An extrapolation of the physical attractiveness and sex variables within the Byrne attraction paradigm

Memory & Cognition - Twenty male and 20 female volunteer general psychology students were assigned to one of four treatment conditions in a totally randomized 2 by 2 ANOVA to test the...     

Islamic Trauma Healing: Integrating Faith and Empirically Supported Principles in a Community-Based Program

Access to adequate, much less state-of-the-art, mental health care is a global problem. Natural disasters, civil war, and terrorist conflict have forcibly displaced millions of Muslims and have resulted in a remarkable level of individual and communitywide trauma exposure. As a result, many are at risk for posttraumatic stress and other trauma-related disorders. Many religiously oriented Muslims traditionally rely on Islamic principles and teachings, as well as their community, to cope with and address trauma-related distress. Islamic Trauma Healing is a six-session, lay-led group intervention developed within a Somali Muslim community that integrates evidence-based trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy principles with cultural and religious practices aimed to enhance uptake and create an easily up-scalable intervention for a wide range of trauma. In sessions, narratives of prophets who have undergone trauma (e.g., Prophet Ayyub, faith during hard times) present Islamic principles and facilitate cognitive shifts. Group members spend individual time turning to Allah in dua (i.e., informal prayer), focused on exposure to trauma memories. Program themes arc across suffering to healing to growth following trauma. This paper describes the core theoretical principles and methods in the Islamic Trauma Healing program. We also describe leader perspectives and the program’s train-the-trainer model, in which lay leaders are trained to further disseminate the program and allow Islamic Trauma Healing to be owned and sustained by the Muslim community.     

Investigating Friendship Difficulties in the Pathway from ADHD to Depressive Symptoms. Can Parent–Child Relationships Compensate?

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with friendship difficulties. This may partly account for the increasingly recognised association between ADHD and subsequent depression. Little is known about the types of friendship difficulties that could contribute to the association between ADHD and depressive symptoms and whether other relationships, such as parent–child relationships, can mitigate against potential adverse effects of friendship difficulties. In a representative UK school sample (n?=?1712), three main features of friendship (presence of friends, friendship quality and characteristics of the individual’s classroom friendship group) were assessed in a longitudinal study with two assessment waves (W1, W2) during the first year of secondary school (children aged 11-12 years). These friendship features (W1) were investigated as potential mediators of the prospective association between teacher-rated ADHD symptoms (W1) and self-rated depressive symptoms (W2) seven months later. Parent–child relationship quality (W1) was tested as a moderator of any indirect effects of ADHD on depression via friendship. ADHD symptoms were inversely associated with friendship presence, friendship quality and positive characteristics of classroom friendship groups. Depressive symptoms were inversely associated with presence and quality of friendships. Friendship quality had indirect effects in the association between ADHD and subsequent depressive symptoms. There was some evidence of moderated mediation, whereby indirect effects via friendship quality attenuated slightly as children reported warmer parent–child relationships. This highlights the importance of considering the quality of friendships and parent–child relationships in children with ADHD symptoms. Fostering good quality relationships may help disrupt the link between ADHD symptomology and subsequent depression risk.

     

Latent Profiles of Comorbid Depression as Predictors of PTSD Treatment Outcome

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently co-occurs with major depressive disorder, and empirically supported PTSD treatments consistently improve depression. However, both diagnoses are heterogeneous and specific patterns of symptom overlap may be related to worse treatment outcome. Two hundred individuals with chronic PTSD participated in a doubly randomized preference trial comparing prolonged exposure and sertraline. Latent Profile Analysis was used to identify classes based on PTSD and depression symptoms prior to starting treatment. A three-class model best fit the data, with a high depression and PTSD severity class (distressed), a moderate depression and low PTSD avoidance class (depressive), and a low depression and high PTSD avoidance class (avoidant). The avoidant class showed the lowest rates of major depressive disorder diagnosis and transdiagnostic vulnerabilities to depression. Patients in the distressed class experienced more robust PTSD treatment response, with no differences between prolonged exposure and sertraline. These findings highlight the role of avoidance in nondepressed PTSD presentations while also demonstrating that co-occurring depression is not contraindicated in evidence-based PTSD treatment.     

Characteristics and Components of the TADS CBT Approach

In this paper, we describe the Acute phase of a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) developed for and utilized in the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS). The Acute phase of TADS CBT consists of eight skills that were considered essential to any CBT intervention for adolescent depression (e.g., mood monitoring, increasing pleasant activities, identifying cognitive distortions and developing realistic counter-thoughts). In addition, five optional individual CBT skills (e.g., relaxation, affect regulation) can be incorporated into treatment, depending on the needs of the adolescent. We describe each of these individual skills by reviewing the rationale for their inclusion in the treatment protocol and describing the format that is used to teach the skill area. Recommendations are provided for dealing with common challenges that can occur in the teaching of each skill module. It is our hope that clinicians will find this a useful introduction to this particular form of treatment and a practical guide to dealing with clinical problems common to the delivery of any cognitive behavioral intervention with depressed teens.     

Counselling, careers education and pastoral care: Beyond the National Curriculum

The National Curriculum and other recent educational reforms in the UK have had the effect of compartmentalising children's education into the measurable—usually the academic—and of undervaluing its socio-emotional aspects. A symposium presenting different views of the implications of these reforms is introduced. A plea is made for all professionals involved in education to move from a reductionist view to one which truly enhances the whole child.     

"I need to talk about it": a qualitative analysis of trauma-exposed women's reasons for treatment choice

A significant proportion of individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder do not seek or receive effective treatment. Understanding the reasons why an individual chooses to seek treatment or prefers one treatment to another is a critical step to improve treatment seeking. To begin to understand these reasons, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the reasons women gave for choosing a cognitive-behavioral treatment, prolonged exposure (PE), or a pharmacological treatment, sertraline (SER). A community sample of women with trauma histories were asked to view standardized rationales, to choose among PE, SER, or no treatment, and to give 5 reasons for their choice. Women indicated that they were more likely to prefer the psychotherapy to the medication. Across reasons given, the most commonly cited reason for treatment preference highlighted why or how the treatment worked (e.g., I need to talk about it); and this reason emerged as the strongest predictor of preference for PE. Understanding this role of perceived treatment mechanism may aid clinicians and public health policy officials to identify and address help-seeking barriers regarding treatment.     

Treatment choice for PTSD

The impetus for seeking help for assault-related difficulties often rests upon the victims themselves. Yet, we know very little about what factors influence a woman's decision to seek a particular kind of help after an assault. To learn more about these factors, data from 273 women with varying degrees of trauma history and subsequent PTSD symptoms were collected. All participants read a standard, "if this happened to you, what would you do" scenario describing a traumatic event and subsequent trauma-related psychiatric symptoms. Participants were given the same trauma scenario (i.e., sexual assault) and three treatment options to choose from: sertraline (SER), prolonged exposure (PE), or no treatment. Ratings of treatment credibility, personal reactions to treatment options, and treatment choice were examined. Women were more likely to choose PE than SER for the treatment of chronic PTSD. Perceived credibility of the treatment and personal reactions coincided with women's choices. By better understanding who would choose which treatments for PTSD and why, we will improve our ability to tailor how we approach discussing treatment options with these women.