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Credibility ratings for desensitization and pseudotherapy among moderately and mildly snake‐avoidant college students
Author(s) -
McGlynn F. Dudley,
Walls Handy
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197601)32:1<140::aid-jclp2270320136>3.0.co;2-7
Subject(s) - credibility , desensitization (medicine) , psychology , citation , the arts , systematic desensitization , library science , art , visual arts , chemistry , psychiatry , political science , computer science , anxiety , law , receptor , biochemistry
Twenty moderately avoidant and 20 mildly avoidant Ss were chosen as though they were to participate in a snake-avoidance desensitization experiment. After relaxation training, Ss listened to a taped excerpt of either desensitization or pseudotherapy and responded to a 5-item questionnaire that assessed the credibility of the treatment. Mildly avoidant Ss rated desensitization as more credible than pseudotherapy. The implication of this finding is that a great many experimental studies of systematic desensitization have failed to control satisfactorily for the operation of expectancy effects and nonspecific forms of behavioral influence.