Clinical validation of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory

The clinical validity of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI; F. M. Cheung, K. Leung, et al., 1996) was examined in 2 studies involving a group of 167 male prisoners in Hong Kong and a group of 339 psychiatric patients in China. Elevated scores on the clinical scales were obtained for the clinical samples. Logistic regression analyses confirmed that the CPAI scales were useful in differentiating between male prisoner and the Hong Kong male normative sample and between psychiatric patients and a random sample of normal adults in China. Multivariate analyses of variance results showed significant differences on the CPAI clinical scales and personality scales among subgroups of psychiatric patients with diagnoses of bipolar, schizophrenic, and neurotic disorders. The usefulness of an indigenous personality inventory is discussed.     

Surveys of community attitudes toward mental health facilities: Reflections or provocations?

This paper points out how political motives behind community research may affect the outcome. The case of public opposition to psychiatric halfway houses in Hong Kong is used as an illustration. These mass surveys related to the issue are reviewed to show how the different public opinions expressed may be affected by the objectives, context, sample, and content of the surveys.     

Revisiting a contrasting thought between Descartes and Spinoza in the light of psychotherapy

The aim of this paper is to revisit one contrasting thought on the notion cause and effect between Descartes and Spinoza. This debate will be re-examined in the light of clients' knowledge of the cause and effect of their psychological distress, prior to seeking psychotherapy and in the process of receiving treatments. The treatment approach chosen for this paper is psychodynamic. This paper also aims to demonstrate how psychoterapeutic ideas can contribute to philosophical debates     

Examining and reexamining the structure of Chinese-English bilingual memory

The asymmetry model of bilingual memory proposed by Kroll and Stewart assumes that translation from a first language (L1) into a second language (L2), or forward translation, is mediated by an underlying conceptual memory, whereas L2-to-L1, or backward, translation is lexical and direct. Lexical links from L2 to L1 are hypothesized to be stronger than those from L1 to L2, but conceptual links are stronger for L1 than L2. These assumptions were evaluated in this study, which used stimulus items with similar recognition thresholds. Proficient Chinese-English bilinguals were tested on picture naming, word naming, word translation and category matching. The translation asymmetry effect predicted by the model (i.e., backward being faster than forward translation) was demonstrated; matching an L1 item to a category name was also faster than matching an L2 item. This pattern of results, nevertheless, did not completely hold after an adjustment procedure which sought to control for variations in response production and concept retrieval times due to stimulus types. The present findings are consistent with previous ones which show increased L2 conceptual processing for the proficient bilingual. They also suggest that an extended version of the asymmetry model should take into account possible biasing effects associated with some conventionally used bilingual tasks.     

Cognitive-behaviour therapy for marital conflict: refining the concept of attribution

In recent years, the concept of attribution has received increasing attention in the field of cognitive-behavioural marital therapy. Research has found that the attribution dimensions of source, globality, stability, intent and voluntariness are related to marital distress and conflict behaviours. This paper argues that the application of the attribution dimensions has been conceptually problematic, and proposes a distinction between attributions made for a specific conflict episode, a behaviour in an episode and the causal schema for the conflictual relationships. Different reattribution techniques should be employed to target attributional change at appropriate levels of conflict attributions. This proposition is illustrated with a case example.     

A preliminary study of an online pain management programme for patients with ankylosing spondylitis

This study was a preliminary attempt to develop and examine an online pain management programme incorporating mindfulness‐informed exercises (i.e. breathing and body scanning exercises) and CBT elements for ankylosing spondylitis patients. Thirty patients diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis participated in a five‐week online pain management programme, which was delivered primarily through a website. The materials covered by the website included breathing and body scanning exercises, mindful walking exercise, positive thinking and management of dysfunctional thinking. Each participant received instructions and reminders from a counselling psychologist through electronic communications each week. They completed the Brief Pain Inventory, Ryff's Psychological Well‐being Scale, Pain Self‐Efficacy Questionnaire, Pain Catastrophizing Scale and Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale‐Revised before and after the treatment programme. In addition, four face‐to‐face focus groups were conducted to yield supplementary qualitative findings. The overall results indicate that this online pain management programme can improve sleep quality and reduce pain interference and catastrophic responses to pain in ankylosing spondylitis patients, albeit being not very effective for mitigating the intensity of pain. Moreover, male and female patients can benefit equally from the online programme. Findings from the focus groups revealed some challenges faced by local patients when practising mindfulness‐informed exercises. Some solutions to those challenges were put forward in accordance with patients’ feedback.     

Self‐Control Success Revealed: Greater Approach Motivation Towards Healthy versus Unhealthy Food

Deviating from existing literature on self‐control failure the current research examines self‐control success and the role of motivation. Functional research suggests people visually perceive objects to be bigger when they are motivated to approach them. Using the size perception task, participants estimated the size of a healthy and an unhealthy food object that were identical in size. In the current research we simulated a reflective state vs. impulsive state using an ego‐depletion manipulation in Study 1 and a cognitive load manipulation in Study 2. Results from both studies revealed that participants in a reflective state (vs. impulsive state) assigned increased size estimations to the healthy food item compared to the unhealthy food item. Current findings demonstrate greater approach motivation towards a ‘virtue’ (i.e., healthy food) as a mechanism that underlies self‐control success, suggesting that successful self‐control involves initiating approach towards a virtue rather than inhibiting a vice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotional experience in music fosters 18‐month‐olds' emotion–action understanding: a training study

We examine whether emotional experiences induced via music‐making promote infants' use of emotional cues to predict others' action. Fifteen‐month‐olds were randomly assigned to participate in interactive emotion training either with or without musical engagement for three months. Both groups were then re‐tested with two violation‐of‐expectation paradigms respectively assessing their sensitivity to some expressive features in music and understanding of the link between emotion and behaviour in simple action sequences. The infants who had participated in music, but not those who had not, were surprised by music–face inconsistent displays and were able to interpret an agent's action as guided by her expressed emotion. The findings suggest a privileged role of musical experience in prompting infants to form emotional representations, which support their understanding of the association between affective states and action.