Perceived stress,life events,dysfunctional attitudes,and depression in adolescent psychiatric inpatients

Hewitt, Flett, and Mosher (1992) examined the factor structure of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and its relation to depression in adult psychiatric patients. This study sought to replicate and extend their findings, using a sample of 203 adolescent psychiatric inpatients. All patients admitted to the adolescent unit in a psychiatric hospital over a 3-year period were administered the PSS, as well as measures of depression, life events, dysfunctional attitudes, and intellectual abilities. Consistent with Hewittet al., two factors were found in the PSS, reflecting perceived distress and perceived coping ability. Regression analyses indicated that, for males, both factors account for independent variance in depression, whereas for females, only the distress factor is related to depression. In addition, for both male and female, dysfunctional attitudes account for significant variance in depression in addition to PSS, but negative life events do not. None of the variables were related to intellectual abilities. Implications for clinical assessment and intervention are discussed.     

A Multitrait-multimethod examination of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI)

Recently, certain Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) scales have seen increasing usage for the measurement of DSM-III personality disorders. The current study sought to identify the convergent and discriminant validity of these two sets of scales for this purpose. In general, the results indicated significant convergence across the two instruments. However, better convergent validity was found for scales representing those DSM-III disorders which are most consistent with the typology upon which the MCMI was based. In particular, convergent and discriminant validity results were poorest for Compulsive, Antisocial, and Passive-Aggressive personality scales.     

Relationships between the Beck Depression Inventory and the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression in depressed outpatients

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) were used with 300 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-III major depression disorders. A principal-components analysis was performed on the intercorrelations among the 21 BDI and 24 HRSD symptoms. Three orthogonal components were found and interpreted as reflecting differences in self-report and clinical rating methods for measuring the severity of depression. The importance of using both self-reports and clinical ratings for evaluating depression in psychiatric outpatients was discussed.     

Diagnostic accuracy of the Millon test computer reports for bipolar affective disorder

The diagnostic accuracy of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) computer reports was assessed for the sample of 48 patients reliably identified as having bipolar affective disorder. Only 13 of the 48 reports were accurate in classifying the patients as having bipolar affective disorder, and this was significantly (p < .01) less than 50% of the cases. The diagnostic accuracy clearly left much to be desired. Additional research is needed to assess the validity of MCMI diagnostic suggestions for other patient groups.     

Staying grounded? Applying the theory of planned behaviour to explore motivations to reduce air travel

Air travel has been highlighted as a key environmental behaviour contributing to climate change. Given this, there is a surprising lack of theory-based research aimed at identifying factors that underpin motivation to reduce the number of flights taken. This study explored whether an extended theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model could be usefully applied to identify significant predictors of intentions to reduce the number of flights taken for leisure, holidays or to visit family or friends. Results supported the predictive utility of the TPB; the extended model was able to account for 52% of the variance in intentions over and above past behaviour and socio-demographic variables. Attitudes, subjective norms and behaviour-specific self-identity emerged as significant linear predictors. Findings support the utility of applying the TPB to air travel and suggest key variables which could be targeted in interventions to promote motivation to reduce the number of flights taken.     

大学生的性格优势及与主观幸福感的关系

性格优势与主观幸福感是积极心理学的两大核心研究领域,其中,关于性格优势的"价值实践分类体系"被认为是积极心理学发展至今最具影响的成就之一。研究招募115名在校大学生(69女,46男),分别完成优势价值实践调查、牛津幸福体验问卷,以及生活满意度量表。研究发现:(1)在24种优势中,大学生的五大"显著优势"依次为爱与被爱、正直诚实、感恩感激、美的领悟、善良慷慨;(2)希望乐观、爱与被爱、社交智慧、洞察悟性等性格优势与主观幸福感密切相关;(3)希望乐观、爱与被爱、谨慎审慎、洞察悟性对幸福体验的回归方程拟合程度最优,而希望乐观、宽容宽恕、社交智慧、创造才能对生活满意度的回归方程拟合程度最优。     

Simple rules for detecting depression

Depressive disorders are major public health issues worldwide. We tested the capacity of a simple lexicographic and noncompensatory fast and frugal tree (FFT) and a simple compensatory unit-weight model to detect depressed mood relative to a complex compensatory logistic regression and a naïve maximization model. The FFT and the two compensatory models were fitted to the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) score of a representative sample of 1382 young women and cross validated on the women's BDI score approximately 18 months later. Although the FFT on average inspected only approximately one cue, it outperformed the naïve maximization model and performed comparably to the compensatory models. The heavier false alarms were weighted relative to misses, the better the FFT and the unit-weight model performed. We conclude that simple decision tools—which have received relatively little attention in mental health settings so far—might offer a competitive alternative to complex weighted assessment models in this domain.     

Measuring Change in OCD: Sensitivity of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised

This study examined the sensitivity to change and specificity of response of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), an 18-item self-report measure of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) severity. Seventy-seven OCD patients received cognitive-behavioral therapy incorporating exposure and response prevention (ERP). Change from pre- to posttest on the OCI-R was compared to changes as assessed by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) and other measures of OCD and related symptoms. Results suggest the OCI-R is sensitive to treatment effects and that pre- to posttest change on this instrument reflects improvement in OCD and related symptoms of depression, anxiety, and global functioning. The OCI-R was not sensitive to improvement in patients’ insight into the senselessness of their OCD symptoms. The OCI-R appears suitable for use in clinical settings and naturalistic outcome studies where time and resources do not permit administration of lengthy symptom interviews.     

The Client Cultural Competence Inventory: An Instrument for Assessing Cultural Competence in Behavioral Managed Care Organizations

The rapid growth in Behavioral Managed Care Organizations has led to increasing concern about the future availability of culturally competent mental health services for ethnic minorities. Prior efforts to assess cultural competence of mental health services have focused exclusively on agency providers and individual mental health professionals rather than on clients' perceptions of care. We introduce the Client Cultural Competence Inventory, which has several advantages over other cultural competence measures including its (a) lower susceptibility to social desirability bias, (b) ability to assess attitudes concerning a broader range of therapists, providers and plans, and (c) focus on clients rather than the psychiatric community as the central force in determining cultural competence. Preliminary psychometric analyses of the inventory are presented from data gathered in a group of parents with children who are severely emotionally disturbed.     

Fewer reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The brief reasons for living inventory

The Linehan Reasons for Living Inventory is a 48-item scale on which respondents rate how important each item would be for living if suicide were contemplated. The inventory possesses good psychometric properties and can distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal people among shoppers, psychiatric inpatients, college students, and adolescents. As its length limits its utility in many institutional and screening settings, the purpose of this study was (1) to develop a brief form of the Reasons for Living Inventory appropriate for clinical use and (2) to examine the predictive validity of this brief measure, named the Brief Reasons for Living Inventory (BRFL), to distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal prison inmates. Results indicate that the brief form was as good as either the Beck Depression Inventory or the Beck Hopelessness Scale at predicting suicidality in this population. Further study is needed to validate the BRFL with different institutionalized and other populations as well as to assess its ability to discriminate suicide ideators from those engaging in overt suicidal behavior.Support for this project was provided in part by the New York State Office of Mental Health Bureau of Forensic Services and the New York State Department of Correctional Services.