Psychological risk factors in cardiovascular diseases

Recent research has shown that psychological risk factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. The so-called ‘coronary prone behaviour pattern’ predominates, an important part of which is the ‘Type A behaviour pattern’. This is characterized by a marked ambition, a constant feeling of being under pressure, due to latent aggression and to a striving to dominate. For cerebrovascular diseases the so-called ‘pressured pattern’ as a risk factor has been found to be typical which is comparable to the Type A behaviour. Psychological risk factors and their components are not equally important for different vascular diseases. Besides the explanation of the question as to how far psychological processes really are involved in the development of vascular diseases, the research on psychological risk factors serves as a foundation for psychosomatic theories.     

Grief experiences and expectance of suicide

Suicide is generally viewed as an unexpected cause of death. However, some suicides might be expected to a certain extent, which needs to be further studied. The relationships between expecting suicide, feeling understanding for the suicide, and later grief experiences were explored. In total, 142 bereaved participants completed the Grief Experience Questionnaire and additional measurements on expectance and understanding. Results supported the prediction of a link between expecting suicide and understanding the suicide. Higher expectance and understanding were related to less searching for explanation and preoccupation with the suicide. There was no direct association with other grief experiences. We conclude that more attention should be brought to the relation between expecting the suicide of a loved one and later grief responses in research and in clinical practice.     

Der biopsychosoziale Krankheitsbegriff in der Praxis

Many of the recent approaches in diagnostics and therapy, e. g. the behavioral medicine, consider themselves as “holistic” or “multidimensional”. By closer consideration, however, it turns out, that while more or less referring back to the system-theoretically founded “bio-psycho-social model” (Engel, Weiner et al.) its implications are not taken seriously in practice. Presenting a concrete work project (“simultaneous diagnostics”) we will show, how to implement this (theoretically potent) bio-psycho-social conception of disease in clinical practice. It can be clearly seen, that it cannot replace the conventional reductional approach of medicine which focusses on the examination of single processes and structures under simplified conditions. On the contrary, such reductionism remains indispensable, because to be able to grasp any higher (more complex) structure one has to know its elements. Comprehensive explanation of phenomena, however, is not possible in a reductionist way. Therefore, the bio-psycho-social disease model in its operationalization is not a new way of medicine, rather an expanded approach to diagnostical and therapeutic issues.     

Assessing Deictic Relational Responding in Individuals With Social Anxiety Disorder: Evidence of Perspective-Taking Difficulties

The Psychological Record - The present study uses a relational frame approach (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, and Roche, 2001) to perspective taking for individuals suffering from social anxiety disorder...     

Integrating Psychopathology and Personality Disorders Conceptualized by the MMPI–2–RF and the MCMI–III: A Structural Validity Study

Twenty Es administered Rorschachs expecting Ss to give high or low total numbers of responses, high or low animal in relation to human percentages, and one or another extreme of select personality characteristics. Additionally, each tested a control S expecting “nothing remarkable.” Results indicated tester-bias and suggested that within each comparison group, one expectancy condition contributed disproportionately more to the bias effect than did the other. Video tapes of 20 sessions were analyzed to see whether a Bandura modeling paradigm could account for the mediation of bias; i.e., whether Es modeled their expectancies for the benefit of their Ss and whether Ss consequently imitated their models. This was not supported.     

Integrating psychopathology and personality disorders conceptualized by the MMPI-2-RF and the MCMI-III: a structural validity study

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008 ) Restructured Clinical scales and Higher Order scales were linked to the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (Millon, Millon, Davis, & Grossman, 2009 ) personality disorder scales and clinical syndrome scales in a Flemish/Dutch sample of psychiatric inpatients and outpatients, substance abuse patients, correctional inmates, and forensic psychiatric patients (N = 968). Structural validity of psychopathology and personality disorders as conceptualized by both instruments was investigated by means of principal component analysis. Results reveal a higher order structure with 4 dimensions (internalizing disorders, externalizing disorders, paranoid ideation/thought disturbance, and pathological introversion) that parallels earlier research on pathological personality dimensions as well as research linking pathological personality traits with mental disorders. Theoretical and clinical implications are considered.     

MMPI-2 and MCMI-III scores among dutch inpatient substance abusers: Assessing correspondence and cross-cultural equivalence

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-II and MCMI-III) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) were applied to 263 Dutch inpatient substance abusers with multiple psychiatric diagnoses, and the results compared with those of 306 North-American substance abusers studied by Ward (1995). We looked for structural similarity both across groups (per instrument) and across the two instruments (per sample), using principal components analysis and congruence analysis. The component structure found by Ward was partly replicated in the Dutch group, thus cross-validating the use of the two instruments with these patients. Moreover, as found by Ward, the MMPI-2 content and supplementary scales of the Dutch sample proved to be important determinants of the first three MMPI-2 components, adding to convergent validity. Questions remained about the influence of the (dis)continuity of MCMI-II and MCMI-III on the replicability of the MCMI components.