Stress in Clinical Psychology Trainees: Current Research Status and Future Directions

The purpose of this article is to present the current status of the literature related to stress in clinical psychology trainees (CPTs), and to offer research directions for investigating stress in this population and ways to enhance self‐care in these individuals. The following conclusions emerge from the review: (1) CPTs are vulnerable to elevated stress; (2) undue stress can negatively impact CPTs' personal and professional functioning and, in turn, result in less than optimal standards of care for clients; (3) there is a dearth of studies on stress in this population and no published intervention studies; (4) incorporating self‐care strategies into clinical psychology training is recommended; and (5) “third‐wave” cognitive behaviour therapy stress management interventions have been efficacious in comparable populations. In view of the potential costs of elevated stress to trainees themselves and their clients, research on stress and stress management in this population is of a high priority. Broad research agendas are proposed for these two domains. Modifications to clinical training programmes to reduce trainee stress are required and should be evidence‐based and systematically revaluated.     

Family Functioning and the Course of Adolescent Bipolar Disorder

The symptoms of bipolar disorder affect and are affected by the functioning of family environments. Little is known, however, about the stability of family functioning among youth with bipolar disorder as they cycle in and out of mood episodes. This study examined family functioning and its relationship to symptoms of adolescent bipolar disorder, using longitudinal measures of family cohesion, adaptability, and conflict. Parent- and adolescent-reported symptom and family functioning data were collected from 58 families of adolescents with bipolar disorder (mean age = 14.48 ± 1.60; 33 female, 25 male) who participated in a 2-year randomized trial of family-focused treatment for adolescents (FFT-A). Cohesion and adaptability scores did not significantly change over the course of the study. Parent-reported conflict prior to psychosocial treatment moderated the treatment responses of families, such that high-conflict families participating in FFT-A demonstrated greater reductions in conflict over time than low-conflict families. Moreover, adolescent mania symptoms improved more rapidly in low-conflict than in high-conflict families. For all respondents, cohesion, adaptability, and conflict were longitudinally correlated with adolescents’ depression scores. Finally, decreases in parent-reported conflict also predicted decreases in adolescents’ manic symptoms over the 2-year study. Findings suggest that family cohesion, adaptability, and conflict may be useful predictors of the course of adolescent mood symptoms. Family conflict may be an important target for family intervention in early onset bipolar disorder.     

Liking and identifying emotionally expressive music: age and gender differences

Adults and children 5, 8, and 11 years of age listened to short excerpts of unfamiliar music that sounded happy, scary, peaceful, or sad. Listeners initially rated how much they liked each excerpt. They subsequently made a forced-choice judgment about the emotion that each excerpt conveyed. Identification accuracy was higher for young girls than for young boys, but both genders reached adult-like levels by age 11. High-arousal emotions (happiness and fear) were better identified than low-arousal emotions (peacefulness and sadness), and this advantage was exaggerated among younger children. Whereas children of all ages preferred excerpts depicting high-arousal emotions, adults favored excerpts depicting positive emotions (happiness and peacefulness). A preference for positive emotions over negative emotions was also evident among females of all ages. As identification accuracy improved, liking for positively valenced music increased among 5- and 8-year-olds but decreased among 11-year-olds.     

Happy to See Me,Aren’t You,Sally? Signal Detection Analysis of Emotion Detection in Briefly Presented Male and Female Faces

Using signal detection methods, possible effects of emotion type (happy, angry), gender of the stimulus face, and gender of the participant on the detection and response bias of emotion in briefly presented faces were investigated. Fifty-seven participants (28 men, 29 women) viewed 90 briefly presented faces (30 happy, 30 angry, and 30 neutral, each with 15 male and 15 female faces) answering yes if the face was perceived as emotional and no if it was not perceived as emotional. Sensitivity [d', z(hit rate) minus z(false alarm rate)] and response bias (β, likelihood ratio of "signal plus noise" vs. "noise") were measured for each face combination for each presentation time (6.25, 12.50, 18.75, 25.00, 31.25 ms). The d' values were higher for happy than for angry faces and higher for angry-male than for angry-female faces, and there were no effects of gender-of-participant. Results also suggest a greater tendency for participants to judge happy-female faces as emotional, as shown by lower β values for these faces as compared to the other emotion-gender combinations. This happy-female response bias suggests, at least, a partial explanation to happy-superiority effects in studies where performance is only measured as percent correct responses, and, in general, that women are expected to be happy.     

A model-based cluster analysis of social experiences in clinically anxious youth: links to emotional functioning

Social difficulties are commonly associated with anxiety disorders in youth, yet are not well specified in the literature. The aim of this study was to identify patterns of social experiences in clinically anxious children and examine the associations with indices of emotional functioning. A model-based cluster analysis was conducted on parent-, teacher-, and child-reports of social experiences with 64 children, ages 7–12 years (M = 8.86 years, SD = 1.59 years; 60.3% boys; 85.7% Caucasian) with a primary diagnosis of separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, and/or generalized anxiety disorder. Follow-up analyses examined cluster differences on indices of emotional functioning. Findings yielded three clusters of social experiences that were unrelated to diagnosis: (1) Unaware Children (elevated scores on parent- and teacher-reports of social difficulties but relatively low scores on child-reports, n = 12), (2) Average Functioning (relatively average scores across all informants, n = 44), and (3) Victimized and Lonely (elevated child-reports of overt and relational victimization and loneliness and relatively low scores on parent- and teacher-reports of social difficulties, n = 8). Youth in the Unaware Children cluster were rated as more emotionally dysregulated by teachers and had a greater number of diagnoses than youth in the Average Functioning group. In contrast, the Victimized and Lonely group self-reported greater frequency of negative affect and reluctance to share emotional experiences than the Average Functioning cluster. Overall, this study demonstrates that social maladjustment in clinically anxious children can manifest in a variety of ways and assessment should include multiple informants and methods.     

Driver social desirability scale: A Turkish adaptation and examination in the driving context

Self-report data collection methods are widely used techniques to gather information in studies related to road safety. One of the most considerable limitations of self-reports is social desirability bias. One way to overcome the possible detrimental effects of socially desirable responding is to control it by using social desirability scales. With respect to that, the present study aims to adapt the Driver Social Desirability Scale into Turkish, examine its construct validity, and investigate the relationship between social desirability and driving-related measures. A total of 351 drivers between the ages of 19 and 59 completed a questionnaire including a demographic information form, the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ), the Driver Skill Inventory (DSI), the Two-Dimensional Social Desirability Scale (SDS), and the Driver Social Desirability Scale (DSDS). Factor analysis supported the two-factor structure of the DSDS in the Turkish sample. Social desirability correlated positively with age and driving experience. Female drivers reported higher levels of driver impression management, while male drivers scored higher on self-deception. Driver impression management was associated negatively with violations and perceptual-motor skills and positively with safety skills. Lastly, driver self-deception was positively related to violations, positive driver behaviors, perceptual-motor skills, and safety skills. The study shows that the Turkish version of the DSDS is a reliable and structurally valid instrument with incremental validity compared to the general social desirability measure in predicting driving-related outcomes.     

Magnitude,timing and duration of mood state and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise in major depressive disorder

BackgroundAcute exercise generally improves mood state and cognitive functioning in healthy adults. However, the impact of acute exercise on primary symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) is poorly understood. The present randomized cross-over study evaluated the magnitude, timing, and duration of the psychological effects of 30 min of moderate-intensity cycling exercise compared to quiet rest in 30 adults (21 female) with MDD.MethodsDepressed mood state (Profile of Mood States Short Form-Depression; POMS-D), state anhedonia (anhedonia Visual Analog Scale [VAS], and Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale [DARS]), and cognition (inhibition via Stroop and working memory via the 2-back task) were assessed pre, mid, post, 25-, 50- and 75-min after each session.ResultsGeneralized estimating equations demonstrated significant session by time interactions for POMS-D and VAS indicating small-to-large improvements in mood state and anhedonia up to 75 min post-exercise (p < 0.05; Cohen’s d ranges: POMS [-0.69, -0.95]; DARS, [-0.02, 0.16]; VAS [0.33, 0.83]) with greater immediate effects that lessened somewhat across time. For cognition, Stroop reaction time improved during exercise, but was worse at 25- and 50-min post-exercise compared to quiet rest (p < 0.05); no differences were found for 2-back reaction time.LimitationsThe small sample and continued psychological effects at 75 min indicate a potentially longer-lasting response than was measured herein.ConclusionPerforming short bouts of moderate intensity exercise appears to be effective for management of key symptoms (anhedonia, depressed mood state) in adults with MDD. The time immediately post-exercise may be ideal for performing emotionally challenging tasks and/or tasks where a low symptom severity would be helpful (e.g., psychotherapy).     

不同抑郁症状青少年调节不同强度情绪时策略选择的差异

最新研究发现,情绪强度会影响健康个体的情绪调节策略选择。然而,至今尚未有研究考察情绪强度对不同抑郁症状青少年策略选择的影响。对此,本研究通过流调中心用抑郁量表划分出无抑郁、阈下抑郁和抑郁症青少年,进而考察其在面对高-低强度积极-消极日常情绪事件时选择认知重评和认知沉浸的差异。结果发现：当面对高强度积极情绪、低强度积极情绪和低强度消极情绪时,三组被试的策略选择均无显著差异;当面对高强度消极情绪时,无抑郁青少年比阈下抑郁和抑郁症青少年更多选择认知重评而更少选择认知沉浸,但阈下抑郁和抑郁症青少年之间无显著差异。结果表明：不同抑郁症状青少年在面对不同强度和效价情绪时的情绪调节策略选择存在差异,表现为高强度消极情绪下抑郁症状越多的青少年越少选择认知重评而越多选择认知沉浸。这一发现有助于识别和干预青少年的抑郁症状。     

多元文化经历对领导者能力及发展的影响

随着全球化发展的深入, 越来越多的企业领导者具有多元文化经历。多元文化经历是指个体具有直接或间接与外国文化元素或人群进行交互的经历。拟从领导者发展(leader development)和领导力发展(leadership development)两个层面, 全面地探讨多元文化经历对企业领导者能力形成及发展的影响：第一, 探讨多元文化经历对领导者能力发展(包括个人层面、关系层面和社会层面能力)的影响及内部机制; 第二, 探讨多元文化经历对领导力发展(包括领导力涌现、领导力选拔和领导力效能)的影响及内部机制。项目成果不仅能够丰富领导者能力形成与发展等组织管理相关理论, 还能为企业的全球化管理及国际化人才培养实践提供建议。     

The influence of item order on intentional response distortion in the assessment of high potentials: Assessing pilot applicants

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of item order and questionnaire content on faking good or intentional response distortion. It was hypothesized that intentional response distortion would either increase towards the end of a long questionnaire, as learning effects might make it easier to adjust responses to a faking good schema, or decrease because applicants' will to distort responses is reduced if the questionnaire lasts long enough. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that certain types of questionnaire content are especially vulnerable to response distortion. Eighty‐four pre‐selected pilot applicants filled out a questionnaire consisting of 516 items including items from the NEO five factor inventory (NEO FFI), NEO personality inventory revised (NEO PI‐R) and business‐focused inventory of personality (BIP). The positions of the items were varied within the applicant sample to test if responses are affected by item order, and applicants' response behaviour was additionally compared to that of volunteers. Applicants reported significantly higher mean scores than volunteers, and results provide some evidence of decreased faking tendencies towards the end of the questionnaire. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that lower variances or standard deviations in combination with appropriate (often higher) mean scores can serve as an indicator for faking tendencies in group comparisons, even if effects are not significant.