Post-traumatic stress and self-disclosure

Post-traumatic stress (PTS) is a significant clinical problem in the general population. However, only a portion of those exposed to trauma develop PTS. Patterns of emotional self-disclosure have the potential to explain some of the individual differences in the development and continuation of symptoms. In this study, the authors investigated the links between emotional self-disclosure, as measured by the Emotional Self-Disclosure Scale (ESDS; W. E. Snell, R. S. Miller, & S. S. Belk, 1988). and a post-trauma psychological state, as measured by the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI; J. Briere, 1995). Their results showed that, in general, men engaged in less emotional self-disclosure than did women, and as TSI scores increased, the men were significantly less willing to disclose emotions of happiness. For women, as TSI scores increased they were significantly more willing to engage in talk about emotions related to anxiety but less willing to talk about emotions related to fear. The authors considered these data within current understandings of the role of emotional self-disclosure in the processing of traumatic experiences.     

Measures of effectiveness in a short-term Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving programme

The effects of a classroom-based, short-term Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving programme for 24 7- and 8-year-old children were assessed immediately after a 4-week intervention programme and again after a 4-week follow-up period. A previous study (Erwin & Ruane, Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 7, 305–310, 1993) implementing such a short-term programme relied on sociometric testing to measure the social effectiveness of the training and failed to find any changes in social status. The present study incorporated playground observations and found behavioural improvements immediately after training and after the follow-up period for the experimental group. However, confirming the previous study, no significant differences in sociometric status were found. The results highlight the limitations of sociometry as a measure of the effectiveness of a programme of training in Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-solving.     

Traumatherapy 2001, Part I: “The Reparation of the Self” Revisited on the Way into the 21st Century

This paper highlights the contributions of the article, The Reparation of the Self to trauma practice and science. The article was written almost 20 years ago at a time when little appeared in main stream literature to guide the theory and clinical practice of psychotherapy with trauma patients. At that time the article introduced a post-traumatic developmental theory, and a systematic approach to the treatment of war stress in particular, and, according to contemporary trauma experts, established a general model for the treatment of psychological trauma in general. As the present article reviews the original article, it highlights core trauma responses and treatment principles that are likely to be applicable to traumatherapy far into the 21st Century.     

Spider fear and covariation bias in children and adolescents

Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people's tendency to overestimate the association between fear-relevant stimuli and negative outcomes. The current article presents two studies that examined this type of cognitive bias in children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Study 1 was concerned with a thought experiment during which youths (N=150) were asked to imagine that they participated in an experiment during which they had to view a series of pictures showing spiders, guns, and flowers, that were occasionally followed by a negative outcome (i.e., a mild electric shock). Participants were asked to estimate the relation between each type of picture and the negative outcome. The results indicated that youths with higher levels of spider fear displayed a specific tendency to relate spider pictures to a negative outcome. In Study 2, youths (N=220) actually participated in a computer game during which they were confronted with pictures of spiders, guns, and flowers, each of which was equally often followed by a negative (i.e., losing candy), positive (i.e., winning candy), or neutral outcome. After the game, participants had to estimate the relation between each type of picture and various outcomes. It was found that youths with higher levels of spider fear estimated more negative and less positive outcomes in relation to spider pictures. Taken together, these findings provide support for a fear-related covariation bias in youths. Further developmental analyses indicated that this type of cognitive bias seems to be more consistently present among adolescents than among children.