Test-anxious students were assigned to four treatment groups, a placebo group, or an untreated control group. Four treatment groups resulted from combinations of two treatment rationales (active coping and passive reciprocal inhibition) and two treatment procedures (self-control and standard). Treatment groups were equally effective in reducing…

Author describes a class discussion and class activities in which students considered the rituals people develop to help themselves concentrate and do serious work. (RW)

Smokers (N = 90) were assigned to 10 treatment conditions; another 20 smokers were included in a no-apply control group. The treatment effects of aversive conditioning were negligible, and in some instances they were surpassed by the effects of controls for nonspecific treatment factors and placebo effects. (Author)

Student volunteers who experienced problems in impulsive overspending of money were randomly assigned to either a self-control treatment condition or to a placebo condition. Those in the self-control condition evidenced a significantly greater change (55 percent reduction in spending) than placebo control subjects, who showed a slight average…

Development of a cognitive behavior therapy approach to anger management is presented with results of its application to a hospitalized depressive with severe anger problems. The treatment approach follows a procedure called "stress inoculation," which consists of three basic stages: cognitive preparation, skill acquisition and…

A physical fitness program with external control and self-directed components resulted in marked changes in exercise behavior of 17 mildly to moderately retarded adults. Ss learned accurate self-monitoring and self-reinforcement procedures. (CL)

Productivity of four severely multiply disabled elementary students on a paper-and-pencil task was increased with an externally managed token economy. Ss were then instructed to self-manage the token economy. Two of the four subjects accurately self-managed the token economy, although all subjects maintained productivity levels. (Author/CL)

Examined the role of health beliefs in diabetic regimen adherence and metabolic control. Health beliefs accounted for a statistically significant portion of the variance in both. For older patients perceived benefits of adhering to the diabetic regimen was most significant. For younger patients costs figured prominently in adherence and perceived…

Investigated parameters of eating behavior in subjects with bulimia nervosa (BN). BN and female comparison (FC) subjects monitored hourly over several days their food intake, mood, hunger, social circumstances, and experiences of unpleasant events. BN subjects reported more positive moods prior to consuming a meal, and more negative moods prior to…

Two components of a gradually faded awakening procedure for treating bedwetting were tested with six children aged 4-11. Thorough awakening was more effective than partial awakening. A second experiment on advancing awakening time produced similar results between a stringent 6 consecutive dry night criterion and a more lenient 6 dry night…

A differential schedule of time-out was effective in reducing target maladaptive behaviors in three mentally retarded students (ages 5-9). In addition, by permitting one behavior to occur within an interval which occasioned only a warning, students were allowed to develop self-control within a structured setting. (Author)

Hyperactive and normal elementary students (N=27) were administered story conditions that differed in presentation rate and information relevance and repetition to determine whether listening problems of hyperactive children could be attributed to delays that encourage impulsive responding. Findings suggested that rate of information presentation…

Discusses various forms of confabulation, and conditions that often give rise to these disorders. Asserts that confabulatory states frequently are associated with cerebral damage that involves the right hemisphere, notably, the frontal (often bilaterally) and parietal lobes - areas intimately involved in arousal, attention, information regulation,…

Tested the hypothesis that psychological adjustment to epilepsy would be a joint function of subjects' (N=50) perceived repertoire of self-control skills and the extent to which they were exposed to uncontrollable seizures. Results showed that high-resourceful epileptics exposed to lower frequencies of seizures coped better with their disability.…

The article asserts that self-management training can provide a crucial component in the education of educable mentally retarded (EMR) individuals. Strategies of self-monitoring/reinforcement and self-instruction are defined and related to increased performance on academic/vocational/self-help tasks. Combined behavior-management and…