Selective attention and changes in clinical state

Thirty inpatients of a psychiatric unit were given the Mini-Mult and a series of auditory selective attention tasks in order to test the hypotheses that (1) impaired attention is related to degree of pathology, and (2) improvement in clinical state leads to improved ability to selectively attend. The results showed that the relationship between the Mini-Mult and the listening tasks is significant only when the subjects had to exclude irrelevant stimuli (interference condition). The results also indicated that the relationship between clinical changes and changes in attentional performance is significant. The findings were discussed in terms of a quantitative theory of attention.     

Sex differences in realization of individual potential for achievement

Data from 4035 participants in Project TALENT were analyzed to examine the extent to which known sex differences in achievement held up when early potential for achievement was contolled. Original TALENT data, consisting of information on socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, and educational and occupational aspirations, were collected in 1960 when members of the study sample were in Grade 9. Follow-up surveys measuring participants' educational and occupational attainment were conducted at 1, 5, and 11 years after the date of participants' expected graduation from high school. Women had higher high school grades and scored higher on a composite of academic ability tests taken in Grade 9 than did men. However, by 11 years after high school, men had acquired more education and were earning more money on the job. Sex differences in realization of achievement potential were found across all socioeconomic levels. At least part of the reason behind women's relative failure to translate potential into achievement may lie in the greater conflict, for women, between the roles of spouse/parent and the roles of student/worker: variables measuring the onset, duration, and extent of family-related commitments were more strongly related to female than to male realization of potential. Sex differences in achievement grew larger between the 5- and 11-year follow-ups as a greater proportion of women in the study sample became wives and mothers. The widening of the sex gap in achievement during this period was particularly pronounced among the subgroup of individuals who were in the top quartile of potential in Grade 9.     

The use of a self-control package to enhance temporal generality of a parent training program

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of a self-control package in enhancing temporal generality of a parent training program. Sixteen mothers and their clinic-referred noncompliant children were assigned to either a parent training alone group, or a parent training plus self-control group. All mother-child dyads were treated individually by teaching the mother to reward compliance and other prosocial behavior, and to use time-out for noncompliance. In addition, mothers who also received self-control training learned to self-monitor their use of their new parenting skills and to reinforce themselves for use of the skill during a 2 month follow-up period. Assessment consisted of four home observations by independent observers prior to treatment, after treatment, and at a 2 month follow-up. The data indicated that the children in the parent training plus self-control group were significantly more compliant and less deviant at the 2 month follow-up than the children in the parent training alone group. Parental behavior did not differ between the two groups at the follow-up.     

Treatment of bisexual pedophilia by a biofeedback-assisted self-control procedure

A bisexual pedophile was treated for 88 days using a biofeedback procedure which displayed his erection response to sexually deviant stimuli on a closed-circuit television monitor. Told to develop a strategy of self-control using the biofeedback, his response to young boys and girls was treated sequentially in a multiple baseline design. His concurrent response to boys, girls and adult males was evaluated in separate generalization sessions. The treatment was successful in suppressing deviant response while maintaining nondeviant response in strength. Debriefing of the client following treatment revealed that he had used a self-developed technique of covert sensitization to suppress deviant response and had used the biofeedback to confirm and validate this self-control strategy.     

Treatment of obsessive-compulsive patients: The contribution of self-instructional training to the effectiveness of exposure

Fifteen obsessive-compulsive patients were given treatment consisting of ten sessions of gradual exposure in vivo. For half of the patients gradual exposure in vivo was preceded by self-instructional training.Treatment resulted in significant improvement on anxiety and avoidance scales, Leyton Obsessional Inventory, Self-rating Depression Scale and on ratings for anxious mood and depression. Neither the post-test nor the follow-ups 1 month and 6 months later indicated a difference between the effects of the two conditions. Self-instructional training did not enhance the effectiveness of gradual exposure in vivo.