The purpose of this study was to determine, under experimental conditions, which of two treatments (overt or covert rehearsal in conjunction with instruction, live modeling and reinforcement) would help chronic schizophrenic undifferentiated type inpatients learn new assertive behaviors (volume of speech and gaze) and transfer them to unfamiliar situations in the laboratory.The research was conducted at Dayton Mental Health Center, Dayton, Ohio. The sample population consisted of 30 subjects who were randomly divided into three groups of 10 subjects each. The groups were Treatment I (overt rehearsal), Treatment II (covert rehearsal) and No-Treatment (control). All subjects volunteered for the study. They were screened with the Wolpe-Lazarus Assertiveness Training Questionnaire; however, the results were discarded because many scored lower than the desired range. Subjects were videotaped at the end of the study.The two treatment groups were conducted twice weekly for a total of eight sessions in one month. Each session lasted about 45 minutes. Positive reinforcers such as cookies and cigarettes were provided to encourage attendance. The group leaders were two pairs of male and female psychology assistants and trainees. All were qualified for their randomly selected tasks. The treatment consisted of eight behavior situations designed by the writer based on the Behavior Assertiveness Test - Revised (BAT-R). Attendance was imperfect during the sessions as some subjects occasionally resisted groups. Following completion of the treatment, only 27 subjects accepted to be videotaped for testing; three refused to be taped.A posttest-only design was used in this study. Posttesting consisted of videotaped responses to a confederate who presented four trained and four untrained situations. Two qualified psychologists collected data by rating the subjects' behaviors on the video tape. The specific behaviors, volume of speech and gaze, were rated on the Qualitative Rating Scale for both the trained and untrained situations across all three groups. The effects of treatment were analyzed through several statistical steps:1. Three t-tests on pairs were used to analyze means between trained and untrained situations for both treatment groups and the No-Treatment group.2. Two separate one-way analyses of variance were computed on volume of speech and on gaze across all three groups. Scores of trained and untrained situations were summed for each variable.3. Four separate one-way analyses of variance were computed for volume of speech and gaze in each of the trained and untrained situations across all three groups.The results were not statistically significant at the .05 level. Thus, there were no differences between the treatment groups and the No-Treatment group with respect to untrained situations. Also, there were no differences between treatment groups and the No-Treatment group in the learning of new behaviors. These findings did not lend efficacy to the treatments or instruments used in this study. It is possible that those treatments may not succeed with lower functioning subjects such as those used in this sample.Recommendations for future research were to include longer treatment conditions and to use more sensitive training and testing instruments. Other suggestions included familiarization of subjects with videotaping prior to posttesting, inclusion of more variables and the use of pre-post measures as well as follow up measures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/176873 |
| Date | January 1984 |
| Creators | Hopkins, Lesley Marrash |
| Contributors | Krause, Frank H. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 3, vii, 161 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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