Self-instructional training in stress management

This dissertation reports an evaluation of Self-instructional training as a stress-management technique for multi-problem clients. Individuals who responded to a newspaper advertisement offering assistance in tension management and who reported that they experienced anxiety in at least two relatively specific situations were assigned to the following treatment conditions: (1) Self-instructional training (n=ll), (2) Awareness (n=ll), (3) Skills training (n=ll) and (4) Minimal treatment control (n=9). Therapy was conducted over a six-week period with therapists in the first three experimental conditions meeting small groups for 1%-hour sessions. Clients in all conditions were encouraged to adopt a situational view of anxiety and to record the details of the stressful situations they encountered throughout the course of treatment. In the first condition, Meichenbaum's (1974) treatment manual was used as a guide. Clients were taught to analyze their problems according to a cognitive model of anxiety and to adopt the use of coping self-statements in stressful situations. Clients in condition two received a similar treatment rationale, but did not specifically practice the use of coping self-statements. The third condition provided a combination of role-playing and coaching to assist clients to change their behavior in stressful situations. Finally the minimal treatment group attended a two-hour session in which the self-instructional training procedure was explained to them and was applied to some of their problems. Analysis of self- and Significant Other reports found no significant differences among treatment conditions, although there was significant change on almost all measures for the client sample as a whole. These inconclusive findings were discussed in relation to differences between the present client sample and clients who have served as subjects in previous research. It was suggested that a promising area for future research might be the investigation of the role of certain client characteristics in determining treatment outcome, especially levels of trait anxiety and the duration and specificity of stressful situations.Arts, Faculty ofPsychology, Department ofGraduat