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.

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.

Training programs designed to remediate eating deficits of higher level patients have involved some combination of verbal instructions, manual guidance, modeling, and reinforcement. Training methods which incorporate relaxation and imagery to facilitate behavior change have received little attention with this population. The current study was designed to explore the use of relaxation and suggestions as a training strategy to modify the shoveling behavior of moderately and mildly retarded institutionalized clients. Three treatment methods, relaxation-suggestion with reinforcement, modeling-instruction with reinforcement, and relaxation-suggestion alone, were compared. A greater reduction in shoveling behavior was hypothesized for the modeling-instruction with reinforcement group than for either of the relaxation-suggestion groups, and a greater reduction in shoveling behavior was hypothesized for the relaxation suggestion with reinforcement group than for the relaxation-suggestion alone group.

The assumption that EMG biofeedback cultivates an antistress response was tested under stress conditions while investigating the comparative efficacy of low versus high arousal treatment strategies. Biofeedback-assisted, cue-controlled relaxation training was used as the low arousal treatment strategy for half of the 20 normal subjects used in the study. The other half received a high arousal treatment strategy which used the same training in combination with an avoidance conditioning procedure. In this procedure mild electric shock was used as contingent aversive stimulation designed to reinforce relaxation responses. Both groups received four in-lab training sessions with a 4-day interim of home practice of cuecontrolled relaxation prior to the last in-lab training session. Pretraining assessment consisted of four 10-minute periods of alternating no-stress and stress conditions. Mild electric shock and loud tones were used as stressors. Posttraining assessment was identical to pre training except subjects employed self-directed, cue-controlled relaxation rather than self-directed relaxation based on instructions without training. Frontal EMG, subjective mental and muscle tension ratings, and behavioral observations of relaxation behavior served as dependent measures during pre- and posttraining assessment. EMG readings were used during in-lab training and the two subjective rating scales were used during home practice.

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.

To aid in understanding headache etiology and symptomatology, psychological and physiological variables were examined in patients with migraine and combination headaches (combined migraine and muscle-contraction headaches). One hundred patients being evaluated for treatment of their headaches at The New England Center for Headache participated in this study. They were assigned to the migraine or combination group, based on diagnoses made by three headache specialists—a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a nuerologist. Personality data from the MMPI and frontalis electromyographic readings reflecting muscle tensions across three stimulus conditions were compared between the two groups. Subjects were also asked to rate the perceived level of stress elicited by the three conditions.

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 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.

Drug-induced tardive dyskinesia, an irreversible involuntary movement disorder caused by neuroleptic drugs, may reflect cholinergic hypofunction in the corpus striatum. Therapeutic results have been reported in trials of choline and lecithin, nutritional substrates which may enhance cholinergic neurotransmission. Lecithin's effects on dyskinetic symptoms were examined in 50 male patients in a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Patients were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups; 31 patients were retained in the analytic cohort. Experimental patients were treated with 60 gm/day lecithin (55% phosphatidyl choline) for 11 days. Symptom frequency was rated from videotapes made at baseline, 3 and 11 days of treatment, and 1 week follow-up.

Hypnotic susceptibility, often regarded as a relatively stable individual characteristic, has been found to be related to the personality dimension of absorption. To test the hypothesis that this relationship is a function of the nature of the sensory response to stimulus events and the development of cognitive models pursuant to the processing of that information, a group of hospitalized, chronic pain patients were assessed on the following dimensions: absorption, clinical hypnotic responsiveness, cognitive resistance to interference, and visual automatization.

A group of 44 high-orgasm-consistency and 34 low-orgasmconsistency women were administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, a Sexual Behavior Questionnaire, and the Fall Back Task. Excitatory and inhibitory controlling attitudes as manifested in hypnotic susceptibility, reported control of thinking and movement during coitus, causal attributions, and attitude toward alcoholic beverages were related to orgasm consistency. Women experiencing expectancy disconfirmation for coital outcomes attributed outcomes to unstable factors, supporting the application of Weiner's achievement model to the domain of coital orgasm. High and low consistency women showed different patterns of causal attribution for coital outcomes. High consistency women's attributions fit their reported sexual experiences, while low consistency women's attributions suggested the presence of self-esteem enhancing cognitive distortions.