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The article presents a study on the behavioral aspects of the counseling process with mentally retarded patients. In the study, transcripts from an early and late counseling session were rated according to the initial statement of the client, therapist response, and client continuation of the topic. The study found out that counselors varied significantly in approach-avoidance response style with respect to client intelligence quotient level and type of client statement.

It is a fact of life that human activity is unalterably future directed. As Schachtel (1959) noted, even walking requires a faith in the future. Thus, to ignore the incipience of the future or life's inevitable contingencies, is to believe that by turning around and walking away, one actually postpones or avoids the future and all its attendant unknowns. In truth, walking away only establishes a new future course; hence if a man possesses no intention, no plan for the future, in effect he denies the emergence or really the time of existence (see Allport, 1963:233 ff.). It is not however, just a direction of a man's lifetime that one studies in future involvements, but an explicit action orientation founded in a realistic approach to the future, namely the intention or expectation. The distinction between having and not having expectations is not an issue of whether or not one owns life insurance or has otherwise arranged for his demise. Rather it is a distinction between living for the moment or treating the moment as a time of preparation, figuratively a spring board into the future. All things considered, an expectation is not merely another activity; it is the logical antecedent and consequent of both deliberation and action. In one respect, it makes little difference how one defines his future linguistically or chronologically or whether he visualizes it metaphorically as "a galloping horseman," "a bird in flight," or "a quiet motionless ocean." What matters, is that in contemplating the future, only one realistic strategy offers itself, the intention. Other options such as future avoidance or prediction, even fantasies of preknowledge, remain unsatisfying responses, hopelessly contradicting the unalterable identity of tomorrow, next year, and forever. A so-called temporal approach to the future therefore, would be to sit back, wait patiently, and let it all happen, for its arrival can neither be hastened nor postponed. The so-called psychological approach would be to "make" the future happen by filling the presents nest to the brim with expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment is concerned with evaluating the cardiac responses of human Ss in an aversive situation. Two main conditions were investigated: Control of shock occurrence (Avoidance) and Passivity, that is, Ss were instructed to passively receive the shocks. Sixty Ss were used. The Avoidance condition was further divided into 3 specific groups. One group of Ss had to avoid the aversive stimulus by a proper task (depressing keys) without any certainty about the result of their action until the habitual moment of shock occurrence. Ss in a second group were provided immediate feedback from their action via a light bolls. A third group of Ss kept receiving shocks whatever they tried. After completion of 30 trials the conditions for each S were reversed by appropriate instructions and run for another 20 trials. A decelerative cardiac response was found in anticipation of shock for Ss in the Passivity condition. In the Avoidance condition, such a deceleration was found for trials during which Ss had had a feedback of their failure to avoid (second group) and were expecting an oncoming shock. Furthermore, only the Ss in Avoidance condition displayed HR acceleration after the signal onset of the ISI. Specific variations were found in the second phase of the experiment for the third group of Avoidance condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiment I attempted to train both increases and decreases in heart rate using a discriminated escape-avoidance paradigm. Noncontingent control Ss were yoked to both experimental groups. Subjects were given 64 training trials and 16 extinction trials. Experiment II employed essentially the same design except that the contingent response was a specific amount of muscular tension (either 40 to 60 microvolts, or 90 to 110 microvolts) from the chin area. Seven Ss were run in each group. Heart rate, chin electromyogram (EMG), and respiration were continuously monitored during each study. The results of Experiment I indicated that the response contingencies produced significant heart rate increases and decreases in the appropriate experimental groups. Neither yoked control group showed a significant heart rate change. No group exhibited any significant EMG activity. Respiration amplitude increased significantly only in the heart rate increase group. Both experimental groups in Experiment II learned to emit the correct EMG response. However, only the group in the 40 to 60 microvolt range showed a relationship between heart rate and EMG changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of avoidance conditioning of the GSR on HR responses were investigated. Seven Ss were allowed to avoid a shock if their GSR during a preceding 5.0 sec light was greater than a criterion magnitude. Each avoidance S had a yokedcontrol partner who received exactly the same series of shocked and nonshocked trials, regardless of his own GSR behavior. Sixty trials were given. Avoidance Ss gave significantly larger GSRs and cardiac deceleration took place at a significantly greater rate in the avoidance group. The results were interpreted as supporting the conclusion that when an avoidance paradigm is used to modify a particular autonomic response, the effects extend to other autonomic arousal or anticipatory responses. Each S was questioned in a post-training interview about his awareness of means of avoiding the shock. No S was able to verbalize any method that could be used to prevent shock from occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In investigating the effect of reward upon the acquisition and extinction of avoidance response, a word association task was presented to 90 Ss for 8 conditioning and 12 extinction trials. During conditioning, associations to preselected words were punished on Trial 1 and whenever S repeated them. There were 3 acquisition groups: 1 received the above training, the 2nd also received reward for substitute associations, and the 3rd obtained reward during the 2nd ½ of acquisition only. Each acquisition group was divided into 2 extinction subgroups: 1 received neither reward nor punishment while the 2nd was rewarded for avoiding. Results indicated that reward hastened acquisition and delayed extinction of avoidance responses, thus confirming hypotheses regarding the concept of secondary gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of n Achievement (n Ach), Test Anxiety (Anx), level of Academic performance (AL), and "Involvement" (Inv) in task content, differentiated students tested for Rote retention and Comprehension of written material under 2 conditions of knowledge seeking: (a) achievement oriented, and (b) curiosity oriented. Predictions from Atkinson's Motive-Expectancy-Incentive (M-E-I) model regarding the superiority of High n Ach, Low Anx over Low n Ach, High Anx Ss, and of High over Low AL Ss, were upheld for Comprehension, but not for Rote, in the Achievement condition. As predicted from a combination of the M-E-I model and Berlyne's theory of epistemic curiosity, superiority of the High AL, High Inv over the Low AL, Low Inv Ss held for both Comprehension and Rote in the Curiosity condition. Hypothesized differences across conditions were partially confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment was performed to determine whether a monkey would perform an avoidance response to affective expression in another monkey. 6 monkeys were individually trained to perform an instrumental avoidance response and were then tested in pairs in a "cooperative-conditioning" situation. The "stimulus animal" received the CS but lacked the response mechanism while the "responder" had the response lever but no CS. The responder could, however, observe the face of the stimulus monkey via television. The data revealed that emotional expressions of the stimulus monkey upon CS presentation elicited discriminated avoidance behavior by the responder. The results suggest that the cooperative-conditioning paradigm may permit identification of the specific facial expressions associated with various affects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article assesses several thresholds to perceptual defense. One study has been conducted to determine recognition thresholds for disagreeable emotionally toned words and for neutral words. In this study, threshold reduction for obscene, violence and failure related words was obtained for both externalizers and internalizers. The researchers also found that increased skin conductance, anxiety predispositions, avoidance responses to stimulus words and the disagreeableness of the words are associated with reduced thresholds. The study concludes that both sensitization and inhibition are the two primary perceptual defenses.

The article presents a study that was aimed at evaluating several implications of this position in terms of anxiety and avoidance behavior aroused in schizophrenics in response to parental figures. Thematic productions in groups of Good and Poor premorbid schizophrenics were examined in terms of the relative amounts of anxiety and avoidance related imagery produced in response to cards representing parent-child relationships. It was found that the increased level of avoidance behavior in the Poors is also in accord with the presumed increased prepotence of avoidance tendencies in this group.

The article discusses the results of a research investigating the variables in the communication of affects through the experimentation of rhesus monkeys in the U.S. The monkeys underwent discriminated avoidance and visual form stimuli. The animals in primate chairs were conditioned to bar press in six seconds of presentation of a stimulus light to avoid electric shock. Two of the monkeys were placed facing each other with the bars removed from one monkey. To avoid shock, communication was necessary. The results showed that nonverbal communication of affect and efficient mutual avoidance was performed by both, thereby concluding that the method was efficient for nonverbal communication experiments.

The article discusses the generalization of immunity to persuasion produced by exposure to weakened counterarguments. People tend to defend their beliefs by avoiding exposure to contrary points of view has been accepted. They also defend their beliefs unmotivated and inexperienced in developing arguments or refuting counterarguments to remain unaffected by campaigns that allow self-selected exposure. Such effect was hypothesized as a result of lowering the credibility of the attacks against the belief and stimulate the person to support the arguments of his belief. Furthermore, the quality and credibility of the counterarguments were rated lower by subjects even where the counterarguments were different from those previously refuted.

The article presents a discussion of the study concerning the social effectiveness between individuals who manifest symptoms indicative of Avoidance of Others and those whose symptoms are indicative of Self-Indulgence and Turning against Others. The study was based on an examination of the case history date of 1,053 patients admitted to Worcester State Hospital during a 12-year period. The results show that individuals whose symptoms are indicative of Self Indulgence and Truning against Others tend to be less socially effective than individuals whose symptoms are indicative of an Avoidance of Others.

The article explores the individual differences in defensive reactions to fear-arousing propaganda. It tests the hypothesis that the acceptance or nonacceptance of the recommendations contained in a propaganda appeal is related to the individual's characteristic reaction to tension-producing stimuli. It also hypothesizes that certain defensive reactions facilitate the acceptance of propaganda, while others interfere with its acceptance. It also investigates the relationship between coping and avoiding behavior and response to fear-arousing propaganda.

The author argues that the negative or inconclusive results obtained in validity studies of projective techniques are due to deficiencies in conceptualizing the problem. He asserts that there is a tendency to ignore a significant aspect of the test data, especially in studies seeking to relate test performance to overt behavior. He is convinced that this is also the case in studies of fears and inhibitions.

The article discusses the study which demonstrates an experimental arrangement that permits objective measurement of the subject's preference for a noxious event of an anticipatory situation prior to the event in the framework of a modified avoidance conditioning procedure. In the classical avoidance experiment, the avoidance response has prevented a shock and terminated the anticipatory warning signal. However, in the modified classical technique, the subject can behave in either two alternative fashions. These two responses include the postponement of the shock while at the same time maintaining the warning signal and taking the shock while simultaneously terminating the warning signal.

The article provides information on a study that obtained evidence on the presence of acquired fear in avoidance learning which is independent of the conditioning situation, using ten experimentally naive male rhesus monkeys as subjects. It reveals the major difficulty with the fear-reduction interpretation and the advantage of the social avoidance procedure. The study attempts to verify and extend the observation that dominance relationships may be experimentally manipulated with the interanimal avoidance conditioning technique.

The article presents studies which seeks to analyze the behavior of the individual when confronted with a pictorial situation that represents a threat rather than a goal, or a simultaneous goal and a threat. The subjects are asked to write or tell imaginative stories about a series of ambiguous pictures under low and high cues condition. The topics of the studies are war catastrophe and competition. The results showed that individuals tend to avoid telling stories about threatening event under high-cue conditions than with low-cue conditions.

The article discusses a study designed to explore the connection between the personality defenses of interacting individuals and their attitudes toward and perceptions of their interaction. The study assumed that two people in interaction who had a psychosexual disturbance in common would react to one another, when that disturbance was aroused, as a function of their defenses against that disturbance. The study subjects were paired in terms of defense, psychosexual dimension and intensity of disturbance. Projection, avoidance, regression, reaction formation and intellectualization are the defenses that were studied.

The article presents an account of perceptual defense in terms of behavior theory principles derived from research on punishment and avoidance conditioning. The variables of frequency and recency of prior exposure is predicted to lower the perceptual recognition thresholds for the experienced words. The predictions were confirmed by the results of the experiment. The response strengths in one group of subjects for ten word responses were increased by manipulating the frequency and recency of prior occurrence of the words .

The article proposes a new technique for evaluating motives, using length of time spent looking at heterosexual stimuli relative to time spent looking at neutral stimuli as the measure of approach-avoidance tendencies, and correlating this measure with a criterion of ratings of approach-avoidance behavior of 36 neuropsychiatric patients toward a group of student nurses. It was predicted that a positive relationship would be found between these measures. The procedure consisted of allowing the subjects to look at a set of 60 slides, 30 of which contained pictures of heterosexual activities, and 30 of which contained neutral pictures. The length of time spent looking at each picture was measured. The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between response duration scores and approach/avoidance ratings. A tentative explanation of the fact that avoiders tended to look at all slides longer than persons rated as approachers, yet looked at heterosexual slides for shorter periods of time than neutral slides, while the reverse was true of approachers, was advanced in terms of researcher P. McReynolds' theory of motivation. The possible usefulness of the response duration technique for the study of motivated behavior is discussed.

The article presents information on the social factors associated with avoidance reactions toward recuperating mental illness patients, and indicate some of the ways in which these reactions may affect post-hospital adjustment. A lingering social stigma attaches to newly discharged patients, and consequently their social relations often are characterized by social distance, distrust or denial of employment. This could result to a type of social isolation that could have adverse effects on those confronted by it. According to the social-isolation hypothesis used in etiological studies, the presence of intolerant, unfavorable attitudes in the community tends to increase the likelihood of relapse and rehospitalization. The study found that the tendencies to shun or to restrict social interaction with ex-patients are most likely to be present in situations which involve important self values. This may be regarded as a relatively unhealthy situation for the released and still recovering mental patient from a sociological standpoint.

Rats learned a discriminated avoidance response more rapidly when a safety signal occurred following an escape or avoidance response. Two extinction procedures were used: complete omission of shock or delivery of an unavoidable shock at the end of the warning period. Under the latter procedure, avoidance-extinction responding was initially higher but subsequently declined to the same level as under the omission procedure. Under each extinction procedure, animals were divided into two subgroups: safety signal and no-safety signal. The safety signal did not significantly effect avoidance responses in extinction per se, but it did result in fewer extra responses during the inter-trial and safety periods following an avoidance-extinction response. With no-safety signal there was an increase over extinction sessions in the numbers of such extra responses, especially in the shock delivery subgroup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the group patterns involved in the study of the role of parents. The two group patterns used in the study are goal values and achievements. The goal values are classified into positive and negative goals. The positive goal value patterns that are most valued are trustingness and obedience, while independence is the least favored goal value. Friendliness and assertiveness, on the other hand, are given intermediate value. In the negative goal value, avoidance is considered the most undesirable together with aggression, overfriendliness, submissiveness and dependence.

A presentation of vocational motivation theories as specific cases of the more general motivational theories is made, noting the strict adherence of the theorists to taxonomies of positive motives. It is proposed that avoidance behavior be included in the theories, noting support from the work of Miller and Mowrer. Two cases of apparent career avoidance behavior are presented, along with a third case which demonstrates the development of neither positive nor negative attributes to the idea of a career. It is suggested that vocational guidance instruments attempt to measure avoidance behavior, and that the naïe view that everyone has some positive motivation toward work be discarded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the importance of casework with parents of retarded children. the author's view is to transcend direct "counseling" of parents. By this the author refers to the oft-used precept of counseling: to diagnose the problem and then divulge it to the parents, together with a specific bit of advice such as "He will always need supervision." This is fine as far as it goes and represents an important medical responsibility to parents and child. A more meaningful and skillful counseling, however, is directed toward helping parents to use this information, but with sympathetic understanding of their need to develop certain natural defenses such as denial or avoidance. One must recognize the traumatic quality and endless ramifications of their problem. These need to be seen and dealt with one by one as they emerge out of the child's daily life. In this way parents can, with a caseworker's support, organize their feelings to give positively to the child, creating a parentchild relationship that supports the child's growth and development as a person, however handicapped he may be.

The article explores the possibility that behavioral evidence of avoidance of success might be found even if the motive were not expressed in fantasy. High school students with scores in the upper and lower quartiles of the first half of the Hidden Figures Test took the second half of the test in pairs in which one member was drawn from the highest, the other from the lowest quartile. For 14 pairs the "high" member was female, in 14 pairs the "high" member was male. In the social situation "high" males lowered their levels of performance only slightly whereas there was a highly significant tendency for girls to depress their performance. In half the dyads in which the girl was from the "high" quartile she actually performed more poorly than the "low" boy. Such a reversal occurred in only one of the fourteen pairs with an initially "high" male. Presence or absence of behavioral avoidance of success was not paralleled in fantasy, as shown in protocols on researcher M.S. Horner's projective test. A higher proportion of boys than girls told stories in which success led to unhappy consequences. The results are attributed to current mores among adolescents of both sexes.

The article discuses the application of the approach-avoidance conflict model to social behavior. It reports that psychological studies of conflict in man and in animals have been heavily influenced by the approach-avoidance model developed by Miller. It says that the essential elements of this model envisage a situation wherein an individual is located some distance away from a goal which has both positive or approach properties and negative or avoidant properties. It explains that increasing proximity to this goal, in either time or space, will elevate both the approach and the avoidance tendencies of the subject.

Twenty male Ss earned money by pulling a knob. Ss also could avoid or escape an aversive tone by pressing a button (a nonaggressive response) or by hitting a padded cushion (aggressive response). Control group Ss worked alone during two 90-minute sessions of an extinction condition in which knob pulling was no longer rewarded after 200 had been earned. Experimental group Ss, who worked alone only during the first session of extinction, were paired with an aggressive model in the second session. Experimental group Ss showed higher magnitudes of punching when the aggressive model was present than when he was absent. Control group Ss showed a reduction in high-magnitude punches across extinction conditions. It was concluded that the mere presence of a nonrewarded aggressive model was sufficient to evoke imitative aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article cites a study which found that there is no significant difference in efficacy between classical therapy, avoidance therapy and backward conditioning therapy in the treatment of homosexuality. The aim of the study is to know the efficacy of the three kinds of aversion therapy in treating homosexual patients. Forty-six homosexual patients were shown a film which contains pictures of nude women preceded by pictures of a red circle and of nude men preceded by a green triangle. The penile volume and galvanic skin responses were measured. The study covered that backward conditioning was not less effective than the other two types of aversion therapy, supporting the contention that the classical and avoidance therapy does not act by setting up conditioned reflexes.

The article presents data relevant to the relationship between the repression-sensitization dimension and maladjustment in general, as well as specific areas of conflict. Recent research on the repression-sensitization dimension indicates that the R-S scale relates to adjustment in linear fashion with sensitizers appearing more maladjusted than repressors. Sensitizers were found to have significantly higher incompatible need scores than repressors while neutrals do not differ significantly from either group.

The article provides information on a study which explored the effects of tranquilizing drugs on the conditioned avoidance response in Macacus cynomolgus monkeys. The drug reserpine was used on the animals. The injected animals exhibited the characteristic signs of reserpine tranquilization which includes diarrhea, tremor and decreased motor activity, but without attendant loss of normal coordinated movement when adequately motivated. It was found that the drugged animals did not jump over the barrier during Phase I, which accords with the finding of disruption of the response in trained animals.

The article discusses a study on volunteering. The hypothesis of the study states that changes in the frequency of volunteering in response to a standard request are associated with variations in the attractiveness of possible alternative actions. The three volunteering conditions are cited including attractiveness associated with not volunteering, control condition and volunteering as an avoidance act. It reveals that the rate of volunteering in any concrete situation is a function of the social field structure. It also addresses the conception of volunteering as a dynamic social process resulting from the structure of the force field.

The article presents a study which investigates the impacts of threat and test-defined anxiety on rote learning and examines the avoidance and nonavoidance threats. The Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety and a series of five preliminary training trials were given to 130 students in elementary psychology. It was found out that the students who got high and low scores on the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety were less affected by threat, but the performance of the low score students was impaired by the nonavoidance threat and improved by the avoidance threat.

The article provides information on a study which explored the relations between Taylor's scale of manifest anxiety, simple reaction time (SRT) and reaction time motivated by avoidance of shock (ART). The inverse relations between manifest anxiety (A score) and speed of reaction might be interpreted by assuming that anxiety has a disorganizing rather than a facilitating effect even upon such simple performances as reaction time. The higher the A score, the lower was both SRT and ART. The higher the A score, the greater was the increase in speed of reaction time from SRT to ART conditions.