Grid vs subcutaneously delivered shock in escape schedules with guinea pigs

Guinea pigs were trained by use of titrated negative-reinforcement procedures to escape electric shock on ratio schedules. With one group of Ss, shock was delivered through the grid floor of the chamber. Another group had electrodes implanted subcutaneously, closing a circuit between the back of the neck and near the tail bone. The subcutaneous group was also run with grid-shock escape. Results indicate that grid-delivered shock is more effective and efficient than is shock delivered through implanted electrodes.     

A titration procedure for generating escape behavior

In a grid-shock escape paradigm using time-out as reinforcement, both fixed-ratio and variable-interval performances were established directly from a continuous reinforcement schedule with rats and guinea pigs. A procedure was developed that employed a stepwise decrease in reinforcement time for all responses except the terminal response. Acquisition and long-term maintenance data were obtained from Ss trained on this titrated negative-reinforcement procedure.     

A CONTRADICTED HYPOTHESIS RELATED TO SZONDI'S THEORY: The Szondi Test as used on alcoholics

R amfalk , C. W., and R udhe , L. A contradicted hypothesis related to Szondi's theory. The Szondi Test as used on alcoholics. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1961, 2 , 100–104.—(1) The Szondi test was applied to 18 alcoholics, 18 total abstainers, and 18 'normals'. (2) According to the definition of consistency proposed in this study there is no consistent relation at the 1 per cent level of significance between any two selections of photographs made by alcoholics. (3) The results contradict theoretical claims based on Szondi's technique.     

The concept of the fully functioning person

Conclusion Here then is my theoretical model of the person who emerges from therapy—a person functioning freely in all the fullness of his organismic potentialities; a person who is dependable in being realistic, self-enhancing, socialized and appropriate in his behavior; a creative person, whose specific formings of behavior are not easily predictable; a person who is ever changing, ever developing, always discovering himself and the newness in himself in each succeeding moment of time. This is the person who in an imperfect way actually emerges from the experience of safety and freedom in a therapeutic experience, and this is the person whom I have tried to describe for you in pure form.My purpose has not been to convince you of the correctness of this view. Indeed I would have to confess that I have written this paper primarily for my own satisfaction, to clarify the thoughts which have been stirring in me. But if this presentation causes you to formulate your view of the person who emerges from therapy, or enables you to point out flaws in my own thinking which I have not yet seen, or arouses in you the desire to put to objective test either this picture or one which you paint for yourself, then it will have fully served both its primary and its secondary purpose.Reprinted by permission from Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, Vol. 1, No. 1, August, 1963.