Abnormal Psychology A life stress instrument for classroom use. Michael J.Renner and R.Scott Mackin A humorous demonstration of in vivo systematic desensitization: The case of eraser phobia

2001 ◽  
pp. 248-253
Keyword(s):  
Life Stress ◽  
Systematic Desensitization ◽  
Abnormal Psychology ◽  
Classroom Use

A Successful Adaptation of Systematic Desensitization in the Treatment of a Phobia of Babies

1985 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Michael Free ◽  
Margaret Beekhuis
Keyword(s):  
Young Woman ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Treatment Strategy ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Systematic Desensitization ◽  
Physiological Measure ◽  
One Year

A case study is presented of a young woman with an unusual phobia, a fear of babies. Barabasz's (1977) technique of systematic desensitization using psycho-physiological measures was chosen as the main treatment strategy. Difficulties arose as the client was unable to visualise scenes involving babies. Nor could she look at photographs of babies long enough for the hierarchy to be ordered using a psycho-physiological measure (skin conductance). A set of photographs was eventually used for the hierarchy, but it was ordered in terms of the length of time the client could look at the various photographs. Systematic desensitization was carried out using the set of photographs instead of imaginary scenes, together with some in vivo exposure in the latter stages of treatment. At termination the client could approach babies without discomfort. Improvement was maintained at one year follow-up.

Treatment of a boy's school phobia with in vivo systematic desensitization.

1989 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D. Houlihan ◽  
Robert N. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Desensitization ◽  
School Phobia

Hypnosis and the Desensitization Behavior Therapies

1970 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 787-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart B. Litvak
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Desensitization ◽  
Desensitization Therapy ◽  
Mental Operations

A distinction is made between desensitization techniques carried out in vivo and other modes of desensitization therapy (flooding, implosion, and systematic desensitization) which rely upon mental operations or processes. Research is reviewed and points are discussed which support a position supporting a relationship between variables and phenomena found in the desensitization therapies and those found in hypnosis. This relationship appears to be greatest in those desensitization therapies basing treatment upon the utilization of mental operations. Some new lines of research are then proposed.

scholarly journals Relational victimization, friendship, and adolescents' hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis responses to an in vivo social stressor

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casey D. Calhoun ◽  
Sarah W. Helms ◽  
Nicole Heilbron ◽  
Karen D. Rudolph ◽  
Paul D. Hastings ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Peer Relations ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Friendship Quality ◽  
Relational Victimization ◽  
Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal ◽  
Biological Stress ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Social Stressor

AbstractAdolescents' peer experiences may have significant associations with biological stress-response systems, adding to or reducing allostatic load. This study examined relational victimization as a unique contributor to reactive hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis responses as well as friendship quality and behavior as factors that may promote HPA recovery following a stressor. A total of 62 adolescents (ages 12–16; 73% female) presenting with a wide range of life stressors and adjustment difficulties completed survey measures of peer victimization and friendship quality. Cortisol samples were collected before and after a lab-based interpersonally themed social stressor task to provide measures of HPA baseline, reactivity, and recovery. Following the stressor task, adolescents discussed their performance with a close friend; observational coding yielded measures of friends' responsiveness. Adolescents also reported positive and negative friendship qualities. Results suggested that higher levels of adolescents' relational victimization were associated with blunted cortisol reactivity, even after controlling for physical forms of victimization and other known predictors of HPA functioning (i.e., life stress or depressive symptoms). Friendship qualities (i.e., low negative qualities) and specific friendship behaviors (i.e., high levels of responsiveness) contributed to greater HPA regulation; however, consistent with theories of rumination, high friend responsiveness in the context of high levels of positive friendship quality contributed to less cortisol recovery. Findings extend prior work on the importance of relational victimization and dyadic peer relations as unique and salient correlates of adaptation in adolescence.

A Life Stress Instrument for Classroom Use

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Renner ◽  
R. Scott Mackin
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Cumulative Effects ◽  
Life Change ◽  
Stress Scale ◽  
College Undergraduate ◽  
Traditional Age ◽  
Social Readjustment Rating Scale ◽  
Classroom Use

Most introductory psychology textbooks describe Holmes and Rake's Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS; 1967) instrument, which generates stress scores as life change units. Although students seem willing to entertain the possibility that stressors can affect their health, the SRRS does not include many common events that act as stressors for college students and includes many items not meaningful to most college students. This article describes an instrument intended for use in classroom demonstrations, the College Undergraduate Stress Scale (CUSS), and reports a local set of norms for a population of traditional-age college students. The CUSS is useful in teaching concepts within health psychology that are associated with stress and its cumulative effects.

scholarly journals Elevated fear responses to threatening cues in rats with early life stress is associated with greater excitability and loss of gamma oscillations in ventral-medial prefrontal cortex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florencia M Bercum ◽  
Maria Jose Navarro Gomez ◽  
Michael P Saddoris
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Conditioned Suppression ◽  
Life Stress ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Early Life Stress ◽  
Gamma Oscillations ◽  
Brain Maturation ◽  
Ventral Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Stress experienced early in development can have profound influences on developmental trajectories and ultimately behaviors in adulthood. Potent stressors during brain maturation can profoundly disrupt prefrontal cortical areas in particular, which can set the stage for prefrontal-dependent alterations in fear regulation and risk of drug abuse in adulthood. Despite these observations, few studies have investigated in vivo signaling in prefrontal signals in animals with a history of early life stress (ELS). Here, rats with ELS experience on PND3-5 were then tested on a conditioned suppression paradigm during adulthood. During conditioned suppression, electrophysiological recordings were made in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) during presentations of a fear-associated cues that resolved both single-unit activity and local field potentials (LFPs). Relative to unstressed controls, ELS-experienced rats showed greater fear-related suppression of lever pressing. During presentations of the fear-associated cue (CS+), neurons in the vmPFC of ELS animals showed a significant increase in the probability of excitatory encoding relative to controls, and excitatory phasic responses in the ELS animals were reliably of higher magnitude than Controls. In contrast, vmPFC neurons in ELS subjects better discriminated between the shock-associated CS+ and the neutral ("safe") CS- cue than Controls. LFPs recorded in the same locations revealed that high gamma band (65-95 Hz) oscillations were strongly potentiated in Controls during presentation of the fear-associated CS+ cue, but this potentiation was abolished in ELS subjects. Notably, no other LFP spectra differed between ELS and Controls for either the CS+ or CS-. Collectively, these data suggest that ELS experience alters the neurobehavioral functions of PFC in adulthood that are critical for processing fear regulation. As such, these alterations may also provide insight into to increased susceptibility to other PFC-dependent processes such as risk-based choice, motivation, and regulation of drug use and relapse in ELS populations.

Behavioural Treatment of Injection, Dental and Medical Phobias in Adolescents: A Case Study

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Sanders ◽  
Lyndall Jones
Keyword(s):  
Skills Training ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Major Surgery ◽  
Medical Procedures ◽  
Systematic Desensitization ◽  
Behavioural Treatment ◽  
Coping Skills Training

This case study describes the use of a multi component behavioural programme in the treatment of a 13-year-old girl with multiple phobias of injections, dental and medical procedures who faced major surgery within 6 months. The treatment involved coping skills training, systematic desensitization, in vivo desensitization with participant modelling and homework assignments. Measures of anxiety via SUDS ratings, behavioural approach tests and self-report measures demonstrated the effectiveness of the treatment program and the subsequent maintenance of treatment effects at 8 months follow-up.

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