
Gerald C. DavisonUniversity of Southern California | USC · Department of Psychology
Gerald C. Davison
Ph. D.
About
180
Publications
40,545
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
5,299
Citations
Publications
Publications (180)
Research indicates that sexual orientation change efforts (SOCEs) are not effective and furthermore commonly lead to iatrogenic effects such as depression, anxiety, and even suicide. Negative attitudes toward homosexuality derive from most formal religions and are incarnated in medical and psychological theories that support and encourage SOCEs. Op...
A discussion of the past and present of cognitive behavior therapy from the perspective of my academic and clinical career
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), while recognized as evidence-based, continues to be viewed as a novel and controversial treatment. At the same time, numerous alternative eye movement therapies have been introduced, each of which requires its own set of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess remarkable claims of cure. Th...
A career in clinical psychology necessitates becoming a lifelong learner. The clinical psychologists who embrace lifelong learning benefit from the continued growth in psychological science and the continuing evolution of science-based practice. The constituents that these clinical psychologists interact with and impact—patients, students and train...
Lifelong learning plays a central role in the lives of clinical psychologists. As psychological science advances and evidence-based practices develop, it is critical for clinical psychologists to not only maintain their competencies but to also evolve them. In this article, we discuss lifelong learning as a clinical, ethical, and scientific imperat...
In June 1999 I was privileged to be invited to a two-day conference at the University of Nevada, Reno to participate in presentations by colleagues regarded by the organizing committee (William T. O’Donohue, Deborah A. Henderson, Steven C. Hayes, Jane E. Fisher, and Linda J. Hayes) to be founders of behavior therapy. Most of the other speakers and...
Continuing education is recognized as important to maintaining professional competence. The aim of these analyses was to compare the continuing education standards established by the American Psychological Association (APA) to those of other service delivery professions. Two studies were conducted in which graduate students in clinical psychology a...
The research explored explanatory mechanisms of change for a personalized normative feedback (PNF) intervention, through an adapted application of the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situation (ATSS) cognitive think-aloud paradigm. A sample of 70 (51% female) U.S. adjudicated students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a PNF-ATSS...
Hundreds of organizations are approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education (CE) to psychologists who provide assessment and intervention services to the public. CE sponsors are held to standards by the APA that emphasize evidence-based practice, but less is known about what is taught in individual CE prog...
In this invited commentary, I provide an historical and conceptual context for “The Future of Intervention Science: Process-Based Therapy” by Stefan Hofmann and Steven Hayes. Special attention is paid to the importance of change mechanisms in psychological intervention, the use of functional analysis instead of categorical schemes such as the Diagn...
In all the behavioral sciences and applications, value judgments are made regardless of whether the decision-makers are health practitioners, academic researchers, or administrators. Much of the time, there is little awareness of values and ethics, similar to the oft-mentioned metaphor that fish do not know that they are swimming in water. It is ou...
This paper presents the findings of a systematic review of the positive long-term impact of video game play on symptoms related to anxiety and depression.
Attentional dysfunction is commonly found in depressed individuals in the form of impairment on measures of selective attention as well as attentional biases for negative information. Although a relationship between nonvalenced and valenced aspects of attention has been suggested based on theory, functional neuroanatomy, and studies in other popula...
Background:
Personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are designed to reduce misperceived drinking norms by delivering feedback regarding the actual drinking behavior of college students, thereby leading to subsequent reductions in one's own drinking.
Objective:
We examined the roles of data source credibility and reference group proxi...
In this retrospective on behavior therapy on the occasion of ABCT’s 50th anniversary, I describe my role in several developments that I believe have been important for the field. First, behavior therapy has moved from advancing a predetermined set of theories and techniques (“the conditioning therapies”) to a more general and stronger focus on stud...
Clinical geropsychology is a growing specialty field that focuses on the psychological aspects of aging, specifically the assessment and treatment of psychological disorders in older adults. Ageist assumptions about older adults being incapable of psychological change or its not being worth the time and effort to work towards such change have been...
Continuing education (CE) refers to formal learning activities required of licensed professionals in order to maintain their license. These activities include, but are not limited to, workshops, lectures, conferences, seminars, distance learning as well as independent learning, and cover a variety of topics reflecting the diverse scope of topics an...
Walter Mischel (b. 1930) is a distinguished researcher in the fields of social, personality, and clinical psychology, holder of a named chair at Columbia University, and author of numerous scholarly works. He is widely known for his research on delayed gratification (e.g., The Stanford Marshmallow Experiments) and his contributions to personality t...
The American Psychological Association (APA) focuses on the science, application, and dissemination of psychology as the world's largest membership organization of psychologists. Formed with an initial emphasis towards psychology as a field of basic scientific research, APA has developed over the past century and across two World Wars to serve a wi...
As a highly trained French scientist with educational roots in philosophy and medicine, Pierre Janet (1859–1947) was uniquely positioned to influence the early formation of psychology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He developed a form of psychotherapy called psychological analysis, which predated the psychoanalysis of Sig...
Arnold A. Lazarus (1932–2013) was an acclaimed clinical psychologist, distinguished professor and author of both scholarly works and popular books. In the early stages of his career, he contributed to the development of behavior therapy at a time when psychodynamic approaches were dominant. He became widely known for his significant contributions t...
Reviewed here is the professional life of Albert Bandura, one of the most highly cited scholars in the entire history of psychology. From a modest childhood in rural Canada, Bandura emerged as an innovative theorist and ingenious experimentalist in the development of a social cognitive theory that placed strong emphasis on the human capacity to con...
Gordon L. Paul was a foundational scholar in the transformation of clinical psychology from its beginnings in anecdotal, largely untestable explanation and practice to the evidence-based assessment and intervention that currently characterize the field. Gordon was one of the most highly cited researchers of his time and had a profound influence on...
Arnold A. Lazarus, distinguished professor emeritus at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, passed away on October 1, 2013. He is regarded as one of the founders of behavior therapy and one of its leading practitioners and teachers. Throughout his career Lazarus enjoyed the rare distinction of being one of...
Studies have examined the impact of distraction on basic task performance (e.g., working memory, motor responses), yet research is lacking regarding its impact in the domain of think-aloud cognitive assessment, where the threat to assessment validity is high. The Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations think-aloud cognitive assessment paradigm...
Motivated by methods used in language modeling and grammar in-duction, we propose the use of pragmatic constraints and perplexity as criteria to filter the unlabeled data used to generate the seman-tic similarity model. We investigate unsupervised adaptation algo-rithms of the semantic-affective models proposed in [1, 2]. Affec-tive ratings at the...
Previous studies reveal age by valence interactions in attention and memory, such that older adults focus relatively more on positive and relatively less on negative stimuli than younger adults. In the current study, eyeblink startle response was used to measure differences in emotional reactivity to images that were equally arousing to both age gr...
In 2008, the World Economic Forum (WEF) created the Global Agenda Councils – an amalgamation of scientists, public policy makers, academics, physicians and business leaders with the task of devising transformational innovation in global governance for the purpose of advancing knowledge and collaboratively developing solutions for the most crucial i...
The present paper is a conceptual analysis and empirical review of research using the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations
(Davison et al. in Cogn Ther Res 7(1): 17–39, 1983) paradigm, a think-aloud cognitive assessment approach that is intended to capture ongoing thinking in an analogue, controlled
environment of considerable interpersonal...
Gerontechnology is an interdisciplinary field that links existing and developing technologies to the aspirations and needs of aging and aged adults. It helps support ‘successful aging’, is organized according to the WHO definition of health, and is a response to the combination of the aging of society and rapidly emerging new technologies. Distingu...
Master classes for PhD students in gerontechnology showed the need for a short guideline to help young researchers. To enable the gerontechnology enterprise to be implemented in design, engineering and research, some of the teachers in the master classes in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and Nantou (Taiwan) developed together a step-by-step framework...
In this commentary on a classic article by Paul Wachtel on the importance of theoretical work in empirical research, the author expresses agreement that reward structures discourage the kind of theoretical speculation that may lead to new understandings of existing data and, even more critically, to new ways of formulating questions to be addressed...
Several themes and activities of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12 of APA) are discussed: a seemingly inexorable trend towards more and more specialization, posing a challenge to the very identity of clinical psychology; the importance of broad and general education in core content areas, especially in the science of psychology; conti...
A number of issues raised in the C.R. Snyder and T.R. Elliott article, "Twenty-First Century Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology: A Four Level Matrix Model" (this issue, pp. 1033-1054), are critically examined: the role of interpersonal and societal factors in understanding the human condition, the desirability of breadth in both undergraduat...
This study evaluated the ability of a 20-minute self-administered intervention to increase HIV/AIDS risk reduction among sexually active college students. The intervention presented normative data on the relatively low prevalence of HIV risk behaviors among college students for the purpose of conveying the idea that risk reduction was the prevailin...
An article by Eubanks-Carter, Burckell, and Coldfried (this issue) provides a variety of gay-affirmative suggestions about what psychotherapists should know about the gay and lesbian experience if they are to be humane and effective mental health helpers. In the present article I offer several critiques and comments on issues and nonissues pertaini...
An article by Eubanks-Carter, Burckell, and Goldfried (this issue) provides a variety of gay-affirmative suggestions about what psychotherapists should know about the gay and lesbian experience if they are to be humane and effective mental health helpers. In the present article I offer several critiques and comments on issues and nonissues pertaini...
This study uses the unmatched count technique (UCT) to estimate base rates for hate crime victimization in college students and compares the results with estimates found using conventional methods. Hate crimes, criminal acts perpetrated against individuals or members of specific stigmatized groups, intend to express condemnation, hate, disapproval,...
This study used the person perception vignette method to examine whether people perceive hate crime victims as more culpable than non-hate crime victims. In a between-participants design, participants were randomly assigned to read a vignette depicting a nonhate crime or a comparable hate crime motivated by the perpetrator's hatred for either the v...
Current systems for listing empirically supported therapies (ESTs) provide recognition to treatment packages, many of them proprietary and trademarked, without regard to the principles of change believed to account for their effectiveness. Our position is that any authoritative body representing the science and profession of psychology should work...
This study uses the unmatched-count technique (UCT) to estimate base rates for anti-gay hate crime perpetration in college students and compares the results with estimates found using conventional methods. The UCT does not require the participant to directly answer sensitive questions, which may provide more accurate responses than other methods. T...
The Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) paradigm was utilized to explore the affective experiences and coping intentions in a group of female college students of African American heritage while they imaginally encountered different types of racism stressors. The links among attitudes about racial identity, hardiness beliefs and aspe...
This study employed the articulated thoughts in simulated situations (ATSS) paradigm in the investigation of college students' thoughts upon confrontation with a conspiracy to commit a sexual-orientation-based hate crime versus a nonbias crime. In a between-subjects experimental design, participants were exposed to an audiotaped scenario depicting...
A special series on Thought Field Therapy in the Journal of Clinical Psychology provides an opportunity for psychologists to learn about techniques and theories outside the mainstream of our field. Unfortunately, by publishing this series of manuscripts without meeting the standards of peer review, the Journal also provides an avenue for the misuse...
Current graduate curricula do not fully grapple with and take advantage of the dialectical interplay of science and practice that is at the core of the scientist—practitioner (Boulder) model. This article addresses factors that interfere with the realization of the Boulder model and offers suggestions for curriculum reform. It emphasizes the import...
Reviewed here are a number of conceptual and ethical issues surrounding the study and treatment of gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals (GLB), with particular emphasis on the frequently overlooked political and ethical dimensions of what therapists choose to treat, indeed, on the goals patients themselves want to work towards. Several issues are discus...
Comments are made on case material from a patient likely to be diagnosable as borderline personality disorder. The author offers an analysis of the case as one reflecting emotional dysregulation and the complex interpersonal consequences of lack of control over turbulent storms of negative emotionality. A tentative treatment plan is outlined that i...
Several issues concerning stepped care are discussed: the constraints of using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnoses in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), the importance of basic and process research, the unintended negative effects of exaggerated claims of effectiveness and efficiency, the limits of RCTs in evaluating imp...
Several issues concerning stepped care are discussed: the constraints of using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnoses in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), the importance of basic and process research, the unintended negative effects of exaggerated claims of effectiveness and efficiency, the Limits of RCTs in evaluating imp...
z It is assumed that values are strong controlling variables that influence behavior in enduring and significant ways. The value priorities of those reporting higher-risk sexual behavior were hypothesized to differ significantly from those reporting lower-risk behavior. The Rokeach Value Survey and a sexual behavior questionnaire were administered...
The cognitive correlates of anger arousal were investigated in community-based samples of maritally violent (MV), maritally distressed-nonviolent (DNV), and maritally satisfied-nonviolent (SNV) husbands. Participants performed the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) paradigm while listening to anger-arousing audiotapes. Trained rate...
The cognitive correlates of anger arousal were investigated in community-based samples of maritally violent (MV), maritally distressed-nonviolent (DNV), and maritally satisfied-nonviolent (SNV) husbands. Participants performed the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) paradigm while listening to anger-arousing audiotapes. Trained rate...
We examined the experience and expression of anger in community samples of 31 maritally violent (MV), 23 maritally dissatisfied-nonviolent (DNV), and 34 maritally satisfied-nonviolent (SNV) men. Two methods were used to assess anger. First, participants completed the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), which assesses respondents' level...
A number of factors interfere with the realization of the scientist-practitioner model of training in applied psychology. Resistance to empirically supported treatments (ESTs) may arise from both academic faculty and internship supervisors who have an investment in approaches of longer standing but with less empirical justification. A possible prob...
In addition to widely used endorsement methods, one way to get at people's thoughts is to have them verbalize while engaged in a task or situation. The articulated thoughts in simulated situations (ATSS) paradigm is a think-aloud approach to cognitive assessment that has several advantages: an unstructured production response format, on-line rather...
In addition to widely used endorsement methods, one way to get at people's thoughts is to have them verbalize while engaged in a task or situation. The articulated thoughts in simulated situations (ATSS) paradigm is a think-aloud approach to cognitive assessment that has several advantages: an unstructured production response format, on-line rather...
Dealing with the problems of substance abuse requires both an appreciation of clinical reality and an understanding of basic psychosocial principles. Each of the conference presentations of theory and research, most of them nonapplied in nature, created a welcome and rare occasion for experimental and clinical psychologists (and hybrids) to reflect...
Presents the case of a 25-yr-old man complaining of sexual difficulties who terminated a course of behavior therapy earlier than the therapist expected. Seen for 4 or 5 sessions by the author at the very beginning of his professional career, the S may have been put off by the kinds of mistakes that, it is surmised, many early behavior therapists we...
Comments on the psychotherapeutic failure cases described by A. C. Bohart, J. R. Gold, S. D. Hollon and V. Devine, D. H. Powell, and G. Stricker (see PA, Vol 83:2160; 2172; 2241; 2486; and 2193, respectively). Possible underlying reasons for the failures are described. These include too much reliance on the patient to structure the goals and means...
Statement of the Issue In this article we will underscore the continuing importance of clinical practice and the creative hunches derived therefrom. We will also address the limits of existing conceptual frameworks; the need for some kind of psychotherapy integra- tion; the inevitable gaps between data and application; the inherent art that resides...
Multimodal therapy calls for selection of interventions on the basis of the specific modes of functioning that they are expected to affect. Mode-specificity assumptions were tested in a study of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) training for type A men with borderline hypertension. It was expected that PMR would be especially effective in reducin...
Comments on L. Sechrest and B. Smith's (see record 1994-34361-001 ) discussion of the lack of integration of psychotherapeutic theory and practice into the science of psychology. Experimental cognitive research in human sexuality, depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia is cited to exemplify the application of integration. While the scientist–profes...
We explore the complex interplay of clinical discovery and controlled evaluation, demonstrating how experience in the applied arena provides Invaluable insights and ideas about the complexity of the human condition and of ways to intervene effectively. Case studies have features that earn them a firm place in psychological research, and to ignore t...
Memorializes P. London, who demonstrated that hypnotic performance was as strikingly a social psychological phenomenon as a personal one by showing that "untranceable" people respond to hypnotic patter. His
Modes and Morals of Psychotherapy (1964/1986) was the 1st cognitive account of the behavior therapies and remains accessible reading for stude...
Memorializes P. London, who demonstrated that hypnotic performance was as strikingly a social psychological phenomenon as a personal one by showing that "untranceable" people respond to hypnotic patter. His Modes and Morals of Psychotherapy (1964/1986) was the 1st cognitive account of the behavior therapies and remains accessible reading for studen...
Albert Ellis's rational-emotive therapy (RET) is scrutinized on several conceptual and empirical grounds, including its reliance on constructive assessment and its ethical stance. Its professional impact thus far exceeds its scientific status. Opinion varies on how even to define irrational beliefs; 1 consequence is problems in assessing them. Meta...
Albert Ellis's rational-emotive therapy (RET) is scrutinized on several conceptual and empirical grounds, including its reliance on constructive assessment and its ethical stance. Its professional impact thus far exceeds its scientific status. Opinion varies on how even to define irrational beliefs; 1 consequence is problems in assessing them. Meta...
Clinical observation indicates that self-efficacy (SE), though generally linked with maintaining smoking cessation, can be excessive. The states-of-mind (SOM) model offers a testable means of predicting when positive thinking will be detrimental. Specifically, the positive-monologue SOM (ratio of positive to positive +negative thoughts .69) is seen...
Beck's cognitive theory of depression postulates several types of cognitive bias among depressed patients. Empirical studies supporting this hypothesis have usually used questionnaire "endorsement" measures of cognition, which may suggest responses to subjects. We used the articulated thoughts during simulated situations (ATSS) method of cognitive...
To explore the hypothesis that individuals with Type A behavior pattern have an underlying sensitivity to social criticism, the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations paradigm was used to examine differences in articulated cognitions between Types A and B individuals in response to simulated taped situations involving social criticism and non...
An influential theme within the movement to integrate psychotherapies high-lights commonalities among existing systems of treatment. We examine this trend via a case study of the relationship between Ellis's rational-emotive therapy (RET) and Beck's cognitive therapy (CT). Numerous differences be-tween these two therapies in goals, style, and thera...
An intensive 7-week relaxation therapy was evaluated in a sample of unmedicated borderline hypertensive men. All subjects were provided state-of-the-art medical information regarding changes known to affect hypertension favorably, e.g., lower salt intake and regular exercise. In addition, relaxation subjects were trained in muscle relaxation that e...
This study related articulated thoughts during simulated situations (ATSS) to behavioral observations. Articulated thoughts of undergraduates in supportive and stressful simulated public speaking situations were coded for indices of positive and negative self-efficacy and outcome expectations. Cognitions varied as expected across situations. In the...
It has been observed that outcome research has had limited impact on rational-emotive therapy (RET) theory and practice. This paper argues that slow progress in this area has resulted in part from ambiguities in the definition and measurement of RET interventions and of irrational beliefs. Also, advances in treatment outcome research methodology, s...
Studies of verbal reports have always assumed that thoughts verbalized on a given occasion are not the only ones that could have been expressed. This poses a potential problem for a recently developed thinkaloud procedure called Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS). To address this issue, comparisons were made between the articulated...
The effects of relaxation therapy on blood pressure and neural responses to "social stress"-anger instigation were determined in 30 male patients with mild primary hypertension. "Social stress"-anger induced increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressures (both p less than 0.01) and plasma norepinephrine (p less than 0.05) before therapy. Diast...
The comparative hemodynamic and neurohumoral effects of hygiene instruction, both alone and in combination with relaxation therapy for seven weeks, were assessed in 30 mild hypertensives while resting; additionally, nutrient intake was measured using a computerized inventory system. Diastolic blood pressures, while sitting, were related to plasma n...
We compared the relative effects of relaxation therapy, conventional hygienic techniques, and a beta-receptor blocker, atenolol, on control of arterial pressure, left ventricular mass, and diastolic function in patients with mild primary hypertension. Furthermore, we related these effects to baseline neural tone and its changes and assessed the eff...
The effects of clonidine or relaxation therapy were determined in two separate groups of patients with primary hypertension. Ten patients were treated with clonidine monotherapy for 3 months. There were concurrent reductions of blood pressure, plasma and CSF norepinephrine, all p less than 0.01. The changes of blood pressure and norepinephrine were...
Left ventricular (LV) mass is a predictor of morbidity in patients with hypertension. To elucidate the mechanisms of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in primary hypertension, we examined the relationships of LV mass, arterial blood pressure, and plasma norepinephrine--as a marker of sympathetic nervous system tone--in three populations of patient...
Left ventricular (LV) mass is a predictor of morbidity in patients with hypertension. To elucidate the mechanisms of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in primary hypertension, we examined the relationships of LV mass, arterial blood pressure, and plasma norepinephrine—as a marker of sympathetic nervous system tone—in three populations of patients...
Originaltext vom Verlag; nicht vom SfBS bearbeitet. Kap. 15. Emotionale Störungen und Störungen des Verhaltens in der Kindheit und Adoleszenz. 5. Aufl. - 1998, S. 490 - 523 als rtf-Datei vorhanden Die Klinische Psychologie gehört zu den schillerndsten Gebieten der Psychologie. Die Übersetzung basiert auf der 8. amerikanischem Auflage und vermittelt...
To determine the effects of hygienic (non-drug) therapy on blood pressure (BP) control and its relationship to sympathetic tone and left ventricular mass (LVM) in primary hypertension, plasma norepinephrine (NE) and renin activity (PRA), LVM, and nutritional and behavioral status were assessed in 76 borderline to mild hypertensives. Pretherapy plas...
Cognitive conceptualizations of social anxiety emphasize the role of negative self-statements, unrealistic expectations, and irrational beliefs in the development and maintenance of anxiety in social-evaluative situations. Research into these cognitive factors has entailed administration of questionnaires and instructions to subjects to write down...
In a clinical sample of borderline-hypertensive males, Type Bs with cardiac damage were found to look more like Type As than nondamaged Type Bs in terms of percentage of articulated hostile cognitions to audiotaped stimuli, including a threat to self-esteem (p = .01) and a frustrating auto-repair situation (p = .05). Behavior type was significantly...