Minority students' self-control of procrastination.

Examined the effects of self-monitoring alone and self-monitoring plus self-reward on 3 academic and 3 related procrastinative behaviors of 6 academically disadvantaged minority undergraduates. It was hypothesized that self-monitoring plus self-reward would increase academic behaviors and decrease related procrastinating behaviors. It was also predicted that self-monitoring alone would not be as effective as with reward. A 3rd hypothesis was that Ss would be able to maintain multiple self-reward contracts simultaneously. Research assistants recorded academic, procrastinative, and percentage of initial contract maintenance behaviors. Results indicate that Ss self-monitored consistently and accurately and self-rewarded frequently the occurrences of their academic behaviors. Self-monitoring alone did not reduce academic or procrastinative behaviors. Self-monitoring plus self-reward was effective in producing substantial increases in academic behaviors and grades and in producing decreases in related procrastinative behaviors. Ss were able to initiate sequential multiple self-reward contracts and to continue these self-reward contracts simultaneously. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Active and placebo effects in treatment of moderate and severe insomnia.

Examined the efficacy of relaxation training and a highly credible placebo in the treatment of both severe and moderate sleep onset insomnia. The placebo treatment was designed to elicit an expectation for improvement comparable with that of relaxation training. Expectancy of improvement was further controlled by informing Ss to expect improvement only after the 3rd wk of therapy, thus allowing comparisons of the treatments to be made during the counterdemand period (1st 3 wks) and the positive demand period (4th wk and beyond). Responses of 30 18–76 yr old severe and moderate insomniacs were similar across treatment conditions, over weeks, and in response to the counterdemand/positive demand manipulation. Only Ss trained in relaxation techniques improved significantly during the counterdemand period. The active treatment was significantly more effective than the placebo in reducing sleep onset latency during the counterdemand period. After the introduction of positive expectancy of therapy outcome, relaxation was no longer superior to placebo. Findings are discussed in terms of the methodological difficulties inherent in controlling for S expectancy of therapeutic effects in treatment studies of insomnia. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of blood glucose levels in chronically ill Type 2 diabetics by brief biofeedback-assisted relaxation training.

21 chronically ill Type 2 diabetics with multiple symptomatology and poor prognosis, who had been admitted to a rehabilitation hospital, were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment conditions: (1) biofeedback-relaxation (BR), (2) nondirective patient-centered insight therapy (IT), or (3) no-treatment control (NT). Results indicate that BR was effective in reducing Ss' intra-session blood glucose levels. IT and NT (simple feedback of blood glucose levels) were not generally effective in reducing these levels, although much variability occurred. Decreases in blood glucose were noted in IT Ss depending on whether they reported reduction in anxiety by talking about their problems. By the 3rd weekly session, IT Ss were not different than BR Ss in blood glucose reduction. A suggestion of inter-session generalization occurred in BR Ss. All 8 Ss who completed questionnaires at 3-mo follow-up reported that they had their diabetes under control. It is suggested that behavioral techniques that affect emotional states may be useful adjuncts to the medical management of Type 2 diabetes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes of academic clinical psychologists toward projective techniques: 1968–1983.

Replicated a survey by the 3rd author et al (see record 1968-18843-001) concerning the attitudes of academic clinical faculty toward projective techniques. The questionnaire was completed by 153 faculty in American Psychological Association (APA)-approved programs in clinical psychology. As was found in the 1968 survey, many Ss supported instruction in projectives, but they held generally negative attitudes toward projectives. More of the 1983 Ss than the 1968 Ss expressed negative attitudes toward specific projectives such as the Rorschach. Negative attitudes toward projectives were particularly prominent among the younger Ss in the 1983 survey. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-reinforcement: A continuum of external cues.

Investigated the role of external influences in children's self-regulatory behavior under stringent-demand (SD) and lenient-demand (LD) conditions. The abilities of the SD condition (in the form of stringent instructional sets and criterion setting), the LD condition (in which lenient instructions were provided), and a control condition to maintain 33 male and 29 female 3rd and 4th graders' performance on an arithmetic task were examined. Following 5 trials in which Ss self-administered prizes, all Ss in the SD group performed significantly better, during both the incentive and the extinction conditions, on all 3 dependent variables than did Ss in both the LD and control groups. Factors contributing to the differential performances of Ss under the LD and SD conditions are discussed in light of the self-reinforcement literature. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of public and private self-consciousness on the public expression of personal beliefs.

Examined the joint effects of private and public self-consciousness (SC) on attitudinal consistency. 113 male undergraduates (categorized as high and low private and high and low public SC) reported their own attitudes toward punishment. Later, each S was asked to write an essay in which he restated his attitude. Immediately prior to writing the essay, S learned that he would also be discussing his opinion with either a partner who held an attitude opposite to his own or a partner whose attitude was unknown. As predicted, the attitudes expressed in the essays of high public SC Ss were more moderate than those expressed by low public SC Ss. One effect of this moderation strategy was to lower the correlation between privately held and publicly expressed beliefs among Ss high in public SC. In contrast, attitudinal consistency was substantial among Ss who were low in public and high in private SC. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's use of dispositions to predict classmates' behavior.

Kindergartners, 3rd, and 6th graders chose classmates whom they would and would not like to have on their team for an academic contest and as playmates. Ss also rated their classmates on likableness and academic ability. At all ages, children's choices for the academic competition and the play situation were significantly associated with their ratings of their classmates' academic and social competence, respectively. Ss typically referred to academic abilities to explain their teammate choices for the academic contest and to social competence or friendship to explain playmate choices. Questions about the stability of classmates' academic and social competencies revealed that not until 6th grade did Ss indicate that there are limits in the degree to which academic and social competencies could improve with effort. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood competence and depression.

Examined whether children with both academic and social skill deficiencies have higher levels of peer-nominated and self-ratings of depression than their more competent peers and whether depression levels can distinguish academically skilled children from socially skilled ones. Objective measures of academic and social competence classified 169 3rd–6th grade children as competent (above the median on both measures), incompetent (below on both), academically skilled (above only on academic competence), or socially skilled (above only on social competence). Children completed the Perceived Competence Scale for Children, Children's Depression Inventory, and a peer nomination inventory of depression. Results demonstrate information about academic and social competence best predicted Ss' depression. Peer-nominated and self-rated depression were highest among incompetent Ss and lowest among competent Ss. Peer-nominated happiness was higher among the socially skilled than among the academically skilled. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multimethod comparison of popular and unpopular children.

Differences between 101 popular and unpopular 3rd and 4th graders were assessed by teacher reports, classroom observations, the Peabody Individual Achievement Test, the Children's Depression Inventory, ratings on role-play situations, interviews that elicited information on Ss' knowledge of social skills, and responses to hypothetical situations. Unpopular Ss were perceived as being more depressed and deviant by teachers than were popular Ss. Classroom observations indicated that unpopular Ss spent significantly less time on-task than popular Ss and engaged in significantly more negative interactions. There was a trend for popular Ss to perform at a higher academic level than unpopular Ss, and the latter Ss were more depressed than Ss in the former group. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of relaxation as an active coping skill.

Notes that the status of relaxation training as an effective treatment procedure is unclear. A possible reason for inconsistent findings may be the way in which the training procedure is presented, or at least the way in which the S or client may construe it. The present study with 27 speech-anxious college students used public-speaking anxiety as the target behavior and presented relaxation training in 2 ways. In Condition 1, Ss were told that the relaxation exercises would more or less automatically reduce their anxiety level. In Condition 2, relaxation was presented within a self-control context in which Ss were told that they were learning an active coping skill. A 3rd condition involved group discussion and was included as a means of controlling for attention-placebo factors. On a variety of different measures, within-group changes consistently favored the self-control relaxation condition. This was true of the speech anxiety measures as well as indicators of anxiety in other types of situations. The finding that Ss in the self-control relaxation condition continued to improve even after termination was interpreted as being consistent with a view of self-control that involves a learned skill which improves with repeated practice. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Shavelson Model revisited: Testing for the structure of academic self-concept across pre-, early, and late adolescents.

Focusing on the academic component of the Shavelson Model, the purposes of the study were fourfold: (a) to test for the multidimensionality of academic self-concept (SC); (b) to test that academic SC is hierarchically structured; (c) to test that predictive influence flows upward from actual behavior (e.g., academic performance) at the base of the model to general SC at its apex; and (d) to investigate the extent to which academic SC demonstrates increasing differentiation with age. Based on the analysis of covariance structures, and using data from 3rd, 7th, and 11th graders, findings (a) substantiated the multidimensionality of academic SC but yielded no support for increasing differentiation across age, (b) determined minor deterioration of hierarchical structure for early and late adolescents but demonstrated no pattern of progressive weakening structure across age, and (c) revealed direction of predictive flow, whether from academic achievement to general SC, or the reverse, to yield equally well-fitting models for each age group. Questions bearing on academic SC structure across age are addressed, and implications for the reliability of teacher ratings of academic performance are raised. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of autonomic arousal in alcoholics: A comparison of relaxation and meditation techniques.

Investigated and compared the effects of progressive relaxation training and meditation training on autonomic arousal in alcoholics with 30 Ss (mean age, 45.1 yrs) who were selected from a hospital substance-abuse program. The Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of the following 3 experimental conditions: (a) progressive relaxation training group, (b) meditation training group, or (c) quiet rest control group. All groups met for 3 wks during which state anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), blood pressure, heart rate, and spontaneous GSRs were measured. The measures were designed to assess the treatment effects following the 1st training session and at the end of the total training period. Results indicate that both progressive relaxation training and medication training are useful for reducing blood pressure in alcoholics. In addition, significant differences between the groups in the effectiveness of the relaxation procedures were found. Meditation training induced blood pressure decreases at an earlier point in the 3-wk training period and affected decreases in systolic blood pressure that progressive relaxation training did not. Results support the idea of considerable specificity of response to relaxation techniques. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An aptitude?×?strategy interaction in linear syllogistic reasoning.

Results of a study with 144 graduate and undergraduate students support the hypothesis that the efficiency of each of 4 alternative strategies for solving linear syllogisms—problems such as "John is taller than Bill; Bill is taller than Pete; who is tallest?"—would depend on Ss' patterns of verbal and spatial abilities. The research also had 3 subsidiary goals. The 1st was to determine whether it is possible to train Ss to use various classes of strategies for solving linear syllogisms; it was found that such training is possible. The 2nd goal was to compare the average efficiencies of 4 alternative strategies adopted spontaneously by Ss. It was found that one strategy (used spontaneously by only a small number of Ss but easily trainable) is more efficient than the alternative strategies that Ss seem to use spontaneously. The 3rd was to provide a series of converging operations for testing the validity of one particular account of linear syllogistic reasoning—a spatial–linguistic mixture model—for Ss receiving no explicit instruction in the solution of linear syllogisms. The validity of this model for the untrained Ss was supported. It is concluded that componential analysis (a series of conceptual and methodological techniques for investigating intelligent performance) can provide a useful means for studying interactions between aptitudes and experimental treatments. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transcendental meditation and creativity: An empirical investigation.

A claimed benefit of transcendental meditation is increased creativity, although the literature neither supports nor negates such a claim. Four groups of 35 Ss each were administered a battery of 5 creativity measures (the Remote Associates Test, Adjective Check List Creativity Scale, Barron-Welsh Revised Art Scale, Franck Drawing Completion Test, and Similies Test), both before and after a 6-mo period. One group was enrolled in a transcendental meditation program; a 2nd group participated in a relaxation–response program; a 3rd group practiced, within a psychology of creativity course, a variety of creativity-enhancing techniques; the 4th group underwent no special treatment. Only the psychology of creativity group showed significant pre–post increases on 4 of the 5 measures, with no changes for the other 3 groups. The claim that meditation leads to increased creativity is not supported. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective individual differences and startle reflex modulation.

Potentiation of startle has been demonstrated in experimentally produced aversive emotional states, and clinical reports suggest that potentiated startle may be associated with fear or anxiety. To test the generalizability of startle potentiation across a variety of emotional states as well as its sensitivity to individual differences in fearfulness, the acoustic startle response of 17 high- and 15 low-fear adult Ss was assessed during fear, anger, joy, sadness, pleasant relaxation, and neutral imagery. Startle responses were larger in all aversive affective states than during pleasant imagery. This effect was enhanced among high fear Ss, although follow-up testing indicated that other affective individual differences (depression and anger) may also be related to increased potentiation of startle in negative affect. Startle latency was reduced during high- rather than low-arousal imagery but was unaffected by emotional valence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's concurrent use of rehearsal and organizational strategies.

This study examined whether children could benefit from the simultaneous use of two mnemonic strategies. In Experiment 1, 3rd and 6th graders were taught to use the rehearsal and organizational strategies of same- or different-aged peers. At both ages, Ss who used developmentally advanced techniques recalled more than those who sorted and rehearsed like younger children; moreover, use of both efficient strategies together increased recall additively. In Experiment 2, 3rd graders rehearsed in any way they wished while learning taxonomically related or unrelated items. With each type of materials, 4 groups differed in whether the items were left visible, in whether Ss were asked to sort, and, if so, in whether they were instructed to sort to "help them remember" or on the basis of meaning. Those Ss instructed to sort showed higher recall and more active rehearsal, regardless of type of sort instructions or items. Thus, the use of one strategy may elicit effective use of another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feasibility and effectiveness of school-based relaxation in lowering blood pressure.

Evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of wide-scale progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) instruction as a public-health promotion strategy aimed at adolescents. 1,400 students in Grades 9 and 10 at 2 large public high schools underwent blood pressure (BP) screening; Ss with BP persistently above the 85th percentile were randomly assigned to (a) 12 wks daily PMR instruction provided in class for academic credit or (b) a control condition. Results demonstrate that 51 treatment Ss enjoyed daily PMR, mastered the technique, and achieved reduced systolic BP at posttest relative to the 59 untrained controls. At follow-up 4 mo later, group BP differences were not significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of their own and their classmates' ability.

64 children in kindergarten through 3rd grade rated their own and their classmates' "smartness" and nominated classmates who were the best and worst at specific tasks and the best and worst thinkers in the classroom. These ratings were then compared to 12 teachers' classification of the Ss as low or high achievers. Only the 2nd and 3rd graders' ratings of their own ability reflected their teachers' ratings and were correlated to classmates' ratings of their ability. At all grade levels, Ss' ratings of their classmates reflected teachers' ratings of the academic status of the child being rated. Responses to open-ended questions concerning the criteria Ss used in evaluating their own smartness revealed that older Ss most often provided examples of their performance on specific tasks to justify their self-ratings, whereas younger Ss most frequently explained their self-ratings on the basis of their work habits (e.g., following directions). Work habits were also given as the most common explanation for peer smartness ratings. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contrasting effects of lateral striate and superior colliculus lesions on visual discrimination performance in rhesus monkeys.

Tested 3 rhesus monkeys with lesions of lateral striate cortex (LSC), 4 monkeys with superior colliculus (SC) lesions, and 3 unoperated monkeys for retention of a preoperatively acquired pattern discrimination. The 3 groups of monkeys were then tested in 2-choice, color discrimination tests, 1 involving varying degrees of stimulus–response (S–R) separation and the other, administered several months later, involving various directions of S–R separation. Ss were also tested in a series of 2-choice pattern discriminations, following each of which they were tested for relearning when the patterns were masked with bars or circles. LSC lesioned Ss were moderately retarded in retention of the pattern discrimination, whereas those with SC lesions were not. SC lesioned Ss, but not those with LSC lesions, were impaired in both S–R separation tests, which demonstrates that their deficit was not transient or solely due to a difficulty in shifting the gaze in 1 direction. The LSC Ss, unlike those with SC lesions, were deficient in relearning discriminations between masked patterns. Findings suggest that SC and LSC may be involved in 2 different aspects of attention, respectively: shifting attention (and orientation) from 1 spatial locus to another and maintaining attention on fixated stimuli. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)