Monday, February 26, 2007

Everybody's Doing It!

Starting college and moving away from home means taking the next big step in a one’s life. For many students venturing out one one’s own means a life full of freedom, choices and responsibility. A time to make mistakes, learn from them and to to also act upon good judgment. However, it also means that students can no longer depend on their parents to blame for their acctions. Students are accountable for their own actions. Although parents send their school in hope of what is best for them, many students secretly confine their social lives from their parents. Parents have yet to find out what goes on after the long goodbyes. While some parents think that their child is the perfect angel, playing ultimate beer pong proves otherwise. Some of the actions may not seem like a big deal at first, but students night lives may well effect their overall performance in school. Thursday nights for many means an early start towards the weekend. If you have ever ridden the late night point-to-point bus (P2P) at UNC, one can easily tell how much of an influence drinking has on a majority of students on college campuses. Whether a student passes out beside you, or sticks their head out of the window to relieve themselves, the social nightlife takes up a lot of a college student’s life. Now every weekend, the easiest way to euphoria is to travel down to the fraternity and sorority houses that are more than likely available to anyone with a UNC I.D.

For many students this may only seem like having a good time, but to the research team of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
excessive alcohol consumption in college students not only causes problems on the campus, but also on its surroundings. In trying to change the drinking habits and safety of students who consume alcohol, Angela K. Fournier and three of her colleagues implemented an incentive reward to see if the drinking behavior patterns of students changes. Prior research determined that 80% to 90% of college student’s drink and that could possibly lead to several negative consequences. Problems include poor academic work, unplanned sexual activity, assault, property damage, violence and more than likely vehicle crashes. Greek life students consume more than a non-Greek friend, and more likely suffer the consequences. After playing three rounds of beer pong, or hall crawl, students’ better judgment becomes impaired. Likewise, more students at a fraternity party are than likely to be more intoxicated than students in a private party, which deemed the best place for the team choosing to test their hypothesis.

Since fraternities are the most popular drinking environment, researchers found this the perfect place to use the intervention/reward method. Rather than targeting students who depend on alcohol, the target population was a host of people who abuse their alcohol intake. As a method to lower the percentage of heavy drinkers at a safe level, the surveyors gave 365 BAC assessments to the students. As each participant agreed to become part of the experiment, the researchers gave students Nomograms to monitor their intake and control their BAC.

Blended in as regular college students, the surveyors attended all four of the parties where they stood at the door of both intervention parties from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. where the participants were given the Nomograms and tips on how to keep their buzz at the safe level. Tips included drinking water and snacking on food while they drank. Fliers were large to capture the participants attention. The reward money amount was in big bold letters and hte target goal .05 bold and underlined. At the baseline party, the surveyors came in unrecognized, took a few information and left. Six months later, the researchers gave interviews to the people who participated in the experiment.

Evidence from a previous experiment with an incentive/reward program has already been successful with E.S. Geller in his attempt to promote seat belt usage on university campuses through incentive strategies. As a belief that different types of reinforcement can change the way people act, the surveyors attended an intervention party where they passed out fliers informing students of a chance to be entered into a drawing where they could win $100 if their BAC was less than .05. The reward money set for an alcohol level at .05 meant that the effects occurring in teens at this level are relaxed and desirable since W.J. Bailey concluded in Drug Abuse in American Society that a person reaches euphoria at .04 to .06, which is most desirable during drinking.

Overall, participants had showed a more of a decrease at the intervention parties than at the baseline parties all showing less than 50% as opposed to the baseline parties who were well over. While students come to college with the intentions to fit in and make the most of their college experience, sometimes for others it means taking those late night trips to frat court where the majority of drinking occurs. Aiming to change the drinking behavior of college students through methods of reinforcement demonstrates that the approach can help to maintain chaos. More than likely, using incentive/reward methods for other settings in the university policy could further help parts of the community achieve what seemed like unattainable goals.

Unarguably, students will be students no matter what campust they attend. Some of the things they chose to do are not as healthy nor as safe as others. Although parents may not be able to monitor their kids everyday, programs and studies such as the incentive program given at the frat parties may help put students back on the tract to a successful college career.
This Behavior Modification case study may influence many other groups of people to change the way they use and abuse other substances. Maybe some students will be making the best use of their parents money after all. Instead of missing an 8:OO class from an all-night hangover at the frat house, more students will chose to drink more responsively and with moderation.

Sources:
Fournier, Angela K., Ian J. Ehrhart, Kent E. Glindermann, and E. Scott Geller.
Intervening to Decrease Alcohol Abuse at University Parties: Differential
Reinforcement of Intoxication Level. Behavior Modification. 28. 167. 2004. 18 Feb.
2007. <
http://bmo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/2/167>
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Defense, Offense and.....Cognitive Intervention?: The New Game Plan


Are you a high school athlete hoping to play at the collegiate level? Do you think you have the skills necessary but struggle in a specific area? Would improving this area of your game put you over the hump and in the eye of a scout? If so, you may be able to overcome your free throw, batting or other struggles with cognitive intervention; a process of image association that is helping numerous athletes overcome mental blockades to physical potential.


So you’ve already counted this out because the words “cognitive” and “intervention” scare you. Not so fast, this is just a scientific term meaning “word/image association.” Athletes struggling with a specific area of their sports were able to associate words with pictures relating to exact moments in their respective troubled areas. Because some intended actions we perform throughout an athletic event may have unintended and negative consequences, consciously engaging in actions that we associate with positive outcomes has been tested to find positive correlations.

So how does this program actually work? There are a number of stages necessary for the evolution of the program. In order to clearly illustrate this process, a documented case study will accompany the explanation. The first is the identification phase. Here the athlete methodically describes the area that he or she wishes to improve. This includes the event’s starting point to its end point. In the case study, the athlete was concerned about his foul shot performance. Specifically identifying the action’s start (perhaps the blown whistle indicating a foul) and end (perhaps when the ball leaves the athlete’s hands) point is important because the researcher deals with a precise set of emotions. To big a time period encompasses more emotions, complicating the process. Simplicity and clarity are key in image association. One wants to be as clear headed as possible.

The second part of phase one involves the subject’s identification of emotions experienced and verbalized throughout the event. Here the researcher can identify possible pressures and other factors the athlete faces during the event. The athlete is then asked to pay attention to his actions during this event in subsequent days and record, in detail, what he experiences. This record helps the researcher identify recurring emotions that may be detrimental to the athlete’s performance (unknown to the athlete). In the particular case study, the athlete identified that he was having concentration problems at the free throw line. The athlete said that he repeated the word “concentrate” at the line. The researcher decided that this added extra pressure to the shooter rather than relieved pressure. In an attempt to calm himself, the subject was actually pressuring himself to relieve pressure. A window of time from the moment the referee passed the ball to the shooter until he shot the ball was deemed an appropriate time frame that left little time for the shooter to experience added pressure. For example, if given a bigger time frame, concentration could be interrupted by the opposing team’s calling a timeout. Eliminating this possibility ensures that the player is focused only on making the foul shot.

The second phase is the cognitive restructuring phase. In this phase, a conscious effort is made to associate specific words with still images of the event. An important aspect of this phase is that the athlete must believe that the therapy will work. Any doubts about the program’s effectiveness prevent the athlete from fully embracing the program, thus the program’s usefulness cannot be measured. As the study puts it, a belief in the system “entails a performance expectancy,” and this is usually reflected in time dedicated to the program.

The next phase is the pairing phase. Here the athlete pairs a word or phrase with specific images. After weeks of study, the athlete will instinctively pair these words with the scenes. They are asked to study the pairings before bed, at halftime of games and before games. In our case, the nervous basketball player associated foul shot images with the words “relax” and “practice” after successfully making 18 of 20 foul shots in practice. He said that he felt no pressure in practice to make the shots, thus the specific words were chosen. As a result, during games, the athlete is supposed to say the key words that will trigger a relaxed feeling, similar to the one experienced in the gym when the pressure is off. During this phase, athletes are asked to speak with the researcher for a number of hours per week to express satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the program which could inhibit the effectiveness of the process. This interaction between subject and researcher is important so that the researcher can identify any covert tendencies that may cause setbacks.

In the specific case study, the player showed a significant increase in foul shot efficiency, rising from roughly 54% in the first 7 games (prior to study) of the season and roughly 75% during the last 16 games (after study). A transition period of fourteen days was implemented so that the athlete could become familiar with the program.

Although some studies have illustrated the program’s potential effectiveness, a study like this is not conclusive. While the author uses numerous sources and case studies that seem to validate the process, there will always be doubt because the potential influence of outside factors, such as extra practice and attention from coaches, remains a critical factor. None-the-less, the program does force athletes to spend more time developing mental focus, and mental clarity in sports (such as at the free throw line where the athlete is basically competing against himself) is absolutely crucial. Other studies in the article show improvements in penalty minutes and total fouls (basketball) after the athletes participated in the program. So if you are struggling to stay out of foul trouble, hit a curve ball or even make a greater percentage of foul shots, this method may be beneficial. One is inclined to believe the program is beneficial considering it is similar to other training methods. My roommate used to bite his nails but after he bought No Bite paste that tastes horribly, he no longer bites them. Not to mention a professor at UNC compiled the research for the article, making it inherently correct.

Competitive Sport Environments: Performance Enhancement Through Cognitive Intervention

John M. Silva, III
Behavior Modification, 10 1982; vol. 6: pp. 443 - 463.

Agora-what? I said, AGORAPHOBIA!



Agoraphobia, that’s scary, right? Most people think this psychological fear of being in crowds or sometimes being in open spaces is always accompanied by extreme panic attacks that often lead the afflicted seeking medical treatment. However, a new study published in Behavior Modification dares to defy this long-held belief. According to the article, many people experience agoraphobia without panic attacks and often the triggers are unknown. For the most part, the disorder is still a mystery.

The real debate brought up is that some psychologists believe there can be panic-free agoraphobia while others do not believe this. It’s a tough call because most people who experience agoraphobia without panic attacks do not seek medical treatment. The results are somewhat inconclusive and therefore it becomes debatable and diluted with speculation.

Ever felt like you were about to have some sort of panic attack and therefore you stayed in your house all day? Probably not; however, if you did stay in and have never actually experienced a panic attack nor did you have one that day, you could have agoraphobia. Some other symptoms of agoraphobia include becoming so incapacitated by one’s own fear of going out of their “comfort zones” and becoming a hermit. In the Behavior Modification article, one phrase caught my attention, “fear of fear.” Literally, people who have agoraphobia could have never experienced a panic attack and just the fear of the chance of having a panic attack caused by fear disables the person and they are incapacitated. The article looked at various studies done on people who either had agoraphobia with panic attacks or had never had a panic attack and yet suffered from agoraphobia and the results were astounding.

It seems like people often times have periods where they are so scared of having an attack that has never occurred before in their life that they cannot even do anything besides stay at home. However, since they never actually have an attack they never feel the need to seek medical treatment so the numbers of people who do have agoraphobia are not accurate because they do not incorporate all those who suffer in silence because of their lack of knowledge about the illness. A specific statement within the article articulated that anxiety sensitivity can lead to agoraphobia without the presence of panic attacks. It is an interesting claim because most would assume that a well-documented illness such as agoraphobia would have all its symptoms written out by now, but this research has given a whole new perspective to the disorder.



The avoidance of situations seems to intensify the feelings of fear that are already enhanced because the afflicted do not usually seek treatment. The people who have agoraphobia without panic attacks have unusually strong fears of embarrassment or of some sort of catastrophic event occurring while they are out and about. We all have fears about our houses burning down if we left things plugged in or maybe vomiting when we get nervous, but the fear these agoraphobics are stricken with is so serious that they grow to avoid all instances where they may be presented with having a panic attack. It’s an odd phenomenon and explaining it has proven to be a tough challenge.
The best explanation for the fear has nothing to do with the “severity or frequency of panic attacks” and instead with events that caused arousal in the subjects.

It appears that subjects were prone to fearing events as opposed to what actually happens when they are really in situation. The people come to fear the symptoms of panic attacks without having ever experienced a panic attack and the fear is crippling to the extent that they are unable to go about daily tasks. A formulated Anxiety Sensitivity Index was used to gauge different peoples’ anxiety levels and how they interpreted fear. Apparently, agoraphobics with panic attacks scored very high on this index prior to treatment but lower afterward, whereas the plain avoidant subjects scored about the same and since they did not have panic attacks, they had not had treatment so they performed the same the second time. Anxiety sensitivity is present in other anxiety disorders, yet it is key to developing agoraphobia even without the panic attacks.




You’re probably wondering how on earth this can be relevant to you or people around you. To make a connection with myself, I have a friend that has never had a panic attack and yet is extremely fearful of having one at an inappropriate time and you would never guess this from just hanging out with her. She often avoids leaving her room and instead offers her dorm room for people to hang out in. I didn’t think anything was really wrong with her until I read this article and understood that someone can have a fear of having a panic attack and yet never have had one. It’s a weird concept that still stumps psychologists and scientists alike. Studies like this help my friend and probably people you know overcome their fear and get help even if there is no evidence that they need help.