The purpose of this study was to investigate psychological mechanism by which four intra- and inter-personal characteristics of an individual (anxious and avoidant adult attachment patterns, images of self, and religious faith) mediate the relationship between childhood trauma and each of three affect-behavior regulation problems in adulthood (symptoms of depression, disordered eating behaviors, and substance abuse). A total of 401 college student participants completed a packet of 18 surveys including 10 surveys used in the present study. Structural equation modeling was used to test each of three hypothesized structural models (Depression, Eating Disturbances, and Substance Abuse). A series of multi-group analyses conducted to test if each of three hypothesized models is invariant across gender indicated no significant difference between females and males. Thus, the data were combined across gender to test for mediated effects in each of three hypothesized models. The results indicated: (a) for the hypothesized model for depression, anxious attachment patterns, avoidant attachment patterns, and negative self-images, but not religious faith, fully mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and symptoms of depression; (b) for the model for eating disturbances, anxious attachment and negative images of self, but not avoidant attachment and religious faith, fully mediated the association between …

A multivariate model of health self-perceptions was postulated based upon a comprehensive set of health related variables suggested by previous bivariate research. Components of the model included measures of health attitudes, health practices, health locus of control, a measure of stress/ coping, and a physical health measure. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 10 8 subjects based upon the external measure of physical health which included categories ranging from disability-severe to symptom free-high energy level. All subjects completed a health questionnaire comprised of measures of the model components, two measures of health self-perceptions, and the Health Resource Task, an author designed instrument measuring a subject's ability to generate flexible health alternatives/resources. Bivariate correlational analysis revealed that the physical health, stress/coping, health practices, and locus of control measures and certain of the health attitude subscales were significantly correlated to general health self-ratings. A multivariate model including these variables accounted for almost 50 percent of the variance in one of the general health self-ratings measures and approximately 38 percent of the variance in the Health Resource Task. Suggestions for refining the proposed model were made.

The accurate determination of malingering relies on the use of validated and clinically relevant assessment measures. Simulation design is the most often-used research design to accomplish this. However, its external validity is sometimes questioned. The goal of the thesis was to systematically evaluate these major elements: situation, incentives, and coaching. The situation in simulation studies can vary from relevant (academic failure in a college population) to irrelevant (capital murder) for the samples being studied. Incentives refer to the external motivation given to improve simulators' performance and can be positive (extra credit and monetary reward) or negative (extra time and effort). Finally, coaching refers to whether the participant receives any information on detection strategies that are designed to identify feigners. Using a large undergraduate sample in a factorial design, results indicate that a scenario familiar to the participants generally improved the believability of their responses. Coaching also improved the ability to feign convincingly, while incentive type was not associated with any change in scores. The implications of these findings for future research designs and the connection to practice are discussed.

In this study violent and nonviolent prisoners were differentiated on the basis of life history and psychometric variables. Life history data were collected from institutional files and from a biographical questionnaire. Psychometric procedures consisted of the Mini-Mult Prisoner Questionnaire and the Bender-Gestalt. In summary, the variables included in the discriminant function suggest that the violent subjects were more psychopathological than the nonviolent subjects. The violent subjects evidenced behavioral problems at a young age in appropriately expressing anger. They appeared to have limited behavioral repertoires in attaining their desires outside the immediate gratification through aggressive means. They were also more emotionally alienated and less socially skilled. The violent subjects received more negative feedback during childhood and were incarcerated at a younger age, They were more overtly hostile and also more lacking in cognitive ego mastery. In contrast, the nonviolent subjects apparently learned during childhood to repress their anger to a greater extent. They also seemed to modulate their anger by withdrawing from direct interpersonal conflict.

Male (8) and female (22) Essential Hypertensives (130/85 mm Hg or above) were randomized into a nonspecific treatment or an experimental treatment utilizing eight relaxation strategies. Both groups had eight training sessions which consisted of baseline blood pressures (BP), 15 minute relaxation tapes, and post-relaxation BP's. Subjects were instructed to use their tapes three times between sessions. Five BP readings were taken at the one and two month follow-ups. It was hypothesized that the experimentals would have greater within and across session decreases in BP, and that the differences would be maintained during a no treatment follow-up. Eleven experimentals and 8 controls were on medication. Mean medication compliance percentages were 99.9 and 99.6 while mean relaxation compliance percentages were 95.2 and 115.2 for experimentals and controls respectively. Efficacy was checked at each training session on a seven-point scale and group means were 6.5 and 5.4 for experimentals verses controls. Within session decreases in BP were compared with t tests and no significant differences (p < .05) were present for the eight training sessions with systolic (SBP) or diastolic (DBP). Across session changes were compared with ANCOVA and no significant differences (p < .05) were present for the eight training or …

Maslow (1956) suggested that self-actualization in an important determinant of the type of love experienced in heterosexual relationships. Recent work has suggested that the self-actualization of each member of a couple may also be important in determining the level of self-disclosure intimacy which occurs in the couple, and also that self-disclosure itself is an important determinant of interpersonal attraction. The present study employed the technique of path analysis (Wright, 1960) to determine 1) the direct and indirect contribution of each partner's self-actualization to his experience of five love components identified by Critelli, Myers, Ellington, and Bissett (1981), 2) the contribution of each partner's self-actualization to his self-disclosure intimacy, and 3) the contribution of the partner's self-disclosure intimacy to their experience of the five love components.

Locus of desired control and participation in a retirement preparation program was investigated in relation to retirement attitudes and adjustment. Fifty-nine subjects, consisting of older workers and retirees from a large southwestern corporation, comprised the sample. An experimental group, consisting of 12 subjects, completed questionnaires prior to and following their participation in the retirement preparation program. A control group, consisting of 15 subjects, completed the same questionnaires at approximately the same times as did the experimental group, but did not receive retirement preparation. A third group, consisting of 20 retirees who had a previous retirement preparation experience and 12 retirees who had not had such a retirement preparation experience, completed similar questionnaires.

The recent finding of memory enhancement using either cognitive mnemonic or standard hypnotic interviews (Geiselman et al., 1985) suggests the possibility of additive forensic utility when these methods are combined. The present crime-analogue study compared waking and hypnotic cognitive mnemonics to investigate this and potential problems previously unaddressed. Recall and recognition accuracy and confidence were measured for low and high density stimuli in a videotaped murder, including central, peripheral, and facial detail. The effect of misleading information given after stimulus presentation was also examined.

The possibility that faulty expectations about success and relapse recovery contributed to poor adherence was examined in this study. Support for such an expectancy model was sought through comparing an index of relative task magnitude to adherence rates. Instructions designed to improve adherence through changing expectations about relapse and relapse recovery were also administered to 46 clients in two clinical nutritional programs. Their adherence rates <in days) were compared to the rates obtained from the records of 64 other clients who did not receive the instructions. To further understand the adherence phenomenon, several other measures were obtained from the treatment subjects. These data were compared to adherence rates in an attempt to identify potential co-variate relationships. Statistical procedures including analysis of variance to determine comparability of subject groups, Pearson Product Moment correlations, t tests of the difference between means, and the Lawshe—Baker Nomograph comparing per cent adherence rates were performed on the data. Obtained results did not support the predicted relationship between relative task magnitude and adherence. This may have been due to differences between subjective assessments of task magnitude and the objective measure used in this study. Although improvement in adherence was noted in both treatment groups, statistical significance …

Research indicates that victims of childhood abuse are at increased risk for transmitting violence in adulthood-a phenomenon known as the intergenerational transmission of abuse (ITA). Adult survivors of childhood victimization (i.e., child abuse or witnessed parental violence) are at increased risk for becoming abusive parents, perpetrators of intimate partner violence, and victims of intimate partner violence. The current study examined the latter form of ITA, in which a survivor of childhood victimization is re-victimized in adulthood by intimate partner violence. Attachment theory has been used to explain the ITA by positing that abuse is transmitted across generations via insecure attachment. The purpose of this study was to use structural equation modeling to test the attachment theory of ITA by examining the role of childhood and adult attachment in predicting re-victimization and symptoms of distress in adulthood. In the hypothesized model, childhood victimization by one's parents was hypothesized to predict adult intimate partner violence victimization through insecure attachment relationships in childhood (with one's parents) and adulthood (with one's partner). Furthermore, adult romantic attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were hypothesized to predict different symptoms of distress. Self-report measures from 59 adult woman seeking services for intimate partner victimization at a domestic violence …

Recent research on the contribution of cognitive and social factors to psychopathology has been narrowly focused on isolated cognitive-social aspects of adjustment. This study takes a broader perspective by examining a) cognitive structure in addition to cognitive content and b) general aspects of interpersonal style rather than isolated social behaviors. Maladjustment was. examined with respect to premorbid history as well as current adjustment. The hypotheses were that cognitive integration interacts with cognitive complexity to influence psychological disturbance; that a positive relationship exists between interpersonal flexibility and psychopathology; and that a positive relationship exists between the proportion of ambiguous constructs which they employ and a person's level of psychopathology.

This study compared the relative efficacy of two different theoretically-derived strategies in the hypnotic treatment for cigarette smoking. The use of counterconditioning suggestions (present or absent) was compared to the use of role-playing suggestions (present or absent) in a two-way factorial design. Also investigated was whether there were any pretreatment variables which could predict successful long-term smoking control. Fifty adult chronic smokers were matched on the dimensions of baseline smoking rate, number of years smoking and number of previous attempts to quit smoking, then assigned to one of four treatment groups. All subjects were offered four sixty-minute group hypnotherapy treatment sessions over a three week period, with smoking rate assessed at the second, third and fourth sessions, and at one-month, three-months and six-months post-treatment. The two dependent measures of percentage reduction from baseline smoking rate and percentage of subjects in each treatment group remaining abstinent from smoking showed similar results. ANOVA procedures found a significant Time of assessment X Counterconditioning interaction, indicating that the use of counterconditioning suggestions facilitates the long-term maintanence of smoking control more than the use of role-playing suggestions or a "hypnotic relaxation" treatment using no specific suggestions. The demographic variables of increased age, having a smoking-related …

One hundred persons applying for services with the Texas Rehabilitation Commission with reported disabilities of alcohol/substance abuse or back injury/pain were selected for study. Subjects were assigned to two groups (alcohol or back) according to their reported disability. They were tested within one week of application and after 60 days were checked to see what rehabilitation status they were in to determine success or failure. Alcohol clients were administered the Health Attribution Test (HAT), 16PF, and an Alcohol Imagery questionnaire developed for this study. Back clients were administered the HAT, 16PF, and Pain Drawings. Statistical procedures including Pearson correlation, stepwise discriminant analysis, and discriminant analysis were performed. The HAT Internal Factor showed a significant relationship to rehabilitation success or failure and the 16PF motivation indices approached significance. The discriminant analysis demonstrated that success or failure could be predicted at a significant level using these measures. Issues of practicality in using these instruments (particularly imagery measures) in a rehabilitation counseling practice were noted.

The incidence of bulimia has been increasingly documented in recent years. Treatments have focused on one behavior in the Binge-Purge chain or have combined several treatment components. This study was designed to assess the effect of teaching bulimics alternative responses for dealing with stressful events.

Previous research suggested that sleep onset insomnia was significantly reduced with the use of relaxation techniques; however, the majority of these studies used college student populations with mild to moderate insomnia. The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of using muscle relaxation training in a clinical population known to have sleeping difficulties—cancer patients. Results of this study suggest that muscle relaxation training is an effective technique to reduce sleep onset insomnia in cancer patients, and perhaps also in any clinical group. The technique seems especially promising since it was shown to be effective with severe insomniacs suffering severe medical problems. Results of the study were discussed in terms of possible explanations for the efficacy of the treatment, potential uses of the technique with other clinical populations, and ease of teaching nonpsychologist health professionals to treat with muscle relaxation training.

The purpose of this study was to validate a stress inventory which would differentiate between a normative group and a patient population suffering from environmental illness. The hypotheses of this study were: (1) the Total Stress Load Inventory would be predictive in discriminating between clinical ecology patients and a normative group; (2) each section or subscale of the Total Stress Load Inventory would be predictive of psychological, cognitive, nutritional, and/or medical factors.

The attribution model of achievement motivation has been applied to academic achievement as a way of understanding underachievement and as a basis for developing intervention programs. There has been little applied research in this area, however, that supports the use of the model in school settings. The purpose of the present study was to test the applicability of the model to an actual school setting. Subjects were 149 tenth grade students in a large urban school district. In accordance with the model, specific attributions for success or failure were assessed, as well as subjects' perceptions of the locus, stability, and controllability of attributions. Attribution patterns found in previous analog research were not found in a school setting. Immediate effort attributions were the most prevalent, regardless of performance level or outcome. Causal beliefs were found to relate to performance in ways predicted by the model but also in some ways not predicted. Relationships were generally stronger for high performers. Comparing subjects' perceptions of the dimensional properties of attributions across outcomes showed a strong outcome bias. Attributions were perceived as more internal and stable following successes, consistent with previous research. In addition, a performance level bias was found. Low performers rated attributions …

Research has yet to identify any characteristics of clients, therapists, or treatment dyads which consistently identify those clients most likely to drop out of treatment. A frame of reference which may prove useful in identifying such clients is the social psychological construct of selfmonitoring. This theory proposes that individuals involved in any social encounter differ from each other in their approach to constructing a relevant self-presentation. High self-monitors emphasize matching their behavior to situational cues while low self-monitors match their behavior to perceived internal values and traits. The present study demonstrates the effects that selfmonitoring styles of therapists and clients have on the effectiveness of a therapeutic intake interview and the client's decision whether or not to return for treatment. Additionally examined are the effects of therapist selfmonitoring style on theoretical orientations toward psychotherapy. The hypothesis that pairings of high self-monitors would be most effective is tested by Chi-square and found to be nonsignificant. Using the Chi-square test, low self-monitoring therapists are found to endorse a single approach to therapy and to strongly endorse the psychoanalytical orientation. Low self-monitors are found to be eclectic in approach. Satisfaction with the interview is examined using ANOVA. Results are nonsignificant with the exception …

The present study examined the efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral therapy package and a highly credible attention-placebo in the treatment of male heterosocial anxiety. Previous research provided evidence that cognitive factors are important in the etiology and maintenance of heterosocial anxiety, and suggested that a cognitive-behavioral approach should be effective in the treatment of this problem. Despite such evidence, relatively few therapy outcome studies have been conducted using cognitive-behavioral procedures.

This research project was designed to demonstrate the usefulness of a supportive intervention program for 17 nine to 14 year old siblings of autistic children. Current clinical practice has begun most recently to include the siblings of handicapped children in treatment services as a preventive measure to help maximize families' coping abilities and to increase the chances that they will be strengthened by their unique circumstances. Although research evidence suggests that most siblings are not at risk for serious psychopathology, it seems reasonable to assume that few remain unaffected by living with a handicapped brother or sister. Siblings report that they have increased responsibilities, many unanswered questions, and parents who typically are caught up in the stresses of caring for a handicapped child and have limited time to attend to their needs. It was hypothesized that an intervention program providing information about the handicapping condition, autism, and offering support through participation in a discussion group with other siblings of autistic children would effect improved coping in the participants. Three time-limited interventions (information plus support, information plus activity, and activity control) were compared under controlled conditions. Sibling coping was measured by a) a battery of self-report and parent ratings of behavior …

The purpose of this study was to explore factors which are predictive of parenting stress for first-time parents. Based on attachment theory and empirical research, the factors investigated were the responsibility for child care and housework, the current and retrospective relationship with the family of origin, the change in emotions related to parenthood, the marital relationship, and attachment and individuation.

Stress has long been reported to play a prominent role in the onset and course of diabetes mellitus. The present study first reviews the literature addressing the impact of stress on this disease, the physiological mechanisms and pathways the stress response might utilize, and psychotherapeutic tacts taken to date to ameliorate this response. A stress management package was then assembled, comprised of relaxation training, hypnosis, stress inoculation training, and imagery induction.

This study investigated the role of reinforcement schedule and instructional set in frontalis EMG training. The experiment consisted of four groups participating in 30 minute sessions on three consecutive days. Group conditions were intermittent feedback (alternating 100 second trials), continuous feedback, motivated control and no-treatment control. Excepting the no-treatment controls, each subject was instructed that extra credit points were available contingent on the number of seconds in criterion. An individual criterion based on each subject's initial baseline microvolt level was utilized.

The present study proposed to investigate the effects of level of acculturation and of language of the therapy interview on self-disclosure by Mexican-American women. It was predicted that self-disclosure would be affected by both level of acculturation and by the language of the initial therapy interview. The principal implication of this finding is that for the first-generation Mexican-American woman, that is, a woman who has not acculturated to the mainstream society, the language in which therapy is conducted constitutes a significant factor in predicting whether she is likely to self disclose and thereby benefit from the therapy. The findings of this study suggest that less acculturated Mexican-American women would be more likely to utilize mental health services if they are available in Spanish.