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July 2002 - present
July 2002 - present
April 1999 - April 2000
Publications
Publications (80)
To explore whether Kahneman and Tversky's (1982) simulation heuristic might help account for why the obsessions of people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are so compelling to them. It was predicted that participants would be better able to simulate a scenario relevant to a central OCD fear than they would scenarios related to other OCD and...
Preoccupation with alternative outcomes (counterfactual thinking) is a central component of the ruminations of trauma victims. The questions investigated were whether such thinking should be distinguished from general rumination and whether elements of counterfactual thinking might relate to the process of adjustment. A sample of assault victims wa...
The Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI; Reiss, S., Peterson, R. A., Gursky, D. M., & McNally, R. J. (1986). Anxiety sensitivity, anxiety frequency and the prediction of fearfulness. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 24, 1-8) is probably the most widely used measure of cognitive vulnerability to anxiety. However, there have been periodic doubts expressed...
There is a notable lack of measures of enduring beliefs, which are key etiological factors in Beck's cognitive model of anxiety. The Anxiety Attitude and Belief Scale-2 was developed to address this need. Items from the original AABS were reviewed and revised, and additional items were added to cover the range of constructs identified as reflecting...
Background
Little is known about the skills involved in clinical formulation. The individual case formulation (ICF) approach, based on functional analysis, employs clinical descriptions that are theory-free and depicts formulations constructed according to a set of basic conventions.
Aims
We report a test of whether this method could be taught and...
Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is a therapy technique that, unlike traditional re-living techniques, focuses less on exposure and verbal challenging of cognitions and instead encourages patients to directly transform the intrusive imagery to change the depicted course of events in a more desired direction. However, a comprehensive account of how and in...
The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS; Weissman, 1979) measures depression related enduring beliefs and is one of the core measures of cognitive behavioral (CBT) research and theory. It has been the central marker of etiological claims of CBT, and so any change to the understanding of the composition of the DAS would have potentially far-reaching i...
The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS; Weissman, 1979) measures depression related enduring beliefs and is one of the core measures of cognitive behavioral (CBT) research and theory. It has been the central marker of etiological claims of CBT, and so any change to the understanding of the composition of the DAS would have potentially far-reaching i...
Background
A key clinical issue is how to maximise the belief change central to cognitive therapy. Physiological arousal is a key internal cue confirming threat beliefs in anxiety disorders. Deeper extinction of anxiety may occur if catastrophizing responses to physiological arousal are inhibited prior to joint exposure with external phobic stimuli...
A generalized climate of distrust in political institutions is not functional to healthy democracies. With the advent of social media, recent scholarly efforts attempt to better understand people's conspiracy theory beliefs in inhibiting institutional trust. This study contributes to this literature by considering the direct antecedent effects of u...
Background
Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is an experiential therapy technique used to change the content and meaning of intrusive imagery in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by imagining alternative endings to traumatic events. There is growing evidence that ImRs is an effective treatment for PTSD; however, little is known about how it brings abo...
Survivor guilt can arise after surviving a trauma in which others die. No studies have systematically investigated psychological treatment for survivor guilt. The present study was a proof-of-concept investigation of treatment of survivor guilt using imagery rescripting. Thirteen participants with post-traumatic stress disorder and self-reported su...
Trust is seen as a glue in modern societies that facilitates economic prosperity and political functioning (e.g., Fukuyama, 1995; Newton, 2001; Putnam, 2000; see a more critical view of trust in Warren, 1999). In this literature, there exists a conventional division between social and political trust, as they are believed to have different foundati...
Objective: Many patients relapse within one year of completing effective cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety. Residual symptoms at treatment completion have been demonstrated to predict relapse, and so this study used network analyses to improve specificity regarding which residual anxiety and depression symptoms predict...
Childhood ITP is often considered to be a relatively mild haematological disorder, with only a minority of patients requiring treatment for troublesome bleeding. Over recent years, wider effects of the condition have been identified in some adults, particularly relating to fatigue and cognitive impairment. In this study, we sought to investigate su...
Proponents of the research credibility movement make a number of recommendations to enhance research rigour in psychology. These represent positive advances and can enhance replicability in clinical psychological science. This article evaluates whether there are any risks associated with this movement. We argue that there is the potential for resea...
Background and objectives:
Quality of reasoning within non-clinical paranoia and mental simulation of future paranoia themed events was investigated by use of a simulation task to determine whether paranoid individuals would be restricted or more adept at reasoning about paranoia relevant material in comparison to a social anxiety group and a grou...
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a highly effective treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Identifying, challenging and monitoring interpretations of intrusions is considered a key element of CBT for OCD but preliminary research suggests that treatment does not always include identification and modification of misinterpretations....
Background
It has been suggested that differences in moral judgements play a role in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Specifically, it has been proposed that individuals with OCD make moral judgements using more deontological rather than utilitarian principles. Visualising an image has also been linked to making deontological judgements in non-...
Background:
Remote area medics (RAMs) may be at increased risk of mental health difficulties.
Aims:
To explore the occupational experiences of RAMs to identify stressors and the mental health impact.
Methods:
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six RAMs working in Iraq to gather data, which was explored using interpretative phenomen...
Background:
Sleep difficulties might be a contributory causal factor in the occurrence of mental health problems. If this is true, improving sleep should benefit psychological health. We aimed to determine whether treating insomnia leads to a reduction in paranoia and hallucinations.
Methods:
We did this single-blind, randomised controlled trial...
Cognitive deficits in the domains of working memory (WM) and executive function are well documented following childhood arterial ischemic stroke (AIS). However, there are currently no evidence-based cognitive interventions for this population. Computerized, implicit WM training has been demonstrated to generate generalized cognitive gains for child...
A framework for coding process variables of imagery rescripting psychotherapy sessions.
This is a 15-item unpublished scale meant to measure orientation to risk free of measuring affect (e.g., anxiety). It incorporates content from the DOSPERT but is meant to improve on the DOSPERT in terms of applicability and relevance to anxiety problems.
Objectives. Paranoid thinking has been linked to greater availability in memory of past threats to the self. However, remembered experiences may not always closely resemble events that trigger paranoia, so novel explanations must be elaborated for the likelihood of threat to be determined. We investigated the ability of paranoid individuals to cons...
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has not been demonstrated convincingly to offer any advantage to exposure and response prevention treatment (Rosa-Alcázar, Sánchez-Meca, Gómez-Conesa, & Marín-Martínez, 2008). Therefore innovation and improvement in CBT are a clinical priority. Recently, O'Connor, Aardema, a...
Interoceptive awareness (IA)-the ability to detect internal body signals-has been linked to various aspects of emotional processing. However, it has been examined mostly as a trait variable, with few studies also investigating state dependent fluctuations in IA. Based on the known positive correlation between IA and emotional reactivity, negative a...
Problematic emotional processing has been implicated in the genesis and maintenance of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). This study built on existing research and explored performance-based emotional intelligence (EI) in people with AN. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) was administered to 32 women diagnosed with AN and 32 female h...
Objective
This study aimed to develop an understanding of excessive exercise in eating disorders by exploring the role of exercise beliefs, obsessive beliefs and obsessive-compulsive behaviours.
Method
Sixty-four women were recruited from eating disorder services and 75 non-clinical women were recruited from a university. Exercise beliefs and beha...
Although cognitive behavioral research is arguably fundamentally about meaning, meaning is seldom directly addressed. Such constructs will likely come into greater focus using a transdiagnostic approach. A need was identified for a measure of personal meaning in conjunction with functioning below previously attained levels, as can happen after sign...
The self-complexity model (Linville, 1987) predicts that individuals who have numerous self-aspects with little overlap among them will be buffered against the effects of stressful life events and will experience less depression. Despite some evidence to this effect, many replication attempts have failed (cf. Rafaeli-Mor & Steinberg, 2002). The pre...
Studies have suggested that differences in the effectiveness of therapists may be related to the therapist's ability to maintain a facilitative stance in the face of client resistance or hostility. The current study, examined a sample of audiotaped sessions from Hyams, Cartwright, and Spratley's (1996) study of engagement in an alcohol treatment se...
The construct of 'clinical perfectionism' has been developed in response to criticisms that other approaches have failed to yield advances in the treatment of the type of self-oriented perfectionism that poses a clinical problem. The primary aim of this study was to conduct a preliminary investigation into the efficacy of a theory-driven, cognitive...
Developing an understanding of the cognitive factors mediating the emotional response to recurrent miscarriage may help explain how women process and adjust to such an experience. Counterfactual thinking is a cognitive response in which individuals simulate an alternative outcome to an event, and has been found to be related to both positive and ne...
Although empirical evidence suggests that global hopelessness differentiates depression from anxiety, the degree to which
depressed and anxious patients endorse hopelessness about specific life events has yet to be investigated. In the present
study, outpatients with major depression (n=64), outpatients with generalized anxiety disorder (n=29), and...
A prospective study of 1,958 outpatients found that hopelessness, as measured by the Beck Hopelessness Scale, was significantly related to eventual suicide. A scale cutoff score of 9 or above identified 16 (94.2%) of the 17 patients who eventually committed suicide, thus replicating a previous study with hospitalized patients. The high-risk group i...
This study describes the development of a methodology for studying dynamic aspects of ongoing thought processes drawing on the theories of Kahneman and Tversky on heuristics in thinking and judgement. Specifically, the potential role of the simulation heuristic (Kahneman and Tversky, 1982) in worry about future outcomes was examined. Women who were...
The development of a measure of attitudes and beliefs intended to index a psychological vulnerability to anxiety problems is described. Items for the Anxiety Attitude and Belief Scale (AABS) were developed by polling researchers and clinicians active in the area of anxiety disorders. The initial psychometric properties of the resulting scale were e...
Numerous authors have discussed the need for empirical research concerning the sexuality of individuals with intellectual disabilities (Cambridge, 1997; Murray & Minnes, 1994). Within the present study, 332 employees from three different organisations (NHS, Social Services, and the private & voluntary sector) providing services to individuals with...
Empirical tests of the diathesis-stress component of A. T. Beck's (1976; A. T. Beck, A. J. Rush, B. F. Shaw, & G. Emery, 1979) cognitive theory of depression have generally not yielded positive results. The resulting focus on conceptual and methodological concerns has diverted attention from the more fundamental issue of how validly vulnerability i...
To determine if specific sets of dysfunctional attitudes were related to suicidal ideation, the 100-item Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) was administered to 908 psychiatric outpatients along with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Self-Concept Test (BST), and Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI). The SSI was used to class...
Unipolar depression is frequently a recurrent or chronic disorder. In studies on predicting its course, outcomes are typically linked to either psychiatric features or stressful life events. In order to integrate the 2 approaches, 51 unipolar patients were assessed periodically over at least 1 year for symptoms, stressful events, and chronic stress...
Although the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale has been used extensively in clinical research, its psychometric properties in a clinical population have not been reported. In this study, the responses of a large clinical sample (N = 2,023) on the original 100-item DAS were factor analyzed. On the basis of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, th...
The present study of high school sophmores assessed the prominence of weight concerns relative to other worries typical of adolescents. Subjects were 453 females and 355 males from a parochial school who indicated how much they worried about each of 15 items. Girls reported worrying most about looks, figure, weight, and popularity with and relation...
The development and psychometric characteristics of the Beck Self-Concept Test (BST) are described. The BST is a 25-item self-report instrument that asks respondents to evaluate themselves in relation to other people whom they know. An item analysis with 550 psychiatric outpatients diagnosed primarily with DSM-III-R mood or anxiety disorders indica...
Surveyed 173 family therapists on beliefs and practices regarding the decision to exclude children from family psychotherapy (FPT). The tendency to exclude children from FPT was directly related to amount of coursework and supervision and perceived adequacy of training. 48 of 125 Ss who had received training with children reported that more than 25...
The development and psychometric characteristics of the Beck Self-Concept Test (BST) are described. The BST is a 25-item self-report instrument that asks respondents to evaluate themselves in relation to other people whom they know. An item analysis with 550 psychiatric outpatients diagnosed primarily with DSM–III–R mood or anxiety disorders indica...
Family therapists’ beliefs and practices with regard to the decision to exclude children from family psychotherapy were surveyed. Differences between excluders and includers were found to exist with therapists’ personal inclinations and professional training being the most influential. Implications for training, practice, and future research are di...
A prospective study of 1,958 outpatients found that hopelessness, as measured by the Beck Hopelessness Scale, was significantly related to eventual suicide. A scale cutoff score of 9 or above identified 16 (94.2%) of the 17 patients who eventually committed suicide, thus replicating a previous study with hospitalized patients. The high-risk group i...
The authors examined the impact of life stress on the course of bipolar disorder over a 2-year period in a group of 61 outpatients. The patients were followed prospectively with ongoing assessments of stressful life events, symptoms, levels of maintenance medication, and compliance with treatment regimens. As predicted, survival analyses indicated...
The revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 174 male and 276 female psychiatric outpatients diagnosed with affective disorders. The mean BDI scores, mean number of symptoms claimed, and corrected item-total correlations were comparable for both sexes, and the coefficient alpha for each sex was .88. Principal components analyses...
In his recent formulations of rational emotive therapy (RET), Ellis (1985) has increasingly emphasized what he believes to be the central role of necessitous thinking or musturbation in the development of depression. In his most recent article (Ellis, 1987), he suggests that necessitous thinking is the primary cognitive component of depression and...
We investigated the degree of content specificity evident in the negative cognitions associated with anxiety and depression in two large samples of general psychiatric outpatients. Standardized measures of affect and cognition were analyzed in a multiple regression design. As predicted by Beck's (1967, 1976, 1987) cognitive theory of psychopatholog...
We investigated the degree of content specificity evident in the negative cognitions associated with anxiety and depression in two large samples of general psychiatric outpatients. Standardized measures of affect and cognition were analyzed in a multiple regression design. As predicted by Beck’s (1967, 1976, 1987) cognitive theory of psychopatholog...
A 9-point clinical rating scale was used to assess the severity of hopelessness in 141 patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation. The patients were followed from 5 to 10 years, and 10 (7.1%) eventually committed suicide. The mean hopelessness rating for the patients committing suicide was significantly higher than that for the patients not commi...
A 9-point clinical rating scale was used to assess the severity of hopelessness in 141 patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation. The patients were followed from 5 to 10 years, and 10 (7.1%) eventually committed suicide. The mean hopelessness rating for the patients committing suicide was significantly higher than that for the patients not commi...
The development of a 21-item self-report inventory for measuring the severity of anxiety in psychiatric populations is described. The initial item pool of 86 items was drawn from three preexisting scales: the Anxiety Checklist, the Physician’s Desk Reference Checklist, and the Situational Anxiety Checklist. A series of analyses was used to reduce t...
To determine the extent to which negativity about the future is specific to depression, the Hopelessness Scale (HS) scores of 199 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) were compared with those of 48 patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 76 psychiatric patients with mixed nonaffective, nonanxiety disorders....
This study examined the interrater reliability of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) diagnoses derived from the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III (SCID). Using videotaped interviews, paired raters made independent diagnoses of 75 psychiatric outpatients. The percent agreement of the raters was 82% for MDD...
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) were used with 300 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-III major depression disorders. A principal-components analysis was performed on the intercorrelations among the 21 BDI and 24 HRSD symptoms. Three orthogonal components were found and interpreted as...
The ability of the Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) to discriminate major depressive disorder (MDD) from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was studied in 120 psychiatric outpatients and cross-validated with another 71 outpatients. Factor and discriminant analyses were used to deve...
The development and initial psychometric properties of the Cognition Checklist (CCL), a scale to measure the frequency of automatic thoughts relevant to anxiety and depression, are described in this article. Item analyses of the responses of 618 psychiatric outpatients identified a 14-item depression and a 12-item anxiety subscale that were signifi...
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 168 outpatients diagnosed with recurrent-episode, major-depression disorders and 99 outpatients diagnosed with dysthymic disorders. The mean ratings of 18 BDI items, except for Sense of Failure, Punishment, and Crying, were comparable in both groups; the mean total-BDI score and mean number of...
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 168 outpatients diagnosed with recurrent-episode, major-depression disorders and 99 outpatients diagnosed with dysthymic disorders. The mean ratings of 18 BDI items, except for Sense of Failure, Punishment, and Crying, were comparable in both groups; the mean total-BDI score and mean number of...
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 35 outpatients diagnosed according to the DSM-III as primary generalized anxiety disorders and 101 outpatients diagnosed as primary major-depression and dysthymic disorders. A backward stepwise-discriminant analysis revealed that Sadness and Loss of Libido were the only two symptoms that meani...
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was administered to 35 outpatients diagnosed according to the DSM-III as primary generalized anxiety disorders and 101 outpatients diagnosed as primary major-depression and dysthymic disorders. A backward stepwise-discriminant analysis revealed that Sadness and Loss of Libido were the only two symptoms that meani...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1993. Typescript (photocopy). Vita. Includes bibliographical references.