Cardiovascular consequences of expressing anger in a mutually-dependent relationship

Twenty males were harrassed by a confederate of the experimenters while solving anagrams. Following this experience they played a mixed-motive, interpersonal game with the confederate. In comparison with non-harrassed controls the harrassed subjects expressed more anger at the end of the task. While solving anagrams they also exhibited greater increases in systolic blood pressure and heart rate and greater decreases in finger pulse amplitude and pulse wave transit time. The post- harrassment adjustment of cardiovascular behavior during the interpersonal games was contingent upon the subject's aggression guilt, level of exploitativeness, and uncertainty concerning the consequences of exploiting the confederate. The greater the subject's aggression guilt the less anger he expressed at the end of the anagrams task and the less he exploited the confederate. The more a subject exploited the confederate the lower his diastolic blood pressure at the end of the game. The greater the uncertainty of consequences of behavior the faster the transmission of pulses and the smaller the drop in blood pressure during the game. The potential utility of interpersonal games for studying behavioral and biological adjustments during post-anger interpersonal transactions in a mutually-dependent relationship is illustrated.     

Self-control program in the treatment of obesity

In a pilot study utilizing self-control techniques for the purpose of modifying the cue-reactive eating habits of obese patients, three subjects maintained a continuous weight loss throughout the first year of treatment. Techniques included goal setting, self-monitoring, brief delay and self-confrontation prior to eating unauthorized food and direct observation of oneself in a mirror when eating unauthorized food. All patients are expected to remain in treatment for the foreseeable future with no termination of the program despite apparent success with regard to control of their feeding disturbance. The rationale for this approach is discussed.     

Treatment technique for chronic wrist cutters

A treatment technique is presented which has been developed to eliminate chronic self-induced wrist cutting behavior. The technique substitutes painful but non-injurious exercises for self-cutting behavior when the urge to self-cut emerges. The rationale for initiating this approach is described.     

Modification of secretive or ritualized eating behavior in anorexia nervosa

Behavioral procedures are described which are directed toward the treatment of the residual idiosyncratic, unacceptable eating patterns of patients who have attained normal weight following the treatment of the acute phase of anorexia nervosa. This program prescribes that maladaptive eating behaviors become the sole and mandatory mode of food consumption. All patients rapidly abandoned their unacceptable eating behavior and thereafter sustained acceptable patterns of eating.     

Post-aversive relief and relaxation and their implications for behavior therapy

This paper attempted to (a) introduce the notions of relief and relaxation as they relate to the framework of elicitation theory; (b) emphasize and exploit that aspect of the theory that deals with the extinction of learned behavior, especially behavior that is in some way mediated by aversive stimuli; and (c) show how the data and theory probably relate to: (1) high resistance to extinction of some fears and avoidance responses, (2) generalized anxiety and its treatment, (3) implosive therapy or flooding, and (4) relief therapy.     

Cue-controlled relaxation in in vivo desensitization of a snake phobia

A 21-yr-old female student who experienced an intense fear of snakes was successfully treated by using cue controlled relaxation for in vivo desensitization. By the end of a 15-week treatment program she was able to touch and hold snakes.     

Operant muscular relaxation and peak expiratory flow rate in asthmatic children

The effects of two types of operant muscular relaxation, frontalis relaxation and brachio- radialis relaxation, on peak expiratory flow rate were studied in a group of 40 asthmatic children. Using a yoked control design, conditioned frontalis relaxation was shown to occur in one group of asthmatic children. These individuals exhibited increases in PEFR, whereas children in the frontalis conditioning control group showed no improvement in this variable. Conditioned brachioradialis relaxation could not be demonstrated with the training procedures currently employed. Also, in this case, neither the brachioradialis conditioning nor its yoked control group experienced PEFR changes as a result of training. The results of the present study provided support for the previous finding that frontalis muscle relaxation effects PEFR increases in asthmatic children.     

Interpersonal reactions to assertive and unassertive styles when handling social conflict situations

Determining how persons perceive and evaluate social assertiveness is a particularly important topic, since assertive training is primarily intended to alter the behavior of individuals in the context of social interactions. In the present study, college students observed videotapes which showed a model handling several social conflict situations in either an assertive or an unassertive manner. Because race of the individual may also influence the way assertiveness is viewed, both black and white models were used. Subjects then completed a 26-item adjective checklist to evaluate the personality of the model they observed. Results indicated that while assertive models were viewed as skilled and able in their handling of the portrayed social conflict situations, they were rated much less favorably than unassertive models on 14 adjectives assessing likeability. Race of model did not differentially affect this pattern. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Type A and ectopy in patients with coronary artery disease and controls

The purpose of the current study was to determine if the Type A (coronary-prone) behavior pattern is associated with task-related ectopy either in patients with coronary artery disease or in controls. Two 10-min interviews related to heart disease and three performance tasks inducing different sympathetic and vagal responses were administered. The prevalence of ectopy was significantly higher in Type A volunteers, and was no different in coronary patients vs controls. Analyses of cardiovascular responses and patient characteristics failed to identify any other variable that separated Type As from Type Bs or those with ectopy from those without ectopy.     

The practice of clinical behaviorism: an overview

A great proportion of present day “behavior therapy” literature concerns the diagnosis and treatment of cognitions. The working premise is that cognitions must be included if behavior therapy is to become a generally viable clinical approach. Many clinicians have viewed and continue to view behavioral procedures as a series of specific, but ancillary, treatment techniques to be used when the occasaion arises. The present discussion reveals how systematic desensitization and principles of operant conditioning form a primary, cohesive and general basis for guiding clinical practice.     

On the understanding of some relational words in aphasia

After determining whether 5 aphasic men spoke prepositions spontaneously, this study proceeded in 2 parts. First, we required the subjects to make arrangements of objects following directions spoken by the experimenter. Secondly, we required the subjects to order pre-printed word-cards into statements describing various displays of objects. We concluded from our data that (1) aphasics understood relational terms (e.g. prepositions) less well than object names, but (2) they were able to order words systematically, as parts of speech, into statements following or closely approximating the conventional rules of English.     

Autonomic correlates of the subjective anxiety scale

The subjective anxiety scale is an assessment tool commonly used in behavioral research and therapy to quantify verbal report to private events, usually states of fear. An investigation was undertaken to determine the extent of relationship between the subjective anxiety scale and two concurrent measures of autonomic arousal, peripheral vasoconstriction and heart rate. Measures were recorded during baseline, surgical film and second baseline phases for 20 subjects. The subjective and autonomic measures indicated increased anxiety during the film phase and significant correlations were found between subjective report of anxiety and the two physiological indices. The results support the continued use of the subjective anxiety scale as a clinical assessment tool. Practice and research implications are discussed.     

Elimination of nocturnal thumbsucking by glove wearing

The use of glove wearing in the treatment of a child's long-standing habit of thumbsucking while sleeping is described. The application of a medication to inhibit thumbsucking was tried initially without effect. The subsequent use of glove wearing totally eliminated thumbsucking during sleep within three weeks.     

Treatment on a severe bird phobia by participant modeling

The use of participant mod.ling in the treatment of a bird phobia of 18 years' duration is described. The case illustrates how self-directed performance and naturally occuring situations were included to enhance the generality of the treatment effect. A one year follow-up indicated that the improvement was maintained. Failure to recognize the role of participant modeling in other case reports is discussed.     

Verbal-performance IQ discrepancy and perception of rhythm and timbre

The Seashore Rhythm Tests, Form A and Form B, and the Timbre Test, Form A were administered to 90 strongly right-handed subjects placed in one of three WAIS Verbal-Performance IQ discrepancy groups. Some dissociation of performance on these tests was expected. As predicted, for the Rhythm Test Form A the High Performance group obtained significantly lower scores than the Equal group, which in turn had reliably lower scores than the High Verbal group. Converse predictions of group differences on Rhythm Test Form B were not confirmed. However, the predicted superiority of the High Performance group over the High Verbal group on Timbre Test Form A was found though the Equal group performed as well as the High Performance group. Thirty per cent of the High Performance group obtained scores on Rhythm Test Form A below the clinical cutoff of this test as opposed to only 6% of the Equal group and 0% of the High Verbal group.     

Efficacy of a money deposit contingency on clinical outpatients' attendance and participation in assertive training

Clinical outpatients in an ongoing assertive training program were randomly assigned to a money deposit or no deposit condition. Subjects in the deposit condition maintained high attendance (98%), participated in more self-rating exercises during sessions (98%) and completed more extra session self-monitoring logs (98%). Clients who were not subject to the financial contingency attended less frequently (70%), completed fewer in-session rating exercises when they attended (74%) and returned fewer extra session logs (53%). Use of a money deposit is recommended to facilitate clinical research in applied outpatient settings.     

The changing patterns of psychiatric problems in Vietnam

I contend that military psychiatrists have been premature in suggesting that the Vietnam conflict has produced fewer psychiatric casualties than previous wars. While the number of men hospitalized and evacuated because of psychiatric problems has decreased, there has been a concurrent increase in disciplinary problems, drug abuse, and in the number of men diagnosed as character disorders. For some of our troops, duty in Vietnam has produced significant feelings of depression and guilt and has led to a rejection of any identification with the military. Other soldiers have turned to drug abuse as an escape from their distress. Men with character disorders sometimes act out their conflicts in antisocial behavior. The varying patterns of group formation in combat and support units determine whether this behavior will be directed towards Vietnamese or U.S. personnel. Antisocial behavior and drug abuse are symptomatic of emotional distress and have replaced combat fatigue as the predominant psychiatric syndromes among United States troops in Vietnam.     

A methodological critique of Bandura's self-efficacy theory of behavior change

This brief theoretical note identifies a major methodological problem in Bandura's argument in favor of self-efficacy theory and provides two methods of controlling for it. His data could likely be accounted for by social contingencies operating within his highly structured behavioral approach situation.