Must most psychotherapists remain as incompetent as they now are?

Although psychotherapy often is effective or helpful for groups of people, it is frequently inefficient and therefore is wasteful for many clients and actually contributes to harming a sizable minority of them. Some of the main aspects of therapeutic inefficiency are discussed in this paper, including: overemphasis on past experience; encouraging dependency and the dire need for love; overemphasis on modeling; the stressing of insight; the use of catharsis and abreaction; the use of cognitive distraction; self-efficacy suggestions; operant conditioning; gradual desensitization; and unselective eclecticism. Specific suggestions for increasing the efficiency of psychotherapy are given.     

The predictive validity of a vocational interest inventory-“Ramak”: Seven year follow-up

The purpose of this study was to test the predictive validity of the Ramak-a vocational interest inventory based on Roe's (1956) classification of occupations. In this follow-up, 81% of the original sample, tested 7 yr earlier, was located. These Ss responded to a questionnaire which inquired into their vocational choice and vocational choice satisfaction, together with retesting of the Ramak. Results showed that: (a) The median interpersonal test-retest reliability was .412 for males and .401 for females, while the median within-the-person profile stability was .535 for males and .700 for females; (b) With few deviations, for each occupational field the Ss occupied in that field had the highest interest in that field; (c) With the exception of Arts and Entertainment in both sexes, for each interest field Ss who had the highest score were those engaged in that field; (d) The correlation between vocational choice satisfaction and the interests in the relevant field was .405 and .294 for males and females, respectively; (e) For both sexes, Ss occupied in their highest-scoring interest field were more satisfied with their vocational choice than those who were not. The effectiveness of the Ramak in vocational counseling is evaluated.     

Extinction effects during the assessment of multiple problem behaviors

Extinction effects were evaluated in a multiple baseline across behaviors design with 2 boys after just one of several target problem behaviors was observed during a functional analysis. Other target behaviors emerged as extinction was introduced sequentially across all problem behaviors. Results demonstrated an efficient strategy for simultaneously assessing multiple problem behaviors maintained by the same consequence.     

Stay calm! Regulating emotional responses by implementation intentions: Assessing the impact on physiological and subjective arousal

Implementation intention (IMP) has recently been highlighted as an effective emotion regulatory strategy. Most studies examining the effectiveness of IMPs to regulate emotion have relied on self-report measures of emotional change. In two studies we employed electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate (HR) in addition to arousal ratings (AR) to assess the impact of an IMP on emotional responses. In Study 1, 60 participants viewed neutral and two types of negative pictures (weapon vs. non-weapon) under the IMP “If I see a weapon, then I will stay calm and relaxed!” or no self-regulatory instructions (Control). In Study 2, additionally to the Control and IMP conditions, participants completed the picture rating task either under goal intention (GI) to stay calm and relaxed or warning instructions highlighting that some pictures contain weapons. In both studies, participants showed lower EDA, reduced HR deceleration and lower AR to the weapon pictures compared to the non-weapon pictures. In Study 2, the IMP was associated with lower EDA compared to the GI condition for the weapon pictures, but not compared to the weapon pictures in the Warning condition. ARs were lower for IMP compared to GI and Warning conditions for the weapon pictures.