Avoidance learning of perceptual defense and vigilance.

Thirty-two undergraduates were randomly assigned to defense and vigilance training groups. "This study supports the view that perceptual defense and vigilance are learned reactions to anxiety arousing stimuli." A behavior theory analysis of the learning process is proposed. "According to this analysis, perceptual defense is learned when the perceptual response to a threatening stimulus is punished and competing perceptual responses are instrumental to anxiety reduction. Competing perceptual responses when reinforced are strengthened at the expense of the critical perceptual response. Perceptual vigilance is learned when the perceptual response to a threatening stimulus is reinforced by anxiety reduction and competing perceptual responses are punished." Learning for both groups "proceeded in the absence of awareness." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety sensitivity: The role of conscious awareness and selective attentional bias to physical threat.

Selective attentional biases were examined amongst individuals varying in levels of physical anxiety sensitivity. The dot-probe paradigm was used to examine attention towards anxiety symptomatology, social threat and positive words. Stimuli were presented above (unmasked) and below (masked) the level of conscious awareness. High physical anxiety sensitivity was associated with attentional vigilance for anxiety symptomatology words in both unmasked and masked conditions. For positive words, however, those high in anxiety sensitivity were found to avoid such stimuli when they were masked, whereas they exhibited a relative vigilance when unmasked. If the differences between awareness conditions are reliable, then the impact of the automatic vigilance for threat might be modified by conscious attempts to direct attention towards other types of stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The assessment of anxiety in psychological experimentation: A theoretical reformulation and test.

The paper begins with an extensive formulation of anxiety from the psychoanalytic frame of reference and 2 traditional methods of investigating the phenomenon, viz., questionnaire method on level of experienced anxiety and attempts to create anxiety regarding fictitious reports of inadequate performance on certain tasks. Limitations of this methodology were discussed in the light of psychoanalytic theory. It was assumed that experienced or not, anxiety will be consequent when a drive is aroused which is perceived as being dangerous, and that the effects of such anxiety can be demonstrated in terms of interference with a complex problem solving task. Ss were exposed to a situation designed to arouse anxiety and their general level of defensiveness was measured. High and low defensive Ss performed differentially in the problem solving situation (anagrams). From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HK66R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experimental reunion of psychoanalytic theory with perceptual vigilance and defense.

"This experiment was designed to test, within the framework of perceptual behavior, two psychoanalytic hypotheses: (a) the unconscious striving for expression of underlying psychosexual impulses (vigilance); and (b) the warding off of these threatening impulses as they begin to approach conscious awareness (defense)." Using Blacky Pictures, the vigilance hypothesis was supported in 11 of the 14 cases tested; the defense hypothesis was supported in 12 of the 14 cases tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

New cytotoxics in the treatment of bronchial cancers

The mammalian defense repertory comprises an array of individual behaviors that are extraordinarily sensitive to relevant features of the threat stimulus and the situation in which it occurs. In parallel with increasing awareness of the specificity and complexity of defensive behaviors and of their potential relevance to psychopathologies (e.g. anxiety, panic, and depression) is an escalating use of natural threat stimuli such as attacking conspecifics or predators in paradigms aimed at evaluating drug effects on defense. A review of the literature on benzodiazepine (BZ) and serotonin (5-HT) effects on conspecific and antipredator defense, including defensive analgesia, indicates that both types of stimuli elicit a wide array of relevant defensive behaviors. These studies suggest specificity of drug effects on particular behaviors, rather than a general alteration of all aspects of defense. However, stimulus variability and possible confounding of effects are a considerable problem with conspecific defense paradigms, while antipredator paradigms utilizing human experimenters as the predator may be difficult to use with the domesticated laboratory animal subjects. In addition, sensitivity to the organization of defensive behaviors and to differences between species in defense patterns is necessary to adequate interpretation of results. Nonetheless, these paradigms have permitted major advancements in analysis of the behavioral defense systems and their sensitive use in drug studies will greatly facilitate an understanding of the physiology of defense.     

A case study in a behavioral analysis of psychotherapy.

A content analysis guided by the points of view of psychoanalytic theory and learning theory was made of the verbalizations from the case history of a 24-year-old male. The content categories utilized were concerned with motivation and defense. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Argument strength, delay of argument, and anxiety in the "conditioning" and "selective learning" of attitudes.

Attitude learning through persuasive communication was studied in 2 experimental situations regarded as being analogous to instrumental conditioning and selective learning, respectively. The communications, which the originally neutral Ss read aloud, included a statement of the opinion to be learned followed by some supporting information (the argument) which did not repeat the opinion statement. Experiment I (2 X 2 factorial, N = 363) results were: speed (1/latency) of agreement with a statement of the opinion was an increasing function of argument strength and drive (MA scale), with argument strength and anxiety combining additively to determine speed of agreement. In Experiment II, 2 separate and unrelated opinions were persuaded for each S (N = 48), and Ss were then required to choose between the 2 opinions in a simultaneous presentation situation. The Ss learned to choose the opinion which was persuaded with the shorter delay of argument (time between opinion statement and argument), and this tendency was inversely related to drive. The results were predicted by a theory of persuasion based on analogies with learning research and Hullian learning theory. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Signal Anxiety, Defense, and the Pleasure Principle.

Freud equivocated between 2 notions of defense: defense as directed against unpleasure and defense as the blocking of the energy or cathectic potential of the drive. This preserved the quantitative-energic-biological model of anxiety in defense in the 2nd theory of anxiety, rather than developing fully the experiential- qualitative-psychological model of anxiety introduced by the structural theory. The pleasure principle and not anxiety supplies the motive for defense. Signal anxiety, as the epitome of unpleasure, is the basic goal of defense and not the drives, ideas, other affects, or the superego. Defending against these is the means of accomplishing that goal. Signal anxiety is an ego function with appraisal, alarm, and defensive phases. There are metapsychological and technical implications of this approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of psychoanalytic merging fantasies in systematic desensitization: A rigorous methodological examination.

L. H. Silverman et al (see record 1974-32983-001) purported to document that the effectiveness of systematic desensitization resides partially in its activation of unconscious merging fantasies. Their procedures, however, suggest the existence of serious threats to the internal, external, and statistical conclusion validity of this contention. Presented is a methodologically rigorous replication and extension of the investigation. 46 bug-phobic women participated in 4 therapy sessions. A variant of desensitization was employed in which viewing verbal stimuli presented subliminally was substituted for muscle relaxation. Ss in 3 treatments viewed stimuli that, according to psychoanalytic theory, should (a) decrease fear and behavioral avoidance, (b) increase anxiety, or (c) have no effect on fear of insects. Contrary to predictions derived from the theory, Ss in all conditions manifested significant improvement on behavioral approach, self-reported distress, and behaviorally rated anxiety, with no differential treatment outcomes being found. Ss' perceptions of therapist attributes and characteristics of therapy also failed to differ as a function of condition. Analyses ruled out such alternative explanations as therapist specificity or instrumentation deficiencies. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress affects the selection of relevant from irrelevant stimuli.

Two experiments were used to examine the effects of stress on latent inhibition (LI; poorer learning with a previously exposed irrelevant stimulus rather than a novel stimulus). In Experiment 1, stress was induced in college students by threatening participants' self-esteem with a difficult number series completion test that was related to intelligence. In Experiment 2, the participants were job seekers who were either informed or not that the LI test was part of the selection process. In both experiments, LI was attenuated in high- as compared with low-stressed participants. The results suggest that stress and/or anxiety impairs the inhibition of irrelevant-preexposed stimuli. Implications for understanding the impaired selective attentional processes in schizophrenia and schizotypy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Success and failure in the behavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsives.

Attempted to construct a model for predicting success and failure in the behavioral treatment (exposure and response prevention) of obsessive-compulsives (N?=?50, mean age 34 yrs). Three sets of variables—demographic, pretreatment level of neurotic symptomatology, and S's responses during exposure sessions—were examined. Seven variables were found to be related to outcome at posttreatment and/or at follow-up: Pretreatment level of depression and of anxiety, reactivity, and habituation of reported anxiety to feared stimuli within- and between-sessions were all found to affect outcome at posttreatment. Posttreatment outcome as well as age at symptom onset were significantly related to maintenance of gains. A model of the interrelationships of these variables was constructed and tested by a path analysis. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental distress and children's problems among single-parent families in China

The coercion model explains reciprocal relationships between parents' and children's adjustment problems, with the mediation of parenting behavior and social relationships. A survey of 301 single parents in Guangzhou, China, was performed to test such a model with reference to parental distress, perceived behavioral problems and anxiety of the eldest child, acceptance of the child, and experienced social pressure and social support. Structural equation modeling demonstrated a good fit of the coercion model as a theoretically based and simplified representation of the relationships, supporting the hypotheses that (a) the parent's acceptance helps prevent the child's behavioral problems, (b) the child's behavioral problems and anxiety contribute to the parent's distress, (c) the child's behavioral problems and anxiety invite social pressure on the parent, (d) social pressure on the parent aggravates and social support for the parent attenuates the parent's distress, (e) social pressure on and social support for the parent facilitate the parent's acceptance of his or her child. However, the effect of parental distress on acceptance of the child was not significant.     

Some verbal aspects of primary process thought in schizophrenia.

"On the basis of the psychoanalytic concept of primary process, it was predicted that schizophrenics would show a greater tendency than normals to treat both antonyms and homonyms as synonyms. The instrument used was a multiple-choice paper-and-pencil test. Each item required the subject to select a synonym from among three alternatives, a synonym, either an antonym or a homonym, and a third word which was neither… . The schizophrenics exceeded the normal subjects on this corrected score for both the antonym task and the homonym task. A possible non-Freudian interpretation of the data in terms of learning theory generalization is discussed." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3JQ55B. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Automaticity of Visual Statistical Learning.

The visual environment contains massive amounts of information involving the relations between objects in space and time, and recent studies of visual statistical learning (VSL) have suggested that this information can be automatically extracted by the visual system. The experiments reported in this article explore the automaticity of VSL in several ways, using both explicit familiarity and implicit response-time measures. The results demonstrate that (a) the input to VSL is gated by selective attention, (b) VSL is nevertheless an implicit process because it operates during a cover task and without awareness of the underlying statistical patterns, and (c) VSL constructs abstracted representations that are then invariant to changes in extraneous surface features. These results fuel the conclusion that VSL both is and is not automatic: It requires attention to select the relevant population of stimuli, but the resulting learning then occurs without intent or awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of psychoanalytic and a client-centered group treatment model on measures of anxiety and self-actualization.

30 volunteer graduate counseling students were randomly assigned by sex to 1 of 4 treatment groups involved in either a psychoanalytic or a client-centered group treatment model. One male and 1 female group leader led 1 group in each model. All groups met for 2 4.5-hr sessions on consecutive Saturdays or Sundays. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory was administered toward the end of the 1st day. The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) was used to measure self-actualization before, immediately after, and 1 mo following treatment. Data were analyzed on 19 Ss who completed both days of treatment. Significant differences were found between treatment models in levels of group anxiety and in gains in self-actualization. The psychoanalytic groups reported higher anxiety, and the client-centered groups showed greater initial gains on the POI and maintained these gains at follow-up. Sex of leader was not a major source of difference between group treatment models. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer Effects and Conditional Learning in Rats With Selective Lesions of Medial Septal/Diagonal Band Cholinergic Neurons.

The authors examined visual-spatial conditional learning with automated touchscreen tasks in male Long-Evans rats with selective lesions of medial septal/vertical limb of diagonal band (MS/VDB) cholinergic neurons produced by 192 IgG-saporin. Performance on a conditional task, in which 1 of 2 centrally displayed stimuli directed the rat to respond to an illuminated panel on the left or right, depended on training history: Control rats with experience on other visual tasks performed better than MS/VDB-lesioned rats with similar training histories, whereas this effect was reversed in naive rats. This difference appears to reflect transfer effects present in the control rats that are absent in the MS/VDB-lesioned rats. These findings may suggest that MS/VDB cholinergic neurons play a particular role in the transfer of behavioral experience and flexibility of application of behavioral rules in memory, rather than a role in conditional learning per se. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychodynamics of obesity: A review.

The psychoanalytic model of obesity continues to be controversial among research-oriented theorists. Although empirical tests of the psychoanalytic model initially yielded many failures to support the role of affect in overeating, recent experimental data confirm the centrality of this dynamic. Clinical and experimental evidence supporting the psychodynamic model of obesity is reviewed. Research suggests that overeating is used in an attempt to control overwhelming internal anxiety states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social learning theory and developmental psychology: The legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura.

Social learning theory began as an attempt by R. Sears and others to meld psychoanalytic and stimulus–response learning theory into a comprehensive explanation of human behavior, drawing on the clinical richness of the former and the rigor of the latter. A. Bandura abandoned the psychoanalytic and drive features of the approach, emphasizing instead cognitive and information-processing capacities that mediate social behavior. Both theories were intended as a general framework for the understanding of human behavior, and their developmental aspects remain to be worked out in detail. Nevertheless, Bandura has provided a strong theoretical beginning: The theory appears to be capable of accounting well for existing developmental data as well as guiding new investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrative treatment of symptomatic disorders.

Symptomatic disorders such as substance abuse, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety states can cause significant life impairment in patients. The author proposed that an optimally responsive, analytically oriented treatment for an individual with symptomatic distress may involve the use of active symptom-focused techniques. Reduction of symptomatic problems strengthens the self and facilitates deeper levels of self-exploration and therapeutic involvement. Techniques originating in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral orientations may be implemented in an analytically informed treatment and adapted accordingly. Current psychoanalytic models such as self psychology and some other relational approaches that emphasize the importance of empathic appreciation of a patient's perspective and optimal responsiveness to the individual can encompass such an integrative approach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modified induced anxiety: A generalized anxiety reduction procedure.

A 25-yr-old male suffering from pervasive anxiety was treated with a modified induced anxiety procedure which attempted to focus the patient's awareness on the proprioceptive and somatic cues to anxiety, devoid of their situational context. A multiple-baseline design across 3 anxiety levels was used to demonstrate functional control over the problem behavior. Results indicate that as modified induced anxiety was sequentially applied to anxiety levels, there was a corresponding decline in self-monitored anxiety at the targeted level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)