ROLE OF AWARENESS IN REDUCING NAIL-BITING BEHAVIOR

To determine the role of nonspecific awareness factors in self-monitoring of nail-biting and incentives, 40 subjects were randomly divided into five treatment groups: self-monitoring, positive incentive, negative incentive, nail measure alone, and minimal contact. Subjects were seen individually for 6 weeks and records of nail length and self-monitored biting responses were kept. While all treatments resulted in a decrease in biting frequency and an increase in nail length, subjects in the minimal contact control group experienced the smallest changes. There were no differences between basic self-monitoring and self-monitoring plus incentive subjects. At follow-up, there were no group differences in nail length, and subjects reported increased awareness of biting compared to pretreatment. These results suggested that a treatment package consisting of self-monitoring plus regularly scheduled nail measurements is effective in increasing awareness for control of nail-biting. © 1979 Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy.