Evaluation of the PAI–A Anxiety and Depression Scales: Evidence of Construct Validity

Against the background of a dearth of studies examining the properties of the scale scores of the Personality Assessment Inventory–Adolescent (PAI–A; Morey, 2007), this study was conducted to evaluate evidence of construct validity for the Anxiety (ANX) and Depression (DEP) scales of the PAI–A. Convergent and discriminant validity of the ANX and DEP scale scores were investigated using a sample of adolescents admitted to the adolescent program of a private tertiary care inpatient treatment facility. Multiple methods assessing anxious and depressive symptomology and diagnoses were included. Construct validity of the ANX and DEP scales was mostly supported. Advantages of using the PAI–A for the assessment of anxiety and depression were discussed.     

How social context moderates the self-evaluative emotions experienced due to health risk behaviour

When people are confronted with the potential negative physical outcomes of their own health risk behaviour, they experience a self-threat. This threat is felt as negative self-evaluative emotions. We hypothesise that the threat will lead to more private self-evaluative emotions (e.g. regret) in a private social context, whereas more public self-evaluative emotions (e.g. embarrassment) will be felt in a public social context with negative norms. Consistent with our hypotheses, we show that participants anticipate feeling more private self-evaluative emotions when confronted with the negative consequences of their unhealthy behaviour when alone, and more public self-evaluative emotions when in a group (Study 1). They further anticipate more public self-evaluative emotions in response to a health self-threat when the group norm is negative, and more private self-evaluative emotions when the group norm is lenient (Study 2). Finally, in a cross-sectional study amongst smokers, we show that private but not public negative self-evaluative emotions concerning their own smoking habits are positively correlated with the intent to quit smoking (Study 3). These studies show that a distinction needs to be made between public and private self-evaluative emotions, in terms of their antecedents and effects. Theoretical implications and further lines of research are discussed.     

Posttraumatic growth after childbirth: A prospective study

A growing body of research has examined the potential for positive change following challenging and traumatic events, this is known as posttraumatic growth (PTG). Childbirth is a valuable opportunity to extend previous work on PTG as it allows the role of different variables to be considered prospectively. The aim of this study was to prospectively examine correlates of PTG after birth, including sociodemographic and obstetric variables, social support and psychological distress, using a prospective, longitudinal design. A total of 125 women completed questionnaires during their third trimester of pregnancy and 8 weeks after birth. At least a small degree of positive change following childbirth was reported by 47.9% of women; however, average levels of growth were lower than generally reported in other studies. A regression model of age, type of delivery, posttraumatic stress symptoms during pregnancy and general distress after birth significantly predicted 32% of the variance in growth after childbirth. The strongest predictors of growth were operative delivery (β 0.23–0.30) and posttraumatic stress symptoms in pregnancy (β 0.32). These findings emphasise the importance of assessing pre-event characteristics when considering the development of PTG after a challenging event.     

The Effects of Cognitive Ability and Conscientiousness on Performance Over Time: A Censored Latent Growth Model

This study examined the extent to which cognitive ability and conscientiousness predicted initial academic performance (i.e., grade point average) and changes in performance over the course of college students' careers. A censored latent growth model that controlled for initial performance was used. Results showed positive effects of cognitive ability and conscientiousness on initial performance, but only positive effects of conscientiousness on performance change. However, because initial performance negatively affected performance change, cognitive ability and conscientiousness negatively indirectly affected performance change through initial performance. In addition, results revealed cognitive ability accounted for more variance in initial performance than conscientiousness, and conscientiousness accounted for more variance in performance change than cognitive ability. Finally, results show that, beyond the third semester, conscientiousness is a better predictor of student performance than cognitive ability.     

Positioning Microanalysis: Studying the Self Through the Exploration of Dialogical Processes

Self-multiplicity is a widely recognized phenomenon within psychology. The study of how self-continuity emerges amidst self-multiplicity remains a crucial issue, however. Dialogical approaches are widely viewed as suitable for developing this field of study but they demand coherent methods compatible with their theoretical bases. After reviewing the available methods for the study of the dialogical self, as well as other dialogical methods for the study of psychotherapy, we conclude that we still lack a method which can be used by external observers and is devoted to the systematic tracing of the dialogical dynamics of self-positions as they unfold over time. A new method, positioning microanalysis, is described in detail as a possible way to overcome current limitations in methods focused on the dialogicality inherent in selfhood processes. Positioning microanalysis takes a genetic-developmental perspective on dialogical processes in the self and allows for the depiction of microgenetic movements of self-positions over time and the establishment of more or less stable sequences or patterns of positions. This is illustrated by its application to an emotion-focused therapy session.     

Training in and implementation of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for depression in the Veterans Health Administration: Therapist and patient outcomes

ObjectiveThe U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented a national dissemination and training initiative to promote the availability of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for depression (ACT-D). This paper reports on therapist and patient outcomes associated with competency-based training in and implementation of ACT-D.MethodTherapist and patient outcomes were assessed on eleven cohorts of therapists (n = 391) and their patients (n = 745).ResultsThree-hundred thirty four therapists successfully completed all requirements of the Training Program. Ninety-six percent of therapists achieved competency by the end of training, compared to 21% at the outset of training. Mixed effects model analysis indicated therapists' overall ACT-D competency scores increased from 76 to 112 (conditional SD = 6.6), p < 0.001. Moreover, training was associated with significantly increased therapist self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward ACT-D. Therapeutic alliance increased significantly over the course of therapy. Mixed effects model analysis revealed that mean BDI-II scores decreased from 30 at baseline assessment to 19 (conditional SD = 5.6) at final assessment, t(367) = ?20.3, p < 0.001. Quality of life scores also increased.ConclusionsTraining in and implementation of ACT-D in the treatment of Veterans is associated with significant increases in therapist competency and robust improvements in patient outcomes.     

Prayer and the Theologian of the Cross: Julian of Norwich and Martin Luther

This article constructs a dialogue between Julian of Norwich and the concept of “theologian of the cross,” as found in Martin Luther and his recent interpreters. Since she is Catholic and medieval, one might begin by suspecting that her theology is not acceptable to someone who follows Luther's teaching in the Heidelberg Disputation. However a closer look will suggest that what she has to say is largely in accord with Luther's standard for a theologian of the cross. Put more positively, Julian is a theologian of the cross, in spite of her use of different language and concepts from those of Luther. The focus of the article is the subject of prayer: what Julian teaches about it, and what may be inferred about prayer from Luther's dramatic theses in his disputation.     

Laterality of Champion Athletes

Certain experimental designs are based upon the assumption that performance level becomes stabilized after a prolonged period of practice. This assumption was tested by taking a long series of repeated measurements upon a single S for the performance of each of several constant tasks, each task being tested singly in a separate series of measurements. Results showed that after thousands of practice trials on a simple task S may still be learning or showing other sequential effects in performance. These effects may disappear on one day only to reappear on the next. Therefore it is extremely doubtful that “practice to an asymptote” should be regarded as either an efficient or an effective method of eliminating sequential effects from an experiment proper.     

Personality Assessment in Today's Health Care Environment: Therapeutic Alliance and Patient Satisfaction

This autobiography traces my professional and, to a lesser extent, personal life through my career as a forensic and correctional psychologist. As an only child living in the country and later attending boarding schools from the fifth grade through high school, I learned to be self-reliant and independent. These traits led me to join an archaeological expedition to Oaxaca when I was 18, which fostered my interest in anthropology and then psychology at Amherst. I survived the clinical training program at the University of California at Berkeley and while still in graduate school obtained a staff position at the Alameda County Probation Department Guidance Clinic where I began my interrelated research paths on clinical assessment and the dynamics of aggression, paths I continued as an assistant professor at the University of Texas (1964–1967) and as an associate to full professor at the Florida State University (1967–2003). My major research contributions have been the (a) delineation of the overcontrolled and undercontrolled assaultive syndromes; (b) development of the MMPI–2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, &; Kaemmer, 1989 Butcher, J. N., Dahlstrom, W. G., Graham, J. R., Tellegen, A. and Kaemmer, B. 1989. MMPI-2: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2: Manual for administration and scoring, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]) Overcontrolled Hostility (O–H) Scale; (c) formulation of the “Algebra of Aggression,” a theoretical framework for evaluating and understanding aggressive behavior; (d) exploration of how gender roles interact with dominance in leadership assumption; (e) empirical demonstration of the adverse effects of population density on adjustment in correctional institutions; and (f) development and validation of a classification system for adult criminal offenders based on the MMPI–2.