ERIC Number: ED230555
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1983-Apr-8
Pages: 13
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
A Comparative Evaluation of Three Relaxation Training Procedures.
Brandon, Jeffrey E.
Comparison was made between the effectiveness of three relaxation training procedures: (1) Behavioral Relaxation Training, which consisted of training in relaxing specific parts of the body and controlling breathing; (2) Meditation (based on Benson's procedure for eliciting the relaxation response); and (3) Seashore Sounds "Attention Focusing," which had subjects simply attend to seashore sounds and was designed as a placebo treatment. Thirty-nine undergraduate college students participated. Training consisted of a pretest measurement, six training sessions, a post-training measurement, and a follow-up measure. The electromyographic activity of each subject's frontalis muscle was monitored by an Autogen 1700 myograph, and Skin Conductance Level was measured by the Autogen 3000 feedback dermograph. All physiological measures were collected by an Autogen 5400 Data Acquisition center. A self-report was administered, consisting of a single-page scale containing seven descriptors of tense and relaxed states. Results generally failed to support the hypothesis that the Behavioral Relaxation Training and/or Meditation groups would produce significantly greater reductions in stress than the Seashore Sounds "Attention Focusing" group. (JD)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (Minneapolis, MN, April 7-11, 1983).