Automated group desensitization for test anxiety

Donner, Lawrence; Guerney, Bernard G.

doi:10.1016/0005-7967(69)90043-6

Cited by 92 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The first randomized controlled studies examining the effects of self-help interventions on anxiety disorders date from the late 1960s and early 1970s [22,23]. Since then, several dozen controlled and comparative studies have been conducted.…”

Section: Effects Of Self-help Interventions On Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-help interventions for anxiety disorders: An overview

Cuijpers

Schuurmans²

2007

Curr Psychiatry Rep

118

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Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and are associated with a marked impairment in quality of life and a huge economic cost to society. Unfortunately, a considerable number of people who struggle with anxiety do not seek or receive adequate treatment. Self-help interventions have been proposed to constitute a relatively cheap, effective, efficient, and low-threshold intervention for anxiety disorders. This paper offers a critical discussion of their advantages and disadvantages and the evidence for their effectiveness. We conclude that guided self-help can play a major role in mental health care for patients with anxiety disorders. However, several research questions need to be answered before broad-scale dissemination is possible. The Internet will continue to play a prominent role in the further development of this field of research and clinical practice.

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Section: Effects Of Self-help Interventions On Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-help interventions for anxiety disorders: An overview

Cuijpers

Schuurmans²

2007

Curr Psychiatry Rep

118

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“…But there are other fears that are more problematic. Test anxiety, for example, creates academic difficulties for a great many students (see Donner & Guerny, 1969;Eysenck & Rachman, 1965;Johnson & Sechrest, 1968). Though early theories bearing on this phenomenon were based on assumptions about extreme levels of arousal (e.g., Spence & Spence, 1966), more recent approaches to the understanding of test anxiety have emphasized cognitive and attentional variables (e.g., Sarason, 1972aSarason, , 1975Sarason, , 1978Sarason & Stoops, 1978;Wine, 1971Wine, , 1980aWine, , 1980b.…”

Section: Self-attention and Test Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention and Self-Regulation

Carver¹,

Scheier²

1981

1,962

359

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Preface "Seek simplicity and distrust it." Alfred North Whitehead "It will become all too clear that an ability to see patterns in behavior, an ability that some might feel proud of, can lead more easily to a wrong description than a right one." William T. PowersThe goal of the theorist-the scholar-is to take a collection of observations of the world, and perceive order in them. This process necessarily imposes an artificial simplicity upon those observations. That is, specific observations are weighed differently from each other whenever a theoretical account is abstracted from raw experiences. Some observed events are misunderstood or distorted, others are seen as representing random fluctuations and are ignored, and yet others are viewed as centrally important. This abstraction and oversimplification of reality is inevitable in theory construction. Moreover, the abstracted vision builds upon itself. That is, as a structure begins to emerge from continued observation, the structure itself guides the search for new information. The result is a construction that is more elaborate than what existed before, but it still is usually simpler than reality.It is important for scholars to believe in the value of their task, and in the general correctness of the vision that guides their work. This commitment, and the hope of progress that follows from it, make it possible to continue even when the work is difficult and slow. But there is a special danger here, a danger that should not be discounted. The theorist must always be reluctant to believe that the vision is complete, that it is wholly accurate. Simplification makes reality intelligible. But the appeal of simplicity can blind one to the evidence that reality provides. And it is still reality that we are trying to describe. No matter how pretty the picture, it is of no use unless it has a reasonably good fit with reality. These points are applicable to any field of scientific endeavor. But writing this book has made us particularly sensitive to their implications for the analysis of human behavior. The planning of this book began with a very simple goal. We were going to describe a research program in which we had been engaged, and discuss its relationship to closely related work that had been conducted by others. Very quickly, however, the project began to escape its initial boundaries. In effect, the picture that existed in our minds of how self-regulation works began to guide a search for new information. That new information led in tum to a more elaborated model of reality. The result of these changes in perspective is a volume that in viii Preface certain ways is considerably more ambitious in scope than was its original conception. From a relatively simple (and safe) research monograph, the book has evolved into a more complex (and riskier) statement about behavioral self-regulation in general: we are arguing, in fact, for the viability of a model of self-regulation that departs considerably from traditional models.In making this statement about self-regulati...

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“…For both group and self-administered treatments, self reported anxiety was reduced and grades improved; both treatments were significantly better than no treatment. The usefulness of automated presentations of treatment materials for test anxiety has also been demonstrated (Donner & Guerney, 1969). Going beyond these studies, it seems that through the use of microcomputers it should be possible to deliver treatment for test anxiety which is both automated and self-administered.…”

Section: Traditional Group Therapy and Computeradministered Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 96%