No description available.

The present study examined the prevalence and characteristics of skin picking in a college population in the southeast. Undergraduates completed a battery of self-report inventories that included the Skin Picking Inventory – Abbreviated, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Eating Disorders Inventory – 2, Padua Inventory, Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test, Dissociative Experiences Scale, and a short demographics form. Only 1% of the sample population met the full criteria for pathological skin picking and 6.7% met the subclinical definition. As a result of their skin picking, all participants in the subclinical group reported significant distress or impairment in some area of functioning. Interestingly, the current subclinical sample included more males (60%) than females (40%). Higher levels of anxiety, depression, dissociative experiences, and alcohol abuse were associated with skin picking. The responses to the Skin Picking Inventory – Abbreviated were analyzed and characteristics of skin picking are reported.

No description available.

This study sought to assess the effects of pairing a neutral stimulus with a reprimand contingent on occurrences of two topographies of problem behavior. Using a multiple baseline withdrawal with a nested multi-element design, contingencies were first applied to eye poking and, subsequently, to a second behavior, skin picking. In each case, the participant wore wristbands (a previously neutral stimulus) during treatment sessions. Results indicated that the reprimands were effective in decreasing both behaviors. In addition, when skin picking resulted in reprimands, eye poking also decreased. However, when reprimands were contingent on eye-poking, the effects did not appear to generalize to skin-picking. Some possible accounts for this asymmetrical pattern of generalization are discussed.