Semistructured interviews were conducted with 7 persons who had significant involvements with video lottery terminal (VLT) gambling, and themes associated with different phases of the gambling experience were identified. The preinvolvement phase was characterized by lack of meaningful relationships, problematic relationships, and feelings of loss. Early involvement reflected attempts to "fill the void" and the casual innocence of initial VLT playing. The deepening involvement phase indicated themes of the language of relationship, for example, focused engagement, emotional highs and lows, and the escape and competition offered by gambling. Ending involvement themes included the emotional difficulty of quitting and strategies used to break the habit. Implications of these results for models of addiction and for the treatment of gambling problems are explored.
Byrne's similarity-attraction model was applied in two studies of diagnostic bias. Clinicians and undergraduates evaluated a client similar or dissimilar to themselves in political radicalism after hearing a taped interview with the client. Results for clinicians indicated no similarity -clinical judgment effect, but more radical subjects rated the client as having better therapy potential. Further, the more radical client was rated as less disturbed. Among students, the similar other was rated more favorably for therapeutic criteria. Similarity-attraction relationships were absent in both samples. Clinicians showed strong relationships between clinical and attraction ratings. An interactive, affective component to diagnosis is suggested.
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