernal, Durvee, Pruett, & Burns, 1968, p453-Bernal, Durvee, Pruett, & Burns, 1968, p454
9. DISCUSSION
Variables leading to Positive
Outcome
Cooperative parent
Positive feedback
Videotaped sessions
Limitations
Inability to generalize results
10. INFLUENCE
How did Bernal’s life events influence her work?
The discrimination she experienced as a child and the lack of cultural training in
her profession as a clinical psychologist clearly led her to pursue research into
minority health and cultural issues in her later work, as well as to advocate for
cultural training for clinicians.
How has Bernal’s work influenced contemporary psychological
science?
Bernal opened psychology up to the principles of ethnic identity and minority
training for psychologists. There has been a huge increase in research on minorities
and multicultural perspectives. So much that we even have an entire course here at
UIW devoted to Multicultural Issues. She even mentored a young graduate student,
Melba Vasquez, who in 2011 was elected the first Latina president of the APA, and
who appointed tasks addressing immigration, discrimination and prejudice, and
educational disparities during her presidency.
11. REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What was special about Bernal
receiving a PhD in Psychology?
2. Apart from treating children
with behavioral problems, what
was Bernal interested in
throughout her career?
3. What was the limitation of
Bernal’s study?
4. What did the young graduate
student Bernal mentored achieve
in her later career?
1. She was the first female Latina
to do so.
2. She was interested in
researching minority health and
multicultural issues and
promoting Latinos in Psychology
3. It cannot be generalized to
apply to other cases.
4. She became the first Latina
president of the APA.
12. SOURCES
Bernal, M. E., Durvee, J. S., Pruett, H. L., & Burns, B. J. (1968). Behavior
modification and the brat syndrome. Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 32(4), 447-455.
George, M. (2012). Profile of Martha Bernal. (A. Rutherford, Editor)
Retrieved from Psychology's Feminist Voices Multimedia Internet
Archive: http://www.feministvoices.com/martha-bernal/
Vasquez, M. J. (n.d.). Martha Bernal. Retrieved from Society for the
Psychology of Women: http://www.apadivisions.org/division-
35/about/heritage/martha-bernal-biography.aspx
Editor's Notes
Discriminated against in school because of her skin color and her accent.
Her school was segregated despite it being in a highly Latino neighborhood in El Paso.
She and her peers were forbidden to speak Spanish at school, making Bernal feel shame about her Latino heritage.
While Bernal’s mother and older sister were supportive of her pursuing higher education, her father was strongly opposed to her going to college, insisting that she should be finding a family and starting a family. (Education is a waste of time for a woman since she would just be home taking care of husband and kids).
She and her family were persistent and eventually her father gave her permission to go to graduate school.
1955- received her MA from Syracuse University
1962- received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University, Bloomington. (First Latina)
Different approach to most clinicians, she used empirical techniques in her treatment. Her focus in her early career was in treating kids with behavioral problems.
In 1979 she took a sabbatical and researched these topics. She was shocked to learn that even she had become unconsciously racist in her work because all psychology literature, research and treatment was being done from the Western (and usually white) perspective.
So she decided to encourage and advocate for more research into minority and multicultural issues as well as promote recruitment and training of other Hispanic psychologists.
She pioneered the study of ethnic identity and even helped establish committees and associations devoted to the issues of ethnic minorities, including the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs of the American Psychological Association and the National Hispanic Psychology Association. She also served on the National Latino/a Psychological Association, on APA’s Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training, and was a member of the Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Affairs.
She also received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to the field of psychology.
She suffered from 3 recurrences of cancer throughout her career but always returned to academia after her recovery. She finally died of lung cancer in 2001, age 70.
In this case study, Bernal and colleagues train a mother to control her emotionally disturbed 8 yr old son.
Although he has a slightly higher than average IQ and has a vast vocabulary, he has a behavioral problem and is difficult to control both at school and at home.
His parents are separated and the only authority figure at home is his mother.
He has temper tantrums; he physically attacks his mother, teachers and peers; he bullies and tattles on kids in school; he says odd things (e.g., “you are distracting my image” when he is ignored by his mother); he rocks and moves his head back and forth repetitively; and can’t make friends because nobody likes him.
Spanking and restriction of privileges were ineffective.
The researchers asked the mother to take daily notes on the conflicts and interactions between her and Jeff throughout the day, including what happened, what was said, and how the conflict ended.
5 Videotaped “Intervention” Sessions were conducted in the clinic.
During the pre-treatment observation session, the researches noted that the mother constantly responded to Jeff with a meek, soft monotone voice, even when she was correcting him.
Her goal was to Pacify Jeff at all costs,
When she refused a demand from Jeff he would threaten to scream, to hit her, or to have an asthma attack,
So she would give in to his demands every time.
During the consequent “Intervention Sessions” the mother was given instructions for how to react to Jeff’s behavior. The instructions were based on 3 steps with the end goal of “establishing maternal control.”
1st step- to teach the mother to ignore Jeff’s abuse instead of acknowledging it and giving unobeyed orders to stop.
2nd step- ignore abuse. If it doesn’t stop express anger and order him to stop, if it still continues spank him. Instructed to reduce the frequency of her threats of punishment and when she did threaten to punish to, then, actually carry out the punishment.
3rd step- instructed to specify to Jeff which were good behaviors and to reinforce them by responding warmly and praising him as the behaviors occurred.
Record of Progress of treatment
(Mother mentions that she doesn’t like Jeff and is terrified of him)
The researchers propose that there are a few variables that contributed to the positive outcome of the treatment.
They state that the cooperation of the mother was an important contribution, she was willing to follow instructions, she wrote extensive notes, and she didn’t miss any appointments.
Another factor was the record of her progress and the feedback that was provided to the mother.
And the last variable is that the videotaping of sessions provided a record of the interactions that could be replayed and assessed to tailor the treatment to the relationship as it changed throughout the treatment.
One limitation that the researchers identified is that the design of the study doesn’t allow for the generalization of the treatment to other cases since it was individualized to Jeff’s unique case.
