Comparing the Effects of Loving-Kindness Meditation (LKM), Music and LKM Plus Music on Psychological Well-Being

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM), a meditative practice directing caring feelings toward self and others, is a popular, evidence-base approach to increasing well-being. Music listening is also a popular form of emotion regulation used to enhance well-being. This interdisciplinary study evaluated a novel intervention called Convergence—combining LKM with accompanying classical guitar music—and its effects on adults’ well-being, mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion outcomes. Convergence was compared to active control groups LKM-only and Music-only regarding their relative effectiveness in improving these outcomes. Participants (N?=?78; aged 18 to 69?years; 90% females; recruited from the general public) were assigned to either the Convergence, LKM-only, or Music-only condition. Each condition received a 2-hour workshop, involving psychoeducation, three prerecorded meditations, and group enquiry and discussion. Participants were assessed at pre-program, post-program, and 4-week follow-up. Findings revealed that Convergence, LKM-only and Music-only were equally effective interventions, producing improvements in dependent variables with small effect sizes. There was no additive effect of the components when delivered together as Convergence. Significant correlations were found between the amount of home practice, and mindfulness and self-compassion at follow-up. LKM, music listening and Convergence all provide brief, evidence-based alternatives for improving well-being. Practical and theoretical implications are provided, as well as recommendations for future research.     

Couple therapy,family therapy and systemic interventions for adult‐focused problems: the current evidence base

This paper updates previous similar reviews published in JFT in 2000, 2009 and 2014. It presents evidence from meta‐analyses, systematic literature reviews and controlled trials for the effectiveness of couple therapy, family therapy, and systemic interventions for adults with a range or relationship and mental health problems. The evidence supports the effectiveness of systemic interventions, either alone or as part of multimodal programmes, for relationship distress, psychosexual problems, intimate partner violence, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, alcohol problems, psychosis and adjustment to chronic physical illness.     

Family therapy and systemic interventions for child‐focused problems: the current evidence base

This review updates previous similar papers published in JFT in 2000, 2009 and 2014. It presents evidence from meta‐analyses, systematic literature reviews, narrative literature reviews and controlled trials for the effectiveness of systemic interventions for families of children and adolescents with common mental health problems and other difficulties. In this context, systemic interventions include both family therapy and other family‐based approaches such as parent training, or parent implemented behavioural programmes. The evidence supports the effectiveness of systemic interventions either alone or as part of multimodal programmes for sleep, feeding and attachment problems in infancy; recovery from child abuse and neglect; conduct problems, emotional problems, eating disorders, somatic problems, and first episode psychosis.     

Sleep deprivation in Air National Guard medical personnel responding to simulated disaster-training exercises

National Guard personnel remain largely unstudied within the sleep research community, despite their unique and important role. In response, the purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of sleep deprivation in National Guard medical personnel from two separate Air Force Bases (AFBs) responding to simulated disaster-training exercises. National Guard medical personnel (N = 77) were fitted with wrist activity monitors (actigraphy) to objectively measure their sleep for 4 days of their civilian time (baseline), followed by a 4-day transition period from civilian to military duty, and a 3–5-day disaster-training exercise. Differences in sleep quantity, quality, and “cognitive effectiveness” were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models. Participants’ sleep quantity was significantly reduced from civilian to disaster-training periods, and their cognitive effectiveness also dropped significantly. National Guard medical personnel were sleep-deprived during a simulated disaster-training exercise, which, although a valid proxy for real-world disasters, is likely to be a conservative approximation of the stress and fatigue National Guard personnel experience during crisis response. As such, the need for targeted fatigue-related interventions to safeguard our service members during these critical times is clear.     

Symptomatic distress and effectiveness of psychological treatments delivered at a nationwide student counseling service

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of student counseling in Denmark and to compare the symptomatic distress among student counseling clients with that of Danish outpatients. The pre-intervention level of self-reported symptomatic distress among 1256 students closely paralleled that of psychiatric outpatients. Participants in the intervention study were the 739 student clients with two or more counseling sessions. For the 530 (71.7%) participants with both pre- and post-measurements, the mean pre–post Cohen’s d effect size (ES) was .76 on the Global Severity Index of the Symptom Check List-90-Revised. An intention-to-treat analysis of all 739 clients resulted in an ES of .59. The number of recovered clients according to the Jacobson and Truax criteria was 295 (68.8%) of the 429 (80.9%) clients above the clinical cut-off at pre-intervention, while 66 (12.5%) of the 530 clients reliably deteriorated. The mean number of sessions was 5.0. Individual counseling, number of sessions, and ending counseling in agreement predicted better outcome. In line with results from other countries, this study may indicate that in Denmark student counseling is an effective intervention for a highly needy clientele, even though a high proportion of clients deteriorated (12.5%) or dropped out (31.7%).     

言语指导对实验操作技能形成影响的初步研究

本研究以112名中师学生为被试,采用实验组控制组后测实验设汁,选择中和滴定作为实验操作任务,探讨了言语指导对实验操作技能形成的影响。结果表明．言语指导能明显地促进学生实验操作技能的形成,特别是在实验操作动作的自动化方面。     

工作场所领导愤怒的有效性及其作用机制

领导愤怒(leader anger)作为最常见、最易被感受到的工作场所负面情绪之一, 对于改善工作关系、行为和绩效具有显著影响。然而, 已有文献关于领导愤怒阻碍还是促进领导有效性的观点存在许多争议, 对于领导愤怒为什么以及何种条件下影响领导有效性的问题尚不明确。在回顾工作场所领导愤怒概念起源和内涵特点的基础上, 从消极效应和积极效应双刃视角厘清了工作场所领导愤怒的有效性, 基于情绪即社会信息理论阐释了工作场所领导愤怒有效性的双路径中介机制, 并从个体/团队/组织三层面分析了领导愤怒有效性的边界条件。未来研究应从工作场所领导愤怒的概念和结构测量、事件前因和后果、中介机制、情境因素、研究方法和研究层面等方面进一步拓展。     

知识员工团队工作自主性与效能的关系研究

团队日益成为新经济时代背景下知识员工工作的主要方式。追求工作自主性同时也被认为是知识员工的核心特征之一。对杭州地区13家企业的35个工作团队的调查发现,工作自主性是一个二阶单因素结构,包含三个子维度:方法、进度和标准的自主性。回归分析显示:领导者信任在知识员工团队工作自主性与团队激励间起正向调节作用;反馈在团队激励与团队工作绩效及满意感间起负向调节作用。     

Sustainable antibullying program implementation: School profiles and predictors

We examined the sustainability of the KiVa antibullying program in Finland from its nationwide roll-out in 2009 to 2016. Using latent class analyses, we identified four different patterns of implementation. The persistent schools (43%) maintained a high likelihood of participation throughout the study period. The awakened (14%) had a decreasing trend during the first years, but then increased the likelihood of program participation. The tail-offs (20%) decreased in the likelihood of participating after the third year, and the drop-offs (23%) already after the first year. The findings suggest that many schools need support during the initial years to launch and maintain the implementation of evidence-based programs; yet a large proportion of schools manage to sustain the program implementation for several years. The logistic regression analyses showed that large schools persisted more likely than small schools. Lower initial level of victimization was also related to the sustainability of the program. Finally, persistent program participation was predicted by several school-level actions during the initial years of implementing the program. These results imply that the sustainability of evidence-based programs could be enhanced by supporting and guiding schools when setting up the program during the initial implementation.     

Construction of a Meaning Effectiveness Model: A new interpretation of meaning in life

This paper aims to determine the precise meaning of the word “meaning” in the context of the sense of meaning and to explain the characteristics of meaning and meaning in life. Using ordinary language analysis and phenomenology, this paper defines meaning as the possibility of something to realize its goal: the effectiveness of a thing in realizing the goal. Thus, this paper aims to establish a Meaning Effectiveness Model (MEM), which regards meaning as a function of goal and effectiveness to explain the meaning phenomena, including degree, frequency, stability, adaptive functions, and emerging conditions of meaning. Within the framework of MEM, meaning in life is divided into meaning within life and the meaning of life itself, which have different characteristics. The relationship between the model and existing meaning theories is also discussed.