Fear information and social phobic beliefs in children: a prospective paradigm and preliminary results

This paper presents a first attempt to develop a prospective paradigm to test Rachman’s (Behav. Res. Ther. 15 (1977) 375) theory of fear acquisition for social fears. Following the prospective paradigm for animal fears developed by Field et al. (Behav. Res. Ther. 39 (2001) 1259) an attempt is made to adapt this paradigm to look at the effect of fear information in the development of social fears. A large group of normal children (N=135)who were at an age (10–13 years) at which social concerns are most pertinent were tested using this paradigm. They were given positive, negative or neutral information about three social situations: public speaking, eating in public, and meeting a new group of children. Children’s fear beliefs were measured before and after the information was given and the information was given by a teacher, a same age peer or no information was given (a control). The results indicate that although information can change social fear beliefs it is dependent upon the type of social activity and who provides the information. The implications of these initial results for our understanding of both the role of fear information in the development of social fear beliefs, and the limitations of this current paradigm are discussed

Group Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Preliminary Outcomes

A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a 7-week group behavioral therapy program for adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Group sessions included therapist-assisted exposure and response prevention exercises, information regarding OCD, and the extensive use of behavioral homework assignments. An additional family session was conducted to educate families about OCD and to encourage participation in the group member's behavioral program. At the end of the group, all clients showed improvement on their Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale scores; 6-month follow-up revealed further improve ment. Our findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy of group behavioral therapy for adolescents with OCD.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68943/2/10.1177_104973159800800601.pd

Using behavior-analytic implicit tests to assess sexual interests among normal and sex-offender populations

The development of implicit tests for measuring biases and behavioral predispositions is a recent development within psychology. While such tests are usually researched within a social-cognitive paradigm, behavioral researchers have also begun to view these tests as potential tests of conditioning histories, including in the sexual domain. The objective of this paper is to illustrate the utility of a behavioral approach to implicit testing and means by which implicit tests can be built to the standards of behavioral psychologists. Research findings illustrating the short history of implicit testing within the experimental analysis of behavior are reviewed. Relevant parallel and overlapping research findings from the field of social cognition and on the Implicit Association Test are also outlined. New preliminary data obtained with both normal and sex offender populations are described in order to illustrate how behavior-analytically conceived implicit tests may have potential as investigative tools for assessing histories of sexual arousal conditioning and derived stimulus associations. It is concluded that popular implicit tests are likely sensitive to conditioned and derived stimulus associations in the history of the test-taker rather than 'unconscious cognitions', per se