Pain anxiety, acceptance, and outcomes among individuals with HIV and chronic pain: a preliminary investigation

The current study investigated the role of during treatment changes in pain anxiety in the relation between during treatment changes in pain acceptance and chronic pain outcomes. Participants included 45 (15 women) adults (M_age = 50.42, SD = 7.69) who were HIV positive and experienced chronic pain. They were offered 12 weekly, 90-min group CBT sessions to increase understanding about chronic pain and to improve coping skills. Four hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the mediating role of treatment changes in pain anxiety in the relation between treatment changes in pain acceptance and chronic pain outcomes. Results suggest that increases in pain acceptance during treatment were associated with decreased levels of pain anxiety during treatment, as well as decreases in pain-related impairment at treatment completion. Furthermore, decreases in pain anxiety during treatment were associated with decreases in pain-related impairment at treatment completion. Finally, treatment changes in pain anxiety were found to partially mediate the association between treatment changes in pain acceptance and pain-related impairment at treatment completion. Results are discussed within the context of better understanding the processes of change within a CBT model for chronic pain patients.     

A longitudinal test of the bi-directional relations between avoidance coping and PTSD severity during and after PTSD treatment

Avoidance coping and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) covary. However, relatively little research has examined the bi-directional relation between these constructs among individuals in treatment for PTSD. The current longitudinal study examined the reciprocal associations between avoidance coping and PTSD symptom severity during and after residential PTSD treatment among a sample of 1073 military veterans (88.9% male; M_age = 52.39 years) with chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD. Greater avoidance coping at intake predicted more severe PTSD symptoms at discharge, and severity of PTSD symptoms at discharge predicted increased avoidance at follow-up. Conversely, PTSD symptom severity at intake was not related to avoidance coping at discharge, and in turn avoidance coping at discharge was not related to PTSD symptom severity at follow-up. These findings offer a number of important clinical implications including evidence suggesting avoidance may predict poorer treatment response among individuals seeking treatment for chronic PTSD, and that greater end-of-treatment PTSD symptom severity may predict increased avoidance following treatment.     

An fMRI investigation of analogical mapping in metaphor comprehension: the influence of context and individual cognitive capacities on processing demands

This study used fMRI to investigate the neural correlates of analogical mapping during metaphor comprehension, with a focus on dynamic configuration of neural networks with changing processing demands and individual abilities. Participants with varying vocabulary sizes and working memory capacities read 3-sentence passages ending in nominal critical utterances of the form "X is a Y." Processing demands were manipulated by varying preceding contexts. Three figurative conditions manipulated difficulty by varying the extent to which preceding contexts mentioned relevant semantic features for relating the vehicle and topic of the critical utterance to one another. In the easy condition, supporting information was mentioned. In the neutral condition, no relevant information was mentioned. In the most difficult condition, opposite features were mentioned, resulting in an ironic interpretation of the critical utterance. A fourth, literal condition included context that supported a literal interpretation of the critical utterance. Activation in lateral and medial frontal regions increased with increasing contextual difficulty. Lower vocabulary readers also had greater activation across conditions in the right inferior frontal gyrus. In addition, volumetric analyses showed increased right temporo-parietal junction and superior medial frontal activation for all figurative conditions over the literal condition. The results from this experiment imply that the cortical regions are dynamically recruited in language comprehension as a function of the processing demands of a task. Individual differences in cognitive capacities were also associated with differences in recruitment and modulation of working memory and executive function regions, highlighting the overlapping computations in metaphor comprehension and general thinking and reasoning.     

When Thinking About Work Makes Employees Reach for Their Devices: A Longitudinal Autoregressive Diary Study

Based on the stressor-detachment model, previous research has assumed that work-related ICT use in the evening impairs psychological detachment. However, since most of the studies to date have assessed cross-sectional relationships, little is known about the actual direction of effects. In this 5-day diary study, we implemented a day-level longitudinal model to shed light on the causal relationships between work-related ICT use, detachment, and task progress (N?=?340 employees, N?=?1289 day-level cases). We also investigated the role of unfinished work tasks because we assumed, based on boundary theory, that they are a driving force leading to impaired detachment and work-related ICT use in the evening. Contrary to current research consensus but in line with our expectations, we found that low psychological detachment increased work-related ICT use and task progress. We found no evidence for reversed lagged effects. These results applied both to planned and unplanned ICT use. Furthermore, our results support the notion that unfinished work tasks precede ICT use and detachment. Thus, our findings suggest that work-related ICT use should not be treated as a stressor in its own right in the stressor-detachment model. Instead, it needs to be investigated as a behavioral outcome that employees engage in when they cannot detach from work.

     

The Structure of Parental Bonding in South African Students

The Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI: Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979) offers a practical way of conceptualizing parental experiences. In the present study, PBI scores of 522 students from a South African university were factor analyzed, yielding a three-factor structure for the maternal-PBI subscale. However, the paternal-PBI data were interpretable only for a four-factor solution. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted and Kendler's (1996) three-factor model offered the best-fit to the maternal-PBI data. The regression analyses on depression versus PBI factors of warmth, protectiveness and authoritarianism showed that higher parenting-style scores of maternal authoritarianism and paternal warmth increased the subjective experience of depression, and paternal protectiveness predicted a decrease of depression reports.     

A functionalist account of shame-induced behaviour

Recent research has shown that shame activates both a restore and a protect motive (De Hooge, Zeelenberg, & Breugelmans, 2010), explaining the hitherto unexpected finding that shame can lead to both approach and avoidance behaviours. In the present article we show a clear difference in priority and development of restore and protect motives over time. Our experiment reveals that shame mainly motivates approach behaviour to restore the damaged self, but that this restore motive decreases when situational factors make it too risky or difficult to restore. In contrast, the motive to protect one's damaged self from further harm is not influenced by such situational factors. As a consequence, the approach behaviour that shame activates may change over time. These findings add to our understanding of the motivational processes and behaviours following from shame.     

Vicarious shame

We examined an account of vicarious shame that explains how people can experience a self-conscious emotion for the behaviour of another person. Two divergent processes have been put forward to explain how another's behaviour links to the self. The group-based emotion account explains vicarious shame in terms of an in-group member threatening one's social identity by behaving shamefully. The empathy account explains vicarious shame in terms of empathic perspective taking; people imagine themselves in another's shameful behaviour. In three studies using autobiographical recall and experimental inductions, we revealed that both processes can explain why vicarious shame arises in different situations, what variation can be observed in the experience of vicarious shame, and how all vicarious shame can be related to a threat to the self. Results are integrated in a functional account of shame.     

The 1-2-3 Magic Program: Implementation Outcomes of an Australian Pilot Evaluation With School-Aged Children

No abstract available for this article.     

Associations Between Participant Ratings of PREP for Strong Bonds and Marital Outcomes 1 Year Postintervention

After completing a relationship education program, collecting participant evaluations of the program is common practice. These are generally used as an index of “consumer satisfaction” with the program, with implications for feasibility and quality. Rarely have these ratings been used as predictors of changes in marital quality, although such feedback may be the only data providers collect or have immediate access to when considering the success of their efforts. To better understand the utility of such ratings to predict outcomes, we evaluated links between participant ratings and changes in self-reported marital satisfaction and communication scores 1 year later for a sample of 191 Army couples who had participated in a relationship education program delivered by Army chaplains (PREP for Strong Bonds). Overall ratings of general satisfaction with the program and the leader did not predict changes in marital outcomes 1 year later, whereas higher ratings of how much was learned, program helpfulness, increased similarity in outlook regarding Army life, and helpfulness of communication skills training predicted greater change in communication skills 1 year later. Higher ratings of items reflecting intent to invest more time in the relationship, and increased confidence in constructive communication and working as a team with the spouse predicted greater increases in both marital satisfaction and communication skills 1 year later. The constructs of intention and confidence (akin to perceived behavioral control) suggest that the Theory of Planned Behavior may be particularly useful when considering which Army couples will show ongoing benefit after relationship education.