In the context of a "reinforced practice" treatment paradigm, the present study experimentally analyzed whether or not feedback superimposed upon contingent praise would have an additive therapeutic effect. (Author)

This study investigates whether six women who previously had received 15 sessions of group systematic desensitization (SD) for their sexual anxiety would report additional treatment gains from participation in a sexual-enchantment workshop with their partners. The women reported a significant decrease in sexual anxiety. (Author)

The subject-controlled graduated exposure of a snake with feedback of exposure times resulted in significantly less avoidance behaviors for snake-phobic subjects than for control snake-phobic subjects who did not receive therapy. (Author)

Degree of transfer and fear change associated with four levels of desensitization, pseudodesensitization, and no treatment were assessed in snakephobic students. Desensitization subjects reported significantly less anxiety than no-treatment controls when repeating their highest pretreatment responses, but were no different from either control…

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…

This study investigates whether variations in method of presentation of anxiety items (experimenter's voice, experimenter's taped voice, subject's taped voice) will result in differences in autonomic arousal (as measured by self-report, galvanic skin response, cardiac rate, blood pressure). Ss were 24 Naval Academy midshipmen. The procedure…

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)

Assesses a self-reward contracting procedure intended to facilitate completion of self-administered desensitization. Self-referred snake phobics received either (a) self-administered desensitization; (b) self-administered desensitization with self-reward contracting; or (c) a self-administered placebo with self-reward contracting. Results show the…

This article describes a concentrated program of desensitization used to treat flight phobia. A case history illustrates the use of expanded emotive imagery, stimulus breakdown and techniques of covert positive reinforcement. (SJL)

One snake-phobic woman and one spider-phobic woman, after having received systematic desensitization, were exposed to a live snake or spider in a caged or an uncaged condition. The implications of these findings for the external validity of the behavioral approach test are discussed. (EJT)

College students with difficulty falling asleep were treated with either progressive relaxation, systematic desensitization, or a thought control procedure. All three treatment groups showed significant lower latency to sleep onset times than a waiting-list control group at the end of the three-week treatment period. A three-week followup revealed…

Speech-anxious students ranging in age from 17 to 48 were offered a four-week speech anxiety group. Treatment groups demonstrated significantly greater speech anxiety reduction than the no-treatment controls at postassessment and follow-up assessment. (Author/MFD)