A retrospective survey of students' views on a family therapy training programme

This paper describes the development of the training programme offered at the Family Institute in Cardiff and presents the results of a retrospective survey reflecting the 'consumers' views of the programme. Questionnaires were sent to all students who had trained at the Institute between 1972 and 1977, to elicit information about their views of the placement, as well as their post-qualifying experience, activities and interest in family therapy. A briefer preliminary report has been published earlier (Dowling and Seligman, 1980).     

Behaviors associated with “good” and “poor” outcomes in a simulated career decision

What career decision-making procedures enable people to make decisions that yield consequences congruent with their own values? The 40 “best” (most congruent) and 40 “worst” decision makers on the Career Decision Simulation were compared in a sample of 148 community college students. No significant differences appeared in the amount of double checking, number of occupations and information sources checked, amount of information collected, decision time required, and the proportion of information sought about high values. The “best” decision makers, however, were significantly more persistent in immediately seeking more information about an occupation that seemed to match one of their most important personal work values. Following a values-guided search appears more effective than simply searching exhaustively.     

The influence of labor market discrimination on locus of control

Prior research has established the existence of racial differences in locus of control as well as a relationship between labor market experience and locus of control. This study extends this line of inquiry by examining the relationship between labor market discrimination and subsequent change in locus of control. Drawing on a national probability sample (N = 2857) of young men, multiple regression analysis was used to estimate the effect of labor market discrimination (over a 2-year period) on subsequent locus of control. The results indicate that perceptions of employment discrimination influence the level of externality among blacks, over and above racial identification. Blacks who view themselves as victims of employment discrimination experience twice the increase in externality as blacks reporting no awareness of discrimination.     

A component analysis of dry-bed training for treatment for bedwetting

The major components of Dry-Bed Training (DBT) (Azrin et al., 1974), in addition to the urine-alarm device, were identified as; (i) the waking schedule; (ii) retention control training; and (iii) positive practice and cleanliness training. Combinations of these components yielded six treatment groups. Together with an alarm-only group and a DBT group from a previous study (Bollard and Nettelbeck, 1981) these groups were compared for effectiveness in arresting bedwetting. Bedwetting frequency was reduced slightly below levels achieved with alarm-only treatment, by the addition of either retention control training, or positive practice and cleanliness training. A more substantial decrease in bedwetting resulted from the addition of the waking schedule, although none of the effects of the single components was statistically significant. The effects of the three components were cumulative, so that the more components added to the alarm-only procedure, the better the therapeutic response. Thus, the combination of waking, positive practice and cleanliness training with the alarm and the combination of all three components with the alarm (i.e. the complete DBT programme) did result in a significant reduction in bedwetting frequency compared with the alarm-only procedure. The practical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.     

Muscle relaxation training for fear reduction of patients with psychological problems: a review of controlled studies

Twenty-four studies of relaxation training for fear reduction of patients with psychological problems, which were published between 1960 and 1980, are reviewed. It is argued that only studies of the outcome of courses are relevant in considering the efficacy of therapy and concluded that such courses are capable of reducing autonomic arousal during training and during rest and stress following the course, capable of reducing behavioural avoidance, and capable of reducing subjective reports of disorder. This fear-reducing effect is less than that of exposure, and future research should examine the value of adding relaxation training to exposure.     

Alcohol dependence,beliefs and the priming effect

Twenty hospitalized alcoholics served as their own controls in a study which sought to compare psychophysiological and cognitive factors as mediating influences on the priming effect of alcohol. Ten subjects were independently assessed by a psychiatrist as being severely dependent on alcohol and ten as mildly or moderately alcohol dependent. Physiological, behavioural and subjective indices of the motivation to drink alcohol were employed 15 and 60 min after subjects had consumed beverages on four separate occasions corresponding to four priming conditions. These priming drinks contained either 60 ml vodka in heavy dilution or just tonic water, and in each of these conditions subjects were either led to believe that the beverages contained alcohol or they had no alcohol. The severely-dependent group displayed a degree of concordance between the indices of motivation to drink, and the levels of these tended to be significantly higher than in the less-dependent subjects. The results suggest that severely alcohol-dependent subjects were more disposed to drink 60 min after consuming alcoholic drinks than after soft drinks, regardless of whether they believed that the priming drinks had contained alcohol. Cognitive factors assumed greater importance for the drinking behaviour of less-dependent subjects, although there was evidence of discordance across behavioural, physiological and subjective measures for this group.