Effects of behavioral, cognitive, and combined treatments for assertion as a function of differential deficits.

Investigated the interaction of demonstrated knowledge of assertive behavior with treatments for nonassertive behavior to help clarify the interaction of deficits with treatments. 88 female undergraduates were classified as low or high on knowledge of assertive behavior and randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: behavioral rehearsal, cognitive self-statement, combined behavioral rehearsal/cognitive self-statement, and a waiting-list control group. Multiple measures were administered over time (e.g., Conflict Resolution Inventory). Results support the effectiveness of each treatment and the stability of treatment effect over a long-term follow-up but failed to support a differential treatment approach to assertion based on demonstrated knowledge. Behavioral and cognitive treatments seemed to have the greatest effect on measures that were similar to the treatment focus, but also registered effects on measures similar to the other treatment. Treatment groups had significantly higher self-efficacy scores than the controls, and self-efficacy correlated significantly with many dependent variables. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential outcome from automated assertion training as a function of locus of control.

72 low-assertive (Conflict Resolution Inventory) college students, classified as either internal or external in locus of control (Rotter's Internal–External Locus of Control Scale), participated in an analog therapy outcome study that assessed whether Ss' locus of control orientations would differentially affect their reactions to an automated assertiveness training procedure. Results indicate that as a group, treatment Ss improved more on all self-report and behavioral measures than either placebo or no-treatment control Ss. As predicted, however, externals in the treatment condition showed significantly greater generalization of the treatment effects to untrained social-skills assessment items than did their internal counterparts. Internals in the treatment condition actually failed to improve on these items relative to the performance of internals in the placebo and no-treatment control conditions. Data also support the predictions that internals in the treatment condition would perceive treatment as taking too much control away from them and would feel more uncomfortable in treatment sessions than externals. Data are interpreted as generally confirming the importance of accounting for the role of patient variables in therapy outcome research. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and behavioral targets in a self-control therapy program for depression.

One-hundred-four women who met Research Diagnostic Criteria for nonpsychotic, nonbipolar Major Affective Disorder were treated in 21 therapy groups for 10 weekly 1? hr sessions. Three versions of the self-control therapy program for depression, one with a behavioral target, one with a cognitive target, and one with a combined target, were used to treat 7 groups each. All conditions improved significantly and equally on self-report and clinician rating scales of depression. All conditions improved equally on measures of both behavioral and cognitive target variables, and initial level on these variables was not related to outcome. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential cognitive response to a mood challenge following successful cognitive therapy or pharmacotherapy for unipolar depression.

This study examined the nature of cognitive reactivity to mood changes in formerly depressed patients. Patients who recovered either through cognitive–behavior therapy (CBT; N?=?25) or through pharmacotherapy (PT; N?=?29) completed self-reported ratings of dysfunctional attitudes before and after a a negative mood induction procedure. In response to similar levels of induced sad mood, PT patients showed a significant increase in dysfunctional cognitions compared with patients in the CBT group. To evaluate the effects of such cognitive reactivity on the subsequent course of depression, follow-up analyses reassessed 30 patients several years after initial testing. Results indicated that patients' reactions to the mood induction procedure were predictive of depressive relapse. These findings argue for differential effects of treatment on cognitive reactivity to mood induction and for the link between such reactivity and risk for later depressive relapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two procedures for relaxation as self-control in the treatment of communication apprehension.

An in vivo procedure for relaxation as self-control, and a procedure for self-control modification of desensitization (modified desensitization) were compared to a no-treatment control. Ss were 34 female and 4 male undergraduates. Effectiveness was gauged by the reduction of (a) the targeted anxiety (communication apprehension) and (b) the nontargeted fear of negative evaluation and assertiveness. Results show that modified desensitization, compared to the control, significantly decreased communication anxiety and fear of negative evaluation and significantly increased assertiveness. Relaxation as self-control led to significantly decreased communication apprehension, significantly increased assertiveness, and nearly significant reduction in fear of negative evaluation ( p     

Assertiveness, territoriality, and personal space behavior as a function of group assertion training.

42 18-40 yr old females who requested services from a university counseling center were employed to examine changes in assertiveness, territoriality, and personal space as a function of group assertion training. Ss were assigned to either a treatment (assertion training) group or to a control (waiting list) group. The following outcomes were hypothesized: (a) Ss who participated in the assertion training treatment program would increase their assertive behavior significantly more than controls. (b) Treatment Ss would exhibit smaller personal space zones than would controls. (c) Treatment Ss would use more space on a drawing task than would controls. Data collected from a battery of measures, including the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule, the College Self-Expression Scale, and the Assertive Behavior Situation Test, provided strong support for the 1st and 3rd hypothesis and partial support for the 2nd hypothesis. Implications of the findings for counseling and for the use of ethological constructs are discussed. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in cognitive diathesis-stress domain match: Implications for differential pathways to depression.

The frequency of cognitive diathesis-stress match was compared in a sample of depressed women and men to investigate hypotheses positing gender differences in the relation of cognitive diathesis-stress factors to depression. Depressed women were more likely to have experienced a match between a cognitive diathesis and a preonset negative stressor compared with depressed men. Comparisons of women and men on the cognitive and stress variables singly yielded differences in stress variables but not in cognitive variables. Depressed women were more likely to have experienced a negative severe event before the onset of depression and had a greater frequency of negative interpersonal events. Results supported the hypothesis of gender differences in pathways to depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-complexity as a cognitive buffer against stress-related illness and depression.

This prospective study tested the self-complexity buffering hypothesis that greater self-complexity moderates the adverse impact of stress on depression and illness. This hypothesis follows from a model that assumes self-knowledge is represented in terms of multiple self-aspects. As defined in this model, greater self-complexity involves representing the self in terms of a greater number of cognitive self-aspects and maintaining greater distinctions among self-aspects. Subjects completed measures of stressful events, self-complexity, depression, and illness in two sessions separated by 2 weeks. A multiple regression analysis used depression and illness at Time 2 as outcomes, stressful life events and self-complexity at Time 1 as predictors, and drepression and illness at Time 1 as control variables. The Stress?×?Self-Complexity interaction provided strong support for the buffering hypothesis. Subjects higher in self-complexity were less prone to depression, perceived stress, physical symptoms, and occurrence of the flu and other illnesses following high levels of stressful events. These results suggest that vulnerability to stress-related depression and illness is due, in part, to differences in cognitive representations of the self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic cognitive deficit as a function of scoring standards.

Describes 3 experiments in which the responses of normal Ss (mostly prison inmates and firefighters) and of schizophrenics to the Stanford Binet Test Vocabulary items, the WAIS Vocabulary items, and the WAIS Similarities items were scored by 2 methods, one relatively strict and the other relatively lenient. Subtests of strictly and leniently scored items from each of the 3 sources were matched for normal Ss on psychometric characteristics that determine power of the test to distinguish the more able from the less able Ss. A greater deficit on the strictly scored than on the leniently scored items was found for chronic schizophrenics on the Stanford-Binet Vocabulary, for newly admitted schizophrenics but not for chronic schizophrenics on the WAIS Vocabulary, and for neither group on the WAIS Similarities. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client interpersonal and cognitive styles as predictors of response to time-limited cognitive therapy for depression.

This study examined the relationship between cognitive and interpersonal styles and outcome among 24 clients who received time-limited cognitive therapy for depression. The authors hypothesized that this relationship would be mediated by therapeutic alliance. They found that clients' interpersonal style, particularly an underinvolved style, was predictive of treatment outcome. As predicted, the impact of this style on outcome was mediated through the therapeutic alliance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Participant modeling with or without cognitive treatment for phobias.

To determine whether cognitive treatment would enhance the effectiveness of participant modeling (PM) treatment for phobias, 36 subjects phobic to dogs and cats were given either PM alone, PM with self-instructional training, PM with self-verbalizations ("thinking aloud"), or placebo treatment. The three PM treatments produced substantial and equivalent improvement in behavior at posttest, in contrast to the placebo group, which did not change. At follow-up, the combined PM/self instructional training group showed more phobic behavior and lower self-efficacy than the other PM groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resistance to cognitive interference as a function of MMPI profile.

Scored undergraduates for resistance to interference according to their results on the Stroop Color-Word Test and then classified the Ss into 3 groups on the basis of their MMPI profiles. Results of analyses support the hypothesis that resistance to interference, as measured by the Stroop Test, is related to psychopathology and indicate that behavioral tests can be of use to the clinician in understanding and predicting behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative endurance of unipolar depression treatment effects: Longitudinal follow-up.

This study represents a 2.25-year follow-up to a treatment study reported earlier (P. D. McLean & A. R. Hakstian, [see PA, Vol 63:1360]) in which 121 unipolar depressed outpatients were treated by either (a) nondirective psychotherapy, (b) behavior therapy, (c) pharmacotherapy, or (d) relaxation therapy. A nondepressed, normal control group was evaluated on the same 28 measures and 6 intervals for contrast purposes. Behavior therapy patients alone were significantly improved in the areas of mood, personal productivity, and social activity, relative to treatment control patients over the follow-up period. Also, twice as many behavior therapy patients (i.e., 64%) fell within one standard deviation of the normal, nondepressed control group distribution on depressed mood, compared with nondirective psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy patients, when scores were aggregated across the 6 assessment points. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discontinuities and cognitive changes in an exposure-based cognitive therapy for depression.

Significant shifts or discontinuities in symptom course can mark points of transition and reveal important change processes. The authors investigated 2 patterns of change in depression-the rapid early response and a transient period of apparent worsening that the authors call a depression spike. Participants were 29 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder who enrolled in an open trial of an exposure-based cognitive therapy. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed an overall cubic shape of symptom change and that both the rapid response and spike patterns predicted lower posttreatment depression. Patients wrote weekly narratives about their depression. Early narratives of rapid responders were coded as having more hope than those of nonrapid responders. The narratives of patients with a depression spike had more cognitive-emotional processing during this period of arousal than those without a spike. Findings are discussed in the context of cognitive-emotional processing theories in depression and anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The check list as a criterion of proficiency.

Four typical tasks were administered to a sample of 15 naval aviation structural mechanics, whose performances in process were rated on specially-constructed check lists by one or more examiners. The end-products were then independently ranked in over-all quality from best to worst by five experts. The median correlation (rho) between pairs of expert rankings was .89 and .95 for two of the tasks, and .29 and .37 for the other two. Three of the four median correlations between rankings of the end products were not significantly different from the correlations of the expert rankings with rankings of the scores obtained from the check lists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modification of less differentiating cognitive structure as a function of feedback.

Tested the hypothesis that the perceptual judgments and cognitive structure of less differentiating persons could be modified by validation of social perception. Two groups of 12 paid undergraduates each observed 9 films of structured interviews and completed questionnaires that examined various aspects of the interviewee after 1st exposure to each film. One group received structured feedback on their responses after the 1st exposure before seeing the films for a 2nd time. A 2nd group reviewed their responses without the benefit of feedback before proceeding to the 2nd exposure. On an independent measure of accuracy of interpersonal perceptions the structured feedback group obtained significantly higher scores following the experimental procedure. No significant difference was obtained between the groups on a measure of change in differentiation of interpersonal perception, nor did the groups differ significantly from a no-treatment control group. (French summary) (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thought stopping and covert assertion in the treatment of phobias.

Discusses thought stopping as a technique for treating obsessive thoughts through anxiety reduction. 6 typical cases are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vulnerability to depression as a function of parental rejection and control.

Investigated the relationship between depression proneness in 46 male and 49 female undergraduates and the amount of care and overprotection they perceived from their parents during childhood. Ss completed a test battery that included the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Fear Survey Schedule. For sons, depression proneness was associated with perceptions of a cold, rejecting father. For daughters, depression proneness was associated with perceptions of an intrusive and controlling mother. The pattern of correlations between parenting practices and depression proneness differed substantially from that observed between parenting practices and fearfulness, suggesting that perceptions of parental rejection and control are not characteristic of psychopathology in general, but can lead to the development of a depression-prone personality. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of cognitive therapy and behavior therapy in the treatment of depression.

Evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of A. T. Beck's cognitive treatment and P. M. Lewinsohn's behavioral treatment of depression. A multiple criteria (self-report, objective, and subjective clinical ratings) approach was used in the selection of 8 college students each for the following groups: cognitive modification, behavior modification, an attention/assessment (nondirective), and waiting list. Eight 2-hr group sessions were held over 4 wks. The cognitive modification group was the most effective in alleviating depression as measured by self-report and the objective clinical rating. Cognitive modification resulted in significantly fewer depressive symptoms after treatment than all other groups. The behavior modification and nondirective procedures were more effective than no treatment based on the self-report data. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)