The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of induced affect as a pregroup training experience for coping with stress related to participation in an encounter group. Twenty-six subjects who volunteered to participate in an encounter group randomly were assigned to three treatment groups, induced-affect training plus the encounter group, induced-affect training only, and encounter group only. The following hypotheses were supported: (a) Group participants who did not receive the induced-affect pregroup training would demonstrate significant increases on the Neuroticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory, and (b) group members who did receive such training would not manifest such increases. The implications of using the technique of induced affect as a pretraining experience are discussed.

A four-stage model of telephone helping was tested by rating 59 calls to a crisis intervention service. The rating instrument was the Crisis Call Interaction Form, a process measure with 19 behaviors in four categories: establishment of a helpful climate, assessment of the crisis, affect integration, and problem solution. Hypotheses stated that helper behaviors would vary differentially across portions (thirds) of calls. After controlling for length of call and within-call similarities, residual variances in each third of the calls were subjected to planned orthogonal comparisons. Hypotheses were generally supported: Climate decreased from first to middle third; assessment decreased in the last third; affect tended to be highest in the middle third; and problem solution increased steadily throughout the calls. However, helper behaviors from all categories were present in every portion of calls. The term "phase" was offered to replace the stage concept as a more fluid model of telephone crisis intervention.

PROBLEM Previous research has suggested that beliefs in internal-external control (19) may be related to the degree of an individual's emotional adjustment and the kinds of defenses used to cope with stressful events. Externally oriented individuals have been found to report more anxiety and endorse more deviant or pathological items on a variety of stlf-report personality measure^ (^^ 12, 17) than internals, who tend to report less anxiety but rely more heavily on the defenses of denial and repression@* 12). Internal scores also have been associated with a tendency to give socially desirable responses (9, lS). On a theoretical basis, individuals at either extreme of the internal-external continuum might be expected to exhibit some form of maladjustment because both extremes may present unrealistic control expectancies for most individuals(19). The present study was designed to investigate the locus of control expectancies and defensive styles of a group of Ss who might be expected to be overly internal, i.e., individuals with psychosomatic disorders. Relatively little research has been done to examine the locus of control expectancies of individuals with psychosomatic problems. Three general findings from past research have suggested that locus of control may be related to the development of certain psychophysiological disorders. First, individuals who develop psychophysiological disorders have been described as showing an overcompensatory facade of selfsufficiency, independence, and self-control. Such individuals tend to rely on the defenses of denial and repression and often appear emotionally stable, conscientious, striving, and competitive (5). Excessive concern about controlling hostile-aggressive impulses and behaving in socially desirable ways long has been considered to be related t o certain psychosomatic disorders, such as essential hypertension (l).Second, Houston (16) found that externals in experimentally induced stress situations reported increased anxiety, whereas internals showed greater physiological response. This suggests that internals may become highly aroused when threatened, but may be defensive about reporting anxiety. Similar findings were reported in Brady's (2) study of the "executive monkey." Brady found that monkeys in the role of executive (able to control shock administered to themselves and another monkey) developed gastrointestinal lesions, whereas the monkeys in the "external" condition (no control over shock) did not develop lesions. Although it has not yet been shown that general beliefs about control are related to longterm patterns of physiological response, the findings of these studies suggest the possiblity that physiological responsivity may be influenced by the degree of control that the individual believes he has over events in his environment.Third, studies by Fotopoulos(*O) and Ray and Strupp(18) have found significant differences in patterns of heart-rate responses of internals and externals under biofeedback conditions. Fotopoulos found that internals were signifi...

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