Regulating affective responses to acute stress has the potential to improve health, performance, and well-being outcomes. Using the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat as an organizing framework, we review how appraisals inform affective responses and highlight research that demonstrates how appraisals can be used as regulatory…

Regulating affective responses to acute stress has the potential to improve health, performance, and well-being outcomes. Using the biopsychosocial (BPS) model of challenge and threat as an organizing framework, we review how appraisals inform affective responses and highlight research that demonstrates how appraisals can be used as regulatory…

Examined relative and combined effectiveness of behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy in 62 severe, chronic agoraphobics. Identified differential temporal response and treatment patterns across psychophysiological domains. Synchrony/desynchrony phenomena yielded significant findings with regard to process and clinical outcome status. Exploratory…

Presence or absence of tension release significantly influenced the number of relaxation cycles necessary to produce reports of deep relaxation, frequency of practice, and successfulness of eliminating daily tension at follow-up. Subject's ability to reduce physiological activity by a procedure contributed to reductions in subjective tension.…

Subjects responded to questionnaires and rated events in the Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Some were given psychophysical training before rating events. Training did not have significant effect on ratings. Stressfulness ratings were consistently higher than those of social readjustment. Data suggest this effect interacted with the events…

The influence of personal control on reactions to shock differed as a function of the type of control and of the combination of control conditions. Behavioral control in the presence of information (cognitive control) reduced stress, whereas behavioral control in the absence of information augmented stress. (Author)

Although smoking cessation techniques have been effective, few programs have long term results. To investigate the effectiveness of a tobacco dependence relapse prevention program, 123 adult smokers (51 male, 72 female) voluntarily participated in one of four small group treatment conditions (6 or 30 second aversive smoking plus skill training, or…

A within-subjects, three condition design was employed to examine the effects of three relaxation techniques on blood pressures, pulse rates, and self-report measures of relaxation for 12 college students. Respiratory Manipulation Training incorporated instructions to exhale and not to inhale for as long as possible. When breathing could no longer…

Contains 18 articles discussing the uses of behavioral medicine in such areas as obesity, smoking, hypertension, and headache. Reviews include discussions of behavioral medicine and insomnia, chronic pain, asthma, peripheral vascular disease, and coronary-prone behavior. Newly emerging topics include gastrointestinal disorders, arthritis,…

Treated test-anxious college students with cognitive behavior therapy, relaxation training, and thermal biofeedback training. Experimental subjects also received in vivo distraction coping training. Overall program efficacy was demonstrated by reductions in anxiety and increases in rationality of personal belief systems. In vivo training did not…