Incremental validity of the MMPI-2 Content Scales: a preliminary study with brain-injured patients.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the usefulness of the MMPI-2 Content Scales among traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. DESIGN: Hierarchical stepwise regression analyses with the SCL-90-R scales as the criterion variables were conducted to determine the incremental validity of the Content Scales beyond the information provided by the Clinical Scales. PARTICIPANTS: 27 persons with moderate to severe TBI who had been discharged to the community from inpatient rehabilitation between 6 months and 4 years before the beginning of the study. RESULTS: The Content Scales accounted for an additional 4% to 36% of the variance of SCL-90-R scales beyond that predicted by the Clinical Scales. CONCLUSIONS: Interpretation of the Content Scales may be particularly valuable with TBI patients, because they provide an additional avenue for the identification of distressing symptoms.

The absence of relation between anxiety sensitivity and fear conditioning using 20% versus 13% CO2-enriched air as unconditioned stimuli.

Anxiety sensitivity has been implicated as a risk factor in the development and maintenance of anxiety and fear-related disorders. Indeed, persons who score high on the anxiety sensitivity index (ASI) are generally more responsive to biological challenge procedures such as CO2-inhalation that directly evoke the feared bodily events. One would expect, therefore, that persons high on anxiety sensitivity should be more conditionable and hence more likely to acquire fears, than persons low on anxiety sensitivity when CO2-enriched air is used as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Undergraduates (N = 96), scoring high, medium and low on the ASI received 8 repeated 20-s inhalations of either 20 or 13% CO2-enriched air (UCSs) paired with one of three CSs differing in fear-relevance (snake, heart and flowers). Several autonomic and self-report measures were assessed. Contrary to expectation, electrodermal and cardiac conditioned responses failed to discriminate between ASI groups. Yet, SUDS and severity and frequency of DSM-IV panic symptoms varied reliably as a function of anxiety sensitivity. Overall, the findings suggest that anxiety sensitivity is related to subjective fear-related complaints, but not autonomic responding and conditionability. We discuss clinical and theoretical implications for understanding the place fo anxiety sensitivity in fear onset.

Has behavior therapy drifted from its experimental roots? A survey of publication trends in mainstream behavioral journals.

In recent years it has been suggested that behavior therapy, characterized in part by single-subject designs and an idiographic approach to addressing practical problems, is drifting from its experimental roots. To examine trends in behavior therapy, and to provide an objective index of drift, two archival studies were conducted to identify publication trends in the use of single-subject designs vs. group designs, as well as citations to select basic behavioral science journals. In Study 1, articles appearing in Behavior Therapy from 1970 through 1996 were reviewed and categorized in terms of type of article, design, and citations to experimental journals. Findings from Study 1 suggest declining publication trends in single-subject designs and citations to experimental journals in Behavior Therapy, with a modest increase in the use of group designs over the period. Study 2 was designed to replicate and extend our initial findings by surveying three behavioral journals in addition to Behavior Therapy using the PsychLit database and years covering 1974 through 1996: Behaviour Research and Therapy, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, and Behavior Modification. Consistent with Study 1, results of Study 2 showed declining trends in single-subject designs for all mainstream behavioral journals. The significance of these findings in light of the argument that behavior therapy has drifted from its experimental roots is discussed, with emphasis on contingencies that may be responsible for the trends observed.