Behavioral techniques in the treatment of obesity: A comparative analysis

The relative efficacy of the major techniques typically used in behavioral treatment programs for weight reduction was investigated using obese adult volunteers. Study 1 compared the effects of self-monitoring, self-control procedures, monetary rewards, aversive imagery and relaxation training. These procedures resulted in significantly greater weight reduction than either a no treatment group or subjects who graphed and recorded daily weight. Self-monitoring of daily caloric intake was as effective as the other methods, both singly and combined, over a 4 week treatment period. Study 2 compared the long-term effects of self-monitoring vs the full complement of behavioral techniques used in Study 1. The full behavior management program was significantly more effective, both during the treatment period and at 3 and 12 week follow-ups, although self-monitoring again produced substantial weight loss.     

Artists, architects, and engineers--three contrasting modes of visual experience and their psychological correlates

Over a period of five years, 31 architects, 28 artists, and 26 engineers, a total of 85 outstanding individuals in their respective fields, were studied intensively with a psychological test battery consisting of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique, Time Estimation measures, the Stroop Color-Word Test, the Embedded Figures Test, the Autokinetic Effect, Byrne's Repression-Sensitization Inventory, the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Welsh Figure Preference Test. Each subject in the study was chosen by a panel of faculty members as the most outstanding advanced students in nonrepresentational abstract art, architecture, and engineering drawing Highly significant differences were found between the three groups for a number of variables that had been predicted on the basis of previous research and theoretical considerations. These results served to validate the meaning of the perception variables while also giving additional insight into the differences between these three contrasting modes of visual experience as exemplified by the three occupational groups     

The Common Beliefs Survey-III and the Situational Self-Statement and Affective State Inventory: Test-Retest Reliability, Internal Consistency, and Further Psychometric Considerations

The Common Beliefs Survey-III (CBS-III), a factored measure of general irrational beliefs, has satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. The Situational Self-Statement and Affective State Inventory (SSSASI), also with acceptable basic psychometric properties, assesses specific thoughts and feelings in response to vignettes describing frustrating events. Both inventories are potentially useful in assessing dimensions important to REBT, but information on test-retest reliability is needed. The CBS-III and the SSSASI were administered to 101 undergraduate students on two occasions, two or three weeks apart. Satisfactory test-retest reliability coefficients were obtained on all subscales of both inventories, but in the case of the SSSASI reliabilities were generally stronger when the same form of the test was used on both occasions (Form 1 presented the thoughts before the feelings, whereas Form 2 presented the feelings before the thoughts). Further exploration showed that responding to the thoughts before the feelings significantly attenuated scores on the feelings, but responding to the feelings before the thoughts had no effect on scores on the thoughts. This unexpected finding also held true in a previously unexamined data set obtained with a different sample of students several years earlier. Taking careful stock of one's emotional reactions before embarking on cognitive modification interventions seems essential to REBT, and it follows that asking questionnaire respondents to rate their affective states before they rate their self-statements could be desirable conceptually. These results provide empirical support for that strategy.     

Development of the perception of musical relations: semitone and diatonic structure

In the present research we examined the development of sensitivity to two musical relations significant in Western tonal music, the semitone and diatonic structure. Infants and preschool children were tested for their detection of a semitone change in any position of a five-note melody. Two standard melodies were used, one composed of diatonic tones only and the other containing a non-diatonic tone. In Experiment 1, children from 4 to 6 years of age were superior in detecting the semitone change in the diatonic context compared with the nondiatonic context. In Experiment 2, infants 9 to 11 months of age detected the semitone change in all positions, but their performance was not influenced by diatonic context. These findings indicate that infants and children can discriminate a semitone in a musical context and that the priority of diatonic structure emerges by 4 to 6 years of age.     

Semantic and associative factors in probability learning with words

Using a probability-learning technique with a single word as the cue and with the probability of a given event following this word fixed at .80, it was found (1) that neither high nor low associates to the original word and (2) that neither synonyms nor antonyms showed differential learning curves subsequent to original learning when the probability for the following event was shifted to .20. In a second study when feedback, in the form of knowledge of results, was withheld, there was a clear-cut similarity of predictions to the originally trained word and the synonyms of both high and low association value and a dissimilarity of these words to a set of antonyms of both high and low association value. Two additional studies confirmed the importance of the semantic dimension as compared with association value as traditionally measured.     

Turning Fantasies About Positive and Negative Futures into Self-Improvement Goals

Contrasting fantasies about the future with reflections on reality that impedes fantasy realization creates a tight link between expectations of success and forming commitments to self-improvement goals. This effect applies to both fantasies about a positive future contrasted with impeding negative reality as well as fantasies about a negative future contrasted with impeding positive reality. In Study 1, with 63 student participants, contrasting positive fantasies about benefiting from a vocational training with negative reflections on reality impeding such benefits led to expectancy-dependent willingness to invest in the training, more so than indulging in the positive future and than dwelling on the negative reality. In Study 2, with 158 high school students from former East Berlin, contrasting negative, xenophobic fantasies about suffering from the influx of immigrants with positive reflections on reality impeding such suffering led to expectancy-dependent tolerance and willingness to integrate the immigrants. Findings are discussed in terms of how mental contrasting facilitates self-improvement and personal development by making people form expectancy-dependent goal commitments to approach positively-perceived as well as negatively-perceived futures.