Assessed relative effects of therapist empathy and instructed imagination of heirarchy scenes on avoidance behavior reduction. Imagery instructions delivered in a relatively unempathetic fashion produced as much avoidance reduction as imagery instructions delivered in an empathetic manner. (Author)

An overview of the behaviorally-oriented fear reduction methods for children is presented. Systematic desensitization and related procedures, flooding-related therapies, contingency management approaches, modeling procedures, and self-control methods are discussed after reviewing normative and prevalence data regarding children's fears. Research…

Compared the effectiveness of systematic and self-control desensitization in 35 test-anxious college students. Results showed both treatments were equally effective and resulted in improved grades and reduced anxiety. The delayed treatment group reported improved self-concept as well as reduced anxiety. (JAC)

Tested the effectiveness of a behavior modification program to reduce test anxiety in 97 self-referred students. Results indicated that students who participated in the program had improved their academic averages more than the control group and reported less debilitating anxiety. There was no comparable finding for facilitating anxiety. (JAC)

The data on approach to snakes provides srong support for the contention that the behavorial avoidance test is not immune to bias introduced by the operation of situational variables that have usually been allowed to vary in uncontrolled fashion in psychotherapy analogue research. Behavior of test subjects can be influenced not only in terms of…

Thirty-two Snake-fearing Ss viewed a videotape of four therapists who described and illustrated their techniques for treating fear of snakes. After describing their liking or disliking of each of the therapies, 16 Ss were assigned a preferred therapy, and the other 16 were given a nonpreferred therapy. The findings argue for the practice of having…

A counselor relates some of his first experiences and feelings as a counselor. The use of a few specific skills is briefly discussed. (RP)

Female snake-phobic subjects were assigned to one of three treatments: warm automated therapist procedure, cold automated therapist procedure, or control. Results showed significantly more improvement among subjects in the first group. (Author)

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the GSR during systematic desensitization. Three groups of females each were preselected for high snake fear. Outcome measures indicated that the desensitization group reduced phobic behavior most, followed by the relaxation group, and then the exposure groups. (Author)

In this study, both the semantic and systematic desensitization methods were found to be significantly more effective than the implosive therapy and the control treatments in the modification of phobic behavior among the college student population. (Author)

It is the thesis of this article that college counselors would make more economical and efficacious use of their time and would greatly reduce the risk of turning off'' students if they employed in vivo desensitization rather than systematic desensitization when dealing with anxious clients. (Author)

Investigates the effectiveness of group systematic desensitization in reducing death anxiety. Densensitization proved to be superior with both a relaxation and test-retest group when the revised Livingston and Zimet Death Anxiety Scale was the criterion measure. Mixed results were obtained when other scales were used. (Author/JAC)

The author suggests that stagefright cannot be ignored; but it can be overcome, and self-confidence built, if the fears that cause it are analyzed, experienced, and accepted by the performer. He suggests some psychological techniques for doing so. (SJL)

Criticism of the study relating effects of therapist warmth to desensitization include: the use of surrogate, student subjects; nonstandard desensitization procedures; and no control group. Morris and Suckerman respond that the first two criticisms rely on selective reading of the literature and the third is irrelevant. (NG)