Showing papers in "Journal of Abnormal Psychology in 1975"

Anxiety, restraint, and eating behavior.

Abstract: It was hypothesized that individual differences in eating behavior based on the distinction between obese and normal subjects could be demonstrated within a population of normal subjects classified as to the extent of restraint chronically exercised with respect to eating. Restrained subjects resembled the obese behaviorally, and unrestrained subjects resembled normals. This demonstration was effected in the context of a test .of the psychosomatic hypothesis of obesity. The results indicated that although some individuals may eat more when anxious, there is little empirical support for the notion that eating serves to reduce anxiety. An explanation for this apparent inconsistency was offered. The role of anxiety as a possible causal agent in obesity has recently been subjected to experimental analysis. Schachter, Goldman, and Gordon (1968) hypothesized that although anxiety would decrease eating in normal-weight subjects by inhibiting gastric contractions and releasing sugar into the bloodstream, it would have little if any effect on the obese, who do not eat on the basis of internal physiological state. These predictions were confirmed, with normal-weight subjects eating substantially less (34%) when anxious and the obese eating nonsignificantly more (15%). Schachter et al. (1968) concluded that the psychosomatic hypothesis of obesity —that the obese in effect confuse hunger with negative affect (Bruch, 1961) and thus overeat in response to aversive emotional states (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1957)— had failed to find confirmation. Obese subjects did not eat more when anxious and did not exhibit significant anxiety reduction as a consequence of eating.

Depression and learned helplessness in man.

Abstract: Similarity of impairment in naturally occurring depression and laboratory-induced, learned helplessness was demonstrated in college students Three groups each of depressed and nondepressed students were exposed to escapable, inescapable, or no noise Then they were tested on a series of 20 patterned anagrams Depressed no noise subjects were much poorer at solving individual anagrams and seeing the pattern than aondepressed no noise subjects Inescapable noise produced parallel deficits in nondepressed subjects relative to escapable or no noise, but inescapable noise did not increase impairment in depressed subjects These findings support the learned helplessness model of depression, which claims that a belief in independence between responding and reinforcement is central to the etiology, symptoms, and cure of reactive depression

Effects of alcohol on aggression in male social drinkers.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of alcohol on aggressive behavior in male social drinkers. Ninety-six subjects were randomly assigned to one of eight groups in a 2X2X2 factorial design. To fully control for expectation effects, half of the subjects were led .to believe that they would be drinking alcohol (vodka and tonic), and half believed they would be drinking only tonic water. Within each of these two groups, half of the subjects actually received alcohol, but half were given only tonic. Following the beverage administration, half of the subjects were provoked to aggress by exposing them to an insulting confederate, whereas control subjects experienced a neutral interaction. Aggression was assessed by the intensity and duration of shocks administered to the confederate on a modified Buss aggression apparatus. The only significant determinant of aggression was the expectation factor: Subjects who believed they had consumed alcohol were more aggressive than subjects who believed they had consumed a nonalcoholic beverage, regardless of the actual alcohol content of the drinks administered. Subjects receiving alcohol, however, showed a significant increase in a reaction time measure, regardless of the expectation condition. Provocation to aggress was also a significant determinant of aggression, but it did not interact with the beverage conditions.

Development and evaluation of an interpersonal skill-training program for psychiatric inpatients.

Abstract: 1 behavioral-analytic method for assessing competence, we spent nearly two years systematically using this method to develop an interpersonal skills-training program for the treat- ment of male psychiatric inpatients, along with an associated measurement model. As we were com- pleting this developmental work, Goldfried informed us that he had found the method unworkable due to its inherent tendency toward producing a data overload. For purely practical reasons, however, we had modified the method, restricting our focus

Schizophrenic performance when distractors are present: attentional deficit or differential task difficulty?

Abstract: Studies purporting to demonstrate an attentional dysfunction in schizophrenia have usually compared the performance of patient and control subjects in both a neutral and a distractor condition (e.g., Lawson, McGhie, & Chapman, 1967; Rappaport, 1967). Schizophrenics typically perform less adequately than the controls in both conditions. This result alone is not particularly surprising given the general inefficiency of schizophrenic s. More important is the finding that the decrement in schizophrenic performance is significantly greater in the distractor condition. This differential deficit has been taken to mean that the specific ability mediating performance on the distractor task (i.e., attention) is a particularly important area of loss, and one that may be central to our understanding of the disorder.

On Pseudoscience in Science, Logic in Remission, and Psychiatric Diagnosis: A Critique of Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places"

Abstract: Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places" is pseudoscience presented as science. Just as his pseudopatients were diagnosed at discharge as "schizophrenia in remission," so a careful examination of this study's methods, results, and conclusion leads to a diagnosis of "logic in remission." Rosenhan's study proves that pseudopatients are not detected by psychiatrists as having simulated signs of mental illness. This rather unremarkable finding is not relevant to the real problems of the reliability and validity of psychiatric diagnosis and only serves to obscure them. A correct interpretation of these data contradicts the conclusions that were drawn. In the setting of a psychiatric hospital, psychiatrists seem remarkably able to distinguish the "sane" from the "insane."

Learned helplessness and self-reported affect.

Abstract: The present study was designed to assess the mood correlates of learned helplessness in human subjects. One group of subjects was pretreated with a series of inescapable aversive tones, and the degree of debilitation was measured on a subsequent solvable anagram task. These subjects were compared with a group pretreated with escapable aversive tones. Results replicated the learned helplessness effect: The group pretreated with inescapable tones demonstrated greatly debilitated performance at solving anagrams relative to the escapable group. The learned helplessness group also reported greater depression, anxiety, and hostility relative to the group pretreated with escapable tones. Moreover, a correlational analysis comparing self-ratings of helplessness during the experiment and a general 'emotionality index, composed of the sum of scores on the three affect scales, revealed a high association between the two variables (r= .63, p< .01). Seligman (1975) has proposed that the learned helplessness concept may serve as a model for reactive depression in man. If this model is valid, he has speculated that the experimental procedure for producing helplessness may yield symptoms associated with mild depression. The present study was designed to provide a test of the validity of this model. Mood changes instigated by the learned helplessness task 'were assessed to evaluate whether they are similar to those mood states reported to be salient characteristics of depression. The investigation utilized an experimental paradigm similar to that employed by Hiroto and Seligman (1975) for producing cross-modal helplessness. The Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (Zuckerman, Lubin, & Robins, 1965) was administered at various times during the experiment to gauge mood change. This check list elicited self-reports of depression, anxiety, and hostility.