The following behavior modification procedures were studied with hospitalized alcoholics: videotaped self-confrontation of drunken behavior, discrimination training for blood alcohol concentration, aversion training for overconsumption, discriminated avoidance practice, alcohol education, alternatives training, and behavior counseling. Some…

Reality therapy methods in the classroom were examined via a four-group experimental design. The groups were as follows: (a) pretested reality therapy, (b) unpretested reality therapy, (c) pretested placebo, and (d) unpretested placebo. Findings were not supportive of reality therapy methods as applied in the classroom. (Author)

College-student snake phobics received one of four treatments to reduce their snake avoidance behavior. Behavioral and self-report assessment showed all three treatments relative to the control to be highly and equally effective in reducing snake avoidance behavior. (Author)

A variable interval schedule of reinforcement was used with five behavior disordered boys (7-13 years old) to improve attending and study behavior of the children during the communicative skills period. (SBH)

High- and low-fear subjects were assigned to noise or false heart-rate feedback. Contiguity between the shock-snake stimuli was varied in order to provide a test of an aversion relief model. As was predicted, low-fear as compared to high-fear subjects approached the snake significantly more after exposure to false heart-rate feedback. (Author)

Summarizes outcome results of treatment programs for boys exhibiting problems commonly subsumed under the label "conduct disorder." Treatment consisted of training agents in each setting to alter the deviant behaviors of the problem child. Direct observations were made in children's homes and classrooms before, during, and after intervention.…

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…

The first author criticizes the outcome measures used in a previous behavior modification study. The authors of the latter study answer the criticism by discussing the merits and disadvantages of outcome measures used in various behavior therapy studies. (SE)

Two improvement strategies designed to modify children's impulsive tempos were developed and transformed into task exercises. Results indicated that enriching redundancy and enlarging variations in cognitive processes enable the impulsive child to assimilate information and therefore deal more effectively with reality. (Author/PC)

Anxiety management training (AMT), developed by Suinn and Richardson, is a short-term treatment procedure for alleviating a variety of manifestations of anxiety. It is based on the theory that anxiety or fear responses themselves can become discriminative stimuli and that clients can be conditioned to respond to those stimuli with antagonistic…

The present study examined the efficacy of rational-emotive psychotherapy and systematic desensitization in the treatment of stuttering. Both therapies, making extensive use of in vivo behavioral assignments, were examined under the presence and absence of in vivo tasks. Results show that rational-emotive therapy was more effective in reducing…

The present study examined indirect effects of modifying appropriate classroom behavior by itself and academic performance by itself. Results show reinforcing appropriate behavior increased that behavior but produced little improvement in arithmetic performance. However, reinforcing arithmetic performance increased correct work and resulted in a…

During the DRL procedure, reinforcement was made available for inappropriate language that was less than a prescribed limit for each day. Data indicated that reinforcing low rates of behavior may be an effective alternative to the use of aversive contingencies to reduce the misbehavior of such children. (Author)

This case study demonstrates the value of conceptualizing functional somatic disorders as operants. The subject, an adolescent girl, diagnosed as having a "hysterical neurosis," manifested the symptoms of incessant coughing and mutism. The cough and mutism were treated by extinction and shaping, respectively. Positive results were obtained.…