A multi-session interpretation modification program: changes in interpretation and social anxiety symptoms

Previous research suggests that socially anxious individuals interpret ambiguous social information in a more threatening manner compared to non-anxious individuals. Recently, studies have experimentally modified interpretation and shown that this subsequently affected anxiety in non-anxious individuals. If similar procedures can modify interpretation biases in socially anxious individuals, they may lead to a reduction in social anxiety symptoms. In the current study, we examined the effect of a computerized Interpretation Modification Program (IMP) on interpretation bias and social anxiety symptoms. Twenty-seven socially anxious individuals were randomly assigned to the IMP or a control condition. Participants completed eight computer sessions over four weeks. The IMP modified interpretation by providing positive feedback when participants made benign interpretations and negative feedback in response to threat interpretations. The IMP successfully decreased threat interpretations, increased benign interpretations, and decreased social anxiety symptoms compared to the control condition. Moreover, changes in benign interpretation mediated IMP's effect on social anxiety. This initial trial suggests that interpretation modification may have clinical utility when applied as a multi-session intervention.     

Delineating generalized anxiety: A preliminary investigation

The present study examined the nature of generalized anxiety, which was defined as the constellation of symptoms listed as diagnostic criteria for generalized anxiety disorder in DSM-III-R. Generalized anxiety was assessed by means of a questionnaire that was especially constructed for this study. Although multidimensional scaling of symptoms reported by a clinically anxious sample produced orthogonal anxiety and panic dimensions, many symptoms were common to both dimensions. Whereas worry was found to be the cardinal feature of generalized anxiety, respiratory symptoms were found to associate closely with panic. These dimensions were replicated in a student sample. It is argued that while generalized anxiety symptoms constitute a unique dimension in the field of anxiety disorders, both panic and generalized anxiety may be linked with a basic anxiety response system. The findings also indicated that worry associated more closely with generalized anxiety than did apprehensive expectations. The heuristic value of the findings are discussed in light of the issue relating to an anxiety-panic continuum.     

Change process in systemic therapy: A qualitative investigation

This study addresses the process of therapeutic change in individuals who received systemic therapy. This study is an exploratory qualitative study based on the client's perceptions and therapeutic experiences. The sample included 10 clients who had completed their therapy with systemic therapists. The method used for the collection of the data was semi‐structured interviews (Change Interview; Elliott, Slatick, & Urman, 2001). The interviews were analysed using grounded theory analysis. The results showed that both specific and common factors in therapy function in a co‐occurring mode, hence suggesting a synergy effect between common factors and specific techniques or therapist factors in psychotherapy. The core category ‘experience of therapeutic change, within the secure frame of therapy, is a process of deconstructing and reconstructing the house you live in: Yourself’ emerged based on self‐exploration and self‐discovery and is then discussed in a theoretical constructivist framework. Implications for research on the issue of the process of therapeutic change are discussed.     

Induced emotional interpretation bias and anxiety

Five experiments are reported showing that the interpretation of personally relevant emotional information can be modified by systematic exposure to congruent exemplars. Participants were induced to interpret ambiguous information in a relatively threatening or a benign way. Comparison with a baseline condition suggested that negative and positive induction had similar but opposing effects. Induction of an interpretative bias did not require active generation of personally relevant meanings, but such active processing was necessary before state anxiety changed in parallel with the induced interpretative bias. These findings provide evidence consistent with a causal link between the deployment of interpretative bias and anxiety and reveal something of the processes underlying this association.     

Approaching countertransference in psychoanalytical supervision: A qualitative investigation1

A recent examination of the literature concerning countertransference and its developments reveals its clinical usefulness in different psychoanalytical cultures. Nevertheless, a shortage of publications is apparent with respect to its approach in supervision. The authors aim in this study was to examine the concepts of transference and countertransference and how countertransference is approached in supervision, in the training of candidates, at an institute of psychoanalysis belonging to a society affiliated to the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). Qualitative research was carried out, interviewing supervisors and supervisees. Through analysis of the material acquired, the authors classifi ed the data into initial, intermediate and fi nal categories. The principal fi ndings were subdivided into three categories: the concepts of transference and countertransference, psychoanalytical listening and the complementarity of the phenomena, and the approach to countertransference. The concepts of transference and countertransference predominantly used by those interviewed are based on the totalistic outlook. Countertransference in supervision has been approached in a more direct and objective way when compared with the previous period, although great care is taken to delimit the boundaries between supervision and personal analysis. The main aim of supervision is to broaden comprehension and to deepen the interpretations directed towards the patient. These fi ndings suggest that the evolution of the concept of countertransference in different psychoanalytical cultures and developments in the analytical fi eld are contributing to this change.     

A multi-measure,multi-ethnic investigation of anxiety

Current Psychology - The main purpose of the current research was to examine the cross-ethnic variability of various anxiety measurement frameworks, in an understudied East European culture. Three...     

Social anxiety and interpretation of ambiguous smiles

This study investigated whether social anxiety facilitates the discrimination between genuine and ambiguous smiles. Socially anxious (N=20) and nonanxious (N=20) participants categorized as “happy” or “not happy” faces with either (1) a truly happy expression (i.e., happy eyes and a smile), (2) truly nonhappy expressions (e.g., angry eyes and an angry mouth), or (3) blended expressions with a smiling mouth and nonhappy (e.g., angry, sad, etc.) eyes. Results indicated that, relative to nonanxious participants, those high in social anxiety were more likely to judge as “not happy” any blended expression with nonhappy eyes, and they were faster in judging as “not happy” the blended expressions with angry, fearful, or disgusted eyes (but not those with sad, surprised, or neutral eyes). These results suggest, respectively, that social anxiety inhibits a benign interpretation of all the ambiguous expressions with a smile, and speeds up the detection of threatening eyes in such expressions. Importantly, no differences appeared as a function of social anxiety for truly happy or nonhappy faces. This rules out a response-bias explanation, and also reveals that social anxiety does not affect sensitivity in the recognition of prototypical expressions.     

Experimental modification of interpretation bias in socially anxious children: Changes in interpretation, anticipated interpersonal anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms

We report on an experimental manipulation of interpretation bias in socially anxious youths. A non-clinical sample of 10–11-year-olds selected for high social anxiety was trained over three sessions to endorse benign rather than negative interpretations of potentially threatening social scenarios. This group was subsequently less likely to endorse negative interpretations of new ambiguous social situations than children in a test–retest condition. Children who received interpretation training also showed reduced trait social anxiety and reported significantly less anxiety about an anticipated interpersonal encounter, compared with the control group.     

Selective interpretation in anxiety: Uncertainty for threatening events

The role of event uncertainty on inferences predictive of threat was investigated in high and low trait anxious individuals. Participants read context sentences predicting threat or nonthreat outcomes. They subsequently named target words that were consistent with or unrelated to prediction. In Experiment 1, with predictability relatively low, anxious participants showed clear threat bias in their inferences: Although nonthreat targets were unaffected by context, shorter naming latencies were found for threat target words that followed a threat predicting context. A low anxiety group showed an opposite effect, that is, facilitation only for nonthreat words, suggesting an avoidance (of threat) bias. In Experiment 2, under higher predictability, this bias disappeared, as both high and low anxious groups performed similarly. The relevance of these data for different models of selective processing in anxiety is discussed. Of particular pertinence is the finding that, with increasing stimulus threat, low anxious participants no longer show avoidance; instead, they infer threat in a way similar to the high anxious. This suggests that the difference between the high and the low anxious persons resides in the threshold at which stimulus threat input is processed.     

Organizational climate and investigation performance in the Norwegian police: A qualitative study

The present study aimed to identify organizational climate dimensions that are salient for police investigation performance and to explicate the mechanisms of the relationship between organizational climate and investigation performance. We conducted 38 semistructured interviews with participants at three job levels of police investigative work (chiefs of police, n  = 11, senior investigating officers, n  = 14, detectives, n  = 13) in 11 Norwegian police districts. We analyzed the interview data by using a model of organizational climate based on the competing values framework (Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983). Two types of climate, human relations climate and rational goal climate, were perceived to enhance investigation performance. The findings indicate that a human relations climate enhances investigation performance by developing collective human capital and by supporting internal and external cooperation and coordination of resources. Moreover, the findings suggest that a rational goal climate increases investigation performance by encouraging planning, goal setting, and task focus.     

A qualitative investigation of mock-jurors' theories of emotion and reason

Mock-juries' deliberations of murder/manslaughter verdicts were videotaped and analysed. It was found that jurors' deliberations incorporated their theories of emotion and of the relationship between emotion and reason. Although there was agreement among jurors that emotions can overwhelm persons' rational faculties, there was disagreement between jurors voting for murder and for manslaughter as to the relationship of emotion and reason. Jurors voting for murder suggested emotion and reason are interdependent and that persons can simultaneously act from emotion as well as reason, whereas jurors voting for manslaughter suggested the two are independent and that they cannot operate simultaneously. The import of jurors' folk concepts of emotion and reason to the legal system, as well as to our understanding of emotions themselves, is discussed.     

A longitudinal investigation of anxiety sensitivity in adolescence

This investigation sought to expand existing knowledge of anxiety sensitivity in a sample of high school students (N = 2,365) assessed over 4 years. The stability of anxiety sensitivity levels across assessment periods was examined, and cluster analyses were used to identify different developmental pathways in levels of anxiety sensitivity. Groups of adolescents with stable low, stable high, and escalating anxiety sensitivity levels were identified. Adolescents with stable high or escalating anxiety sensitivity were significantly more likely to report experiencing a panic attack than individuals with stable low anxiety sensitivity. Results also indicated that Asian and Hispanic adolescents tended to report higher anxiety sensitivity but that their anxiety sensitivity was less strongly associated with panic than that of Caucasian adolescents.     

Reliability and Validity of the qualitative interpretation of sentence completions: A single case statistical study

Based on the sentence completions of a psychiatric patient, ratings were assigned on a number of personality dimensions by six clinical psychologists and 10 graduate students. Independent ratings by a psychologist and a psychiatrist who had interviewed the patient and had access to all the clinical background material, including case history, autobiography, and other tests, served as the criterion. A high degree of validity and interrater reliability was obtained by both clinicians and students with insignificant differences between them. Confidence in judgment was associated with extreme ratings but not with higher validity.     

A preliminary investigation of cognitive and relaxation treatment of panic disorder: effects on intense anxiety vs 'background' anxiety

In this study, three adult males complaining of Panic Disorders were treated with cognitive therapy followed by relaxation training combined with cognitive therapy in a multiple-baseline across Ss design. All Ss demonstrated a decrease in the number and duration of episodes of heightened or intense anxiety, which was maintained at 3-month follow-up. Daily time-sampled ratings of ‘background’ anxiety, not necessarily associated with periods of intense anxiety, showed a substantial decrease for S2, which was maintained at 3-month follow-up. However, S 1 and S 3 evidenced an increase in background anxiety during the combined treatment phase in contrast to the effects of treatment on periods of ‘intense’ anxiety. These results suggest that psychological treatments for patients classified as suffering from Panic Disorder are effective and lend some support to the differentiation of panic from ‘general’ anxiety. Recent observations of relaxation-induced anxiety were also replicated in this clinical setting. These data also illustrate the advantages and difficulties of self-monitoring anxiety over a period of time.     

A preliminary investigation of impulsivity in generalized anxiety disorder

Few studies have examined the association between impulsivity and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). This study examined whether individuals with probable GAD display impulsivity in a particular way, and the extent to which impulsivity uniquely predicts GAD severity and GAD status, over and above intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a key cognitive factor in GAD. Individuals with (n = 63) and without (n = 77) probable GAD completed self-report measures of impulsivity and IU. Results revealed that elevations in the severity of GAD symptoms and in IU were associated with impulsive actions in the face of negative affect (i.e., negative urgency), but also greater premeditation and lower “functional” impulsivity (i.e., the ability to take quick action when it is advantageous to do so). Impulsivity led to an increment in the prediction of GAD symptoms and GAD status, over and above IU. Negative urgency and lower functional impulsivity were significant unique predictors of GAD severity or GAD status. The findings highlight a need to consider impulsivity in theories that implicate intolerance of negative affect and uncertainty in excessive and uncontrollable worry.