This study evaluated the role of asymmetric processing of information in depression. Depression has been hypothesized to involve a deficit in the global processing of information (Tucker, 1982). This type of global processing has been manipulated through the use of hypnosis by Crawford and Allen (1983). In the current study, a 3 x 2 ANCOVA design allowed the comparison of three groups of subjects on their performance on a perceptual task measuring global perception. The task chosen was designed by Navon (1977) and consisted of designs which differed on global or local features. The groups were screened with the Beck Depression Inventory, the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, yielding 46 subjects divided into three groups of right-handed males and females. The experimental group consisted of high susceptible depressives from the community. The controls were one group of high susceptible normals and one of low susceptible depressives. All groups performed the Navon task under both waking and hypnosis conditions. Analysis of the results revealed a main effect for group (F(2, 86) = 9.60, p < .01) on the global scores. In addition, high social desirability scores predicted slower presentation times. However, hypnosis was not effective …

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 purpose of this study was first to determine whether or not paradoxical communication could be designed to contain therapeutic levels of the core therapeutic conditions, and, second, to determine how paradoxical counselor communication compared to nondirective communication on the social influence dimensions of attractiveness, expertness, and trustworthiness. For the first phase, four judges rated audiotapes on the level of the core therapeutic conditions on one of four counseling conditions (paradox high or low on core conditions, and nondirective high or low on core conditions). For the second phase, 133 undergraduate college students were asked to listen to the four counseling conditions on audiotapes and to rate the counselor on the social influence dimensions

The study examined the impact of maternal employment and family life cycle stage on the psychological well-being o£ middle socioeconomic status women. One hundred twenty eight mothers of children at the stages of birth to 6 years, 7 to 12 years and 13 to 17 years, completed a self-report questionnaire. To test the hypothesis of the study, a 3 X 3 (employment X family life cycle stage) analysis of covariance was conducted with age, income, time employed and psychological resources as covariates. Results indicated that middle socioeconomic status mothers employed full-time experienced significantly higher levels of role overload, occupational strain, spouse support and job commitment. A post hoc exploratory analysis using conflict level between commitment to work and parenting, yielded data which indicated that individuals with a large discrepancy between commitment to one role versus the other, experienced the greatest degree of difficulty. Results were evaluated in the light of selective characteristics of the sample. Recommendations for future research included the use of projective assessment to reduce the effect of defensive response styles. A life span approach using the concept of perceived conflict between roles was advanced, instead of the age specific developmental construct of family life cycle stage.

Client self-acceptance is a crucial element of mental health and a goal of psychotherapy. It has been demonstrated that client self-disclosure in psychotherapy is instrumental in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical therapist responses frequently are used to elicit self-disclosure. Cognitive dissonance theory was used to provide a theoretical understanding of these techniques and their use in the promotion of self-acceptance. Reflection, probing, and paradoxical responses were conceptualized as providing a client with different perceptions of choice over self-disclosure that may affect the occurrence of self-acceptance. This study compared the effects of the reflection, probing, and paradoxical techniques on self-acceptance and anxiety following self-disclosure.

This study was to explore the relationship between race of interviewer, cultural mistrust level and type of problem upon black students' ratings of an initial interview. It was hypothesized that the combination of interviewer's race, mistrust level and the type of problem discussed would significantly influence students' ratings of the interviewer. Initially, 12 4 black students were administered the Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI). Based upon CMI scores, participants were divided into groups of high and low cultural mistrust. Next, half of these participants were interviewed by one of five white interviewers and the remainder were interviewed by one of five black interviewers. Within each of these groups, half of the participants were asked to discuss problems with their racial identity and the others were asked to discuss their vocational aspirations. After the session, each subject rated the interviewer on the Counselor Evaluation Inventory, Counselor Rating Form and Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale.

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.

This study investigated predictor variables of the Counselor Rating Form dimensions of expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness using the predicted variable of therapy outcome, measured by Goal Attainment Scaling and postcounseling scores on the Counselor Rating Form. One hundred-fifteen mental health center outpatients agreed to participate. Forty subjects (25 females and 15 males) met all criteria and were labeled "completors." An additional 30 subjects, labeled "dropouts," enrolled but did not meet criteria. These subjects' data were considered in a separate analysis for prediction of treatment continuation. All subjects rated their own need for therapy before their initial interview. After the initial and final interviews, both the subject and the counselor completed the Counselor Rating Form, rating their perceptions of the counselor1s behavior during that session. The Goal Attainment Scaling was used to generate both pre- and postcounseling outcome scores on each subject's individual, personalized goals.

Personal construct psychology, as formulated by George Kelly (1955), contributed substantial knowledge to the study of psychopathology. The small amount of research in the area of depression has focused generally on the content of self-constructs and the cognitive complexity characteristic. The purpose of this study was to examine the construct system of the depressed patient specifically by investigating the endogenicity, exogenicity, and severity of depressive symptoms in relationship to construct content as applied to others, cognitive complexity, and ordination.

To investigate the effects of emotional arousal on information processing strategy, three different moods (sadness, anger, and happiness) were hypnotically induced at three different levels of intensity (high, medium, and low) in 29 male and female undergraduate students, while engaging them in a visual information processing task. Subjects were screened for hypnotic susceptibility and assigned to either a high susceptibility group or low susceptibility group to account for the attentional bias associated with this trait. All subjects were trained to access the three emotions at the three levels of intensity. During separate experimental sessions, subjects were hypnotized, and asked to access a mood and experience each level of intensity while being administered the Navon Design Discrimination Task, a measure of global and analytic visual information processing. Scores were derived for global processing, analytic processing, and a percentage of global to analytic processing for each level of mood and intensity. Two (hypnotic susceptibility) x 3 (emotion) x 3 (intensity level) repeated measures ANOVAs were computed on the global, analytic, and percentage scores. In addition, two separate ANCOVAs were computed on each dependent measure to account for the effects of handedness, and cognitive style. None of these analyses revealed significant main effects …

Based on psychodynamic and object relations theories, 17 variables were proposed to be salient for those suffering from bulimia. In the present study four groups were compared: (a) bulimics with a prior history of anorectic-like behavior (FAB); (b) bulimics without a prior history of anorectic-like behavior (NAB); (c) a nonobese, nonbulimic group who evidenced excessive concerns about their weight (CAW); and (d) a normal control group (Control). Differences were predicted between both the bulimic and control groups as well as between both bulimic groups (FAB and NAB). Seventy-five women between the ages of 18 and 35 completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Eating Disorders Inventory, and Levenson's Locus of Control Scale. Results of a multivariate analysis of covariance procedure revealed differences across the groups on 12 variables. Post hoc testing indicated that both bulimic groups differed from the control groups confirming the first hypothesis. Further, the bulimic groups were differentiated from each other in the predicted direction on 10 of the 12 variables, lending support for the second hypothesis. Overall, the results suggest a progression of psychopathology and clinical symptomatology. In order of decreasing psychopathology were the following groups: FAB, NAB, CAW, and Control groups. Also, a discriminant analysis …

A review of the literature on homophobia indicates that negative attitudes toward homosexuals and homosexuality have been empirically related to numerous socio-demographic and attitudinal variables. Research to this date has focused on the relationship between individual variables and homophobia rather than examining multiple variables simultaneously. The purpose of the present investigation was to identify the factors which are predictive of homophobia. One hundred and ninety-four female and 115 male participants completed a biographical information questionnaire requesting socio-demographic information, self-proclaimed religiosity, frequency of church attendance, self-proclaimed political orientation, and political party identification. Participants also completed measures of attitudes toward male homosexuality, attitudes toward lesbianism, attitudes toward women, authoritarianism, sex anxiety, sexual attitudes, and socio-economic status. Statistical treatment of the data through principal components analysis indicated that homophobic attitudes are best predicted by a factor identified as "conservatism". Other factors were identified which predicted homophobia to a lesser extent. Male participant gender was determined to predict homophobia toward male homosexuals, but gender was not found to predict homophobic attitudes toward lesbians.

To test the hypothesis that a metaphorical technique would be more effective than a direct technique to induce hypnosis, 60 volunteers from students at North Texas State University were divided into high- and low-susceptible subjects by the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. They were randomly assigned to direct and metaphorical induction groups and to a control group, with 10 high- and 10 low-susceptible subjects in each group. After hypnosis they completed the Field Inventory of Hypnotic Depth, and their mean scores were subjected to an analysis of variance and a Newman-Keuls test. Neither method of hypnotic induction was found more effective than the other, although both were effective when compared to a control group. It was also found that subjects who expected to be able to experience hypnosis were no more likely to be hypnotized than those who expected not to be able to experience hypnosis. Finally, it was found that low-susceptible subjects were as likely to respond to a post-hypnotic suggestion as high-susceptible subjects.

An analogue study examines the acquisition and generalization of problem identification and remedial plan skills following client-centered, school case consultation. Nine trained consultants interacted with 35 undergraduate female consultees in one of three intervention conditions. Conditions involved the consultants either viewing the same problem as consultees, not viewing the problem, or attention control. Consultees viewed ten minute video tapes of a problem student in a classroom, then provided written problem descriptions and remedial plans. They then received twenty minutes of consultation or control, and again wrote descriptions of the problem and remedial plans. The same procedure was repeated two day later. One week later, subjects viewed another video tape of a problem student, provided written problem descriptions and remedial plans, but received no interventions.

One hundred women aged 20 to 50 were asked to compare their sexual experience before diagnosis and following treatment for benign and malignant cervical disease. The subjects were divided into five groups: three groups had definite cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), (Class II or III). Two groups were treated with cryotherapy, and one with hysterectomy. One group had a provisional diagnosis of CIN I, but received no treatment. Subjects in the last group had microinvasive cervical carcinoma and were also treated with hysterectomy. All subjects had ovarian function; all were sexually active at the time of treatment. They were interviewed at least six months post-cryotherapy and 15 months post-hysterectomy. All subjects completed a variant version of the Derogatis Sexual Function Inventory (DSFI).

Cognitive-attentional test anxiety theory posits that test-anxious individuals direct attention internally, thus interfering with task-relevant information processing. Nevertheless, working-memory deficits are often obscured by compensatory exertion of increased effort by anxious subjects on cognitive tasks. Failure to identify anxietyspecific performance decrements has led some authors to replace the test anxiety construct with one emphasizing skill deficiencies. This investigation examined whether information-processing deficits are inherent sequelae of test anxiety or merely reflect lowered exam-taking ability in test-anxious persons.

The premenstrual syndrome (PMS) continues to be an enigma for many: those women who report PMS, for professionals who attempt to treat premenstrual symptoms, and for researchers attempting to identify PMS and to compare treatments. The present study investigated the responses from 86 subjects between the ages 30-45 for their perceptions of daily stress and coping styles by PMS level. Three levels of PMS were formulated by subject responses to the questionnaire (a) PMS for scores within the criteria, (b) Non-PMS for scores lower than the criteria, and (c) Psy-Non-PMS for certain scores higher than the criteria with a psychological, or neurotic, profile. Hassle intensity (daily stress) and coping style, whether problem-focused (P) or emotion-focused (E), were assessed by questionnaire. In addition, help seeking behavior, i.e., whether a woman sought help from a doctor in the past twelve months, was examined but did not significantly relate to level of PMS, hassle intensity, or coping style. Psy-Non-PMS women reported perceiving significantly more hassles and significantly greater use of four of the E coping styles, Detachment, Focusing on the Positive, Self-blame, and Keep to Self, than the Non-PMS women. PMS women endorsed perception of significantly more hassles and significantly greater use of …

The purposes of this study are a) to explore the construct of "marital commitment" in order to achieve a more clear definition of it; b) to identify the component factors involved in the construct; and c) to design and develop an instrument for assessing the construct.

This study was designed to investigate risk factors for resumption of alcohol use during the early period following treatment. Specifically, the influence of cognitions, stressful life events, subjective appraisal of stress, expectancies about alcohol use, and personal coping responses was explored.

This study investigated the relationship between the depressive attributional style described by Beck and Seligman and elevation of mood. It was proposed that mood elevation would reduce the level of depression and, in addition, would reduce the number of negative attributions. The reduction of negative attributions was assumed to be a more cognitively mediated process and was proposed to occur subsequent to mood change. These assumptions are contrary to the current cognitive theories of depression and attribution which view attributional style as a prerequisite to both the development and reduction of depression. Subjects were 30 undergraduate students between the ages of 19 and 40 years old who volunteered to participate in the study. They were screened on the basis of demonstrated depression (13 and above on the Beck Inventory) and susceptibility to hypnosis (high susceptibility on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility) . Subjects were randcmly assigned to one of three groups; (1) hypnosis with mood elevation, (2) hypnosis with relaxation, and (3) no treatment control. The results supported the hypothesis that mood elevation would reduce level of depression. The mood elevation group demonstrated a lowering of depression. The effects of the treatment procedure did not appear until the …

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.

This study compared the differential influence of reframing, self-control, and neutral counselor interventions on high and low trait-anxious subjects' self -descriptions as measured by the Adjective Check List. Reframing was predicted to be superior to self-control and neutral interventions in eliciting more favorable self-descriptions. An interaction was also predicted between counselor intervention and trait anxiety such that, in the reframing condition, low trait-anxious subjects would describe themselves more positively than high trait-anxious subjects.

Employed and non-employed stepmothers were compared on four psychological dimensions: stress, adjustment, needs, and values. Employed stepmothers were hypothesized to experience greater stress, lower adjustment, different needs, and different values. Racial and race by employment status differences along these four dimensions were also addressed.

Proponents of the use of cotherapists have stressed the importance of compatibility for effective cotherapy teams; however, the nature of compatibility has received little attention in experimental literature. This study investigated the nature of an effective cotherapy relationship through use of concepts espoused by George Kelly in his personal construct theory. Based on the results of the study, it was recommended that cotherapists be paired on the basis of their cognitive congruence. It was further proposed that cotherapists, especially those low in content congruence, allow themselves sufficient time for case discussion prior to and following their therapy sessions.