Content Analysis of 32 Years of American Counseling Association Convention Programs

A content analysis of American Counseling Association convention sessions offered from 1977 to 2008 was conducted. The intent was to identify changes and trends in the counseling profession. Content of more than 15,000 sessions, including educational programs, keynote presentations, and training sessions, was assigned to 1 of 86 categories. A shift from a career and school focus to clinical and mental health, as well as an increasing emphasis on multicultural; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender; and spirituality issues, was noted.     

Cardiac morbidity risk and depression and anxiety: a disorder, symptom and trait analysis among cardiac surgery patients

The aim of this study was to examine depression and anxiety disorders and their characteristic symptoms (anhedonia/low positive affect and anxious arousal, respectively), along with measures of state negative affect (NA) and Type D personality, in relation to cardiac surgery related morbidity. Patients awaiting elective coronary artery bypass graft surgery (n=158; 20.9% female; 11.4% concomitant valve surgery; age M=64.7, SD=10.6) underwent the structured MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview to determine current affective disorders. Patients also completed the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire and a measure of Type D personality traits. Postoperative cardiac morbidity was confirmed after surgery during the index hospitalization and included stroke,renal failure, ventilation>24 h, deep sternal wound infection, reoperation, arrhythmia and 30-day mortality at any location (n=59, 37.3% of total). After adjustment for age, recent myocardial infarction, heart failure, hypertension, urgency of surgery and time spent on cardiopulmonary bypass generalized anxiety disorder was associated with cardiac morbidity (odds ratio [OR]=3.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.10-9.67, p=0.03). Adjusted analysis of personality traits revealed the NA component of Type D personality was associated with cardiac morbidity (OR=1.07, 95% CI 1.01-1.14, p=0.03). The Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire subscales were not associated with increased morbidity risk. Affective disorders, affective phenotypes, and personality traits were differentially associated with post-cardiac surgery morbidity outcomes independent of cardiac surgery morbidity risk factors. Concurrent investigation of depression and anxiety with respect to cardiac outcomes warrants further research.     

A prospective study on the impact of peer and parental pressure on body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls and boys

The current study explores the role of appearance-related social pressure regarding changes in body image in adolescent girls (n=236) and boys (n=193) over a 1-year-period. High school students aged 11-16 completed measures of body dissatisfaction (i.e., weight and muscle concerns) and appearance-related social pressure from peers and parents. Three aspects proved to be particularly crucial: Parental encouragement to control weight and shape was a strong predictor of weight concerns in boys and girls alike; influences of friends affected gender-specific body image concerns by leading to weight concerns in girls and muscle concerns in boys; finally appearance-based exclusion was a predictor of weight concerns in boys. The findings provide longitudinal evidence for the crucial impact of appearance-related social pressure and suggest that a detailed assessment of different types of social impacts can identify concrete targets for effective prevention and therapy for weight-related problems among adolescents.     

Kontroverse zu Beschwerdenvalidierungsverfahren bei der Begutachtung psychischer St?rungen

The value of symptom validity tests in a forensic context is currently the subject of a controversial debate in Germany. The discussion primarily focuses on neuropsychological symptom validity tests, however, tests specific for mental disorders are neglected. Unfortunately, no assessment tools for symptom validation of mental disorders of German origin are available and adaptations of available English state of the art instruments have not yet been tested. Further research of assessment development and qualitative analysis of the decision-making process in medicolegal evaluation is needed in German speaking countries.     

The relationship between n-back performance and matrix reasoning — implications for training and transfer

We have previously demonstrated that training on a dual n-back task results in improvements in fluid intelligence (Gf) as measured by matrix reasoning tasks. Here, we explored the underlying mechanisms of this transfer effect in two studies, and we evaluated the transfer potential of a single n-back task. In the first study, we demonstrated that dual and single n-back task performances are approximately equally correlated with performance on two different tasks measuring Gf, whereas the correlation with a task assessing working memory capacity was smaller. Based on these results, the second study was aimed on testing the hypothesis that training on a single n-back task yields the same improvement in Gf as training on a dual n-back task, but that there should be less transfer to working memory capacity. We trained two groups of students for four weeks with either a single or a dual n-back intervention. We investigated transfer effects on working memory capacity and Gf comparing the two training groups' performance to controls who received no training of any kind. Our results showed that both training groups improved more on Gf than controls, thereby replicating and extending our prior results.     

Appraisals,emotions and emotion regulation: An integrative approach

The present work aims to investigate the relation between appraisals, emotions, and emotion regulation strategies by creating a structural equation model which integrates these three aspects of the emotion process. To reach this aim, Italian students (N = 610) confronted with their high school diploma examination completed a questionnaire 3 weeks before the beginning of the exam. Results showed that they experienced primarily three types of emotions—anxiety/fear, frustration/powerlessness, positive emotions—which were related to specific appraisal profiles. Importantly, these appraisal profiles and emotions were associated with the use of different strategies for regulating emotions: anxiety/fear was associated with focusing on the exam, drug use, and an inability to distance oneself from the exam; frustration/powerlessness, with use of suppression, distancing, and drugs; positive emotion, with reappraisal and problem focused strategies. The effectiveness of these different strategies will be discussed.     

Psychoanalytisch-orientierte Fokaltherapie der Depression bei Krebskranken

Emotional distress connected to a cancer disease may result in comorbid mental and especially depressive disorders. Although psychodynamic therapy is one of the most frequently applied forms of psychotherapy of depression in cancer patients there is a lack of empirical studies which meet the criteria of evidence-based psychotherapy research. This is especially true with regard to randomized controlled trials of psychodynamic psychotherapy. As far as we know no manual for psychodynamic treatment of cancer patients has yet been published. In this article a manual for a 20-session short-term psychodynamic treatment is presented. The treatment is based on Luborsky’s supportive-expressive (SE) therapy. The SE treatment manual of depressions in cancer patients presented here is an adaptation of the general SET manual as well as the SE manual for depression. In the first part the general principles of SE therapy are presented. In the second part a manual specifically adapted to the treatment of depressive cancer patients is described. The treatment manual is presently being used in a large-scale randomized controlled multi-centered study comparing short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and treatment as usual.     

Response priming driven by local contrast, not subjective brightness

We demonstrate qualitative dissociations of brightness processing in visuomotor priming and conscious vision. Speeded keypress responses to the brighter of two luminance targets were performed in the presence of preceding dark and bright primes (clearly visible and flanking the targets) whose apparent brightness values were enhanced or attenuated by a visual illusion. Response times to the targets were greatly affected by consistent versus inconsistent arrangements of the primes, relative to the targets (response priming). Priming effects could systematically contradict subjective brightness matches, such that one prime could appear brighter than the other but could prime as if it were darker. Systematic variation of the illusion showed that response-priming effects depended only on local flanker-background contrast, not on the subjective appearance of the flankers. Our findings suggest that speeded motor responses, as opposed to conscious perceptual judgments, access an early phase of lightness and brightness processing prior to full lightness constancy.     

How does attention spread across objects oriented in depth?

Previous evidence suggests that attention can operate on object-based representations. It is not known whether these representations encode depth information and whether object depth, if encoded, is in viewer- or objectcentered coordinates. To examine these questions, we employed a spatial cuing paradigm in which one corner of a 3-D object was exogenously cued with 75% validity. By rotating the object in depth, we can determine whether validity effects are modulated by 2-D or 3-D cue-target distance and whether validity effects depend on the position of the viewer relative to the object. When the image of a 3-D object was present (Experiments 1A and 1B), validity effects were not modulated by changes in 2-D cue-target distance, and shifting attention toward the viewer led to smaller validity effects than did shifting attention away from the viewer. When there was no object in the display (Experiments 2A and 2B), validity effects increased linearly as a function of 2-D cue-target distance. These results demonstrate that attention spreads across representations of perceived objects that encode depth information and that the object’s orientation in depth is encoded in viewer-centered coordinates.