Most research in smoking cessation has shown no intervention clearly superior or successful. Of those who return to smoking after abstaining, a subgroup includes those who do so incrementally, eventually reaching their former level. An approach aimed at this subgroup, originally used in a group setting, involves intensifying the desire to smoke…

The study evaluates an easily-administered test-anxiety reduction program. An entire fifth grade was screened, and 36 students identified as test-anxious were randomly assigned to an Intervention or a non-participant Control group. The intervention was an accelerated desensitization and adaptive attitudes (ADAA) treatment which involved…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the function of positive attentional cues as cognitive factors in the modification of fear responses in a desensitization-like treatment procedure. Positive attentional cues are defined as positively-valenced descriptors of the feared stimulus. Two groups of two subjects each were assessed as to the…

A person who lacks confidence in communicating is viewed as slightly neurotic, possessing a general trait of high anxiety. The person tends to avoid interaction situations and does not initiate interactions. As a consequence, he or she probably has poor social relations and low self-concept, feels alienated from others, and finds it difficult to…

The self-management of thoughts and mental images was used in a series of empirical case studies to influence behavior changes. The target behaviors in the cases reported were smoking, overeating, fingernail biting, thinking self-depreciative thoughts, and responding assertively. Self-monitoring, covert positive reinforcement, covert…

To some degree television is the current inheritor of anxiety over the effects of communications from outside the home, and is not alone among mass media in presenting sizeable amounts of violence. However the accessibility, pervasiveness, and very character of television make it the ultimate mass medium, and hence a cause for concern. Television…

Two groups of college students participated in test-anxiety reduction programs at a Learning Resource Center. One group (six students) participated in systematic desensitization procedures and the other group (17 students) was exposed to study skills methods of reducing test anxiety. Students in both groups were pretested and posttested with the…

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'…

An anxiety desensitization method is presented which counters over-arousal through strenuous muscle stretch-tense, deep breath, release-relax and positive suggestion sequences; and uses positive adaptive images to replace negative cognitions and to promote confidence. The addition of the stretch-tense and positive images components are expected to…

Since 20% of all college students experience communication apprehension (CA), the developmental student, distinguished by lower than average academic scores, may also experience this inhibiting fear of communication. Characteristics of the developmental communication apprehensive student indicate that a program for overcoming communication…

The present demand for quantitative proficiency makes low mathematics achievement not only a formidable obstacle in occupational aspirations but also in the academic arena. To modify the current understanding of the problem of mathematics anxiety and to develop an effective treatment program, college students (12 subjects per group; 8 females, 4…

This paper describes six specific techniques that speech communication students may use in rehearsals to improve memory, to increase delivery skills, and to reduce speech stress. The techniques are idea association, covert modeling, desensitization, language elaboration, overt modeling, and self-regulation. Recent research is reviewed that…

A four-day workshop dealing with problems related to human sexuality and relationship counseling followed the assumption that impact and desensitization at the personal level increases the participants' ability to apply the material covered to their particular counseling setting. Initially, desensitization was facilitated through the use of…

A study examined stages and objectives of a systematic desensitization (SD) program and its effects on subject reported apprehension levels and perceived benefits and behavior changes toward public speaking. Subjects, 19 freshmen and sophomore university students, were administered the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA-24).…

Apprehension on the part of students who must engage in public speaking figures high on the list of student fears. Speech anxiety has been viewed as a trait--the overall propensity to fear giving speeches--and as a state--the condition of fearfulness on a particular occasion of speech making. Methodology in therapy research should abide by the…