The role of computer‐aided psychotherapy within an NHS CBT specialist service

To date, the feasibility of computer‐aided psychotherapy as an intervention has only been recognised in primary care practice. The present study sought to evaluate the impact of ‘Beating the Blues’ (BtB), an established computerised cognitive behaviour therapy (CCBT) self‐help programme for the management of anxiety and depression, within an NHS CBT specialist healthcare centre. Of the 555 service users who used BtB as part of routine care, with follow‐up assessment at six to eight weeks, 71% completed all eight sessions. Statistically significant differences on the Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were found in completer and intention‐to‐treat analyses; 50% of completers achieved reliable change on the BDI‐II and approximately 25% of completers achieved reliable and clinically significant change on both measures. Outcomes were benchmarked against outcomes in studies of routine face‐to‐face CBT. These findings provide evidence that BtB may be of value to service users in secondary mental healthcare centres, alleviating current burdens on public health and therapeutic resources. Future research directions should include examining which factors influence individuals’ decisions to try computer‐aided psychotherapy, which individuals are best suited to using these interventions, and why some users drop out prior to programme completion.     

Understanding Pamina's recovery: An application of the hermeneutic single‐case efficacy design

This article reports an effectiveness case study of the individual systemic therapy of a 22‐year‐old Portuguese woman with a diagnosis of paranoid personality disorder, conducted in a university‐based clinic in Lisbon, Portugal. Data were analysed using the hermeneutic single‐case efficacy design, a non‐experimental interpretive approach that aims to determine whether change occurred, whether change was due to therapeutic strategies, and what in therapy caused the change. Results indicate that the treatment was effective and that de‐pathologising Pamina's condition and genogram‐based exploration techniques played a crucial role in her recovery.     

Family in transition: parents,children and grandparents in lesbian families give meaning to ‘doing family’

Lesbian parents, their children and grandparents ‘do family’ in rich and diverse ways. This article draws on innovative grounded theory research using qualitative, multi‐generational family interviews with twenty lesbian‐parented families living in Victoria, Australia. The intersection between the public and the private in lesbian family life has been seriously neglected by family researchers, and in particular the perspectives of family members other than the lesbian parents themselves. This article addresses the question of ‘How members of lesbian‐parented families define and describe their family’, and the results reported here focus on children's and grandparents' views, because they are the voices less well represented in the literature. Children and grandparents straddle both mainstream and marginalized spaces as they negotiate contemporary family life. We examine the interface and tensions between the traditional and the transformative, and the implications of these findings for family therapists are briefly discussed.     

Teachers' Pets and Why They Have Them: An Investigation of the Human Animal Bond1

The present study queried a random, university faculty sample as to their reasons for owning pets. Mere pet ownership was not correlated with self‐reported health, happiness, or quality of work life in this sample. Five dominant reasons were given for pet ownership. Women were more likely than men to self‐report reasons related to social support for pet ownership, including that a pet helped them get through hard times and that they would be lonely without a pet. Men were more likely to report pragmatic reasons, such as the pet facilitating exercise or serving a useful function. Beliefs in the positive effects of pets on health were typical. Those beliefs in the health promoting aspects of pets are suggested as a link to human health and a promising area for future research.     

Predicting post‐traumatic growth and post‐traumatic stress in firefighters

Emergency service workers (e.g., firefighters, police, and paramedics) are exposed to elevated levels of potentially traumatising events through the course of their work. Such exposure can have lasting negative consequences (e.g., post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) and/or positive outcomes (e.g., post‐traumatic growth (PTG)). Research had implicated trauma, occupational and personal variables that account for variance in post‐trauma outcomes yet at this stage no research has investigated these factors and their relative influence on both PTSD and PTG in a single study. Based in Calhoun and Tedeschi's model of PTG and previous research, in this study regression models of PTG and PTSD symptoms among 218 firefighters were tested. Results indicated organisational factors predicted symptoms of PTSD, while there was partial support for the hypothesis that coping and social support would be predictors of PTG. Experiencing multiple sources of trauma, higher levels of organisational and operational stress, and utilising cognitive reappraisal coping were all significant predictors of PTSD symptoms. Increases in PTG were predicted by experiencing trauma from multiple sources and the use of self‐care coping. Results highlight the importance of organisational factors in the development of PTSD symptoms, and of individual factors for promoting PTG.     

Optimally matching support and perceived spousal sensitivity.

Partner sensitivity is an important antecedent of both intimacy (H. T. Reis & P. Shaver, 1988) and attachment (M. D. S. Ainsworth, 1989). On the basis of the optimal matching model of social support (C. E. Cutrona & D. Russell, 1990), support behaviors that "matched" the support goals of the stressed individual were predicted to lead to the perception of partner sensitivity. Predictions were tested with 59 married couples, who engaged in a videotaped self-disclosure task. Matching support was defined as the disclosure of emotions followed by emotional support or a request for information followed by informational support. Partial evidence was found for the predictions. Matching support following the disclosure of emotions was predictive of perceived partner sensitivity. Mismatched support following the disclosure of emotions predicted lower marital satisfaction, through the mediation of partner sensitivity. Matching support following a request for information was not predictive of perceived partner sensitivity, but negative partner responses (e.g., criticism or sarcasm) following a request for information negatively predicted perceptions of partner sensitivity. The importance of considering the context of support transactions is discussed.     

Precompetitive anxiety and self-confidence in athletes with disability

This study examined the precompetition temporal patterning of competitive anxiety components in 42 athletes with disability who participated at the national level and at the national trials for the Paralympic Games in a variety of sports. All subjects completed a modified version of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 which measures intensity and direction of the competitive anxiety response on three occasions before competition (1 wk., 2 hr., and 20 min.). Analysis suggested that for cognitive and somatic dimensions athletes with disabilities show a similar precompetition anxiety response to athletes without disability. However, there appear to be some differences, particularly in the intensity of self-confidence, as athletes with disability reported a reduction of self-confidence just prior to competition.     

Cognitive Style and Entrepreneurial Drive of New and Mature Business Owner-Managers

Purpose  

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cognitive style and entrepreneurial drive are important for identifying individuals who have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs, and for discriminating between owner-managers operating in mature and early stages of venture creation and growth.     

Memory impairment in the weapon focus effect

Two experiments are reported in which postevent source of misinformation was manipulated within weaponpresent and weapon-absent scenarios. Participants viewed slides depicting either a weapon or a newspaper event and then received either incomplete questioning or a narrative. Both postevent sources contained misleading information about a central and peripheral detail concerning either the weapon or the newspaper scenario. With a modified test in Experiment 1, questioning was found to increase misinformation effects concerning the central item, as compared with a narrative, and more misinformation effects were found for the weapon-peripheral than for the newspaper-peripheral item. In Experiment 2, the participants were more likely to claim to have seen contradictory and additive misinformation about the central item in the slides following questioning, and more contradictory and additive misinformation effects occurred for the weapon-peripheral than for the newspaper-peripheral item. The findings are considered in terms of the effects of both postevent and encoding factors on memory.     

Personality facets and RIASEC interests: An integrated model

Research examining links between personality and interest have typically focused on links between measures of the five factor model and Holland’s RIASEC types. However, the five factor model of personality can be divided in to a larger set of narrow domain personality scales measuring facets of the ‘big five’ traits. Research in a number of fields indicates that facet scales are effective for clarifying the relationship between personality and other broad constructs, including academic achievement, job performance, stress and coping, and achievement motivation. In the present study links between personality facets and the RIASEC model were examined using property vector fitting. Obtained results are consistent with previous research suggesting that the use of facet-level personality measures can clarify relations between personality and other constructs, and provides new information linking personality facets and interests. The use of facet-level measures of personality expands the range of personality concepts that can be presented to individuals who are exploring career options.