Measuring goal involvement in specific achievement situations: Development and validation of a 6-goal questionnaire

IntroductionCurrently, there is a growing interest regarding the dynamics of achievement goals and its consequences on motivational patterns, which urges researchers to focus more and more on states of goal involvement.ObjectiveBased on Elliot, Murayama, and Pekrun's (2011) 6-goal framework, this research aimed to develop and validate a state-like form French Achievement Goal Involvement Questionnaire (FAGIQ-6).MethodFirst, a 40-item preliminary version was created. Its clarity was assessed among 152 French undergraduate students. Then, its factorial structure was tested using confirmatory factor analyses on data collected among 439 French junior high school students. Finally, regression analyses on data collected among 317 other junior high school students were used to test how the instrument relates to constructs known to be related to the different achievement goals.ResultsThe structure of the FAGIQ-6 included 18 items that were deemed clear and that were organized into six factors (task-approach, self-approach, other-approach, task-avoidance, self-avoidance, and other-avoidance). Regression analyses showed that: Perceived competence positively predicted all approach goals and task-avoidance; an entity theory of ability positively predicted other-referenced goals; an incremental theory of ability positively predicted all task and self goals; task-approach and self-approach positively predicted intrinsic motivation and task absorption; approach goals and task-avoidance positively predicted intrinsic motivation; and other-avoidance positively predicted anxiety.ConclusionThe FAGIQ-6 can reliably measure goal involvement in specific achievement situations and thus enables new avenues of research on the dynamics of achievement goals.     

自尊、体验回避和抑郁在自杀意念形成中的作用

使用自尊量表、接受和行动问卷、症状自评量表和贝克抑郁自评问卷对河南省某高校778名本科生和研究生进行问卷调查,探讨自尊、体验回避和抑郁在自杀意念形成中的作用。结果显示:(1)保护性因素自尊能够负向预测自杀意念。自尊水平越高,个体的自杀意念水平越低;(2)抑郁中介了风险性因素体验回避对自杀意念的影响作用。体验回避程度越高,抑郁程度越高,相应的自杀意念水平越高;(3)保护性因素自尊可以缓冲风险因素体验回避和抑郁对自杀意念的作用。保护性因素自尊能够负向预测体验回避和抑郁,既自尊水平越高,体验回避和抑郁倾向越弱。保护性因素自尊通过抑制风险性因素来缓冲其对自杀意念的作用。     

A mediational model of trait negative affectivity, dispositional thought suppression, and intrusive thoughts following laboratory stressors

Two studies examined the relationships among trait negative affectivity, dispositional thought suppression, and intrusions in non-clinical samples. In Study 1 (N=87), participants were presented with a series of emotionally evocative images and intrusions were examined 48 h after presentation via self-report. In Study 2 (N=118), intrusions were examined using a behavioral Key-press and self-report at two time points (5 and 20 min) following exposure to a series of emotionally evocative images. In each study, participants were assessed for trait negative affectivity and the tendency to engage in thought suppression in response to unpleasant cognitions. Results from both studies support a model in which chronic thought suppression fully mediates the relationship between negative affectivity and the frequency of intrusions.     

Cognitive variables related to worry among adolescents: avoidance strategies and faulty beliefs about worry

Studies aiming to better understand worry have neglected children and adolescents. This constitutes an important limitation considering that excessive worry is frequent among adolescents and that patients suffering from excessive worries associate the beginning of their disorder with adolescence. This study evaluates the cognitive variables associated with worry in a sample of 777 adolescents. It attempts to determine whether cognitive avoidance and false beliefs about the usefulness of worries are present and associated with worries in adolescence. The results showed that participants with a high level of worry used more avoidance strategies and held more beliefs about worry. The results also revealed that avoidance of stimuli that trigger unpleasant thoughts and thought substitution were the major avoidance strategies related to worry among adolescents. The belief that worry helps to avoid future negative events was also related to worry. These findings may suggest that adolescents' worries are maintained by processes similar to those observed among adults.     

Experiential avoidance and aversive visual images: response delays and event-related potentials on a simple matching task

In Experiment 1, participants high (n=15) or low in avoidance (n=14), as measured by the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire, completed a simple matching task that required them to choose whether or not to look at an aversive visual image. Only the high-avoidance participants took longer to emit a correct response that produced an aversive rather than a neutral picture. Additionally, the high-avoiders reported greater levels of anxiety following the experiment even though they rated the aversive images as less unpleasant and less emotionally arousing than their low-avoidant counterparts. In Experiment 2, three groups, representing high-, mid- and low-avoidance (n=6 in each) repeated the matching task with the additional recording of event-related potentials (ERPs). The findings of Experiment 1 were replicated in terms of reaction times and subjective ratings. The ERPs confirmed that the participants attended to the content of the images and differentiated between the aversive and neutral image types. The ERPs also showed significantly greater negativity for electrodes over the left hemisphere relative to the midline for only the high-experiential avoidance (EA) group. Given the left hemisphere dominance for language, the data suggest that the high-EA group engaged in verbal strategies to regulate their emotional responses.     

Previews of a Paradigm Shift in Psychotherapy: An Interview with Alvin Mahrer

The main purpose of the interview was to explore Alvin Mahrer’s views on an uncommon issue, namely the possibility of a paradigm shift in the field of psychotherapy. The interview covers (a) a way to help bring about a revolutionary paradigm shift, and (b) preview possibilities for an across-the-board, comprehensive paradigm shift in the field of psychotherapy. Grateful appreciation is extended to the reviewers whose comments were helpful and constructive in enabling a substantial improvement in the earlier draft of the interview.     

The association between working models of attachment and personality: Toward an integrative framework operationalizing global relational models

A theoretical framework is presented which outlines the association between relational models of romantic relationships (romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance) and the conceptually similar dual dimensions of autonomy and sociotropy identified in the literature on personality diatheses of depression. Two studies, along with a meta-analysis of previous research, lend support to the notion that autonomy and avoidance share a common element reflecting variation in the degree to which people seek out or avoid closeness with others, whereas sociotropy and anxiety share a common element reflecting variation in the degree to which people worry about or are content in their social relations. The measures differ in relational specificity, however, as attachment anxiety and avoidance assess models of close and romantic relationships, whereas sociotropy and autonomy reflect more abstracted representations that encompass broader categories of social relation. The proposed framework offers a variety of avenues for research operationalizing and elaborating upon the function of global relational models in the attachment system.     

Driving and riding avoidance following motor vehicle crashes in a non-clinical sample: psychometric properties of a new measure

Three studies were conducted to assess the reliability and validity of a measure that we developed using a non-clinical sample of university undergraduates, the Driving and Riding Avoidance Scale (DRAS). Study 1 indicated that the scale was internally consistent (α=0.92) and that a four-factor model (general avoidance, avoidance of traffic and busy roads, avoidance of weather or darkness, and riding avoidance) provided the best fit to the data in a sample of 386 crash survivors. This study also revealed that survivors who received medical treatment for their crash-related injuries reported significantly greater avoidance than people who were uninjured or injured and not medically treated. Study 2 revealed that the DRAS possessed acceptable test-retest reliability (r=0.83) over a 4-week interval in a sample of 67 crash survivors. Using a sample of 118 survivors, study 3 examined the instrument’s convergent and divergent validity through correlations with the Accident Fear Questionnaire (AFQ), the Mobility Inventory (MI), the Fear Survey Schedule-II (FSS-II), and the Fear Questionnaire (FQ). The strongest relationships were observed between the DRAS and the AFQ and with a driving subscale created from the MI items. The DRAS exhibited significantly weaker relationships with the FQ subscales that assessed other kinds of phobic avoidance.     

The effects of self-focused rumination on global negative self-judgements in depression

Previous research in dysphoric participants has found that compared with distraction, rumination inductions are associated with increased levels of cognitive distortions and overgeneral autobiographical memories. Watkins and Teasdale ((2001) Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 353–357) investigated which component of rumination was responsible for this effect in overgeneral memory, and found two distinct modes of ruminative self-focus, with analytical, evaluative self-focus maintaining overgeneral memory, whereas self-focus low in analytical thinking reduced overgeneral memory. The present study compared the effects of these two distinct forms of self-focused rumination with another measure of overgeneral thinking—global negative self-judgements. Thirty depressed participants and thirty never-depressed participants were randomly allocated to ‘analytic’ (high analysis) or ‘experiential’ (low analysis) self-focused manipulations. As predicted, in depressed participants, the analytical self-focus condition increased ratings of the self as worthless and incompetent pre- to post-manipulation, whereas the experiential self-focus condition resulted in no significant change in such judgements. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that an analytical mode of self-focused rumination may be particularly maladaptive in depression.     

Form and forming a focus: In brief dynamic therapy

This paper describes a model of training for individual work which treats as essential the consideration of group and institutional dynamics, as contrasted with the ‘prevailing model’ in which such issues are not overtly attended to. The author outlines key elements of such a ‘group-aware’ model and endeavours to show the value of it in terms of the students’ self-development, their fuller use of the training experience and in relation to their clients. She suggests that such a model has key advantages over the ‘prevailing model' for all counselling and psychotherapy students, but places emphasis on its particular relevance and value for those training to work with children, adolescents and young people.