Michael Rosenbaum

The procrastination of everyday life

Abstract Procrastinating in routine life tasks was investigated in university students (N = 314) by administering self-report measures of the phenomenon and various personality tests. Two conceptually independent aspects of procrastination—when one performed the task and how one handled scheduling tasks and adhering to schedule—were found to be highly correlated. Procrastination was greater on tasks regarded as unpleasant or as impositions, and to a lesser extent on tasks requiring skills the respondent did not believe he or she possessed. The phenomenon was inversely related to self-regulation, time-related factors of Type A behavior pattern, and life satisfaction, in men only. The findings were discussed in relation to broad concepts of cognitive appraisal, self-regulation, and coping with stress.

Self-control under stress: The role of learned resourcefulness ☆

Abstract Successful coping with stressful events involves self-regulation. We identified three kinds of self-regulatory process. The first occurs automatically and unconsciously in order to maintain the homeostasis of a persons physiological functions; the other two are under the persons cognitive and voluntary control. Redressive self-control is aimed at resuming normal functions that have been disrupted; reformative self-control is directed at breaking habits in order to adopt new and more effective behaviors. Coping with acute stress requires redressive self-control; the adoption of new behaviors such as health related behaviors requires reformative self-control. Learned resourcefulness refers to the behavioral repertoire necessary for both redressive self-control and reformative self-control. This repertoire includes self-regulating ones emotional and cognitive responses during stressful situations, using problem-solving skills, and delaying immediate gratification for the sake of more meaningful rewards in the future. Research findings indicate that highly resourceful individuals cope more effectively with stressful situations and are more capable of adopting health related behaviors as well as other behaviors that require reformative self-control.

Personal efficacy, external locus of control, and perceived contingency of parental reinforcement among depressed, paranoid, and normal subjects.

Bandura (1982) suggested that judgments of personal efficacy and outcome expectancies (i.e., locus of control) jointly affect behavior. We hypothesized that different combinations of these two sets of beliefs would characterize the thought structures of normal subjects and of psychiatric patients suffering from distinctly different disorders. Normal subjects, depressed subjects, and paranoid subjects completed scales with which we measured beliefs in personal efficacy and beliefs that outcomes are controlled either by chance or by powerful others, as well as a scale with which we assessed perceived contingency of parental reinforcement. The major findings were as follows: Normals judged themselves to be more efficacious than did psychiatric subjects; whereas depressives expected outcomes to be controlled by chance, paranoids expected outcomes to be under the control of powerful others; among the normals, outcome expectancies were strongly associated with personal efficacy, but among the psychiatric patients, these beliefs were unrelated; depressives and paranoids equally reported more noncontingent parental reinforcement than did normals; and perceived contingency of parental reinforcement was predictive of outcome expectancies but not of personal efficacy. The data suggest that low personal efficacy may be a distinguishing characteristic of all psychiatric patients, whereas outcome expectancies may determine the specific nature of the psychiatric disorder.

Developing Learned Resourcefulness in Adolescents to Help Them Reduce Their Aggressive Behavior: Preliminary Findings:

This article describes a school-based aggression reduction intervention program aiming to impart highly aggressive adolescents with a learned resourcefulness repertoire, using Ronen and Rosenbaum’s four-module self-control model. Intervention aimed to teach adolescents that aggression is changeable behavior resulting from how they think and feel, emphasizing cause-effect relations; to facilitate their identification of internal cues, sensations, and emotions and their links to behavior; and to help them identify and acquire self-control skills, e.g., delaying temptation, using self-talk, and planning steps toward achieving goals. Participants were 447 ninth graders: 167 underwent intervention, and 280 from the same schools received no intervention (controls). Outcomes indicate the model’s efficacy in reducing aggression. In the intervention group, both objective and subjective aggression rates decreased significantly compared to baseline and controls. Hostile thoughts and negative emotions did not change, suggesting adolescents could now control these without behaving aggressively. Analysis attributed aggression reduction to increased self-control skills.

Self-control behavior in hyperactive and nonhyperactive children.

This study was aimed at evaluating the self-control behaviors of hyperactive (HA) and nonhyperactive (NHA) first-grade pupils under conditions of repeated failure on a previously learned concept formation task. Subjects were divided into HA and NHA groups on the basis of their scores on the Conners (1969) Teacher Rating Scale. During the training stage of the experiment the children learned a concept formation task under a schedule of contingent positive reinforcement. In the test stage they performed the same task but under a negative noncontingent reinforcement schedule. The results revealed no differences in initial rate of learning the task between the groups. After the introduction of the negative noncontingent reinforcement schedule, however, the HA group showed a marked decrease in the use of effective problem-solving strategies. The HA childrens performance on the concept formation task was accompanied by the emission of negative self-evaluations and solution-irrelevant statements. The NHA group used significantly more statements showing useful goal directed cognitive mediations than the HA children. The results suggested that HA children may have deficits in self-control skills.

The three functions of self-control behaviour: Redressive, reformative and experiential

Abstract Self-control refers to the process by which individualsconsciously decideto take charge of their own behaviour. This process in prompted by situations in which automatic and habitual responses are interrupted or are ineffective. There are three major functions of self-control behaviour. The first function is redressive and is directed at controlling responses (such as anxiety, pain, ets.) that interfere with the normalfunctioning of the person. This function is improtant for coping with stress. The second function is reformative; it facilitates the adoption of new behaviours that have a low probability of occurence. In this category are included behviours that require delay of gratification and resistance of temptations (such as dieting, quitting smoking, etc.).These two functions were mentioned earlier in theorizing of the self-control process.A third and a new function of self-control is introduced here: experiential self-control. This enables the person to fully experience pleasurable activiti...

Denial, locus of control and depression among psysically disabled and nondisabled men

The Denial and the Depression scales of the MMPI and Rotters Locus of Control scale were administered to 26 men with locomotor disabilities and to 44 nondisabled men. Among the disabled, brain-damaged scored higher in the Denial scale than the non-brain-damaged disabled, but not higher than the nondisabled Ss. A fairly high correlation was found between Denial and Locus of Control. The more the S believed that he is externally controlled, the less denial he employed. All disabled groups scored significantly higher on the Depression scale than the nondisabled group. The latter finding is discussed in terms of two behavioral formulations of depression.

Children's Reactions to a War Situation as a Function of Age and Sex

The goal of the study was to assess childrens reactions to the stress induced by the 1991 Gulf War as a function of gender and age. It was conducted during the third week of the 1991 Gulf War in Israel. The participants were 229 boys and 189 girls who attended the 2nd, 6th, and 10th grades. They were asked to report behavior problems (for before and during the war), anxiety level (before and during the war), and war-related symptomatic behavior. The findings indicate that the war had an adverse effect on the well being of children, in particular girls. Girls in comparison to boys reported higher levels of anxiety and more behavior problems for the war period as well as more war related symptoms. Gender differences were mostly found for the data relating to the war period and not for the pre-war period. Age moderated the effect of gender on war related symptoms and on anxiety. Whereas among the younger children (2nd grade) no gender effects were found, among the older ones (6th and 10th grades) the gender effects were apparent. In sum (a) the Gulf war had an adverse effect on the well being of children, in particular on the well being of girls. (b) The gender effects appeared only among the older children.

The Latent Structure of Childhood Aggression: A Taxometric Analysis of Self-Reported and Teacher-Rated Aggression in Israeli Schoolchildren

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the latent structure of childhood aggression, like the latent structure of adult antisocial behavior, is dimensional. One thousand and five Israeli schoolchildren completed a translation of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss & Perry, 1992) and were rated by their homeroom teachers on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI; Robinson, Eyberg, & Ross, 1980). The AQ Physical Aggression and Verbal Aggression scales were combined to form the 1st indicator, the AQ Anger and Hostility scales were combined to form the 2nd indicator, the 10-item ECBI Oppositional Defiant Behavior Toward Adults scale composed the 3rd indicator, and the 8-item ECBI Conduct Problem Behavior scale composed the 4th indicator. Subjecting these indicators to taxometric analysis revealed consistent support for dimensional latent structure in the full sample as well as in 5 of the 6 subsamples. Childhood aggression, it would seem, differs quantitatively along a dimension (degree of aggression) rather than bifurcating into qualitatively distinct categories (aggressive vs. nonaggressive).

Helping Children to Help Themselves: A Case Study of Enuresis and Nail Biting

Objective: The Self-Control Dual Intervention Model, which is based on cognitive self-control principles, is presented. Method: In the first stage, the client is taught self-control skills and how to apply them to the referred problem, and in the second stage, the client is encouraged to independently apply these skills to another problem with minimal guidance from the therapist. The authors describe how SCDIM is used with a 10-year-old boy whose referred problem was enuresis and the other problem was nail biting. Results: While being treated for enuresis, the child was taught by the therapist self-control skills, which he later applied to resolving his nail-biting problem with minimal help from the therapist. Conclusion: The case study demonstrates how self-control training can promote children’s independent functioning via the ability to apply learned skills to other, future problematic areas.