My Perspective on Psychotherapy Integration: An Outsider Who's Out of It

My rejoinder is a response to two commentaries on my SEPI keynote in 1997: commentaries written by Goldfried and Cullari. Instead of grappling with the ideas I presented, both respondents were distracted by my satirical beginning. In my talk I proposed a method for studying psychotherapy integration. I am not pessimistic about the potential for integration, nor am I pessimistic about psychotherapy. But I am a skeptic, and science is driven—and indeed advance—by skepticism. In fact, psychotherapy integration requires that its advocates be skeptics. I still do not know what psychotherapy integration is, and remain confused. I can only conclude that I am not only an outsider, but out of it.     

Psychological Adjustment and Coping Styles of Urban African American High School Students

In a study of African American (n = 208) urban high school students, grade point average (GPA) and specific strategies for coping with day-to-day stressors were found to be significantly related to psychological adjustment. Students who had higher GPAs tended to use family members as a means of solving problems, minimized problems by the use of humor, and used relaxation activities less often were found to have the most positive psychological adjustment, as measured by the index score of the Affects Balance Scale (ABS). Reported negative affect was not found to be significantly influenced by coping style, whereas positive affect was.     

Changing social stereotypes: The case of the information seeker

Previous research has shown that stereotype-based judgements can be attenuated through the attribution of disconfirming information to individual group members. Typically in these studies, subjects are forced to process all the available in formation, including disconfirming information, before providing their impressions of the group. In the reported research, in contrast, we attempted to create a more naturalistic paradigm by allowing subjects to control the amount and nature of information they received about individual group members. Under these conditions, we expected subjects to instigate a biased information-seeking strategy and display a preference for stereotype-matching rather than stereotype-mismatching information. Our results supported this prediction. When subjects could control the nature and amount of information they received about a target group they showed: (i) a preference for stereotype-matching information and (ii) no change in their stereotypic impressions of the group. When, however, subjects were forced to process all the available information, their stereotypic evaluation of the group diminished. These findings demonstrate the general resistance of stereotypes to change in naturalistic, information-seeking settings.     

Effects of repeated exposure to sexually violent or nonviolent stimuli on sexual arousal to rape and nonrape depictions

The major purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of repeated exposure to sexually violent stimuli (SVS) in relatively ‘naturalistic settings’ on sexual arousal to rape and nonrape stimuli. Repeated exposure effects using nonviolent erotica were also examined. Sixty-nine male Ss participated in the study. A preexposure session was conducted in which Ss were exposed to written and pictorial depictions of rape and mutually-consenting intercourse. Based on Ss' penile tumescence to these depictions, they were classified as either Force-oriented, Nonforce-oriented or Unclassifiable. Subsequently, Ss were randomly assigned to sexually violent (SVS), sexually nonviolent (SNVS) or control conditions within each force-orientation group. Those assigned to the SVS condition were then exposed to 10 SVS including feature-length films and written and pictorial depictions over a period of 4 weeks. Ss in the SNVS condition were exposed to 10 similar media presentations depicting sexually nonviolent activities only. Ss in the control condition were not exposed to any stimuli during this 4-week period. Soon after completion of the exposure phase, Ss returned for a postexposure laboratory session in which they were presented with four depictions that were similar in theme to those in the preexposure session. Penile tumescence scores and self-reports of sexual arousal were obtained. Results revealed that, for Force-oriented Ss, those exposed to either SVS or SNVS were less aroused to the rape depictions in the postexposure session than those in the control condition. A similar pattern occurred with the nonrape depictions for these Ss, though it was considerably less pronounced. No evidence of a similar ‘satiation’ pattern was obtained for either Nonforce-oriented or Unclassifiable Ss, with these Ss showing no significant differences among the three exposure conditions. The findings are discussed in the context of cognitions, personality differences, conditioning processes, stimulus parameters and response habituation theories. Social and clinical implications are also discussed.     

Personality and sexuality

Although Eysenck's book Sex and Personality would seem to have broad implications for understanding sexual behavior, there has been relatively little empirical research that has attempted to test Eysenck's theory. The present research tested aspects of this theory by examining the correlations between personality characteristics and a variety of sexual attitudes and behavior in a sample of male Canadian college students. Results were, for the most part, supportive of Eysenck's theory. Extraverts were characterized by a hedonistic outlook on sex and by more active participation in a variety of sexual activities. High P scorers were characterized by more favorable attitudes to and enjoyment of force and unconventional sexual activities. Correlations with the N scale were, in general, not statistically significant. High L scores were associated with more negative attitudes toward sex, and lower reporting for virtually all types of sexual activity.     

Sex guilt,sexual arousal,and urinary acid phosphatase output

This study investigated the relationship between the personality variable sex guilt and a proposed physiological measure of sexual arousal (urinary acid phosphatase level). Urinary acid phosphatase levels of 43 male college students were assessed both basally and after exposure to 19 sexually themed slides. As predicted, sex guilt was inversely related to both basal acid phosphatase level and changes in acid phosphatase level upon exposure to the erotic stimuli. In addition, sex guilt scores were correlated with subjects' self-reported reactions to the erotic stimuli. The relationships obtained provided further construct validity evidence for the sex-guilt measure. Finally, the relationship between sexual arousal and urinary acid phosphatase level was explored. The data provided only partial validation for the proposed relationship between sexual arousal and urinary acid phosphatase output.