Relative efficacy of modeling, shaping, and the combined procedures for modification of social withdrawal.

Selected 31 social isolates from 4 nursery school populations according to teacher and behavioral samples obtained by trained Os. In a 2 * 2 factorial design, 16 Ss viewed a 23-min modeling film depicting appropriate social behavior, while the others viewed a control film. Half the Ss in each film condition then received social reinforcement contingent upon the performance of peer interaction behaviors. Modeling was a more rapid modification procedure than was shaping, and the interaction levels produced through modeling, with or without the addition of shaping, were more stable over time. In follow-up assessments, modeling Ss remained at the level of nonisolates, while shaping and control Ss returned to isolate level. (25 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use of modeling and role playing to increase social interaction among asocial psychiatric patients.

Studied 87 psychiatric inpatients, all of whom consistently displayed minimal social interaction behavior, in a 2 * 2 * 2 covariance design involving 3 treatment variables. The major variable was presence vs absence of structured learning therapy (modeling plus role playing plus social reinforcement) aimed at increasing social interaction behavior. Presence vs absence of psychotherapy and patient status (acute-chronic) were also examined. Several significant main and interaction effects emerged on social interaction criteria for structured learning therapy. Interaction effects for structured learning therapy and psychotherapy suggested primarily a "mutual inhibition" of treatment effectiveness. Implications for further studies of structured learning therapy and specific skill enhancement are examined. (34 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conforming behavior of psychiatric and medical patients.

"A group of ten non-psychotic psychiatric patients in the open ward of a general hospital was compared with seven medical patients without disabling psychiatric symptoms, with respect to the variability of their judgments of the autokinetic phenomenon… . The results indicated that neurotic Ss were consistently more variable than nonneurotic Ss in their judgments and were less affected by the group influence." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of social interactions in depressed psychiatric patients.

20 21–61 yr old depressed females, 20 depressed Ss in remission, and 20 control Ss were shown videotapes of positive (involving praise), negative (involving criticism), and neutral social interactions. Half of the Ss in each group were instructed to imagine the interactions being directed toward them, and half were instructed to imagine the interactions being directed toward another person. Ss rated each interaction on 11 semantic differential scales. Following a principal components analysis with varimax rotation, analysis of component scores indicated that depressed Ss rated negative interactions lower (i.e., in a more socially undesirable way) than controls only when the interactions were directed toward them. The question of whether or not the perception of negative interactions by depressed persons is distorted is discussed. (8 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)     

Relative effects of modeling and role playing in the treatment of avoidance behavior.

Investigated the efficacy of symbolic modeling and role-playing therapy in the reduction of avoidance behaviors in 48 undergraduates. Carefully selected snake-phobic Ss were administered either self-regulated symbolic modeling, self-regulated role-playing instructions, or exposure to a snake-only videotape, or they received no treatment. After brief treatment periods role-playing Ss demonstrated significantly greater reductions in avoidance behavior than Ss in the modeling and control conditions. Subjective fear ratings reported before and during task performance on a behavioral approach test were significantly lower for role-playing Ss than for modeling Ss following treatment. Posttreatment attitude measures showed that role-playing Ss held significantly more positive attitudes toward harmless snakes than Ss who had undergone the symbolic modeling procedure. A 2-mo follow-up suggested that treatment gains had been maintained for both behavioral and subjective reports. Findings provide compelling evidence that a self-administered role-playing procedure can effect rapid and enduring changes within a variety of dependent variable measures associated with avoidance. Findings are explained in terms of the behavioral modality (covert-overt) toward which a treatment is directed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improving the social behavior and peer acceptance of rejected boys: Effects of social skill training with instructions and prohibitions.

Thirty-two boys who were rejected by their peers in Grades 1–3 were identified on the basis of negative sociometric nominations and negative social behavior. They were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: (a) instructions to promote positive social behavior, (b) prohibitions to reduce negative social behavior, (c) a combination of instructions and prohibitions, or (d) no treatment. Interventions were applied during 10 half-hour school play sessions. Behavioral observations and peer and teacher ratings were collected prior to treatment, immediately after treatment, and at a follow-up assessment 6 weeks after treatment. Additional peer and teacher ratings were collected at a 1-year follow-up. Prohibitions combined with a response cost for negative behaviors resulted in immediate and stable declines in negative behavior and led to temporary increases in positive responses received from peers. Instructions and the reinforcement of specific social skills promoted sustained positive peer interactions 6 weeks after treatment. Only the combination of instructions and prohibitions led to improved sociometric ratings from nontarget treatment partners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of social skills training groups and social skills bibliotherapy with psychiatric patients.

The effectiveness of a systematic social skills group training program was compared to both a bibliotherapy program group and a typical hospital treatment control group (10 18–56 yr old patients per group). Assessment instruments included self-report (Rathus Assertiveness Schedule), observational, and in vivo measures. Results on the observational measure show that the skills training group improved significantly more than the control group, and this difference was maintained at follow-up. The skills group also showed superior improvement on the self-report measure. Results fail to demonstrate the efficacy of bibliotherapy. Findings concerning generalization of social skills group treatment effectiveness were encouraging in that 2 of 3 measures employed to test for generalization showed significant effects. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood social competence in functionally disordered psychiatric patients and in normals.

Assessed childhood social competence in 71 male and 70 female schizophrenics, personality disordered patients, psychotic depressives, neurotics, and normals. The results indicate that children eventually hospitalized for schizophrenia are characterized by their poor interpersonal skills long before symptom onset; academic competence failed to differentiate the various groups. Not all serious psychiatric disorder is preceded by poor social competence, as indicated by the psychotic depressives whose competence scores were not significantly different from the normals'. Analysis of sex and Sex?×?Diagnosis effects revealed that females were more competent than males regardless of psychiatric status. This may reflect primarily greater conformity to teacher expectations for appropriate school behavior. The absence of significant interaction effects suggests that previously reported sex differences in premorbid social competence are not specific to schizophrenic disorders. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Premorbid social competence and psychiatric outcome in male and female nonschizophrenic patients.

In 228 male and 220 female 1st-admission state-hospital patients with affective disorders, neuroses, and personality disorders, higher social competence was related to more favorable outcome as reflected in shorter initial hospitalizations and shorter rehospitalizations. Consistent with a developmental formulation and the results of a previous study by the 2nd and 1st authors and A. Marsh (1979), results provide further evidence that the relation between premorbid competence and outcome is not unique to schizophrenia but can be found for patients of both sexes across a range of diagnoses. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lessons from social psychology on discrediting psychiatric stigma.

Advocacy, government, and public-service groups rely on a variety of strategies to diminish the impact of stigma on persons with severe mental illness. These strategies include protest, education, and promoting contact between the general public and persons with these disorders. The authors argue that social psychological research on ethnic minority and other group stereotypes should be considered when implementing these strategies. Such research indicates that (a) attempts to suppress stereotypes through protest can result in a rebound effect; (b) education programs may be limited because many stereotypes are resilient to change; and (c) contact is enhanced in a variety of factors, including equal status, cooperative interaction, and institutional support. Future directions for research and practice to reduce stigma toward persons with severe mental illness are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived efficacy and interpersonal impact of impression management among psychiatric patients.

100 hospitalized male psychiatric patients listened to 1 of 4 audiotapes on which an interviewed patient revealed his intentions to engage either in healthy or sick self-presentation. The taped patient also reported his psychiatrist to be either in favor of or opposed to early discharge. Ss predicted longer lengths of hospitalization for the taped patients, and found him to be less interpersonally attractive, when he intended to fake psychopathology. Predicted length of hospitalization was also longer when the taped patient's psychiatrist was reportedly opposed to early discharge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of instructions and modeling on trainees low in interpersonal-communication skills.

Examined the effects of instructions and modeling in the reflection-of-feeling training of individuals low in interpersonal-communication skills. Participants with low scores on R. Carkhuff's Communication Index (25 males and 25 females) were randomly assigned by sex to 1 of the 5 training groups so that there were 5 males and 5 females in each group. After viewing videotaped training material, each participant conducted a 15-min interview with a volunteer "client" and completed the Communication Index a second time. Interviews were scored for frequency of reflection-of-feeling responses and level of empathic communication displayed. Analysis of the reflection-of-feeling data indicated that instructions and instructions-plus-modeling were facilitative procedures. Ratings of written and verbal empathy demonstrated the effectiveness of the 2 combined conditions: instructions-plus-modeling and modeling-plus-instructions. Calculation of correlations among scores on criterion measures revealed a positive correlation between reflection-of-feeling scores and ratings of empathic communication. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative contributions of modeling, informational influences, and physical contact in extinction of phobic behavior.

Treated 1 member of a matched triad of adult snake phobics with a participant modeling procedure in which he received the benefits of modeling, verbal information, and direct contact with the feared object. 1 of the 2 other Ss, who observed the treatment, listened to the persuasive communications of E, thus receiving the joint benefits of modeling and verbal information. The 2nd O received only the benefits of modeling. Relative to an untreated control group, all treated Ss showed significant increases in approach behavior, reduction in approach-related fear, and positive changes in attitudes toward snakes. Between-condition analyses revealed that modeling accounted for the majority of the change variance, with direct contact contributing significant increments to approach behavior and fear reduction but not to attitude change. Verbal information made no significant contribution to the positive changes; in fact, indirect evidence indicated that it had a negative influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role play for assessing the social competence of psychiatric patients.

This study examined the validity and utility of role play for assessing social competence of chronic psychiatric patients. Demographically matched groups of patients with schizophrenia (n?=?57), schizoaffective disorder (n?=?16), major affective disorder (n?=?33), and a nonpatient control group (n?=?20) were assessed on a role-play test, interview measures of role functioning in the community, and a problem-solving discussion with a significant other. A subsample was reassessed on the same instruments 6 months later. Behavior on the role-play test discriminated the groups, was highly correlated with ratings on the other measures, and was relatively stable over the retest interval. The results were interpreted as providing strong support for the value of role play as a general measure of social functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of social desirability instructions on several MMPI measures of social desirability.

Wiggins (1959) evaluated several MMPI measures of the social desirability variable in a role-playing experiment, and concluded that his Sd scale was the preferred measure. The effectiveness of several social desirability measures in detecting role-playing subjects was cross validated in a sample of psychiatric patients by the contrasted groups method. Contrary to Wiggins' conclusion, the results indicated that the Sd, the Cof, the SD, and the MMPI L and K scales were of comparable efficiency in discriminating between the control and experimental conditions in the role-playing experiment, even though Sd and Cof were specifically designed for this purpose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of information and reinforcement on the conversational behavior of chronic psychiatric patient dyads.

Conducted 2 experiments to determine if the conversational behavior of 3 male and 1 female chronic psychiatric patients could be increased through either reinforcement or the provision of information about potential topics of conversation. Each experiment utilized 1 dyad in a withdrawal design or a combined changing criterion and withdrawal design. For 3 of the 4 Ss a positive reinforcement contingency was used, while for the 4th an avoidance contingency was used. Conversation was defined as talk between the members about a specified topic of general interest with eye contact at least once every 15 sec. Only reinforcement increased conversational behavior. Information about the specified topics was ineffective in spite of the fact that the information was comprehended and was relevant to the topics. Additional results demonstrate the ineffectiveness of instructions and the potential usefulness of the infrequently used changing criterion design. The avoidance of extended conversation effectively reinforced a specified duration of initial conversation. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)