Desynchrony following the treatment of pain behaviour

Preliminary evidence is presented concerning the relationship of measures of subjective pain experience, negative mood state and activity levels of 12 patients severely disabled with chronic pain behaviour. Prior to treatment there was a high positive correlation between pain intensity and negative mood state, and a negative correlation between pain intensity and levels of activity. Following a standardized behavioural treatment programme both these correlations were reduced, suggesting that some elements of the treatment induced desynchrony. The correlation of activity and negative mood state showed little change. The clinical and theoretical implications arc considered.     

Field dependence,sensation seeking and driving behaviour

The present study attempted to relate field dependence-independence (FDI) to accident involvement and perceived causes of accidents as well as to trace these relationships to the sensation-seeking (SS) tendency of the field-dependent driver. In addition, the concomittant effects of internal/external locus of control (IE) were studied. Subjects (N=285) filled out a questionnaire assessing their level of FDI, SS, IE, number of accidents, as well as the attributed importance of various possible causes of their last accident. The obtained results show no relationship between FDI and SS and either the number of accidents or the importance attributed to various causes of accidents. Significant relationships were, however, obtained between FDI and SS and seat-belt use and SS and speed on the highway.     

Informant impressions of retardate personality: reliability with extraversion, emotionality, toughmindedness

To assess extraversion, emotionality and toughmindedness among retarded persons with limited linguistic skills the 18-item Personal Reactions and Habits Questionnaire (PRHQ) was created. The responses of 2 interviewed informants, each well acquainted with a target person, are summed to obtain scores for each of the personality factors identified by Eysenck and Eysenck (1975). To establish the reliability of this procedure 4 interviewers inquired of 35 informants about a total of 54 target Ss of a wide range of mental retardation and living variously in the natural home, a group home or in a large state-operated institution. One-week test-retest reliability coefficients, e.g. r=0.93 for Extraversion, r=0.86 for Emotionality and r=0.92 for Toughmindedness, suggest the PRHQ to be a promising instrument for research on personality of Ss unable to provide self-reports. The possible use of the PRHQ to assess concordance of self-reports with personality impressions of others is also discussed.     

Seasonal variations in the birth of left-handers: another look

An attempt was made to replicate a reported seasonal variation in the birth of left-handed females. The observed number of births per month (as well as season) did not depart from the number expected by chance. This is the second failure to observe the reported overrepresentation of November births.     

Assertion training: the effectiveness of a comprehensive cognitive--behavioral treatment package with professional nurses

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral treatment package with a professional population of registered nurses using multiple self-report and role-play measures. Twenty-six self-referred registered nurses were randomly assigned to either a Treatment or Control group. The treatment package consisted of five weekly 2-hr sessions of group assertion training using the cognitive-behavioral model of Lange and Jakubowski. The Assertiveness Self-statement Test, the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, the Adult Self-expression Scale, two Likert scales and role-play were used to evaluate changes over time. The results indicated: (1) the nurses in both groups at Pretreatment were clearly subassertive; (2) by Posttraining the Treatment-group members increased significantly their assertiveness as indicated on the self-report tests; (3) Treatment-group members had successfully maintained their improved assertiveness by the 2-month Follow-up; (4) the role-play ratings paralleled and supported the self-report results, but not at significant levels; (5) there was strong empirical support for the social validity of the treatment package; and (6) there was a high degree of treatment credibility for the cognitive-behavioral Assertion-training group. Overall, the results indicate clear support for the effectiveness of a broad-based cognitive-behavioral treatment package for treating subassertive behavior in a professional population of registered nurses.     

Introversion-extraversion: the Bell-Magendie law revisited

Evidence from several sources, including psychophysical, electrodermal and evoked potential measures, indicates that introverts display an enhanced response to sensory stimulation. There is also evidence, primarily from psychophysical studies, which suggests that extraverts may be disposed to emit short, strong bursts of motor activity which facilitate performance on tasks that involve gross motor activity but which impede performance on tasks which require refined motor control. The present paper develops an argument in which the differences between introverts and extraverts in the response to sensory stimulation and in the expression of motor activity may be referred to differences at the level of the sensory and motor nerve.     

Cues, consequences and therapeutic talk: effects of social context and coping statements on pain

The present study examined the effects of two types of coping statements on tolerance of experimentally-induced pain when the Ss either thought the experimenter knew or did not know their statements. When Ss thought no one knew their statements, no therapeutic effects were shown. When Ss knew the experimenter knew the statements, the Ss tolerated the pain longer and showed specific effects depending on the specific type of coping statement used. The implications of this study for distinguishing informational, self-instructional and social-motivation effects in therapy are discussed.     

Extraversion and the effects of frequency and intensity on the auditory brainstem evoked response

Extraversion was positively correlated with the latency of wave I of the auditory brainstem evoked response (BER) at 75, 80 and 85 dB of intensity. Extraverts also tended to display longer latency for wave V than introverts to high frequency, 80-dB tone bursts and to click stimuli at intensity levels which ranged from 55 to 85 dB (SPL). These results are consistent with reports of greater auditory sensitivity (d') and enhanced amplitude of the late (N₁–P₂) cortical evoked response for introverts. The absence of differences in interpeak latency, or central transmission time. center the effects on wave I which is thought to be generated by the cochlear nerve. The present findings may require the elaboration of the neurophysiological bases of extraversion, which presently focuses on differences in cortico-reticular arousal systems, to accomodate individual differences in axonal or synaptic transmission.     

Progressive relaxation and meditation : A study of psychophysiological and therapeutic differences between two techniques

Physiological and self-report data were collected on anxious subjects who participated in a study comparing progressive relaxation, meditation and a waiting-list control. The data provide some support for the Schwartz, Davidson and Goleman (1978) hypothesis of specific effects for different relaxation procedures, superimposed upon a generalized relaxation response. The similarities between techniques, however, were greater than the differences, both on physiological and self-report measures. Both techniques generated positive expectancies and produced decreases in a variety of self-reported symptoms and on EMG: but no skin conductance or frontal EEG effects were observed. Progressive relaxation produced bigger decreases in forearm EMG responsiveness to stressful stimulation and a generally more powerful therapeutic effect than meditation. Meditation produced greater cardiac orienting responses to stressful stimuli, greater absorption in the task and better motivation to practice than progressive relaxation; but it also produced more reports of increased transient anxiety. We found no significant differences between conditions in the therapeutic expectancies they generated. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Extraversion, sensation seeking and electrodermal response: Probing a paradox

Extraversion and psychoticism are thought to relate inversely to electrodermal response amplitude. Paradoxically, sensation-seeking scales, which correlate positively with extraversion and psychoticism, have shown a positive relation to electrodermal response amplitude. In the present inquiry, inverse relationships were obeserved for extraversion and psychoticism with the electrodermal response to visual stimuli. Sensation seeking was also negatively related to the magnitude of the initial electrodermal response to pictures. A lowered response to words for low sensation seekers was observed that appeared to be influenced by skin conductance level.     

Strength of the nervous system and augmenting-reducing: Paradox lost

Two conflicting viewpoints were identified regarding the relationship between sensation seeking and subjective response to stimulation: (a) that sensory augmenters are high sensation seekers compared with sensory reducers (the view of Zuckerman and Buchsbaum); and (b) that it is the reducer rather than the augmenter who is the high sensation seeker (the view of Petrie and Vando). Proponents of the first approach measure Augmenting-Reducing through the use of the average cortical-evoked response, while advocates of the second position use Petrie's version of the Kinaesthetic Figural Aftereffects Test or Vando's Reducer-Augmenter Scale. It is argued that the disagreement is semantic and results from the differences in method of measurement. It is further argued that most, if not all, of the research findings may be accommodated within the framework of strength-of-the-nervous-system theory which distinguishes between two dimensions,sensitivity andfunctional endurance. The implications for future research are pointed out.     

Behavioural and physiological aspects of the augmenting-reducing dimension

Reducing-augmenting, sensation-seeking and extraversion-introversion are discussed in the context of strength-of-the-nervous-system theory and two experiments are reported. Experiment 1 showed that high scorers on Vando's Reducer-Augmenter Scale (RAS) (stimulus-intensity reducers) may be identified with sensation-seeking, as measured by Zuckerman's Sensation-seeking Scale, and extraversion, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory. Augmenters' electrodermal responses habituate more slowly than do those of reducers to a relatively strong stimulus. Reducers prefer loud music and apparently need fewer hours of sleep. Female reducers consume relatively more stimulant drinks than female augmenters. Reducers have significantly higher resting systolic blood pressure than augmenters, a finding that was confirmed in the second experiment. However, Experiment 2 failed to find the expected relationship between augmenting-reducing as determined by the RAS and performance on the Kinaesthetic Figural Aftereffects Test.     

Problems with stimulus/response equivalence and reactivity in the assessment and treatment of obsessive-compulsive neurosis

Self-recording was used as part of a comprehensive package of interventions to treat a case of obsessive-compulsive neurosis. The discrepancy between the self-recording data and other indices of improvement provoked consideration of the value of self-monitoring in light of Rachman's (1976) typology of obsessive-compulsives and the three major theoretical explanations of the reactivity of self-monitoring (Nelson and Hayes, 1981). It is hypothesized that self-monitoring may be countertherapeutic and misleading when there is stimulus/response equivalence or a checker type of obsessive-compulsive client.     

Treatment outcome in personality disorder: The effect of social,psychological and behavioural variables

The study followed-up 245 patients referred to the Henderson Hospital (194 admitted for treatment and 51 not admitted) and for whom information had been collected on their social background and certain psychological variables allowing a classification and typology of personality disorder to be worked out. The study indicates that the therapeutic community treatment is effective with selected individuals showing the antisocial behaviour associated with such disorder. In particular this treatment is of benefit to the offenders with only one conviction and who are able to persevere with treatment for a period of 6 months for treatment to be maximally effective. The variation of psychological types within the broad category of personality disorder was demonstrated and this has a bearing on the outcome of treatment, the extrapunitive neurotic being of poorest prognosis with or without treatment. Yet even in this group, therapeutic community treatment can be effective.     

Complementary pairing of handicapped workers with compensatory skills: a strategy to increase independence

Although the right to and the beneficial psychological effects of productive employment by the handicapped are well documented, many potential workers remain unemployable because of the nature of their handicapping conditions. This study is an experimental investigation of the effect on job performance of pairing handicapped persons with complementary skills. Workshop productivity was measured for two pairs of workers, each consisting of a cerebral-palsied person and a mentally-retarded partner. Using a multiple-baseline design with a reversal component, production on a packaging task was assessed during individual work and paired cooperative work. The combination of the cerebral-palsied workers' ability to provide reinforcement and the retarded workers' production skills resulted in a significant increase in productivity. The potential extension of this strategy to individuals with these and other disabilities is discussed.     

A comparison of stress-reduction behavioral counseling and contingent nocturnal EMG feedback for the treatment of bruxism

This study compared the efficacy of two treatment modalities (stress-reduction behavioral counseling and contingent nocturnal EMG biofeedback) on night-time bruxism. The 16 subjects (Ss) were assigned sequentially to one of four treatment groups: (1) stress-reduction behavioral counseling: (2) nocturnal biofeedback; (3) stress-reduction behavioral counseling and nocturnal biofeedback; and (4) waiting-list control group. A portable EMG unit was used to record the nightly total of electrical activity (?20 μV) from the masseter muscle 10 days before and after treatment. The three treatment procedures were found to be significantly superior to no-treatment control group. The outcome of the two treatments which made use of stress-reduction behavioral counseling, although better than the treatment which solely used nocturnal biofeedback, was not significantly better. This study demonstrates that stress-reduction skills learned while awake can have a generalized effect on stress-induced muscle activity during sleep. Implications for further research are discussed.     

Biofeedback-assisted relaxation in the control of reactions to a challenging task and anxiety-provoking film

This experiment was designed to evaluate the use of a combined relaxation- and biofeed-back-training procedure in the regulation of psychophysiological reactivity to laboratory stressors. Twenty volunteers participated in the 3-session experiment, comparing relaxation plus skin conductance biofeedback (Training) with simple instructions to relax (Control). During Session 1. subjects tried to solve a series of visual puzzles and watched an anxiety-provoking film, and were then assigned to treatments on the basis of electrodermal reactions to the film. The relaxation methods were practised in Sessions 2 and 3. and were followed by a second film excerpt and series of tasks. Heart rate (HR), skin conductance level (SCL) and ratings of tension and relaxation were recorded throughout.No differences in physiological or self-report variables emerged during quiet relaxation. However, during the post-treatment administration of Stressors, SCL was augmented in the Control group, while remaining near pre-treatment values in the Training condition. This effect was confined to SCL, since HR and self-reported tension did not distinguish the groups post-treatment.     

Science and behavior therapy: A survey of research in the 1970s

A representative sample of a decade of contributors to the journals Behavior Therapy, Behaviour Research and Therapy, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry was asked to report on their motivations for conducting studies that had been published in that journal. Results indicated that the primary motivation of behavioral researchers was to build on prior research through gathering and analysis of data to illuminate applied-clinical issues and validate treatment procedures. Few researchers reported consultation arrangements or efforts to replicate as their motivation for research. Most respondents described the training model in which they had received their doctoral education as oriented toward a scientist-practitioner approach rather than one that focused primarily on research, therapy or assessment training. Most respondents noted that their philosophy of behavior therapy at the time of the study in question to be applied behavior analysis or social-learning theory with far less being affiliated with a neobehavioristic mediational S-R model or cognitive behavior modification. These results are discussed within the context of the relevance of clinical research in behavior therapy and professional psychology.