Chronic mental patient: current status--future directions.

Current directions in the treatment of obesity.

The questionable effectiveness of traditional psychodynamic psychotherapies and the development of brief new treatment techniques derived from modern learning theory have stimulated interest in applications of conditioning procedures to behavior disorders. A review of this literature revealed that behavior therapies have been applied to many neurotic and psychotic disorders, and have been most successful with disorders involving specific maladaptive behaviors. Conditioning procedures were highly effective with phobic reactions, anxiety reactions, enuresis, stuttering, and tics, but disappointing with alcoholism and some sexual disorders. Cures seemed long-lasting, with remarkably little evidence of the symptom substitution predicted by psychodynamic depth theories. Behavior therapy offers promising opportunities for the application of well-established psychological principles to the treatment of maladaptive behavior. (4 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Behavior therapy: a review.

The mass media are increasingly popular as a strategy for delivering preventive health messages. A review of the literature located 24 published evaluations of the effectiveness of mass media programmes in modifying cardiovascular risk behaviour or safety restraint use among adults. Many of these studies failed to meet basic methodological criteria and were excluded from the review. The remaining studies were found to provide little support for the implementation of mass-media programmes to modify health risk behaviours. When

The role of mass media in changing health-related behaviour: a critical appraisal of two models.

Interview synchrony : An investigation of two speech rate measures in an automated standardized interview

Through ongoing improvement of contractual agreements, a 30-pound weight loss was obtained with a bright, emotionally disturbed 10-year-old boy. Contracts, specifying goals and rewards, were rewritten after each loss of ten pounds. The weight loss, accomplished over seven weeks, suggests that the contracts were able to reverse his increasing obesity.

Weight reduction through successive contracts

13 inpatient Ss were interviewed via a standardized videotaped presentation of E. All Ss responded to the tape recorded E seemingly as if E were present. It seems that a video taped interview may be feasible both as a research and as an applied clinical device.

The Feasibility of Video-Tape Interviewing:

CHAPTER 6 – Behavior Modification in a Therapeutic Summer Camp1

The stability of schizophrenic speech in a standardized interview.

This note is a 2-yr. follow-up on the manipulation of delusional verbalizations in a 62-yr.-old male (Rickard, Dignam, & Hornet, 1960).' The original experiment consisted of two parts. (1) Using social reinforcement, El conditioned rational speech from an extremely low to a high level of occurrence. Rational speech decreased sharply when a lower partial reinforcement schedule was attempted. (2) E2 and E3 exposed S to alternating 10-min. periods of "minimal" and "maximal" reinforcement. The former consisted of E's periodically directing his gaze toward the patient (who maintained a steady flow of speech) at the rate of 3 times a minute, smiling, and saying "um-hum" to reinforce talking behavior per se. During "maximal" reinforcement delusional verbalizations by S were interrupted; E actively elicited and reinforced the expression of rational speech. In the follow-up study of two 30-min. sessions of alternating 10-min. periods of "minimal" and "maximal" reinforcement, Ez, who served in the original study, took notes on a clip-board and timed the procedure with a stop watch. Because of the grossness of the dependent variable, rational speech, data were rounded to the nearest minute, as previously. During this study a second E behind a one-way screen obtained identical rounded measurements. The patient emitted approximately 28 min. (93%) of rational speech during "minimal" reinforcement and 30 min. (100%) of rational speech during "maximal" reinforcement. This finding is almost identical with S's performance during Sessions 3 and 4 of "minimal" and "maximal" reinforcement carried out by E2 2 yr. earlier (Ridcard, et d., 1960). Contrary to the popular prediction that behavior resulting from direct conditioning procedures would quickly extinguish and/or lead to the adoption of compensatory symptoms, S continues to respond with predominately nondelusional speech to E and is reported to be emitting much less delusional speech in other hospital situations. This finding is in accord with other direct conditioning srudies reported by Bandura ( 1961 ).

Michael Dinoff

Papers

Weight reduction through successive contracts

The Feasibility of Video-Tape Interviewing:

CHAPTER 6 – Behavior Modification in a Therapeutic Summer Camp1

The stability of schizophrenic speech in a standardized interview.

A follow-up note on "verbal manipulation in a psychotherapeutic relationship"