Agoraphobia and the hyperventilation syndrome

One of the causes of agoraphobic complaints is the fear of having an attack of physical complaints in public places. The Hyperventilation Syndrome (HVS) with its diverse symptoms seems to fit well in this model. Hyperventilation symptoms are threatening, because for most subjects they occur unexpectedly and without a clear reason. An investigation was made into how often the HVS and the agoraphobic syndrome appeared together and into the causal relationship between both syndromes. About 60% of the agoraphobic patients suffered from hyperventilation complaints and about 60% of the HVS patients were agoraphobic. Most patients mentioned the fear of having an attack as an important reason for their agoraphobic complaints, and this applied especially in the case of the HVS.     

Agoraphobia and Locus of Control

This study investigated whether external locus of control, as measured with the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, is a specific feature of agoraphobia or whether it characterizes neurosis in general. Forty agoraphobic patients, 81 nonagoraphobic neurotic controls, and 49 normal controls completed the Dutch version of the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale. Agoraphobic patients were found to have a more external orientation as compared to the normal controls, but as a group, they could not be identified as being different from neurotic controls.This study was supported in part by a grant from the Dutch Organization for Fundamental Research (ZWO/Psychon 560-268-001).     

Attachment,Anxiety, and Agoraphobia

No abstract available for this article.     

The Agoraphobia Scale: an evaluation of its reliability and validity

This article presents the Agoraphobia Scale (AS), and evidence for its reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change after treatment. The scale consists of 20 items depicting various typical agoraphobic situations, which are rated for anxiety/discomfort (0-4) and avoidance (0-2). The results show that AS has high internal consistency. Regarding concurrent validity it correlated significantly with other self-reported measures of agoraphobia (Mobility Inventory and Fear Questionnaire). The scale's predictive validity was shown as it correlated with avoidance behavior and self-rated anxiety during both an individualized and a standardized behavioral test of agoraphobia. The AS also discriminated between an agoraphobic sample and a normal sample, and a sample of simple phobia patients. Finally, it was sensitive to changes after behavioral treatment. The AS is useful both as a state, and as an outcome self-report measure of agoraphobia.     

The Parable of the Squirrel: Alleviating the Anxiety of Agoraphobia

This article focuses on agoraphobia, one of the anxiety disorders, and draws on William James (James 1890/1905), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association 2000) and Aaron T. Beck and Gary Emery (1985) to present and explore the psychodynamics of agoraphobia, including its behavioral manifestations, the personality features that may predispose a person to become agoraphobic, and the factors that may precipitate its emergence at a particular time in one??s life. A parable concerning a squirrel having difficulty crossing the street frames the discussion.     

Agoraphobia with and without current panic attacks

MMPI and SCL-90-R profiles of agoraphobics with and without current panic attacks are presented. Agoraphobics with current panic attacks were more elevated on Psychopathic Deviate (4), Psychasthenia (7), and Social Introversion (0) scales of the MMPI. On the SCL-90-R agoraphobics with current panic attacks had higher scores on Interpersonal Sensitivity, Anxiety, Phobic Anxiety, and Total/90.     

The Inclusion Inventory

Abstract

While several studies have investigated the effects of inclusive education on children receiving special education services, less effort has been directed toward assessing implementation of inclusive educational practices. This article describes development of the Inclusion Inventory, a 90-item tool designed to survey educators' perceptions of inclusive educational practices in their school. Administration of the Inventory to 2,763 respondents from 72 schools across a large southwestern state yielded internal consistency reliability coefficients of .72 and above for the seven subscales. Respondents with experience in inclusive educational practices and those from schools where teams implement inclusive education tended to have higher ratings on the Inclusion Inventory. Implications are considered for educators and others involved in inclusive education.     

伴有广场恐怖症的惊恐障碍的网络心理学治疗新技术

近年来,加拿大Universitédu Québec en Outaouais大学Bouchard教授领导的团队进行了一系列网络心理学的研究,这种研究尝试将最新的计算机技术融合到传统临床心理治疗中去,并通过实验来评估其疗效。针对伴有广场恐怖症的惊恐障碍的研究一直是其研究重点,其包括对传统认知行为疗法(Cognitive Behavior Therapy,CBT)的评价研究、将远程视频会议技术应用于CBT疗法的研究,以及将虚拟现实技术与传统CBT疗法相结合的研究。     

The Reasons for Living Inventory: psychometric properties

The test-retest reliability, internal consistency reliability, normative, and item analysis data of the Reasons for Living Inventory were investigated in a sample of 116 college students. The inventory has six subscales, each of which assesses a category of adaptive beliefs and expectations considered reasons for not committing suicide. The inventory was administered twice, with a 3-week interval between testings. Test-retest coefficients for the men, women, and total sample were moderate to high. The alpha coefficients and item-total correlations for the subscales and the total inventory provided strong support for internal consistency. 26 items were consistently endorsed by 30% or more of our total sample as "extremely important," while only four were suggested as "not at all important" reasons for not committing suicide.     

The Career Beliefs Inventory

The Career Beliefs Inventory (CBI) is designed to help a counselor identify assumptions blocking a client's career progress. It measures domains untapped by other career assessment instruments and legitimizes discussions of important assumptions that are often overlooked and seldom examined. The 25 scales describe categories of beliefs found by prior research to have interfered with career decision making. Lower scores on a scale alert the counselor to explore specific beliefs in that category with the client and to examine their consequences.     

The Multidimensional Anger Inventory

Previous research suggests that anger has important social and health consequences, particularly cardiovascular health. The pathogenic aspects of anger have not been identified, however, in part because of a reliance on unidimensional measures of anger. The present article describes psychometric data for an inventory that is sensitive to the multidimensional nature of the anger construct. It was hypothesized that the newly developed Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI) would include scales reflective of the following dimensions of anger: frequency, duration, magnitude, mode of expression, hostile outlook, and range of anger-eliciting situations. The mode of expression dimension was expected to contain separate anger-in, anger-out, guilt, brood, and anger-discuss measures. The inventory was administered to two populations: male and female college students and male factory workers. Factor analyses of the MAI within the two samples showed that the frequency, duration, and magnitude dimensions clustered together to form an anger-arousal factor that accounted for 64% and 71% of the variance in the two samples, respectively. The range of anger-eliciting situations and hostile outlook emerged as separate dimensions, as hypothesized. Mode of anger expression was best described by two dimensions labeled anger-in and anger-out. Psychometric analyses of the scale showed that it possessed adequate test-retest reliability (r = 0.75) and high internal consistency (alpha = .84 and .89 for the two samples). The validity of the scale was supported by the expected pattern of relations with other inventories designed to assess anger or hostility. Comparisons of MAI scores between (college versus factory) and within (male versus female) populations were made.     

The Organizational Socialization Inventory

Organizational socialization is regarded as an interactive process between employees and their organizations such that employee perceptions of socialization may impact on the process. Four social-psychological factors were theorized to influence employee perceptions of their socialization at work, namely: training; understanding; co-worker support; and prospects for the future. Based on these four factors, an Organizational Socialization Inventory (OSI) was created as a quantitative measure of socialization in organizations. The OSI is intended for general use in a variety of organizational settings. This paper describes the construction of the OSI and its subscales, reports their reliabilities, relates the results of their initial validity tests, and suggests some potential uses of the OSI.     

The Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory and the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory

The theoretical grounds, purposes, and features of the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI; Millon, Green, & Meagher, 1982) and its forthcoming replacement the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI; Millon, in press) are reviewed. The rationale and procedure for the construction of the component scales are briefly explained, and the logic of configural or profile interpretation is examined and recommended. Uses and limitations of the MAPI and MAC1 are considered. Evaluative research, although limited in scope, points to the general utility of the MAPI and MACI as clinical tools, and to areas where further study may enhance their applicability in a counseling context.     

Personality in Panic Disorder With Agoraphobia: A Rorschach Study

In this study, we tested several hypotheses derived from self psychology (Diamond, 1987) regarding personality features of patients suffering from panic disorder and agoraphobia (PDA). PDA patients are thought to suffer from a deficit in negative affect-regulating capacity, surrounded by defenses such as avoidance, repression, denial, and reaction formation against dependency needs. These defenses are thought to lead to a greatly impoverished affective life. The Rorschach Comprehensive System was used to assess the personality features of avoidance, restricted affective life, and reaction formation against dependency needs. We found evidence for the presence of a highly avoidant information-processing style (86% of protocols had lambda [L] > .99) and a constricted affective life (low weighted sum color [WSumC] and low affective ratio [Afr]). Our results were consistent with the hypothesis of reaction formation against dependency needs (low food content [Fd]). Findings are discussed in light of studies that found a high incidence of avoidant personality disorder in PDA patients.