Culturally adapted CBT (CA-CBT) for Latino women with treatment-resistant PTSD: a pilot study comparing CA-CBT to applied muscle relaxation

We examined the therapeutic efficacy of a culturally adapted form of CBT (CA-CBT) for PTSD as compared to applied muscle relaxation (AMR) for female Latino patients with treatment-resistant PTSD. Participants were randomized to receive either CA-CBT (n = 12) or AMR (n = 12), and were assessed before treatment, after treatment, and at a 12-week follow-up. The treatments were manualized and delivered in the form of group therapy across 14 weekly sessions. Assessments included a measure of PTSD, anxiety, culturally relevant idioms of distress (nervios and ataque de nervios), and emotion regulation ability. Patients receiving CA-CBT improved significantly more than in the AMR condition. Effect size estimates showed very large reductions in PTSD symptoms from pretreatment to posttreatment in the CA-CBT group (Cohen’s d = 2.6) but only modest improvements in the AMR group (0.8). These results suggest that CA-CBT can be beneficial for previously treatment-resistant PTSD in Latino women.     

Perceived Stress in Young Carers: Development of a Measure

We report the development of a 5-factor, 31-item, Young Carers Perceived Stress Scale (YCPSS) from an initial 50-item pool. The scale was developed and tested on 108 young carers aged between 12–18 years, and acceptable Cronbach Alpha values were obtained for the individual factors and the overall scale. In addition, both the overall scale and individual factors produced a pattern of correlations with social support, burden of care, psychological distress, and coping, supporting the initial validity and utility of the scale.     

汉语语句重音的分类和分布

通过两个独立进行的重音标注实验对汉语语句重音的分类和分布进行了初步探讨。实验l是由60位普通被试参加的音节重音突显度的知觉实验。实验2是由本文三位作者参加的重音类别标注实验,在此实验中语句重音被划分为节奏重音和语义重音。实验2中对于语句重音的分类性标注结果得到了实验l中普通被试对音节重音突显度知觉结果的支持,这说明人们确实能够感知到两种不同类型的重音。实验结果还表明,节奏重音倾向于出现在较大韵律单元内的最末韵律词的末音节上,并且与适当的停延相伴生,语义重音的分布则与语句的韵律结构的关系不大。     

Stressors and Stress Reactions Among University Personnel

A large, ethnically diverse, and representative sample of university workers in administrative, instructional, and blue-collar/clerical support categories were administered a battery of questionnaires designed to assess job and nonwork stress, biopsychosocial reactions to stress, emotionality, medical symptoms and utilization, and perceived social support, among other variables. A total of 831 participants returned questionnaires. The principal results showed that job and nonwork stress correlated positively with behavioral, cognitive, and physiological reactions to stress as well as with negative emotionality. Job and nonwork stress correlated meaningfully with medical symptoms; nonwork stress also correlated at a useful level with reported medical utilization. Social support did not generally modulate reports of stress or reactions to stress. It was also found that support staff reported higher levels of nonwork stress and lower levels of work stress, but that 2 measures of job stress did not differentiate administrative and instructional personnel. Younger staff reported higher levels of job and nonwork stress, and females reported higher levels of nonwork stress, irrespective of job category. The results were discussed in terms of their importance for understanding the nature of stress among personnel on the university campus and in relation to prior research.     

Organizational stress and stress management programs

There is a growing awareness of how stress adversely affects organizational efficiency. The implementation of stress management programs to counteract this problem has been slow. This study examined such programs in companies who claimed that they were active and successful in stress management for their employees. The successful features of these organizational stress management programs are identified, discussed, and a model for organizations is presented.     

Childhood stress: Perceptions of children and professionals

An assessment instrument was developed to measure children's perceptions of stressors in their lives, as well as their experiences and emotional reactions to these stressors. Two approaches from the adult literature, major life events and daily hassles, were compared for children. In addition, a comparison between children's and professionals' ratings of the severity of various stressors was made, as well as an examination of the relationship of experience and self-reported reaction to children's ratings. Results indicate that children's ratings of the severity of stressors do differ from adults', particularly when children have experienced the stressor. Further investigation in the study of childhood stress incorporating children's perceptions is proposed.     

Development of a Scale to Assess Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

This study presents a newly developed self-report Posttraumatic Stress Scale (PTSS) based on the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The scale assesses the trauma experienced by people via the specific criteria of reexperiencing, numbing and avoidance, hyperarousal, and functioning. The instrument was validated on 52 Vietnam veteran subjects diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 64 subjects who were attending professional counseling for trauma-related incidents, and 176 subjects who had never been diagnosed with PTSD or had professional counseling. The test survey comprised the PTSS, Beck's Anxiety Inventory, Beck's Depression Inventory, Impact of Events Scale, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology, and Symptoms Checklist–90R. The test-retest reliability of the scale was assessed over a four- to six-week period. The scale had a high test-retest reliability and showed high convergent and concurrent validity. Construct validity as assessed through the comparison between the three groups was high; however, factor analysis revealed only two factors instead of the three factors assumed in the DSM-IV. Overall, the scale may be used by clinicians or clients.     

正、负性压力情境下教师应对方式的比较研究

采用修订的COPE量表对530名中小学教师进行调查,探讨中小学教师压力现状及其在正、负性压力情境下应对方式的异同。结果表明:(1)中小学教师总体压力水平为中等,但承受着较大的工作压力且负性多于正性;(2)中小学教师应对两类性质压力采用的方式趋于一致,具有一定的跨情境性。但在应对负性压力时,倾向于联合使用各种应对方式,且更倾向于采用精神寄托、行为解脱等非适应性应对方式。     

研究生心理压力特点的调查研究

目的研究研究生心理压力的特点。方法采用自编的研究生压力量表对1067名研究生分三个阶段进行调查。结果（1）研究生压力问卷具有良好的内容效度和预测能力,内部一致性和测量稳定性较理想。（2）研一、研二和研三的学生在学业压力上具有显著性差异。（3）男女研究生、来源于农村和城市的研究生以及是否工作过的研究生均在经济压力上具有显著性差异。     

A longitudinal study of school adjustment in urban,minority adolescents: Effects of a high school transition program

Described an intervention program designed to prepare elementary school (K-8) eighth-grade students for their transition to high school the following year. Participants in the study were 145, predominantly Hispanic, inner-city public school adolescents. The experimental group received an augmented condition, consisting of Education and Peer Support Components. The control group received a minimal condition consisting of only the Education Component. While no group effects were observed, time effects indicated experimental and control students' improved perceptions of school readiness, but deteriorated perceptions of support from both home and school and diminished grade-point averages and attendance. Time effects also revealed variable changes in school perceptions. Findings are discussed in terms of a developmental perspective of the school transition process. Implications for high school transition programming with the target population and directions for future research are also addressed.     

Managing occupational stress: A national and international perspective

Theoretical models of occupational stress are important because they suggest a focus for intervention, and inform practice. The gap between research and practice was exposed most recently by Burke (1993) claiming little awareness of research findings by practitioners (managers, consultants, clinicians), little intervention activity being undertaken at the organizational level, little research being undertaken to determine the effectiveness of individual level interventions, and only modest use of work research findings for intervention and policy development (p. 85). This paper discusses the issue of intervention, and examines values, assumptions and the politics of applied research. A critical review of the evaluation studies of individual vs. organizational level interventions is undertaken and finally the problem of occupational stress as a national and international issue is considered.     

Structure of the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire among South African employees in the financial services and health sectors

This study sought to validate the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire (WLQ) in South Africa. Respondents were 393 employees within the financial services (n = 238) and health sector (n = 155). Results from the exploratory factor analysis indicated the WLQ to be a unidimensional measure. The goodness-of-fit statistics following confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated a well-fitting measurement model for the WLQ. The WLQ appears to yield reliable and valid scores for use in South African work settings.     

A spanish translation and validation of the daily stress inventory and a comparison of the level of stress experienced by three culturally distinct hispanic groups

Two studies were conducted, the first to establish a valid Spanish version of the Daily Stress Inventory (DSI). A second study was conducted using the bilingual version of the DSI to assess differences in the level of stress experienced by three selected Hispanic groups: (a) very Hispanic/Hispanic-oriented bicultural, (b) true bicultural, and (c) Anglo-oriented bicultural/very Anglicized as determined by the adapted version of the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA). It was expected that stress levels would be highest for the least acculturated group. The results of the first study indicate that the Bilingual DSI scores are highly correlated with the scores of the original DSI when both instruments are responded to simultaneously by fully bilingual individuals. In Study 2, the initial data analyses showed no difference in the level of stress reported by Hispanics at different levels of acculturation as measured by the ARSMA. When a median-split method was employed, differences in the DSI I/E measures between the two groups were significant, suggesting that acculturation level may be related to stress level.     

3至6岁幼儿心理压力源与表现

本研究在大量的调查、访谈和问卷分析的基础上,提出了有关幼儿心理压力的问题,并对幼儿心理压力的来源和表现进行了深入细致的调查和分析。结果发现,幼儿身边存在很多压力事件;幼儿的心理压力主要来源于6个方面:父母、老师、环境适应、同伴关系、功课学习和其他;幼儿的心理压力主要表现在四个方面:生理上的反应、行为上的反常、情绪上的变化和个性上的改变。     

A Short Story about the Übermensch: Vladimir Solov'ëv's Interpretation of and Response to Nietzsche's Übermensch

From the 1890s on, the atheist philosopher F. Nietzsche exerted a profound and enduring impact on Russian religious, cultural, and social reality. The religious philosopher V.S. Solov'ëv perceived Nietzsche's thought as an actual threat to Russian religious consciousness and his own anthropological ideal of Divine Humanity. He was especially preoccupied with the idea of the Übermensch since sometwo decades before the Nietzschean Übermensch was popularized in Russia, Solov'ëv had already developed his own interpretation of the sverkhchelovek.     

知识型员工工作压力与工作满意感状况及其关系研究

工作压力与工作满意感是影响工作行为绩效的重要心理因素。本研究探讨分析了知识型员工的工作压力与满意感状况及其两者之间的关系。研究结果表明 :①在工作压力构成中 ,知识型员工内源性工作压力较高 ,外源性工作压力较低 ;②知识型员工具有较高的工作满意感 ;③知识型员工的工作内源压力与工作满意感之间具有显著的正相关关系 ;④知识型员工的工作外源压力与工作满意感之间具有显著的负相关关系     

The Laozi Code

The term “dao” (道) has been playing the theoretically paradigmatic role in almost all East Asian philosophies, religions, and cultures. The meanings of the term “dao” in the Dao De Jing and other ancient East Asian texts have remained hermeneutically problematic up to this point in time. This article argues that one of the main causes of this hermeneutical problematic is the failure to establish a theoretically formal typology of the “dao.” It further suggests that a hermeneutically disciplined reading of the 76 uses of the term “dao” in the Dao De Jing accomplishes two important goals: (1) it demonstrates that a typological approach may enhance an understanding of the Laoian Dao, and (2) it provides some good data to begin reconstructing such a theoretically formal dao-typology.     

工作压力理论及其在研究中的重要性

有关工作压力的研究是在西方心理学和管理学界都发展较快的一个领域。然而,这一领域中具有广泛和概括意义的理论还不多。该文介绍了工作压力研究中影响较大的4种理论,特别是对Lazarus提出的交互理论做了较详细的介绍。还分析了它们的局限性并讨论了理论在研究工作中的重要性的问题。     

Where does work stress come from? A generalizability analysis of stress in police officers

Differences among workers and workplace stressors both contribute to perceiving work as stressful. However, the relative importance of these sources to work stress is not well delineated. Moreover, the extent to which work stress additionally reflects unique matches between specific workers and particular job stressors is also unclear. In this study, we use generalizability theory to specify and compare sources of variance in stress associated with police work. US police officers (N?=?115) provided ratings of 60 stressors commonly associated with policing duties. Primary and secondary stress appraisal ratings reflected differences among officers in tendencies to generally perceive work stressors as stressful (14–15% officer effect), and also agreement among officers in viewing some stressors as more stressful than others (18–19% stressor effect). However, ratings especially reflected distinct pairings of officers and stressors (38–41% interaction effect). Additional analyses revealed individual differences and stressor characteristics associated with each variance component, including an officer?×?stressor interaction – compared to officers low in neuroticism, highly neurotic officers provided lower primary appraisal ratings of stressors generally seen as not serious, and also higher primary appraisal ratings of stressors that were seen as serious. We discuss implications of the current approach for the continued study of stress at work.