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Generalization, Adverse Events, and Development of Depressive Symptoms
Abstract
Many diathesis-stress models have been proposed in which cognitive processes of various types are presumed to represent vulnerabilities to development of depressive symptoms. This study tested three potential vulnerabilities as prospective predictors of such symptoms: the holding of especially high standards, the tendency to be self-critical after failure, and the tendency to generalize from a single failure to the broader sense of self-worth. At the start of a semester, college students completed a measure of these cognitive tendencies and a measure of depressive symptoms. Six weeks later they completed the same measure of depressive symptoms and a brief measure of intervening life events. Hierarchical regression analysis yielded evidence that Generalization interacted with adverse events to predict subsequent depressive symptoms. Self-Criticism also tended to predict later symptoms, but only if the symptoms were present initially. High Standards had no adverse effect.
... This crosssectional association has been observed for individuals with current major depressive disorder (van den Heuvel et al., 2012) and individuals with a history of major depressive disorder (Eisner et al., 2008) compared to people who never had experiences consistent with depression. When examined over time, it has been found that negative overgeneralization prospectively predicts higher levels of depression (Carver, 1998; but see Carver et al., 1988). Further, there is some evidence for the specificity of the association between negative overgeneralization and depression. ...
... The second aim was to further examine the correlations by testing the predictive association between our different overgeneralization variables and the course of depression. Based on the findings of Carver (1998), and the putative causal role for negative overgeneralization in depression (e.g., Beck et al., 1979), we hypothesized that both forms of negative overgeneralization would predict levels of depression symptoms prospectively, as well as the probable recurrence of such episodes in participants with a history of major depressive disorder. For overgeneralization at the level of memory functioning (i.e., OGM), we hypothesized, given the findings of the meta-analysis of Hallford et al., (2021aHallford et al., ( , 2021bHallford et al., ( , 2021cHallford et al., ( , 2021d, that OGM would also predict higher Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. ...
... Higher levels of negative overgeneralization to the self and OGM at baseline predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms after six months when covarying baseline depressive symptoms and a probable history of major depression. With respect to the former, this finding is in line with the results of the study by Carver (1998) in showing that the pattern can be generalized from a sample of undergraduate students (Carver, 1998) to a more heterogeneous (and larger) community sample. Further, it shows that this remains a significant predictor even when taking into account prior probable history of major depression, important given that people who have suffered from major depression in the past show higher levels of negative overgeneralization to the self than people who did had experiences consistent with depression (Eisner et al., 2008). ...
Background
Depression is characterized by different forms of overgeneralization that are all assumed to play a causal role in the development and course of depression.
Methods
We examined, in a community sample of over 625 individuals, whether these different forms of overgeneralization are correlated and whether they are prospective predictors of depression at 6-month follow-up.
Results
Negative overgeneralization to the self and across situations—two types of overgeneralized thinking processes—were significantly but weakly related, but neither of them was related to overgeneral memory—a memory-based form of overgeneralization. Overgeneralization to the self and overgeneral memory both predicted depression symptoms at follow-up. Further, two and three-way interactions indicated that higher levels of overgeneralization processes interact to predict depressive symptoms. Overgeneralization to the self and overgeneral memory both independently predicted probable recurrence of a major depressive episode during the follow-up period in individuals that formerly experienced depression.
Conclusions
Findings suggest that overgeneralization in depression is not a unitary construct and that different overgeneralization processes play independent and interacting roles in the course of depression.
... Furthermore, there is a lack of research exploring the association between maternal negative cognitive style and specific components of offspring cognitive style, such as negative generalization, that might be developed through modeling. Negative generalization is the tendency for an individual to generalize from a single failure to their broader sense of self-worth (Carver 1998). And, the negative cognitive style featured in the hopelessness theory involves the tendency to overgeneralize from the experience of negative life events to drawing conclusions about one's overall negative selfworth. ...
... And, the negative cognitive style featured in the hopelessness theory involves the tendency to overgeneralize from the experience of negative life events to drawing conclusions about one's overall negative selfworth. Similar to the existing literature on negative cognitive style more broadly, negative generalization also has been shown to be associated with increased depressive symptoms (Carver 1998), presence of lifetime major depressive disorder (Eisner et al. 2008), and increased anxiety symptoms (Fulford et al. 2012). ...
... In the model, there is evidence that, among mothers, having a history of depression is associated with having a more negative cognitive style. Similarly, the present study replicated the previously observed association between negative generalization and depressive (Carver 1998) and anxiety (Fulford et al. 2012) symptoms in youth. The results from the model revealed that greater adolescent negative generalization predicted greater adolescent depressive and anxiety symptoms prospectively at follow-up. ...
The mechanisms of the well-documented relationship between maternal depression and offspring psychopathology are not yet fully understood. Building upon cognitive theories of depression and the modeling hypothesis, path analyses tested whether maternal depression history predicted adolescent internalizing symptoms via the transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities within a sample of 635 adolescents (Mage = 13.1 years, range = 11.2–17.2 years; 53% female; 48% African American/Black) and their primary female caregivers. Maternal depression history did not directly predict adolescent symptoms. Two significant indirect effects were found; maternal depression history was associated with maternal negative cognitive style, which predicted greater adolescent negative generalization, which, in turn, predicted adolescents’ greater depressive and anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that the transmission of cognitive vulnerabilities may link maternal depression and offspring internalizing psychopathology.
... Furthermore, the generalization literature has mainly focused on negative generalization (e.g., Kernis, Brocknell, Frankel, 1989;Carver, 1998; or see overgeneralization in depression, Beck, 1976). However, Klar and colleagues (1997) and van den Heuvel and colleagues (2012) found that depressed individuals showed less positive generalization (and more negative generalization) than healthy controls. ...
... Both the processing mode (Watkins, 2011) and generalization literature (e.g., Kernis, Brocknell, Frankel, 1989;Carver, 1998) have mainly focused on negative events (e.g., failures) and have focused on their relation with psychopathology (e.g., depression, Carver, 1998; anxiety, Lissek et al., 2008). Experimental manipulations of abstract (vs. ...
... This impact of one failure on the way individuals perceive expectations of future outcomes and even the way they perceive themselves following this failure has been called the process of generalization. (Carver, 1998) Hence, athletes could generalize the outcome of one particular competition to future competition and even to their totality of their self-concept and to broader domains in life (Watkins, 2008). ...
The way athletes prospect future success or failure following a single success or failure is called “generalization”. This study examined the roles of an abstract “why” vs. a concrete “how” processing style on athletes’ generalization to future performances and to their self-concept (N = 668). We hypothesized that athletes in the “why” condition would show more negative/positive generalization. We also explored the impact of how individuals in the “why” condition attributed their success or failure performance. There was no main difference between processing styles but athletes with more functional attributions showed more positive generalization and athletes with more dysfunctional attributions showed more negative generalization. These results show that attributions could be driving the effects of an abstract “why” processing style on generalization. For athletes with an elevated depression score it might be particularly important to focus on generalizations following success and train these athletes to make functional attributions.
... Blackburn and Eunson (1989) and Lefebvre (1981) suggested that the CEs 'selective abstraction' (i.e., attending to negative aspects of a situation), 'overgeneralization' (i.e., forming conclusions that extend beyond the situation), and 'arbitrary inference' (i.e., catastrophising) are most prevalent in depression. Several other seminal studies (Carver, 1998;Carver & Ganellen, 1983) have also found the CE 'overgeneralization' to predict depressed mood among college students. Additionally, Diez-Alegria, Vazquez, Nieto-Moreno, Valiente and Fuentenebro (2006) found that individuals with depression make significantly more 'internal negative attributions' (personalisation) for negative events compared to individuals without depression. ...
... To date, studies that have examined CEs have primarily focused on the role of interpersonal satisfaction/conflict as a marker of interpersonal functioning in nonclinical populations (individuals experiencing a normal reaction to a painful life event). Carver (1998) found that the CE 'overgeneralization' was associated with the experience of more adverse relationship events. In 2002, Henriques and Lietenberg found that the tendency to make negative CEs was a significant predictor of negative social feedback and of increase in depressed mood. ...
... Schwartzman et al. (2012) suggest that for an individual with depression, the interpersonal behaviour of 'freeing and forgetting' provides a degree of interpersonal distance that is similar to interpersonal withdrawal (Joiner, 2002). These results are also consistent with past studies that found the CEs 'overgeneralization' (Carver, 1998) and 'personalization' (Sayers, Kohn, Fresco, Bellack & Sarwer, 2001) to be associated with interpersonal difficulties. ...
Background
Cognitive and interpersonal variables are often understood to be related to the etiology and maintenance of major depression. However, few studies have examined the relationship between these two constructs.
Aim
This study examined the association between cognitive errors (CEs) most commonly endorsed among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and their interpersonal functioning.
Method
These processes were examined early in psychotherapy and at the end of 20 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy for depression. Therapy transcripts of 42 clients with MDD were rated for CEs using the Cognitive Error Rating Scale (CERS: Drapeau, Perry & Dunkley, 2008) and for interpersonal behaviors using the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB: Benjamin & Cushing, 2000).
Findings
Results of this study revealed significant associations between CEs and interpersonal behaviors early in treatment and at the end of treatment. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of improving psychotherapy process and outcome.
... This period (February-March 2016) coincided with the end of the first semester examination period. The T2 assessment comprised a questionnaire package, including the second assessment of depressive symptoms (BDI-II) and ruminative brooding (RRS Brooding subscale), together with a questionnaire assessing the number of encountered adverse events during the 5-months follow-up period (Adverse Events Questionnaire, AEQ; Carver, 1998). The T2 assessment also included the completion of the eye-tracking engagement-disengagement task for a second time. ...
... Frequency of adverse events during the 5-months follow-up period. The AEQ (Carver, 1998) was used to measure the frequency of experiencing adverse events during the last five months. The AEQ is a 4 items selfreport questionnaire especially designed for student populations and is intended to track the occurrence of adverse events commonly occurring in student lives. ...
Brooding is considered a maladaptive form of emotion regulation linking adverse events to increases in depressive symptoms. The “Impaired Disengagement Hypothesis” (Koster, De Lissnyder, Derakshan & De Raedt, 2011) proposes that attentional disengagement processes are a main mechanism involved in the emergence and maintenance of brooding responses. In this study we tested prospective predictions derived from this framework, relying on eye-tracking to assess direct processes of attentional disengagement from emotional faces (i.e., time to move gaze away from either positive or negative faces when prompted to fixate a different face). A sample of undergraduates (n = 89) completed measures of depression, brooding, and the attentional disengagement task at baseline (beginning of the semester) and five months later (immediately after a stressful period: examination). The results supported a moderated mediation model where slower disengagement from positive faces at baseline (predictor) predicted decreases in brooding during the follow-up period (mediator), indirectly predicting decreased depressive symptoms at follow-up (outcome) in individuals encountering more adverse events during the follow-up period (moderator). Furthermore, analyses also supported a moderation model where more habitual brooding at baseline (predictor) predicted slower disengagement from negative faces at follow-up (outcome) in individuals encountering more adverse events (moderator). Our findings support bidirectional influences between attentional disengagement and brooding and highlight protective attention patterns with implications for the development of efficient strategies for the prevention of depression.
... La filosofía del centro, sus normas, prácticas, comportamientos de los profesionales y de la comunidad, la estructura de la organización y sus sistemas de gestión, entre otros aspectos, van a influir en las prácticas que se lleven a cabo. Por ello, estas deberán estar basadas en unos valores que promuevan, la defensa Por otra parte, las prácticas deberán estar centradas en los múltiples aspectos positivos que tiene cada persona y orientadas a su crecimiento positivo y no a la " acomodación " (Carver, 1998) ya que esto supone que las personas rebajen las demandas que hacen a la sociedad y aminoren sus expectativas (McMillen, Zuravin y Rideout, 1995). Aunque unas prácticas orientadas a la acomodación pueden dar lugar a unos resultados positivos que mejoren la adaptación de la persona a sus contextos, no van a producir procesos de enriquecimiento y crecimiento personal que son los que promoverán la vida independiente de las personas con discapacidad. ...
... En Este instrumento, como se ha expuesto ampliamente en la parte teórica, ha sido investigado a nivel internacional (Dyson, 2001; Norwich et al., 2001; Corbett, 2001; Vaughan, 2002; Rose, 2002; Vislie, 2003; Channon, 2003; Hick, 2005; Rustemier y Booth, 2005; Heung, 2006; Ainscow, 2007; Booth, 2008, 2007, 2008, 2010a, 2010b), como divulgativa como pueden ser las revistas o los libros publicados por la Asociación ( Castillo, 2007 Castillo, , 2009 Castillo, , 2010). Dicha información ha sido complementada con la documentación técnica analizada sobre inclusión (FEAPS, 2009; Villalobos y Zalakain, 2010; Echeita, 2007; Meza, 2010; Ainscow, 2010; Norwich, 2008; OMS, 2001;), sobre las características de las organizaciones inclusivas: cultura (Wilkins y Ouchi, 1983; Aiman-Smith, 2004; Shein, 1996 Shein, , 2004 Priante, 2003; Partson, 2010; Cox y Cox, 2001; Hamburger, 2008), sobre las políticas inclusivas (Carneiro, 2002; Strully y Broderick, 2010; Booth, 2008; Blair, 2010; UN ESCAP, 2010; Craig, 2010) y sobre las prácticas inclusivas ( EUSE, 2005, ONU, 2006; Iso-Ahola y St.Clair, 2000; Carver, 1998; McMillen, Zuravin y Rideout, 1995; Deci y Ryan, 1980 Wehmeyer, 2005 Wehmeyer, , 2009 Csikszentmihalyi, 1996 Csikszentmihalyi, ,1998). CAPITULO 5. Adaptación del Index para la inclusión para centros para personas con discapacidad (En primer lugar se les indica que, desde su punto de vista, señalen la sección (en el cuestionario se denomina categoría) a la que pertenece cada indicador (en el cuestionario se denomina ítem) teniendo en cuenta las seis secciones que se muestran. ...
... Given these cognitive models of depression, it also logically follows that the tendency to overgeneralize negative experiences would be detrimental for psychological wellbeing. Indeed, individuals' propensity to overgeneralize from a single failure to their total sense of self-worth also predicts the onset of depressive symptoms (Carver, 1998). ...
... Furthermore, cognitive theories of depression assert that people's tendency to generalize from negative life experiences is an important predisposition to developing depression (Beck, 1987;Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989). For example, people who attribute a negative instance (e.g., doing poorly on a test) to something stable in their personality and generalize this one bad occurrence to their total sense of self-worth are especially vulnerable to depression (Alloy et al., 2000(Alloy et al., , 2006Carver, 1998). The current research suggests that overgeneralizing negatives need not only relate to personally relevant life experiences. ...
Negative cognitive biases both characterize and predict depressive symptoms. In the current study, we explored the role of individual differences in valence weighting, people's tendency to weight resemblance to a known positive versus a known negative more strongly when generalizing from their existing attitudes to novel objects. To assess participants' valence weighting proclivities, we had participants play a game in which they interacted with novel objects that had the ability to either decrease or increase participants' points. Following the game participants classified as good or bad (i.e., would increase or decrease points) the objects they saw during the game, as well as new objects that varied in resemblance to both positive and negative game objects. Participants had to generalize their positive and negative attitudes to these new objects and weight the negative and positive characteristics (i.e., their resemblance to good and bad objects encountered during the game). Thus, we could assess participants' valence weighting tendencies by indexing their classification of these new objects. This measure of participants' weighting bias predicted changes in depressive symptoms across the academic term, and did so above and beyond a traditional self-report measure of negative and positive affect. Specifically, participants who strongly weighted negative information when generalizing their attitudes towards novel objects reported relatively more depressive symptoms at the end of the term.
... In essence, generalization is actually adaptive because it helps people to transfer knowledge over situations (Hermans et al., 2013). However, negative overgeneralization, as seen in depression and individuals with low self-esteem (e.g., Kernis et al., 1989;Carver, 1998;Libby et al., 2011), refers to generalization that is inappropriate because it is excessive (Epstein, 1992). The vast majority of the (over)generalization literature consists of studies on negative generalization (i.e., generalization following negative events, failures; e.g., Kernis et al., 1989;Carver, 1998;Fulford et al., 2012). ...
... However, negative overgeneralization, as seen in depression and individuals with low self-esteem (e.g., Kernis et al., 1989;Carver, 1998;Libby et al., 2011), refers to generalization that is inappropriate because it is excessive (Epstein, 1992). The vast majority of the (over)generalization literature consists of studies on negative generalization (i.e., generalization following negative events, failures; e.g., Kernis et al., 1989;Carver, 1998;Fulford et al., 2012). Moreover, in two experimental studies with negative stimuli, it has been shown that abstract processing (relative to concrete processing) increases negative generalization (Van Lier et al., 2014, 2015. ...
Generalizing from a single failure or success to future performances and their self-concept could have an important impact on sport participants. This study examined the impact of the way sport participants think about success on positive generalization. Sport participants (N = 222) completed an online experimental study in which they were induced to think about meanings, causes and implications (i.e., abstract-“why”-thinking) or about more perceptual concrete aspects of their performance (i.e., concrete-“how”-thinking). We hypothesized that abstract-“why”-thinking would lead to greater positive generalization and that this effect would be moderated by self-esteem. Our results supported our hypothesis that abstract thinking increased positive generalization, and this effect was more clearly visible in sport participants with higher self-esteem. These results suggest that retrospective thinking about the “why” of a good performance may benefit athletes in the long run because they generalize the outcome to future performances and their self-concept which may boost their motivation and consequently their performance.
... Negative generalization has also been found to be elevated among persons with a diagnosis of lifetime major depression, (Eisner, Johnson, & Carver, 2008), even controlling for current depressive symptoms. Negative generalization has also predicted prospective increases in depressive symptoms after negative life events (Carver, 1998). Substantial evidence has also accrued for the role of cognitive variables in anxiety. ...
... Responses were averaged, to keep the total scores on the same metric as the response options. In previous research, this Generalization scale has been shown to relate to depression, as measured by the BDI (Carver et al., 1988), and to interact with adverse events to predict depressive symptoms over time (Carver, 1998). Carver and colleagues (1983) reported an average test-retest correlation for generalization of .62 from two samples over 6week intervals. ...
The tendency to generalize from a single failure to one's entire self-worth is an important correlate and predictor of depression. Despite conceptual overlap between cognitive biases in anxiety and depression, little research has examined whether negative generalization relates to anxiety symptoms. We examined associations of negative generalization with symptoms of several anxiety disorders, above and beyond its association with lifetime symptoms of depression, among 248 undergraduates. After controlling for lifetime symptoms of major depression, negative generalization was significantly correlated with symptoms of each anxiety disorder tested, most notably generalized anxiety and social phobia.
... Another harm associated with perfectionism is an increase in interpersonal sensitivity (Mohammadian et al., 2018). Therefore, to examine the convergent validity, the correlation between perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity was examined, and self-critical perfectionism had the most positive and significant correlation with interpersonal sensitivity because perfectionists with self-criticism emphasize the negative aspects of events and consider ordinary events as threatening (Hewitt & Flett, 1993) and perceive their own effectiveness in these situations as low and expect criticism from others in dealing with makes them adopt an avoidance approach (Carver, 1998 (2019) and Kaçar-Başaran et al. (2022). The value of composite reliability (CR) was higher than .60, ...
Introduction
Perfectionism is a common personality trait, particularly among university students. As awareness of this trait increases, research seeks to update tools for measuring it. The psychometric properties of the three‐dimensional perfectionism scale‐short form (BTPS‐SF) have not been studied in the Iranian population. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of this 16‐item scale among Iranian university students.
Methods
The statistical population for this research included all students in Tehran. From this population, 528 students were selected, and data analysis was performed using SPSS 26 and AMOS 24 software.
Results
The findings showed that the BTPS‐SF has acceptable validity and reliability. Furthermore, a positive and significant correlation was found between perfectionism and interpersonal sensitivity, whereas a negative and significant correlation was found between perfectionism and self‐compassion.
Conclusion
Given the desirable psychometric properties of the Persian version of the BTPS‐SF, its use can be recommended to psychology experts in research and clinical evaluation situations.
... Feelings Trigger Action covers the tendencies to engage in regrettable speech or action in response to positive or negative emotions and is comprised of the Negative Urgency measure (from the UPPS, Whiteside & Lynam, 2001), the Positive Urgency Measure (Cyders et al., 2007), and a newly created scale referred to as Reflexive Reactions to Feelings. Pervasive Influence of Feelings refers to unconstrained impact of (mostly negative) emotion on cognition and motivation, and is comprised of Negative Generalization (Carver, 1998) and two new subscales referred to as Sadness Paralysis and Emotions Color Worldview. The non-emotional impulsivity factor, Lack of Follow Through, refers to impulsiveness interfering with the completion of intended actions and provides a control comparison to hypotheses concerning emotion-related impulsivity. ...
Objective:
Several dimensions have received attention for their potential role in explaining shared variance in transdiagnostic symptoms of psychopathology. We hypothesized emotion-related impulsivity, the trait-like tendency toward difficulty restraining responses to emotion, would relate to symptoms of psychopathology, with two separable dimensions of emotion-related impulsivity relating distinctly to internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Method:
Across two studies, we tested hypotheses using structural equation models of emotion-related impulsivity and multiple indicators of internalizing, externalizing, and thought symptoms.
Results:
In Study 1 (658 undergraduates), emotion-related impulsivity was highly correlated with the general psychopathology (p) factor. In study 2 (421 Mechanical Turk participants), models did not support a general p factor, however, we replicated the hypothesized associations of emotion-related impulsivity dimensions with internalizing and externalizing factors. Across both studies, forms of emotion-related impulsivity uniquely and differentially related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms.
Conclusions:
Findings indicate emotion-related impulsivity may help explain transdiagnostic dimensions of psychopathology, such as the p factor.
... Today it is well established that (meta)cognitive biases including dysfunctional thought patterns characterize the psychopathology of depression. Classic CBT accounts (Beck et al., 1979) attribute a central role to depressive thought patterns in the development and maintenance of the disorder (Carver, 1998;Wisco, 2009) and their modification has become an integral part of established CBT protocols (Furlong & Oei, 2002). Besides dysfunctional cognitions, it has been shown that metacognitive beliefs can significantly predict change in depression over time (Faissner et al., 2018). ...
Background:
Metacognitive Training for Depression (D-MCT) is a novel low-intensity group training for economic treatment of depression. Previous studies demonstrate its efficacy in moderately depressed outpatients. The present study evaluated efficacy and patient's perspective of the D-MCT in severely depressed psychiatric inpatients.
Methods:
In a randomized-controlled trial, 75 individuals with a major depressive disorder (MDD) were allocated to D-MCT versus Euthymic therapy as add-on (twice a week) to cognitive-behavioural-based (CBT) inpatient-care. Depressive symptoms (HDRS, BDI), dysfunctional (meta)cognition (DAS, MCQ-30), and subjective appraisal were assessed at baseline, 4 weeks (post) and 3 months (follow-up).
Results:
Participants in both conditions showed a large decline in depression at post and follow-up-assessment. No superior add-effect of D-MCT versus active control emerged for depression severity on top of the inpatient care. However, among patients with a diagnosis of MDD with no (vs. at least one) comorbidity, D-MCT participants showed a larger decline in depressive (meta-)cognition at follow-up with medium-to-large effect sizes. D-MCT was evaluated as superior in overall appraisal, treatment preference, motivation, and satisfaction.
Limitations:
The follow-up time interval of 3 months may have been too short to detect long-term effects. There is emerging evidence that modification of (meta)cognition unfolds its full effects only with time. Effects of CBT inpatient-care on outcome parameters cannot be differentiated.
Conclusions:
Although D-MCT as an add-on was not superior in complete case analyses, results suggest greater benefit for patients with MDD and no comorbidity. D-MCT proved feasible in acute-psychiatric inpatient-care and was highly accepted by patients. Future studies should investigate the role of modified (meta)cognition on long-term treatment outcome, including dropout and relapse rates.
... Additionally, they precede and predict associated affective symptoms [1,8,9]. A recurrent cognitive symptom across MDD, GAD, and PTSD is overgeneralization of negative memories [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], which involves excessive control of behavior by negative memories, even in neutral situations. Stress can promote generalization of negative memories [21,22]; however, the neurobiological and circuit mechanisms underlying this effect are not wellunderstood. ...
Memories of negative experiences exert important control of behavior in the face of actual or anticipated threat. Sometimes, however, this control extends to non-threatening situations, a phenomenon known as overgeneralization of negative memories. Overgeneralization is a reliable cognitive phenotype of major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. We therefore sought to develop an animal model to study stress-induced generalization of negative memories (SIG) and determine its dependence on the episodic-like memory circuit. We found that male and female mice, which were trained to differentiate a threatening from neutral context, exhibited robust SIG in response to subsequent social stress. Using chemogenetic circuit manipulations during memory retrieval, we demonstrated that both excitatory afferents to the dorsal hippocampus (DH) from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and excitatory efferents from the DH to the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) contribute to SIG. Based on the known roles of these projections, we suggest that (1) by targeting subcortical VTA circuits that provide valence signals to the DH, stress prioritizes the retrieval of negative over neutral memories, and (2) by forwarding such information to the RSC, stress engages cortical mechanisms that support the retrieval of general relative to specific memory features. Altogether, these results suggest that various components of the extended hippocampal circuit can serve as treatment targets for memory overgeneralization.
... These psychological processes amplify, attenuate, or maintain the strength of various emotional reactions (Gross and John, 1998;Davidson, 2000). Self-regulatory processes have been shown to reduce experiential avoidance (Hayes et al., 1996), thought suppression (Wegner, 1994), or over-engagement in worry (Borkovec, 1994), rumination (Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991), and overgeneralization (Carver, 1998)-aspects that together facilitate emotional self-regulation (Kumar, 2002). ...
Background: Psychological literature emphasizes that self-regulation is important as goal intentions, goal setting, or implementation intention does not automatically result in effective results in coaching. The question which coaching strategies to apply to strengthening clients' self-regulatory capacities as prerequisites of effective change outcomes remains a black box in coaching.
Method: This quantitative study explored clients' self-regulatory mechanisms by addressing how nonverbal synchrony influences clients' cognitive and emotional self-regulation across sessions. One hundred eighty-four coach–client pairs and their evolving change process were observed over 8 months. Video-recorded sessions were assessed with motion energy analysis to automatically capture coach and client nonverbal behavior and quantify nonverbal synchrony at the level of the dyad.
Results: Synchrony was differentially associated with clients' post-session questionnaires on result-oriented problem-reflection and self-reflection, affect balance, and working alliance. Network analyses suggested that the association between synchrony and other process variables did not correspond to the previously found positive association between synchrony and positive aspects of alliance or outcome. Instead, this association depended on the level of perceived outcome.
Discussion: Coaching success may be predicted by process variables assessed after each session: goal reflection, alliance, and mood all predict successful coaching. The assessment of nonverbal synchrony suggests a state-dependent effect of embodied processes on a coaching outcome that warrants further inspection.
... Such theories typically emphasize higher-order goals that are cross-situational and integrated within the individual's sense of self (James, 1948). In their ongoing pursuit of personal goals, people continuously compare their actual behaviors with their representations of the kind of person they are striving to become (Carver, 1998;Gollwitzer, 1999;Higgins, 1987). This ongoing self-evaluation has significant repercussions for the individual's emotional and motivational state, and ultimately, for well-being and psychopathology (Karoly, 1993). ...
A general psychopathology (‘p’) factor captures transdiagnostic features of mental illness; however, the meaning of the p factor remains unclear. Regulatory focus theory postulates that individuals regulate goal pursuit either by maximizing gains (promotion) or minimizing losses (prevention). As maladaptive goal pursuit has been associated with multiple categorical disorders, we examined whether individual differences in promotion and prevention goal pursuit are associated with p as well as internalizing- and externalizing-specific factors using structural equation modeling of data from 1330 volunteers aged 18-22. Unsuccessful attainment of promotion and prevention goals was related to increased levels of p. Over and above relations with the p factor, unsuccessful attainment of promotion goals was associated with higher internalizing-specific psychopathology, whereas unsuccessful attainment of prevention goals was related to higher externalizing-specific psychopathology. These associations also were separable from related personality traits. After controlling for sex differences in the composition of the psychopathology factors, there were no sex differences in the relations between promotion and prevention goal pursuit and p and specific internalizing and externalizing factors. These findings suggest higher general psychopathology reflects poorer overall self-regulation of goal pursuit and that maladaptive promotion and prevention orientations also are associated with internalizing- and externalizing-specific psychopathology, respectively.
... The Adult Service Use Schedule (ADSUS-adapted) [73,74] will be adapted for adolescents and young adults and is a well-established measure within the health economics field used to index relevant health and social care costs for trial participants. The Adverse Events Questionnaire is a brief measure designed to assess stressful events in young people across the domains of academic study, relationships, other bad experiences, hassles, which is proven to predict subsequent depression [75]. ...
Background
Promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people is a major global priority. Building emotional competence (EC) skills via a mobile app may be an effective, scalable and acceptable way to do this. However, few large-scale controlled trials have examined the efficacy of mobile apps in promoting mental health in young people; none have tailored the app to individual profiles.
Method/design
The Emotional Competence for Well-Being in Young Adults cohort multiple randomised controlled trial (cmRCT) involves a longitudinal prospective cohort to examine well-being, mental health and EC in 16–22 year olds across 12 months. Within the cohort, eligible participants are entered to either the PREVENT trial (if selected EC scores at baseline within worst-performing quartile) or to the PROMOTE trial (if selected EC scores not within worst-performing quartile). In both trials, participants are randomised (i) to continue with usual practice, repeated assessments and a self-monitoring app; (ii) to additionally receive generic cognitive-behavioural therapy self-help in app; (iii) to additionally receive personalised EC self-help in app. In total, 2142 participants aged 16 to 22 years, with no current or past history of major depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis will be recruited across UK, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. Assessments take place at baseline (pre-randomisation), 1, 3 and 12 months post-randomisation. Primary endpoint and outcome for PREVENT is level of depression symptoms on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 at 3 months; primary endpoint and outcome for PROMOTE is emotional well-being assessed on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale at 3 months. Depressive symptoms, anxiety, well-being, health-related quality of life, functioning and cost-effectiveness are secondary outcomes. Compliance, adverse events and potentially mediating variables will be carefully monitored.
Conclusions
The trial aims to provide a better understanding of the causal role of learning EC skills using interventions delivered via mobile phone apps with respect to promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people. This knowledge will be used to develop and disseminate innovative evidence-based, feasible, and effective Mobile-health public health strategies for preventing poor mental health and promoting well-being.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.org). Number of identification: NCT04148508 November 2019.
... and sensory features of upsetting events to reduce overgeneralization and improve problem-solving. Concreteness training is therefore hypothesized to specifically reduce the overgeneralization cognitive bias identified as important in depression (53,58). ...
A large amount of research time and resources are spent trying to develop or improve psychological therapies. However, treatment development is challenging and time-consuming, and the typical research process followed—a series of standard randomized controlled trials—is inefficient and sub-optimal for answering many important clinical research questions. In other areas of health research, recognition of these challenges has led to the development of sophisticated designs tailored to increase research efficiency and answer more targeted research questions about treatment mechanisms or optimal delivery. However, these innovations have largely not permeated into psychological treatment development research. There is a recognition of the need to understand how treatments work and what their active ingredients might be, and a call for the use of innovative trial designs to support such discovery. One approach to unpack the active ingredients and mechanisms of therapy is the factorial design as exemplified in the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) approach. The MOST design allows identification of the active components of a complex multi-component intervention (such as CBT) using a sophisticated factorial design, allowing the development of more efficient interventions and elucidating their mechanisms of action. The rationale, design, and potential advantages of this approach will be illustrated with reference to the IMPROVE-2 study, which conducts a fractional factorial design to investigate which elements (e.g., thought challenging, activity scheduling, compassion, relaxation, concreteness, functional analysis) within therapist-supported internet-delivered CBT are most effective at reducing symptoms of depression in 767 adults with major depression. By using this innovative approach, we can first begin to work out what components within the overall treatment package are most efficacious on average allowing us to build an overall more streamlined and potent therapy. This approach also has potential to distinguish the role of specific versus non-specific common treatment components within treatment.
... A particular type of cognitive vulnerability, very consistently associated with depressive symptoms, is generalization or the tendency to draw unfounded general conclusions about the incompetence and worthlessness of self, typically in the face of a difficulty (46). ...
Background & aim: A multitude of studies show an association between adult attachment styles and psychopathology. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the relationship between attachment style and depression among students of Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran. Methods: To this end, 157 female students were randomly selected. Data were obtained using a demographic form, Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI) (Hazan and Shaver), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). The data was analyzed by performing Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and regression analysis, using SPSS version 16. Results: Our findings indicated that secure attachment style had no significant correlation with depression, while Anxious/ambivalent attachment style had significant positive correlation with depression (r=0.24, P<0.05), and avoidant attachment style had significant positive correlation with the participants' depression (r=0.15, P<0.05). Regression analysis reflected that attachment styles may predict depression. Finally, anxious/ambivalent style had a significant positive effect on depression (P<0.05, β=0.24), such that with one unit increase in the standard deviation of the predicting variable (anxious/ambivalent style), standard deviation of the dependent variable (depression) increased by 0.24 units (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of the present study can promote understanding of attachment styles involved in the development of vulnerability to depression.
... "Siccome ho fatto un pasticcio al lavoro, sono un perdente totale"), secondo il concetto cognitivo comportamentale di Aaron Beck (1979), come le "generalizzazioni eccessive" (es. "Se ho fallito una volta, fallirò sempre") delle situazioni (per l'evidenza empirica delle generalizzazioni eccessive, vedi Carver, 1998). I modelli di pensiero avverso dovrebbero esser resi consapevoli e sostituiti da cognizioni più positive / realistiche. ...
Metacognitive Training for Borderline Personality patients translated in italian language
... Factor 1, labeled Pervasive Influence of Feelings, taps the tendency for emotions to reflexively affect one's outlook, including one's worldview and overall sense of self-worth (e.g., "When I have emotional experiences, they strongly influence how I look at life"). This factor is composed primarily of items from the following scales: Negative Generalization (Carver, 1998), Sadness Paralysis, Emotions Color One's Worldview, and Inability to Overcome Lethargy (Carver et al., 2011). Negative Urgency (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) and Laziness, from the Behavioral Indicators of Conscientiousness (Jackson et al., 2010) scales also cross-load on this factor. ...
Exposure to adverse environments during childhood is robustly linked to future aggressive behavior. In this study we tested a model of emotional and neurocognitive mechanisms related to aggressive behavior in the context of childhood adversity. More specifically, we used path analysis to assess the distal contribution of childhood adversity and the more proximal contributions of emotion-related and non-emotion-related forms of impulsivity, and behavioral response inhibition to aggressive behavior. Participants were 180 undergraduates who completed well-validated self-report measures and an emotional version of the Go/No-Go task. The structural equation model was a poor fit for the data (χ²(3) = 23.023, p<. 001; RMR = .131; CFI = .682; RMSEA = .142), though several significant paths emerged. Childhood adversity, emotion-related impulsivity, and behavioral response inhibition displayed direct effects on aggression, collectively accounting for 16.3% of variance. Findings demonstrate the specificity of emotional subtypes of impulsivity in linking childhood adversity and aggression. This study extends work on pathways to aggressive behavior by illustrating the complex relationships of early environmental, cognitive, and emotional mechanisms related to aggression.
... Didelë tikimybë, kad po tokiais pasisakymais gali slypëti ne tik traumuojanèiø ávykiø sukelti skausmingi iðgyvenimai, bet ir depresija. Depresiðkø asmenø polinkis generalizuoti, suabsoliutinti negatyvias mintis ir vertinimus yra árodytas daugelyje tyrimø (Carver, 1998;Park, Goodyer, 2000). Apie didesnae depresiðkø paaugliø saviþudiðko elgesio tikimybae byloja ir lietuviø autoriø darbai (Leskauskas, 2000;Ribakovienë, 2002;Ramanauskienë ir kt., 2002). ...
Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo įvertinti Lietuvos moksleivių savižudiškų polinkių paplitimą ir išanalizuoti, kokius savižudiškų minčių bei elgesio paaiškinimus pateikia vienuolikos, trylikos ir penkiolikos metų berniukai ir mergaitės. Atliktas darbas pagrįstas 2002 metų PSO koordinuojamos moksleivių sveikatos ir gyvensenos studijos (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children – HBSC) duomenimis. Tirtą kontingentą sudarė 5645 moksleiviai: 2887 (51,1 proc.) berniukai ir 2758 (48,9 proc.) mergaitės.
Tyrimo duomenimis, savižudiški polinkiai būdingi trečdaliui (32,5 proc.) apklausoje dalyvavusių moksleivių. Savižudiškų polinkių turintys moksleiviai linkę atskleisti jų priežastis: jas nurodė 42,7 proc. tiriamųjų. Aptardami savižudiškas paskatas moksleiviai dažniausiai minėjo slegiančius jausmus ir išgyvenimus. Jaunesnieji moksleiviai mintis ir bandymus save žaloti itin dažnai aiškino smalsumu ir noru išbandyti įvairius savižudybės būdus.
SCHOOLCHILDREN’S SELF-REPORTED EXPLANATIONS OF SUICIDAL IDEATION
Nida Žemaitienė, Apolinaras Zaborskis
This article presents nationally representative data on the prevalence of suicidal tendencies and self reported explanations of their causes.
The analysis is based on the data of the survey conducted in 2002 according to the methodology of the WHO Cross-National study on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC). The sample was expected to represent the whole country from the point of view of age, sex, nationality and the place of living. A stratified cluster sampling design was used to draw a sample of 11, 13 and 15 year old Lithuanian schoolchildren. Regarding the actual number of pupils in the lists of selected classes the response rate was approximately 96 percents. The final population of the cleaned data consisted of 5645 schoolchildren: 2887 (51.1%) boys and 2758 (48.9%) girls.
The survey instrument was a standardized anonymous questionnaire. The focus question group concerning suicides was included into Lithuanian questionnaire version in order to study the suicidal ideation and behaviour in adolescents. The assessment of the prevalence of suicidal tendencies among schoolchildren was made considering answers to the question “Have you ever had any thoughts about suicide?” Reasons for suicidal thoughts or behaviour were reported in free form, replying to the question “If you have been at the edge to suicide (have had frequent thoughts, planned) or tried to commit it, give briefly the main reasons that have evoked such feelings or behaviour.”
The findings demonstrated that suicidal tendencies are typical to about one third (32.5%) of eleven, thirteen and fifteen year old schoolchildren: 24.1% of respondents appointed that they sometimes have thoughts about suicide, 4.0% claimed to have frequent thoughts about it, 2.7% had thought about suicide rather seriously and making concrete plans how to commit it, 1.7% mentioned that they had tried to commit suicide. Girls tended to have suicidal inclinations almost twice more often than boys.
The data received show, that schoolchildren were inclined to disclose triggers of their suicidal intentions. Various explanations of the reasons of suicidal tendencies were set forth by 42.7% of suicidal boys and girls. Discussing reasons for suicidal inducements, schoolchildren most often mentioned depressing feelings and experiences. Usually in the provided explanations there was no thorough description of situation or events; schoolchildren tried to define the way they feel in general terms, mentioning “tired” life, fatigue, loneliness, unhappiness, anger or desire of revenge. There is a great probability that beneath such expressions there could be hidden not only painful experiences caused by traumatizing events but also depression. Comparison by gender showed that girls were especially prone to refer to emotional, sensual experience, whereas boys more often gave concrete facts and events. Rather often while explaining reasons of suicidal attempts younger children named a wish to try one or other way of suicide, to experience “what a person feels when dying”, “what is life like beyond.” The carried out survey proved that such thoughts expressed by schoolchildren should warn about possible risk to a child who may be either eager to satisfy curiosity or not able to cope with emotional problems or misfortunes. These findings indicate that all signs of depressive mood and suicidal behaviour of adolescents must be taken seriously.
... Já no segundo caso, na forma eu inadequado, o sujeito tende a sentir-se inadequado, vivenciando sentimentos de inferioridade e derrota perante o fracasso (Gilbert, Clarke, Hempel, Miles & Irons, 2004). Deste modo, o sujeito tende a responder de forma crítica a si próprio, perante a diferença entre os resultados reais e os esperados para uma determinada situação, estando em causa a inflexibilidade relativa à incapacidade de atingir o desejado (Carver, 1998). Inversamente, o autocriticismo pode, também, apresentar-se sob a forma de eu tranquilizador. ...
O autocriticismo e a autocompaixão têm suscitado interesse por serem fatores de vulnerabilidade e proteção, respetivamente, para diversas dificuldades psicossociais. Porém, pouco sabemos sobre a sua influência nos alunos do Ensino Superior. Objetivo: Analisar a relação entre o autocriticismo e autocompaixão e variáveis académicas.
... Se introdujeron las valoraciones en diferentes ámbitos (socio-afectivo, académico-laboral, y "otros") dado que esa interpretación podría ayudar a contrastar la hipótesis de la congruencia. Para su elaboración, se utilizaron especialmente como referencias los instrumentos diseñados por Carver (1998) Los apartados del cuestionario fueron los siguientes: ...
... The first factor (labelled Pervasive Influence of Feelings) centres on the extent to which (mostly negative) emotions influence the person's orientation to the world. Scales loading primarily on this factor were Negative Generalization (Carver, 1998), and items reflecting tendencies to become immobilized by sadness, to have Emotions Color One's Worldview, and to have an Inability to Overcome Lethargy (Carver et al., 2011); other scales that cross-loaded on this factor include Negative Urgency (Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) and Laziness (Jackson et al., 2010). Factor 2 (labelled Lack of Follow-Through) is composed of scales that do not reference emotion. ...
Objectives:
A growing empirical literature indicates that emotion-related impulsivity (compared to impulsivity that is unrelated to emotion) is particularly relevant for understanding a broad range of psychopathologies. Recent work, however, has differentiated two forms of emotion-related impulsivity: A factor termed Pervasive Influence of Feelings captures tendencies for emotions (mostly negative emotions) to quickly shape thoughts, and a factor termed Feelings Trigger Action captures tendencies for positive and negative emotions to quickly and reflexively shape behaviour and speech. This study used path modelling to consider links from emotion-related and non-emotion-related impulsivity to a broad range of psychopathologies.
Design and methods:
Undergraduates completed self-report measures of impulsivity, depression, anxiety, aggression, and substance use symptoms.
Results:
A path model (N = 261) indicated specificity of these forms of impulsivity. Pervasive Influence of Feelings was related to anxiety and depression, whereas Feelings Trigger Action and non-emotion-related impulsivity were related to aggression and substance use.
Conclusions:
The findings of this study suggest that emotion-relevant impulsivity could be a potentially important treatment target for a set of psychopathologies.
Practitioner points:
Recent work has differentiated two forms of emotion-related impulsivity. This study tests a multivariate path model linking emotion-related and non-emotion-related impulsivity with multiple forms of psychopathology. Impulsive thoughts in response to negative emotions were related to anxiety and depression. Impulsive actions in response to emotions were related to aggression and substance use, as did non-emotion-related impulsivity. The study was limited by the reliance on self-report measures of impulsivity and psychopathology. There is a need for longitudinal work on how these forms of impulsivity predict the onset and course of psychopathology.
... 34 Such overgeneralization is a typical cognitive style in depression. 35 A previous study with adults has shown that MBI significantly reduced such overgeneralization. 31 Fear of cancer recurrence is viewed as a multidimensional phenomenon, including emotional components of anxiety and fear, and a cognitive dimension, including worry, preoccupation, and intrusive thoughts. ...
Purpose:
Adolescent and young adult cancer (AYAC) survivors show an elevated risk of distress. Targeted psychosocial interventions for this distinct population are needed. This study examined the potential efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) to alleviate emotional distress and improve quality of life (QoL) in AYAC survivors.
Methods:
Participants were 16 AYAC survivors, aged 14-24, who had completed acute medical treatment. A two-baseline (8 and 1 week before the intervention), post- (1 week after the intervention) and 3 months follow-up within-subjects design was used. Each participant completed two baseline assessments, followed by an 8-week MBI. The primary outcome variables were emotional distress and QoL. Secondary outcomes were cognitive vulnerability factors and mindfulness skills.
Results:
Multilevel modeling showed (1) a significant reduction in emotional distress and improvement in QoL at 3 months of follow-up, (2) a significant reduction in negative attitudes toward self (i.e., a cognitive vulnerability factor), and (3) a significant improvement in mindfulness skills.
Conclusion:
MBI is a promising approach that is used to treat emotional distress and to improve QoL in AYAC survivors. Further research using randomized controlled trials is needed to generalize these findings. Trial registration information: www.trialregister.nl ; NTR4358.
... In addition, participants will complete a series of self-report questionnaires designed to capture the primary mechanism which each treatment component is hypothesized to most strongly influence, including rumination (5-item Brooding scale) [41], change in habitual coping (adapted Self-Report Habit Index) [53] (SRHI), overgeneralization (adapted Attitudes to Self Scale -Revised) [54], self-compassion [55], negative thinking (Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire) [56], increased behavioural activity and reduced avoidance (Behavioural Activation for Depression Scale Short-form) [57], and absorption and engagement in positive activities, adapted from measures of "flow" [58]. These variables will be tested in mediational analyses. ...
Background:
Depression is a global health challenge. Although there are effective psychological and pharmaceutical interventions, our best treatments achieve remission rates less than 1/3 and limited sustained recovery. Underpinning this efficacy gap is limited understanding of how complex psychological interventions for depression work. Recent reviews have argued that the active ingredients of therapy need to be identified so that therapy can be made briefer, more potent, and to improve scalability. This in turn requires the use of rigorous study designs that test the presence or absence of individual therapeutic elements, rather than standard comparative randomised controlled trials. One such approach is the Multiphase Optimization Strategy, which uses efficient experimentation such as factorial designs to identify active factors in complex interventions. This approach has been successfully applied to behavioural health but not yet to mental health interventions.
Methods/design:
A Phase III randomised, single-blind balanced fractional factorial trial, based in England and conducted on the internet, randomized at the level of the patient, will investigate the active ingredients of internet cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression. Adults with depression (operationalized as PHQ-9 score ≥ 10), recruited directly from the internet and from an UK National Health Service Improving Access to Psychological Therapies service, will be randomized across seven experimental factors, each reflecting the presence versus absence of specific treatment components (activity scheduling, functional analysis, thought challenging, relaxation, concreteness training, absorption, self-compassion training) using a 32-condition balanced fractional factorial design (2IV(7-2)). The primary outcome is symptoms of depression (PHQ-9) at 12 weeks. Secondary outcomes include symptoms of anxiety and process measures related to hypothesized mechanisms.
Discussion:
Better understanding of the active ingredients of efficacious therapies, such as CBT, is necessary in order to improve and further disseminate these interventions. This study is the first application of a component selection experiment to psychological interventions in depression and will enable us to determine the main effect of each treatment component and its relative efficacy, and cast light on underlying mechanisms, so that we can systematically enhance internet CBT.
Trial registration:
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN24117387 . Registered 26 August 2014.
... An interesting avenue for future research would be to explore the role of HP in providing access to other important adaptive self-processes that are typically studied in positive psychology, such as resilience. Resilience refers to one's ability to bounce back from stress or negative events (Carver, 1998;Smith, Tooley, Christopher, & Kay, 2010;. Research has shown that one's ability to be resilient leads to greater positive affect and to less negative affect (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003;Tugade, Fredrickson, & Feldman Barrett, 2004;Xing & Sun, 2013). ...
The goal of this research was to examine passion as a determinant of mindfulness. Three studies were conducted based on the premise that harmonious passion (HP) provides access to adaptive self-processes, such as mindfulness, whereas obsessive passion (OP) limits such access. In Study 1 (n = 301), results revealed that HP and OP positively and negatively predicted mindfulness, respectively. Study 2 (n = 459) aimed at replicating results from Study 1 and explored the mediating role of mindfulness in the passion–affect relationship. Results uncovered that HP and OP, respectively, predicted positively and negatively mindfulness that, in turn, positively predicted positive affect and negatively predicted negative affect. These results were replicated in Study 3 (n = 176) while incorporating a time lag in the design. Vitality was also included in the model and was positively predicted by mindfulness. Findings underscore the facilitative role of HP in accessing adaptive self-processes, such as mindfulness.
... This is a self-report questionnaire especially designed for a student population and is intended to track the occurrence of adverse events that commonly occur in students' lives. This instrument is designed specifically for a college population (for items, see Carver, 1998) and includes academic and relationship domains, occurrence of negative events in any other domain, and the accumulation of minor problems. Participants are asked to indicate if they have had a "relatively major bad experience" in academic, relationships or other aspect of life during last week by answering 'No' = 0 or 'Yes' = 1. ...
Rumination is a maladaptive form of emotion regulation and seems to be the cognitive mechanism linking stress to depressive symptoms. However, it remains to be investigated whether individuals’ variation in rumination in relation to the occurrence of stressful events (e.g., phasic co-variation between stressful events and rumination) prospectively predict the experience of depressive symptoms in lengthy follow-up moments. In this eighteen months prospective design, a large unselected sample of undergraduates was tested before, during, and after a period with prominent naturally occurring stressful events. The multilevel results show that the co-variation of stressful events and ruminative thinking predicts the experience of depressive symptoms at 3 and 15 months follow up moments, also when statistically controlling for baseline depressive symptoms. Moreover, the data demonstrate that the phasic elevations of rumination in relation to the occurrence of stressful events are more predictive of depressive symptoms compared with the stable aspects of rumination measured at one occasion. At the clinical level, the current findings seem to suggest a process-oriented intervention to target the phasic ruminative cognitions where individuals need to learn to control rumination exactly at moments of stress.
... Negli ultimi anni, diverse critiche sono state fatte all'uso dell'autostima come misura primaria della salute psicologica (Baumeister, Smart e Boden, 1996; Damon, 1995; Ellis e London, 1993; Finn, 1990; Hewitt, 1998, McMillan, Singh e Simonetta, 1994 Seligman, 1995; Swann, 1996Carver, 1998; Carver e Ganellen, 1983;). Inoltre, l'instabilità dell'autostima causata dal successo e dal fallimento in settori percepiti come importanti può contribuire allo sviluppo dei sintomi depressivi (Butler, Hokanson e Flynn, 1994; Kernis et al., 1998; Kuiper e Olinger, 1986; Kuiper, Olinger e MacDonald, 1988; Roberts e Gotlib, 1997; Roberts, Kassel e Gotlib, 1995, 1996 Roberts e Monroe, 1992). ...
In questo contributo analizzeremo due costrutti psicologici: l'autostima e l'auto-compassione, secondo quanto scritto in letteratura. In particolare, confronteremo gli effetti dell'alta autostima e della sua continua ricerca con quelli l'autocompassione, evidenziando i nuovi contributi teorici che sottolineano gli effetti negativi del primo costrutto confrontarli con quelli produttivi del secondo.Esamineremo l'alta autostima e l'auto-compassione in rapporto agli aspetti relazionali, psicologici, emotivi e di performance dell'individuo e della comunità. Nelle conclusioni apriremo uno spazio di riflessione che mira a rivalutare l'obiettivo frequente di ricercare costantemente un'alta autostima e di integrare quest'ultima con una cura di se stessi e degli altri.
... Beck (1976) already acknowledged the role of this process in the development and maintenance of depression. Some relevant work in this domain has been conducted by Carver and colleague (Carver, 1998;Carver & Ganellen, 1983). We are currently investigating mechanisms of generalization in depression, as well as in other domains (e.g., chronic pain). ...
... The first is holding overly high standards (HS), the second is the tendency to be self-critical at any failure to perform well (SC), and the third is the tendency to generalize from a single failure to the broader sense of selfworth (GEN). The negative generalization dimension has been found to be the dimension most strongly associated with depression (Carver 1998;Carver, et al. 1988;Eisner, Johnson, and Carver 2008). Items are rated on a Likert scale, ranging from 1 ("I agree a lot") to 5 ("I disagree a lot"). ...
The present study assessed the association among risk and resilience factors (hopelessness, depression, subjective happiness) that contribute to suicidal behaviors in Italian youth. The sample consisted of 253 Italian high school adolescents (mean age = 18.09, SD = 0.57; 137 males; 116 females) who were administered a demographic questionnaire, the Suicide History Self-Rating Screening Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory II, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Attitude Toward Self-Revised Scale, and the Subjective Happiness Scale. Depressive symptoms were positively associated with cognitive vulnerabilities (trait-like tendencies to interpret information in a negative and distorted way when encountering a perceived stressful event) and negatively associated with subjective happiness. Participants with an elevated suicide risk also reported increased depressive symptoms, more cognitive vulnerabilities, and less subjective happiness. Moreover, depressive symptoms significantly mediated the relation between subjective happiness and suicide risk. The findings suggest that in order to prevent suicidal behavior in adolescents, clinicians should consider both risk and protective factors, particularly those that strengthen competencies and build self-esteem. Schools should employ a more positive approach that promotes resilience and enhances protective factors to reduce depressive symptoms and suicidality among youth.
... Lissek et al., 2008;Vervliet, Kindt, Vansteenwegen, & Hermans, 2010). In the depression literature, using self-report measures of overgeneralization (Carver & Ganellen, 1983), Carver (1998) found that negative overgeneralization to the selfpredicted subsequent depressive symptoms. In a recent study Fulford, Rosen, Johnson, and Carver (2012) also found a relationship between negative overgeneralization to the self and symptoms of anxiety. ...
The severity of many psychological disorders is associated with an increasing amount of different stimuli or situations that elicit a maladaptive response. This is known as the process of (over)-generalization and is often characteristic of individuals with emotional disorders. Recently, abstract repetitive thought has been proposed to be a transdiagnostic marker in several disorders (e.g., worry in anxiety; rumination in depression). The present study examined the impact of an abstract thinking style (compared to a more concrete thinking style) as a mechanism that contributes to generalization. Students (N=83) were trained in either an abstract or concrete thinking mode and then completed a learning phase and finally a generalization test phase. High dysphoric students showed more negative generalization in the abstract condition compared to the concrete condition. For low dysphoric participants, the two thinking styles did not result in a difference in generalization. Implications for the transdiagnostic value of an abstract processing style in depression and anxiety are discussed.
... Overgeneralization involves the tendency to progressively think of more and more instances of failure after a negative event until one views oneself as a total failure (Beck, 1983, p. 115). Researches found out that the 3 overgeneralization predicts stronger the depressive symptoms, even after controlling for self-criticism and high standards (Carver et al., 1988, Carver, 1998. Purky (1970) found that self-esteem is related to some components of success and academic achievement. ...
This study aims to identify the differences in relationship between self esteem and vulnerability to depression in two stressful conditions: learning under pressure of an important final examination in high school and learning under pressure of new academic life in the first year of university. Participants in this study were 200 students, aged 17 to 21 years (M = 18,94, SD = 1,46), 49 male and 151 female, 100 high school students and 100 freshmen at a public faculty in Bucharest, Romania Data were collected with the Attitudes toward Self Scale (Carver & Ganellen, 1983) and with the Self esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The research's results contribute to the development of counseling programs aiming to foster the students' self esteem (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the 2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance.
... Operationalizing conceptual models through measures allows for a test of specific hypotheses and theoretical concepts in the online environment (Table 1). Baum (2004) operationalized different aspects of the Transactional Model of Stress, Coping, and Adaptation using three instruments: the Life Orientation Test Revised measured optimism (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994), the Attitudes Toward Self Test measured generalization (Carver, 1998), and the Brief Cope measured coping skills (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). The overall careful approach to the psychometric properties of internal validity and reliability helped strengthen theoretical claims (Sullivan, 2001). ...
This review critically examines 19 international articles addressing online social support for parents and provides evidence that parents around the world perceive emotional and informational support online. These studies highlight the benefits of the online environment to parents, including convenience and anonymity, although some drawbacks were also noted such as a lack of credibility. Social support theories have been extended to the online environment; however, the understanding of parents' online social network structure is limited. Social support implies a positive effect on well-being, and future studies are needed to further explore this. Overall, social capital theory and stress and coping perspectives hold promise for future studies to extend descriptive work. Although representative samples and sound measurement are needed, the articles in this review lay a descriptive foundation to further study this topic.
... Self-criticism is the tendency to respond self-critically to a perceived discrepancy between the actual and the desired outcomes and is associated with a relative intolerance to one's failure to attain the standard she/he set (Carver et al., 1985, 1988, Carver, 1998 and with maladaptive perfectionism (Grzegorek, et al., 2004). Research identified gender, age and situational differences in these dispositional traits or cognitive tendencies (Carver and Ganellen, 1983) but new empirical studies are needed because of the new features of the learning context specific to the current university environment. ...
This study, based on literature on individual differences in education and in professional development (Skelton et al., 2006), aims to identify the differences in university student's tendencies to adopt high standards and self-criticism, according to their gender, age and learning context. Participants were 250 university students, 100 male and 150 female, aged 19 to 29 years (M = 20.23, SD = 1.26), 116 from public and 134 from private universities, 109 from technical and 141 from psychology faculties in Bucharest, Romania. The results contribute to the development of an empirical database for the development of career guidance and counselling programs. (c) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of PSIWORLD2011
... Negative overgeneralization to the self (in short, overgeneralization) refers to the tendency to generalize from one specific negative experience or failure to a broader sense of self-focused worthlessness: e.g., "When even one thing goes wrong I begin to feel bad and wonder if I can do well at anything at all" (Carver and Ganellen 1983). Such overgeneralization is a typical cognitive style in depression, and there is evidence to suggest that it constitutes, just as cognitive reactivity, an underlying vulnerability factor for depression since it predicts prospective depression (Carver 1998;Raes et al. 2014). To our knowledge, hitherto, no study has examined whether a mindfulness-based approach reduces such negative self-focused overgeneralized thinking. ...
The chronic exposure to stress of living with less money than one needs affects people’s well-being.
Studies show that mental un-well-being is associated with socioeconomic inequalities and that poverty related stress is directly related to symptoms of anxiety and depression. We offered a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) between September 2011 and September 2012 to a sample of low-income urban adults in Brussels and Antwerp, Belgium. The impact on symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression was examined together with the effects on cognitive vulnerability processes of cognitive reactivity and overgeneralization and on the development of mindfulness skills. Results suggest that
the MBI significantly reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression and cognitive reactivity and overgeneralization and significantly improved mindfulness skills. Greater improvement in mindfulness skills caused by MBIs might result in greater reduction in both symptoms and cognitive vulnerabilities. These findings provide promising evidence of the effectiveness of MBIs to promote economically disadvantaged people’s well-being. The results are consistent with previous studies that have examined the effectiveness of MBIs in other populations and show that a MBI is feasible in social welfare centers that serve low-income adults.
... The Adverse Events Questionnaire (AEQ) was used to measure adverse events in participants" lives. This instrument is designed specifically for a college population (for items, see Carver, 1998) and includes academic and relationship domains, occurrence of negative events in any other domain, and the accumulation of minor problems. Using a Likert-type scale from 0 to 3, participants specified for each domain how frequently they encountered life stress and difficulties (i.e. ...
According to the response styles theory, rumination is a cognitive response to a stressor with repetitive and self-focused attention on a negative mood state. The attentional disengagement theory highlights that attentional processes are critical, underlying individual differences in ruminative thinking, such as reflective pondering and depressive brooding. Using a prospective design, the current study sought to determine whether attentional control for negative material was differently associated with brooding and reflection upon life stress. Spanning a period of three months, 76 never depressed undergraduate students completed a baseline measurement of attentional bias by using an emotional modification of the exogenous cueing task (T1) and subsequently, six weeks after T1, completed Internet questionnaires during their final examinations at four weekly fixed moments (T2–T5). Data were analysed with a series of multilevel regression analyses. Results revealed that the relation between stress and the use of reflective pondering is stronger when participants allocate less attention to emotional information (negative and positive stimuli). On the other hand, attentional control did not moderate the relation between stress and depressive brooding. On the basis of the current research findings, it might be important to train attentional control to disengage from emotional distractors, which in turn may increase the use of more self-controlling thinking in response to stress. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Thus, an isolated event, negative and unexpected, such as an incident or a failure, is interpreted in a global, self-focused and abstract way, which increases perceived personal inadequacy, negativity, and failure (Beck, 1976;Carver & Ganellen, 1983). Furthermore, the tendency of overgeneralization is specific to depression and not anxiety (Carver & Ganellen, 1983;Carver, Lavoie, Kuhl, & Ganellen, 1988;Ganellen, 1988), and rumination predicts subsequent depression (Carver, 1998;Dykman, 1996;Edelman, Ahrens, & Haaga, 1994). Rumination is hypothesized to play a key role in the development of such abstract overgeneralization in depression (Watkins, 2008). ...
Given the evidence for the dysfunctional effects of rumination, the fundamental question remains: why depressed patients continue to ruminate over long periods of time? Watkins has shown that unconstructive repetitive thought is focused on “why”, aiming at detecting the personal reasons of negative events. This strategy leads people to find evaluative answers of personal inadequacy or negativity of the world. The research aims at (a) test the hypotheses that why RT is significantly correlated to negative mood, even when controlling for depressive symptoms; (b) test whether non-clinical participants really tend to prefer the “how” RT, when coping with an unexpected negative event of everyday life; this results would suggest that the “how” style is more functional than the “why” style; (c) exploring beliefs that may guide the choice between the “how” or the “why” modes; (d) investigate the influence of a previous choice on the subsequent thinking style. 212 participants have been recruited. We include questionnaires about rumination and depression and 8 vignette describing negative unexpected situations, followed by three tasks. The results confirm the detrimental role of why focused repetitive thinking on mood state and show a significant influence of a “why tendency”.
... Negative generalization (Carver, 1998) is a four-item scale designed to assess tendencies to reflexively generalize from a single negative event to the broader sense of self-worth (e.g., 'A single failure can change me from feeling OK to seeing only the bad in myself'). The scale has been found to correlate with tendencies towards depression, in both cross-sectional and prospective research (Carver, la Voie, Kuhl, & Ganellen, 1988). ...
Impulsivity is elevated among people diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and recent evidence suggests that impulsivity can predict onset among those at risk for the disorder. Impulsivity, though, is a broad construct.
The goal of this study was to examine whether some aspects of impulsivity are more correlated with risk for mania than others. We hypothesized that risk for mania would be related specifically to difficulties controlling impulsive responses to emotions.
Undergraduates (N = 257) completed a large battery of measures of emotion-relevant and non-emotional forms of impulsivity, along with a well-validated measure of risk for mania, the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS).
Analyses examined correlations of impulsivity scales with the HPS, and partial correlations controlling for lifetime tendencies towards depressive symptoms and current symptoms of alcohol abuse, both of which relate to impulsivity and often co-occur with mania. After controlling for these measures, risk for mania remained correlated with measures of impulsive responses to positive emotions, but not with difficulties in following through or with impulsivity in the context of general distress emotions.
Although impulsivity is a major concern among those at risk for mania and those diagnosed with mania, difficulties may be especially evident during positive affective states, and other forms of impulsivity may be less related to mania risk. Discussion focuses on limitations and future directions.
Impulsivity is correlated with risk for mania. Mania risk appears tied to tendencies towards impulsive action, particularly during positive affective states. Mania risk was not significantly correlated with other non-emotional forms of impulsivity. A better understanding of what aspects of impulsivity are problematic in bipolar disorder could guide more refined interventions.
Objectives:
Suicidal ideation is a pervasive and painful experience that varies considerably in its phenomenology. Here, we consider how one key risk variable might inform our understanding of variation in suicidal ideation: emotion-related impulsivity, the trait-like tendency towards unconstrained speech, behaviour, and cognition in the face of intense emotions. We hypothesized that emotion-related impulsivity would be tied to specific features, including severity, perceived lack of controllability, more rapidly fluctuating course, higher scores on a measure of acute suicidal affective disturbance, and more emotional and cognitive disturbance as antecedents.
Methods:
We recruited two samples of adults (Ns = 421, 221) through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), with oversampling of those with suicidal ideation. Both samples completed psychometrically sound self-report measures online to assess emotion- and non-emotion-related dimensions of impulsivity and characteristics of suicidal ideation.
Results:
One form of emotion-related impulsivity related to the severity, uncontrollability, dynamic course, and affective and cognitive precursors of ideation.
Conclusions:
Despite limitations of the cross-sectional design and self-report measures, the current findings highlight the importance of specificity in considering key dimensions of impulsivity and suicidal ideation.
We examined associations between mental toughness, self-directed, negatively toned emotions and cognitions, and self-forgiveness. With reference to their participation in competitive tennis, a sample of 343 competitive tennis players (Mage = 17.56, SD = 2.37) completed questionnaires measuring their mental toughness, self-forgiveness, and tendency to experience shame, anger, and criticism towards themselves. Mental toughness associated negatively with self-oriented shame, anger, and criticism, and positively with self-forgiveness. The effect of mental toughness on both shame and anger towards the self was fully mediated by self-forgiveness, whereas self-forgiveness partially mediated the effect for self-criticism. The findings support the role of self-forgiveness, over mental toughness, in reducing or eliminating self-condemning, resentful, and devaluing responses that athletes direct towards themselves.
SCIENTIFIC Representative longitudinal studies of older adults are important for identifying risk factors for adverse mental and physical health outcomes. The Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study (CHASRS) is a 10-wave longitudinal, population-based study of 229 Caucasians, African American, and Hispanic men and women who ranged from 50 to 68 years of age at baseline. We describe the sample, design, methods, and measures used in CHASRS to promote dissemination and secondary analysis of de-identified data, and we identify characteristics of respondents that predicted attrition to permit evaluation of potential selection biases. Participation required respondents to spend one day per wave to complete interviews, surveys, and physiological testing in a university laboratory. Analyses of baseline measures of demographic factors, health, cognitive function, loneliness, and social contact indicated that attrition was higher for older respondents and lower for respondents with better cognitive function and more social contacts. These results, which were observed in an ethnically diverse sample, replicate and extend prior studies of the predictors of attrition.
This chapter analyzes the current state of the art of various psychotherapies for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults, through the lens of David and Montgomery's psychotherapy classification system. These include evidence-based psychotherapies, intervention-driven psychotherapies, theory-driven psychotherapies and investigational psychotherapies. Based on David and Montgomer, "well supported" (i.e., strong supporting evidence) means that a psychotherapy has been empirically supported in at least two rigorous studies, by two different, independent investigators or investigating teams. Understanding key processes in psychotherapies that instigate positive effects can help identify moderators of treatment response and help therapists select patients most suitable for specific interventions. Therefore, psychotherapists can build more personalized, tailored interventions for patient subgroups. These crucial efforts are particularly relevant for the therapy of depression, which is often a chronic, heterogeneous condition, with moderate rates of response to therapy.
This study aims to identifying the predictive value of Optimism, pessimism and happiness in respect to Positive generalization and it's dimensions (up word generalization, lateral generalization, and Social generalization) among female Egyptian and Saudi university students, and identifying the differences between female Egyptian university students and female Saudi university students in Positive generalization and it's dimensions (up word generalization, lateral generalization, and Social generalization), Optimism, pessimism and happiness , the sample of study consisted of (386) female university students (186 Egyptian, and 200 Saudi) their ages ranged between (18:21) years. The study included a scale of Positive generalization prepared by Eisner,. Johnson,. Carver(2008) translation by the researchers, Optimism and pessimism scale prepared by Abd el khalik, and happiness scale prepared by Argyle, Martin, Crossland(1989) translation by Abo bakr. Results revealed that Optimism and happiness have a predictive value to Positive generalization among female Egyptian and Saudi university students, while pessimism hasn't a predictive value to Positive generalization, and there were a differences between female Egyptian university students and female Saudi university students in Positive generalization, Optimism, pessimism and happiness, while no differences between them in Social generalization.
This article presents a general framework in which different manifestations of psychopathology can be conceptualized as dysfunctions in one or more mechanisms of self-regulation, defined as the ongoing process of managing personal goal pursuit in the face of internal, interpersonal, and environmental forces that would derail it. The framework is based on the assertion that self-regulation is a critical locus for the proximal influence on motivation, cognition, emotion, and behavior of more distal factors such as genetics, temperament, socialization history, and neurophysiology. Psychological theories of self-regulation are ideal platforms from which to integrate the study of self-regulation both within and across traditional disciplines. This article has two related goals: to elucidate how the construct of self-regulation provides a unique conceptual platform for the study of psychopathology and to illustrate that platform by presenting our research on depression as an example. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology Volume 13 is May 7, 2017. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
This study aims to identifying the prevalence rates of Positive generalization among university students in Six Arab countries( Egypt, Saudi, Kuwait, Sudan , Jordan ,Bahrain), identifying the differences between males and females in Positive generalization, and Identify the differences in positive generalization with university students due to the different culture in each of ( Egypt, Saudi, Kuwait, Sudan , Jordan ,Bahrain), The participants are (1117) university students, The apparatus are Positive generalization scale prepared by (Eisner,. Johnson,. Carver, 2008) translation by( Karam, N& Elsayed, F.,2013).
Results revealed that there is a prevalence rates of Positive generalization among university students in Six Arab countries( Egypt, Saudi, Kuwait, Sudan , Jordan ,Bahrain), and there is a differences in Positive generalization due to different of sex and culture, in each of ( Egypt, Saudi, Kuwait, Sudan , Jordan ,Bahrain).
Background and objectives:
Misperception of sleep (e.g., underestimation of sleep time relative to objective measures) is a common feature of insomnia and other psychopathologies. To elucidate the mechanisms underlying this tendency, we examined the role of pre-sleep cognitive arousal and overgeneralization.
Methods:
We monitored the sleep of 54 community dwellers (the majority being university students), using actigraphy and a sleep diary for 7 days. Immediately after this period, the participants provided an additional global evaluation of their sleep for the past week. In this global evaluation, participants were asked to estimate their average number of hours of sleep and the duration of time taken to fall asleep (sleep onset latency) across the past seven nights.
Results:
Single-night misperceptions (difference between actigraphy and sleep diary estimations) of sleep time and sleep onset latency were significantly associated with pre-sleep cognitive arousal, but not with overgeneralization. In contrast, global misperception of sleep (difference between sleep diary and global estimations) were associated with overgeneralization, but not with cognitive arousal.
Limitations:
Our sample mainly consisted of female university students, which limits the generalizability of the results.
Conclusions:
Misperception of sleep occurs in two cases: (1) in the case of a single night due to excessive arousal, and (2) in the case of multiple nights due to overgeneralization.
This book is intended for students and professionals who are seeking an up-to-date summary of research-based information on depression. Chapters cover clinical and diagnostic information, as well as features of the course of depression and the demographic features of the disorder. For example, topics include the considerable impairment associated with depression (it isn't 'all in your mind') and discussion of why depression is particularly common in women and the young.
http://roderic.uv.es/handle/10550/26371
Como toda enfermedad amenazante para la vida de las personas, el cáncer de mama supone una situación de estrés en las mujeres que lo padecen, tanto desde un punto de vista físico como psicológico, puesto que además de tener que enfrentarse a la enfermedad y sus tratamientos, las mujeres han de adaptarse a cambios referidos a su imagen corporal y a los sentimientos y actitudes que ello conlleva (Sebastián et al., 2007).
El bienestar emocional de las pacientes con cáncer de mama por ende se ve afectado y tal como se refleja en numerosos estudios, las alteraciones más prevalentes son la ansiedad y la depresión (Barreto y Pintado, 2011; Bellver, 2007; Toledo, Ferrero y Barreto, 1994; Zhao et al., 2001; Torras et al., 2005; Olivares, Naranjo y Alvarado, 2007; Pintado et al., 2011).
Existen una serie de variables intervinentes que influyen en el bienestar emocional, tales como el tipo de cirugía, el estadio en el que se encuentra la enfermedad, el estado menstrual de las mujeres y su influencia hormonal y la terapia adyuvante, entre otras.
Por otro lado, numerosos estudios muestran cómo la insatisfacción con la imagen corporal correlaciona negativamente con la autoestima, el autoconcepto y la sexualidad de la mujer.
En cuanto a los factores protectores, en contraposición a los factores de riesgo, serían características que ayudan a las pacientes a superar mejor la situación por la que están pasando. En este sentido, la literatura nos indica que fortaleciendo y fomentando esos factores, las pacientes podrán sobrellevar los cambios a los que se tienen que enfrentar. Entre ellos, se encuentran el sentido del humor y la resiliencia.
En este trabajo vamos a centrarnos en estudiar el bienestar emocional de las pacientes diagnosticadas de cáncer de mama, en el proceso adaptativo de la enfermedad y las dificultades que presenta. Además de estudiar sus posibles variables implicadas, teniendo en cuenta para ello, la autoestima y la imagen corporal que presentan las pacientes, así como otras variables que pudiesen intervenir (tipo de cirugía, estadio de la enfermedad, etc.) y los factores protectores relacionados con el cáncer.
We present a revision of the 1978 reformulated theory of helplessness and depression and call it the
hopelessness theory of depression. Although the 1978 reformulation has generated a vast amount of empirical work on depression over the past 10 years and recently has been evaluated as a model of depression, we do not think that it presents a clearly articulated theory of depression. We build on the skeletal logic of the 1978 statement and (a) propose a hypothesized subtype of depression—
hopelessness depression, (b) introduce hopelessness as a proximal sufficient cause of the symptoms of hopelessness depression, (c) deemphasize causal attributions because inferred negative consequences and inferred negative characteristics about the self are also postulated to contribute to the formation of hopelessness and, in turn, the symptoms of hopelessness depression, and (d) clarify the diathesis—stress and causal mediation components implied, but not explicitly articulated, in the 1978 statement. We report promising findings for the hopelessness theory and outline the aspects that still need to be tested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The 3 major approaches to personality scale construction—the external, inductive, and deductive strategies—are discussed and their rationales compared. It is suggested that all scales should possess validity, communicability, and economy. The relative importance of these characteristics, however, varies with the purpose for which the instrument is being constructed. A review of more than a dozen comparative studies revealed no consistent superiority of any strategy in terms of validity or predictive effectiveness. However, deductive scales normally communicate information more directly to an assessor, and they are more economical to build and to administer. (66 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Interpersonal but not achievement scales of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and Sociotropy/Autonomy Scale (SAS) were substantially correlated. Factor analysis of items from all instruments yielded two stable factors: Dependency
f
and Performance Evaluation
f.All interpersonal scales except that of the DAS showed interactions with frequency of interpersonal but not achievement life events in predicting depression symptoms. Strongest support for the predicted interaction was obtained using Dependency
f.The Achievement vulnerability scales yielded no significant interactions with life event frequencies.
Self-esteem lability (SEL), defined as daily event-related variability in state self-esteem, and low trait self-esteem (TSE) were assessed among 205 male and female undergraduates who were currently depressed (CD), previously depressed (PD), and never depressed (ND). SEL scores were derived for the effect of positive, negative, and combined events on state self-esteem over 30 days. Consistent with psychodynamic and cognitive theories, SEL was found to be a better index of depression proneness than TSE. PD Ss showed higher lability on all SEL scores than ND controls but did not differ from controls on TSE. Ss were reassessed 5 months later, and new cases showed higher premorbid SEL than ND controls but did not differ from controls on premorbid TSE. SEL at Time 1 was found to increase risk for depression at Time 2 among Ss reporting high life stress at Time 2. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.
Although interaction effects are frequently found in experimental studies, field researchers report considerable difficulty in finding theorized moderator effects. Previous discussions of this discrepancy have considered responsible factors including differences in measurement error and use of nonlinear scales. In this article we demonstrate that the differential efficiency of experimental and field tests of interactions is also attributable to the differential residual variances of such interactions once the component main effects have been partialed out. We derive an expression for this residual variance in terms of the joint distribution of the component variables and explore how properties of the distribution affect the efficiency of tests of moderator effects. We show that tests of interactions in field studies will often have less than 20% of the efficiency of optimal experimental tests, and we discuss implications for the design of field studies.
Prior research has found that self-reports of the tendency to generalize from a bad outcome to a broader sense of self-worth are associated with depression. In contrast, self-reports of the tendency to maintain high standards for self-evaluation and the tendency to be self-critical about the failure to meet standards were unrelated to depression. In the six studies reported here we attempted to extend that finding in several ways. A new assessment device was created (Study 1), with more sharply focused items than those of the original scale. Using the new device, we replicated several previous findings (Studies 2-6), including the association between depression and generalization and the absence of association between depression and either self-criticism or high standards. This pattern was obtained in a sample of West German students (Study 3) and in a sample of psychiatric inpatients (Study 5) as well as among American students (Studies 2, 4, and 6). Studies 2-4 tested for, but found no evidence of, a unidirectional causal connection between generalization and depression, assessed via cross-lag correlations. Study 6 found an additional association between depression and the self-reported tendency to perseverate mentally on failures. The most plausible interpretation of this finding, however, appears to be that perseveration is a manifestation of the tendency to generalize.
Although research reliably finds an association between stressful live events and depression, little progress has been made on understanding which events will lead to depression in which people. A cognitive - life stress integrative model was tested that predicted depressive symptoms following stressful life events when the negative events were personally meaningful the the individual, and likely to be interpreted as depletions or failure in the domain of central relevance to self-worth. Using Beck and colleagues' Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale to classify participants according to the value they placed on interpersonal and autonomy/achievement goals, unipolar depressed outpatients were followed prospectively for periods of up to two years, with periodic assessments of life events and symptoms. As predicted, patients' periods of worst symptoms followed a 3-month period m which life event stress that matched their personally relevant domain significantly exceeded that of the non-relevant domain. Also, of patients who experienced an onset following a symptom-free period, the severity of symptoms was significantly predicted by the interaction of their autonomy score and achievement events; however, the same pattern did not occur for sociotropy score and interpersonal events. The results provide some support for the integration of cognition and life event approaches to depression, but limitations in the study, including small sample size, necessitate further research.
Comments on chapters in this book within the author's framework of goal variance and hierarchy and implications for behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous research has shown that low self-esteem individuals are more likely than their high self-esteem counterparts to have adverse affective, cognitive, and behavioral reactions to failure or negative feedback. The present field study tested the hypothesis that self-esteem differences in response to negative feedback are mediated by the greater tendency of low than high self-esteem persons to overgeneralize the implications of negative feedback to other aspects of their identities. The results supported the hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications of the results and limitations of the study are discussed.
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate dysfunctional attitudes as a moderator variable in the relationship between negative life events and depression. On the basis of the cognitive model of depression it was predicted that, within a normal college student population, individuals who endorse highly dysfunctional attitudes would be more adversely affected by negative life stress than would their more functional counterparts. Normal and clinical college student groups were administered measures of life events, dysfunctional attitudes, and depression. As expected, in the normal sample, there was a significant interaction between dysfunctional attitudes and negative life stress, which was consistent with the cognitive model of depression. In the clinical sample, the interaction was nonsignificant, and both dysfunctional attitudes and negative life events were found to exert a more direct influence on mood. The implications of these findings for future research were reviewed, along with a suggestion that longitudinal designs might permit a more complete test of the cognitive model.
This paper reviews recent research that indicates the importance of differentiating subtypes of depression based on two types of experiences that lead individuals to become depressed: (a) disruptions of interpersonal relations and (b) threats to self-integrity and self-esteem. We review research with clinical and nonclinical samples that investigated the relationships of these distinctions to the quality of current interpersonal relationships and to differential sensitivity to various types of stressful life events, as well as to aspects of early life experiences, especially the quality of the parent-child relationship. We also evaluate research evidence that considers the role of these two dimensions in clinical depression. In addition to proposing an etiologic model about aspects of the onset and recurrence of depression based on the interaction between personality predispositions and types of stressful life events, we place these observations about depression in a broad theoretical context of contemporary personality theory which defines two primary dimensions of personality development and psychopathology.
Although the concept of self-esteem plays a crucial role in current vulnerability models of depression, empirical studies have found that overall level of self-esteem is not a robust predictor of the onset of the disorder. To resolve this discrepancy we propose a multidimensional model of self-esteem in depression. Psychodynamic, cognitive, and social-environmental models each imply that the nature of vulnerable self-esteem is considerably more complex than simply level (i.e., high vs. low self-esteem) and that other dimensions might be more causally important. According to this multidimensional approach, vulnerability includes (a) structural deficits, such as few, rigid, or externally based sources of self-worth; (b) abnormally low self-esteem that is “primed” by either mildly depressed mood, stressful events, or schema-congruent experiences; and (c) temporal instability of self-worth. We review theoretical and empirical evidence relevant to this model.
In three studies subjects' depressiveness was assessed by a variety of instruments. Questionnaire scales were either comparatively short or long and either fairly simple, content oriented, and undisguised or sophisticated in the sense of reflecting psychodynamic theorizing or elaborate multivariate approaches to scale construction. Simple self-ratings were also obtained. Results showed that (a) short scales were as valid on the average as long scales in all three studies, even though some of the short scales were merely subsets of the long scales; (b) simple scales were as valid as sophisticated scales in all three studies; and (c) self-rating scales were as valid as questionnaire scales in two studies, but not in the third. The discussion focuses on certain unrealistic assumptions of the Spearman-Brown formula and on the notion of personality assessment as a noise-afflicted communication process.
Este libro trata principalmente sobre una aproximación al procesamiento de información en el análisis de la conducta humana. Contiene: Antecedentes; La Información y el Uso de Esquemas de Reconocimiento; Atención y Motivación; Esperanza y la Decisión de Retraer la Reafirmación; Implicaciones en Problemas Específicos de Psicología Individual y Social.
Remitted depressed subjects (N = 59) were followed longitudinally to determine whether dependent or self-critical persons are more vulnerable to relapse after exposure to life events that have a bearing on interpersonal or achievement concerns. Regression analyses indicated that congruency effects, as measured by the occurrence of achievement-related adversity in the lives of self-critical subjects, accounted for a significant increment in relapse variance over each variable entered singly. When data from the 2 months just before relapse were analyzed, some evidence of congruency effects in dependent subjects experiencing interpersonal-related adversity was obtained. These findings highlight the dimensional qualities of life even impact and call for greater differentiation in modeling the activation of a diathesis and precipitation of depression after life stress.
Across diverse theoretical orientations, vulnerable self-esteem (SE) is thought to act as a diathesis for depression after life stress. In the present study, the roles of trait-level SE, low SE primed by depressed mood, and labile SE in prospectively predicting changes in depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample (n = 192) were examined. Results indicated that labile SE predicted increases in symptoms. Furthermore, a 3-way interaction (Labile SE x Academic Stress x Initial Depression) suggested that in Ss who were initially asymptomatic, lability made Ss differentially vulnerable to increases in depressive symptoms after stress. In contrast to labile SE, trait-level SE and priming of low SE were relatively weak predictors of changes in depressive symptoms and did not interact with stress.
We examined the relations between sociotropy and autonomy and clinical features of depression. Beck (1983) proposed that sociotropy is related to a sense of deprivation and clinical features associated with reactive depression and that autonomy is related to a sense of defeat and clinical features associated with endogenous depression. Robins, Block, & Peselow (1989) found support for the hypothesis for sociotropy but not for autonomy, and they suggested that the autonomy scale may be problematic. We administered new measures of sociotropy and autonomy and a more comprehensive assessment of clinical features to 50 unipolar depressed inpatients. The results support the selective relations of both sociotropy and autonomy to the predicted sets of clinical features. This study adds to the growing evidence that these personality dimensions are important to the understanding of depression.
We tested whether the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Abramson, Seligman, & Teasedale, 1978) and the Overgeneralization subscale of the Attitudes Toward Self scale (ATS; Carver & Ganellen, 1983) were (a) correlated with and (b) specific to depression. Given the high association between depression and anxiety, we examined simple and partial correlations between ratings of depression, anxiety, the ASQ, and the ATS. With the exception of internality, attributions covaried with depression and anxiety but were not specific to depression. In contrast, overgeneralization was related specifically to depression but not anxiety. Discussion centers on whether there is a specific relation between depression and cognitions and the possibility that self-evaluation processes following negative events may be more relevant to depression than explanations concerning the causes of the event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Several instruments have been developed recently to measure cognitive styles associated with depression. At least four of them appear to have an underlying similarity. Each appears to reflect a tendency for respondents to infer a general lack of self-worth (or a continued likelihood of bad events) on the basis of a single discrete failure. The present research was a comparative test of one of these scales against the other three in terms of associations with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores. Though all instruments were significantly correlated with BDI, partial correlations revealed that our generalization scale was a more robust predictor of BDI than were (a) a measure of characterological self-blame, (b) a measure of cognitive bias, and (c) a measure of attributional style.
The attributional reformulation of the learned helplessness model as outlined by L. Y. Abramson et al (see record 1979-00305-001) claims that an explanatory style in which bad events are explained by internal, stable, and global causes is associated with depressive symptoms. This style is claimed to be a risk factor for subsequent depression when bad events are encountered. A variety of new investigations of the helplessness reformulation are described that have employed 5 research strategies: cross-sectional correlational studies, longitudinal studies, experiments of nature, laboratory experiments, and case studies. Ss in these investigations included children, college students, poor women, depressed patients, and prisoners. Most of these studies involved the use of the Attributional Style Questionnaire and measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory and Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. These studies converge in their support for the learned helplessness reformulation. (120 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The tendency of depressed people to be self-punitive is commonly regarded as a single-dimensional phenomenon. The present authors suggest, however, that there are several distinct aspects of self-punitiveness and that their relationships to depression should be examined separately. To do this, a self-report measure (the Attitudes Toward Self Scale [ATSS]) was developed with separate subscales designed to assess the degree to which respondents (a) hold high standards for self-evaluation, (b) are intolerant of failure to meet standards, and (c) generalize a single failure more broadly to the self-concept. 1,083 undergraduates were administered the Beck Depression Inventory and ATSS. Regression analyses revealed that overgeneralization was a highly significant predictor of depression among both males and females, accounting for 17.5% of the variance in depression overall. Though there were other statistically significant effects, the variance that they accounted for was quite small. Discussion centers on the convergence between these results and other recent findings and on the possible implications of the data for the widely noted gender difference in rate of depression. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examines 5 broad areas of cognitive functioning: expectations and evaluations of performance, perception of environmental information, recall of information, cognitive biases, and attributional processes. A review of the literature suggests that neither A. T. Beck's (1967, 1976) nor the learned helplessness model of depression has a strong empirical base. Depressed persons present themselves negatively on a variety of measures, but less consistently than either model suggests. Differences between depressed and nondepressed persons with respect to extralaboratory experiences and self-presentational strategies remain viable alternative explanations for those results that have been obtained. In addition, specificity to depression has not been demonstrated consistently for any measure of cognitive bias or distortion. Attention is given to conceptual and methodological difficulties in unambiguously establishing what people think, in demonstrating biased or distorted cognitive processes, and in testing hypotheses about the fundamental role of cognition in depression. (4½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects Short Form of Depression Inventory: Cross-validation
- L S Aiken
- S G West
Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row. Beck, A. T., Rial, W. Y., & Rickels, K. (1974). Short Form of Depression Inventory: Cross-validation. Psychological Reports, 34, 1184–1186.