FOCUSED ATTITUDE CHANGE IN NEUROTIC PATIENTS

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Abstract
The study aimed at developing a method which would permit a quantifiable evaluation of the effect of emotional and cognitive manipulations of clinically relevant attitudes in psycho-neurotic patients. Several outpatients were exposed to suggestions in 1 low and 3 high arousal therapy sessions. The high arousal condition was facilitated by ether. Before and after the sessions the patients rated, on Osgood''s Semantic Differential, concepts which were directly, tangentially or not related to the attitude which was to be changed by the suggestion. Those concepts on which the suggestions were focused changed significantly more than the tangential and nonrelated concepts. The change in the focal concept during the therapy sessions was partially preserved between sessions, leading to a step-by-step shift of the attitude in the desired direction. The effectiveness of the suggestion in the high arousal condition was greater than in the low arousal session. The significance of this result was discussed.

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