ABSTRACTS

Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder: Origins and Influences

Richard M. Suinn, Colorado State University

This 1993 AABT presidential address offers a brief survey of some factors associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Highlighted are findings regarding the influence of biological, psychological and cultural factors. The magnitude of the influence of biological factors is illustrated in research on morbidity risk, twin concordance, chromosome localization, brain glucose metabolism, ventricle size, smooth eye movement impairment, and dopamine function. The psychological evidence that is presented emphasizes the data on Expressed Emotion (EE) and includes discussion of cross-cultural research findings. The article concludes with the position that research on origins and influences must examine multiple factors, and offers an attempt to integrate the various findings.



Current Directions in Assessment of Abused Children: Introduction to the Special Series

Lizette Peterson, University of Missouri-Columbia

Three innovative articles in the relatively underexplored area of assessment of child maltreatment demonstrate the range of potential contributions that can be made by behavioral scientists to this area. Diagnosis of child sexual abuse, assessment relevant to termination of parental rights, and measurement of the mediational role of parenting behaviors on the relationship between maternal emotional difficulties and child adjustment are offered as compelling examples of the future that behavioral assessment can play in this rapidly developing field.



A Procedure for Evaluating Young Children Suspected of Being Sexually Abused

Nancy D. Vogeltanz and Ronald S. Drabman, University of Mississippi School of Medicine

Research on the suggestibility of young children has shown that certain interviewer behaviors (e.g., leading questions and suggestive comments) may distort or contaminate a child's memory for the original event or induce the child to change his or her statement about the original event. In light of these research findings and the current legal and public scrutiny over interviewer methods in suspected cases of child sexual abuse, a procedure for reducing suggestibility effects is presented. Foremost in the procedure is the use of a two-person interview team: an intake person and an unbiased interviewer (i.e., an interviewer with no prior knowledge of case details or allegations). It is argued that such a procedure decreases evaluator bias and child suggestibility effects, and ultimately provides better legal protection for the child through increased statement validity. A case illustrating this procedure is presented.



Child Maltreatment and Termination of Parental Rights: Can Behavioral Research Help Solomon?

Sandra T. Azar, Corina L. Benjet, Clark University, Geri S. Fugrmann, and Linda Cavallero, University of Massachusetts Medical Center

Termination of parental rights is one of the most important decisions that the legal system undertakes regarding children's lives. Judges who are called upon to make this decision have increasingly looked to mental health professionals to provide scientific information to aid them in decision making. This paper argues that caution needs to be exercised as professionals approach this task, given the limitations of our current theory and data base. Using cognitive theory, places where personal or societal biases can enter evaluations and testimony are highlighted. Behavioral research, it is argued, has much to offer, given its emphasis on a functional approach to understanding behavior. The ways in which behaviorally oriented assessment can be of use to the legal system around this question are outlined and a research agenda for the field is offered.



Parenting Style as a Mediating Link Between Parental Emotional Health and Adjustment of Maltreated Children

Mary E. Haskett, Lynne W. Myers, Virginia E. Pirrello, and Amelia O. Dombalis, North Carolina State University

The roles of parenting style and parents' emotional health status on children's social-emotional functioning were examined. Approaches to child-rearing were expected to mediate the impact of parental emotional health on child adjustment. The sample consisted of 55 parent-child dyads characterized by child maltreatment. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that both aspects of parental functioning, emotional health status and child-rearing style, predicted child adjustment. However, further analyses yielded support for the mediation model; the impact of emotional health on child adjustment was significantly reduced when the effects of parenting style were controlled. Results suggest that parental approaches to child-rearing play a key role in shaping children's social-emotional functioning, with parents' emotional health status playing a more indirect role.



Portraying Alcohol Treatment Outcomes: Different Yardsticks of Success

Mark B. Sobell, Linda C. Sobell, Addiction Research Foundation and University of Toronto, and Douglas R. Gavin, Addiction Research Foundation and York University

An important issue in the alcohol field is how to present treatment outcome findings in a way that conveys the nature of the full range of outcomes (i.e., how individuals fared). Results should also be presented so as to be readily understood by practitioners. To illustrate how treatment outcome reports can be enriched by graphic portrayals of outcome findings, previously unpublished results from a study of Guided Self-Change treatment for problem drinkers are first presented in a traditional manner. Then, supplemental graphic methods of data reporting, including the use of frequency distributions and scatter plots, are presented. These portrayals are shown to address issues that receive little attention in reports limited to statistical analyses. It is also shown that reported success rates, "yardsticks of success," are highly dependent on small changes in the criteria used to define success.



Correspondence Between Telephone and Written Assessments of Physical Violence in Marriage

Erika Lawrence, University of California, Los Angeles, Richard E. Heyman, and K. Daniel O'Leary, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Clinic couples (N = 50) participated in a study examining the consistency of reported rates of aggression via telephone and written administrations of the Conflict Tactics Scale. Both husbands' and wives' reports of physical aggression were highly consistent between the telephone and written assessments. Reports of wife-to-husband aggression were significantly more consistent than reports of husband-to-wife aggression. As expected, wives reported significantly more husband-to-wife aggression than their husbands reported. Generally, there were no significant sex differences on reports of wife-to-husband aggression. The implications of these findings for various studies are discussed.



Sexual Arousal and Arousability to Pedophilic Stimuli in a Community Sample of Normal Men

Gordon C. Nagayama Hall, Richard Hirschman, and Lori L. Oliver, Kent State University

Self-reported and physiological sexual arousal to adult and pedophilic stimuli were examined among 80 men drawn from a community sample of volunteers. Over ¼ of the current subjects self-reported pedophilic interest or exhibited penile arousal to pedophilic stimuli that equalled or exceeded arousal to adult stimuli. The hypothesis that arousal to pedophilic stimuli is a function of general sexual arousability factors was supported in the physiological data. Subjects who were highly arousable, insofar as they were unable to voluntarily and completely inhibit their sexual arousal, were more sexually aroused by all stimuli than were subjects who were able to inhibit their sexual arousal. Thus, arousal to pedophilic stimuli does not necessarily correspond with pedophilic behavior.


Cognitive Behavioral Versus Exposure Only Treatment for Social Phobia: A Meta-Analysis

Ulrike Feske, Agoraphobia and Anxiety Treatment Center, P.C., Bala Cynwyd, PA, and Dianne L. Chambless, The American University

A meta-analytic comparison of studies testing cognitive behavior therapy (CBT; n = 12) and exposure treatment (n = 9) for social phobia indicates that the treatment modalities are equally effective. Compared to exposure, CBT did not lead to greater pretest-posttest or pretest-follow-up improvement on self-report measures of social anxiety, cognitive symptoms, or depressed/anxious mood. Length of treatment was generally unrelated to outcome, although a larger number of exposure sessions produced better results on measures of social anxiety at posttest.



Effects of Dietary Instruction and Sodium Excretion Feedback in Hypertension Clinic Patients

Patricia M. Dubbert, William C. Cushman, Jackson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Edward F. Meydrech, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Abby K. Rowland, and Patricia Maury, Jackson Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Black and White patients from a BA Medical Center hypertension clinic serving a rural, elderly population were randomly assigned to one of three interventions : a) one session of individualized instruction for 87 mmol/day reduced sodium diet; b) one session of 87 mmol/day reduced sodium diet instruction plus a means of estimating urine electrolyte excretion at home; or c) instructions to maintain the usual diet until reevaluated (control). At 3-month follow-up, reduction in 24-hour urine sodium excretion was significantly greater in participants receiving dietary instructions with feedback than in controls. White participants with access to feedback had the greatest reduction in urine sodium. Results support the feasibility of significant sodium reduction in hypertensive patients following a single intervention session.



Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Facilitate Benzodiazepine Discontinuation Among Hypnotic-Dependent Patients With Insomnia

Charles M. Morin, Universite Laval, Cheryl A. Colecchi, William D. Ling, and Rakesh K. Sood, Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University

Five hypnotic-dependent insomnia patients received cognitive behavior therapy combined with a supervised medication tapering schedule in a multiple baseline design. Four participants discontinued medication within 6-8 weeks and the fifth decreased drug intake by 90% over baseline. At the 3-month follow-up, 3 patients remained drug-free, 1 patient was using a hypnotic less than once a week, and 1 patient continued nightly use of a very small dose of hypnotic drug. Sleep patterns deteriorated from baseline to the end of the medication withdrawal phase, with sleep efficiency decreasing by 9% according to sleep diaries (83% to 74%) and by 6% based on polysomnographic assessment (78% to 72%). The 3-month follow-up data showed a reverse in the pattern of sleep deterioration, with sleep efficiency returning near or above baseline level. These findings suggest that cognitive behavior therapy, combined with a supervised medication taper schedule, is beneficial for the management of drug-dependent insomnia.



Body Image Disturbance, Memory Bias, and Body Dysphoria: Effects of Negative Mood Induction

Jeffrey D. Baker, Southeastern Louisiana University, Donald A. Williamson, Louisiana State University, and Connie Sylve, Southeastern Louisiana University

This study examined the effects of negative mood induction on body image and recall bias for fatness stimuli in women of normal weight with high body dysphoria. The experimental design contrasted subjects scoring high and low on a measure of body dysphoria. One half of the subjects in each group were administered a negative mood induction procedure. Dependent variables were a) body size estimation measures, b) body dysphoria, and c) recall for fatness, thinness, and depressive words. The negative mood induction resulted in increased current body size estimation and body dysphoria. A free recall bias for fatness stimuli was found in subjects high in body dysphoria. Thus, current body size estimation and body dysphoria were found to be reactive to negative mood states, whereas, ideal body size and recall for fatness stimuli were not affected by the negative mood state.