Efficacy of Guided iCBT for Depression and Mediation of Change by Cognitive Skill Acquisition

Guided internet CBT (iCBT) is a promising treatment for depression; however, it is less well known through what mechanisms iCBT works. Two possible mediators of change are the acquisition of cognitive skills and increases in behavioral activation. We report results of an 8-week waitlist controlled trial of guided iCBT, and test whether early change in cognitive skills or behavioral activation mediated subsequent change in depression. The sample was 89 individuals randomized to guided iCBT (n = 59) or waitlist (n = 30). Participants were 75% female, 72% Caucasian, and 33 years old on average. The PHQ9 was the primary outcome measure. Mediators were the Competencies of Cognitive Therapy Scale–Self Report and the Behavioral Activation Scale for Depression–Short Form. Treatment was Beating the Blues plus manualized coaching. Outcomes were analyzed using linear mixed models, and mediation with a bootstrap resampling approach. The iCBT group was superior to waitlist, with large effect sizes at posttreatment (Hedges’ g = 1.45). Dropout of iCBT was 29% versus 10% for waitlist. In the mediation analyses, the acquisition of cognitive skills mediated subsequent depression change (indirect effect = -.61, 95% bootstrapped biased corrected CI: -1.47, -0.09), but increases in behavioral activation did not. iCBT is an effective treatment for depression, but dropout rates remain high. Change in iCBT appears to be mediated by improvements in the use of cognitive skills, such as critically evaluating and restructuring negative thoughts.     

Revisiting the Message to the People of South Africa: 1968–2018

The year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Message to the People of South Africa in 1968, the same year in which the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches was held in Uppsala. The Message was the first major South African ecumenical statement that rejected apartheid as unbiblical and unchristian, a “false gospel.” At the time it was likened to the Barmen Declaration of the Confessing Church in Germany (1934). It also set in motion a process of ecumenical opposition to apartheid that prepared the way for declaring its theological justification a heresy and its practice a sin that had to be rejected and resisted. This article sets out the background to the Message, describes the process which led to its publication, outlines its content, and considers its significance looking back after 50 years.     

Conscious Control Is Associated With Freezing of Mechanical Degrees of Freedom During Motor Learning

This study investigated whether conscious control is associated with freezing of mechanical degrees of freedom during motor learning. Participants practiced a throwing task using either error-strewn or error-reduced practice protocols, which encourage high or low levels of conscious control, respectively. After 24 hr, participants engaged in a series of delayed retention and transfer tests. Furthermore, propensity for conscious control was assessed using participants' ratings and freezing was gauged through movement variability of the throwing arm. Performance was defined by mean radial error. In the error-strewn group, propensity for conscious control was positively associated with both freezing and performance. In the error-reduced group, propensity for conscious control was negatively associated with performance, but not with freezing. These results suggest that conscious control is associated with freezing of mechanical degrees of freedom during motor learning.     

Self-construal,affective valence of the encounter,and quality of social interactions: Within and cross-culture examination

In two samples, one from Greece and another from Germany, we examined relationships between self-construal, emotional experience, and the quality of social interactions. In Greece, a more collectivistic culture, the negative affect people experienced in social interactions was more weakly related to the quality of social interactions for those higher in interdependent self-construal than it was for those lower in interdependent self-construal. In Germany, a more independent culture, a contrasting pattern was observed such that the positive affect people experienced in social interaction was more strongly related to the quality of social interactions for those higher in independent self-construal than it was for those lower in independent self-construal. These findings suggest that positive and negative affect in social encounters can have different effects for persons with independent and interdependent cultural orientations within different cultural settings.     

The basis of behavioral momentum in the nonlinearity of strength

The persistence of operant responding in the context of distractors and opposing forces is of central importance to the success of behavioral interventions. It has been successfully analyzed with Behavioral Momentum Theory. Key data from the research inspired by that theory are reanalyzed in terms of more molecular behavioral mechanisms: the demotivational effects of disruptors, and their differential impacts on the target response and other responses that interact with them. Behavioral momentum is regrounded as a nonlinear effect of motivation and reinforcement rate on response probability and persistence. When response probabilities are high, more energy is required to further increase or to decrease them than when they are low. Classic Behavioral Momentum Theory effects are reproduced with this account. Finally, it is shown how the new account involving motivation and competition is closely related to the metaphor of force and action that is at the core of Behavioral Momentum Theory.     

Moral Emotions Toward Others at Work and Implications for Employee Behavior: a Qualitative Analysis Using Critical Incidents

We propose a theoretical framework for and, via critical incidents, inductively investigate (a) the situations that trigger moral emotions toward others at work and (b) worker responses to these situations. Critical incidents were collected from a heterogeneous sample of 423 workers. Participants described an incident that caused each of four moral emotions (gratitude, anger, admiration, and contempt) and their response. Incidents and responses were coded, and frequencies, differences across the moral emotions, and associations between incidents and responses were analyzed. Several morally relevant situations at work were found to trigger the moral emotions. Participants responded in ways that had implications for their performance and their own well-being. The incidents largely align with moral foundations theory (Haidt and Graham in Social Justice Research, 20, 98–116, 2007). Responses also show evidence for social exchange, social learning, and rational expectancy-based processes and behavior. The incidents specify several practices for managers and organizations to encourage and avoid. This was the first qualitative study of moral emotions at work and one of the few workplace studies to examine these emotions empirically. Several understudied factors and behavioral responses emerged.     

Do young adults show conceptual knowledge of previous distractors?

Using implicit tests, older adults have been found to retain conceptual knowledge of previously seen task-irrelevant information. While younger adults typically do not show the same effect, evidence from one study [Gopie, N., Craik, F. I. M., & Hasher, L. (2011). A double dissociation of implicit and explicit memory in younger and older adults. Psychological Science, 22, 634–640. doi:10.1177/0956797611403321] suggests otherwise. In that study, young adults showed greater explicit than implicit memory for previous distractors on a word fragment completion task. This was interpreted as evidence for maintaining access to previous conceptual knowledge of the distractors. Here, we report two failures to replicate that original finding, followed by a third study designed to test directly whether young adults use conceptual-level information that was previously irrelevant. Our findings agree with others that young adults show weak to no evidence of conceptual knowledge of previously irrelevant information.     

Does mediator use contribute to the spacing effect for cued recall? Critical tests of the mediator hypothesis

When study is spaced across sessions (versus massed within a single session), final performance is greater after spacing. This spacing effect may have multiple causes, and according to the mediator hypothesis, part of the effect can be explained by the use of mediator-based strategies. This hypothesis proposes that when study is spaced across sessions, rather than massed within a session, more mediators will be generated that are longer lasting and hence more mediators will be available to support criterion recall. In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to study paired associates using either a spaced or massed schedule. They reported strategy use for each item during study trials and during the final test. Consistent with the mediator hypothesis, participants who had spaced (as compared to massed) practice reported using more mediators on the final test. This use of effective mediators also statistically accounted for some – but not all of – the spacing effect on final performance.