Systematic desensitization as a method of teaching a general anxiety-reducing skill.

The Fear Survey Schedule identified 20 male and 20 female college students who were fearful of both public speaking and testing situations. Experimental Ss were treated for one or the other of their fears with either a standard or modified version of systematic densensitization. Relative to a no-treatment control group, both treatment methods produced significant reductions in both the treated and untreated fears, with the amount of anxiety reduction of the untreated fear practically equivalent to that of the directly treated fear. Implications of these findings for 2 alternative conceptions of systematic desensitization are briefly discussed. (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)     

Irrational beliefs and reactions to failure.

Predicted that 30 undergraduates with a strong tendency to endorse irrational beliefs, as measured by the Irrational Beliefs Test, would be more emotionally upset following a failure experience than would 30 Ss with little tendency to endorse irrational beliefs. Emotional upset was measured by the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (Anxiety) and Depression Adjective Check Lists and by performance decrements on digit-symbol coding and anagrams tasks. Results conform to the predicted relationship between irrational beliefs and emotional upset. High irrational Ss did not report more anxiety or depression than low irrational Ss, nor did the high irrational Ss show performance decrements following failure. Evidence concerning the validity of the Irrational Beliefs Test is reviewed. (French summary) (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)