Post-event rumination and negative self-appraisal in social phobia before and after treatment

This study investigated the relationship between self-appraisals of performance, symptom severity and post-event rumination in social phobia, and evaluated the effect of treatment on these variables. A socially phobic group and a nonanxious control group performed an impromptu speech and were told that their performance would be evaluated. Participants appraised their performance immediately after the speech and 1 week later, and the frequency of post-event rumination during the week following the speech was assessed. The socially phobic group maintained the negative appraisals of their speech over the week, whereas the nonclinical group showed increased positivity about their performance The socially phobic group also engaged in more negative rumination than controls. Treatment improved perceptions of performance and reduced negative rumination. These results are discussed in the light of cognitive models of social phobia.     

Choice with initial and terminal link reinforcement: an alternative self-control paradigm

Self-control is demonstrated when a less desirable immediate outcome is chosen to ensure a substantially better future. In a novel animal analogue of this situation, primary reinforcement was delivered in both the initial and terminal links of a concurrent chain schedule. Rats made initial link choices between equal amounts of ethanol-free or ethanol-containing milk. Choosing the ethanol-free reinforcer resulted in delivery of the larger terminal link reinforcer and was thus analogous to self-control. Self-control decreased as the delay between initial and terminal links increased. The results have implications for human choice situations where decisions are made between two immediately available reinforcement alternatives each associated with a different delayed outcome.     

Imagination inflation is a fact, not an artifact: A reply to Pezdek and Eddy

Pezdek and Eddy (2001) claim to prove that imagination inflation is a spurious effect caused by regression to the mean (RTM). They make four predictions about what patterns of data would demonstrate a genuine effect for imagination versus those that would be explainable by RTM. We review each of those predictions, and demonstrate significant problems with them. We conclude that imagination inflation is a genuine effect, and that Pezdek and Eddy’s work has contributed to the growing research showing that when people imagine fictitious events from long ago, they become more confident that those false events were genuine experiences.     

Set-size and Frequency-of-occurrence Judgements in Young and Older Adults: The Role of the Availability Heuristic

Two experiments examined the cognitive processes underlying judgements of set size and judgements of frequency of occurrence in young (Experiments 1 and 2) and older (Experiment 2) adults. Previous research has implicated the availability heuristic in set-size judgements, whereas an automatic processing mechanism has been implicated in judgements of frequency of occurrence. In the current experiments, path analysis was employed to investigate the role of an availability bias in performance on the judgement tasks. In Experiments 1 and 2, both types of judgement were influenced by repetition frequency of words independent of the availability (recall) of specific exemplars. Experiment 2 extended the investigation to include age differences. Although older adults' recall performance was poorer overall, the availability bias was age invariant, and there were no age differences in either set-size or frequency-of-occurrence judgements. Our results indicate that both set-size and frequency-of-occurrence judgements are independent of the availability bias evident in recall, and they support the notion that an automatic processing mechanism underlies both types of judgement.     

Career construction counseling: A thematic analysis of outcomes for four clients

Thematic analysis was used in this study of career construction counseling with four diverse, purposively-selected participants. After the intervention, the participants who sought and received career construction counseling were interviewed to determine their experience of the intervention. The results showed the value of career construction counseling in bringing about change in the participants' career-life stories.     

Self-perception and rumination in social anxiety

The present study examined the relationship between perceptions of performance and post-event processing (PEP) following task feedback in individuals with social phobia and matched control participants. Groups of high and low socially anxious participants engaged in a structured 5-min conversation in groups of four people. Following the conversation, false feedback (given in the form of either high scores or moderate scores) was given and self-appraisals of performance, levels of positive and negative mood, and levels of PEP were assessed. Results showed that participants' perceptions of their own performance and levels of positive affect significantly predicted the degree to which they engaged in negative rumination about the task. The moderate score condition was found to be detrimental for socially anxious individuals' self-appraisals and PEP, whereas controls showed no significant difference in self-appraisal and PEP, regardless of feedback. The results are discussed in relation to current cognitive models of social phobia and both treatment implications and directions for future research are explored.     

The Impact of Life Design Counselling on Adolescents

This study records a process of heightening self-awareness within a semi-structured ‘life design counselling’ process. The research was conducted on the basis of a case study designed to facilitate co-constructive conversation with a purposefully selected youth. The participant was enabled to reconstruct a preferred and meaningful future that could change as different experiences, challenges and needs arose. The study suggested that the postmodern techniques that were implemented enhanced the involvement of the participant in the study. The participant revealed heightened self-insight into his personal experiences, a ‘changed’ attitude to certain aspects of his life context and pro-active behaviour with regard to the challenges he was facing. We (the researchers) concluded that life design counselling could be a promising strategy that could have a lasting effect on adolescents.     

A Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of Trait Cognitive Self-Report Measures in Social Anxiety

Cognitive factors, including beliefs, thoughts and assumptions have been found to play an important role in the development and maintenance of Social Anxiety Disorder. Trait cognitive self-report measures of social anxiety are widely used in research and clinical settings. It is imperative that only measures with good psychometric properties are used in order to interpret assessment scores accurately, and to make valid and reliable conclusions. The present systematic review evaluated the psychometric properties of trait cognitive self-report measures of social anxiety. Relevant studies were identified via a comprehensive and systematic search of academic databases. The reported psychometric properties of included studies were analysed by applying an appraisal of adequacy tool developed by Terwee et al. (2007). Of the 3091 studies identified, 50 studies met the inclusion criteria, and they included 21 measures. Included studies demonstrated that a number of measures had some adequate psychometric properties, however, no measure fulfilled criteria for all psychometric properties according to the appraisal tool. Findings highlight the need to further establish the psychometric properties of cognitive self-report measures of social anxiety in clinical and research settings through additional empirical studies.