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After testing with the Controlled Repression-Sensitization Scale, 38 alcoholics were found to place greater reliance on sensitizing defenses than nonalcoholics. A test of the Defense Mechanism Inventory found no differences between alcoholics and controls.
13 chronic primary insomniacs and a matched group of normal sleepers were studied in terms of their level of novelty-seeking, ability to fantasize, and cognitive rumination. All-night electroencephalographic patterns confirmed insomniac-control sleep differences. Chronic insomniacs differed from normal sleepers on a measure of cognitive activity as a defense pattern (Byrne's Repression-Sensitization Scale) but did not differ on measures of need for cognitive stimulation (Pearson's Internal and External Cognition Scales), ability to fantasize (Betts' imagery task), or preference for fantasy (Pearson's Internal and External Sensation Scales).
The perceptual behavior of process and reactive schizophrenics under neutral and stress conditions suggests an hypothesis that the former employ a repressive ego defensive mode in these conditions while reactives employ a sensitization mode. The Repression-Sensitization scale of the MMPI was administered to a sample of hospitalized process and reactive schizophrenics to test the hypothesis. Scores of the process group did not indicate modal repression. Reactives' scores were, however, well toward the sensitization pole and significantly higher than those of the process group. Results support the concept of a sensitization defensive mode as a characteristic dimension in the etiology of reactive schizophrenia.
The stability of tension judgments among males and females who were either taking or not taking combination low-progestin oral contraceptive pills was investigated. Judgments of interpersonal pressure in videotaped vignettes provided tension measures. The vignettes were presented in two sessions separated by two weeks. Correlations between pressure judgments of .94 for males, .79 for pill females and .40 for non-pill females (all sig less than .002) supported the prediction that non-pill females experience the largest fluctuations in tension across the menstrual cycle. A significant number of non-pill females who changed their scores and who changed from midcycle to premenstrual-menstrual phases or vice versa between the two experimental sessions shifted their tension scores in the predicted direction (p less than .04). As predicted, non-pill females scoring in the lower half on premenstrual-menstrual symptomatology were more consistent in pressure judgments than those high on symptomatology, with correlations of .51 (sig less than .004) and .24 (NS) respectively. Analysis of pressure judgments as a function of menstrual phase and high-low symptomatology indicated a main effect for symptomatology (sig less than .01) with the high group perceiving more pressure. Lack of a main effect for menstrual phase was attributed to large individual variations in tension scores. Results were interpreted as indicating physiological causality underlying the variability in tension across the menstrual cycle. Substituting the Repression-Sensitization dimension for symptomatology yielded no significant results which could lead to a psychological interpretation of such variability.
Groups of 40 psychiatric and 40 nonpsychiatric male patients were subdivided into equal groups of high and low social competence. Each patient completed a task battery which included three measures of self-image disparity and the Byrne repression-sensitization scale. High competence patients of both types were found to have higher self-image disparities than low competence patients. Psychiatric patients were found to have higher disparity scores than nonpsychiatric patients, although some evidence indicated that this was true only for the low competence groups. Higher scores on the Byrne scale (indicating sensitization) were found for high as compared to low competence patients, and for the psychiatric as compared to nonpsychiatric groups. Defensive style correlated significantly with each of the self-image measures. The results were discussed in the context of both developmental and Rogerian formulations. It was concluded that an individual's maturational level influences both self-image and defensive style, even when the individual is judged psychologically maladjusted.
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Study of the internal structure of the R-S Scale failed to support a finding of unidimensionality or bipolarity, as theory suggests. A factor analysis of the item matrix revealed a poorly defined multifactor structure that contained five relatively weak unipolar factors (N = 200). Guttman's Reproducibility and the Kuder-Richardson Coefficient adjusted for test length similarly failed to support the presence of a unifactor structure. The relatively high Coefficient of Dimensionality was rejected as evidence of unidimensionality given the uncertainty over what psychometric properties this index reflects. The high proportion of S-item interaction variance showed considerable equivocal item content, which suggested marked error factors due to Ss' idiosyncratic interpretation of items.
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Four experiments using territorial Convict Cichlids investigated motivational factors involved in the incremental and decremental processes associated with aggression resulting from exposure to conspecifics intruded into the territory. The first three experiments varied some single aspect of the experimental situation (temperature, distance from the nest or size of the intruder). The fourth experiment combined those factors which resulted in faster habituation (small intruder, far from the nest, in cool water) and compared the response to factors which resulted in slower habituation or an increase in response rate (large intruder, close to the nest in warm water). While a combination of higher intensity stimuli did result in slower habituation than the combination of lower intensity stimuli, response rate was not a simple algebraic summation of the factors. Results are discussed in relation to multi-factor theory of habituation and the nature of "drive".
The value of a trait approach to sleep and dreaming characteristics is evaluated by reviewing recent research on differential patterns and interactions manifest by high and low neuroticism subjects. Differential patterning of dream content and REM sleep characteristics under positive and negative presleep conditions suggest a qualitative difference in experience and behavior, and a quantitative difference in "importance" attributable to the dreaming sleep process. It is hypothesized that, under "normal" conditions, low neuroticism individuals make more exclusive use of the dreaming period, while under "artificial" conditions, they demonstrate a greater motivation to compensate for restricted REM by intensification of the REM process (shortened REM onset latencies, greater REM rebound, intensified dream experiences). Finally, it is suggested that theories of dreaming sleep should recognize the importance of traits, as well as situational factors to the psychology of dreaming sleep.
The purpose of this study was to examine the prediction from ego psychology that excessive stress leads to either a struggling or distancing response. Male subjects, preselected on the R-S scale, were exposed to an explicit pornographic movie in the presence of a female confederate. Skin conductance levels, self-report data, and a work association test with double entendre words were the dependent measures. The results indicated that subjects struggle rather than distance themselves when confronted with apparently stressful stimuli.
For effective treatment of agoraphobia both patient and therapist must understand the mechanisms of sensitization and self-desensitization. Rather than aiming to adapt to difficult situations, to achieve desensitization by suggestions, or to avoid panic, the agoraphobe must learn to pass through panic and to rid oneself of drug dependency. This method of self-desensitization will, as a rule, achieve results quickly and does not necessarily depend upon finding the cause of the original sensitization.
Methodological criticisms are answered, and additional reasons for questioning Blum's theory and method are offered.
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