The Subject is Me!

by John J. Horan

Many ex post facto studies have linked specific irrational beliefs to various psychological dysfunctions such as anger, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem (see Erickson, Horan, & Hackett, 1991; Nielsen et al, 1996). For example, Daly and Burton (1983) found that among college students, four subscales of the Irrational Beliefs Test (Jones, 1996) were significant predictors of low self-esteem; the other subscales were not. McLennan (1987) also reported that these same irrational beliefs forecasted low self-esteem assessed by a different measure.

We all know that correlation is not causality. If low self-esteem is related to specific kinds of irrationality, either could cause the other, or both could be the result of something else. After reading Daly and Burton in 1983, I thought if I could program a computer to administer relevant subscales of the Irrational Beliefs Test, it would be easy to link .wrong. (irrational) answers to information a la Albert Ellis (1962) designed to foster rational thinking in areas related to self-esteem. Right answers would simply lead to the next question thus forming a treatment protocol tailored to the individual, and setting the stage for a classic test of causality via the experimental method.

Apple ][e computers were desktop state-of-the-art back then. I wrote an Applesoft basic program that taught rationality in response to wrong answers. In theory, kids would become more rational in specified areas and thus develop higher self-esteem. I used a speech synthesizer but alas, even Hal sounded good by comparison! The idea worked in a technical sense, but the Apple ][ computer.s graphics and processing capabilities were simply too primitive to have any clinical utility. I moved from Penn State to Arizona State 1n 1985 and waited for the development of desktop technology with street appeal. Multimedia computers with stunning graphical capabilities emerged in the early 1990s. My work resumed in earnest.

First, it was appropriate to do improved replications and extensions of that early correlational work by Daly and Burton (1983) and McLennan (1987). So my colleagues and I found that two of these irrational beliefs continued to predict low self-esteem with a younger population (Erickson, Horan, & Hackett, 1991). From a construct-validity standpoint, logical divergent relationships appeared as well. For example, neither belief was related to theoretically remote control measures (extraversion, facilitative anxiety, and grade-point-average); conversely, other irrational beliefs correlated with these control measures were not associated with low self-esteem. The case for causality was improving!

Next we examined the effects of traditional counseling focused on changing different kinds of irrational thinking (Nielsen, D.M., Horan, J.J., Keen, B., St. Peter, C.C., Ceperich, S.D., & Ostlund, D., 1996). Because the correlations between specific irrationality and self-esteem are empirical rather than logical, we were able to do a double-blind study in which the counselors were unaware of both the hypotheses of the study as well as differences between experimental and control treatments. All of the subjects were given training in rational thinking, but only half received training in the areas expected to impact self-esteem. The correlations held, but we serendipitously found that training in rational thinking quickly generalizes to areas not covered by the specific treatment protocols.

It was time to convert the live counseling protocol to a computer-delivered format. Early course-authoring software allowed us to integrate my rewritten psycho-educational scripts with video vignettes, instructional voice-overs, and interesting graphics. At last I had an interactive multimedia treatment with street appeal! The first study in this series examined the effects on high school juniors and seniors with low self esteem. In contrast to a control condition, computer-based cognitive restructuring produced improvements on a battery of devices assessing both rationality and self-esteem (Horan, 1996). I had visions of converting a wide variety of proven treatments to CD Rom format to permit widespread adoption. The arrival of the Internet changed my perspective. But again I had to wait for technology to catch up with the requirements for delivery of effective interventions over the Internet.

Based on the success of the self-esteem program, one of my students and I began working on a career development program for young women using the same interactive format as my self-esteem program. When Netscape 3 began supporting automatic audio, we were able to deploy the first successful Internet-delivered psycho-educational program (Kovalski & Horan, 1999). A follow-up effort found positive results with parents of talented young women (Clark & Horan, 2000). Although a number of my students meanwhile worked on developing similar Internet delivered programs for a wide variety of clinical problems, it was now time to convert the self-esteem program for Internet delivery.

We did so while simultaneously addressing additional challenges (Dannenbaum-Daubney & Horan, 1999). In the first place, the relationship between specific irrationality and low self-esteem along the life span was not clear. The Daly and Burton (1983) and McLennan (1087) studies involved college students; the Erickson, et al (1991) and Nielsen et al (1996) projects were conducted on high school students. The relationships between rationality and self-esteem were not perfectly consistent between these populations; further differences in younger subjects would undermine the logical basis of cognitive restructuring for these particular beliefs.

Secondly, although the earlier edition of the self-esteem program proved efficacious with high school juniors and seniors (Horan, 1996), it was an open question whether similar results might occur with seventh- and eighth-grade adolescents. Moreover, that study was remedial in nature; only subjects with low self-esteem were included. It thus remained to be seen whether cognitive restructuring for these specific beliefs could foster improvements in rationality and self-esteem among normal populations.

The conversion of the self-esteem program to Internet format presented opportunities for improving it as well. For example, we increased the program's visual appeal by adding benevolent graphical "mentors" (Jones, Valdez, Nowakowski, & Rasmussen, 1995) and visual metaphors (Fenk, 1994; Mayer, 1994; Gyselinck & Tardieu, 1994; McDaniel & Waddill, 1994) to aid in the cognitive restructuring. We also incorporated the script text into the display graphics to enhance learning and/or allow for hearing impaired participants (Weidenmann, 1994). Finally, we used three-dimensional figures and added both auditory and visual reinforcers for rational responses prior to exiting a module.

The Dannenbaum-Daubney and Horan (1999) study involved sixty-five seventh- and eighth-grade students (blocked on gender, ethnicity, and grade-level), randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions, and assessed before and after treatment on a battery of devices reflecting irrationality and self-esteem. The primary analyses did not confirm the program's earlier overall success with the new sample and conditions. Exploratory analyses, however, indicated that self-esteem benefits were evident among eighth grade but not seventh grade participants. Anecdotally, we noticed that the younger subjects, in the context of a lab setting, seemed motivated to complete the program as quickly as possible by clicking on the .right. answer rather than the one that perhaps better reflected their personal belief system. Current editions of the program address this problem, for example, by reducing the visual appeal of the .right. button and adding, a .tell me more. option so that students might spend more time with the instructional materials.

My affiliation with KnowConflict, LLC in 2001 permitted other improvements to this self-esteem program, re-titled "The Subject is Me!" Professional quality videos and stunning graphics replaced the 8 mm film clips of my own children and the Microsoft public domain "bean" figures that I had used in earlier productions. This edition appears in CRESMET's Virtual Counseling Center. I am currently working with Robert Atkinson and Brian Nelson, professors in Educational Technology, on additional enhancements derived from the instructional design research literature. Stay tuned...

References

Clark, G. & Horan, J. J. (August, 2000). The effects of Internet-based parent education on the career development of gifted adolescent girls. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.

Daly, M.J., & Burton, R.L. (1983). Self-esteem and irrational beliefs: An exploratory investigation with implications for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30, 361-366.

Dannenbaum-Daubney, S., & Horan, J. J. (August, 1999). The effects of Internet-based cognitive restructuring on adolescent self-esteem. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Boston.

Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and emotion in psychotherapy. New York: Lyle Stuart.

Erickson, C.D., Horan, J. J., Hackett, G. (August, 1991). On thinking and feeling bad: Do client problems derive from a common irrationality or specific irrational belief? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA.

Fenk, A. (1994). Spatial Metaphor and Logical Pictures. In W. Schnotz & R.W. Kulhavy (Eds), Comprehension of Graphics.(pp. 43-62). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North Holland.

Gyselinck, V. & Tardieu, H. (1994). Illustrations, Mental Models, and Comprehension of Instructional Text. In W. Schnotz & R.W. Kulhavy (Eds), Comprehension of Graphics.(pp. 139-152). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North Holland.

Horan, J. J. (1996). Effects of computer-based cognitive restructuring on rationally mediated self-esteem. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 43(4), 371-382.

Jones, B.F., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J., & Rasmussen, C. (1995). Plugging In: choosing and using educational technology. EdTalk [Online], pp.1-11. Available: http://www.ncrel.org.sdrs/edtalk/newtimes.htm.

Jones, R.G. (1969). A factored measure of Ellis' irrational belief system, with personality and maladjustment correlates (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Missouri, Columbia, 1968). Dissertation Abstracts International, 29(11B), 4379-4380.

Kovalski, T. M., & Horan, J. J. (1999). The effects of Internet-based cognitive restructuring on the irrational career beliefs of adolescent girls. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 13(2), 145-152.

Mayer, R.E. (1994). Visual Aids to Knowledge Construction: Building Mental Representations form Pictures and Words. In W. Schnotz & R.W. Kulhavy (Eds), Comprehension of Graphics.(pp. 125-138). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North Holland.

McDaniel, M.A., & Waddill, P.J. (1994). The Mnemonic Benefit of Pictures in Test: Selective Enrichment for Differentially Skilled Readers. In W. Schnotz & R.W. Kulhavy (Eds), Comprehension of Graphics.(pp. 165-184). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North Holland.

McLennan, J.P. (1987). Irrational beliefs in relation to self-esteem and depression. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 89-91

Newman, M. G., Consoli, A., & Taylor, C. B. (1997). Computers in assessment and cognitive behavioral treatment of clinical disorders: Anxiety as a case in point. Behavior Therapy, 28, 211-235.

Nielsen, D.M., Horan, J.J., Keen, B., St. Peter, C.C., Ceperich, S.D., & Ostlund, D., (1996) An attempt to improve Self-esteem by modifying specific irrational beliefs. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 10, 137-149.

Weidenmann, B.(1994). Codes of Instructional Pictures. In W. Schnotz & R.W. Kulhavy (Eds), Comprehension of Graphics. (pp. 29-42). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: North Holland