The association between personality,attachment, psychological distress,church denomination and the god concept among a non-clinical sample

The association between personality, attachment, psychological distress, church denomination and the God concept was studied among a sample of 208 subjects from the normal population. Subjects were Christians, members of an Orthodox reformed church or the Pentecostal church. Negative feelings towards God were associated with a high level of harm avoidance, insecure attachment and a high level of psychological distress. Psychological distress mediated the association between personality and attachment variables and negative feelings towards God. Psychological distress and church denomination were the only two independent predictors of negative feelings towards God. Moreover, results showed that the Orthodox reformed church members hold a more negative concept of God than the Pentecostal church members do. Orthodox reformed church members see God in particular as a punitive judge, independent of personality, attachment and psychological distress, suggesting a large influence of religious culture on this particular type of God concept. Results are discussed from a psychotherapeutic point of view. Finally, several ethical issues regarding psychotherapy with religious clients are addressed.     

‘Any room won’t do.’ Clinical psychologists’ understanding of the consulting room. An interview study

In the social sciences, there is increasing interest in spatial practices and the meaning of places. The meaning of the psychotherapeutic room and its boundaries has traditionally been underlined in psychodynamic practice. In this study we investigated how clinical psychologists, working from different perspectives and with varying interventions and populations understand and use the consulting room. Five clinical psychologists were interviewed about how they perceive and use consulting rooms. The interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The participants understood the consulting room as a logistic unit but also as a welcoming place for relational encounters and sensed that spatial stability was important for their capacity to be fully attentive to their clients. Moreover, technological booking systems could hinder clinical work. The results were understood with respect to Winnicott’s theories of transitional space and holding. In sum, the importance of the room does not seem to be of concern exclusively to psychodynamic psychologists. On the contrary, it seems as if psychologists working with varying interventions and from different perspectives emphasise stable and personal consulting rooms that permit them to adapt to the needs of the clients, be attentive, and avoid disturbances.     

State-dependent changes of prefrontal–posterior coupling in the context of affective processing: Susceptibility to humor

The aim of the present study was to examine whether interindividual differences in the coupling or decoupling of prefrontal and posterior cortices during the exposure to social–emotional information may predict an individual’s positive emotional responsiveness. Susceptibility to humor was assessed in a behavioral paradigm several weeks after the EEG recordings. State-dependent changes of prefrontal–posterior EEG beta coherence were recorded during stimulation with other people’s auditory expressions of cheerfulness and sadness. Greater decreases of coherence during the stimulation with positive affect expressions prospectively predicted greater positive emotional responsiveness, indicated by higher amusement ratings in response to cartoons and higher scores in a questionnaire measure of exhilarability. Greater increases of coherence during the stimulation with negative affect expressions did not predict perceived funniness but were related to shorter response latencies to the amusement ratings. The results further support the notion that a more loose prefrontal–posterior coupling may be related to loosening of control of the prefrontal cortex over incoming emotional information and, thus, to a propensity to deeper emotional involvement and a greater impact of perceptual input, whereas increased prefrontal–posterior coupling may be related to strong control and the propensity to protect oneself from becoming emotionally affected.     

Emotional triangles: A test of emotion-based attentional capture by simple geometric shapes

Previous work has proposed that simple geometric shapes, carrying the features present within negative or threatening faces are especially effective at capturing or guiding attention. Here we test this account and provide converging evidence for a threat-based attentional advantage. Experiment 1 found that downward-pointing triangles continue to be detected more efficiently than upward-pointing triangles when: (i) both overall RT and search slope measures are obtained; and (ii) when the set size is varied and the stimuli are presented in random configurations. Experiment 2 tested and ruled out an alternative account of the selection advantage, based on differences between triangle shape consistencies with scene perspective cues. Overall, the data provide converging evidence that simple geometric shapes, which might be particularly important in providing emotional signals in faces, can also attract attention preferentially even when presented outside of a face context.     

Using doctor-patient communication to affect patients' lifestyles. theoretical and practical implications

Abstract

Physicians very often do not perceive themselves as being efficient in affecting patients' life style. The aim of this article is to elucidate theoretical constructs and models in health education and their practical implications for individual health counselling in daily work as a guidance for physicians. The current most commonly used strategies are giving information and exhorting people, which have a limited ability to change peoples' behaviour. Derived from current behavioural constructs and models in health education - such as the health belief model, social learning theory, health beliefs, self-efficacy, self-determination theory - principles for successful strategies are described: to use patient-centredness instead of directing, to encourage patients to reflect and decide on their behavior, to find out the patient's readiness to change, to present knowledge as neutral facts instead of valuations, to focus on the actual behaviour instead of information-giving, to highlight patients' health beliefs and to discuss the advantages and disadvantages which the patients experience with their life style. The article concludes with a comprehensive model for individual health counselling in consecutive steps.     

Intentional joint agency: shared intention lite

Philosophers have proposed accounts of shared intentions that aim at capturing what makes a joint action intentionally joint. On these accounts, having a shared intention typically presupposes cognitively and conceptually demanding theory of mind skills. Yet, young children engage in what appears to be intentional, cooperative joint action long before they master these skills. In this paper, I attempt to characterize a modest or ‘lite’ notion of shared intention, inspired by Michael Bacharach’s approach to team–agency theory in terms of framing, group identification and team reasoning. I argue that the account of shared intentions this approach yields is less cognitively and conceptually demanding than other accounts and is thus applicable to the intentional joint actions performed by young children. I also argue that it has limitations of its own and that considering what these limitations are may help us understand why we sometimes need to take other routes to shared intentions.     

Cognitive and Social Factors Associated with NSSI and Suicide Attempts in Psychiatrically Hospitalized Adolescents

Although non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicide attempts (SA) frequently co-occur among youth, there is increasing evidence that both the risk factors and the phenomenology of the behaviors are distinct. This study examined how individuals who engage in NSSI only, individuals who attempt suicide only, and those who have histories of both NSSI and at least one suicide attempt may differ in terms of cognitions and perceived social support. Participants were 185 adolescents (78.1 % female) between the ages of 13 and 18 recruited from a psychiatric inpatient facility in the northeastern United States. One hundred forty-eight teens were identified with a history of self-injurious behavior and divided into three groups: NSSI only (n?=?45), SA only (n?=?24) or both NSSI and SA (NSSI+SA; n?=?79). Analyses showed that the NSSI+SA group exhibited more cognitive errors, negative self-statements, and negative views of self, world, and future, as well as less perceived familial support than either the NSSI or SA only groups. There were no differences between groups on perceived support from teachers or peers. No significant demographic or diagnostic differences were found between the NSSI and SA groups. Limitations and clinical implications of the current research are discussed.     

Beyond the heritability of life satisfaction – The roles of personality and twin-specific influences

In a behavior genetic design, we investigated individual differences in life satisfaction and its relation to personality with respect to both internal and external influences. We questioned the absence of shared environment and examined the specific contribution of additive and non-additive genetic influences. We also tested for twin-specific environmental influences in a total sample of 1308 dyads including identical and fraternal twins, siblings, mother–child and grandparent–child pairs. The results showed substantial shared environmental influences on life satisfaction that varied between twins and non-twins, supporting twin-specific environmental influences. Additive and non-additive genetic influences on life satisfaction were completely shared with personality. The remaining variance could be explained by unique non-shared environmental influences for life satisfaction independent of personality.     

Development of the Weight- and Body-Related Shame and Guilt Scale (WEB–SG) in a Nonclinical Sample of Obese Individuals

In this article, we present the evaluation of the psychometric properties of a new self-report measure of Weight- and Body-Related Shame and Guilt (WEB–SG). The main purpose of the study was to measure shame and guilt feelings separately in obese individuals and investigate differing behavioral and emotional correlates of these emotions. Altogether, 331 obese participants completed the WEB–SG and other established self-report measures. A subset of the participants completed a 6-month follow-up. The WEB–SG proved to be internally consistent and temporally stable over a 6-month period. Regarding the factorial structure, a two-factor conceptualization was supported. The construct validity of the WEB–SG subscales was evidenced by a substantial overlap of common variance with related measures. The subscales Shame and Guilt showed differential correlation patterns to other scales. The WEB–SG is a brief, psychometrically sound measure for assessing body shame and guilt concerning weight control in obese individuals.