Habit reversal vs. negative practice treatment of nailbiting

A previous study of the habit reversal treatment of nailbiting was extended by using more subjects (97) and a comparison with an alternative method (negative practice). Negative practice reduced nailbiting episodes by about 60% whereas habit reversal reduced nailbiting episodes by about 99% throughout the 5-month follow-up.     

Effects of erotic stimuli on sexually functional and dysfunctional women: Multiple measures before and after sex therapy

A group of 11 women entering sex therapy for treatment of low arousal, and a comparison group of 11 women experiencing no arousal deficit, viewed an erotic film, listened to an erotic audiotape, and engaged in sexual fantasy during two experimental sessions. Session I occurred pre-treatment for the low arousal group. Session II occurred post-treatment. The adequate arousal group was tested at comparable points in time. Sexual arousal was measured subjectively by self-rating and physiologically by a vaginal photoplethysmograph. Contrary to expectation, the two groups showed equivalent significant increases in physiological response during the erotic stimuli in both sessions. However, the adequate arousal group rated subjective arousal significantly higher than the low arousal group in Session I, while no difference was found between the groups in Session II. Significant correlations were present between physiological response and ratings of several affective reactions to the audiotape, though few significant correlations were found between physiological and subjective sexual arousal measures. These data indicate a discrepancy between genital responses and ratings of sexual arousal for which several interpretations are offered.     

Effects of stress and retesting on role play tests of social skill

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of stress in performance on role play tests of social skill. Chronic psychiatric patients were tested in a formal videotape studio or in an informal consulting room setting. Motoric and physiological measures were secured. In addition, one-half of the subjects were retested one week later. In contrast to previous studies, results indicated that the assessment was not stressful. The two groups were not different on any measure, and the mean heart rates ranged from only 80 to 84 b.p.m. The effects of retesting were difficult to interpret. There were reductions in motoric indices of anxiety (speech disruptions) but not on physiological indices. Overall, testretest reliability was quite high. The results raise several questions which affect interpretation of many social skills studies in the literature.     

Retention of verbal information by rehearsal in relation to the fluency of verbal output in aphasia

The purpose of the present study was to determine if aphasic subject groups differentiated by the fluency of their verbal output employed rehearsal as a strategy for maintaining verbally coded information in primary memory. A task based upon the Brown-Peterson paradigm was administered to 10 fluent aphasic patients, 10 nonfluent aphasic patients, 10 right-brain-damaged patients, and 10 nonneurological patients. The findings indicate that the nonfluent aphasic patients did not rehearse the verbal information while the fluent aphasic, right-brain-damaged, and nonneurological patients did rehearse. In addition, both fluent and nonfluent aphasic patients encoded significantly less information into the memory system initially and performed worse on the task overall than right-brain-damaged and nonneurological patients.     

Personality factors in dysphoria: A psychometric refinement of beck's Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale

The Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (SAS) was developed as a means of assessing two cognitive-personality constructs postulated as vulnerability factors in depression (Beck, 1983). While studies have confirmed the validity of the SAS Sociotropy Scale, the construct validity of the Autonomy Scale has not been well supported. The present study was conducted to improve on the measurement of autonomy by generating additional items which were added to the original questionnaire. This 93-item SAS was administered to 485 undergraduates along with the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, PRF Affiliation and Autonomy Scales, Positive and Negative Emotionality Measures, and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Four factors labeled Sociotropy, Solitude/Interpersonal Insensitivity, Independence, and Individualistic Achievement emerged from a principal-factor analysis of the SAS item pool. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that positive emotionality and solitude/interpersonal insensitivity were specifically related to dysphoria, while negative emotionality and sociotropy had significant associations with both anxious and depressed mood states.This research was supported by University of New Brunswick Research Grant 22–51 awarded to the first author.     

Parental defense style and child competence: A match-mismatch hypothesis

This study sought to explore the possible relationship between parental style of psychological defense and children's social competence in 50 families in which one parent had been hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder. Based upon a formal analysis of the logical transformations inherent in various defense mechanisms, three levels of complexity of defenses were identified, along with a counterpart set of cognitive operations necessary for decoding these defense levels. It was hypothesized that children lacking the requisite cognitive skills to grasp the logical complexities of their disturbed parent's primary mode of psychological defense would be less socially adjusted and judged less competent than children who could understand the defensive transformations of their parent. The results suggested that children who, due to their cognitive immaturity, are potentially     

The adequacy of a role play of a previous event as affected by high and low social anxiety and rehearsal

This study was designed as a preliminary step in evaluating the adequacy of a role play of a previous event. Sixty undergraduate males, high or low in social anxiety, interacted with a female assistant. Two groups of subjects then rehearsed this conversation overtly or covertly, while a third group became involved in a distraction task. Finally, all subjects role played the initial interaction with a second female assistant. Individual Pearson product-moment correlations between the initial and the role-play sessions yielded moderate, but significant correlations for most of the rated behaviors. Canonical correlations for the verbal and for the nonverbal ratings showed the two sessions, as a whole, highly related. Two (high-versus low-social anxiety group) × three (overt, covert, or no rehearsal) analyses of variance were performed on four measures. Significant results were found only for the anxiety group effect and rehearsal group effect on one rating, anxiety behaviors. The implications of the modest individual correlations suggest that estimation of specific levels of behavior is not appropriate from a role play of a previous event. However, the use of such a role play to make global distinctions of relative competence may be appropriate. The results of this study are consonant with earlier studies on role-play assessment.This article is based on a master's thesis completed by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science degree at Ohio University.