Physiological changes after biofeedback and relaxation training for multiple-pain tension-headache patients

This paper is concerned with the psychophysiology of "muscle-contraction" headaches in a group of Compensation patients suffering from multiple pain problems in addition to headaches. A total of 55 of these patients were divided into 4 groups which received frontalis EMG biofeedback, relaxation training, combined biofeedback-relaxation training, or no treatment. Differences were observed among the 3 experimental treatments and the control group with respect to headache changes, but there were no differences among groups with respect to the changes observed in four underlying physiological responses as a function of time or practice. While the subjects who showed the largest changes in headache characteristics were those who exhibited the largest decreases in frontalis EMG, these were also the subjects whose initial frontalis EMG levels were the highest. It is concluded that, in keeping with a growing literature, the link between frontalis EMG and "muscle-contraction" headaches is a tenuous one and that the changes brought about in headache symptomatology through biofeedback or relaxation training are most likely attributable to a generalization of feelings of mastery over the environment or of self-efficacy brought about in the subjects through apparent success at the task.     

AN EVALUATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RECEPTIVE SPEECH SKILLS AND EXPRESSIVE SIGNING

We examined the effects of receptive speech on the acquisition of manual signing among three mentally retarded children. In an alternating treatments design, we compared the acquisition of expressive signs that were, versus were not, in a child's receptive vocabulary. The children were trained via total communication in which pictorial referents were named during sign training. Signs corresponding to known words were generally acquired faster and retained better than signs corresponding to unknown words. We conducted posttests to assess the stimulus control of signing and any changes in expressive and receptive signing and speech. Observed changes in performance could be accounted for by attention to aspects of the stimulus complex during training and functional equivalence of stimuli established by training.     

Validation of a solid-state anomaloscope used to assess red-green color vision defects

Solid-state anomaloscopes whose stimuli are derived from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are simpler and less expensive than conventional anomaloscopes. We have assessed the test-retest reliability and the validity of one solid-state anomaloscope and have obtained normative data for it. Reliability and validity were assessed by classifying 36 color-defective observers into one of five categories defined by degree of defect. When all color defectives were considered, both the validity and reliability of the solid-state anomaloscope were found to be high. The primary stimuli of the solid-state anomaloscope are less well separated in chromaticity space than are those of conventional anomaloscopes, but there is no evidence that this results in the incorrect classification of anomalous trichromats as dichromats. The solid-state anomaloscope appears to be an acceptable alternative to standard anomaloscopes for both research and screening applications.     

Black-white college student attitudes and expectations in paying for dates

This study examined a black-white sample (N= 173) of university students to ascertain if there is a protocol related to paying for dates. The sample was comprised of 97 blacks and 76 whites. Most of the blacks were from a historically black university and most of the whites were from a predominantly white university, both located in the southeast. Blacks had a slightly lower mean family income when compared with whites. Both racial and gender role related attitudes and expectations related to paying for dates were also explored. African Americans have generally been noted to enact more flexible or nontraditional gender role attitudes and behaviors in some areas. This study sought to ascertain if this pattern followed in the economic dimension of dating. Findings showed race differences on several variables related to paying for dates. Blacks were found to be less flexible or more traditional than whites on several aspects of dating related attitudes and expectations. Whites were more likely to endorse more flexible role patterns and seemed less concerned with a dating protocol. Other important background variables related to more flexible gender role attitudes and expectations were classification, age, and total income of respondents' family of origin respectively.     

The Primary Prevention of Illness: Social Systems and Personal Power

There is evidence to be inferred from statistics about health status and mortality rates that a large proportion of illness and premature death is preventable. Primary prevention programmes appear to have had only limited success when individuals need to take responsibility for preserving their own health. This paper examines the concept of primary prevention and its assumptions, including the need to increase the sense of personal power of individuals. It also deals with some of the problems for primary prevention policies and their implementation. Other primary prevention issues such as ethical and legal considerations. cost-benefits, foci of programmes, and the specification of goals and objectives, are considered. We propose public (government) policies to broaden the concept of health sciences for research and practice, and to give a high priority for resource allocation to prevention of illness and promotion of health, including funding of interdisciplinary research teams. We advocate taking a general systems theory approach to prevention, while enhancing and developing the sense of personal power of individual members of social systems.     

A scale of educational-vocational undecidedness: A typological approach

A scale designed to measure and identify antecedents of educational-vocational indecision was administered to a variety of college student groups expected to differ in career-decidedness. Results indicate that the scale is reliable, appears to discriminate career-decided from career-undecided students, and is responsive to interventions designed to alleviate educational-vocational indecision. A factor analysis of the scale yielded four factors: need for structure, perceived external barriers, positive choice conflict, and personal conflict. The instrument has potential for diagnostic, criterion, and conceptual purposes related to career indecision.     

Instrumental learning in preschool children as a function of type of task, type of reward, and some organismic variables

The effects on instrumental behavior of differences in type of task, type of reward and three organismic variables were investigated in preschool children. The main results were that: (a) an imitative task was acquired in fewer trials than a nonimitative task; (b) social reward in acquisition led to greater resistance to extinction; (c) a history of frequent social reinforcement from peers led to persistence in responding during extinction for boys only; (d) extraversion was found to interact with the variables of task and reward in errors made during extinction; and (e) intelligence was not found to be a reliable predictor of main acquisition and extinction measures or related errors. Detailed analysis of the different types of errors contributed directly to the interpretation of these findings.