James P. Curran

A test of the relative effectiveness of a systematic desensitization program and an interpersonal skills training program with date anxious subjects

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two behavioral techniques (systematic desensitization and a skills training program) in reducing dating anxiety and in improving interpersonal skills. Thirty-five college students were randomly assigned to the two treatment groups or a minimal contact control group. Self-report and behavioral indicators of anxiety and skill were collected at a posttreatment session and at a six month follow-up session. The minimal contact control group did not demonstrate any improvement on the dependent measures. Both treatment groups demonstrated significant decreases on the anxiety indicators over testing occasions and did not differ from each other significantly. Only the skills training group demonstrated significant improvement on the interpersonal skills indicator.

Social skills training and systematic desensitization in reducing dating anxiety

Abstract Cooper et al. (1969) have criticized the types of target behavior chosen for therapy analogue studies for being irrelevant to clinical practice. A potential target behavior which appears to be pervasive, complex and directly relevant to clinical practice is interpersonal anxiety. Of special concern to college students is the interpersonal anxiety elicited by members of the opposite sex. especially in dating situations (Martinson and Zerface, 1970). An individual may experience interpersonal anxiety because of a deficit in social skills (reactive anxiety) or because of prior conditioning (conditioned anxiety) or because of some combination of both reactive and conditioned components. While it is possible that a treatment program aimed at a reduction of either of these anxiety components may be instrumental in ameliorating the other component, it would appear that a comprehensive treatment program would attempt to teach social skills as well as reduce conditioned anxiety. Desensitization procedures have demonstrated success in alleviating conditioned anxiety for a wide variety of clinical problems (Paul, 1969a. 1969b) and appears to be a logical choice for the conditioned component of dating anxiety. A number of outcome studies have reported some success in the use of in vivo desensitization (Rehm and Marston, 1968; Martinson and Zerface, 1970) and systematic desensitization (Stark, 1970) in reducing anxiety in date anxious subjects. The literature on treatment programs aimed at social skills training for date anxious subjects is meager. Melnick (1973) reported success in improving the appropriateness of the social behavior of subjects who had experienced a minimal dating history by the use of modeling, behavioral rehearsal and self-observation techniques. The present study was designed to test the relative effectiveness of two different types of treatment programs in alleviating interpersonal dating anxiety. The two experimental groups consisted of a systematic densensitization program which focused on the condition anxiety component and a social skills training program which focused on the reactive anxiety component.

Sense of Timing A Skill Deficit in Heterosexual-Socially Anxious Males

Groups of high socially anxious, low socially skilled (socially incompetent), and low socially anxious, high socially skilled (socially competent) under-graduate males were selected using both a self-report measure of social anxiety and behavioral ratings of both skill and anxiety in a simulated role-play of a dating situation. Selected subjects were then requested to (1) listen to a ten-minute videotape of a female speaker discussing her life and (2) press a switch whenever they felt a response would communicate understanding or rapport. The hypothesis that socially incompetent and competent individuals would respond with the same frequency but would differ in the timing or distribution of their responses was affirmed. The results suggested timing of responses to be an important component of social skill and called into question the adequacy of using frequency counts of behaviors to investigate the specific nature of social skill. Implications for both assessment and treatment of social skill deficits are offered.

Correlates of sexual experience among university students.

Recently investigators have been examining the interrelationships that exist between sexual behavior and other aspects of personality functioning. Wiggins, Wiggins, and Conger (1968) investigated some of the major determinants of male heterosexual somatic preferences. Not only was it determined that female breasts, buttocks, and legs are important determinants of male preferences but more important to this study these prefererlces were related to certain demographic, behavioral, and personality dimensions. Byrne, Ervin, and Lamberth (1970) have demonstrated that sexual attractiveness is related to interpersonal attraction and physical attractiveness. It does seem there is some relationship between personality dimensions and behavior pertaining to the sexual domain. There is a fair amount of evidence to support the notion that sexual experiences are cumulative and possess a fixed pattern. That is, it appears that few males or females have participated in actual coitus without going through earlier stages of light and heavy petting. Several investigators (Bentler, 1968a, 1968b; Brady & Levitt, 1965; Podell 8c Perkins, 1957), utilizing different self-report items with different samples of subjects, have concluded that sexual experience possesses certain Guttman (1950) scale properties. A perfect Guttman

The importance of subject recruitment procedures in therapy analogue studies on heterosexual-social anxiety

Heterosexual-socially anxious males were recruited by either newspaper advertisementsfor a therapy analogue study or from an introductory psychology class for a psychology experiment. Both groups were requested to participate in a simulated dating interaction. Self-report and behavioral ratings of anxiety and interpersonal skill were obtained from the role-play. The subjects from the introductory psychology class were significantly more skilled and less anxious than the subjects recuited for the analogue study. The use of recruitment procedures which increase the probability of obtaining highly anxious subjects was encouraged.

Personality Similarity and Interpersonal Attraction in the Computer Dating Situation

Summary Couples were matched in a “computer dating” study to examine the efficaciousness of the similarity hypothesis in fostering interpersonal attraction. One hundred ninety-eight couples were matched on the personality dimension of extraversion and 200 couples were matched on neuroticism. The experimental design was a 3 × 3 factorial design with low, moderate, and high degree of possession of the trait representing the facets for both male and female subjects. Some support for the similarity hypothesis was demonstrated.

The perception of time following stress

To determine whether the relationship between the overestimation of time and anxiety or stress is a function of the anticipation of the stressful event, high and low socially anxious subjects judged a series of eight short (5-second and 7-second) intervals both prior to and following a stressful or nonstressful social interaction. The results indicated that overestimation of fixed intervals occurs following a stressful interaction, thus disconfirming the hypothesis that such overestimation is due to anticipation of the stressful event. These results are discussed with regard to a modified storage size model of time estimation.