Satisfaction with therapist-delivered vs. self-administered online cognitive behavioural treatments for depression symptoms in college students

Participants with symptoms of depression received either eight sessions of therapist-delivered email cognitive behaviour therapy (eCBT; n=37), or eight sessions of computerised CBT self-administered treatment (cCBT; n=43). At post-treatment participants completed a questionnaire to determine what they found satisfying about their online treatment. Quantitative and qualitative analysis was employed to report outcomes. A sample of 25 participants(eCBT n=10; cCBT n=15) completed the satisfaction questionnaire. Both groups were satisfied with accessing and using an online treatment and that they had self-control over their treatment. Perceived anonymity was important for the eCBT group. For the cCBT group they found the treatment user-friendly, engaging and also a source of learning. Both groups disliked that the online treatment could at times be complicated and impersonal.     

A Gender-Fair Look at Variability in Creativity: Growth in Variability Over a Period Versus Gender Comparison at a Time Point

Using two normative datasets of the Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests (WKCT), variability in creativity was studied in terms of growth over a period and gender comparison at a time point. New indices were introduced to tap growth in variability for men and women and new results were obtained for the growth in variability of various creative abilities measured by the WKCT. It was found that both male variability and female variability increased with time in both verbal and figural fluency, flexibility, uniqueness, and unusualness. For gender comparison of variability at a time point, the widely accepted gender-difference variance ratio was employed. In line with previous cognitive-intellectual research findings, results of this study showed that the Greater Male Variability Hypothesis had supportive evidence from responses to figural stimuli but not responses to verbal stimuli of the WKCT. The findings and the advantages of the new indices were discussed.     

Test-Anxiety,inferential reasoning and working memory load

Abstract

Subjects high and low in test-anxiety were presented with an inferential reasoning task requiring the verification of necessary and unnecessary inferences. The task was performed whilst holding either two or six digits in memory. On the verification task, the performance of high-test-anxious subjects was slower and less accurate than that of the low-test-anxious subjects. In addition, unnecessary inferences took longer to process than necessary inferences for the high-test-anxiety group only. The high-test-anxious subjects studied the memory loads for longer than the low-test-anxious group, but their recognition accuracy did not differ. Findings support Eysenck and Calvo's (Cognition and Emotion, 6, 409–434, 1992) processing efficiency theory. The high-test-anxious group's performance on the sentence verification task was impaired overall, and was particularly impaired when performing the unnecessary inference task. However, we also demonstrated that the high-test-anxious group's performance on a secondary memory task was unimpaired as a result of increased effort.     

Book review

Voluntary or involuntary migration and international work patterns have made it necessary for many people to adopt a new country and with it, a new language. Some of these latter-acquisition proficient bilinguals may seek therapy in this country. A small scale qualitative study was conducted, informed by a constructionist epistemology, in order to explore the meanings that participants gave to their experience of working in English with a client or patient who used English, proficiently, as a second language. Interviews were conducted with 10 therapists who had been contacted through counselling and psychotherapy organizations, and professional networks. Results indicated that participants experienced varying degrees of separation and distance from their bilingual clients. They found it necessary to pay extra attention to their clients' communications on all levels in order to make a good connection. An awareness of the underlying psychodynamic implications of bilingualism is helpful for the assessment of bilingual clients, in supervision and training, and in the ongoing work.     

Brief dynamic counselling: Making the right choice

Abstract

Brief dynamic counselling has become a frequently practised method of treatment. This paper examines the usefulness of short-term therapy for certain clients and describes the relevant selection criteria. However, it is argued that there exists a real danger to the client should they be inappropriately referred for this work. Demands upon therapy services often mean that therapists are under pressure to have a rapid ‘through-put’ of clients. This may lead to some clients being treated in a way that is unsuitable and inadequate for their needs. It is suggested that, more than being inadequate, such a situation could cause additional harm to the client. Professional assessment is considered to be of vital importance. Case material is included in order to illustrate the difference between clients who are likely to benefit from short-term counselling work and those for whom the longer time duration is an essential part of the therapeutic relationship and process. In terms of therapy service provision, the need for flexibility and the need for availability of a variety of treatments are discussed.     

Perceptions of Submissiveness: Implications for Victimization

Some researchers have suggested that a precondition of affective submissiveness may increase the likelihood of female victimization in sexual assault, whereas others have suggested that criminal offenders use perceptions of vulnerability when selecting a victim. In this study, based on American college students, men (decoders) rated videotaped women (encoders) dominant versus submissive using a semantic differential instrument. Cue evaluators analyzed the body language and appearance of the videotaped women using a Likert instrument. The results suggest that (a) men form differentiated perceptions of dominant versus submissive women, (b) such perceptions substantially rely on nonverbal cues, (c) dominant and submissive women display visually different behaviors and appearances, and (d) men tend to select submissive females for exploitation.     

Optimism in close relationships: How seeing things in a positive light makes them so

Does expecting positive outcomes--especially in important life domains such as relationships--make these positive outcomes more likely? In a longitudinal study of dating couples, the authors tested whether optimists (who have a cognitive disposition to expect positive outcomes) and their romantic partners are more satisfied in their relationships, and if so, whether this is due to optimists perceiving greater support from their partners. In cross-sectional analyses, both optimists and their partners indicated greater relationship satisfaction, an effect that was mediated by optimists' greater perceived support. When the couples engaged in a conflict conversation, optimists and their partners saw each other as engaging more constructively during the conflict, which in turn led both partners to feel that the conflict was better resolved 1 week later. In a 1-year follow-up, men's optimism predicted relationship status. Effects of optimism were mediated by the optimists' perceived support, which appears to promote a variety of beneficial processes in romantic relationships.     

Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)

The present study (N = 86) sought to evaluate a laboratory-based behavioral measure of risk taking (the Balloon Analogue Risk Task; BART) and to test associations between this measure and self-report measures of risk-related constructs as well as self-reported real-world risk behaviors. The BART evidenced sound experimental properties, and riskiness on the BART was correlated with scores on measures of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and deficiencies in behavioral constraint. Also, riskiness on the BART was correlated with the self-reported occurrence of addictive, health, and safety risk behaviors, with the task accounting for variance in these behaviors beyond that accounted for by demographics and self-report measures of risk-related constructs. These results indicate that the BART may be a useful tool in the assessment of risk taking.     

Expressed emotion attitudes and individual psychopathology among the relatives of bipolar patients

This study investigated the relationships between expressed emotion (EE) and individual psychopathology among 82 biological and non-biological relatives of 66 patients with bipolar I disorder. Relatives' psychopathology was assessed via the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, Patient Version (SCID-P) and the General Behavior Inventory (GBI), a self-report measure of lifetime subsyndromal mood disturbances. We hypothesized that relatives who held high-EE critical, hostile, and/or overinvolved attitudes toward their bipolar family member, as measured via the Camberwell Family Interview, would be more likely to have DSM-III-R Axis I diagnoses on the SCID, as well as more mood and temperamental disturbances on the GBI, than those who held low-EE attitudes. The findings did not support a significant relationship between overall EE status and psychopathology in family members. However, relatives without significant Axis I pathology scored significantly higher than those with Axis I pathology on one measure of EE, emotional overinvolvement. The findings are discussed with reference to explanations for the genesis of high-EE attitudes.