Digital behavior change interventions (DBCIs) provide customized advice, ongoing support, and Web- and mobile-based platforms for learners who want to change their undesirable behaviors. DBCIs have been successful in the past for delivering interventions that support sustained changes to health behaviors, such as disease prevention and health…

This article is a guide for researchers interested in assessing the effectiveness of serious computer-based games (or video games, digital games, or electronic games) intended to improve health and health care. It presents a definition of health games, a rationale for their use, an overview of the current state of research, and recommendations for…

These findings in concert with case history data suggest that the thought-stopping-covert-assertion treatment "package" may hold considerable promise as an efficient and effective clinical tool. (Author)

Using speech anxiety as the target behavior, this study compared two self-control desensitization procedures. Speech-anxious community residents (N=42) volunteered for participation in the program and were seen within a group context for a total of seven therapy sessions. No differential effectiveness was found between the two desensitization…

This review of the research literature focuses on processes that Cautela (1972a) has called covert conditioning and Mahoney, Thoresen, and Danaher (1972) have called covert behavior modification. Both of these terms refer to processes for changing behavior through imaginal responses. Two general strategies have been employed. One has been to…

Clients (N=16) were randomly assigned to two groups receiving either individual or group treatment. Treatment consisted of relaxation training followed by viewing 45 videotaped vignettes depicting graduated sexual behaviors. Improvement remained stable through a one-year follow-up. Control clients showed no improvement and trends toward…

Examines the relationship between locus of control, using both a unidimensional and multidimensional approach, and completion and success in a weight reduction class. (Author)

Compared a broad-spectrum treatment against a control limited to one week of aversive conditioning. Results indicated a dramatic treatment effect, with 76 percent of experimental subjects (as compared to 35 percent of controls) remaining abstinent at a six-month follow-up. (Author)

Expectancy instructions were introduced six times during the four-week treatment, and effectiveness of these instructions was demonstrated with independent nonreactive measures of subjects' expectancies. An analysis of self-report, behavioral, and unobtrusive measures of snake anxiety revealed significant main effects for instructions, with…

Two variations of desensitization therapy for reducing test anxiety were studied, active desensitization in which the client describes his visualizations of the scenes and vicarious desensitization in which the client merely observes the desensitization treatment of another test anxious client. The relaxation treatment which emphasized application…

Forty overweight female subjects were randomly assigned to one of eight treatment combinations in a 2x2x2 matrix. The use of positive coverants produced significantly more weight loss than negative coverants. (Author)

Relative to other treatment modalities for obesity, behavioral strategies, particularly self-control, have been established as effective means of weight loss and control. While most of the early research reported the presence of live professional therapists treating individuals or groups, more recent interest has focused on programs using little…

Internal-External Locus of Control refers to the extent to which persons perceive contingency relationships between their actions and subsequent outcomes. Those who believe they have some control over payoffs in their lives are called "Internals.""Externals," on the other hand, believe consequences are directed by agents outside of themselves.…

Flooding and systematic desensitization procedures were investigated for possible interactions with subject arousal level on reduction in phobic reactions. No such interaction was found. Behaviorally and on GSR response, both flooding and systematic desensitization were effective, but only the latter was effective on subjective reports. (NG)

There has been little research on the effectiveness of behavior modification with groups. This controlled study done in an agency setting found the behavioral model to be an effective method of treating groups of clients with a wide variety of problems. (Author)