Elisabeth Eurelings-Bontekoe

Leiden University | LEI · Institute of Psychology

Objective: Psychotherapies are increasingly incorporating spiritual and religious systems of belief and practice, which aligns with recent developments toward person-centered treatments. The main objective of this meta-analysis was to compare the efficacy of a religion and spiritually-based (R/S) therapy to non-R/S treatments. Method: A multi-le...

Research has demonstrated that maladaptive relational functioning of patients suffering from personality disorders is associated with more negative God representations. This study demonstrated with a single group design among a group of 37 Christian patients with personality disorders, that changes in implicit God representations during psychothera...

In the context of theistic religions, God representations are an important factor in explaining associations between religion/spirituality and well-being/mental health. Although the limitations of self-report measures of God representations are widely acknowledged, well-validated implicit measures are still unavailable. Therefore, we developed an i...

Research with self-report measures of God representations suggests an association with personality pathology. However, according to object-relations theory, God representations are predominantly implicit. This observational study aimed at validating the implicit Apperception Test God Representations (ATGR). In a group of 74 patients with personalit...

Context: Results of meta-analyses show weak associations between religiosity and well-being, but are based on divergent definitions of religiosity. Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis was to examine the magnitude of the associations between God representations and aspects of psychological functioning. Based on object-relations and attachment t...

Results about associations between God representations and well-being/mental health can be questioned because they are predominantly based on studies with self-report instruments. There are no well-validated implicit measures of God representations. Therefore we developed the Apperception Test for God Representations (ATGR). In a clinical (n = 75)...

For adherents of theistic religions, God representations are an important factor in explaining associations between religion/spirituality and well-being/mental health. Because of limitations of self-report measures of God representations, we developed an implicit God representation instrument, the Apperception Test God Representations (ATGR) and ex...

Aims Childhood adversities combined with unsafe parenting may disturb personality development. This study investigated whether psychotic personality organization as defined by Kernberg and assessed with de Dutch Short Form of the MMPI (DSFM) is more prevalent in ultrahigh risk (UHR) for psychosis compared with non‐psychotic psychiatric control pati...

Patients with somatoform disorder (SFD) are characterized by the presence of chronic physical complaints that are not fully explained by a general medical condition or another mental disorder. Insecure attachment patterns are common in this patient group, which are often associated with interpersonal difficulties. In the present study, the mediatio...

Background: Patients with somatoform disorders tend to report somatic complaints, while denying the influence of psychological factors: a pattern described as “illusory mental health”. The present study investigated if somatoform patients present themselves in this way. In this context we investigated features of personality organization), selfrepo...

In light of interpersonal difficulties and their relation to alexithymia in patients with somatoform disorder, the primary aim of this study was to explore the association between two insecure attachment strategies (deactivation and hyperactivation strategies), and affective and cognitive alexithymia in a sample of 128 patients with severe somatofo...

Social cognition and its association with level of personality organization (PO) were examined in 163 patients with severe somatoform disorders (SFDs) and 151 psychiatric (PSA) control patients. Social cognition was measured with the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale, which assessed both affective and cognitive facets of social cognition....

Patients with severe somatoform disorder (in secondary and tertiary care) typically experience functional impairment associated with physical symptoms and mental distress. Although psychotherapy is the preferred treatment, its effectiveness remains to be demonstrated. To examine the effectiveness of psychotherapy for severe somatoform disorder in s...

This paper provides a systematic review of extant research concerning the association between level of personality organization (PO) and psychotherapy response. Psychotherapy studies that reported a quantifiable association between level of PO and treatment outcome were examined for eligibility. Based on stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria,...

We investigated the validity of different subtypes of borderline personality organization (BPO) as assessed by theory-driven profiles of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Disorder (MMPI; Hathaway & McKinley, 194338. Hathaway , S. R. and McKinley , J. C. 1943. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory., Minneapolis: University of Minneso...

In this study, we investigated the relationships between features of personality organization (PO) as assessed by theory driven profiles of the Dutch Short Form of the MMPI (DSFM; Luteijn & Kok, 1985) and 2 self-report measures of personality pathology, that is, the Dutch Inventory of Personality Organization (Berghuis, Kamphuis, Boedijn, & Verheul...

The relationship between the psychodynamic concept of personality organization (PO) and Young’s cognitive model of personality pathology was studied in a sample of 117 patients that were referred to Schema Focused Therapy for severe personality pathology. Principal Component Analysis was used to reduce the number of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMSs)...

We investigated the validity of theory driven profile interpretation of the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 194337. Hathaway , S. R. and McKinley , J. C. 1943. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. View all references) Dutch Short Form (DSFM; Eurelings-Bontekoe, Onnink, Williams, & Snellen, 200827...

In this study, we investigated the construct validity of the theory-driven profile interpretation of the Dutch Short Form of the MMPI (DSFM; Luteijn & Kok, 1985), an interpretation method aimed at assessing structural features of personality based on Kernberg and Caligor's (2005) views concerning personality organization. We utilized the four dimen...

De cluster-A-persoonlijkheidsstoornissen bevinden zich diagnostisch op het kruispunt van de persoonlijkheidsstoornissen, de autismespectrumstoornissen en de psychosen. Juist bij deze stoornissen is aandacht voor de differentiaaldiagnose dan ook van groot belang. De schizotypische, de schizoïde en de paranoïde persoonlijkheidsstoornis in de DSM-IV (...

Volgens Michael Stone (1987) is het ziektebegrip ‘borderline’ vaag en elke poging om het begrip nauwkeuriger te definiëren zou tegen de (linguïstische) natuur van de definitie ingaan en het zelfs als diagnostische categorie uitroeien. Ingenhoven (1990) vraagt zich af of de borderline persoonlijkheidsstoornis zoals gedefinieerd in de DSM-III-R (APA,...

Hoewel de persoonlijkheid zich vormt gedurende de ontwikkeling in een mensenleven, worden persoonlijkheidsstoornissen gezien als het exclusieve domein van de volwassenenpsychiatrie. Immers, een van de algemene criteria voor het stellen van de categoriale diagnose persoonlijkheidsstoornis is dat de persoon ouder is dan 18 jaar. In overeenstemming hi...

This article describes how the presence of an Autism Spectrum Disorder may impair job-performance. In addition, the article describes how personality questionnaires and a fomal analysis of Thematic Apperception Test-narratives may be of use in the early detection of an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This article presents a new approach to the assessment of structural personality pathology: theory-driven profile interpretation of the Dutch Short Form of the MMPI (DSFM). The assessment method integrates results of a self-report personality questionnaire with psychodynamic theoretical concepts to yield a working hypothesis about underlying struct...

The objective of this study is to make comparisons of the severity of the psychological distress, behavioral problems and traumatic stress reactions, and experiences of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) with immigrant/refugee (I/R) and Dutch (native) adolescents with parental caregivers (N = 3273). Self-report questionnaires were administered. Mo...

This epidemiological investigation addresses the prevalence, course, and predictors of the psychological distress and behavioral problems of unaccompanied refugee minors living in the Netherlands. The legal guardians, teachers and minors themselves all reported on the mental health of the refugee minors (n=582) at baseline and follow-up approximate...

The objective of this study is to provide preliminary psychometric properties of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-37 (HSCL-37A) for refugee adolescents. The HSCL-37A is a modification of the well-known HSCL-25 and assesses symptoms of internalizing and externalizing problems that have been associated with reactions to trauma. Four independent heteroge...

Een lange traditie van descriptieve, dimensionale en structurele (psycho)diagnostiek bij persoonlijkheidsstoornissen heeft nog niet geleid tot transparantie in de indicatiestelling voor behandeling bij de individuele patiënt, noch in wetenschappelijk opzicht noch vanuit klinisch perspectief (Hofstee, 1990).

Het psychodynamische gedachtegoed bestaat uit een rijk palet aan diverse stromingen. De Wolf (1998) noemt drie hoofdstromingen: het driftmodel, het objectrelatiemodel en de zelf-psychologie. De ego-psychologie plaatst hij binnen het driftmodel. Zoals wel vaker gebeurt, noemt hij de Franse traditie apart en dan alleen de bijdragen van Lacan. Wij lat...

The objective of this study is to validate the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) for the legal guardians of unaccompanied refugee minors residing in the Netherlands. The legal guardians (caseworkers) of the unaccompanied minors (N = 920) that participated in the study all received a CBCL to report on the mental health of the unaccompanied minor. Th...

This study is the first to address the need for mental health Care (MHC) and the patterns of utilization of MHC services among Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM). Information concerning the well being, mental health need, and utilization of services of URM was collected from three informants, the minors themselves (n = 920), their legal guardians (...

The objective of this study was to assess the preliminary psychometric properties of the Reaction of Adolescents to Traumatic Stress questionnaire (RATS) for refugee adolescents. Four independent heterogeneous adolescent population samples (N = 3,535) of unaccompanied refugee minors, immigrants, and native Dutch and Belgian adolescents were assesse...

Na een periode van tanende belangstelling voor psychodiagnostiek in het algemeen en projectieve technieken in het bijzonder, lijkt met name de laatste jaren het enthousiasme weer toegenomen voor projectieve technieken zoals de Thematische Apperceptie Test (TAT). Deze ontwikkeling heeft ons inziens alles te maken met de beschikbaarheid van goed geva...

The association between personality, attachment, psychological distress, church denomination and the God concept was studied among a sample of 208 subjects from the normal population. Subjects were Christians, members of an Orthodox reformed church or the Pentecostal church. Negative feelings towards God were associated with a high level of harm av...

In dit artikel houden wij een pleidooi voor het belang van multidimensionele multi-traitdiagnostiek voor de praktijk van de psychotherapie. We beargumenteren dat de state of the artin het klinisch-psychologische denken haaks staat op de huidige politieke en beleidsontwikkelingen, waarin marktwerking en kostenbeheersing de agenda bepalen. In de huid...

The study investigated the association of homesickness with the related concepts of anxiety, depression, and anger. Two conceptualizations of homesickness were used, one considering homesickness as a state, characterized by severe symptoms of a depressive episode, and the other one as a self-reported tendency to experience homesickness in times of...

Several authors have suggested that homesickness involves some vulnerable personality characteristics. The first objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between severe feelings of homesickness and general temperament and character dimensions. The second objective was to investigate the relative contribution of homesickness-speci...

Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the belief that bodily sensations have harmful consequences, is a reliable predictor of panic attacks in both clinical and nonclinical populations. Recently, a new measure of AS has been proposed. The AS profile (ASP) was designed to be a more comprehensive measure of AS, and to be more suitable for the measurement of diff...

Studied the association between features of DSM-IV personality disorders, temperament, character and attachment styles among 109 second-generation offspring of victims of World War II. The majority of these patients, all born after 1945, have been insecurely attached. An dynamic integration of descriptive and structural data, taken from a combinati...

This study describes the final steps in the construction of a questionnaire to assess the vulnerability to develop homesickness. The psychometric properties of the Homesickness Vulnerability Questionnaire (HVQ) were assessed by comparing two samples: a random sample from the Dutch population (N=485) and a combined sample consisting of several group...

The relationship between homesickness, age, nationality, marital status, the amount of time spent in the Netherlands, and the amount of time spent abroad was studied in a group of employees (N = 171) working for the Dutch division of a multinational high-tech company in the Netherlands. Variables found to be significantly related to homesickness we...

In this study, 170 psychiatric outpatients and 399 community-based adults completed a Dutch translation of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Factor structure, internal consistency and relationship with age and psychiatric status were investigated. Comparisons were also made between the TCI scores of the Dutch community sample and US no...

The association between psychological distress, coping and personality disorders (PDs) was studied among a group of 230 primary mental health care patients by means of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and stepwise multiple regression analyses. The PCAs revealed that those who suffer from personality pathology tend to use passive coping and to be...

This paper presents the results of a study comparing two instruments for the assessment of personality disorders according to the DSM-III-R and the ICD-10 classification systems: the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE), a semi-structured clinical interview, and the “Questionnaire on Personality Traits” (VKP), a self-report questio...

This study describes further steps in the construction of a questionnaire to assess the vulnerability to develop homesickness using a female population suffering from either chronic feelings of homesickness (CHS) or episodic attacks of homesickness occurring during holidays and stay overs only (EHS) and a healthy control group (HC). The results sho...

In this paper the development of a self-report instrument, the VKP, for the assessment of criteria and diagnoses of personality disorders is described. Also a computer program was developed so that subjects can register their self-report replies at the keyboard, and for scoring and reporting. Results of 1056 subjects of which 366 were patients, sho...

This paper describes the first steps in the construction of a questionnaire to measure the vulnerability to develop homesickness. Based on a former study, comparing personality and behavioral characteristics of a group of soldiers suffering from homesickness (HS), a group with psychological problems of a different nature (PP) and a healthy controlg...

This study addresses the time ordering of both quantitative and qualitative social support variables, social support seeking and psychological distress. Number of contacts, perceived understanding, satisfaction, severity of network conflicts, social support seeking and symptomatology were assessed at two points in time: at the start of a short term...

This study focusses on the relationship between both categorial and dimensional personality disorder measures, using a DSM-III-R and ICD-10 based questionnaire and underlying personality dimensions, which were assessed by the Dutch Short Form of the MMPI. This study shows a rather weak correspondence between personality dimensions and dimensional p...

This study concentrates on personality characteristics and behavioral features of military conscripts suffering from homesickness. A comparison is made with healthy controls and with conscripts suffering from psychiatric symptoms of a different nature. Although the two pathological groups share several characteristics in comparison to the healthy g...