Each of thirty-six female agoraphobic out-patients were treated by one of three methods: 8 sessions of imaginal flooding followed by 8 sessions of practice in the real situation; 16 sessions of combined flooding and practice; or 16 sessions of practice alone. Three therapists treated equal numbers of patients in each group, and there was some evidence that patients' response varied according to the therapist seen, irrespective of treatment group. There were no significant differences between treatment groups after 8 sessions, 16 sessions or on six-month follow-up. It is concluded that there are no long-term differences between the effects of treatments involving exposure to either imaginal or real phobic situations or to a combination of both, provided that patients are encouraged to practise between sessions.
Eye-contact is a prominent Non-verbal cue in any Dyadic interaction and can be easily observed and measured. Argyle (1969) has postulated a relationship with Intimacy and Distance, Kendon (1967) described its expressive and regulatory function in conversation and Exline et al. (1965 and 1967) have related it to other variables, e.g. sex, dependency and affiliative needs.
Weintraub and Aronson have described a method for the study of Psychological Defence Mechanisms through verbal behaviour analysis in psychiatric patients and controls (Weintraub and Aronson, 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1967). In this study we have re-tested their method on a group of middle-aged English depressed patients and matched surgical controls.
Riemer (1955) has argued that gaze is an ‘expression of affect’ between individuals. Kendon (1967) writes that the direction of gaze has a regulatory and expressive function, and ‘fluctuations in the amount of eye-contact during the course of one conversation showed that it was inversely related to the amount of emotionality displayed by the participants'. Also that it has a regulatory function which governs the pattern of social interaction. Argyle and Dean (1965) made similar observations in their concept of intimacy. They postulate that there is an Intimacy Equilibrium; Intimacy is a function of eye-contact, physical proximity, intimacy of topic, amount of smiling etc. They have shown that an alteration in one variable produces a change in the others until an equilibrium is reached. Exline et al. (1965, 1966, 1967) have described other aspects of eye-contact in relation to sex, dependency, social reinforcement, affiliative needs and affective relations. These findings support those of Kendon and Argyle.
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