William R. Zwick

Effects of demand for performance, self-monitoring of arousal, and increased sympathetic nervous system activity on male erectile response.

Clinical programs for the treatment of impotence generally have been successful but without experimental verification of their individual components or factors associated with the development of impotence. Twenty-four normal males participated in an investigation comparing factors believed to inhibit or facilitate penile tumescence. The effects of demand for performance, self-monitoring of erection, and increased SNS activity, were evaluated. Subjects were exposed to sexual stimuli under these conditions and measurements of penile responses were taken. Results indicated that there were no differential effects on penile responses between demand and no-demand or between self-monitoring and no self-monitoring. Increased SNS activity appeared to facilitate loss of erection, but only after, and not during, the sexual stimulus. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.

Serum testosterone concentration and penile tumescence changes in men

Abstract Serum testosterone concentration of 24 human males was correlated with penile diameter changes in response to erotic stimuli. Mean testosterone concentration was significantly and negatively correlated with latency to maximum tumescence and it is hoped that this finding will shed light on the psychophysiological mechanisms involved in normal and impaired erectile function.

Midi-level measurement of social anxiety in psychiatric and non-psychiatric samples

Abstract This paper reports the development and assessment of midi-level behavioral measures of social anxiety in the context of two experiments, one studying an analog student sample, the other a psychiatric sample. Judgments on nine categories of clinically practical midi-level behaviors (e.g. Facial Expression, Orienting, Sense of Timing), based on a review of the literature on human ethology and on pilot research, were compared to global judgments of social anxiety and social skill and to physiological arousal. Intraclass correlations exceeded 0.80 for judgments of the global and midi-level behavioral ratings on both samples. Results of correlational analyses indicated that while there were several significant predictors of global skill and anxiety among the midis, the magnitude of the relationship between midis and globals was stronger for the patient than the student sample. Further analyses based on S s heart rate (HR) reactivity suggested that while global ratings did not significantly predict H R in a high social anxiety situation, one midi-level behavioral rating (self-manipulations) did. The clinical utility of the newly developed measures is discussed with particular attention to their practicality for behavior therapy.

A cocaine high-risk situations questionnaire: Development and psychometric properties

Although high-risk situations have been identified for alcoholism, opiate abuse, and smoking, further research is needed to identify high-risk situations for cocaine abuse. A 233-item Cocaine High-Risk Situations Survey was developed based on a comprehensive literature review and was administered to 179 cocaine users in treatment. Situations that occurred infrequently or that were not often associated with cocaine use were eliminated and the remaining 89 items were factor analyzed using half the sample with confirmatory factor analysis on the remainder of the sample. Only one factor was found for frequency of cocaine use in these situations. The 21 items with high factor loadings and a diverse range of content were retained for subsequent analyses and renamed the Cocaine High-Risk Situations Questionnaire (CHRSQ). Reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of this scale were demonstrated. Frequency of alcohol use in the same situations was not significantly related to cocaine use and abuse, supporting discriminant validity. The findings suggest that the frequency of ongoing cocaine use is not determined by specific situations. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.