Modeling and instructions in training for counselor empathy.

Assessed the relative contributions of modeling and instructions to training of counselor empathy in a factorial design incorporating 2 instruction conditions (instructions or no instructions) and 3 modeling conditions (high-empathy model, low-empathy model, or no model). Ss were 68 clergymen from various religious denominations. Ss wrote responses to a taped client in Phase 1, a training phase, and conducted an interview with a client (actor) in Phase 2, a generalization phase. Instructions had no effect on empathy offered by Ss, but Ss hearing a high-empathy model showed significantly higher empathy in Phase 1 responses than all other Ss. Findings were not significant in Phase 2. Reasons for lack of generalization and implications for further research and training are noted. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of instructions and modeling on self-disclosure.

Examined the relative effectiveness of modeling and instructional procedures in training college students to self-disclose. 48 male undergraduates were randomly assigned to 1 of the following instructional conditions: specific instructions to discuss personal feelings within specified topic areas, general instructions to discuss personal feelings within the same topics, or no instructions. Half of the Ss also listened to a model discussing his feelings within identical topic areas, and half did not receive a model. All Ss then participated in a brief monologue, which was scored for self-disclosure. Instructions and modeling, alone and in combination, increased the occurrence of self-disclosure, but the performance of the combination condition was not significantly greater than the performance of modeling or instructions alone. A post hoc analysis showed the instructional effect was due to the difference between specific instructions and no instructions. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affectivity of task, rehearsal time, and physiological response.

20 undergraduates discussed a neutral topic and an affect-arousing topic. 10 Ss were allotted a 5-min rehearsal, whereas the remainder were given only 30 sec of rehearsal time prior to their verbal presentations. The endosomatic galvanic skin potential and heart rate were recorded for all Ss during the periods of rehearsal, speech, and immediately following the speech period. Results indicate (a) significant differences between responses to an affective topic and a neutral topic, (b) a significantly different number of words elicited by an affective topic vs a neutral topic, and (c) definite physiological patterns associated with the length of the Ss' speech. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do confidants of depressed women provide less social support than confidants of nondepressed women?

Tested the prediction that during a simulated telephone conversation, the confidants of depressed women would provide less social support than the confidants of nondepressed psychiatric and nonpsychiatric control women. The coded speech of Ss and their confidants indicated that (1) confidants echoed the positive or negative valence of the statements made by Ss, (2) depressed women exhibited more depressotypic speech than women in both control groups, (3) confidants of depressed women also made more depressotypic statements, possibly due to the echoing phenomenon, (4) contrary to prediction, there were no significant group differences in the sequential dependencies of responses that confidants made to depressotypic or antidepressotypic subject statements, and (5) contrary to prediction, the affect of depressed women's confidants was not more negative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exposure to a model and task ambiguity as determinants of verbal behavior in an interview.

16 undergraduates listened to a tape-recorded model discuss personal problems within each of 5 topic areas, while the 16 control Ss did not receive a model. 1/2 the Ss were then told they could talk about anything they wished to in the interview. The remaining Ss were told they could talk about the same 5 topic areas discussed by the model. It was found that significantly more problems in the interview were given by the group receiving the model followed by the ambiguous task instructions. Ss exposed to the same model but who received topic-oriented instructions tended to give fewer problems in the interview. Theoretical similarities between the presentation of a model and the administration of instructions are discussed in the interpretation of the results. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of situational and instructional demand on indices of speech anxiety.

Assessed the effects of contextual (experimental location) and instructional cues on behavioral, self-report, and physiological indices of speech anxiety. 42 male and 48 female undergraduates were randomly assigned within sex to 1 of 4 conditions in the 2 * 2 design: (a) fear-anxiety clinic, (b) fear-speech laboratory, (c) simulate relaxation therapy-anxiety clinic, and (d) simulate relaxation therapy-speech laboratory. The clinic setting produced more behavioral anxiety than the laboratory setting. The fear test instructions produced both more behavioral and self-report anxiety than the simulate relaxation therapy instructions. The fear-clinic condition produced the greatest behavioral anxiety. No significant differences were obtained for the physiological measures. The demand and expectancy effects were comparable to those obtained for rat, spider, and snake phobic Ss in earlier studies. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing the accuracy of self-recording in speech-anxious undergraduates through the use of self-monitoring training and reliability enhancement procedures.

28 undergraduates in a speech anxiety treatment program served as Ss in a study designed to evaluate procedures for improving the accuracy of self-recording. Treatment consisted of repeated exposure to "real-life" public speaking situations with Ss held responsible for evaluating their progress by self-monitoring (SM) objective indicators of anxiety (i.e., frequency of speech disfluencies) during 3 treatment sessions. Self-monitored speeches were unobtrusively recorded to compare the number of disfluencies that were self-recorded and the number actually emitted. Between the 1st and 2nd treatment sessions, Ss were exposed to 1 set of training procedures (SM training or training control) and 1 set of instructional strategies (reliability enhancement package or accuracy instructions). Results indicate that (a) SM training was more effective than the training control in increasing the accuracy of SM, (b) reliability enhancement procedures were more effective than accuracy instructions only when the target behavior was easily discriminable, and (c) a combination of SM training and reliability enhancement strategies proved most effective in improving self-recording accuracy. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do backward messages unconsciously affect listeners? No.

Determined if forward information is conveyed to listeners of backward speech. 39 university students listened to digitized statements that were played backward, and 33 others heard them in the usual forward manner. Ss were then tested for recognition memory. All the statements were played backward on the test. Ss who had heard backward statements showed reliable old–new discrimination, but Ss who had heard forward statements did not. Then, Ss rated the probable truth of statements that were typed in normal orientation. The Ss who had heard the statements played forward discriminated the old from the new statements by rating more of the old ones true. The Ss who heard the statements backward did not. Results indicate that the forward meaning of backward statements does not "leak" through, even when the backward statements themselves are memorable. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affectivity of Task, Rehearsal Time, and Physiological Response: Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Walter M. Baker, Curt A. Sandman, and Harold B. Pepinsky (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1975, Vol. 84, No. 5, 539-544). On page 542 Figures 2 and 3 should be reversed in order to appear with their correct captions. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1975-31101-001.) 20 undergraduates discussed a neutral topic and an affect-arousing topic. 10 Ss were allotted a 5-min rehearsal, whereas the remainder were given only 30 sec of rehearsal time prior to their verbal presentations. The endosomatic galvanic skin potential and heart rate were recorded for all Ss during the periods of rehearsal, speech, and immediately following the speech period. Results indicate (a) significant differences between responses to an affective topic and a neutral topic, (b) a significantly different number of words elicited by an affective topic vs a neutral topic, and (c) definite physiological patterns associated with the length of the Ss' speech. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal-external control as a determinant of the effectiveness of modeling and instructions.

Explored the relationship between locus of control and the issue of modeling and instructional effectiveness. From 132 male and female undergraduates, 24 were designated internals and 21 externals according to scores on Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale which accorded with H. L. Mirels's (1970) factor of personal internality. Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of the following conditions: (a) instructional (Ss instructed to be highly concrete in talking about their school, social, and family life experiences); (b) modeling (Ss exposed to a model who discussed each of the above topics in a highly concrete fashion); and (c) control (Ss received only general instructions to talk on the same 3 topics). All Ss then participated in a brief monologue which was scored for concreteness. Results indicate that modeling was an effective procedure. Also, as predicted, internal-modeling Ss were more concrete than the internal-instructions Ss. Findings are discussed in relation to instructional efficacy and response class. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling, sensitivity training, and instruction: Implications for the training of college student volunteers and for outcome research.

Assigned 59 male undergraduate volunteers to 1 of 3 social skills training conditions-videotaped modeling, sensitivity training, or no training-and later placed them in a small group situation wherein each member presented a personal problem and attempted to understand the problem of another. Half of the groups received general instructions; 1/2 received specific instructions. Under general instructions, modeling- and sensitivity-trained Ss performed better than Ss with no training on both specific behavioral and global qualitative measures. However, under specific instructions, all Ss performed equally well. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the selection and training of nonprofessional mental health workers, and for outcome research on sensitivity training and modeling. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-administered masturbation training in the treatment of primary orgasmic dysfunction.

30 married and 30 single nonorgasmic women (mean age 29 yrs) participated in a clinical outcome study of sexual dysfunction. Ss were randomly divided into 3 groups: videotape modeling, written instructions, and waiting-list control. Both treatment procedures involved a 6-wk, self-administered masturbation-training program. After the pretest interview, treatment was carried out without direct contact with the experimenter. Of the Ss receiving treatment, 60% became orgasmic by the end of the treatment period. Four additional married Ss became orgasmic by the time of the 1-yr follow-up. For those Ss who failed to transfer orgasmic capacity to coital intercourse, the role of partner dysfunction is discussed. Although no significant differences were found between the videotaped modeling condition and the written instructions group, the overall effectiveness of the treatment compares favorably with other treatment programs. With respect to cost–benefit assessment, however, the self-administered treatment is clearly superior. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory of lectures: Effect of delay and distractor type.

Tested recognition memory for critical sentences from a classroom lecture as a function of lecture instructions, length of retention interval, and type of recognition test items, using 85 undergraduates. When tested immediately after the lecture, Ss differentiated the original sentences from reworded and inferential statements that were similar in meaning. At longer delays, however, only the inferences were recognized as not having been presented in the lecture. Labeling a lecture statement as important had little effect on recognition of the original item, although it did enhance recognition of the other item types. Findings confirm other recent reports of verbatim memory for natural speech. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lecturing, reading, and modeling in counselor restatement training.

In this study with a total of 92 Caucasian female counselor trainees, Ss' verbal behavior change was viewed as being dependent on the training program components, i.e., verbal, written, and model presentations. Specific hypotheses were derived concerning the quantitative production of the target verbal behavior given the training program design. Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental groups: (a) control group; (b) lecture presentation; (c) lecture and reading presentation; and (d) lecture, reading, and model presentation. After exposure to the training program detailing restatement, Ss responded to 10 audiorecorded client statements. One-way analyses of variance demonstrated that the lecture presentation produced a significant increase of target verbal behavior, as did the addition of reading. Model presentation after the 2 symbolic model presentations did not cause a significant increase in production. Implications of symbolic modeling for counselor training and research are discussed. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes.

Documented with 2 experiments a phenomenon of duration neglect in people's global evaluations of past affective experiences. In Study 1, 32 Ss viewed aversive film clips and pleasant film clips that varied in duration and intensity. Ss provided real-time ratings of affect during each clip and global evaluations of each clip when it was over. In Study 2, 96 Ss viewed these same clips and later ranked them by their contribution to an overall experience of pleasantness (or unpleasantness). Experimental Ss ranked the films from memory; control Ss were informed of the ranking task in advance and encouraged to make evaluations on-line. Effects of film duration on retropsective evaluations were small, entirely explained by changes in real-time affects and further reduced when made from memory. Retrospective evaluations appear to be determined by a weighing average of "snapshots" of the actual affective experiences, as if duration did not matter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)