Cardiovascular Responses to Television-Mediated Nonverbal Approach1

Two studies are reported which examined physiological responsiveness to changes in level of nonverbal intimacy cues expressed by a partner during an interview conducted across interactive television. Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 separately examined the effects of decreasing apparent interactive distance (produced by alteration of image size) and increasing eye-contact on subjects' heart rate and pulse amplitude. The findings suggest that shifts in these nonverbal approach cues are related to cardiovascular changes including bradycardia and a modest compensatory increase in pulse amplitude. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the hypothesized relationship between cardiovascular functioning and information processing and practical considerations for the use of interactive television.     

The aggression-inhibiting influence of nonhostile humor

Forty undergraduate students participated in an experiment designed to investigate the hypothesis that prior exposure to nonhostile humor would markedly reduce the level of aggression directed by angry individuals against the person who had previously provoked them. In order to examine this suggestion, subjects were first angered or not angered by a confederate of the experimenter, then exposed to either humorous cartoons or nonhumorous pictures, and finally provided with an opportunity to aggress against this individual by means of electric shock. Results indicated that exposure to the nonhostile cartoons significantly reduced the duration of the shocks delivered to the confederate by subjects in the angry condition, but failed to influence the level of aggression demonstrated by subjects in the nonangry group. These findings were discussed in terms of the elicitation, by the cartoons, of responses and emotional states incompatible with anger or overt aggression. Possible implications of the aggression-inhibiting influence of humor for the prevention and control of human violence were also considered.     

Assertive training: An adjunct to fluency shaping

“Assertive Training” has been utilized as an adjunct therapy in a six week residential program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The speech pathology staff in conjunction with the psychology staff determined that a persistent problem with long term success after patients were dismissed from therapy was largely due to a “behavioral deficit” in their interpersonal verbal confrontations. The anxiety resulting from such communication failure simply chips away at the self confidence needed to maintain a working level of fluency, resulting in a “snowballing” effect back to dysfluency.

Thus, the goals and procedures of assertive training for stutterers are discussed as a means to shape more effective skills in relating to others in difficult situations. Pre, post and six month follow-up data are presented.     

The noninvasive measurement of regional cerebral circulation

A brief introduction to the history and development of the noninvasive regional cerebral blood flow technique is presented. The procedures and apparatus are described in a nontechnical manner to provide a resource background for the other papers in this issue.     

Relationships Between Selected Social Factors and Extent of High School Counseling

This research compares highly counseled and non-counseled secondary school students for differences in social status, attitudinal, and parental characteristics. The 2 guidance functions of career and non-career guidance were studied. Subjects were selected from a larger pool of seniors at 8 diverse high schools. The data revealed that subjects who received extensive career guidance (a) participated more actively in high status social and leadership activities in school, (b) reported their parents to be more active in community, social, and recreational activities, (c) had higher educational goals, and (d) that extensively counseled males were more other-directed, while highly counseled females were more inner-directed. Parental social status and academic achievement did not distinguish between highly counseled and non-counseled students. Few measures differentiated the 2 groups on amount of non-career guidance. These results were interpreted as indicating that utilization of secondary school guidance services may be determined to an important degree by factors extrinsic to the interpersonal process of the guidance situation.     

Lens on International Clinical Supervision: Lessons Learned from a Cross-National Comparison of Supervision

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy - Clinical supervision is an essential mechanism for training psychologists internationally. But although it is performed globally, scholarship has primarily...     

The impact of continuing care adherence on environmental risks, substance use, and substance-related problems following adolescent residential treatment.

The effectiveness of adolescent treatment to reduce substance use has been demonstrated by a number of different literature reviews, yet longer term outcome studies have suggested that continued alcohol and other drug use is common. Participation in continuing care services and reductions in environmental risk factors (e.g., peer substance use or alcohol or drug use in the home) have both been found to be associated with improved posttreatment substance use. The authors conducted Path analysis to examine the experimental direct effect of the Assertive Continuing Care Protocol (S. H. Godley, M. D. Godley, & M. L. Dennis, 2001) on general continuing care adherence following residential treatment and the protocol's indirect effect (via general continuing care adherence) on social and environmental risk factors, as well as subsequent substance use and substance-related problems. Supporting previous findings, the final model indicates that greater adherence to continuing care is associated with reductions in environmental risk, which in turn is associated with reduced adolescent substance use and substance-related problems 9 months after discharge from residential treatment.     

Autobiographical memory: unpleasantness fades faster than pleasantness over time

We examined the effects of retention intervals on the recollection of the emotional content of events. Memory for personal events was tested for three retention intervals: 3 months, 1 year, and 4.5 years. Participants made pleasantness ratings both at the time of recording the event and during testing of the events. Analyses of the data show that judgments of pleasantness or unpleasantness of an event became less extreme as retention interval increased. This effect was larger for unpleasant events than for pleasant events. Subsequent memory ratings of pleasant and unpleasant events showed a modest effect of pleasantness with pleasant events remembered slightly better than unpleasant events. The theoretical implications of these data are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.