Use of modeling to modify children's responses to a natural, potentially stressful situation

Abstract

Tested whether modeling-i.e., the sight of another person behaving calmly in the presence of a feared stimulus-would reduce later aversive behavior on the part of children experiencing a commonly feared stimulus, i.e., anesthesia induction. Ss were 38 boys and girls, mean age 6 yrs, randomly assigned to an experimental or a control group. Ss exposed to modeling behaved as if they were less afraid of anesthesia induction than did control Ss. Differences between experimental and control Ss were smallest during those phases of anesthesia induction which were not portrayed by modeling. (18 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)