Stage hypnosis and public lecture effects on attitudes and beliefs regarding hypnosis.

Stage hypnosis shows, designed to entertain and amaze, and public lectures, designed to explain and educate, provide dramatically different introductions to hypnosis. This study examined how audience members' attitudes and beliefs regarding hypnosis are affected by these two different experiences. Two hundred and five college students completed pretest measures before either watching a stage hypnosis show, or attending a lecture on hypnosis, or participating in a control group. Subjects completed posttest measures between one to three weeks later. Both the stage hypnosis show and the lecture increased attendees' motivation to use hypnosis in treatment and decreased their belief that hypnotizability reflects lower intelligence. Moreover, the lecture also increased beliefs that hypnotizability reflects creativity and inner strength. Finally, while the lecture reduced the belief that a hypnotized person is robotlike and automatically acts on all suggestions, the stage hypnosis show increased this attitude among its audience members.

An ark of prevention: Preventing school absenteeism after a flood.

Children have been identified as a demographic group that is particularly vulnerable to disaster-induced psychological problems such as separation anxiety and phobias, both of which can lead to higher levels of school absenteeism. This paper presents an overview of a program designed to prevent school absenteeism following a flood in the central Shenandoah Valley of western Virginia. The program activities developed to achieve this goal involved a cognitive behavioral approach designed to equip students with the skills to cope effectively with future rainfalls. In evaluating the success of the program, analysis of school attendance records showed no increase in school absenteeism in the seven months following the flood, compared to attendance records for the previous ten years.

Situational factors related to rural adolescent alcohol use.

Factors and situations associated with alcohol use in a sample of rural junior and senior high school students are examined. Much research has shown that age, gender, grade in school, religiosity, socioeconomic status, and involvement in extracurricular activities are all related to adolescent alcohol use. The present paper looks at the relationship between these factors and situations which might be conducive to drinking (e.g., driving around in a car, before going to a party, etc.) to determine whether the factors make it more likely that an adolescent will drink in such situations. The amount of time spent in social activities was positively related to alcohol use in all situations examined except drinking at home or at dinner. The amount of time spent studying and the frequency of attending religious services were negatively related to alcohol use in the various situations. Females were also less likely to drink in the situations discussed. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Patterns of alcohol use among rural and small-town adolescents.

Much research has indicated that age, gender, grade in school, religiosity, socioeconomic status, and involvement in extracurricular activities are all related to adolescent alcohol use. However, most of such research focuses on urban youth. The present study examines patterns of rural adolescent alcohol use and factors associated with such use. The Student Alcohol Inventory was administered to 650 students in grades 7-12 in a small, middle-Atlantic town and surrounding county. The survey contained sections addressing demographic data, attitudes regarding students' alcohol use, and their parents' use. Along with standard SES measures, items were included on unemployment and receipt of government assistance. The dependent variables included age at first drink, frequency of drinking, amount of drinking, and a composite heavy-drinking index. Eighty-three percent of the respondents indicated that they had drunk alcohol and 57% had had their first drink by age 12. Gender and grade in school were significant predictors of alcohol use for all four dependent variables. Time spent in social activities was significant in predicting all but age at first drink. Religiosity was a significant predictor for only one dependent variable--age at first drink. The SES measures were also weak predictors of drinking behavior. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Testing a model for the process of telephone crisis intervention.

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.