Exploring the Effectiveness of a Mixed-Diagnosis Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention Across Diverse Populations

Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health disorders seen in clinical practice and they are highly comorbid. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been demonstrated as an effective treatment for both depression and anxiety but is often not available to all individuals who could benefit from it. This paper investigates the effectiveness of a mixed-diagnosis group CBT intervention that incorporates mindfulness meditation for individuals presenting with depression and/or anxiety: CBT Basics II. This intervention was evaluated across two distinct mental health programs to determine both if it can demonstrate positive results and if it is feasible to implement in these types of programs. Sample 1 (n = 42 completers) consisted of higher-functioning individuals in a general mental health program. Sample 2 (n = 53 completers) consisted of individuals with more chronic and severe mental health diagnoses. Overall, intent-to-treat analyses revealed improvements in psychiatric symptoms, and increases in CBT knowledge and mindfulness skill across both programs. This indicates that CBT Basics II is effective across diverse mental health populations and shows promise for improving access to CBT.     

The growth of reading skills in children with Down Syndrome

There appears to be a close and probably causal relationship between early variations in phoneme skills and later reading skills in typically developing children, though the pattern in children with Down Syndrome is less clear. We present the results of a 2-year longitudinal study of 49 children with Down Syndrome (DS) and 61 typically developing (TD) control children with similar initial levels of reading skill. Phoneme awareness and vocabulary were strong concurrent predictors of initial levels of reading skill in both groups. However, longitudinally phoneme awareness was a predictor of the growth of reading skills in TD children but not in children with DS. There was a very high degree of longitudinal stability in reading skills in children with DS, and initial levels of reading skills seemed to be highly constrained by general language skills, as indexed by vocabulary knowledge, in this population. We conclude that reading development in children with DS shows similarities and differences to the pattern observed in TD children and that phoneme awareness appears to be a less powerful influence on the development of reading skills in children with DS.     

Cortical asymmetries in speech perception: what's wrong,what's right and what's left?

Over the past 30 years hemispheric asymmetries in speech perception have been construed within a domain-general framework, according to which preferential processing of speech is due to left-lateralized, non-linguistic acoustic sensitivities. A prominent version of this argument holds that the left temporal lobe selectively processes rapid/temporal information in sound. Acoustically, this is a poor characterization of speech and there has been little empirical support for a left-hemisphere selectivity for these cues. In sharp contrast, the right temporal lobe is demonstrably sensitive to specific acoustic properties. We suggest that acoustic accounts of speech sensitivities need to be informed by the nature of the speech signal and that a simple domain-general vs. domain-specific dichotomy may be incorrect.     

Conséquences d’une catastrophe naturelle touchant le lieu de travail sur l’épuisement professionnel : Le cas du personnel d’un hôpital gériatrique

The Hautmont tornado has occurred on august 03, 2008, in the North of France. It was caused major destructions in this town and particularly in this city hospital. A tornado is a major natural phenomenon that causes destructions and disasters. In the literature, natural disaster and their destructive consequences are associated with psycho-traumatic disorders, among which is posttraumatic stress. The purpose of this research was to study the psychological impact of this tornado on a particularly vulnerable population: employees of a hospital. Thirty eight employees were interviewed one year after the Tornado. The results of this study showed that this disaster had many psychological repercussions. Many cases of posttraumatic stress disorders and cases of burnout were present independently of job strain level.     

Aversive learning overcomes appetitive innate responding in honeybees

Despite their miniature brain, honeybees have emerged as a powerful model for the study of learning and memory. Yet, they also exhibit innate responses to biologically relevant social signals such as pheromones. Here, we asked whether the bees’ developed learning capabilities allow them to overcome hardwired appetitive responses. Can they learn that attractant pheromones, that are not normally associated with a noxious stimulation in nature, predict the punishment of an electric shock? Immobilized honeybees were trained to discriminate two odorants, one that was paired with a shock and another that had no consequences. We measured whether they learned to produce aversive sting extension responses to the punished but not the non-punished odorant. One odorant was a neutral odor without innate value while the other was either an attractive pheromone (geraniol or citral) or an attractive floral odorant (phenylacetaldehyde). In all cases, bees developed a conditioned aversive response to the punished odorant, be it pheromone or not, and efficiently retrieved this information 1 h later. No learning asymmetries between odors were found. Thus, associative aversive learning in bees is strong enough to override preprogrammed responding, thus reflecting an impressive behavioral flexibility.     

Quand le genre s’en mêle : quelle conciliation entre vie professionnelle et vie privée ?

Declarations of conciliation between private life and professional life based on three factors (sex, gender and positions) are studied in this paper. Our goals were (i) to show that conciliation between the different life spheres need to be considered both in terms of conflict and of life enrichment; (ii) and to demonstrate that the gender variable has combined effects with sex variables, as well as with positions variables, over the perception of work in relation to family interferences in terms of nature (conflict/enrichment), intensity and direction (family over work versus work over family). The study, conducted with 240 employees of low or high professional positions, based on SWING and BSRI scales, shows the moderating effect of gender on the perceptions of conciliation, whether enriching or conflicting. Our results also allow us to conclude that congruent adjustment (masculine domination) of the levels of our three factors constitute a protecting factor for employees, while an incongruent adjustment can constitute a risk factor, this being especially verified for women.     

Artistic Representation and The Psychoanalytical Process

Instead of using a psychological grid when reading literature, Freud recommended that we let the actual writer instruct us. The same applies to artists. Here I will be asking two questions: can one make a formal comparison between the painter's visual approach, and the analyst's psychic approach which leads him to form a particular interpretation? Can one compare the spectator's feelings when a painting imposes itself on him, with the analyst's feelings when confronted with the silence of the analysand? Out of these two questions another, more general one arises: what can the psychoanalytical approach to artistic representation bring to the understanding of the analytical process?     

Development and validation of a measure of perceived relative deprivation in childhood

Childhood adversity is known to impact psychological functioning and physical health in later life, but research into the mechanisms responsible has been impeded by the absence of a suitable retrospective measure of perceived relative deprivation in childhood. We developed and validated scores of the Perceived Inequality in Childhood Scale (PICS). In total, 683 students from Liverpool University, Liverpool Hope University and the University of East London were sampled by means of online methods. The data were separated using odd–even methods and an exploratory factor analysis identified a 2 factor solution: perceived relative deprivation (12 items) and family social capital (4 items). The measure was then subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and a 3 factor structure was revealed. The scale was further validated against Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) scores of childhood addresses. The PICS is a brief, practical scale suitable for both small and large-scale research studies.     

Feeling low,thinking slow? Associations between situational cues,mood and cognitive function

ABSTRACT

Within-person changes in mood, which are triggered by situational cues, for example someone’s location or company, are thought to affect contemporaneous cognitive function. To test this hypothesis, data were collected over 6 months with the smartphone application (app) moo-Q that prompted users at random times to rate their mood and complete 3 short cognitive tests. Out of 24,313 people across 154 countries, who downloaded the app, 770 participants submitted 10 or more valid moo-Q responses (mean?=?23; SD?=?18; range 10–207). Confirming previous research, consistent patterns of association emerged for 6 different situation cues with mood and cognitive function: For example, being alone rather than with others when completing the app resulted in worse mood but better cognitive task performance. Notwithstanding, changes in mood and cognitive function were not coupled. The advantages and challenges of using smartphone technology for studying mood and cognitive function are discussed.