For some years the author has casually observed the existence of a stereotypic motor disorder which does not appear to have been mentioned in the literature on tic disorders (e.g. Azrin & Nunn, 1973; Hersen & Eisler, 1973; Lanyon & Goldsworthy, 1982). The tic usually occurs when the person is walking along the street, although it can occur inside buildings, but only during walking. The tic begins with a sort of jump which results in one foot being thrust forward. Thereafter follows a flourish of arm waving which includes one arm being extended and swung through a 360° arc. The extended arm is usually the right arm, although occasionally it might be the left. Any particular ticquer, however, will exclusively use only either the right or the left arm.

It is interesting to note that the tic occurs only in males. The age of onset is usually about six years. A possible reason for the tic not being referred to in the literature is that spontaneous remission typically occurs at about 12 years. Another interesting feature of the tic is that it is only manifested during the summer months, becoming dormant during the winter period.

Recent commentaries on developments in behaviour analysis and modification have noted the inclusion of ‘cognitive’ variables in what was previously a more radically operant discipline. This trend has been received with some gratitude by those researchers and practitioners who were impressed by the neo-Freudian theories of early psychotherapists such as Carl Jung.

For example, the tendency of behaviour analysts to ignore the projections of personality types on to clients has always been difficult to accept by those therapists who are imbued with deep clinical insight. In such cases, the exclusive use of observable behaviour has represented a denial of the prolific generation of immediate and profound clinical judgements, many times quite effortlessly performed without recourse to data. While we do not deny the value of event-recording, time-sampling, psychophysiological monitoring and self-report behavioural scales, we wish to point out that there are many much simpler procedures that enable assessment to be made on the basis of split-second insight, even with no regard at all for external facts. To this end, we have devised and recently field-tested an instrument designed to assess the potential of behaviour therapists for attributing immediate and archetypal classifications to their clients.

Cognitive factors, such as the accessibility of schematic categories, have been shown to bias interpretation of information about other's behaviour. In this study, the effects of diagnostic category accessibility on subjects' causal attributions for an interviewee's behaviour were investigated. In order to activate a specific diagnostic category, making it more accessible for information encoding, mental health students completed a short test. Half answered questions about victims of rape attacks; the other half answered questions about the diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder. All subjects then rated their attribution for a female interviewee's non-verbal behaviour along four dimensions: Internality, Stability, Globality, and Controllability. Results indicated an interaction between type of course and experimental condition. Psychology undergraduate students in the Rape Victim condition tended to make more stable and global attributions than did Psychiatric Nursing and Masters of Psychological Medicine students. In addition, a significant main effect was found on the Controllability dimension. The subjects in the Personality Disorder condition rated the cause as significantly more controllable than did the subjects in the Rape Victim condition. Implications of the results are discussed.