Extreme Response Style and the Measurement of Intra-Individual Variability in Affect

Extreme response style (ERS) has the potential to bias the measurement of intra-individual variability in psychological constructs. This paper explores such bias through a multilevel extension of a latent trait model for modeling response styles applied to repeated measures rating scale data. Modeling responses to multi-item scales of positive and negative affect collected from smokers at clinic visits following a smoking cessation attempt revealed considerable ERS bias in the intra-individual sum score variances. In addition, simulation studies suggest the magnitude and direction of bias due to ERS is heavily dependent on the mean affect level, supporting a model-based approach to the study and control of ERS effects. Application of the proposed model-based adjustment is found to improve intra-individual variability as a predictor of smoking cessation.     

Individual Personality and Emotional Readiness Characteristics Associated with Marriage Preparation Outcomes of Perceived Helpfulness and Change

Little is known about the characteristics of individual participants for whom particular marriage preparation interventions are most helpful and change producing. Data collected from 1,655 intervention participants via the online RELATionship Evaluation Questionnaire (RELATE) were used to analyze the association of eight individual personality characteristics with perceived helpfulness and positive change resulting from participation in four marriage preparation interventions (classes, community workshops, premarital counseling, self-directed) and whether this association would also be related to gender, age, and education of the participants. General linear modeling (GLM) analysis revealed different patterns of prediction for each type of intervention. Kindness was identified most often, predicting perceived change in individual, couple, and context areas among community workshop participants, perceived couple-level change, and helpfulness among self-directed participants, and perceived individual-level change among class participants. No factors significantly predicted perceived helpfulness and change among premarital counseling participants. Implications for premarital interventions are discussed.     

The effects of a wisdom intervention in a Christian congregation*

Psychological research on the topic of wisdom is limited in its incorporation of religion and spirituality. This gap in psychological literature may serve to limit a thorough understanding of wisdom. Positive psychology may allow for some rapprochement in wisdom and spirituality. In collaboration with leaders of a local Friends (Quaker) congregation, two studies investigated the effects of a spiritually informed wisdom intervention delivered in the context of a faith community. Participants for Study 1 consisted of 27 young adults (24 completed both the pre and post questionnaire) and a comparison group consisting of 32 young adults. The intervention was designed to increase participants’ abilities in cognitive, affective and moral domains. Significant group by time interaction effects were found among measurements of practical wisdom, post-formal thinking and subjective well-being, with those in the experimental group showing changes in the expected direction. Study 2 involved qualitative analyses of interviews with 15 of the wisdom participants regarding their changing views of wisdom. Themes emerging from the interviews included a multiple-perspectives view of wisdom, the relational nature of learning wisdom, the importance of taking a reflective perspective, and congruence between what one knows and how one lives. Implications for studying wisdom alongside religion and spirituality are considered.     

Anxiety,depression, and the suicidal spectrum: a latent class analysis of overlapping and distinctive features

ABSTRACT

Anxiety and depression diagnoses are associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. However, a categorical understanding of these associations limits insight into identifying dimensional mechanisms of suicide risk. This study investigated anxious and depressive features through a lens of suicide risk, independent of diagnosis. Latent class analysis of 97 depression, anxiety, and suicidality-related items among 616 psychiatric outpatients indicated a 3-class solution, specifically: (1) a higher suicide-risk class uniquely differentiated from both other classes by high reported levels of depression and anxious arousal; (2) a lower suicide-risk class that reported levels of anxiety sensitivity and generalised worry comparable to Class 1, but lower levels of depression and anxious arousal; and (3) a low to non-suicidal class that reported relatively low levels across all depression and anxiety measures. Discriminants of the higher suicide-risk class included borderline personality disorder; report of worthlessness, crying, and sadness; higher levels of anxious arousal and negative affect; and lower levels of positive affect. Depression and anxiety diagnoses were not discriminant between higher and lower suicide risk classes. This transdiagnostic and dimensional approach to understanding the suicidal spectrum contrasts with treating it as a depressive symptom, and illustrates the advantages of a tripartite model for conceptualising suicide risk.     

Movement of Genetic Counselors from Clinical to Non-clinical Positions: Identifying Driving Forces

A previous study of genetic counselors (GCs) in the state of Indiana identified movement out of clinical positions within the past 2 years. The aims of this study were to determine if this trend is nationwide and identify reasons why GCs are leaving their positions and factors that might help employers attract and retain GCs. An email was sent to members of the American Board of Genetic Counseling with a link to an online confidential survey. There were 939 responses (23.5% response rate). Overall, 52% of GCs report being highly satisfied in their current position, although almost two thirds think about leaving and one third had changed jobs within the past 2 years. Of those who had changed jobs (n =?295), 74.9% had been working in a hospital/clinic setting but only 46.3% currently do, demonstrating a major shift out of the clinic (p <?0.001). The top three reasons cited for leaving a position were work environment/institutional climate, salary/benefits, and a lack of feeling valued/recognized as a professional. These results confirm that GCs are moving out of clinical positions and document elements of job satisfaction. We suggest points for employers to consider when trying to recruit or retain GCs.     

Review and Comparison of Electronic Patient-Facing Family Health History Tools

Family health history (FHx) is one of the most important pieces of information available to help genetic counselors and other clinicians identify risk and prevent disease. Unfortunately, the collection of FHx from patients is often too time consuming to be done during a clinical visit. Fortunately, there are many electronic FHx tools designed to help patients gather and organize their own FHx information prior to a clinic visit. We conducted a review and analysis of electronic FHx tools to better understand what tools are available, to compare and contrast to each other, to highlight features of various tools, and to provide a foundation for future evaluation and comparisons across FHx tools. Through our analysis, we included and abstracted 17 patient-facing electronic FHx tools and explored these tools around four axes: organization information, family history collection and display, clinical data collected, and clinical workflow integration. We found a large number of differences among FHx tools, with no two the same. This paper provides a useful review for health care providers, researchers, and patient advocates interested in understanding the differences among the available patient-facing electronic FHx tools.     

Behavioral contrast: Research and areas for investigation

Behavioral contrast occurs when a change in reinforcement rate in one context results in a change in behavior in the opposite direction in an unchanged context. Despite decades of study by basic researchers, behavioral contrast has remained largely an unstudied phenomenon among applied researchers. The purpose of this paper is to occasion translational and applied research on behavioral contrast with the aim of predicting and controlling socially significant behavior in unchanged contexts. We present a brief history of contrast and related definitions, review research with human and nonhuman subjects, and suggest future directions for applied and translational researchers.     

COVID-19 Impact Battery: Development and Validation

In addition to impacting the physical health of millions of Americans, the novel-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is a significant psychological stressor due to both the threat of the illness itself and the mitigation strategies used to contain the spread. To facilitate understanding of the impact of COVID-19, validated measures are needed. Using a stepwise procedure in line with best-practice measurement procedures, the current report summarizes the procedures employed to create the COVID-19 Impact Battery (CIB). Two independent samples recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk (N?=?175, N?=?642) and a third community sample (N?=?259) were used for reliability and validity testing. Validation procedures yielded a battery consisting of three scales assessing COVID-19 related behaviors, worry, and disability. The behaviors scale contains three subscales assessing stockpiling, cleaning, and avoidance. The worry subscale also contains three subscales assessing health, financial and catastrophic concerns. In addition, we created a short version of the battery (CIB-S) to allow for more flexibility in data collection. In summary, we have provided reliability and validity information for the CIB and CIB-S, demonstrating that these measures can facilitate evaluation of the broad impact of COVID-19 on mental health functioning.