A new look at the schema therapy model: organization and role of early maladaptive schemas

This study reexamined the organization of Young’s 18 early maladaptive schemas and their hypothesized associations with experiences of need-thwarting parental experiences in childhood and the “vulnerable child” mode of emotional distress in adulthood. A large Danish sample (N = 1054) of 658 clinical- and 391 nonclinical adults completed measures of early maladaptive schemas, parenting styles, and the vulnerable child mode. We identified four higher-order schema domains as most appropriate in terms of interpretability and empirical indices (“Disconnection & Rejection”, “Impaired Autonomy & Performance”, “Excessive Responsibility & Standards”, and “Impaired Limits”). All four schema domains were differentially associated with conceptually relevant need-thwarting parental experiences. Apart from “Impaired Limits”, the schema domains meaningfully accounted for the association between need-thwarting parental experiences in childhood and emotional states of feeling like a “vulnerable child” in adulthood. We conclude that four domains of early maladaptive schemas are empirically and conceptually consistent with Young’s schema therapy model of personality pathology and longstanding emotional disorders. Findings warrant replication using different populations and if possible a prospective multi-method design. A scoring key for computing the four schema domains is provided.     

The Caregivers' Attachment and Relationship Education Class: A New and Promising Group Therapy for Caregivers of Individuals with Parkinson's Disease

The authors examined whether a newly developed group therapy, based on principles of attachment theory and emotionally focused couples therapy, can potentially address the unique mental health and relationship difficulties in caregivers of individuals with Parkinson's disease. A comprehensive outreach effort, involving a review of 251 military veterans' medical records, yielded enrollment of seven spousal caregivers in the group therapy. At 1-month follow-up, caregivers who initially reported mild or greater levels of caregiver burden demonstrated statistically reliable declines in psychological distress, relationship distress, or both. Posttreatment surveys indicated positive perceptions in overall helpfulness of treatment goals, as well as positive changes in insight (e.g., greater understanding of the patient's attachment needs) and behaviors (e.g., greater social contact and self-care of the caregiver). Results are considered in the context of inadequate access to treatment for caregivers of spouses with Parkinson's disease or other major medical issues.     

非工作时间使用通信技术处理工作的“双刃剑”效应及心理机制

在当前的互联网时代下,个体“在非工作时间使用通信技术处理工作”的现象已经非常普遍,并因其对个体日常工作生活适应可能产生的深远影响而受到研究者的广泛关注。基于对该领域已有研究文献的全面回顾,本文着重探讨了非工作时间使用通信工具处理对个体工作生活适应的“双刃剑”效应及效应发生的心理机制,并对该领域未来的研究方向进行了针对性的展望。     

The Trait Anxiety Scale for Children: A validation study for European Portuguese children and adolescents

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children is a self-report instrument inspired on the State-Trait theory extended by Spielberger that measures a momentary state of anxiety (state) and a stable tendency to experience anxiety (trait). This study presents an exploratory adaptation of the Trait Scale and provides its psychometric properties for European Portuguese children and adolescents. The influence of sex and age were also explored. Our sample, composed of 402 participants aged 8–14 years, revealed a mean anxiety value of 28.37 (SD = 5.99). As expected, females revealed higher levels of anxiety than boys. Higher anxiety was obtained in our youngest group as compared to the oldest group. The exploratory factor analysis led to retaining only 16-items that presented acceptable adjustment to a one-factorial solution. Good indexes were obtained in the confirmatory analysis. The results also revealed good internal consistency and good test-retest reliability. Our results provide initial evidence that this scale is adequate to measure trait-anxiety in European Portuguese young people.     

Developing the Good Physician: Spirituality affects the development of virtues and moral intuitions in medical students

The Project on the Good Physician is a national longitudinal study of moral and professional formation of American physicians over the course of medical training. The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes by which spirituality influences the development of three virtues (mindfulness, empathic compassion, and generosity) in medical students as mediated by the moral intuition to care/harm, as well as make predictions as to how this type of study could be generalizable to other populations. Study participants were 563 medical students recruited by the University of Chicago from 24 medical schools across the U.S. (54.7% male, 57% white) who completed measures assessing virtue formation 9 months apart. Path analysis of a cascade model showed that spirituality (but not religiousness) was directly and indirectly related to change in the virtue empathic compassion, and also indirectly related to change in the virtue generosity. Moreover, the moral intuition to care/harm partially mediated the association between spirituality and the virtues of empathic compassion and generosity (but not mindfulness).     

Anticipatory attention during the sleep onset period

To examine whether anticipatory attention or expectancy is a cognitive process that is automatic or requires conscious control, we employed a paired-stimulus event-related potential (ERP) paradigm during the transition to sleep. The slow negative ERP wave observed between two successive stimuli, the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), reflects attention and expectancy to the second stimulus. Thirteen good sleepers were instructed to respond to the second stimulus in a pair during waking sessions. In a non-response paradigm modified for sleep, participants then fell asleep while tones played. As expected, N1 decreased and P2 increased in amplitude systematically with the loss of consciousness at sleep onset; the CNV was increasingly more positive. Sleep onset latency was correlated with the amplitude of the CNV. The systematic attenuation of the CNV waveform at sleep onset and its absence in sleep indicates that anticipatory attention requires endogenous conscious control.     

Another dragon in the kitchen: Psychological experiences of hepatitis C treatment among HIV‐hepatitis C co‐infected gay men

Background: Increasing numbers of HIV‐infected gay men acquire hepatitis C virus (HCV) co‐infection, which causes serious medical consequences. Treatment for HCV is associated with many severe side effects, in some cases psychological, and many patients subsequently fail to adhere, even when psychological services are utilised, to improve treatment adherence. Objective: This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of HIV‐infected gay men undergoing treatment for HCV in order to inform psychological services to better meet specific treatment needs of this population. Methods: Thirteen HIV‐infected gay men who had undergone HCV treatment were interviewed and a qualitative analysis was conducted. Participants described HCV and its treatments in the context of their relationships and lifestyles. Findings: Four domains emerged: HCV diagnosis and treatment; HCV treatment education; change in sense of self; and sexual risk‐taking. Adhering to treatment was a significant challenge for all participants and emerged across all domains. Discussion: Psychological services for this population of co‐infected gay men should assist this clinical population not only with adherence to hepatitis C treatment but should also be available at an earlier stage in the process to help patients make informed choices about whether or not to begin a course of treatment. Assessing factors such as coping strategies, treatment readiness and knowledge, self‐awareness, and level of risk‐taking, can guide clinicians in tailoring treatment and adherence planning for HIV/HCV‐co‐infected gay men.     

德性自我意象、道德情绪与行为自我管理：对大学生的一项交叉滞后研究

研究采用交叉时序滞后设计,以问卷法对363名大学生进行了6个月的追踪调查,考察了德性自我意象、道德情绪（内疚/羞愧）与行为自我管理之间的相互预测关系。结果表明,德性自我意象、内疚和羞愧均能显著地正向预测道德行为自我管理,德性自我意象、内疚和羞愧可能是道德行为自我管理的前因变量。     

大学生道德人格特点的初步研究

结合道德心理学研究的新进展,采用问卷法,以803名大学生为被试,对大学生道德人格特点进行了研究。结果表明：（1）大学生道德人格的性别差异显著,大学女生的总分和与人为善因素分数显著高于大学男生,而大学男生的不道德性因素分数和刚正无私因素分数显著高于大学女生。（2）大学生道德人格总分的年级差异不显著,而在具体因素上差异显著：大三学生的与人为善分数明显高于大一和大四学生。（3）大学生道德人格与道德行为的相关极为显著,大学生道德人格是道德行为的有效预测源。     

青少年网络成瘾研究进展

青少年网络成瘾是信息时代的一种阻碍青少年健康成长的问题。本文对青少年网络成瘾的测量、影响因素及其干预等问题进行综述,并对未来研究方向提出建议,为以后研究提供借鉴。