Coping with war captivity: the role of attachment style

The current study examines the implication of attachment style in both immediate coping and long-term adjustment of prisoners of war (POWs). 164-ex-POWs and 184 matched controls filled out a battery of questionnaires, 18 years after the war. They were questioned about their subjective experience of captivity, current mental health status, and characteristic attachment style. Secure individuals, who reported lower levels of suffering, less helplessness and more active coping during captivity, exhibited better long-term adjustment. Avoidant ex-POWs, who reported helplessness and hostility, and ambivalent individuals, who felt abandoned and vulnerable, reported long-term maladjustment. The role of attachment style as a stress-moderating resource is discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chased by the Past: The Relation Between Childhood Maltreatment and Fear of Childbirth

Sex Roles - Although childbirth is a normative physiological experience, it may be challenging for some women and especially for those who were exposed to childhood maltreatment. The aim of the...     

World assumptions and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder

The authors examined the association between (a) personal world assumptions and (b) combat stress reactions (CSRs), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and PTSD's course among three groups of Israeli veterans: 109 veterans who suffered from CSR on the battlefield, 98 decorated veterans, and 189 control participants. Participants completed standardized questionnaires that measured PTSD and world assumption. Both CSR and chronic PTSD were associated with lower levels of self-worth and beliefs about the benevolence of people. In addition, the authors found a linear association between self-worth perceptions and levels of mental status. The authors examined the results of the study considering the extraordinary characteristics and meaning of war.     

Body Awareness,Emotional Clarity,and Authentic Behavior: The Moderating Role of Mindfulness

Emotional clarity is considered a basic component of self-knowledge. However, not much is known regarding its association with self-knowledge in terms of bodily aspects, and the combinations by which these two aspects are used to enhance authentic living. Based on a salutogenic perspective, the current study examined whether emotional clarity and body awareness are associated. Further, we tested the hypothesis that these constructs contribute to authentic behavior through the moderation of mindfulness. 341 university students completed questionnaires assessing body awareness, emotional clarity, mindfulness, and authentic behavior. The findings indicated that body awareness and emotional clarity are moderately correlated. SEM analysis revealed that emotional clarity was correlated with authentic behavior, and that mindfulness moderated the association between body awareness and authentic behavior. Further, a two-factor model for authentic behavior was generated; intrapersonal-authenticity and interpersonal-authenticity. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that while emotional clarity was associated with both factors, body awareness was only associated with interpersonal-authenticity, through the moderation of mindfulness. Mindfulness further mediated the association between emotional clarity and interpersonal-authenticity. The findings indicate that body awareness and emotional clarity are pivotal for self-knowledge processes, yet demonstrate a complicated mechanism under which they operate. While emotional information seems to be more accessible for authentic behavior enhancement, the use of bodily information is conditioned by mindfulness.     

Coping with war captivity: The role of sensation seeking

This study examines the implication of both sensation seeking and the subjective appraisal of captivity in the long-term adjustment of ex-prisoners of war (ex-POWs). 164 Israeli ex-POWs and 184 comparable controls were studied, 18 years after their participation in the Yom Kippur War. The findings indicate that high-sensation seekers adjusted better than low-sensation seekers to the stresses of captivity. Low-sensation-seeking ex-POWs reported more PTSD symptoms, more severe psychiatric symptomatology, and more intense intrusive and avoidance tendencies. High- and low-sensation-seeking POWs differed also in feelings when taken prisoner, subjective assessment of suffering in prison, ways of coping with prison, and emotional states during captivity. The present study supports the postulation that sensation seeking is an important stress-buffering personal resource. The role of coping styles in long-term adjustment following war captivity is discussed.     

Self Addressed Questions and Filled Pauses: A Cross-linguistic Investigation

There is an ongoing debate whether phenomena of disfluency (such as filled pauses) are produced communicatively. Clark and Fox Tree (Cognition 84(1):73–111, 2002) propose that filled pauses are words, and that different forms signal different lengths of delay. This paper evaluates this Filler-As-Words hypothesis by analyzing the distribution of self-addressed-questions or SAQs (such as “what’s the word”) in relation to filled pauses. We found that SAQs address different problems in different languages (most frequently about memory-retrieval in English and Chinese, and about appropriateness in Japanese). In relation to filled pauses, British but not American English uses “um” to signal a more severe problem than “uh”. Chinese uses different filled pauses to signal the syntactic category of the problem constituent. Japanese uses different filled pauses to signal levels of interaction with the interlocuter. Overall, our data supports the Filler-As-Words hypothesis that filled pauses are used communicatively. However, the dimensions of its meanings vary across languages and dialects.     

Treatment specific competence predicts outcome in cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder

Several studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between competence and outcome in CBT for depression but studies of CBT for anxiety disorders are lacking. The present study explores the relationship between competence and outcome in cognitive therapy (CT) for social anxiety disorder, using hierarchical linear modeling analyses (HLM). Data were drawn from a multicenter randomized controlled trial. Five trained raters evaluated videotapes of two therapy sessions per patient using the Cognitive Therapy Competence Scale for Social Phobia (CTCS-SP). Overall adherence to the treatment manual and patient difficulty were also assessed. Patient outcome was rated by other assessors using the Clinical Global Impression Improvement Scale (CGI-I) and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Results indicated that competence significantly predicted patient outcome on the CGI-I (β = .79) and LSAS (β = .59). Patient difficulty and adherence did not further improve prediction. The findings support the view that competence influences outcome and should be a focus of training programs. Further research is needed to compare different ways of assessing competence and to understand the complex relationships between competence and other therapy factors that are likely to influence outcome.