Assumptive Worldviews and Religious Coping With Bereavement and Type 2 Diabetes

This study explored the effects of deferring and self-directed religious coping on the assumptive worldviews of women following the death of a child, the death of another friend or family member, or diagnosis with type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 284). Participants completed the World Assumptions Scale (Janoff-Bulman, 1989 Janoff-Bulman, R. 1989. Assumptive worlds and the stress of traumatic events: Application of the schema construct. Social Cognition, 7: 113–136. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the Religious Problem-Solving Scales (Pargament et al., 1988 Pargament, K. I., Kennell, J., Hathaway, W., Grevengoed, N., Newman, J. and Jones, W. 1988. Religion and the problem-solving process: Three styles of coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 27: 90–104. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and the Deistic and Supportive but Nonintervening God Scale (Phillips, Pargament, Quinten, & Crossley, 2004 Phillips, R. E., Pargament, K. I., Quinten, K. L. and Crossley, C. 2004. Self-directing religious coping: A deistic God, abandoning God, or no God at all?. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43: 409–418. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Women who had lost a child saw the world as least meaningful, followed by women otherwise bereaved, followed by women diagnosed with diabetes. Different religious coping styles offered different advantages in coping with these stressors. Across groups, deferring coping was associated with greater world meaning, whereas self-directed coping was associated with greater self-worth. The findings are discussed in the context of previous research finding inconsistent relationships between deferring and self-directed religious coping styles and adjustment.     

Children's Anticipated Responses to Hypothetical Peers With Undesirable Characteristics: Role of Peers' Desire to Change,Effort to Change,and Outcome

The authors explored the extent to which 5th- and 6th-grade students’ anticipated responses to hypothetical peers with undesirable characteristics (e.g., being overweight) are influenced by information that each peer (a) desired (or did not desire) to change the characteristic, (b) exerted effort (or did not exert effort) to change the characteristic, and (c) was successful (or unsuccessful) in changing the characteristic. In general, the children anticipated responding more favorably to peers who were successful in overcoming an undesirable characteristic than those who were unsuccessful. However, across both outcome conditions, peers who wanted to change and exerted effort to change were rated more favorably than were peers who reported no effort to change an undesirable characteristic, regardless of whether or not they had expressed a desire to change that characteristic. For peers whose failure to change an undesirable characteristic was associated with no effort to change, those who expressed a desire to change were rated more favorably than those who expressed no desire to change.     

Family Relationships,Leaving Home,and Adjustment to Military Service

Associations between family relationships and individual adjustment were studied within a sample of 19-year-old soldiers during their first weeks of basic training. Results showed that family relationships partly explained soldiers' closeness to best friends, number of social nominations, and commanders' ratings of soldiers' military and social competence. In addition, family relations explained soldiers' perceived social competence as assessed via closeness to best friends and number of sociometric nominations. Together, the results reiterate the role played by the family and attitudes toward offspring leaving home and toward their adjustment to military service.     

Does perceived ability to deceive = ability to deceive? Predictive validity of the perceived ability to deceive (PATD) scale

This research investigated whether the perceived ability to deceive (PATD) scale predicts ability to deceive in a vocational testing context. Using a quasi-experimental design, participants (N = 85 student and community members) completed the PATD scale and a personality measure under standard instructions before being asked to fake the personality measure as if they were applying for a job in the police force. Based on extant research, successful faking was operationalised as elevated scores on conscientiousness and extraversion and reduced scores on neuroticism. Analysis via independent t-test did not support the hypothesis that PATD predicts faking success. Future research should consider the relationship between PATD and intention to fake, as well as extend examination of PATD to other deception-related contexts.     

Implementation of Cognitive Therapy for PTSD in routine clinical care: Effectiveness and moderators of outcome in a consecutive sample

ObjectiveTrauma-focused psychological treatments are recommended as first-line treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but clinicians may be concerned that the good outcomes observed in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) may not generalize to the wide range of traumas and presentations seen in clinical practice. This study investigated whether Cognitive Therapy for PTSD (CT-PTSD) can be effectively implemented into a UK National Health Service Outpatient Clinic serving a defined ethnically mixed urban catchment area.MethodA consecutive sample of 330 patients with PTSD (age 17–83) following a wide range of traumas were treated by 34 therapists, who received training and supervision in CT-PTSD. Pre and post treatment data (PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression) were collected for all patients, including dropouts. Hierarchical linear modeling investigated candidate moderators of outcome and therapist effects.ResultsCT-PTSD was well tolerated and led to very large improvement in PTSD symptoms, depression and anxiety. The majority of patients showed reliable improvement/clinically significant change: intent-to-treat: 78.8%/57.3%; completer: 84.5%/65.1%. Dropouts and unreliable attenders had worse outcome. Statistically reliable symptom exacerbation with treatment was observed in only 1.2% of patients. Treatment gains were maintained during follow-up (M = 280 days, n = 220). Few of the selection criteria used in some RCTs, demographic, diagnostic and trauma characteristics moderated treatment outcome, and only social problems and needing treatment for multiple traumas showed unique moderation effects. There were no random effects of therapist on symptom improvement, but therapists who were inexperienced in CT-PTSD had more dropouts than those with greater experience.ConclusionsThe results support the effectiveness of CT-PTSD and suggest that trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy can be successfully implemented in routine clinical services treating patients with a wide range of traumas.     

Coping With Losses and Past Trauma In Old Age: The Separation-Individuation Perspective

Abstract

Old age is a stage in life in which numerous changes associated with loss can be expected to occur in major life domains. Deterioration of health; retirement; relocation; occupational and financial loss; loss of social roles, identity, status, and support; and the loss of spouse and significant others (siblings, friends) pose an ongoing threat to everyday functioning, forcing the individual to adapt. Thus, effective functioning in daily life represents a major developmental task for the aging (Bakes & Carstensen, 1996; Marsiske, Lang, Bakes, & Bakes, 1995). There is marked variability in adjustment among the elderly, and despite the numerous losses associated with aging, many elderly people are well adjusted and report experiencing high levels of well-being (George & Clipp, 1991;Wetle, 1990).     

Maternal Knowledge and Behaviors Regarding Discipline: The Effectiveness of a Hands-on Education Program in Positive Guidance

This study examined which method is most effective in supporting parents to use positive guidance techniques, a lecture-based only parent training series or a lecture-based plus hands-on parent training series. Maternal characteristics of depression, stress level, and attitudes towards positive guidance were explored as possible moderators. In this sample of 49 mother–child dyads, results indicated that the cognitive understanding of the use of positive guidance over time of the participants in the lecture-based only versus the lecture-based plus hands-on groups did not significantly differ. However, both groups improved in their cognitive understanding of positive guidance over time. Results also indicated that the behavioral use of positive guidance over time of the participants in both groups significantly differed. Further investigation revealed that, although the two groups did not differ in their behavioral use of positive guidance before the program, the lecture-based plus hands-on group improved over time whereas the lecture-based only group did not. Depression, stress level, and attitudes towards positive guidance did not moderate the effects of being in either group on participants’ behavioral use of positive guidance. Findings showed that all participants gained a better understanding of effective parenting techniques, but a hands-on component in parent training programs may be necessary for parents to incorporate these strategies into their parenting behaviors. The results have implications for early childhood professionals working with parents to address children’s behavior issues, as well as for the design of parent-support programs.     

Therapeutic Implications of Religious-Related Emotional Abuse

Religion can play a positive role in preventing all types of abuse. Consequently, it is often difficult to believe that religion or a particular manner of religious awareness can also be conducive to the degradation and humiliation of individuals, and that it can be maneuvered to justify abusive behavior. In this article we discuss the emotional repercussions of religious-related abuse in the family, an aspect that is rarely documented in the field of psychotherapy, but has many negative consequences. Religious-oriented emotional abuse is traceable to several levels of human functioning: the individual's internal level of experiencing themselves, the interpersonal and systemic levels, where the individual enters relationships, as well as within the framework of the individual's relationship with God.     

Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique Promotes Learning and Corrects Inaccurate first Responses

The Psychological Record - Multiple-choice testing procedures that do not provide corrective feedback facilitate neither learning nor retention. In Studies 1 and 2, the performance of participants...