We examined whether a positive intervention (i.e. granting a wish) could promote positive psychological and physical changes (e.g. reduced nausea and pain) in seriously-ill children. Children and ...their parent were randomly assigned to a wish group (completed measures 2–3 days before the wish and 3 weeks later) or to a waiting-list control group (with an equivalent time-lag and receiving the wish after the assessment). Wish intervention significantly increased levels of positive emotions, satisfaction with life, personal strengths, and reduced rates of nausea compared with the control group. Mothers in the wish group also perceived positive changes in children’s benefit finding and quality of life.
Research over the last two decades on the role of positive emotions and cognitions in psychological functioning is leading to conceptual changes regarding the nature of mental disorders and the ...mechanisms underlying their onset and maintenance. This introduction to the latest breakthrough research on positive emotions and cognition offers a brief description of the emerging presence of positivity in current diagnostic systems like the DSM5 and Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). It also analyzes some select findings from the literature on experimental psychopathology supporting the relevance of examining positive aspects of functioning in clinical psychology. In addition, the study of positive aspects of psychological functioning adds a more conceptually complex understanding of psychopathology. The multiple perspectives encompassed in this special issue shed light on our understanding of the different roles that positive emotions and cognitions play in mediating normal and abnormal human functioning and their importance to improving research methods and interventions in psychopathology.
► High cloze words elicit larger N400s in positive than negative emotional contexts. ► Emotionally opposite words elicit post-N400 effects regardless of emotional bias. ► Defensive Pessimists show ...large N400 responses to expected endings. ► Strength of expectations alters in time-constrained affective scenarios. ► Human language processing favors pleasant surprises minimizing emotional setbacks.
Brainwave responses to words in context depend on semantic and world-knowledge expectations. Using the N400 component of event-related potentials as an index of word expectation, we explored brain responses to negatively and positively biased sentence frames randomly presented with their emotionally matched highly expected outcome or with violations that included switches to unexpected emotionally opposite outcomes or nonsense. Nonsense elicited large N400 responses regardless of the bias of the preceding sentence frame. Unexpected emotionally opposite outcomes elicited smaller than nonsense N400 responses and subsequent post-N400 frontal positivities, both unaffected by sentence frame bias. Over a midline-posterior scalp region, expected positive outcomes elicited larger N400 responses than negative ones, despite a high and matched word probability. Our study reveals that brains respond to unexpected emotional outcomes regardless of the direction of the emotional switch and hints at the possibility that the strength of positive and negative expectations may be adjusted before experiencing unexpected events.
Objective: Occupational accidents are highly stressful events that frequently occur and impact both the physical and mental health of workers. The aim of this study was to longitudinally assess a ...predictive model of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in workers who have suffered a recent accident. Method: Two hundred and forty-four workers (77.8% men), aged 18 to 73 years, who had experienced an accident during the last month that resulted in hospitalization and/or ten or more days of sick leave, were surveyed. A second survey was carried out six months later. Regression analyses included psychological predictors (i.e. subjective severity of event, brooding and positive and negative religious coping), along with objective predictors (i.e. hospitalization, sick leave days and unemployment). Results: It was found that the main predictors of PTSS were brooding, negative religious coping, days of sick leave and unemployment, with a large effect size (R
2
= .45). Conclusions: The discussion is based on the usefulness of including selected psychological and objective predictors for detecting people more susceptible to developing psychopathology due to the stress following an accident. Identifying at-risk people for developing PTSS after an accident may help to introduce selective preventive strategies or early interventions in this population.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Objectives
The COVID‐19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study aims to assess the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic in the adult population in multiple countries. This paper describes the ...third wave of the UK survey (the ‘parent’ strand of the Consortium) during July‐August 2020.
Methods
Adults (N = 2025) who participated in the baseline and/or first follow‐up surveys were reinvited to participate in this survey, which assessed: (1) COVID‐19 related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours; (2) the occurrence of common mental disorders; as well as the role of (3) psychological factors and (4) social and political attitudes, in influencing the public’s response to the pandemic. Weights were calculated using a survey raking algorithm to ensure that the cross‐sectional sample is nationally representative in terms of gender, age, and household income, and representative of the baseline sample characteristics for household composition, ethnicity, urbanicity and born/raised in UK.
Results
1166 adults (57.6% of baseline participants) provided full interviews at Wave 3. The raking procedure successfully re‐balanced the cross‐sectional sample to within 1% of population estimates across selected socio‐demographic characteristics.
Conclusion
This paper demonstrates the strength of the C19PRC Study data to facilitate and stimulate interdisciplinary research addressing important public health questions relating to the COVID‐19 pandemic.
This study analyzed a predictive model of posttraumatic growth (PTG) in a cohort of 244 workers affected by an occupational accident. A longitudinal design with three points in time (i.e., 1, 6, and ...12 months after the accident) was used. PTG, posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), subjective severity of the event, deliberate rumination, and seeking social support were evaluated. In addition, time since the accident, age, and gender were included as predictors in our model. Deliberate rumination and seeking social support significantly predicted PTG trajectory in a multilevel model. Practical conclusions from the results suggest that work accident victims should be encouraged to seek social support and to positively reframe their experience.
In this article, the evaluation of a structural model that seeks to identify predictors and mediators of posttraumatic growth (PTG) of people affected by a natural disaster is presented.
The sample ...was composed of 349 adult men and women who experienced the earthquake and tsunami on February 27, 2010 in Chile. A modeling with structural equations was used, contrasting two predictive models of PTG. The latent variables assessed were subjective severity, social sharing of emotion, intrusive rumination, deliberate rumination, problem-focused coping and posttraumatic growth.
The best fit was obtained with the model that shows a direct influence of the subjective severity, problem-focused coping, and deliberate rumination in the presence of PTG. Problem-focused coping mediated the relation between subjective severity and social sharing with PTG. In turn, deliberate rumination mediated the relation of problem-focused coping and intrusive rumination with PTG.
The results show the relevant role of cognitive processes such as deliberate rumination and behavioral processes such as problem-focused coping in the presence of PTG.
Objective: Compared with the general population, those with severe psychiatric conditions have a substantially higher likelihood of trauma exposure, increased probability of developing posttraumatic ...stress disorder (PTSD), and more severe consequences if trauma is left untreated. Nevertheless, identification of trauma/PTSD continues to be a neglected mental health system priority. In Spain, few investigations have examined the prevalence of trauma, particularly in persons with severe psychiatric conditions. Method: This study reports findings from a trauma/PTSD screening within a large Madrid public mental health agency serving clients with severe psychiatric conditions. Results: Of the 323 participants, 272 (84.2%) reported at least 1 traumatic event; and 124 (38.4%) met criteria for "probable" PTSD, although none had a medical record diagnosis of PTSD. Those with probable PTSD were predominantly male, were in their mid-40s, had received mental health services for 16 years on average, and endorsed 5.64 types of lifetime traumatic events. The most frequent and distressing traumatic event was the sudden, unexpected death of a loved one. The number of traumatic event types reported was positively correlated with PTSD symptom severity. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Despite lower Spanish general population prevalence of trauma/probable PTSD (compared with the United States and other Western countries), rates within those with co-occurring severe psychiatric conditions are high. These findings reinforce the importance of conducting system-wide screening in public mental health clinics serving persons with severe psychiatric conditions in Spain (and beyond), in order to address this ongoing but neglected issue, and begin to offer much-needed recovery services.
Objectives
This paper outlines fieldwork procedures for Wave 4 of the COVID‐19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study in the UK during November–December 2020.
Methods
Respondents provided ...data on socio‐political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours, and mental health disorders (anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress). In Phase 1, adults (N = 2878) were reinvited to participate. At Phase 2, new recruitment: (i) replenished the longitudinal strand to account for attrition; and (ii) oversampled from the devolved UK nations to facilitate robust between‐country analyses for core study outcomes. Weights were calculated using a survey raking algorithm to ensure the longitudinal panel was representative of the baseline sample characteristics.
Results
In Phase 1, 1796 adults were successfully recontacted and provided full interviews at Wave 4 (62.4% retention rate). In Phase 2, 292 new respondents were recruited to replenish the panel, as well as 1779 adults from Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, who were representative of the socio‐political composition of the adult populations in these nations. The raking procedure successfully re‐balanced the longitudinal panel to within 1% of population estimates for selected socio‐demographic characteristics.
Conclusion
The C19PRC Study offers a unique opportunity to facilitate and stimulate interdisciplinary research addressing important public health questions relating to the COVID‐19 pandemic.
The Pemberton Happiness Index (PHI) is a recently developed integrative measure of well-being that includes components of hedonic, eudaimonic, social, and experienced well-being. The PHI has been ...validated in several languages, but not in Portuguese. Our aim was to cross-culturally adapt the Universal Portuguese version of the PHI and to assess its psychometric properties in a sample of the Brazilian population using online surveys.An expert committee evaluated 2 versions of the PHI previously translated into Portuguese by the original authors using a standardized form for assessment of semantic/idiomatic, cultural, and conceptual equivalence. A pretesting was conducted employing cognitive debriefing methods. In sequence, the expert committee evaluated all the documents and reached a final Universal Portuguese PHI version. For the evaluation of the psychometric properties, the data were collected using online surveys in a cross-sectional study. The study population included healthcare professionals and users of the social network site Facebook from several Brazilian geographic areas. In addition to the PHI, participants completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Diener and Emmons' Positive and Negative Experience Scale (PNES), Psychological Well-being Scale (PWS), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS). Internal consistency, convergent validity, known-group validity, and test-retest reliability were evaluated. Satisfaction with the previous day was correlated with the 10 items assessing experienced well-being using the Cramer V test. Additionally, a cut-off value of PHI to identify a "happy individual" was defined using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve methodology.Data from 1035 Brazilian participants were analyzed (health professionals = 180; Facebook users = 855). Regarding reliability results, the internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.890 and 0.914) and test-retest (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.814) were both considered adequate. Most of the validity hypotheses formulated a priori (convergent and know-group) was further confirmed. The cut-off value of higher than 7 in remembered PHI was identified (AUC = 0.780, sensitivity = 69.2%, specificity = 78.2%) as the best one to identify a happy individual.We concluded that the Universal Portuguese version of the PHI is valid and reliable for use in the Brazilian population using online surveys.
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