Augmentation of in vivo exposure treatment for agoraphobia by the formation of neighbourhood self-help groups

The advantages of selecting agoraphobic patients for treatment by group exposure according to their residential geographic neighbourhood were evaluated in terms of facilitation of ‘homework’ practice and increased social contact. Both ‘zoned’ and ‘unzoned’ groups showed gains in ability to perform hierarchy items after 11 sessions of exposure, relative to a no-treatment control group. However only zoned subjects showed significant reductions in experienced anxiety when executing such items. Self-ratings of overall phobic severity also suggested a zoned group was superior to unzoned while assessors' ratings indicated both groups as equally improved. Only zoned subjects showed a significant increase in social range. Improvements were maintained at 3-months follow-up. No effect of treatment was found on either the Zung measure of anxious mood or on social integration.These results suggest that, where practical, zoning might offer the means for desirable continuation of intensive clinic-based group treatment as well as the benefit of extending treatment into the patients' environment as in home-based treatments. Crucial levels of group cohesion might also be increased although therapists should be prepared to negotiate resistance to a socially demanding programme from patients with significant additional social phobias.     

AN ECOBEHAVIORAL EXAMINATION OF A SIMPLE STRATEGY FOR INCREASING MEALTIME LANGUAGE IN RESIDENTIAL FACILITIES

Typically in large residential facilities for retarded persons, meals are served in an institutional style that does not appear to encourage appropriate peer interactions. An ecological program alternative is serving meals in a family style. The present study was designed to examine both the feasibility of serving family style meals and the effects of family style meal service on mealtime language. Five retarded young adult male residents, who had some conversational skills and appropriate table manners, participated in this study. The experimental design involved a multiple baseline analysis across meals (dinner, lunch, and breakfast). Observers coded the youths' mealtime verbalizations according to the type, content, and direction of the verbalizations and they recorded the length of the meals. The analysis of the verbalization data indicated that during family style meals the participants spoke substantially more often than during institutional style meals. Increases in peer-directed conversation about the meals primarily accounted for the verbalization changes. Family style serving also resulted in the youths spending more time with their meals. In addition, social validation measures suggested that the family style procedures were preferred by the consumers (participants, staff, and concerned community members).     

Contextual potentiation of acquired behavior after devaluing direct context-US associations

In two experiments, water-deprived rats were exposed to tone-footshock pairings in a particular conditioning context. In Experiment 1, the training parameters were selected on the basis of parametric pilot data so as not to produce direct associations between the conditioning context and footshock. Despite independent evidence of no appreciable direct association between the conditioning context and footshock, animals tested in the conditioning context exhibited more lick suppression to the tone than other animals tested with the tone outside of the conditioning context. Thus, the conditioning context potentiated suppression to the tone in the absence of appreciable fear of the conditioning context. In Experiment 2, training parameters were used that permitted the formation of direct associations between the conditioning context and footshock; however, for half the animals, these associations to the context were then extinguished. With the tone absent, a comparison of extinguished animals tested either in the conditioning context or outside the conditioning context detected no differences in suppression, demonstrating the effectiveness of the extinction manipulation. However, other animals also subjected to extinction of direct context-footshock associations displayed greater suppression to the tone within the conditioning context than comparable animals tested outside the context. Collectively the data indicate that the superior retention-test performance seen within the training context can arise both from the commonly assumed direct associations between the training context and the unconditioned stimulus and from the potentiation by the training context of the associations between the nominal conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus.     

THE UNIT PLAY MANAGER AS FACILITATOR OF PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITIES AMONG INSTITUTIONALIZED PROFOUNDLY AND SEVERELY RETARDED BOYS

Child care workers were trained in specified techniques (play manager routines) in an effort to increase purposeful activity among a group of profoundly and severely retarded institutionalized boys. A system of prompts, increasing the availability of toys and regular staff monitoring, were alternated with normal institutional routines in an ABA reversal design. On the average, activity level increased from 10% to a mean of 70% during treatment conditions. Correspondingly, stereotyped or harmful behaviors decreased from an average of 20% to 70% during treatment.     

Pavlovian processes do mediate control of the “advance” response strategy

Two parallel experiments used pigeons in a transfer of control design to determine the basis of the transfer of the use of the “advance strategy” across successive discriminations (W. K. Honig & H. Lindsay, Learning and Motivation, 1975, 6, 157–178). Pigeons were first trained under instrumental contingencies to use an “advance” response to maximize their exposure to S^D and minimize their exposure to S^Δ. Then orthogonal stimuli (key lights in Experiment 1 and diffuse illuminations in Experiment 2) were independently established through separate discriminative Pavlovian procedures as CS+ and CS? or as CS^o's. Later in special tests, it was demonstrated that the associative values of the Pavlovian CS's were a major factor governing the use of the advance strategy: only pigeons exposed to $\text{CS+}\text{CS?}$ used the advance response to regulate their exposure to either CS. Although these experiments showed that the necessary and sufficient conditions for utilization of the advance strategy are the Pavlovian associative values of the discriminative stimuli, opportunity for differential “operant” responding during the discriminative stimuli seems to be a contributor to the optimal use of the advance response across successive discriminations.     

Rape trauma syndrome

The relationship of rape trauma syndrome to the official diagnostic nomenclature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-III is extensively discussed. The theoretical and practical clinical issues involved in rape trauma are reviewed as well as the early court rulings on the admissibility of rape trauma syndrome in criminal and civil cases.     

The effects of hand and direction parameter preknowledge on choice reaction times

The two studies undertaken investigated how reaction times are affected by preknowledge concerning hand and direction parameters, and the order in which these data are disclosed. In the first experiment, preknowledge was manipulated by selecting 2-CRT pairs which had either a common hand or direction component. Reaction signal information content (as defined by the number of unknown response parameters) was controlled, but no parameter differences emerged. When parameter order was manipulated by sequential precuing, the ‘hand then direction’ order conferred a significant advantage. Motor preparation and response selection explanations for this effect are considered. Various difficulties with the paradigms used are discussed, including those of distinguishing between response selection and motor programming contributions, controlling and inferring the strategies adopted by subjects, and defining task difficulty. The prospects for independently fostering either response identification or motor preparation by means of an appropriate selection of precues are also discussed.     

Do Students with Different Characteristics Take Part in Psychology Experiments at Different Times of the Semester?

ABSTRACT In this study we examined 15 personality and demographic differences between psychology students who took part in experiments at different times of the semester and different times of the day. In general, few significant relations were found and those that did emerge were small in magnitude. Females and freshmen signed up for experiments earlier in the semester. Females took part in their first experiment earlier in the semester, as did students who were Protestant and who came from smaller home towns. Students low in self-consciousness also tended to begin participating earlier. Extraverts participated earlier in the day than introverts. Results generally were consistent with previous findings of differences between research volunteers and non-volunteers. However, it was concluded that because of their small magnitude and inconsistency from site to site, with a few precautions experimenters probably need not be concerned that timing effects threaten the external validity of psychological research outcomes.     

Interview with Dr. Peter Rutter,author ofSex in the Forbidden Zone,July 27, 1990

Articles

Interview with Dr. Peter Rutter, author ofSex in the Forbidden Zone, July 27, 1990     

On the scope of alcohol expectancy research: remaining issues of measurement and meaning

An article by Leigh (1989d) examined certain substantive and measurement-related limitations of research on alcohol outcome expectancies. Leigh (1989d) criticized research in this field on both conceptual and methodological grounds and speculated on future theoretical directions for research in the field. In their response, Goldman, Brown, Christiansen, and Smith (1991) contended that Leigh's critique is faulty in important respects. However, some of their points are based on misinterpretations of Leigh's comments, and they appear to have insufficient appreciation of conditions necessary for comprehensive measurement validation and for meaningful application of theories of memory to alcohol expectancy research. Despite the limitations of expectancy research, exciting avenues exist for further work.