PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

S H Spence

Publications and source records attributed to S H Spence.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1991

What is the revised Fear Survey Schedule for Children measuring?

This study was designed to investigate parameters of children's fear in terms of frequency of fearful thoughts and avoidance behaviour. It is suggested that current measures such as the Fear Survey Schedule for Children--Revised (FSSC-R) do not assess fearful behaviour in the sense of the occurrence of fearful responding in daily life, but rather reflect a negative affective response to the thought of occurrence of specific events. A modified version of the FSSC-R examined the frequency of fearful thoughts/feelings and avoidance activities amongst 376 children aged 7-12 yr. Contrary to predictions, it was found that children reported high levels of fearful thoughts and avoidance behaviour to those items identified as the greatest fears on the FSSC-R, namely fears of injury, illness, death and danger. These events were typically of low probability (e.g. earthquakes) and the question was raised as to what children are responding to when they are asked to rate their fearful responses. The same pattern of results was reflected in older compared to younger children. It is suggested that even when children are asked to rate frequency of fearful thoughts or avoidance behaviour, they tend to respond to fear questionnaire items according to their affective response to the image or thought of the stimulus situation rather than their actual fear responses. Both the FSSC-R and the modified version were found to discriminate between teacher nominated high and low fearful children and to correlate significantly with a self report measure of anxiety.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Cognitive-behaviour therapy in the treatment of chronic, occupational pain of the upper limbs: a 2 yr follow-up.

Nineteen Ss who experienced chronic, occupational pain of the upper limbs and who had previously completed a programme of either individual or group cognitive-behaviour therapy were followed up 2 yr later. Significant improvements on measures of depression, anxiety, coping strategies and interference in daily living were found following treatment. Such improvements were not evident for the waiting list control Ss and no difference was found between group vs individual applications of therapy. A 2 yr follow-up, significant improvements from pre-treatment levels were evident for depression, coping strategies, significant other report of disability, self monitored pain and distress caused by pain. While there was generally little evidence of relapse, a significant decline from post-treatment levels was found for the individual therapy condition compared to the group therapy condition on measures of self monitored pain and interference caused by pain. Since post-treatment levels tended to be somewhat superior for the individual therapy condition, the overall finding at 2 yr follow-up was of minimal difference in outcome for group vs individual forms of cognitive-behaviour therapy. Despite improvements from pre-treatment levels, the vast majority of Ss still reported significant and distressing levels of pain at 2 yr follow-up.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Effectiveness of booster sessions in the maintenance and enhancement of treatment gains following assertion training.

Forty-six unassertive Ss were randomly assigned to assertion training (AT) or waiting-list control conditions. Ss receiving AT showed significantly greater improvements from pretreatment to post-treatment on 8 out of 10 questionnaire measures of assertiveness and 3 out of 5 direct behavioral observation measures compared with the waiting-list group. 27 Ss who had completed the AT program were then randomly assigned to 1 of 3 booster conditions, namely, monthly assertion training boosters (ATB), monthly attention placebo boosters (APB), or no boosters (NB). At the 3-month follow-up there was minimal difference between booster conditions. By the 6-month follow-up the results favored the ATB condition. Although the APB procedure was effective in preventing the relapse shown by the NB subjects, the ATB group actually showed further improvements on some measures of assertiveness during the 6-month follow-up period.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Cognitive-behavior therapy in the management of chronic, occupational pain of the upper limbs.

Forty five subjects who experienced chronic, occupational pain of the upper limbs were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; individual cognitive-behaviour therapy (ICBT), group cognitive-behaviour therapy (GCBT) and WLC. Significant benefits were found for both ICBT and GCBT on measures of anxiety, depression, coping strategies, impact on daily living, pain and distress caused by pain. These gains were not evident in the WLC and were maintained at the 6 month follow-up Minimal difference was found between ICBT and GCBT on measures of pain and psychopathology, although client evaluation ratings at the end of treatment favoured ICBT.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

An examination of the relationship between childhood depression and social competence amongst primary school children.

Forty-three primary school children who scored in the clinical range of the Children's Depression Inventory were compared with 43 children who were categorized as fearful but not depressed and a control group of 43 children who were classed as nondepressed-nonfearful. Subjects were matched across groups on the basis of grade and sex. The analyses were performed twice, initially with a depressed sample that excluded any depressed-fearful children and again with a depressed group that included such children. The results revealed that, independent of whether the depressed category included children who were also fearful, the depressed group reported lower levels of assertiveness and greater submissiveness, less adequate social skills performance, received lower ratings of peer popularity, fewer positive nominations from peer sociometry and more negative nominations. Depressed children were much more likely to be rejected or isolated by their peers than were their fearful or control counterparts.

Child↗
PubMed1986

Responsiveness of isolated versus rejected children to social skills training.

Fifty children aged from 7 to 12 yr were identified as either isolated or rejected by peers on the basis of sociometric nomination. Subjects were randomly assigned to either social skills training (SST), attention placebo control (APC) or no-treatment control (NTC). Social skills training was not found to produce beneficial effects for either isolates or rejects over and above any changes within the APC or NTC groups. Rejected children in all experimental conditions showed minimal improvement over time whereas isolated children in all groups tended to show improvements in social competence.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1981

Differences in social skills performance between institutionalized juvenile male offenders and a comparable group of boys without offence records.

Eighteen institutionalized young male offenders and 18 boys without criminal records, comparable in terms of age, academic performance and social background, were videotaped during a five-minute standardized interview with a previously unknown adult. The videotapes were then subjected to a behavioural analysis of 13 responses which had previously been suggested to be important social skill components. The tapes were also shown to six independent judges who rated each tape in terms of social skills performance, social anxiety, friendliness, and employability. The offender group was found to differ significantly from the non-offender group in terms of the level of eye-contact, head movements, amount spoken, fiddling movements, and gross body movements. The offender group was also rated in significantly less favourably terms on the scales of social skills performance, social anxiety, and employability, compared to the non-offender groups. No significant difference was found in terms of friendliness ratings. Correlation analyses between the specific behavioural measures and the subjective rating scales revealed statistically significant associations between six of the 13 behavioural measures and one or more of the subjective rating scales. The provides some indication of the type of responses important in determining the impression made by adolescent male in an interview situation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Validation of social skills of adolescent males in an interview conversation with a previously unknown adult.

Seventy convicted young male offenders were videotaped during a 5-min standardized interview with a previously unknown adult. In order to determine the social validity of the behavioral components of social interaction for this population, measures of 13 behaviors were obtained from the tapes. These measures were then correlated with ratings of friendliness, social anxiety, social skills performance, and employability made by four independent adult judges from the same tapes. It was found that measures of eye contact and verbal initiations were correlated significantly with all four criterion rating scales. The frequencies of smiling and speech dysfluencies were both significantly correlated with ratings of friendliness and employability. The amount spoken was found to be a significant predictor of social skills performance whereas the frequency of head movements influenced judgments of social anxiety. The latency of response was negatively correlated with social skills and employability ratings and the frequency of question-asking and interruptions correlated significantly with friendliness, social skills, and employability ratings. Finally, the levels of gestures, gross body movements, and attention feedback responses were not found to influence judgments on any of the criterion scales. The implications of the study for selection of targets for social skills training for adolescent male offenders are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The relative efficacy and treatment distress of EMDR and a cognitive-behavior trauma treatment protocol in the amelioration of posttraumatic stress disorder.

The growing body of research into treatment efficacy with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has, by-and-large, been limited to evaluating treatment components or comparing a specific treatment against wait-list controls. This has led to two forms of treatment, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT), vying for supremacy without a controlled study actually comparing them. The present research compared EMDR and a CBT variant (Trauma Treatment Protocol; TTP) in the treatment of PTSD, via a controlled clinical study using therapists trained in both procedures. It was found that TTP was both statistically and clinically more effective in reducing pathology related to PTSD and that this superiority was maintained and, in fact, became more evident by 3-month follow-up. These results are discussed in terms of past research. Directions for future research are suggested.

Abreaction↗