Managing aggressive thoughts and feelings with daily counts of non-aggressive thoughts and feelings: A self-experiment

• Published in: Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 177 - 187
• Main Authors: Kostewicz, Douglas E, Kubina, Richard M, Cooper, John O
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2000; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Aggression; Aggression - psychology; Anger; Arousal; Awareness; Behavior Therapy; Behavior therapy. Cognitive therapy; Biological and medical sciences; Feelings; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Selfreport; Thinking; Treatments; Case study; Human; Behavior therapy; Treatment efficiency; Aggressiveness
• ISSN: 0005-7916; 1873-7943
• DOI: 10.1016/S0005-7916(01)00004-0

This article describes a self-experiment with a participant managing aggressive thoughts and feelings. The participant counted occurrences of aggressive thoughts and feelings per 24 h, and displayed these data on Standard Celeration Charts. Our experimental questions addressed the effects of daily 1-minute counts of non-aggressive thoughts and feelings, and daily distributed series of six 10-second counts of non-aggressive thoughts and feelings on the occurrences of aggressive thoughts and feelings. We used an A1-B1-C1-B2-C2-A2 experimental design to analyze data from the 1-minute counts and the six 10-second distributed counts as these conditions alternated around two baseline conditions. Compared to the baseline, less aggressive thoughts and feelings occurred during both independent variable conditions. The six 10-second distributed counts produced lower frequencies of aggressive thoughts and feelings than the 1-minute counts. At the end of the second six 10-second counting procedure and during the second baseline, the participant most frequently had 0 aggressive thoughts and feelings per day.