The relationship was investigated between named staff members and four measures of reported alocohol consumption by alcoholics followed up one year after hospitalizstion in state hospitals. The 559 representative subjects were located, interviewed, and matched with 65 staff members named as "most helpful" to determine social, economic, and drinking aspects. Named personnel were administered the A-B Scale by Campbell, Stevens, Uhlenhuth, and Johansson (1968). Subjects naming A-staff members reported significantly lower levels of alcohol consumption on two of four measures as compared to subjects naming A/B- or B-staff members. Additional followup variables tended to support this conclusion.

An experiment was conducted to examine the functionality of using auditory stimuli in isolation as fading stimuli. A review of the literature revealed very few reports regarding the usage of the auditory modality for fading purposes. The study employed auditory prompts as fading stimuli in the transfer of stimulus control across stimulus modalities, specifically, the transfer of stimulus control from auditory to visual stimulus properties. A single subject was employed for the experiment. The results were that the intensity of the auditory stimulus was an ineffective dimension to use for fading operations in the transfer of stimulus control across stimulus modalities, Further investigation is needed regarding the conditions that limit the transfer of stimulus control when auditory prompts are employed as fading stimuli.

Fifteen hospitalized adolescents were used as subjects. An individually consequated token economy was in effect during baseline. Measures were taken of work output, attending behavior, and disruptive behavior. During the treatment phase, reinforcement was contingent upon the performance of a randomly selected subgroup. Following the treatment phase, the individual token system was reinstated for baseline-2 measures. The mean performance of the group during baseline was compared to performance under treatment conditions for work output and attending behaviors. In addition, performance of the contingent subgroup was compared to performance of the non-contingent group. No significant t values were obtained. With failure to obtain significant t values, the null hypothesis was not rejected, i.e., the two conditions were not proven significantly different.

Assertive training was investigated to determine its usefulness in teaching mildly retarded women to become more assertive. The 10 subjects (ages 18-35, WAIS VIQ 50-75) were randomly assigned to either the assertive training or the control group. Experimental subjects received 5 weeks of daily assertive training sessions which employed modeling, behavior rehearsal, and focused instructions in a group setting. Specific components of assertive behavior were taught in the following order: (a) assertive refusals, (b) assertive requests, (c) posture, (d) eye contact, and (e) loudness, Results of a behavioral role-playing task administered to both groups before and after treatment revealed that assertaive training subjects made significantly greater improvement than controls in their assertive content, Additionally, these subjects manifested significantly more improvement than control subjects on a global assertiveness measure.

The use of scales on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) to detect defensiveness in criminal and nonclinical samples was evaluated. Forty-five male inmates of a county jail and 38 male undergraduate psychology students were provided with incentives to complete the PAI under two conditions: standard instructions and experimental instructions to feign a specific, positive role. The sequence of instructions was counterbalanced in both samples for the purpose of examining ordering effects. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed, yielding significant main effects of condition, group and order. Additionally, a step-wise discriminant function analysis significantly predicted group membership (i.e., subjects under honest and faking conditions) with a hit rate = 84.4%. Finally, a more effective cutting score for the Positive Impression scale was recommended.

Currently, only the TSI assesses complex traumatic reactions and patient response styles. However, its feigning scale, ATR, uses a flawed detection strategy and is potentially confounded by experiences of complex PTSD. As a consequence, clinicians using the TSI to evaluate severely traumatized patients have no useful method for discriminating genuine and feigned responding. Several detection strategies have demonstrated utility within evaluations of feigned trauma including the assessment of rare symptoms, symptom combinations, symptom selectivity, and symptom severity. The current study created scales on the TSI according to these strategies using a development sample of 107 severely traumatized patients. Validation of all TSI feigning scales was then performed with a second independent sample of 71 severely traumatized patients using a mixed simulation design. Results found support for each scale's convergent validity with SIRS primary scales (M rs = .52) and discriminant validity with measures of defensiveness on the SIRS (M rs = -.07) and TSI (M rs = -.19). Each scale also produced expectedly mild to moderate relationships with SADS-C clinical scales (M rs = .32) and the SCID-IV PTSD module (M rs = -.02). Support for their criterion validity was only moderate (M ds = .69) when comparing the scores …

The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and treatment knowledge of medical student professionals regarding rape victims. In addition to generating normative data for a population which, as a function of their vocation may come in contact with victims, comparisons were made between a sample of those beginning their medical education process and those at the end of training in order to measure change in treatment knowledge and attitudes towards rape victims which occur during medical school. Also investigated were differences which exist in the attitude and treatment knowledge measures for rape victims compared to other emergency room patient populations, and the effect of gender of the physician upon those measures. A final element investigated the physicians' perceptions of a "real" rape as it relates to those measures.

To investigate the effects of attribution retraining under conditions of intermittent success and failure, 14 helpless subjects were given 15 days of treatment in one of two procedures. Except for the attribution of all failures to lack of effort in the attribution retraining condition, the two procedures were identical in all respects. After training, both groups showed significant and equivalent improvement in reactions to failure, suggesting that intermittent success and failure increase the persistence of helpless children, rather than attribution retraining as suggested by Dweck (1975). Recommendations included follow-up studies and exploration of the attributional patterns of children under conditions of intermittent success and failure.

This study evaluated the impact of acculturative stress and negative autostereotypes on the level of self-esteem and achievement motivation among subgroups of Hispanic college students. Subjects were classified by generational level as Second-generation (i.e., foreign-born parents), or Other (i.e., first-generation, foreign-born individuals, and third-generation, foreign-born grandparents;). By country/region of origin, subjects were divided into Central-Americans, Puerto-Ricans, Mexican, Mexican-Americans, and South Americans. Results showed that acculturative stress may facilitate loss of self-esteem particularly in Second-generation individuals, while negative autostereotypic attitudes may actually increase the student's level of motivation for achievement, particularly in Mexican-American individuals. Also, country/region of origin overall influenced negative autostereotypic attitudes.

The present study sought to alleviate the response cost inefficiency of the behavioral approach to controlling classroom hyperactivity by increasing the observer-student ratio via behavioral-electronic technology. A portable, integrated-circuit, counting and timing device was developed to enable immediate time-sequenced data recording and reinforcing of eight target behaviors by a single observer. A multiple-baseline design, across matched individuals was utilized to demonstrate the reinforcing effects. The results indicated a significant increase over mean baseline frequency in attention-to-task behavior for the group of eight students. It was concluded that by utilizing the behavioral-technological intervention strategy applied in this study, one observer could accurately monitor and reinforce eight students simultaneously and subsequently increase task attentiveness.

Self-monitoring, lowered arousal training (i.e., biofeedback and relaxation training) and maintenance follow-up appeared to contribute to effective treatment of hypertension. Cognitive therapy, while effective in treatment of some stress-related disorders, has not been studied as a specific treatment component for hypertension. The present study explored the use of cognitive therapy as a treatment variable to reduce blood pressure in hypertensive persons. The effectiveness of a multi-element treatment including cognitive therapy, blood-pressure biofeedback, and relaxation training was also assessed. Self-monitoring and maintenance training were included as a part of each treatment process.

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of Koppitz's method of scoring the Bender Gestalt (BG) Test for the prediction of behavioral problems in retarded children. The problem behaviors with which this study was concerned were those most often associated with the hyperactive child.

The problem with which this study is concerned is whether pathogenic parental patterns which precipitate and maintain children's maladjustment can be ameliorated through family therapy. Specifically, this investigation focused on how parental attitudes and sons' perceptions of parental attitudes are altered by therapy.

The present study evaluated offender characteristics associated with completion of halfway house placement by the inclusion of additional offender characteristics for analysis in addition to those studied in previous research, the analysis of a large number of representative cases, and the use of statistics allowing clear conclusions upon which to base decision making. Data analysis was done in three steps. The first Step was to identify offender characteristics which were associated with completion in halfway house placement. The second step was to see how accurate the offender characteristics identified were in predicting completion of an offender's halfway house stay. The third step was to identify any possible factors which underlie the offender characteristics identified. Discriminant analyses identified ten offender characteristics which were associated with completion of halfway house placement for 521 male offenders and four offender characteristics which were associated with halfway house completion for the group of 33 female offenders studied. These offender characteristics resulted in 75.38 percent correctly classified cases for the male offender group and 96.9 7 percent correctly classified cases for the group of female offenders. Factor analyses resulted in the identification of four factors for the group of male offenders and two factors for the …

The present study was designed to determine if a subject pool, in which all students enrolled in a course must participate, would reveal the same differences as had been found between volunteers and nonvolunteers, as well as the differences found in subjects participating in different types of studies,

This study compared the social cognition and object relations of 39 physically abused children to a clinical group of 39 children with no recorded history of abuse.

In the present study, three self-managed treatment programs were compared with respect to their ability to effect and maintain change in the cigarette smoking behavior of 27 subject volunteers from the population of employees of a Veterans Administration hospital. Subjects were randomly assigned to a self—imposed delay group, a self-directed relaxation group, and a self-monitoring group. The experimental program lasted 6 weeks with a 20-minute individual meeting each week. Three months following treatment, subjects were contacted by mail and were asked to monitor their smoking behavior for one week, and to return their average daily smoking rate by mail. The results provide support for the effectiveness of the self-management technique of self-imposed delay as a durability—enhancing treatment procedure. The effectiveness of self-management techniques as a general class of treatment strategies was not supported. A task for future research would be to establish the effectiveness of the delay technique implemented earlier in the cigarette smoking chain, as well as to determine whether effectiveness is increased or decreased by a specification of the content of a delay interval.

The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of children on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R) with their performance on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition (SB:FE). One hundred and four children between 3 and 7 years of age were administered both tests. A moderate correlation was found between the WPPSI-R Full Scale IQ and the SB:FE Composite Score with a Pearson product-moment correlation of .46. This correlation suggests that the two tests are not interchangeable measures of children's intelligence. They may measure different, equally important aspects of intelligence. As both tests used are relatively new, the current findings should be considered one step in the accumulation of knowledge about the usefulness of the WPPSI-R.

The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, this study compared the performance of children on the WPPSI-R with their performance on the Slosson Intelligence Test. Secondly, this study explored the comparability of minority and non-minority students' scores on the WPPSI-R. Seventy five children between 3 and 7 years of age were administered the WPPSI-R and Slosson. Of this sample, 25 children were White, 25 children were Black, and 25 children were Mexican American. Low, but significant correlations were found between WPPSI-R and Slosson scores. The Vocabulary subscale of the WPPSI-R correlated highest, while the Geometric Design subscale correlated the lowest with the Slosson test scores. Further analyses indicated that White children obtained significantly higher scores on the WPPSI-R than both Black and Mexican American children.

The present study was concerned with comparing the relative effectiveness of behavior rehearsal and systematic desensitization in the treatment of social anxiety.

This study tested the relationship between Social Support, Psychological Distress, and Illness Stress in individuals who report cancer as a health condition. This study was based on archival data obtained from the Wave 1 of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The HRS provides a nationally representative sample of individuals aged 51 to 61 in 1992 and their spouses. The study sample was limited to cancer patients with a spouse or partner (n = 503). A structural equation modeling analysis procedure was used to test the theoretical models. Measures of social support were limited to variables assessing the participant's satisfaction with social support. Evidence was found for the Stress Prevention and the Support Deterioration models. This is congruent with previous research using measures of social support perception. Both the Stress Prevention and the Support Deterioration models predict a negative relationship between Illness Stress and Social Support. In addition, a univariate analysis of variance was used to test the stress buffering model. Similarly to other studies measuring the individual's degree of integration, or its perception, in the social network, the present research supported the only the Main Effect model and not the Stress Buffering model.

A double-blind comparison was conducted using typical doses of soporific agents from three drug classes and a placebo. Drugs which were used in the study included secobarbital, flurazepam hydrochloride, and thioridazine. Subjects were 40 outpatient volunteers whose primary complaint was difficulty in falling to sleep. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of the three drug groups or the placebo group. One of the drugs or the placebo was administered to each subject for 3 nights. Half of the subjects in each of the four groups were told the drug had caused any observed changes in their sleep behavior and were in this way led to attribute any changed sleep behavior externally to the drug. The other half were told the drugs were not typically used to treat insomnia and changes in their sleep were due to changes made in their own behavior, thus attributing any changes in sleep behavior internally. The implication for clinicians was that a short course of drug therapy using a placebo or one of several soporific drugs might be used equally effectively to treat primary latency insomnia. Additionally, the results demonstrated that clinicians might expect the effectiveness of treatment to be maintained following treatment. Recommendations included …

The comparability of PPVT and PPVT-R scores among retarded adults were examined. The sample consisted of 96 clients, who had been previously diagnosed as mildly, moderately, or severely retarded. The PPVT (Form A) and PPVT-R (Form L) were administered to all participants in counter balanced order. Significant correlations were found between the two tests for the total sample as well as for females and males. Additionally, the PPVT-R was found to be capable of discriminating differing levels or retardation. However, with the exception of the severely retarded group, mean PPVT-R Standard Score Equivalent (SSE) scores tended to be approximately 20 points lower than PPVT IQ scores. Some clinical implications of these results were discussed.

Systematic desensitization and implosive therapy have surfaced as two of the primary behavioral therapy techniques to decrease phobic responses during the past decade. Although attempts have been made to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of these two techniques, results have been unclear because of the failure of researchers to duplicate the procedures as described by their respective originators. This experiment is designed to explore the joint effects of the therapies and level of therapeutic aspiration. A second objective, and a byproduct of the data produced in achieving the primary objective, was to analyze the goal discrepancy and attainment discrepancy scores accruing throughout the therapy sessions. Several hypotheses were advanced. Further analysis of the three criterion measures by means of ANOVA resulted in significant main sessions effects for each of the three independent analyses. Results suggest that all subjects, regardless of treatment subgroup, did make significant therapeutic gains in their approach scores, fear thermometer scores, and speed of approach scores from the first to the last session. Possible explanations for results were discussed. Furthermore, approach test absolute goal discrepancy, fear thermometer absolute goal discrepancy, approach test absolute attainment discrepancy, and fear thermometer absolute attainment discrepancy scores were calculated for all goal-setting …