Judith Cohen Conger

A review of treatment efficacy for individuals with anger problems Conceptual, assessment, and methodological issues

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to integrate conceptual and methodological issues in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the treatment of anger problems. This integration of conceptual and methodological issues is first addressed by reporting the results of an effect size analysis that compared various intervention strategies within different treatment outcome assessment methods. Second, there is a review and critique of the theories and models of anger that serve as the rationales for the different treatment approaches. Finally, in order to address conceptual weaknesses in the anger literature, anger is defined and the processes of anger are described using a multidimensional-associationistic model of emotion (Berkowitz, 1994). This multidimensional-associationistic framework is contrasted with a recent anger framework proposed by Eckhardt and Deffenbacher (1995). Finally, implications of the multidimensional-associationistic anger framework for conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of anger problems are discussed.

Behavioral components of heterosocial skills

This study was an attempt to identify behavioral referents underlying judgments of skill and anxiety. Regression and correlational analyses indicated quite strong relationships between subject talk, gaze, confederate talk, and judgments of skill and anxiety. Discrete behaviors yielded a multiple correlation of .66 with anxiety and .90 with skill. Relationships between these behaviors and other commonly employed measures were also investigated.

The effects of taste and caloric perceptions on the eating behavior of restrained and unrestrained subjects

The present study explored the phenomenon of counterregulatory eating in chronic dieters by manipulating taste and caloric-information cues of a preload and taste of subsequent ad libfood. The results replicated the “restraint breaking” phenomenon reported by Herman and Mack (1975) and supported the hypothesis that this behavioral pattern is cognitively mediated. In addition, sensitivity to taste was found in restrained subjects when their chronic restraints were bypassed. These results were related to previous eating research, and their implications for self-control and dieting were examined.

Injury severity and outcome: a meta-analysis of prospective studies on TBI outcome.

OBJECTIVE The recent movement to apply evidenced-based approaches to medical and rehabilitation care has increased the importance of approximating outcomes as early in the recovery process as possible. The relationship between injury severity and outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI), however, has remained unclear due to the variety of predictor and criterion variables used throughout the literature. METHOD A meta-analysis of eligible prospective studies that assessed the bivariate association between injury severity and outcome at 1-year postinjury was conducted. RESULTS Twenty-six studies met the inclusion criteria (total N = 21,050 patients). Injury severity was a significant predictor of outcome at 1-year postinjury (r = .257). Homogeneity testing by means of the Q test, Q(n), indicated that injury severity measurement, Q(68) = 1140.76, p < .00001, outcome measurement, Q(42) = 516.63, p < .00001, and outcome measurement construct, Q(4) = 14.65, p = .006, were significant moderators of the injury severity/outcome link. Further, the magnitude of the effect between injury severity and outcome resulted from a significant interaction between the measure of injury severity and the outcome construct. CONCLUSIONS Overall, measures of injury severity were most significantly associated with measures of global outcome and most poorly associated with measures of satisfaction with life. Additionally, a significant interaction was found between the measure of injury severity and the outcome construct indicating that different measures of injury severity more precisely predict one outcome construct over another. Methodological concerns were discussed and recommendations for creating a more parsimonious and integrated literature base were made.

The assessment of social skills among sexually coercive college males

This study investigated the relationship between sexual coercion and social competence in a college population. Males who self‐reported low, moderate, and high levels of sexual coercion were administered several performance and paper‐and‐pencil measures designed to assess global social competence and specific skills, such as assertiveness, and social perception, or cue‐reading. In addition, subjects were administered questionnaires designed to assess attitudes towards women, rape myths, and hypermasculinity. While the attitude instruments measuring sexual callousness and acceptance of interpersonal violence discriminated among coercion groups, performance or paper‐and‐pencil measures of social competence and skills did not, despite the large number and array of measures. This research does not support the notion that men engage in coercive sexual behavior because they lack the appropriate social skills. Suggestions for future research include the examination of disinhibitory factors such as the use of alc...

What can the WISC-R measure?

The WISC-R was investigated by using measures of profile (multivariate) reliability in order to determine its most reliable dimensions and the precision and similarity of the multivariate structure across age groups. Due to differences among the 11 age groups in both subscale reliabilities and true score covariance matrices, it was concluded that the precision of measurement differed across age groups. This finding was further supported by a comparison of canonical reliability coefficients and composites computed for each age group. However, exhaustive analyses of Varimax rotated profile dimensions indicated that the structure of the WISC-R subscales is rather stable across age groups, but the reliability of that structure differs systematically. A synthesis of the analyses indicated that (1) the WISC-R allows highly reliable comparisons of profile levels (Full-Scale IQ) at each age level; that (2) reasonably reliable comparisons of Verbal-Performance differences can be made at each age level; but that (3) for other comparisons, caution should be exercised because of age group differences and potentially high unreliability. Two strategies for the interpretation of WISC-R profiles, which take into account the above findings, are offered.

The Relationship of Anger and Social Skills to Psychological Symptoms

The link between anger, social skills, and psychological symptoms was investigated in a college population. Seven hundred and nine individuals were administered the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory, the Anger Inventory, the Social Problem Solving Inventory, the Social Skills Inventory, and a series of questions about the degree to which anger affected their lives. Symptomatology was measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory and served as the criterion measure for a series of multiple regression analyses. Results indicated that both anger and social factors related to measures of psychological distress. Implications of the relationship between anger, social skills, and psychological symptoms are discussed in terms of research and assessment of individuals who may suffer from anger problems.

Behavior, Attitudes, and Cognitions of Anger-Prone Individuals

This research explored facets of anger based on a multidimensional-associationistic conceptualization (Berkowitz, 1994) that includes antecedents, behavior, cognitions, and experiential response dimensions. High and low anger-prone individuals responded to six audiotaped situations validated in previous work to be anger provoking. Participants evaluated their own audiotaped responses, as did peer judges. Participants also completed the Social Problem Solving Inventory (SPSI) and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and they reported on the effect of anger experiences in their lives. Neither self nor peer ratings of the audiotaped responses differentiated the behavior of anger groups. High and low anger-prone individuals, however, differed in the way that they viewed the consequences of their behavior and how anger affected them in general. Furthermore, high anger-prone individuals had elevated levels of pathology on eight of the nine scales of the BSI and scored significantly lower on the SPSI. Results are discussed in terms of assessment of anger proneness, its relationship to psychopathology and implications for future work.

Anger behavioral competence in anger-prone individuals *

Anger-prone and non-anger-prone research participants completed a modified role-play to assess their anger-management strategies. Peer judges rated their responses in terms of competency variables: appropriateness, effectiveness, anger display, and effects on others. Results indicated that anger-prone individuals reported less appropriate and less effective anger-management strategies that had a higher amount of anger displayed and a more negative effect on other people. There were significant interactions between situation type and gender for all dependent variables. Women reported more appropriate and more effective behavior in roommate situations than men. Men and women were perceived as displaying more anger associated with more negative effects on others in romantic partner and roommate situations than in family, friend, and school situations. Implications and assumptions of a proposed “competence approach” to conceptualizing anger behavior are discussed.

Behavioral components of social competence in females.

This study examined behavioral components used by peers to judge heterosocial competence in females. Thirty-five female undergraduates participated in two interactions with a naive male partner. Judges provided global ratings for female subjects on attractiveness, skill, anxiety, guidance, listening, and smoothness of response. Behavioral counts of smiles, gestures, self-manipulations, talk time, and gaze were also obtained from the videotapes of the interactions. Although many specific behaviors correlated with judgments of social competency, talk time and gaze best predicted social competency in women. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed.