Live and taped relaxation instructions: effects of procedural variables.
Two experiments were designed to assess the effects of relaxation training, therapist presence or absence, live versus taped voice, and response-contingent versus noncontingent instructional progress on measures of subjective relaxation and frontal EMG. In the first experiment, it was found that subjects receiving taped instructions showed greater within-session subjective relaxation and lowering of within-session frontal EMG than subjects in a control condition. No differential training effects of therapist presence or absence was noted. In a second experiment, no significant differences in relaxation measures were found between subjects receiving live, response-contingent instructions and subjects receiving live, noncontingent instructions. Moreover, no meaningful differences in relaxation measures were found between subjects receiving live and taped instructions.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012064:Relaxation Therapy; D013637:Tape Recording