The purpose of this investigation was to determine the effects of Open Focus Training (a perceptual style training augmented with specialized EEG biofeedback) upon selected psychomotor task performances. Synchronized, high amplitude, multichannel brainwave activity at 10 cycles per second was monitored during extended baseline data collection for four subjects (three males and one female). Following baseline stabilization for each subject, feedback was provided for brainwave activity and subjects were given Open Focus Training for the following 20 days. Subjects were given training tapes and asked to practice Open Focus at home, twice daily, during the 20 days. Notes were kept both by the subjects and investigator regarding subjects' subjective experiences, particularly in regard to alleviation of stress syndromes. Prior to baseline data collection, all subjects were pretested on the following psychomotor tasks: Rod and Frame (7 trials), reaction time (100 trials), and pursuit rotor (108 practice trials followed by 4 "test trials"). Two subjects were again pretested for these measures at the conclusion of their baseline data collection period and results were not different from those of the pretest. All subjects were posttested at the conclusion of the 20 day training regimen. Results indicate that all subjects learned to control the criterion EEG activity as demonstrated by increasing and decreasing mean EEG activity across training sessions upon command. All but one subject showed improvement in Rod and Frame performance scores. Open Focus Training appears to have had no bearing upon reaction time: one subject's score improved, one worsened, and two subjects' scores showed no change. All subjects showed marked improvement on pursuit rotor ability. Each subject reported much reduction in stress symptoms. It was concluded that this specialized EEG / biofeedback combined with Open Focus Training improves selected psychomotor task performances. Further study of this treatment and its effect upon psychomotor performance is recommended. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: B, page: 0910. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This study is a test of the traditional psychoanalytic approach to explaining aggression management in depression. The experimental procedure included two means of measuring depressive behaviors: responses in a modified Prisoner's Dilemma procedure and verbal messages on a Communications Checklist. Half of the subjects received a negative description from an "aggressive" partner in a dyadic interaction. Depressed subjects were compared to normal subjects of both sexes as to their reactions to the "aggressive" partner. The results indicated that depressed males seem to inhibit competitive and extrapunitive behaviors when interacting with the aggressive partner, and concurrently display an increase in ingratiating, self-detrimental responses. A similar pattern was not found with depressed female subjects. These results are discussed in terms of psychoanalytic theory and interpersonal conceptualizations of depression. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2255. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Ten handicapped subjects participated in a short-term behavioral training program to increase their verbal employment interview behaviors. Treatment consisted of a two hour training session using instruction, modeling, role-playing, behavioral rehearsal with performance feedback and social reinforcement. Verbal employment interview skills were behaviorally defined as: specific work statements, general work statements, personal statements, questioning statements and incomplete statements. Treatment was assessed by behavioral measurement of each subject's pre-, post- and follow-up performance during simulated unstructured interviews. Subjects' performance was compared with a reference group of college students. Also, assessment involved social validation ratings of subjects' performance by employers. / The results indicated increased appropriate and work-related statements during post-training and follow-up interviews. The rate of statements increased to a level comparable with the higher level of reference group subjects. Employers' ratings indicated the effectiveness of treatment by showing increased ratings of subjects during post-training interviews. / Subjects rated their level of anxiety after each interview and this data revealed no change in their anxiety levels during pre-, post-, and follow-up interviews. Satisfaction measures showed subjects' positive ratings of the training program helping them learn interview skills. / This study revealed that a short term behavioral training program enabled handicapped persons to improve their verbal interview behaviors to a level consistent with non-handicapped persons. Further, the study indicated verbal behaviors can be quantified by using direct observation procedures. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2236. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This study hypothesized that observer-judges may require familiarity with a communicator's nonverbal behavior while truthful in order to accurately recognize when this person is lying. Such an assumption is consistent with polygraph research and field applications where measures of physiological arousal during suspected deceit are compared to a baseline for that person. Untrained, inexperienced observers saw videotaped samples (without sound) of interviewees' truthful behavior ("familiarity sample") before deciding whether a subsequent sample (judgment sample") of these same communicators showed truthful or deceptive messages. These videotaped interviewees had been pre-instructed to be totally truthful or to lie to a portion of the interviewer's questions. / Three judgment conditions were arranged, each differing from the other according in the degree of accuracy or completeness of the baseline information which the judges received accompanying the familiarity samples. Group 1 was instructed that the familiarity might be truthful or deceptive and to view it simply to become familiar with the interviewee's repertoire of behaviors. Group 2 was accurately told the sample depicted truthful responding. Group 3 was deceptively told that the (truthful) familiarity sample showed the speaker lying. The study's major hypothesis predicted that group 2 would outperform group 1, whereas an exploratory hypothesis predicted that group 1 would be more accurate than group 3. / Although the performance of each judgement group was in the expected direction, the differences were not statistically significant. However, additional analysis indicated that group 2 were the only judges whose accuracy level exceeded the dictates of chance, and they outperformed the misinformed judges (group 3) at a statistically significant level. It was speculated that inexperienced judges may hold invalid assumptions about what constitutes relevant nonverbal clues and, together with their unhoned observational skills, may be unable to employ available baseline information in an advantageous way. It was proposed that there are still compelling reasons to believe that appropriate baseline information has the potential to enhance judgment accuracy although it may not be a necessary and sufficient condition for accurate detection. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2254. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This study explored the effects of therapist fear of negative evaluation in supervision (FNE-S) and supervisory focus on therapist and client anxiety states and client satisfaction. Thirty clinical psychology graduate student therapists were divided into high and low FNE-S groups, and half of each group was randomly assigned to one of two Ph.D. clinical psychologist supervisors. The procedure encompassed three therapy sessions and two intervening 30 minute individual supervision sessions, during which supervisors maintained the focus on either the therapist or their client. Dependent measures for therapists were the A-state anxiety scale, developed by Spielberger and his colleagues, and Walk's Fear Thermometer (FT). Client dependent measures included the FT, the Counseling Evaluation Inventory of Linden, Stone and Shertzer and the author developed Retrospective Outcome Measure (ROM), completed for a given session just before the subsequent session, thereby allowing more time to process the session. Anxiety measures were completed post and, using a method described by Howard, retrospective-pre. Supervisors also completed a therapist Evaluation Form and a Receptivity to Supervisory Input (RSI) scale, and therapists completed a Supervision Evaluation Questionnaire. / The results showed that compared to low FNE-S therapists, high FNE-S therapists were more anxious before supervision, were more receptive to therapist-focused supervision, and had clients who were more anxious before therapy and less satisfied with therapy. While main effects for focus were not found, several interactions, involving FNE-S and supervisors and affecting client anxiety, therapist receptivity and supervisors' evaluations of trainees, were seen. Other results provided validation for the RSI scale and showed that more receptive trainees were less anxious after supervision than less receptive trainees. / Overall, results suggest that identifying high FNE-S therapists and low RSI therapists may be useful in research and training settings. They also clearly point out that supervisor-therapist interactions are highly complex and dependent on numerous factors. Hence generalization is risky and group studies on supervision may not always be appropriate. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: B, page: 2236. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Literature suggests a connection between brain dysfunction, particularly in the area of the limbic system, and violent behavior. This study investigates such an association by means of neuropsychological measurement, using the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery (LNNB). Forty-three male forensic psychiatric patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C., pre-screened to eliminate individuals with gross intellectual deficits, were assigned to violent or non-violent groups on the basis of their arrest and conviction history. Individuals in the violent group had at least three arrests or one conviction (including having been found not guilty by reason of insanity) for a violent crime, and those in the non-violent group had no convictions for violent crimes and no more than two arrests for violent offenses. Crimes represented by the violent sample included assault, murder, sexual assault, and armed robbery. / The LNNB was adminstered to subjects by examiners who remained blind to their group membership. Demographic comparisons revealed no significant differences between the groups with respect to age, intelligence, education, race, socioeconomic status, handedness, psychiatric diagnosis, medication intake, or chronicity of psychiatric problems. / The violent subjects had significantly more LNNB scales exceeding the critical level than did the non-violent subjects. Although the usual criterion of impairment did not differentiate the groups, a higher and more stringent cutoff showed more violent individuals with serious impairment. Findings in terms of localization of dysfunction did not reflect the expected limbic system pattern. Exploratory analyses suggested that primary dysfunction of the impaired violent group centered around the parietal-occipital area of the left hemisphere, and was consistent with the profile of an adult who had been learning disabled as a child. Limitations on generalizeability existed due to the select nature of the population studied. Caution must be exercised when interpreting these data since they were obtained from a largely black sample, whereas the LNNB was validated among whites. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: B, page: 0917. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

A survey measure of 100 items was developed to study the attitudes of a sample of mental health professionals about the sexual socialization of children by their parents. Sexual socialization was defined as the process by which children are exposed to information and attitudes about sexuality through nonverbal and verbal communication expressed or sanctioned by their parents. / Eight rationally derived categories of behavior were examined: Sex Education, Openness of Household, Societal Exposure to Adult Sexuality, Family Exposure to Adult Sexuality, Physical Contact with the Child, Response to the Child's Sexual Activity, Child as a Sexual Object, Sexual Prohibitions. Respondents were asked to apply to each item a label of Appropriate, Inappropriate, or Conditionally Appropriate depending upon the age of the child and/or the sex-pair of the child and parent involved. / Seventy-two psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers in an urban pediatric center and an affiliated child guidance center completed the survey and a demographic checklist. Statistical analyses were completed to describe the respondents' attitudes. Respondents were able to make statistically significant selections among the response choices for 99 of the 100 items. Across the eight behavior categories different distributions of response choice use were observed and described. Hierarchical grouping analyses were used to examine the variability across the items and respondents. Four item clusters and three respondent groupings were described. The adequacy of the survey methodology and directions for future research were discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: B, page: 0928. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

A cognitive behavioral problem-solving training program for children of severely disturbed parents was conducted in order to answer the following questions: (1) Does cognitive behavioral problem-solving training improve the problem-solving ability of "at risk" children? (2) Does problem-solving training enhance the psychological or behavioral adjustment of these children? (3) Does problem-solving training affect the verbal-perceptual intelligence of at risk children? (4) Are gains in problem-solving ability related to improvements in adjustment? / Subjects consisted of forty-one children between the ages of five and twelve whose mothers demonstrated a high degree of mental distress. The children were randomly assigned to a treatment or no-treatment comparison group. The problem-solving training program consisted of twelve, sixty-minute sessions conducted each week during a three-month period. The following problem-solving abilities were emphasized: (1) impersonal problem solving via self-instructional training, (2) prerequisite skills for social problem solving, (3) interpersonal problem solving, and (4) intrapersonal problem solving. / The results of the study indicate that experimental groups significantly improved problem-solving ability as compared to no-treatment comparison groups. The psychological adjustment of the experimental groups also showed significant improvement as compared to no-treatment comparison groups. / The behavioral adjustment of the experimental group aged eight to twelve showed significant improvement in external reliance as measured by teacher ratings. The no-treatment comparison group demonstrated no significant improvement in behavioral adjustment and were rated significantly worse in disrespect-defiance on teacher ratings. The behavioral adjustment of young children showed no significant improvement. The verbal-perceptual intelligence of both experimental and comparison groups improved on posttests but not at a level which would exceed chance. / The findings of the study indicate that problem-solving gains and gains in psychological adjustment were not correlated at a significant level. Problem-solving gains and behavioral adjustment gains were correlated significantly with a reduction of anxiety and irrelevant responsiveness among experimental children aged eight to twelve. Problem-solving gains of younger experimental children were correlated with behavioral adjustment gains in the area, need closeness to teacher, as measured by teacher ratings. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-09, Section: B, page: 2908. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The present study was designed to bridge the gap in the existing research literature on the early stages in the development of depressive interpersonal relationships. Forty-eight same-sex pairs of subjects were studied as they formed acquaintances with their partners during three 1-hour laboratory sessions within a 2-week period. In one-third of the pairs, one partner was depressed; in another third, one partner was not depressed but had other psychological problems (NDO); and in the final third of the pairs both subjects were considered normal. Depressed and NDO subjects were paired with normal partners. Within each group equal numbers of same-sex male and female pairs were used. In each pair one subject was considered a target subject (depressed, NDO, or randomly selected normal) and the other subject was a normal partner. Subject partners participated in three laboratory acquaintanceship sessions which involved engaging in free conversation, interspersed with the completion of questionnaires assessing various aspects of the interpersonal situation. Written measures included pre- and postsession measures of affect, communications to partner, perceptions of partner's personality, and liking of partner. Two 8-minute segments of free conversation per session were tape recorded and later content analyzed. Subjects were contacted several weeks after the end of the experiment to see if they maintained contact with their partner. Data from this study were analyzed using a repeated measures, multivariate analysis of variance model: 3 Groups x 2 Sexes x 3 Sessions. Though many of the terms of interest involving groups did not reach statistical significance, an interesting pattern of mutual perceptions was found in the depressive-normal pairs. Depressives tended to view their partners as abasive, inhibited, and deferent. The perceptions by the normal partner / revealed sex-specific patterns. Female depressives were viewed by their normal partners as agreeable, nurturant, and abasive, while male depressives were viewed as detached. On follow-up the male depressive group was different from the other groups in that they reported no further contact with their partners. These results were discussed as lending some support to findings in other studies of an idiosyncratic pattern of perceptions that characterize depressive-other relationships. Results were also discussed in terms of the situational factors on interpersonal behavior and some consistency across personality characteristics in the getting-acquainted process. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-09, Section: B, page: 2901. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

A pretest/post-test experimental design was employed to test whether or not participation in postseparation/postdivorce counseling groups resulted in improved self esteem and/or adjustment and whether a format in which extra-group socializing was encouraged or was discouraged is more effective in facilitating these changes. / The sample consisted of volunteers who were pretested during the intake procedure. Using gender as the stratification variable, 15 persons each were randomly assigned to a group in which extra-group socializing was encouraged, a group in which extra-group socializing was discouraged, and a minimal contact group. The groups met one evening per week for eight weeks. A total of 42 persons, including 14 from each group, completed post-testing. The Raschke Postdivorce Problems and Stress Scale was utilized to measure divorce adjustment and the Tennessee Self Concept Scale to measure self esteem. / Analysis of covariance and the Least Significant Difference procedure revealed that both treatment groups produced significantly better divorce adjustment scores than the minimal contact group. Analysis of covariance indicated no significant differences among the three experimental groups in self esteem improvement. T-tests of pretest/post-test scores revealed improvement of individual members. The greatest mean improvement in divorce adjustment and in self esteem and the greatest number of extra-group socializing activities occurred in the group in which extra-group socializing was encouraged. / Discussion of personal concerns was the most frequent and conversations about the group the least frequent activity. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-10, Section: B, page: 3187. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.