These findings suggest that the relative effect of the main therapeutic procedure and expectancy (defined by the presence or absence of a therapeutic rationale and instructions suggesting a positive outcome from treatment) varies with different behavioral therapies. With reinforced practice and covert sensitization the main therapeutic procedure…

Within an experimental paradigm that simulated systematic desensitization, the effects of manipulated cognitive expectancy on avoidance behavior were evaluated. The results indicated that both overt avoidance behavior and two verbal indexes were differentially affected by expectancy and that no relationship between avoidance behavior and autonomic…

Desensitization or assertive training or both were applied to hospitalized schizophrenics who displayed phobias, lack of interpersonal assertiveness, or both. In none of the patients did desensitization produce any reduction of avoidance of the feared object. The assertive training produces minimal improvement in two patients. (Author)

Accelerated massed desensitization and anxiety management training were compared with standard systematic desensitization in terms of reducing self-reported test anxiety in high test-anxious college students. All three treatments significantly reduced test anxiety as compared with a waiting list control group. (Author)

The relative effects of imagerial covert rehearsal with attentional shifts and the use of an independent reinforcing agent in a covert reinforcement therapy were compared. A 17-year-old female student, requesting treatment for a snake phobia, served as the subject. The phobia was measured along four dimensions: behavioral approaches to a live…

The relative efficacy of systematic desensitization and assertive skill training in increasing assertive responses, reducing anxiety related to being assertive, and increasing response satisfaction, was compared to two control conditions--a placebo-control (discussion) and an assessment-control. Also investigated was the effect of the subjects'…