Showing papers in "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 1976"

Meditation as an Intervention in Stress Reactivity

Abstract: Meditation may have clinical application in stress-related disorders or it may alleviate the adverse effects of normal daily stress, depending on the resiliency of demonstrated state effects. The significance of meditation as a stress intervention appropriate for daily life might prove major if these meditation state effects carry over and transform the meditator in a more permanent way, becoming traits. Meditation shares with certain relaxation procedures the induction of a generalized low arousal pattern of responses characterized by sympathetic inhibition, which may prove to inhibit the autonomic activation seen in the stress response. Subjects in the meditation condition were asked to do transcendental meditation if they were from the experienced meditator group, and the controls were instructed in a simple meditation technique modeled on transcendental meditation. The stress reactivity pattern found in meditators is in partial contrast to that of chronically anxious individuals, particularly the meditators' rapid stress recovery and lower state and trait anxiety levels.

Toward a task analysis of assertive behavior.

Abstract: The present stud)' analyzed the components of assertive behavior. Asscrtiveness problems were conceptualized in terms of a task analysis of the topography of competent responding. One hundred one subjects who spanned the range of assertivcncss, measured by McFall's Conflict Resolution Inventory, responded to three sets of situations requiring refusal of an unreasonable request. Content knowledge of an assertive response, delivery of the response under two conditions, heart rate, sclf-perccivcd tension, and the incidence of positive and negative self-statements were assessed. Differences on these variables between low-, moderate-, and high-assertive groups were analyzed to determine the nature of the response deficit in nonassertivc subjects. Low-assertive subjects differed from moderateand high-assertive subjects on a role-playing assessment requiring them to deliver an assertive response, but they did not differ from moderateand high-assertive subjects on their knowledge of a competent response or on hypothetical delivery situations. No significant differences in heart rate were observed between low-, moderateand high-assertive subjects; however, higher self-perceived tension was found in lowcompared to moderate and high-assertive subjects. A greater number of negative and fewer positive self-statements were reported by lowcompared to moderateand high-assertive subjects. The present behavior task analysis study is recommended as a clinical assessment study preliminary to investigations comparing behavior change interventions.

Homosexuality: The ethical challenge.

Abstract: It is suggested that behavior therapists have not attended sufficiently to the factors influencing the desire of some homosexuals to change their sexual orientation. Therapists of all persuasions constantly make decisions for their voluntary clients, encompassing both the goals of therapy and the means to be used to achieve those goals. A perusal of the psychotherapy and behavior therapy literature indicates that therapists generally regard homosexuality as undesirable, if not pathological. Since professionals are unlikely to work on treatment procedures unless they see a problem, it is probable that the very existence of change-of-orientation programs strengthens societal prejudices against homosexuality and contributes to the self-hate and embarrassment that are determinants of the "voluntary" desire by some homosexuals to become heterosexual. It is therefore proposed that we stop offering therapy to help homosexuals change and concentrate instead on improving the quality of their interpersonal relationships. Alternatively, more energy could be devoted to sexual enhancement procedures in general, regardless of the adult gender mix.