Using humor in systematic desensitization to reduce fear.

Effectiveness of systematic desensitization for fear reduction, using humorous hierarchy scenes without relaxation, was tested. Participants were 40 students highly fearful of spiders. Using a 24-item behavioral approach test with an American tarantula, participants were matched on fear level and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatment groups: (a) systematic desensitization, (b) humor desensitization, and (c) untreated controls.

Gruesomeness, emotional attachment, and personal threat: dimensions of the anticipated stress of body recovery.

Previous research has shown that exposure to grotesque death has been associated with posttraumatic stress disorder and higher levels of stress have been associated with mortuary workers who anticipated handling remains than those who did not. Additional research is presented here to further clarify the nature of the anticipated stress of handling the dead. Anticipated stress of handling human remains was rated for 13 different situations by 479 persons (384 men and 95 women) without such experience, but whose job was likely to require it.

Anticipation of handling the dead: effects of gender and experience.

In addition to the direct psychological effects of disaster stressors, anticipation of stress can itself be debilitating. We examined the relationship between the anticipated stress of handling the dead and gender and experience. Experienced persons had lower anticipated stress than inexperienced persons.

Need associations of male prisoners: a multi-dimensional assessment of Murray needs.

Previous studies have revealed quantitative differences between delinquents and nondelinquents in the strength of Murray needs. To provide clarification and elaboration of such past findings, need associations derived from the Picture identification Test were analyzed by t test and discriminant analysis for a group of 112 male prisoners and 112 male nonincracerated normals matched with the prisoners for age and education. Greater than chance (.