Attachment Change in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy and Sexual Satisfaction Outcomes in a Two-year Follow-up Study

Emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT) is an empirically validated attachment based approach to couple therapy. From an EFT perspective, sexual functioning is viewed within the context of an attachment bond, but sexual satisfaction in EFT has not been empirically tested. We examined self-reported sexual satisfaction across 24?months in a sample of 32 couples who received an average of 21 EFT sessions. We found that sexual satisfaction increased across six time points from pre to post therapy and across follow-up (6, 12, 18, and 24?months), and that decreases in attachment avoidance from pre to post therapy predicted increases in sexual satisfaction across time. These findings provide evidence that EFT may help couples improve their sexual satisfaction by reducing attachment avoidance in therapy.     

Specificity of episodic and semantic aspects of autobiographical memory in relation to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Two studies examined the relationship between the ability to access specific autobiographical material in memory and presence/symptoms of posttraumatic stress. In Study 1, a sample of refugees with a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) in which they had to generate specific episodic autobiographical memories in response to emotion-related cue words. Results showed that reduced specificity of memories on the AMT was associated with an increased frequency of trauma-related flashbacks but with reduced use of effortful avoidance to deal with trauma-related intrusions in the day-to-day. Study 2 examined retrieval of semantic autobiographical information from previous lifetime periods in groups of cancer survivors with posttraumatic stress and healthy controls. The cancer survivors were able to generate fewer specific semantic details about the personal past compared to the controls. The more symptomatic survivors showed the greatest memory impairment. The data from both studies are discussed in terms of compromised access to specific autobiographical material in distressed trauma survivors reflecting a process of affect regulation.     

Reduced specificity of emotional autobiographical memories following self-regulation depletion

The present study used a Color Stroop task, involving naming the ink colors of incongruous color words, to deplete self-regulation resources prior to retrieving a series of autobiographical memories to emotional and neutral cue words--the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT). Control participants either read color words written in black ink or performed no task prior to the AMT. Difficulty accessing specific memories on the AMT has been shown to index key aspects of the onset and maintenance of depression and other emotional disorders. Our hypothesis that depleted participants would retrieve fewer specific memories to cues on the AMT relative to controls was supported, even when levels of depressed and anxious mood, an index of clinical depression, posttraumatic stress, and verbal intelligence were covaried. The results indicate that self-regulation depletion via a neutral, unrelated task can impact on emotion-related autobiographical memory processes that have been shown to be dysfunctional in emotionally disordered populations.     

Heartbeat perception in depression

Alterations in bodily awareness have been implicated in depression but there has been little detailed empirical characterisation of the degree and accuracy of body perception in the disorder. The present study examined the objective accuracy of heartbeat perception (using the Schandry mental tracking task) and the subjective degree of bodily focus (using the Bodily Consciousness Questionnaire; BCQ) in healthy control volunteers, a moderately depressed community sample, and a more severely depressed clinic sample (n=18 in each group). The community sample showed less accurate heartbeat perception than the control group as expected. Counter to prediction, however, the more severely depressed clinic sample performed better than the community depressed sample and equivalently to control volunteers on the Schandry task. There were no group differences on subjective bodily awareness. Implications for theories of depression are discussed.     

Levels of specificity of autobiographical memories and of biographical memories of the deceased in bereaved individuals with and without complicated grief

Traumatized individuals experiencing posttraumatic stress have difficulty retrieving specific autobiographical memories to cue words on the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986). This may represent a generalized, functional avoidance of the personal past. However, such individuals also often report specific intrusive memories of their trauma in the day-to-day. This raises the possibility that memories tied to the source of the person's distress are immune to this putative avoidance process. This was investigated in bereaved individuals with complicated grief (CG) who reported intrusive, specific memories from the life of their deceased loved one, and matched bereaved controls without CG. Participants performed the AMT and two Biographical Memory Tests (BMTs), cueing memories from the life of the deceased (BMT-Deceased) and from a living significant other (BMT-Living). To negative word cues, the CG group showed reduced specificity for the AMT and BMT-Living, relative to controls, but this effect was reversed on the BMT-Deceased. These data support the proposal that memories tied to the source of an individual's distress are immune to the processes that underlie the standard reduced specificity effect.     

The consequences of effortful emotion regulation when processing distressing material: A comparison of suppression and acceptance

The present study investigated the consequences of different forms of emotion regulation. Eighty nine healthy participants viewed a distressing video of the aftermath of road traffic accidents under either suppression (of both felt and expressed affect), acceptance, or no-regulation control instructions and the immediate and longer-term consequences on emotion, mood, and memory were examined. Suppression (relative to control) led to reduced subjective experience of fear when viewing the video, but did not alter electrodermal (EDA) or heart rate (HR) response. Subsequently, suppression led to a less marked subjective emotional reaction to positive but not negative emotional images, reduced free recall memory of the video, and a greater likelihood of experiencing zero intrusions of the video's content. Acceptance (relative to control) had no impact when viewing the video, was associated with a less marked increase in EDA activity in the 5 min period immediately after viewing the video, a more marked HR deceleration and EDA response to both positive and negative images, and elevated negative affect at one week follow-up. These findings suggest, contrary to the current clinical zeitgeist, that emotion suppression can successfully lead to an ongoing down-regulation of emotion and memory, whereas acceptance may elevate subsequent emotionality.     

Personality and Personal Projects: Linking Big Five and PAC Units of Analysis

This article examines the relationships between classical trait units as represented by the five-factor model (e.g., Digman, 1990) and personal action construct (PAC) units as measured by Personal Projects Analysis (Little, 1983). One hundred and forty-seven students were administered the NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985) and two components of Personal Projects methodology during their first term in university. Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were related to problematic and positive project systems, respectively, with these effects generalizing across the academic and interpersonal project domains. Extraversion and Agreeableness were also associated with positive evaluations of personal projects, particularly in the interpersonal domain. Openness was distinctively linked with project initiation and value congruency. We suggest theoretical and applied implications of using PAC methods to expand and refine the classical trait research agenda.