Co-constructed narratives around being “sick”: A minimalist model

The amount of physical damage may have no fixed relation to how much and in what ways a patient's life is disrupted. The authors discuss a model which addresses the bio-psycho-social complexity of a patient's illness and the narrative constructions which the patient, family members, and health care professionals influence to co-create the patient's identification with being sick. This minimalist model invites the reader to consider a variety of interrelated variable lenses through which to view the narratives around a patient's illness. Clinical case examples are used to illustrate the dominant story themes.     

Health and adaptedness

The purpose of this paper is to give an explication of the concept of health which does not rely on the concept of disease. The explication is informed by a view of the human individual as an acting subject and it therefore places the abilities of agents in the centre. Abilities may be qualified in different ways. The qualification essential for understanding the dimension of health and illness relates abilities to environmental circumstances and high-ranking projects in the life plan. For this purpose generalized adaptedness is introduced as the overarching construction. The dimension of health and illness is characterized in terms of the adequacy of the repertoire for generalized adaptedness. Some immediate consequences concerning the notion of care are noted.     

Examining the importance of academic-specific self-compassion in the academic self-control model

ABSTRACT

The aim of this investigation was to determine whether an academic-specific self-compassion scale would share stronger bivariate relationships with academic-focused variables, act as a stronger unique predictor of university adaptation than a general measure of self-compassion, and moderate the relationship between general and academic resourcefulness. A convenience sample of 422 undergraduates completed measures assessing general learned resourcefulness, academic self-efficacy, failure attributions, academic goal focus, academic resourcefulness, academic self-compassion, and university adaptation. As hypothesized, academic self-compassion shared a stronger relationship with academic resourcefulness than a general measure of self-compassion; academic self-compassion independently predicted university adaptation along with academic resourcefulness and expected GPA; and, unlike general self-compassion, academic self-compassion did not moderate the relationship between general and academic resourcefulness, providing support for academic self-compassion being a type of academic self-control that is “emotion-oriented.” The value of using academic-specific versus global constructs when assessing academic outcomes is discussed.     

Outcomes From the Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention (TranS-C) for Midlife and Older Adults With Serious Mental Illness and Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction

The present study tested outcomes of the Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention (TranS-C) among midlife and older adults with serious mental illness (SMI). Further, we tested predictors—credibility, expectancy, usefulness, and utilization—that may affect TranS-C outcomes. Midlife and older participants from a community setting (>49 years, 62.3% female, 37.7% African American or Black) with sleep and circadian problems and SMI were randomized to receive TranS-C plus usual care (TranS-C+UC, n = 27) or usual care followed by delayed treatment with TranS-C (UC-DT, n = 26). Immediate and delayed TranS-C data were combined to increase power (combined n = 52). Outcomes were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 6-month follow-up. Credibility and expectancy were assessed during the second session. Usefulness and utilization of TranS-C skills were assessed at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up. TranS-C+UC, relative to UC-DT, was associated with improvements in depression symptoms, sleep disturbance, overall sleep health, and select sleep/wake outcomes, though not all improvements were sustained at 6-month follow-up. Lower usefulness of TranS-C skills predicted more severe sleep disturbance at posttreatment and daytime sleep-related impairment at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up. Lower utilization predicted more severe psychiatric symptoms at posttreatment, sleep disturbance at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up, and overall impairment and daytime sleep-related impairment at 6-month follow-up. Higher credibility and expectancy predicted greater usefulness of TranS-C skills at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up and greater utilization at 6-month follow-up. Together, findings highlight benefits of TranS-C for midlife and older adults with SMI. However, boosting credibility, expectancy, utilization, and usefulness may meaningfully improve TranS-C outcomes.     

青少年留守经历对网络成瘾的影响:病理性互联网使用的认知行为模型视角

基于病理性互联网使用的认知行为模型,本研究考察青少年留守经历对网络成瘾的影响,并检验非适应性认知的中介作用和粗暴养育的调节作用。以525名中学生为被试,采用非适应性认知问卷、粗暴养育问卷和网络成瘾问卷进行测试,结果发现:(1)有留守经历的个体非适应性认知和网络成瘾的程度更高,而且非适应性认知越强,网络成瘾程度越高;(2)留守经历通过非适应性认知的中介作用影响网络成瘾;(3)留守经历对非适应性认知的影响受到粗暴养育的调节。具体而言,经历较多粗暴养育的青少年,留守经历会增加非适应性认知;但是对于经历较少粗暴养育的青少年,留守经历不会对非适应性认知产生影响。本研究的结果表明,青少年留守经历会增强非适应性认知,进而增加网络成瘾的倾向。但是,如果青少年家庭中粗暴养育程度较低,青少年留守经历对非适应性认知的影响就会消失。     

Attention Bias for Threatening Information in Children Following a Distressing Medical Procedure

Attention bias is common in adults with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is less studied in children. Children (n = 22) who experienced a potentially distressing procedure in an outpatient clinic (removal of K‐wires from orthopaedic fractures) and a group of medically unwell children (illness group; n = 27) were compared with healthy controls (n = 32). Children's baseline level of PTS symptoms were indexed prior to the medical procedure, and again at 1‐week follow‐up. Immediately after the K‐wire removal, children completed a dot probe task using two categories of target words (medical threatening and emotionally threatening). While K‐wire children showed an overall bias away from negative words relative to healthy controls, the illness group did not significantly differ from healthy controls. Attention bias in K‐wire and illness groups was unrelated to later PTS symptoms.     

Evaluation of a Family Systems Intervention for Managing Pediatric Chronic Illness: Mastering Each New Direction (MEND)

Family systems play a crucial, albeit complex, role in pediatric chronic illness. Unfortunately, very few psychosocial interventions are available to help these stressed families navigate the developmental steps of chronic illness. A new intervention (MEND) addresses the needs of these families and applies to a broad range of chronic illnesses. This article presents this family systems intervention as well as includes preliminary program evaluation data on 22 families that graduated from the program. Results show consistently strong effects across an array of psychosocial measures. Conclusions from this preliminary study suggest that families entering MEND present with high levels of stress due to the child's chronic illness, but after MEND, the level of stress and other functioning measures are comparable to those seen in healthy families, suggesting that the program offers a significant benefit to families with pediatric chronic illness.     

Mental illness,religion, and the rational mind: The case of Clifford W. Beers

This article focuses on the mental illness of Clifford W. Beers, who pioneered mental hospital reform in the United States in the early decades of the twentieth century, and the encouragement Beers received from William James in this endeavor. It argues that James supported Beers because he personally identified with the younger man's struggles with mental illness and with the high value that he placed on the vital importance of the rational mind in regaining one's sanity.     

Religious coping in highly religious psychiatric inpatients

This study among highly religious psychiatric patients in a mental hospital in the Netherlands focused on the following issues: their religious and spiritual beliefs and activities; their religious coping activities, measured using Pargament's three coping styles and a positive religious coping scale; the influence of religious coping on psychological and existential well-being; and the predictive value of general religiousness, as compared with religious coping activities, regarding psychological and existential well-being.

For this population of inpatients, religion had a positive influence on their ways of dealing with mental problems; religious coping was positively correlated with existential and psychological well-being. General religiousness as well as religious coping were positively correlated with existential well-being, whereas psychological well-being primarily was predicted by positive religious coping.

Results are discussed in the context of theoretical notions of religious coping, addressing in particular the positive influence of religious beliefs, relying on God, religious activities and religious social support in psychological and existential times of crisis.     

The effects of mental illness on families within faith communities

Associations between mysticism and madness have been made since earliest recorded history, and the striking resemblance between self-reports of both mystical and psychotic experience suggests that similar psychological processes may be involved in their occurrence. By exploring the similarities, and proposing a common element to mystical and psychotic experience (referred to here as the experience of “oneness”), this paper aims to place mysticism and madness onto the same experiential continuum. However, in contrast to much of the previous literature, the intention is not to pathologize mystical experience, but rather to normalize psychotic experience. The paper argues not only that the experience of oneness is entirely genuine and available to all humans, but also that it has an important psychological (and evolutionary) function. Using cognitive terminology, it then attempts to explain the processes determining whether an individual enjoys a fulfilling mystical experience, or suffers a debilitating psychotic breakdown (i.e., how “oneness” is experienced). Finally, this paper turns to look at some of the important implications such an approach might have for clinical practice and for the mental health of people in general.