A literature review revealed 15 variables as commonly studied as associated with adolescent pregnancy. The research showed conflicting results in many of these areas. Twenty-one pregnant and 20 non-pregnant adolescents were tested using the Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning (ATFR) and the Reiss's Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale. Pregnant participants were expected to score lower than non-pregnant participants on the ATFR; and, the low permissives (based on responses to the Reiss's Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale) were expected to score higher than high permissives on the ATFR. However, the results did not support the hypotheses. Several areas were examined for exploratory purposes. There was a significant difference between high permissives and low permissives for parent/peer orientation for sexual behavior attitudes. Additional exploratory demographic information was collected using a General Information Questionnaire.

This study investigated the effects of an individually administered versus a group-administered stress management training program on various measures of stress, job satisfaction, and burnout among mental health workers. A total of 36 subjects, who were employed in Texas community mental health facilities, participated in the study. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an experimental group (N = 12) which received training on an individual basis, an experimental group (N = 12) which received training in small groups of four to six subjects, and a control group (N = 12) which did not receive training. Both didactic and experimental modes were utilized during the six-week training program. All experimental subjects practiced relaxation daily and were exposed to a broad range of coping skills for stress management.This study investigated the effects of an individually administered versus a group-administered stress management training program on various measures of stress, job satisfaction, and burnout among mental health workers. A total of 36 subjects, who were employed in Texas community mental health facilities, participated in the study. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an experimental group (N = 12) which received training on an individual basis, an …

The assertive training literature has documented the effectiveness of both behavioral and cognitive methods to increase individual's assertiveness. However, the ability for such methods to enhance the generalization of treatment effects to untrained assertive response classes and the natural environment has been poor. In addition, little notice has been paid to the durability of these changes. Although the past several years have witnessed more intensive efforts by investigators to program generalization as part of their interventions, results have continued to be disappointing. A specific generalization-enhancing treatment strategy, self-directed practice, has been utilized with much success in phobic populations. This strategy, and the theoretical orientation it reflects, has been proposed for use in assertive training. The present study sought to examine the effectiveness of this method as compared to the traditional assertive training procedures and investigate the role of self-efficacy expectations in mediating initial behavior change and its subsequent generalization.

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between olfactory preferences and sexual orientation in Heterosexual, Entire Life lesbian, and Adopted Lifestyle lesbian women. Research in the area of olfaction and sexual behavior was reviewed and, on the basis of the literature, it was hypothesized that Heterosexual women would prefer male odors, Entire Life lesbian women would prefer female odors, and Adopted Lifestyle lesbian women would prefer male odors more than Entire Life lesbians. The design involved having female subjects sniff male and female odors and indicate a preference for either the male or female odor. The odor samples were human apocrine gland secretions obtained by having odor donors wear gauze pads in their armpits. The odor collected on the pads was then stabilized through applications of alcohol and subsequent freezing.

The present study was an attempt to further investigate what factors contributed to whether married individuals defined their relationship as traditional or nontraditional. The project, moreover, explored what variables affected marital adjustment levels. The variables whose effects were assessed regarding whether married individuals defined their relationship as traditional or nontraditional included self-actualization and presence or absence of children. The factors examined thought to affect marital adjustment levels were self-actualization, subjective definition of the relationship as traditional or nontraditional, and presence or absence of children.

This study investigated older persons' perception of the negative impact of ill health, retirement, and widowhood in relation to the mobilization of relevant coping mechanisms. In addition, the relationship of coping mechanisms and dissatisfaction with current gender-role identity to seeking counseling was studied. A distributed questionnaire package provided demographic data as well as information pertaining to satisfaction in various areas of life, impact of live events, and coping style. Subjects were 54 males and 67 females aged 50 to 92. Safeguards were taken to ensure complete confidentiality and anonymity of response. Stepwise multiple regression (listwise deletion of data), multivariate and univariate analysis of variance and bivariate correlational analyses of the data were performed, suggesting that perception of negative impact of the events measured (ill health, widowhood, retirement) was related a) to employing numerous useful coping strategies, b) to low dyadic satisfaction, and c) to low life satisfaction. Analyses also suggested that variables which distinguished those in the sample who sought counseling were a) identity discrepancy (wherein Ideal exceeded Real) on the Masculine and Androgynous dimensions, b) employing fewer Coping with Health strategies, and c) employing more Coping with Retirement strategies. These variables also distinguished males who sought counseling, but only …

This study focused on two major areas of investigation: (1) locus of control and (2) the influence on test performance of anxiety and motivation. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of programmed instruction dealing with motivation, anxiety, and test-wiseness as a means of enhancing group intelligence test performance of externalizing children. While earlier research demonstrated the viability of this technique x^ith a heterogeneous sample, no studies have utilized any kind of instruction to facilitate the performance of externalizers on standardized tests. It was hypothesized that intelligence test performance would be enhanced by programmed instruction. Furthermore, externalizers were expected to demonstrate greater gains than internalizers, which would thereby suggest that locus of control provides a source of variance in intellectual assessment.

This study examined psychoanalytic, physiological, and social learning models of depression in terms of etiology and symptomatology. Emphasis was placed on social learning theories of depression. First, Beck's cognitive approach stated that the root of depression was a negative cognitive set. Depressive episodes might be externally precipitated, but it was the individual's perception and appraisal of the event that rendered it depression inducing. Secondly, Seligman's learned helplessness model explained reactive depression in terms of a belief in one's own helplessness. Specifically, Seligman stated belief in the uncontrollability of outcomes resulted in depression, irrespective of the correspondence of such beliefs to objective circumstances. Additionally, depression resulted from noncontingent aversive stimulation and noncontingent positive reinforcement. Thirdly, Lewinsohn's model was based on these assumptions: a low rate of response-contingent positive reinforcement which acted as an eliciting stimulus for depressive behaviors. This low rate of response-contingent positive reinforcement constituted an explanation for the low rate of behaviors observed in the depressive. Total amount of response—contingent positive reinforcement is a function of a number of events reinforcing for the individual, availability of reinforcement in the environment, and social skills of the individual that are necessary to elicit reinforcement.

This study attempted to extend the concept of achievement motivation, as proposed by Weiner's attributional model, to social affiliative contexts. It was proposed that low social anxiety individuals behave like high achievement motivation individuals who make more self-attributions for success, but more external attributions for failure, whereas high social anxiety individuals take more personal responsibility for failure social outcomes, but make more external attributions when successful. Subjects were 243 undergraduate students, 143 females and 100 males. They completed the Leary Social Anxiety Scale, the Lefcourt Affiliation Locus of Control Scale, the Fenigstein Social Anxiety Scale, the Social Attribution Scale, and the Russell Causal Dimension Scale.

Assessment research of forensic populations has largely dealt with finding differences within criminal types. Fourteen of the studies reviewed found no significant differences between types of criminals on test performance. Two of these fourteen found no differences between criminals and noncriminals . The Criminal Thinking Model developed by Yochelson and Samenow proposed a continuum of criminality with every person falling somewhere between the two poles of responsibility and irresponsibility. Perhaps one reason previous research failed to discriminate differences was because they had failed to first establish if criminals differed from noncriminals.

This study evaluated the efficacy of cognitive therapy and biofeedback training in lowering Dlood pressures of normotensives under no-stress and stress conditions. A cognitive therapy group was compared to biofeedback and habituation control groups with 32 normotensives. Subjects were taught to use the electronic sphygmomanometer that served as the device to measure blood pressure during pretreatment and posttreatment phases of the study. These measurement phases each consisted of three 19 minute periods. Trie first period consisted of no-stress, and then a stress period followed. Return-to-no-stress was the final period. Subjects in the cognitive therapy and biofeedbacK groups received five sessions of self-control training of 66 minutes each between the pre- and posttreatment phases. The cold pressor was the analogue stressor used to induce bxood pressure elevations,

Reframing, a therapy technique which allows the therapist to restate a situation or problem so that it is perceived in a new way, has received considerable attention recently because of its purported positive effects on the therapeutic process. The increase in the use of reframing has taken place despite an absence of empirical confirmation of its effectiveness. Proponents of reframing comment on its usefulness early in the therapeutic process as a means for helping clients to more positively view their symptomatic behavior, to experience some affective relief, to shift toward an increased sense of control regarding their symptoms, and to view their counselor and their expectations for counseling more positively. The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effects of reframing and selfcontrol responses on the subjects' expressed degree of loneliness, depression, and perceived control of loneliness. In addition, effects of these interventions on the subjects' ratings of the interviewers and the subjects' expectations regarding counseling were explored.

The goal of this experiment was to determine whether group rational emotive therapy would prove superior to usual group therapy in improving the psychological functioning of male alcoholics in an inpatient treatment facility and to determine if memory dysfunction would impede therapeutic progress. Four areas of psychological functioning were discussed for their relevance to etiology, recidivism, and treatment evaluation; they were depression, self-conception, social anxiety, and cognitive functioning. Further, rational emotive therapy as a potentially superior treatment for alcoholism was discussed and outcome research was reviewed.

This study compared the clinical effectiveness of cognitively oriented stress-coping training with and without biofeedback training to biofeedback training only in the treatment of myofascial pain dysfunction (MPDS). These groups were also compared to a fourth treatment consisting of pseudo-biofeedback plus stress-coping training. Subjects were 32 adults suffering from MPDS who had failed to previously profit from other treatments. Subjects averaged 33.5 years of age and 58.7 months of myofascial pain. Treatement consisted of 10 individual sessions over a five-week period. Stress-coping training was designed to teach subjects to monitor their congitive responses to stress-eliciting situations and to learn cognitive coping skills. Biofeedback training was designed to provide relaxation skills that would enable subjects to reduce masseter muscle tension (EMG). Subjects receiving pseudo-biofeedback training did not receive veridical feedback training.

This study was designed to explore possible demographic and personality correlates of pregnancy-resolution alternatives. A total of 146 female college students were given the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, the Intrinsic Extrinsic Religious Orientation Scale, a demographic questionnaire, and a Pregnancy-Resolution Questionnaire. The data were analyzed by means of the chi-square statistic and discriminant analysis.

This study compared the relative efficacy of four imagery techniques in increasing tolerance to cold pressor pain. Relevant pleasant, relevant unpleasant, irrelevant pleasant, and irrelevant unpleasant imagery strategies were compared in a two-way factorial design. Prior research suggested that pleasantness and relevance both affect imagery potency. This study attempted to assess the relative contribution of these two variables to increases in pain tolerance. Also investigated were the roles of several hypothesized mediating variables; namely, contextual valence, self-efficacy, treatment credibility, and involvement in imagery. The subjects were 60 female undergraduates who were randomly assigned to the four imagery groups. Two-way analysis of covariance were performed on all dependent variables, using pain threshold as the covariate. Pearons r.'s were used to test correlational hypotheses.

An attempt was made to determine empirically the structure of self-disclosure. Based on the literature, a list of statements relating to the rating of self-disclosure was assembled. This list was condensed into dimensions by two evaluators, working independently. The dimensions were then used to score transcripts of male undergraduate students' verbal self-disclosures. Factor analyses of these scores produced four factors relating to self-focus, intimacy or depth, risk taking, and amount. A tentative fifth factor, intimacy value of disclosure topic, was also found. Regression analysis of dimensions on the Doster (1971) Disclosure Rating Scale produced three tentative scales for measuring self-disclosure. The first scale utilized stepwise regression of all dimensions, the second used stepwise regression of mechanical dimensions, and the third regression used composite scales representing the factors of the orthogonal factor analysis. For each scale, only three dimensions were included in the regression equation.

The major purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a stress-inoculation treatment and an equally credible attention-placebo control in alleviating self-reported test anxiety and in facilitating intellectual performance in nontraditional (aged 50 and over) college students. Many studies have demonstrated the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral approaches in the treatment of test anxiety among young college students. The literature suggests that persons returning to school after a long absence who have subsequently enrolled as college students experience greater test anxiety and decrements in test performance in evaluative situations than their younger counterparts.

This study utilized Strong's (1963) theory of counseling as a social influence process to investigate the effect of therapist's training, experience, and similarity on hearingimpaired subjects' perceptions of the therapist's expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness and their willingness to see the therapist. Increasing levels of therapists' training and work experience was hypothesized to increase subjects' perception of expertness and their willingness to see the therapist. Increasing levels of therapists' similarity to the client was hypothesized to increase subjects' perceptions of expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness and their willingness to see the therapist. Subjects' ratings of the therapist were hypothesized to change when therapists with different levels of similarity were seen in different orders of presentation.

The present study translated the major theories of obesity into physiological terms, then tested for the ways these theories might find physiological expression. Theoretical positions included the psychoanalytic perspective, emphasizing intrapsychic processes; psychosomatic perspective, emphasizing food as an anxiolytic agent; and Schachterian perspective, emphasizing heightened sensitivity to external stimuli. Additionally, two classificatory distinctions, age at onset of obesity and extent of dietary restraint, were examined. The later distinction suggested that Schachterian findings on obese behavior were due not to obesity, but to a dieting life style.

The present study investigated the relative efficacy of paradoxical, behavioral, and reflection-support treatments among college students who complained about procrastination of studying. Although there is much literature describing successful use of paradoxical treatment, there has been little substantive research. Paradoxical techniques offer more complex theoretical explanations than behavioral therapy even though in practice the procedure of each are often quite similar. Subjects were selected by their response to an ad in the school newspaper that offered free treatment for students who had problems with procrastination. Further screening of participants was done through clinical interviews. Thirty-three subjects were selected for treatment of procrastination with three clients randomly assigned to each of 11 advanced psychology graduate students who served as therapists. Each therapist provided all three types of treatment, one type of treatment to each of their three assigned clients.

This study examined separation—individuation developmental issues for young adult women, from the perspective of object-relations theory. Its purpose was to explore a woman's perception of her relationship with mother as it is affected by age and request for psychotherapy as well as the relationship between the mother-daughter bond and selfreported personality characteristics. Ninety-six women from 17 to 40 years of age volunteered to participate, and they were grouped into two age ranges. Life Stage 1 women were 17-22 years of age, while Life Stage 2 women ranged from 23-40. Within each Life Stage, the women were further categorized into clinical and non-clinical groups. All of the participants were college students and/or working women from clerical, managerial, and professional occupations who were recruited from their respective schools, jobs and outpatient clinics. Each woman completed the test packet which included a demographic data questionnare; the Identity vis-a-vis Mother Questionnaie (IVM-20) developed by Crastnopol (1980); the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ) and Rotter1s Locus of Control Scale. The IVM-20 contains four scales, each designed to measure a unique mother-daughter relationship: Individuated (Ind), Symbiosis (Syra), Practicing (Prac) and Distancing (Dist). Ind is supposed to reflect a healthy autonomy with a loving mother-daughter bond, while Prac …

This article discusses the potential of virtual reality for enhancing ecological validity while maintaining experimental control in social neuroscience research.

This article highlights the potential of virtual reality environments for enhanced ecological validity in the clinical, affective, and social neurosciences.