The purpose of this study is to replicate and extend earlier work involving cluster analysis of MMPI profiles among persons with chronic low back pain. There are two specific goals. The first goal is to demonstrate the existence in a new sample of four distinct and homogenous profile clusters that have been found in previous research. The second goal is to investigate the relationship of the four profiles to the subjects, self-reported pain history and response to treatment. This study concludes that four distinct MMPI profiles can be identified among chronic low back pain patients. Further, these profiles are the same for males and females, and are the same profiles found in previous research. These profiles are significantly related to subjects' history of behaviors in dealing with pain. However, no relationship to treatment response was found. It was inferred that the MMPI is of value in understanding the nature of patients' pain coping behaviors, but that further research is needed before any statements can be made regarding the utility of the MMPI in understanding their response to treatment.

This study was designed to compare the effects of exposure to two different sets of soluble discrimination problems, an easy set composed of only two- and three-dimensional problems and a more difficult set composed of problems ranging from two to seven dimensions, both immediately after training and at a 10-day posttreatment follow-up. The subjects were 32 depressed male inmates of a federal correctional institution. It was hypothesized that as a result of meeting and mastering progressively more difficult problems, the group given progressively more difficult problems would show a greater reduction in depression and a greater enhancement of performance on a variety of cognitive measures, both immediately after treatment and at the 10-day posttreatment follow-up. The results failed to support these hypotheses. Depression scores decreased significantly from pretreatment to posttreatment, but did so equally for the two groups. One of the cognitive measures, the WAIS Digit-Symbol subtest, showed significant improvements from pretreatment to posttreatment, but did equally for the two groups. Significant relationships were found between the subjects' performances on the cognitive tasks, and measures of their tendencies to attribute successes and failures to stable or unstable factors. Unexpected significant positive relationships were found between depression and performance on the …

This study was designed to compare the clinical effectiveness of EMG biofeedback and progressive relaxation training in the treatment of muscle tension headache. These procedures also were compared with a treatment-element control group. Results from this study indicated that EMG biofeedback, progressive relaxation, and the control procedures all led to significant improvements across sessions on EMG and most self-report measures. There was little evidence that either treatment technique was superior to the other or to the control procedures. Although in most cases there were rather large numerical differences between groups, these differences generally were not statistically significant. Analysis of correlations between EMG and self-report data revealed a pattern of variable but generally nonsignificant relationships. However, for the biofeedback and progressive relaxation groups, there were a number of highly significant correlations. The pattern of correlations suggested that the relationship between EMG tension and subjective headache pain may be better predicted by something other than a strict linear model.

The effectiveness of local norms with two short forms of the MMPI was investigated in this study. Comparisons were made between high-point code-type concordance rates and the overall concordance rates generated by local norms and the original norms of Faschingbauer's Abbreviated MMPI (FAM) and the MMPI-168. The use of local norms did not produce significantly higher high-point code-type concordance rates than the use of original norms. The use of local norms was indicated when one is interested in overall profile concordance. However, this finding was not replicated in the cross-validation samples. No conclusion was reached regarding the superiority of one short form over the other in terms of high-point codetype concordance. In terms of overall concordance, the FAM was found to generate higher concordance rates than the MMPI-168 when original norms were used. Overall concordance rates were not significantly different between the two short forms when local norms were used. Design changes and possible explanations for the findings were discussed. The former included increasing the sample size of the cross-validation samples to reduce sampling error. The latter consisted of the lack of congruence between the factor structures of the FAM and MMPI-168 and that of the MMPI, possible similarities between …

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.

The present study investigated female sexuality by examining a range of experiential, historical, attitudinal, and behavioral variables, and conceptualizing sexual orientation along several dimensions on a heterosexual/homosexual continuum. The focus was on determining what, if any, important etiological factors emerged, as well as differences in behavior, attitudes, and preferences among women with various sexual orientations. It was concluded that a nonconventionality factor could be interacting with certain experiential and situational variables to produce a bisexual or homosexual lifestyle. Consequently, the ideosyncratic variable nature of such a paradigm could partially explain inconsistencies in past research. Results of this study were comparable to previous ones indicating that the women were similar (across sexual orientations) in their emphasis on emotional aspects of a relationship, history of heterosexual dating and coitus, few (relative to males) sex partners, and a less (than males) actively assertive sexual pattern of behavior. Future research might include males in the investigation of the role of a nonconventionality factor in sexual orientation. Also, relationship between cognitive/perceptual styles and sexual orientation could be explored.

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 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.

There is a scarcity of objective criteria upon which to select among the available therapies for those most likely to benefit specific patients. Comparative research has suggested that the outcomes of alternative and competitive therapies are equivalent. There are few facts available concerning which patients benefit most from even the more popular therapies. The purpose of this study was to find a type of patient for which differential improvement could be predicted. Neither therapy decreased checklist scores or increased speaking time significantly more than the other. Repressors and sensitizers responded equally to therapy. When dropout rates were analyzed there were also no significant differences between the therapies or between repressors and sensitizers. When posttherapy scores from both therapies were compared to pretherapy scores, no significant changes were found. The latter finding was important for understanding the absence of support for the hypotheses. Since the subjects did not improve as a result of either desensitization or rational-emotive therapy, there was no opportunity to observe the hypothesized differential changes. Given this hindsight, it was concluded that speech anxiety may not be a desirable disorder with which to study the prediction that repression-sensitization is related to the outcome of rational-emotive therapy and desensitization. …

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 present study investigated the effects of anxiety management training on the reduction of Type A coronary-prone behavior in a college student population and utilized behavioral measures as well as self-report indices of change. Evaluations pre- and post-treatment included self-report measures of Type A behavior, empirically validated performance measures of the achievement-striving and time-urgency components of coronary-prone behavior, and a learned helplessness manipulation that has been associated with this behavior pattern. Analysis of covariance indicated that the treatment group changed in the desired direction on all self-report indices, and on most of the performance measures and helplessness scores that were used as dependent variables. Discussion centered on the implications of these data to theoretical and practical conceptualizations of coping behavior and coronary disease and cautions were expressed concerning clinical significance, maintenance, and generalization of results.

A psychological intervention involving relaxation training and biofeedback training for the control of peripheral skin temperature was investigated in this study with 27 female rheumatoid arthritics as participants. Based on analysis of the temperature data, it was concluded that the biofeedback response was not learned. From electromyographic data, it was concluded that participants did learn to relax. The hypothesis that the two treatment components would have beneficial effects on the physical, functional, and psychological aspects of rheumatoid arthritis was answered partially. No differential effects as a function of biofeedback training were found as the data for the temperature increase and temperature decrease groups were statistically combined in multiple analyses of variance for repeated measures. Although no differential effects were obtained, numerous positive changes were found. Correlated with the relaxation training were decreases in reported subjective units of discomfort, percentage of time hurting, percentage of body hurting, and general severity of pain. Improved sleep patterns were reported as was increased performance of activities of daily living. Reductions were also found in psychological tension, and in the amount of time mood was influenced by the disease. Shifts were not found in imagery, locus of control, and other psychological dimensions. Constitutional improvements were …