Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depression: A Preliminary Randomized Clinical Trial for Unemployed on Long-Term Sick Leave

This preliminary study investigated the feasibility of a brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in a Swedish sample of unemployed individuals on long-term sick leave due to depression. Participants were randomized to a nonstandardized control condition (N = 16) or to the ACT condition (N = 18) consisting of 1 individual and 5 group sessions. From pretreatment to 18-month follow-up the ACT participants improved significantly on measures of depression, general health, and quality of life compared to participants in the control condition. The conditions did not differ regarding sick leave and employment status at any time point. The results indicate that ACT is a promising treatment for depression. The need for further refinements of future ACT protocols for this population is discussed.     

Anaphoric Reference to Quantified Expressions in Swedish

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - This paper presents the results from two studies on anaphoric reference to quantifying expressions (QEs) in Swedish, contributing to the current...     

Stereotype threat in salary negotiations is mediated by reservation salary

Women are stereotypically perceived as worse negotiators than men, which may make them ask for less salary than men when under stereotype threat (Kray et al., 2001). However, the mechanisms of stereotype threat are not yet properly understood. The current study investigated whether stereotype threat effects in salary negotiations can be explained by motivational factors. A total of 116 business students negotiated salary with a confederate and were either told that this was diagnostic of negotiating ability (threat manipulation) or not. Measures of minimum (reservation) and ideal (aspiration) salary goals and regulatory focus were collected. The finding (Kray et al., 2001) that women make lower salary requests than men when under stereotype threat was replicated. Women in the threat condition further reported lower aspiration salary, marginally significantly lower reservation salary and less eagerness/more vigilance than men. Reservation salary mediated the stereotype threat effect, and there was a trend for regulatory focus to mediate the effect. Thus, reservation salary partly explains why women ask for less salary than men under stereotype threat. Female negotiators may benefit from learning that stereotype threat causes sex-differences in motivation.     

Siby,George K. and Jung,P. G. (eds.): Cultural Ontology of the Self in Pain

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research -     

The Influence of Cancer-related Distress and Sense of Coherence on Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Hereditary Cancer

This study examines the association between Sense of Coherence and anxiety and depression amongst patients at risk of hereditary cancer receiving genetic counseling. When writing this article, 144 patients referred for genetic counseling due to a suspicion of hereditary cancer in the family were recruited for this multicentered longitudinal study on the psychosocial aspects of genetic counseling in Norway. A total of 96 (66%) patients responded to the follow-up survey distributed 6 months after genetic counseling. This survey included the Sense of Coherence-29 Scale, Impact of Event Scale, and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Multiple regression analyses were applied. Our results show association between cancer-related distress and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Sense of Coherence is significantly associated with both anxiety and depression. The hypothesis of Sense of Coherence buffering cancer-related distress and the possible impact of these findings for genetic counseling are discussed.