WILLIAM JAMES AND HYPNOSIS: A Centennial Reflection

Like many other early psychologists, William James was fascinated by hypnosis and related phenomena. For James, hypnosis was both an experimental technique for creating divisions of consciousness, and a laboratory model of naturally occurring disorders of awareness. James' treatment of consciousness in hypnosis presages contemporary interests in dissociation and implicit cognition, and underscores the role of the self in conscious mental life. At the same time. James recognized the complexity of hypnosis as an interpersonal process. In the end. James' views suggest how a rapprochement between the cognitive and social approaches to hypnosis might be achieved.     

Perceived family environments of depressed and anxious children: Child's and maternal figure's perspectives

This study examined perceived environment among families with a depressed, depressed and anxious, anxious, or normal child from the 4th to 7th grades. Fifty-one such children were classified according to criteria from the K- SADS and a set of self-ratings of depression and anxiety. Results showed that children in all three diagnostic groups, and to a lesser extent their mothers, experienced their families as more distressed on a host of dimensions relative to controls. In addition, significant differences were found between families with a depressed and anxious child and those with an anxious child. Discriminant function analyses revealed that 68.63 % of the youngsters could be classified correctly into depressed and anxious groups on the basis of their family ratings alone.     

Limbic networks and associative learning: I. Entorhinal contributions to instrumental conditioning

The hippocampal formation is a highly delineated brain structure that is believed to play a prominent role in learning and memory. The present experiment evaluated the contributions of medial and lateral perforant path input to bar press-conditioning under (a) continuous and (b) differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) schedules, and (c) shuttlebox avoidance conditioning. Bilateral deafferentation of either pathway had no effect on the acquisition of bar press responses or on performance under the DRL schedule. Deafferentation of the medial pathway facilitated acquisition of avoidance responses in a manner much like the effects seen in hippocampectomized animals. It is suggested that the medial perforant path participates in the expression of correlated patterns of neuronal discharge known to develop within the hippocampus and that this “model” serves to modulate the temporal characteristics of simple conditioned reflexes. Loss of the modulatory influence of the model may affect acquisition and extinction rates. Contributions of other hippocampal circuits are discussed in relation to established deficits. Preliminary results of this experiment were presented at the second annual convention of the American Psychological Society, Dallas, Texas, June 1990.     

Cognitive-behavioral modification of coronary-prone behaviors: Proposal for a treatment model and review of the evidence

The Type A behavior pattern (TABP) has been proposed as a causal risk factor in coronary heart disease (CHD), and Cognitive-Behavioral treatment procedures have been proposed as a means of altering TABP. However, recent research suggests that only one component of TABP, hostility and anger, is the primary pathogenic factor in CHD. We review the research literature addressing the relationship of cognitive dysfunction and TABP and the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and anger expression. We then review the cognitive-behavioral therapy research literature regarding the modification of cognitive dysfunction, TABP and anger expression. While sparse, the research suggests that cognitive-behavioral treatments for anger and hostility hold promise for the treatment of individuals at risk for CHD.Jeffrey M. Lohr, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. His research interests are in the assessment of irrational beliefs and their association with dsyphoric motivational statesL. Kevin Hamberger, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine of the Medical College of Wisconsin. His clinical and research interests are in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of male spouse abusers     

Limbic networks and associative learning: I. Entorhinal contributions to instrumental conditioning

The hippocampal formation is a highly delineated brain structure that is believed to play a prominent role in learning and memory. The present experiment evaluated the contributions of medial and lateral perforant path input to bar press-conditioning under (a) continuous and (b) differential reinforcement of low rates of responding (DRL) schedules, and (c) shuttlebox avoidance conditioning. Bilateral deafferentation of either pathway had no effect on the acquisition of bar press responses or on performance under the DRL schedule. Deafferentation of the medial pathway facilitated acquisition of avoidance responses in a manner much like the effects seen in hippocampectomized animals. It is suggested that the medial perforant path participates in the expression of correlated patterns of neuronal discharge known to develop within the hippocampus and that this “model” serves to modulate the temporal characteristics of simple conditioned reflexes. Loss of the modulatory influence of the model may affect acquisition and extinction rates. Contributions of other hippocampal circuits are discussed in relation to established deficits. Preliminary results of this experiment were presented at the second annual convention of the American Psychological Society, Dallas, Texas, June 1990.     

Therapeutic techniques vs therapeutic relationships in child behavior therapy

The parents of 56 children who had received behavior therapy rated a number of variables, including the degree to which they viewed the therapeutic relationship versus the specific techniques used in treatment as important, the extent to which the child improved in therapy, and the child's present functioning. Therapists also provided ratings of clinical improvement. Even though parents gave the highest ratings for the importance of the relationship in therapy, the correlation between technique and clinical outcome was statistically significant while the correlations between the relationship and outcome was not. These statistical associations also held when therapists rated improvement. Also, therapists saw greater improvement in children than did the parents. Over-all, the results support the view that the relationship and techniques are interwoven and are both perceived as important factors in treatment.     

Actual differences and stereotypical perceptions in body image and eating disturbance: A comparison of male and female heterosexual and homosexual samples

In the present study, 32 homosexual males (HMM), 32 homosexual females (HMF), 32 heterosexual males (HTM), and 32 heterosexual females (HTF) completed measures of body image disturbance and concerns with weight and dieting from five different perspectives: self, and typical homosexual male, heterosexual male, heterosexual female, and homosexual female. Participants were primarily Caucasian. Results indicated that, in general, HMMs and HTFs showed greater actual concerns with appearance, weight, and dieting, and were perceived to possess greater body image disturbance and dieting concerns compared to HTMs and HMFs. Subjects also held various stereotypic misperceptions about certain target groups such that HTFs and HMMs were predicted to possess greater body image disturbance and be more concerned with weight and dieting than was actually true. In addition, subjects made accurate predictions about HTMs overall, but were inconsistent in their predictions of HMFs on these measures. Results are discussed in terms of possible variation in the degree of importance these attributes may have for members of these four populations and how such differences may lead to an increased risk for developing eating disorders among heterosexual females and homosexual males.     

Evidencefor implicitscaling in comparative judgment

In two experiments, we examined the effects of manipulating the density of stimuli on comparison difficulty in a comparative judgment task. In Experiment 1, subjects were slower at judging the relative size of a pair when the members were adjacent items in the linear order than when the members were separated by items of intervening magnitudes. In Experiment 2, the advantage of choosing the larger rather than the smaller of two large-stimuli (e.g., the congruity effect) increased when the linear order included many small items. In contrast, the advantage of choosing the smaller of two small items increased when the linear order included many large items. The applicability of the range-frequency theory (Parducci,1965) to these results is discussed.