Biomedical subjects

J P Forsyth

Publications and source records attributed to J P Forsyth.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

A tale of three blind men on the proper subject matter of clinical science and practice: commentary on Plaud's behaviorism vs. Ilardi and Feldman's cognitive neuroscience.

Plaud (J Clin Psychol 57, 1089-1102, 1109-1111, 1119-1120) and Ilardi and Feldman (J Clin Psychol 57, 1067-1088, 1103-1107, 1113-1117, 1121-1124) argue for two very different approaches to clinical science and practice (i.e., behavior analysis and cognitive neuroscience, respectively). We comment on the assets and liabilities of both perspectives as presented and attempt to achieve some semblance of balance between the three protagonists embroiled in this current debate. The vision of clinical science we articulate is more ecumenical and evolutionary, rather than paradigmatic and revolutionary. As we see it, the problem clinical psychology faces is much larger than the authors let on; namely, how best to make clinical science meaningful and relevant to practitioners, consumers, the general public, and the behavioral health-care community. Clinical psychology's immediate internal problem is not pluralism with regard to subject matter, worldview, methodology, or school of thought, but pluralism in clinical psychologists' adherence to a scientific epistemology as the only legitimate form of clinical psychology. On this latter point, we still have a very long way to go.

Behaviorism↗

PubMed2000

Anxiogenic effects of repeated administrations of 20% CO2-enriched air: stability within sessions and habituation across time.

Increasingly carbon dioxide-enriched air is being used as an aversive unconditioned stimulus in laboratory examinations of anxiety. Yet, little is known about the stability of the autonomic and subjective effects of this stimulus across repeated inhalations and sessions. We examined whether repeated administrations of high concentrations of CO2-enriched air produced either habituation, stability, or sensitization across several autonomic and self-report indices within one session (Experiment 1) and then several sessions (Experiment 2) of exposure. Results suggest that non-clinical participants do not habituate to CO2 within sessions, but do show habituation on cardiac and subjective report of anxiety across sessions. Individual difference factors such as anxiety sensitivity and suffocation fear seem to moderate some of these effects, including self-reported distress and anxiety in response to the challenge. These results support the use of CO2 as a panicogenic aversive stimulus in laboratory models of fear onset and in clinical settings for interoceptive exposure treatments of panic.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Evoking analogue subtypes of panic attacks in a nonclinical population using carbon dioxide-enriched air.

The increasing recognition that panic attacks are heterogeneous phenomena necessitates better and more objective criteria to define and examine what constitutes a panic attack. The central aim of the present study was to classify subtypes of panic attacks (i.e. prototypic, cognitive, and non-fearful) in a nonclinical sample (N = 96) based on the concordance/discordance between subjective and physiological responding to multiple inhalations of 20 and 13% CO2-enriched air. Results show that a substantial proportion of this nonclinical sample (55.2%) responded to the CO2 challenge in a manner consistent with clinical and research definitions of different subtypes of panic attacks. The implications of this dimensional approach for discriminating subtypes of panic in the laboratory are discussed as a means to better understand the phenomenology and nature of panic attacks.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Has behavior therapy drifted from its experimental roots? A survey of publication trends in mainstream behavioral journals.

In recent years it has been suggested that behavior therapy, characterized in part by single-subject designs and an idiographic approach to addressing practical problems, is drifting from its experimental roots. To examine trends in behavior therapy, and to provide an objective index of drift, two archival studies were conducted to identify publication trends in the use of single-subject designs vs. group designs, as well as citations to select basic behavioral science journals. In Study 1, articles appearing in Behavior Therapy from 1970 through 1996 were reviewed and categorized in terms of type of article, design, and citations to experimental journals. Findings from Study 1 suggest declining publication trends in single-subject designs and citations to experimental journals in Behavior Therapy, with a modest increase in the use of group designs over the period. Study 2 was designed to replicate and extend our initial findings by surveying three behavioral journals in addition to Behavior Therapy using the PsychLit database and years covering 1974 through 1996: Behaviour Research and Therapy, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, and Behavior Modification. Consistent with Study 1, results of Study 2 showed declining trends in single-subject designs for all mainstream behavioral journals. The significance of these findings in light of the argument that behavior therapy has drifted from its experimental roots is discussed, with emphasis on contingencies that may be responsible for the trends observed.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed1999

The absence of relation between anxiety sensitivity and fear conditioning using 20% versus 13% CO2-enriched air as unconditioned stimuli.

Anxiety sensitivity has been implicated as a risk factor in the development and maintenance of anxiety and fear-related disorders. Indeed, persons who score high on the anxiety sensitivity index (ASI) are generally more responsive to biological challenge procedures such as CO2-inhalation that directly evoke the feared bodily events. One would expect, therefore, that persons high on anxiety sensitivity should be more conditionable and hence more likely to acquire fears, than persons low on anxiety sensitivity when CO2-enriched air is used as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Undergraduates (N = 96), scoring high, medium and low on the ASI received 8 repeated 20-s inhalations of either 20 or 13% CO2-enriched air (UCSs) paired with one of three CSs differing in fear-relevance (snake, heart and flowers). Several autonomic and self-report measures were assessed. Contrary to expectation, electrodermal and cardiac conditioned responses failed to discriminate between ASI groups. Yet, SUDS and severity and frequency of DSM-IV panic symptoms varied reliably as a function of anxiety sensitivity. Overall, the findings suggest that anxiety sensitivity is related to subjective fear-related complaints, but not autonomic responding and conditionability. We discuss clinical and theoretical implications for understanding the place fo anxiety sensitivity in fear onset.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

Devices and methods for administering carbon dioxide-enriched air in experimental and clinical settings.

Although researchers successfully have used carbon dioxide-enriched air in experimental and clinical preparations, its functional properties may differ across laboratories due to procedural differences. Additionally, current procedures may be too simplistic for more complex experimental designs. To address these issues, we present three devices for administering carbon dioxide-enriched air. Although these devices differ concerning variables such as mode of operation, ease and cost of implementation, and complexity of experimental designs that may be undertaken, a reasonable level of standardization may be achieved because the inhalations experienced by participants are functionally equivalent across devices. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of these devices regarding experimental panic provocation and aversive conditioning preparations.

Carbon Dioxide↗

PubMed1998

Response intensity in content-specific fear conditioning comparing 20% versus 13% CO2-enriched air as unconditioned stimuli.

This study examined the relation between the intensity of CO2-induced psychophysiological responses and content-specific fear conditioning. Sex-balanced groups of undergraduates (N = 96) were assigned to 1 of 3 conditioned stimuli (CSs) differing in fear-relevance, and within each CS, to either 20% or 13% CO2-enriched air (unconditioned stimuli [UCS]). Several psychophysiological measures were assessed before, during, and following conditioning phases. Consistent with expectation, electrodermal and cardiac conditioned responses were larger and more resistant to extinction when associated with fear-relevant compared with fear-irrelevant stimuli, and this overall effect of fear-relevance was more robust to the more intense UCS. Severity and frequency of DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed.) panic symptoms also varied reliably with UCS intensity, and women reported more distress and symptoms than men. Overall, the findings suggest that content-specific fear conditioning is mediated, in part, by the intensity of the bodily response. The authors discuss clinical and theoretical implications for understanding fear onset in the absence of obvious environmental pain or trauma.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Bridging barriers between paradigms: making cognitive concepts relevant for behavior analysis.

We sketch the cognitive-behavioral debate and outline the purpose of the subsequent articles. Together, these articles constitute a symposium designed to show how behavior analysts can learn from the work of cognitivists and cognitive-behavior therapists. This is done by interpreting some cognitive concepts in terms that are familiar and acceptable to behavior analysts. When behavior analysts can understand these concepts in their own terms, perhaps they can incorporate them in their language about behavior and their work with clients.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed1997

The behavior analytic perspective: its nature, prospects, and limitations for behavior therapy.

Behavior analysis is defined as a natural science approach to behavior--with both basic and applied branches--and contrasted with cognitive psychology. Behavior analysis is described as an integrated science that views a person's interactions with the environment as selecting certain behaviors--or rather, environment-behavior relations--making them more probable, given certain subsequent stimulus situations. It seeks an understanding that promotes effective action, which fits the clinical interests of behavior therapy. It promotes persistent searching for environmental causes, which has resulted in a remarkable range of successes, clinical and other. We explore the reasons that all behavior therapists are not behavior analysts and suggest needed future developments.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed1997

A behavior analytic interpretation of attributions in the context of behavior therapy.

Clients often provide reasons, justifications, and explanations (i.e., attributions) about the causes of their problems and what they believe needs to be done to ameliorate them. Behavior therapists also frequently generate hypotheses about causal factors contributing to client behavior problems. We discuss the function of attributing in the context of behavior therapy and interpret the cognitive construct of attributions from a behavior analytic perspective as a verbal act of relating otherwise arbitrary events with origins in a social-verbal community. The applied implications of our interpretive analysis of attributions and their role in client problems suggest different therapeutic strategies.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed1997

Unearthing the nonassociative origins of fears and phobias: a rejoinder.

In recent years numerous disagreements and controversies have ensued over the place of Pavlovian or associative conditioning in the etiology of specific phobias and other fear-related clinical syndromes. A major source of disagreement emerged from clinical observations suggesting that environmental aversive conditioning events could not be identified for many specific phobias. Part of the controversy can also be traced to disagreements over what constitutes a direct conditioning event and over what exactly is being conditioned in phobic acquisition. More fundamental, however, is confusion over the critical process variables involved in the conditioning etiology of human phobias and fear-related clinical syndromes. We address some of the recent controversies surrounding associative conditioning accounts of phobic onset in light of recent proposals that nonassociative factors account for the etiology of many specific phobias. The viability of the nonassociative position is questioned and alternatives are suggested that emphasize the complex and multifaceted processes involved in the etiology of specific phobias.

Association Learning↗

PubMed1996

"Cleaning-up cognition" in triple-response fear assessment through individualized functional behavior analysis.

Improvements in behavioral assessment spurred by the triple-response concept have been overshadowed by a preoccupation with content of assessment and a lack of regard for the context of assessment. The aims of this article are to (a) clarify the imprecise use of the verbal-subjective-cognitive mode and to reinterpret cognitive events based on evidence and methods derived from clinical behavior analysis, (b) discuss the limitations of the triple-response assessment framework, and (c) suggest an alternative functional idiographic approach to assessment and treatment that may direct attention toward behavior relations understood functionally within the context of environmental contingencies; an approach that once was the hallmark of behavior therapy and the basis for therapeutic interventions.

Agoraphobia↗

PubMed1996

Heart-focused and general illness fears in relation to parental medical history and separation experiences.

Disease fears, such as excessive heart-focused anxiety (HFA), are quite common, and yet their origin is only poorly understood. Explanatory models of HFA have emphasized observational learning, parental cardiac disease, and the effects of separation experiences as key ethological factors. The purpose of this study was: (a) to provide descriptive information on the prevalence of HFA in an unselect sample of younger adults; and (b) to investigate the relation of HFA and general illness fears to parental medical history and different types of separation experiences. 421 undergraduate students completed the Cardiac Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ), Illness Attitude Scales, Parental Medical History Questionnaire, and Separation Anxiety and Experience Questionnaire. Approximately 2-3% of our sample reported excessive HFA, and both illness attitudes and parental cardiac disease predicted 23% of total CAQ variance. Subjects with high CAQ scores reported more parental cardiac and other medical problems than low HFA subjects. Although high and low HFA subjects did not differ in terms of number of personal intimate relationships that ended in separation, subjects with separated parents reported more HFA than persons with nonseparated parents. We discuss the relevance of these findings for our understanding of HFA.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Cognitive vs. contextual causation: different world views but perhaps not irreconcilable.

In this commentary, we address some of the divisive issues between cognitive theorists and behavior analysts concerning the aims and goals of science and differing views of causality. We suggest that evidence for the causal status of cognition has been inconclusive, largely due to the fact that most of this research can be framed in terms of environmental causes. We examine (1) what we can consider as causes of behavior and (2) how we can manipulate these causes in therapy. We conclude that a rapprochement between cognitivists and behavior analysts will require more careful description of the multiple causal pathways responsible for experimental and therapeutic effects.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed1993

Unifying the field: developing an integrative paradigm for behavior therapy.

The limitations of early conditioning models and treatments have led many behavior therapists to abandon conditioning principles and replace them with loosely defined cognitive theories and treatments. Systematic theory extensions to human behavior, using new concepts and processes derived from and built upon the basic principles, could have prevented the divisive debates over whether psychological dysfunctions are the results of conditioning or cognition and whether they should be treated with conditioning or cognitive techniques. Behavior therapy could also benefit from recent advances in experimental cognitive psychology that provide objective behavioral methods of studying dysfunctional processes. We suggest a unifying paradigm for explaining abnormal behavior that links and integrates different fields of study and processes that are frequently believed to be incompatible or antithetical such as biological vulnerability variables, learned behavioral repertoires, and that also links historical and current antecedents of the problem. An integrative paradigmatic behavioral approach may serve a unifying function in behavior therapy (a) by promoting an understanding of the dysfunctional processes involved in different disorders and (b) by helping clinicians conduct functional analyses that lead to theory-based, individualized, and effective treatments.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Assessing the perceived predictability of anxiety-related events: a report on the perceived predictability index.

Predictability, or lack thereof, is believed to play a critical role in the development and maintenance of anxiety, with unpredictability being associated with heightened levels of anxious and fearful responding. Despite the potential importance of predictability in theoretical accounts of emotional dysregulation, currently no standardized assessment instrument exists to assess predictability perceptions for anxiety-related events. The present series of four investigations report on an initial attempt to develop a self-report instrument (i.e., Perceived Predictability Index, PPI) that can measure predictability perceptions for the occurrence, duration, and termination of anxiety-related events. Initial item selection and factor structure of the instrument was based on a large sample of participants and yielded a two-factor solution: (1) prediction of anxiety-related environmental events and (2) prediction of internal events. Our subsequent studies show that the PPI possesses adequate levels of internal consistency and temporal stability over time. Additionally, the PPI demonstrated adequate divergent and convergent validity relative to other standard anxiety and fear measures. The internal dimension of the scale also demonstrated predictive validity for emotional responding during a biological challenge test. We discuss these findings in relation to the role of perceived predictability in the study of anxious and fearful responding, and offer directions for future research.

Adolescent↗