Thesis (B.Sc. (Hons.)) -- from the Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide, 1977.

Thesis (M. Med. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

The present study directly contrasted the efficacy of biofeedback-assisted cue-controlled relaxation, biofeedback-assisted metronome -conditioned relaxation, and both procedures combined via one physiological and one subjective measure of relaxation under no-stress and stress conditions.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1978 P37 / Master of Science

It is well documented that the communication patterns of distressed couples are characterized by more negative and fewer positive behaviors. It has also been postulated that there is an association between physiological arousal and negative behaviors. According to this theory, as individuals become increasingly aroused, the number of negative behaviors also increases. This study explored the relationship between physiological arousal and marital communication. The three couples participating in the study received intensive biofeedback training with the hypothesis that an ability to control physiological arousal would result in improved marital communications. The Rapid Couples Interaction Scoring System was employed as a measurement of overt behavior, and physiological arousal was measured by electromyographic levels. The findings of this study suggest that, for some, biofeedback training is an effective intervention to improve marital communications.

This exegesis details the development of four interactive artworks that enable audiences to observe and reflect on aspects of their own psychophysiology, using the technologies of biofeedback interaction as a way of situating the participant’s subjectivity and bodily experiences within each other as reciprocal phenomena. The central theme addressed through these works concerns the representation and experience of subjectivity as a physiologically embodied phenomenon. Although contemporary theories of psychophysiology and phenomenology have overturned the idea of mind-body separation, many forms of cultural practice continue to represent subjectivity as a fundamentally disembodied phenomenon. The artworks documented in this exegesis extend this process of re-examination through the use of interacting bio-sensing technologies and audience participation. Each of the works create a space where participants and observers alike can become present to aspects of body-mind process. / Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA)

The purpose of this study was to determine if individuals could raise their hand temperature through systematic thermal training and to assess the effects of thermal training paired with coping-imagery desensitization on counselor trainee anxiety and counselor trainee effectiveness. A unique feature of this investigation was the pairing of two systems which had seldom been studied simultaneously: thermal training paired with desensitization.The experimental groups consisted of 32 Ball State University European Master's level students in counseling (16 females, 16 males). Subjects were volunteers drawn from five sections of classes during Spring Quarter, 1978. Students were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: the experimental group or the no-treatment control group. The experimental training took place over a 6-week time period at Ramstein Air Base, West Germany, and at Kapaun Air Station, West Germany.A pre-study was conducted the previous Winter Quarter, 1977-1978, to solicit data from which to compile a six-item standardized hierarchy to be used for the experimental desensitization scenes. The scenes consisted of counseling-related events which counselor trainees previously indicated were anxiety producing.Two groups of criteria instruments were utilized as dependent variables: self-report measures and performance measures. The self-report anxiety measures consisted of a semantic differential and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The end-of-treatment thermal measurement and the CarkhuffBerenson Gross Rating of Facilitative Interpersonal Functioning Scale (GRFIF) served as measures of performance.Experimental subjects were exposed to five sessions of thermal training combined with coping-imagery desensitization while the control group received no treatment. Both groups were administered the end-of-treatment thermal measurement at the end of the fifth session of treatment. During the sixth week, both groups completed the self-report anxiety measures prior to participating as a counselor and as a client in two 20-minute audio taped counseling sessions. Each subject was individually debriefed and control subjects were offered the opportunity to receive identical training. Three 3-minute segments were excerpted from each counseling tape and were rated in-the-blind by independent judges using the Carkhuff-Berenson CRFIF Scale measuring counselor effectiveness. The raters were trained in using the GRFIF Scale and following training, the four-way interjudge reliability using total sampling procedures was r = .85, p< .01.The experimental design was the posttest only control group design. Five null hypotheses stating that no statistical difference would be found between the experimental and control group in self-reported anxiety or in effective counseling skills were statistically treated using five one-way analyses of variance. A confidence level of .05 was established.Results of the statistical investigations indicated that experimental subjects showed significantly greater hand-warming skills than control subjects, F (1,31) = 36.98, p < .001. No significant differences were found between the treatment and control group means on the self-report measures of anxiety or in counselor effectiveness.The conclusion was drawn that thermal training was a viable method for assisting individuals to achieve significant increases in thermal temperature measurement. Thermal training paired with coping-imagery desensitization was not demonstrated to be an effective treatment modality for reducing counselor trainee self-report anxiety or for increasing effective counseling skills. The latter finding was inconsistent with previous research which concluded that relaxation and systematic desensitization resulted in reductions in counselor trainee self-report anxiety and in increases in counselor effectiveness.The recommendation was made for additional research investigating thermal training paired with desensitization using an electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback unit and for employment of individualized desensitization hierarchies with practicum populations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 123 p. : ill. (some col.). Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-66).

This research project utilized single-subject methodology to compare four treatment modalities against each other and a control group (N = 5) in the control of mild essential hypertension. The treatment modalities were non-specific, modified autogenic relaxation, diastolic blood pressure feedback, and a combination of the latter two therapies. Only persons who received the modified autogenic relaxation therapy as a separate treatment were able to decrease their observed mean median diastolic blood pressure by an amount that would be consistently evaluated by physicians as clinically significant. A secondary finding was that, in the case of multiple treatments, a sequence of distinct biofeedback followed by distinct relaxation would be preferred over other possible combinations of the therapies investigated. Suggestions as to further research in the realms of direct, systematic, and clinical N = 1 replications as well as group comparison procedures were offered.

Nearly every voice teacher is aware of problems encountered by students with tightness in the throat or jaw muscles. Classes in vocal pedagogy attempt to solve problems such as these through indirect inference and mental images using psychological and empirical (observation) teaching methods. In fact, many voice teachers will freely admit that singing is mostly a matter of imagination.Traditional teaching methods in voice (an area open to much charlatanism) generally deny the existence of a direct, explicit solution reached through creative problem solving. The purpose of this study was to supply a comparison (through means of accepted research techniques) between students who received traditional instruction in voice and those who received additional scientific information in the form of electromyographic biofeedback to assist them in overcoming the problems of tension or tightness in the muscles supporting the larynx.The population sample of this study consisted of two groups of college voice students suffering from tension problems in the neck and throat.The experimental group consisted of six males and four females, ranging in age from 19 to 43. The control group was made up of nine females and one male ranging in age from 19 to 32.Each subject in the experimental group participated in 10 biofeedback training sessions of approximately one half-hour in length receiving 15 minutes of actual biofeedback during each session. The control group did not receive biofeedback but did receive pre- post-test electromyograms.Data from the two groups was subjected to statistical analysis using the T-test and F-test and the following conclusions were made. In comparing the pre-test means with the post-test mean of the experimental group, a T-test indicated a significant difference at both the 5% and 1% levels of confidence. An F-test between the post-test means of both the experimental and control groups indicated that variations in data did not appear to be due to chance, but to a cause (biofeedback).The null hypothesis was rejected at the 1% level of confidence as a result of the T-test between the post-test means of both the experimental and control group (assuming that the control post-test mean is the population mean). This allows a restatement of the hypothesis in the positive form: There is a significant difference between singers with tension problems in the laryngeal musculature who receive electromyographic biofeedback training and those who do not.The control group clearly showed no significant difference in the pre-test, post-test means at the 1% level of confidence.