Two factors of restraint: concern for dieting and weight fluctuation

Factor analysis of the Restraint Scale produced two replicated factors: Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuation. Concern for Dieting reflects heightened attention to and emotional association with eating. Weight Fluctuation reflects extent of previously-experienced weight gain and loss. Weight Fluctuation was more highly positively correlated with indices of overweight status than was Concern for Dieting. Concern for Dieting was positively correlated with Public Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety while Weight Fluctuation was not. Both versions of Restraint were weakly and inversely correlated with Body Image, although this relationship was mediated by degree of overweight status. The findings indicate that the two factors are sufficiently distinct to preclude combination into a single scale. Furthermore. Weight Fluctuation appears to be the more promising subscale for future research.     

Factor structure of the Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire: relationship to oral contraceptives, neuroticism and life stress

The Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire was administered to initial and cross-validation samples of college-age women. Factor analyses performed on the data from each sample failed to support Dalton's distinction between spasmodic and congestive forms of primary dysmenorrhea. Instead, a more complicated factor structure evolved, closely resembling Webster's findings, with factors representing menstrual pain, pre-menstrual negative affect, pre-menstrual water retention, pre-menstrual pain, menstrual backache and menstrual gastrointestinal symptoms. Oral contraceptive use was negatively related to menstrual pain and backache. Neuroticism scores were positively related to all six factors, and negative life changes to four of these factors, suggesting a role for psychogenic factors in both pre-menstrual and menstrual symptomatology.     

A comparison of social-skills training, pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for depression

This study compared four treatments for unipolar (non-psychotic) depression: Amitriptyline, Social-Skills Training (SST) + Amitriptyline, SST + Placebo and Psychotherapy + Placebo. In addition, 25 normal women were assessed on the behavioral measures in order to evaluate the ecological validity of the dependent measures and the changes produced by treatment. The four treatments, conducted by experienced clinicians, all produced statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful changes in symptomatology. However, there were several notable differences. The SST groups had greater improvement on measures of social skill, and were more similar to the normal women after treatment. In addition the SST + Placebo group had the lowest level of attrition and had the highest proportion of patients who were significantly improved. Significance of the results for future research on SST and role-play measures of social skill was discussed.     

Cognitive-behavioral treatment of agoraphobia: paradoxical intention vs self-statement training

Twenty-six agoraphobics were randomly assigned to either Paradoxical Intention (PI) or Self-Statement Training (SST) which consisted of 12 weekly 90-min group sessions with 4–5 patients per group. Major assessments were carried out at pre-treatment, 6th week and 12th week of treatment, and at 1- and 6-month follow-ups. Measures included clinical ratings of severity of condition, phobia, anxiety and depression. Furthermore, a behavioral test was administered during which changes in subjective units of discomfort and cognitions were assessed. The results indicated statistically-significant improvement over time with both treatments. ANCOVAs performed revealed superior effects on several agoraphobia measures for the PI condition at post-treatment. However, by the 6-month follow-up assessment, the groups were equivalent due to marked improvement during the follow-up phase in the SST condition. Cognitive changes were marked by a decrease in self-defeating statements without concomitant increase in coping statements. These results and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Cognitive deficits in compulsive checkers: An exploratory study

Compulsive-checking behavior can be conceptualized as resulting, in part, from a memory failure. In order to determine if memory difficulties are associated with compulsive checking, the performance of college-student checkers were compared with the performance of non-checkers on a number of cognitive tasks hypothesized to be relevant to understanding checking behavior. Using the Checking and Cleaning subscales of the Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory, four groups of subjects were identified: (1) Cleaning Checkers (N = 13); (2) Noncleaning Checkers (N = 13); (3) Cleaning Noncheckers (N = 13); and (4) Noncleaning Noncheckers (N = 15). It was hypothesized that the cognitive deficits studied would characterize individuals with cheeking compulsions, but not persons with non-checking compulsions (i.e. Cleaning Noncheckers) or normal controls (i.e. Noncleaning Noncheckers). Compulsive checkers were found to have a poorer memory for prior actions than non-checkers and were also found to underestimate their ability at distinguishing memories of real and imagined events, a process referred to as reality monitoring. Both of these deficits were specific to compulsive checkers and can be viewed as contributing to the likelihood that an individual will engage in checking behavior. If an individual has difficulty in recalling whether an intended action has been executed, they may be inclined to engage in checking behavior to insure the intended action is carried out. Similarly, a tendency to underestimate reality-monitoring ability could result in increased checking behavior as the individual attempts to reduce his/her uncertainty over whether a previous behavior actually occurred or merely was thought to occur. It is concluded that the study of cognitive deficits in compulsive checking is a potentially fruitful avenue for further inquiry.     

Smoking cessation with behaviour therapy or acupuncture—A controlled study

Five hundred and fifty-eight cigarette smokers (mean 31 cigarettes/day) were randomized in four groups: Acupuncture, Behaviour Therapy, Placebo Medication and Waiting-list Control. The life-table analysis of smoking cessation showed, at a 12-month follow-up, no difference between Acupuncture, Behaviour Therapy and Placebo. Differences appeared only in an analysis of the abstinent subjects at each data point. Behaviour Therapy and Acupuncture accounted for significantly more abstinent subjects than Placebo at the end of the 2-week therapeutic phase. However at 9 and 12 months Acupuncture had a statistically-significant greater number of abstinent subjects than Behaviour Therapy, but there was no difference between Acupuncture and Placebo. The percentage decrease in smoking from baseline appeared significantly greater at 12 months in the first three groups than in the Control conditions. However, as in most smoking-cessation studies, the overall effect was small and non-specific. The results reflect the importance of maintenance programmes and of the prevention of addiction.     

The use of the psychological stress evaluator with stutterers

A lie detection instrument, the Psychological Stress Evaluator, has been reported by the manufacturer as being capable of quantifying changes in the degree of “stress” as reflected by a subject's voice. Speech pathologists might consider the use of the instrument in clinical and research activities concerning the stutterer's emotional (stress) reaction to stuttering.To test the validity of the instrument, four stutterers and four normal speakers were recorded while making consecutive telephone calls. Randomized recordings were analyzed by a company trained technical to determine the degree of stress for each speech sample.Results indicated that both groups had a significant reduction of stress from the first to the fourth telephone call. However, the groups did not differ in the degree of stress during the ordered series of calls. Due to the inability of the Psychological Stress Evaluator to differentiate between the groups, the validity of the instruments is questioned.     

Fluid and crystallized intelligence and primacy/recency components of short-term memory

Primacy and recency recall measures, obtained from both free and probed-recall tasks, were included in a battery of tests which also contained markers for fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, and cognitive speed factors. Our results confirmed previous findings that for subjects within the normal range of abilities, recency recall from probed-recall tasks is more closely linked to intelligence than is primacy recall. A new finding was also obtained: that primacy recall is correlated more with measures of cognitive speed than is recency recall. These results are discussed in terms of the concept of working memory and its relation to intelligence.