Interpersonal Help Research Articles

An Experimental Test of a Craving Management Technique for Adolescents in Substance-abuse Treatment

This paper describes an experiment designed to test an imagery-based craving management technique with a sample of adolescents diagnosed with substance-use disorders. Seventy adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 (41 males) were recruited through two substance-abuse treatment programs. The experimental procedure involved stimulating craving using a previously tested imagery technique and then administering a newly developed procedure for reducing craving. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an “interpersonal help” craving reduction condition; an “interpersonal distracter” craving reduction condition; and a control condition in which craving was stimulated and allowed to attenuate naturally, without intervention. Results indicated that following exposure to imagery-based drug cues, the “interpersonal distracter” condition effectively interrupted craving, compared to the control condition. The “interpersonal help condition” did not attenuate participant’s craving response relative to the control condition. This study illustrates how experimental methods can be used to test and refine the efficacy of clinical interventions.

Understanding learning strategies in the workplace: A factor analytic investigation

The aim of this study was to validate a scale of learning strategies, as derived from the educational literature, in an organizational context. Participants were 628 call centre employees. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a six‐factor structure most accurately represented the learning strategies examined. Specifically, three cognitive (extrinsic work reflection, intrinsic work reflection, reproduction) and three behavioural strategies (interpersonal help seeking, help seeking from written material, practical application) were found.

Initial motivations for alcohol treatment: Relations with patient characteristics, treatment involvement, and dropout

This study examines (a) the relation of initial treatment motivations to alcoholics' involvement in outpatient treatment and dropout and (b) the relations among patient characteristics, severity, alcohol expectancies, motivation, and treatment retention. A treatment motivation questionnaire (TMQ) was developed to assess both internalized and external motivations for treatment, as well as confidence in the treatment and orientation towards interpersonal help seeking. In Study I, the TMQ was administered to 109 outpatients entering an alcoholism clinic. Based on these data the scale was revised and was administered to a subsequent sample of 98 subjects seeking treatment. Information about demographic variables, measures of substance use, alcohol expectancies, and psychiatric severity was also gathered. Eight weeks after intake, outcome was evaluated through attendance records and clinician ratings. Results revealed that internalized motivation was associated with greater patient involvement and retention in treatment. Subjects high in both internalized and external motivation demonstrated the best attendance and treatment retention while those low in internalized motivation showed the poorest treatment response, regardless of the level of external motivation. Problem severity was also related to a greater degree of internalized motivation. The importance of initial motivations in understanding treatment response and dropout is discussed.

A classification of coping behavior based on multidimensional scaling of similarity ratings

Developed a classification of coping behavior based on people's cognition of the domain by multidimensional scaling of 87 Ss' similarity ratings of 30 coping strategies. There were five dimensions: Confrontation vs. Avoidance, Optimism vs. Realism, Seeking vs. Not Seeking Interpersonal Help, Fatalism vs. Positive Orientation, Control vs. Lack of Control by the self. A regional interpretation also was made and uses of the classification suggested.

Hairdressers and helping: Influencing the behavior of informal caregivers.

Six hairdressers who participated in a 10-week group mental health consultation and training program were compared with seven control hairdressers on pre- andposttests of an inventory designed to assess helping strategies. Although on the pretest both groups heavily used the strategies of advice giving and presenting alternatives, only program participants showed an increase in the response strategy named Reflection of feelings on the posttest. The consultation program included goals such as (a) maximizing helping effectiveness through modeling and (b) education about referrals within the local mental health network. It is suggested that training in interpersonal help giving be offered to other groups of informal caregivers. One major goal of the community mental health movement is to expand the helping services by using nonprofessionals. This use of paraprofessionals involves creating new roles within established institutional settings, or, as an alternative, using mental health consultation to train nonprofessionals to work outside of a traditional mental health setting. These people, sometimes called informal caregivers, have recently begun to receive increased attention from community psychologists (Caplan & Killilea, 1976; Collins & Pancoast, 1976), who point out that people in distress often take their problems to sympathetic individuals within their immediate psychological environment. Although these individuals work independently of mental health professionals and have no mental health training, nonetheless they play vital roles and in some strata of society may be the sole resource for interpersonally distressed peers (Collins, 1973). Hairdressers are a potentially valuable source of natural caregivers. The present investigation grew out of an interview survey of 90 hairdressers in the Rochester, New York, area (Cowen, Gesten, Boike, Norton, Wilson, & DeStefano, in press) designed to systematically examine the interpersonal help-giving behaviors of hairdressers, as well as to assess the type and extent of personal problems brought up by customers. The survey collected data about hairdressers' backgrounds, the types of customers the hairdressers contact, the nature of verbal interactions hairdressers have with their clients, and how the hairdressers deal with their clients' personal concerns. It was found that approximately one third of the time hairdressers spent talking to customers was devoted to discussion of moderate-to-serious problems and that the hairdressers wanted professional consultation in their roles as helpers. The present article describes a program to assess helping strategies of a subgroup of these hairdressers before and after participation in a 10-week health consultation and training experience.