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Activity programs and group psychotherapy frequently have been used in the treatment of the chronic patient. Evaluations of these procedures, unfortunately, often have suffered from poor definition and choice of procedure, and inadequate design. This paper reports an experimental study of these therapies in combination with the effect of group homogeneity.The use of activity programs in neuropsychiatric hospitals received its major impetus from Myerson's "total push" method in the treatment of chronic NP hospital patients (Myerson, 1939). Many authors since have reported varying degrees of success with this treatment method and progressive variations upon it (e.g., Cohen, 1959;Murray & Cohen, 1959;Pace, 1957;Peters, 1955). Patients in such programs usually have been assigned to a group and given or offered a relatively specific "job." Responsibility for performance typically rests with the supervisor or therapist and slightly, if at all, with the patient members. Generally this approach might be thought of as a systematized attempt to increase drive level by stimulation and encouragement. Scher (19S7a, 1957b) extended this concept considerably with his emphasis upon the "task orientation" of the patient. When response to the task was demanded rather than

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The relationship between depressed mood, reasoning and perceptual performance was examined with 57 undergraduate volunteers. To intensify its effect, Velten's 1968 mood induction procedure was modified by having subjects hear a prerecording of each mood statement prior to saying it themselves. Also, midway through the experiment subjects completed an abbreviated mood induction to ensure continuation of the appropriate mood. Ratings of subjects' mood on a 13-point Likert scale before and after mood induction indicated the mood induction was effective. Subjects completed the reasoning measure of 48 syllogisms, and the perceptual measure involving identification of positive, negative, or neutral stimulus words presented tachistoscopically. "Depressed" individuals showed poorer reasoning performance of marginal significance than "elated" subjects. Mood induction did not appear to affect perceptual performance. Results are discussed in terms of the research on reasoning deficits in depression.

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