Verbal response mode correlates of experiencing.

This study, one in a series seeking indices of good psychotherapy process in the client's verbal behavior, compared specific verbal response mode (VRM) indices with the more global Experiencing (EXP) Scale, a measure reported to correlate with positive psychotherapy outcome. W. B. Stiles's (1978, 1979) VRM taxonomy was used to code the 90 transcribed interview segments published in the EXP manual. As predicted, the strongest VRM correlate of EXP level was the percentage of utterances that were Disclosure in form (1st person; "I") and intent (revealing subjective experience). Results suggest that good process may be measurable on an utterance-by-utterance basis. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive skill and traditional trance hypnotic inductions: A within-subjects comparison.

Comparison of a traditional trance hypnotic induction and a cognitive skill induction in a within-Ss design with 40 undergraduates showed that the cognitive skill induction enhanced subjective responses to suggestions and produced significant increments in behavioral responses when it was preceded by the trance induction. The trance procedure led to greater self-reported alterations in consciousness. Findings suggest that skill induction teaches cognitive strategies that enhance responsivity to suggestions in subsequent hypnotic experiences, independent of alterations in consciousness elicited by trance induction. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acceleration of changes in session impact during contrasting time-limited psychotherapies.

Following the suggestion that therapeutic change is accelerated in time-limited psychotherapy, this study investigated the across-session patterns of session impact in the treatments of 117 depressed clients who were randomly allocated to 8 or 16 sessions of cognitive-behavioral (CB) or psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) therapy. After each session, all clients completed the Session Evaluation Questionnaire and 75 of the clients completed the Session Impacts Scale. Session ratings indicated that sessions were perceived increasingly positively on most impact dimensions (e.g., session depth and smoothness, relationship with the therapist, feelings of understanding and problem solving, postsession positive mood) as treatment progressed. Early in treatment, PI therapy sessions were less smooth (i.e., more tense and uncomfortable) and less focused on problem solving, but PI sessions changed more rapidly than CB sessions on these dimensions, so that later in treatment, sessions of both treatments were equivalently positive. In both treatments, the trend toward more positive sessions was more rapid (i.e., the across-session slope was steeper) in 8-session treatments than in 16 session treatments. Such accelerated changes in session impact may reflect the suggested acceleration … (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caffeine self-administration in humans: 2. A within-subjects comparison of coffee and cola vehicles.

The reinforcing effects of caffeine ingested in coffee versus cola were studied. Eleven participants who drank both coffee and cola (3–10 cups of coffee and 1–6 cans of cola daily; M?=?632 mg caffeine/day) were tested in 4 conditions: cola at 33 mg/serving (the usual dose), coffee at 33 mg/serving, cola at 100 mg/serving, and coffee at 100 mg/serving (the usual dose). Each condition consisted of 6 double-blind weekly trials. In each trial, participants sampled caffeinated and noncaffeinated beverages and then had concurrent access to the 2 beverages. Relative use of these beverages was used to assess caffeine reinforcement. Across the 4 conditions (24 weeks), reliable caffeine reinforcement occurred in 5 participants (45%). Caffeine reinforcement did not differ as a function of vehicle or serving dose, and no vehicle-dose interactions were found. With both cola and coffee at the commonly used doses, self-reported motivation to work was greater and drowsiness and laziness smaller with caffeinated than noncaffeinated beverages. Results indicate that, among users of both coffee and cola, caffeine self-administration and subjective effects occur with both vehicles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of Cluster C personality disorders on outcomes of contrasting brief psychotherapies for depression.

Twenty-seven of 114 depressed clients, stratified for severity of depression, obtained a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed.; DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) diagnosis of Cluster C personality disorder, that is, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive or dependent personality disorder (PD clients), whereas the remaining 87 did not (non-personality-disorder [NPD] clients). All clients completed either 8 or 16 sessions of cognitive-behavioral (CB) or psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) psychotherapy. On most measures, PD clients began with more severe symptomatology than NPD clients. Among those who received PI therapy, PD clients maintained this difference posttreatment and at 1-year follow-up. Among those who received CB therapy, posttreatment differences between PD and NPD groups were not significant. Treatment length did not influence outcome for PD clients. PD clients whose depression was also relatively severe showed significantly less improvement after treatment than either PD clients with less severe depression or NPD clients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapeutic impact: A nonspecific major factor in directive psychotherapies.

Defines therapeutic impact as the capacity to overcome a client's inattention toward therapeutic messages and discusses how it counteracts the passive ways by which the effectiveness of directive psychotherapy may be reduced. To achieve impact, the therapist must obtain the client's attention and keep reactivity to messages at a high level. Factors that enhance impact are similar to those that produce a good orienting response and prevent habituation. The use of surprise and an integrative strategy for building impact are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of family and marital psychotherapies: A meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis of 163 randomized trials (including 59 dissertations) examines a number of questions not studied in previous syntheses. These include differences in outcome associated with different theoretical orientations, differences between marital and family therapies versus individual therapies, the clinical significance of therapy outcome, differences between marital versus family therapies in both outcomes and problems treated, and the effects of various substantive and methodological moderators of therapy outcome. The review concludes with some observations about the methodological status of this literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinctions without a difference: Direct comparisons of psychotherapies for alcohol use disorders.

To estimate the relative efficacy of alcohol use disorder treatments, the authors meta-analyzed studies that directly compared 2 bona fide psychological treatments. The authors accommodated problems with the inclusion of multiple treatment comparisons by randomly assigning a positive/negative sign to the effect size derived from each comparison and then estimating the extent to which effect sizes were heterogeneous. The authors' primary hypothesis was that the variability in effect sizes of bona fide psychological treatments for alcohol use disorders that were directly compared would be zero. For both alcohol measures and measures of abstinence, analyses indicate that effects were homogenously distributed about zero (I2 = 10.61, 0.00, respectively), indicating that different treatment comparisons yielded a common effect size that was not significantly different from zero. Analyses also indicate that allegiance accounted for a significant portion of variability in differences between treatments. Implications for the treatment of alcohol use disorders as well as research on the mechanisms responsible for the benefit of treatment are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A within-subjects analysis of discrimination shift behavior in schizophrenics.

In 3 experiments, 24 20-68 yr old chronic schizophrenics, 12 20-66 yr old new admissions, 12 18-46 yr old predischarge patients, and 4 49-56 yr old lobotomized patients were trained on 1 of 4 discrimination-learning tasks, followed by either a reversal-intradimensional-extradimensional shift sequence or an extradimensional-extradimensional-reversal shift sequence. Shift means and subproblem-learning curves indicated that some attentional responding did occur, but that some Ss found it difficult to respond to familiar stimuli in a new way. No differences between patient subgroups were obtained, but individual differences in attention suggest meaningful subvarieties of patients. It is concluded that a within-Ss discrimination shift paradigm can provide useful information about attentional responding, perseverative responding, and ability to deal with familiar stimuli in a new way. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of self-observation: A core process among the psychotherapies.

Activation of self-observation is proposed as a core psychotherapy process. Self-observation entails an active scan of one's inner landscape (intentions, expectations, feelings, cognitions, and behaviors), the ability to introspect on one's own thoughts, and the realization of the relation of self to one's social and cultural environment. This process is collaboratively employed by psychotherapist and client within all psychotherapy orientations to help clients learn about their own functioning, change maladaptive responses, and generate new responses for the future. This article addresses (a) defining and distinguishing features of self-observation, (b) self-observation within the psychotherapeutic encounter, (c) ways in which psychotherapists accelerate this process, and (d) the implications of self-observation as a core psychotherapeutic process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal response modes and dimensions of interpersonal roles: A method of discourse analysis.

Describes a general analytic taxonomy of verbal response modes. Utterances in dyadic communication can be described as concerning the speaker's or the other's experience, using the speaker's or the other's frame of reference, and being focused on the speaker or the other (where "focus" means presuming or not presuming knowledge of the other). The intersection of these 3 dichotomous principles of classification defines 8 familiar verbal response modes: disclosure, question, edification, acknowledgment, advisement, interpretation, confirmation, and reflection. Each mode has a distinctive grammatical form as well as a distinctive interpersonal intent, so the form and the intent of an utterance can be coded separately. The modes can be used to define 3 conceptually orthogonal dimensions of interpersonal roles, tentatively labeled attentiveness, acquiescence, and presumptuousness. The system of verbal response modes and role dimensions is similar in purpose to R. F. Bales's (1950) interaction process analysis but has certain methodological and conceptual advantages. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal conditioning of two response classes: Some methodological considerations.

The capacity to condition verbalizations of an interviewee was seen to be related to S's awareness of what was going on but independent of such variables as the age, sex, vocabulary level, (Taylor) anxiety level, and word rate of Ss. Specific content could be successfully conditioned, particularly those words which related to people; such words as plural nouns were unaffected by the reinforcement procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ethical challenges of group and dyadic psychotherapies: A comparative approach.

Although conceptions of causes and cures of mental dysfunction may be similar in group and dyadic therapies, it is argued that the use of techniques involving intermember interactions as a therapeutic medium in groups gives rise to ethical concerns that differ from those encountered in individual treatment. In the group, collective influences are mobilized and focused on individuals through mechanisms of consensus, conformism, and norms of emotional expressiveness. The value and ethical dilemmas for group therapists involve decisions about strategies of initiation, facilitation, and interdiction of group pressures on individual members. Common assumptions about group processes are noted, and therapeutic and countertherapeutic responses to group power factors are discussed. The ethical implications of some comparative processes in group and dyadic therapies are considered, and guidelines are presented for group leaders. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resisting temptations to smoke: Results from within-subjects analyses.

Within-subjects analyses were used to examine differences between resisted temptations to smoke (either a specific close call or the most common temptation) and smoking lapses among 130 participants lapsing within 1 month after a self-initiated quit attempt. Participants were more likely to report coping during resisted temptations than during lapses; those who reported coping in both were more likely to report using multiple strategies and combining cognitive and behavioral strategies during the resisted temptation. Participants were more likely to report that the lapse was precipitated by others smoking, but this difference was not significant when the sample was restricted to those reporting a specific close call. No other statistically significant differences were found. Results support previous findings that the use or nonuse of coping strategies during a temptation to smoke is the variable most strongly associated with its outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex-role stereotyping in television commercials: A verbal response mode and content analysis.

Evaluated the degree of sex-role stereotyping in TV commercials using both a verbal response mode and a content analysis. A total of 120 commercials (60 daytime and 60 primetime), each depicting an adult male–female dyad verbally interacting, were drawn from a larger sample of commercials aired between October 1983 and January 1984 on the major North American networks. Results of the 2 analyses reveal a more sex-stereotyped pattern of male–female differences in daytime than in primetime commercials. It is concluded that sex-role stereotyping still exists in TV commercials and is present at subtle as well as obvious levels of analysis. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflective-functioning during the process in brief psychotherapies.

Reflective-functioning (RF) is the ability to recognize the existence and nature of mental processes taking place in the self and in others (e.g., intentions and wishes). RF was investigated here as a patient variable during the process in two studies of brief psychotherapy. The first study investigated cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in the TDCRP sample. The second study investigated psychodynamic psychotherapy (BPDT). The Psychotherapy Process Q-set (PQS) was implemented to identify process correlates associated with high and low RF in order to distinguish which specific components in the psychotherapeutic process are related to RF. Process correlates defining high RF had good outcome, and process correlates defining low RF had poor outcome. RF remained stable or decreased during treatments and was linked with personality characteristics in the patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model of response time effects in symbolic comparison.

A cognitive process model is developed that predicts the 3 major symbolic comparison response time effects (distance, end, and semantic congruity) found in the results of the linear syllogistic reasoning task. The model includes a simple connectionist learning component and dual evidence accumulation decision-making components. It assumes that responses can be based either on information concerning the positional difference between the presented stimulus items or on information concerning the endpoint status of each of these items. The model provides an excellent quantitative account of the mean correct response times obtained from 16 participants who performed paired comparisons of 6 ordered symbolic stimuli (3-letter names). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)