Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Children react differently to the traumatic incidence of sexual abuse. Some children develop symptomatic behaviours associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in reaction to sexual abuse, such as apathy, which is a form of desensitisation. Others appear less affected by the sexual abuse and may also be regarded as desensitised and possessing resilience. Incongruence thus exists, as the one may be taken incorrectly for the other. Many children enter alternative care settings after being sexually abused, and are cared for by caregivers other than their natural parents. These caregivers interact with the children regularly and their perceptions may provide valuable insight into desensitisation among these children. This study set out to explore caregivers' perceptions on desensitisation among children who had been sexually abused. The study is explorative and descriptive in nature and grounded in a qualitative design. Purposive sampling was used to form three focus groups. The focus group interviews yielded data that was transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. The findings arrived at were written up, presented and discussed. The findings were recommended to be used to inform social workers and other members of the helping professions on how to approach and interact with caregivers of sexually abused children in the future, and to influence perceptions they might hold. Further recommendations were made to better design and implement future studies.

No description available.

No / We previously reported that music-assisted systematic desensitization can counter-condition substance-related cues and reduce the implicated craving responses, as well as improve cognitive and psychopathological components of substance addiction. This follow-up study investigated the therapeutic contribution of listening to recorded New Age relaxing music in counterconditioning external substance-conditioned cues, as well as in the amelioration of everyday life craving reactivity, craving beliefs and depression. Twenty-one substance addicted individuals participated in a three-week randomized controlled trial consisting of two therapeutic sessions per week. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two study groups, systematic desensitization combined with listening to New Age relaxing music recorded in individual MP3 devices, and systematic desensitization without music. Measurements of craving in response to external substance-conditioned cues, craving beliefs, everyday craving reactivity and depression took place at baseline, post-treatment and one month after the end of treatment. No significant group differences in the outcome measures were observed between both arms of the study but within group and time results suggest that listening to New Age relaxing music significantly enhances systematic desensitization and accounts for significant reductions of craving responses to external substance-conditioned cues and of craving beliefs associated with compulsive behaviour in the music group. Our study provides the first evidence on the potential therapeutic contribution of music to cue counterconditioning in substance addiction treatment. Further investigation on the capacity of music to increase the effectiveness of systematic desensitization seems warranted.

The problem of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of systematic desensitization on test anxiety, general anxiety, and attitude toward school among fifth-grade elementary-school children.

Systematic desensitization and implosive therapy have surfaced as two of the primary behavioral therapy techniques to decrease phobic responses during the past decade. Although attempts have been made to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of these two techniques, results have been unclear because of the failure of researchers to duplicate the procedures as described by their respective originators. This experiment is designed to explore the joint effects of the therapies and level of therapeutic aspiration. A second objective, and a byproduct of the data produced in achieving the primary objective, was to analyze the goal discrepancy and attainment discrepancy scores accruing throughout the therapy sessions. Several hypotheses were advanced. Further analysis of the three criterion measures by means of ANOVA resulted in significant main sessions effects for each of the three independent analyses. Results suggest that all subjects, regardless of treatment subgroup, did make significant therapeutic gains in their approach scores, fear thermometer scores, and speed of approach scores from the first to the last session. Possible explanations for results were discussed. Furthermore, approach test absolute goal discrepancy, fear thermometer absolute goal discrepancy, approach test absolute attainment discrepancy, and fear thermometer absolute attainment discrepancy scores were calculated for all goal-setting subjects. Results from independent ANOVA suggest that the typical university student is able to make fairly accurate and consistent predictions concerning his future behavior, based on his past experiences.

Negative reinforcement can be a powerful tool for behavior analysts, yet it is often overlooked as a treatment method. Pryor (1999) outlines a method for approaching a "timid" animal using a combination of negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. When the animal stands still, the human operates a clicker, and then retreats from the animal. Gradually, the human moves closer to the animal through the clicking and retreating shaping process. Once the human is standing close enough, food may be offered as a positive reinforcer, and the negative reinforcer is canceled out. The purpose of this study was to experimentally demonstrate the click-retreat technique with cows. A multiple-baseline design across subjects was used to test this technique. Results show that the click and retreat technique was effective. Results are discussed in terms of the difference between the click-retreat technique and systematic desensitization.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are seven-transmembrane domain receptors that sense extracellular signal and activate intracellular signaling pathways. Metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) is one of the GPCRs coupled to Gi/o proteins whose Gβγ subunits stimulate G protein-gated inwardly rectifying K+ channels (GIRKs). Previous experiments demonstrated that in planar lipid bilayer both active forms of G proteins [Gα (GTPγS-stimulated) and Gβγ subunits] were required to activate GIRK channels in the absence of the receptor, but surprisingly, the Gβγ subunit alone could activate GIRK channel in the presence of GPCR. Currently, it is not clear whether GPCRs play a role beyond catalyzing the dissociation of Gα and Gβγ subunits in the presence of extracellular agonist and intracellular GTP. Here we compare the G protein-stimulated GIRK currents in the presence and absence of mGluR2 by performing whole-cell patch clamp recordings on two types of cells: a HEK293 cell line stably expressing GIRK channels (HEK/GIRK) and HEK/GIRK cells with mGluR2 expressed transiently. Our experiments revealed that mGluR2 affects the behavior of G proteins even in the absence of the agonist. We show that intracellular application of GTP activated GIRK currents, and the GTP-induced GIRK currents became greater in the presence mGluR2. We also show that desensitization kinetics of the GTP-stimulated GIRK currents became greater and faster in the presence of mGluR2.

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drug Control Student: Šárka Tomanová Supervisors: Prof. PharmDr. Martin Doležal, Ph.D., Prof. Dr. Christa Elisabeth Müller Title of diploma thesis: Development of a reliable test system for purinergic P2X3 receptors Purinergic P2X3 receptor is a ligand-gated ionotropic channel that occurs in all mammalian tissues. The highest occurrence has been observed in central and peripheral nervous system and smooth muscles, where P2X3 receptors participate in pathological disorders such as visceral and neurophatic pain, inflammatory reactions and psychiatric disorders. Compounds capable of blocking P2X3 receptor activity could be therefore used as potential drugs for treatment of these states. P2X3 receptor belongs to fast- desensitizing ionotropic channels, which makes the measurement of its activity very difficult. It was described that one point S15V mutation, in which the amino acid serine in a position 15 is replaced by amino acid valine, slows down the desensitization rate and the signal becomes easily measurable. This simple mutation may be used as an effective tool for characterization of insufficiently explored P2X3 receptor. The P2X3 S15V receptor DNA was inserted into retrovirus and,...

The purpose of this study is to clarify the role of anxiety management techniques (cue-controlled relaxation, systematic desensitization) as components of an assertiveness training program. Volunteers from Utah State University and the surround ing community were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups and a control group which were used in a pre-post change comparison design. Treatment groups consisted of: (1) cue-controlled relaxation plus assertiveness training, (2) systematic desensitization plus assertiveness training, and (3) assertiveness training extended. The control group was a delayed treatment control. All subjects were administered pre-tests with the following instruments: two self report inventories (the College Self-Expression Scale and the Rathus Assertiveness Scale) and a Behavioral Performance Test. The Behavioral Performance Test consisted of ten separate multiple stimulus role playing situations (five pre-test and five posttest) which were videotaped and rated on four performance variables: (1) verbal content, (2) percent of eye contact, (3) assertive affect, and (4) overall assertiveness. All treatment groups were exposed to four two-hour sessions of basic assertiveness training which consisted of shaping procedures (i.e. behavioral rehearsal, modeling, etc.). Treatment groups I and II were provided six additional hours of training in cue-controlled relaxation and systematic desensitization, respectively, while Group III was provided six additional hours of basic assertiveness instruction. Each of the treatment groups received equal amounts (14 hours) of training exposure over an eight-week period. At the conclusion of training, all subjects were posttested using the same measures used for pre-testing. The results of the study indicated (l) that no one treatment approach can be considered superior or inferior to the other in its effectiveness in increasing assertive behavior, and (2) that all treatment groups showed significantly greater ability to increase assertiveness than was evidenced with the control group.

This qualitative focus groups analysis examines the harmful effects of violent video games on emotions and behavior by comparing violent video game player's responses to that of non-violent video game players of the same age group. Research on the effects of video games has been done since the 70s, yet more research is needed to better understand the potentially harmful emotional and behavioral effects of playing violent games, especially from the gamers' perspectives. This thesis presents a qualitative analysis of data obtained from focus group sessions among undergraduate college students. Results of the analysis supports the presence as well as absence of violent video game effects, according to violent and non-violent video gamers' personal experiences and in their own words.