Depression Management Training: A Structured Group Approach

This article describes a structured group program called Depression Management Training (DMT), the focus of which is to increase participants' awareness of the multidimentional sources of depression and to enhance their coping strategies.     

Let's talk about us: Attachment,relationship‐focused disclosure,and relationship quality

This research tested whether attachment avoidance and anxiety were associated with couples' (N = 59) disclosure during recorded discussions of recent events. The links between attachment and disclosure with relationship quality across 1 year were also assessed. Attachment was not associated with amount or intimacy of disclosure, but greater attachment anxiety was associated with more relationship‐focused disclosure, whereas attachment avoidance was associated with less relationship‐focused disclosure. Relationship‐focused disclosure was also positively associated with relationship quality across time, whereas attachment avoidance predicted lower relationship quality. These findings indicate that spontaneous relationship‐focused disclosure during routine conversations helps maintain relationships, but because people high in avoidance are less focused on sustaining closeness, their relationships tend to deteriorate over time.     

TWO-STAGE SEQUENTIAL SELECTION PROCEDURES USING ABILITY AND TRAINING PERFORMANCE: INCREMENTAL VALIDITY OF BEHAVIORAL CONSISTENCY MEASURES

A behavioral consistency model was used to evaluate the predictive validity of ability and training performance measures as components in a two-stage pre-reject sequential selection procedure. Participants were 91 college students who completed ability tests and training relevant to an air intercept and traffic control operator task. A simulation study was conducted so that two groups could be examined: a high ability group, analogous to a screened hired employee group in an organization; and a quasi-random ability group, analogous to an applicant pool as a validation sample. The incremental validity of training performance was practically and statistically significant in the prediction of component and overall task performance after including ability as a predictor in both groups. Adding ability to the prediction of task performance after training performance had been used as a predictor had no practical effects in either sample. The validity and likely utility of using sequential procedures to select employees as well as implications of behavioral consistency measures for privacy and discrimination in employee testing are discussed. Future research directions using different types of training and employee samples are also described.     

When a Lot of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing The Debilitating Effects of Plan Complexity on Verbal Fluency

Three experiments examined the relationships among plan complexity, access to planned actions, and verbal fluency while pursuing a persuasion goal. Consistent with theoretical expectations, complex planners were less fluent than less complex planners under high access conditions. Persons whose access was raised were less fluent than those whose access was not raised. A second experiment showed that reduced fluency was not induced by lowering of self-confidence. The third experiment replicated the findings of the second experiment and demonstrated that the questioning procedure used to raise access in the first two experiments produced increases in plan complexity as suggested by theory. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of strategic communication.