This paper reports on a study examining the relationships between self-efficacy, training performance, and competitive performance in women's artistic gymnastics. Data were collected during normal training sessions from 16 female competitive gymnasts. Efficacy expectations were somewhat more accurate than were previous competition scores in predicting competitive performance, although training performance was the most accurate predictor. The tracking of performance and efficacy for six gymnasts during the weeks prior to a major competition illustrated the development and interaction of skill level and efficacy expectations. Efficacy measures may provide information on gymnasts' states of readiness for competition, and can be assessed without interfering with normal training.

Diagnosis of developmental disability lacks precision, partly because of differences in definitions of the concept, but largely because of problems specific to the use of psychometric measures with children who have a developmental disability. These problems arise from inadequate evidence of reliability for psychometric measures at extremes of the normal distribution, from lack of comparability between different tests and between different editions of tests, and from practical considerations in the assessment of people with various disabilities. Adaptive behaviour assessment has been introduced to supplement intelligence testing, but lack of a clear conceptualisation of this concept and doubts about the appropriateness of United States norms for Australian children add to the difficulties of interpreting results of standardised scales. Systematic assessment of behavioural problems needs to be incorporated into diagnostic procedures. This paper argues that improvements in the accuracy of diagnosis are unlikely to come from further technical advances in psychometric assessment, and suggests that diagnosis in the future should take into account new technologies which link etiology to specific behavioural patterns to supplement existing procedures.

Lovibond (1993), weaves an exciting first person narrative of the development of behaviour therapy in Australia. His paper, derived from his years of experience and leadership, provides rare insight into the people and programs which have shaped behavioural practice today. In chronicling these early years, he well and fully elucidates the historic shortcomings of the larger field of Australian clinical psychology to provide minimal standards for science or practice, to effectively evaluate its practitioners, or to be a potent, united voice for the scientist/practitioner model. To remedy these shortcomings, he proposes the development of a new entity, largely independent of traditional clinical psychology or behaviour therapy, to simultaneously address issues of science, standards, and practice.

In the remainder of this article I should like to address what I consider to be primary issues in the advancement of an experimentally based psychology applied to human problems; to frame the current issues within professional psychology in the US which are germane to Lovibond's notions; and to lobby strongly for the maintenance of a separate and independent behaviour therapy community as the basis for the practice of scientific psychology.

Self-help cognitive behaviour therapy has been found helpful in treating anxiety and depression. Recent evidence suggests that self-help schema therapy may represent another treatment alternative. The present study aimed to provide a preliminary assessment of the efficacy of self-help schema therapy on psychological distress and early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) using a 6-week treatment protocol with minimal email contact. Method: Participants were recruited from the general population and randomly assigned to self-help schema therapy (n = 32) or a waitlist (n = 32). Intent-to-treat analyses and study completer analyses were conducted using repeated-measures analyses of variance (time × group). Results: Intent-to-treat analyses revealed that treatment produced a marginal improvement in distress, but no change in EMSs. Among study completers (n = 34), self-help schema therapy yielded large reductions in distress scores on the Outcome Questionnaire-45.2 (partial eta squared = .16). Compared to the waitlist, self-help schema therapy also produced a moderate decrease in EMSs (partial eta squared = .10). The majority of study completers showed reliable clinical change in distress and reported high levels of satisfaction with the intervention. Conclusion: Self-help schema therapy may be an effective treatment for those individuals who persist in treatment. Self-help schema therapy has the potential to help a large number of individuals who may not otherwise have access to services. More research is needed to determine variables associated with treatment adherence and successful outcome.

This article describes the application of cognitive behavioural therapy to three sexually abused young people. We emphasise developmental influences and the nuances of the therapeutic approach. An exposure-based treatment approach was used with the youths. A multimodal assessment evaluation was conducted at pretreatment and posttreatment, and at a 3-month follow-up. Results on outcome measures indicated a positive therapeutic effect for the youths.

Preliminary data are provided on two new instruments in the field of traumatic stress, namely the Penn Inventory and the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) module of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). The Penn Inventory is a 26-item self-report scale developed for use with a range of trauma populations. The CIDI-PTSD is a draft module currently being trialed and eventually to be included in the full version of the CIDI interview. Participants comprised 30 Australian Vietnam combat veterans, who also completed the Impact of Event Scale and the Mississippi Scale for PTSD (M-PTSD). The Penn Inventory demonstrated good congruent validity and was comparable to the M-PTSD in diagnostic accuracy. Both scales tended to overdiagnose. The CIDI-PTSD performed disappointingly, showing relatively low sensitivity and specificity. Implications for the appropriate use of these instruments are discussed.

Detailed neuropsychological investigation of a schizophrenic patient found a deficit in functions usually attributed to the left parieto-occipital region. Interventions designed to exercise the putatively left parieto-occipital functions (‘understanding the verbal expression of spatial relationships’) and to exercise putatively right hemisphere functions (exercises based on Edwards' — ‘Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain’) were compared. The patient demonstrated lowest levels of hallucinatory behaviour, aggressive verbal outbursts, and physical aggression during phases when right hemisphere exercises were programmed. Possible reasons for this outcome are examined.

This paper describes the use of cognitive-behavioural therapy to assist a very experienced Special Olympics tennis player control his unacceptable on-court behaviour. In 10 weekly sessions he was taught to relax both on and off court, change his gloomy self statements and negative predications of his future behaviour, analyse and learn three essential elements of good sporting behaviour and practised these skills under low stress conditions. He assisted in the writing of a book, which described all the stages of his therapy, and he looked at the book often between therapy sessions. At an interstate championship held 3 months later the player won all his early matches but lost in the final series. However he was able to practise relaxation skills and positive self-statements, and perform all the elements of good sporting behaviour.

Thirty men and women who regularly used minor tranquillisers and/or sedatives participated in a stress management group program, incorporating a behavioural self-management approach. They were assessed on questionnaire measures of anxiety, assertion and medication use in the first and final group sessions and at a 3-month follow-up. Data demonstrated declines in medication use during the course, which for many clients were maintained at the follow-up. These decreases were associated with decreases in anxiety levels.

The purpose of this study was to develop and provide a preliminary validation of a new measure of scrupulosity, the Scrupulous Thoughts and Behaviours Questionnaire (STBQ). More specifically, the STBQ was designed to assess a range of scrupulosity-related thoughts/obsessions and behaviours/compulsions. Following item development, a sample of non-referred college students completed the STBQ along with numerous validation measures. Based on factor analyses, a two-factor solution was retained. The first factor consisted of items that measure scrupulosity-themed obsessions and thoughts, and the second factor consisted of items that measure scrupulosity-themed compulsions and related behaviours. Support was found for the validity of STBQ, as both subscales were significantly and positively associated with measures of relevant constructs, including the Pennsylvania Inventory of Scrupulosity-Revised, the only other self-report measure of scrupulosity, thought–action fusion, religiosity, and obsessive–compulsive disorder symptoms. As the first known self-report measure to assess scrupulosity obsessions and compulsions, the STBQ has a potential utility in clinical practice and research.

Triple P is a parenting programme used in the youth healthcare practice of many Dutch municipalities to support parents in raising their children. According to international research, this Australian intervention is effective for parents with children up to the age of 12. It shows positive effects on parenting skills and on the reduction of both parents' child-rearing stress and their children's behavioural and emotional problems. Our study examined the effectiveness of Teen Triple P level 4: a training programme for parents of teenagers aged 10–16. The programme included five group sessions of 1.5–2 h each, as well as three individual (phone) consultations. Through a matching procedure, 103 parents who participated in Teen Triple P were compared in a quasi-experimental study with 397 parents in a control group. Compared with the control group, parents who received the Teen Triple P training reported a significant improvement in their parental practice. Now, they are more involved with their child, more responsive to the needs of the children, and they report fewer parent–child conflicts. Some positive differences in behavioural problems among adolescents, as reported by their parents, could be found among the experimental group. These findings remained the same at the follow-up.

Sexual offences against women and children constitute a serious and distressingly prevalent social problem. The psychological and emotional costs to victims and their families, the high reoffending rates of some types of offenders, and the financial costs of incarceration all highlight the urgent need for effective research and treatment of this problem behaviour. In the past two decades, a number of innovations have led to improved treatment of these difficult men. In addition, theories and models have been developed with the aim of furthering our understanding of sex offenders. In this paper we identify a number of issues within the broad areas of assessment and treatment that we believe to be problematic, and make some suggestions about ways of resolving these problems in the future.