Harold Rosenberg

Relapsed versus non-relapsed alcohol abusers: Coping skills, life events, and social support

Based on Marlatts (1978) cognitive-behavioral relapse model and the results of several suggestive research studies, data were gathered on coping skills, life events, and social support to investigate the differences between relapsed and non-relapsed alcohol abusers. Results indicated that non-relapsers were reportedly less likely to drink and more noncompliant in problem situations, and experienced fewer negative life events and more positive life events, than relapsers. The social support results were inconclusive.

Recognition of intoxication by alcohol counselors

Recent studies have found that police officers, bartenders, social drinkers, and trained interviewers are often unable to recognize when others are intoxicated. The present two studies were conducted to evaluate: (a) the recognition ability of alcohol counselors compared to mental health counselors, and (b) the recognition ability of less-experienced versus more-experienced alcohol counselors. Subjects viewed four videotapes of a 21-year-old male engaged in simulated counseling interviews after he was given drinks containing alcohol to achieve one of four target Blood Alcohol Level (BAL) goals: .00%, .05%, .10%, .15%. Results indicated that alcohol counselors were not uniformly more accurate than mental health therapists, nor were more-experienced alcohol counselors uniformly more accurate than less-experienced alcohol counselors at recognizing intoxication or estimating BAL. In addition, subjects generally underestimated the targets sober-intoxicated status and BAL when he was given alcohol, but almost every subject recognized that the target was at least moderately intoxicated when his BAL was .15%.

A Comprehensive Behavioral-cognitive Treatment of Writer's Block

A behavioral-cognitive intervention, including the use of a schedule, overt and covert reinforcers, and therapist monitoring of progress, was used to treat a graduate student with writers block. Daily self-recording was used to assess baseline and intervention phases, and indicated that the intervention yielded an immediate and consistent increase in the number of hours of writing, the use of weekdays for writing, and self-rated effectiveness. Clinical considerations involved in the use of the procedure and generalization of the method to other work projects and clients are discussed.

COPING STRATEGIES, REASONS FOR DRIVING, AND THE EFFECT OF SELF-MONITORING IN DRINKING-DRIVING SITUATIONS

Male and female volunteers, who were drinking regularly but had not been convicted of DUI, were recruited for interviews about their past drinking episodes in a variety of locations and the reasons why they had or had not driven after drinking. The results of the initial interviews were used to compile a catalog of reported strategies and reasons for not driving after drinking, reported reasons for driving after drinking, and reported strategies to avoid detection or arrest when driving after drinking. Following the initial interview, each subject was randomly assigned to either a self-monitoring group or a no self-monitoring control group for three monthly follow-up interviews. The results of the follow-up revealed no apparent effect of self-monitoring on a variety of both drinking and drinking-and-driving measures.

DUI Offenders and Mental Health Service Providers

Assessment, education, and rehabilitation programs for DUI offenders are being developed by both private and public community mental health agents to respond to perceived offender needs and perceived sources of revenue. Although such programs may serve an important and beneficial function by reducing recidivism, there are disadvantages to unchecked program development. Questions regarding potential ethical, legal, financial and quality-of-service concerns must be addressed if the proliferation of DUI programs is to be a genuine resource rather than an insufficient and temporary fix for a serious problem.

Audiotaped versus written administration of the situational competency test

The Situational Competency Test (SCT) is an audiotaped, verbal role-play measure of coping responses to eight drinking and eight non-drinking situations. The present investigation evaluated the comparability of response scores to audiotaped versus written administrations of the SCT in two samples of alcohol clients. The written administration of the SCT yielded significantly shorter durations of response in both clinical samples, but there were no other significant differences between the administration methods on the other scoring dimensions. Correlations of the audiotaped and written summary scores revealed no consistently significant or meaningful associations. Given the differences in duration, the generally poor correlations between summary scores, and the loss of the latency measure in the written format, we recommend retention of the audiotaped administration for use in research.

Applying behavioral contracting to alcohol abuse in a spinal cord injured patient

While there have been studies of the use of contingency contracting with several populations of alcohol abusers, the application of alcohol-related contracting to non-psychiatric environments and patients without primary alcohol diagnoses has not been illustrated. A behavioral contract, which included the use of a time out detoxification room, scheduled communication sessions, and a drinking checklist was employed to reduce the inappropriate drinking, verbal and physical abuse of a spinal cord injured patient during a 12-month intervention/follow-up period. The contracts features and methods for improving its effectiveness are discussed.

Tackling writer's block. Suggestions for self-modification.

Writing is an important and pervasive part of every administrators duties, and problems with writers block and procrastination can impede ones productivity. This article describes behavioral assessment and intervention methods (e.g., task analysis, reinforcement analysis, time-structuring, charting, and deposit contracting) that an individual can use to modify his or her writing habits.

Problems with stimulus/response equivalence and reactivity in the assessment and treatment of obsessive-compulsive neurosis

Abstract Self-recording was used as part of a comprehensive package of interventions to treat a case of obsessive-compulsive neurosis. The discrepancy between the self-recording data and other indices of improvement provoked consideration of the value of self-monitoring in light of Rachmans (1976) typology of obsessive-compulsives and the three major theoretical explanations of the reactivity of self-monitoring (Nelson and Hayes, 1981). It is hypothesized that self-monitoring may be countertherapeutic and misleading when there is stimulus/response equivalence or a checker type of obsessive-compulsive client.