A self-control approach to reducing smoking

A self-control program for reducing smoking which emphasized the use of record-keeping, positive reinforcement, punishment, stimulus control, breaking up the chain of behaviors, and other behavior modification techniques was developed and tried out with 5 Ss. The flexibility and economy of such a program suggest that more widespread tests of its effectiveness would be worthwhile.

The portly psychologist, or, on the perils of using a control group

A questionnaire was sent to people who had requested reprints of an article on weight control as well as to a control group of people who requested reprints of articles on other topics. Although a majority of people who requested the weight-control paper reported that they had a weight problem, were overweight, had an overweight friend or relative, etc., the control group reported an equal preoccupation with obesity; in fact, the two groups did not differ on any measure except frequency of openended comments. The results imply that adequate control groups should be used whenever possible in generalizing about characteristics of groups.