Between Facets and Domains DeYoung, Colin G; Quilty, Lena C; Peterson, Jordan B
Journal of personality and social psychology,
11/2007, Letnik:
93, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Factor analyses of 75 facet scales from 2 major Big Five inventories, in the Eugene-Springfield community sample (
N
= 481), produced a 2-factor solution for the 15 facets in each domain. These ...findings indicate the existence of 2 distinct (but correlated) aspects within each of the Big Five, representing an intermediate level of personality structure between facets and domains. The authors characterized these factors in detail at the item level by correlating factor scores with the International Personality Item Pool (
L. R. Goldberg, 1999
). These correlations allowed the construction of a 100-item measure of the 10 factors (the Big Five Aspect Scales BFAS), which was validated in a 2nd sample (
N
= 480). Finally, the authors examined the correlations of the 10 factors with scores derived from 10 genetic factors that a previous study identified underlying the shared variance among the Revised NEO Personality Inventory facets (
K. L. Jang et al., 2002
). The correspondence was strong enough to suggest that the 10 aspects of the Big Five may have distinct biological substrates.
The Big Five personality dimension Openness/Intellect is the trait most closely associated with creativity and creative achievement. Little is known, however, regarding the discriminant validity of ...its two aspects—Openness to Experience (reflecting cognitive engagement with perception, fantasy, aesthetics, and emotions) and Intellect (reflecting cognitive engagement with and semantic information, primarily through reasoning)—in relation to creativity. In four demographically diverse samples totaling 1,035 participants, we investigated the independent predictive validity of Openness and Intellect by assessing the relations among cognitive ability, divergent thinking, personality, and creative achievement across the arts and sciences. We confirmed the hypothesis that whereas Openness predicts creative achievement in the arts, Intellect predicts creative achievement in the sciences. Inclusion of performance measures of general cognitive ability and divergent thinking indicated that the relation of Intellect to scientific creativity may be due at least in part to these abilities. Lastly, we found that Extraversion additionally predicted creative achievement in the arts, independently of Openness. Results are discussed in the context of dual‐process theory.
Cognitive theories of depression propose that impaired cognitive control of emotional material may be involved in the onset, maintenance, and/or recurrence of depression. The present study is a ...systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature on cognitive control biases in depression. Seventy-three articles describing 77 independent studies (N = 4,134 participants) were included in the meta-analysis. Depression-vulnerable individuals, including individuals with diagnosed major depressive disorder (MDD), remitted MDD (rMDD), and dysphoria, showed significantly impaired cognitive control of negative stimuli relative to both neutral and positive stimuli. Control samples did not exhibit the aforementioned biases, and instead showed significantly worse cognitive control of positive stimuli relative to negative stimuli and similar cognitive control of neutral stimuli relative to both negative and positive stimuli. Evidence for sample or methodological moderators of effect sizes was limited and inconsistent. Based on our review, we recommend that researchers assess and examine directional and causal relationships between multiple cognitive control biases (especially in updating and set shifting), investigate the causal relationships between general deficits and biases in cognitive control, select tasks that control for nontarget influences on performance (e.g., processing speed), use sample sizes adequately powered to detect small effects, provide psychometric information on task indices, consistently report within-groups biases and between-groups comparisons of biases, and examine potential moderators of cognitive control biases at the individual level.
Public Significance Statement
This meta-analysis indicates that depression-vulnerable individuals, including individuals with current major depressive disorder, remitted MDD, and dysphoria, have impaired cognitive control of negative stimuli relative to neutral and positive stimuli. In contrast, healthy control individuals have worse cognitive control of positive stimuli relative to negative stimuli and similar cognitive control of neutral stimuli relative to both negative and positive stimuli. These biases in cognitive control are small but may lead to a preponderance of negative information in working memory for depression-vulnerable individuals and have implications for how negative moods are maintained.
The current lack of pharmacological treatments for cannabis use disorder (CUD) warrants novel approaches and further investigation of promising pharmacotherapy. We previously showed that nabiximols ...(27 mg/ml Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)/ 25 mg/ml cannabidiol (CBD), Sativex®) can decrease cannabis withdrawal symptoms. Here, we assessed in a pilot study the tolerability and safety of self-titrated nabiximols vs. placebo among 40 treatment-seeking cannabis-dependent participants.
Subjects participated in a double blind randomized clinical trial, with as-needed nabiximols up to 113.4 mg THC/105 mg CBD or placebo daily for 12 weeks, concurrently with Motivational Enhancement Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MET/CBT). Primary outcome measures were tolerability and abstinence, secondary outcome measures were days and amount of cannabis use, withdrawal, and craving scores. Participants received up to CDN$ 855 in compensation for their time.
Medication was well tolerated and no serious adverse events (SAEs) were observed. Rates of adverse events did not differ between treatment arms (F1,39 = 0.205, NS). There was no significant change in abstinence rates at trial end. Participants were not able to differentiate between subjective effects associated with nabiximols or placebo treatments (F1,40 = 0.585, NS). Cannabis use was reduced in the nabiximols (70.5%) and placebo groups (42.6%). Nabiximols reduced cannabis craving but no significant differences between the nabiximols and placebo groups were observed on withdrawal scores.
Nabiximols in combination with MET/CBT was well tolerated and allowed for reduction of cannabis use. Future clinical trials should explore the potential of high doses of nabiximols for cannabis dependence.
Brief interventions have been increasingly investigated to promote early intervention in gambling problems; an accurate estimate of the impact of these interventions is required to justify their ...widespread implementation. The goal of the current investigation was to evaluate the efficacy of in-person brief interventions for reducing gambling behaviour and/or problems, by quantifying the aggregate effect size associated with these interventions in the published literature to date.
Randomized controlled trials including the following design features were identified via systematic review: an adult sample experiencing problems associated with gambling; an in-person individual psychosocial intervention of brief duration (≤3 sessions); a control/comparison group; and an outcome related to gambling behaviour and/or problems.
Five records compared brief interventions to assessment only control; using a random effect model, brief interventions were associated with a small but statistically significant reduction in gambling behaviour across short-term follow-up periods versus assessment only control (g = -.19, 95% CI -.37, -.01). Aggregate effect sizes for gambling problems and long-term follow-up periods were not statistically significant. Five records compared brief interventions to longer active interventions; there was no significant difference between brief interventions and longer active interventions.
Results supported the efficacy of brief interventions for problem gambling compared to inactive control in the reduction of gambling behaviour; no differences were found across brief versus longer interventions for both gambling behaviour and problems. While these findings must be interpreted in the context of the limited number of studies and small magnitude of the combined effect sizes, the current meta-analysis supports the further investigation of the public health impact of these cost-effective interventions.
Alexithymia is characterized by difficulty identifying and/or describing emotions, reduced imaginal processes, and externally oriented thinking. High levels of alexithymia may increase the challenge ...of supporting individuals with co-occurring depression and hazardous alcohol use. This secondary analysis sought to investigate whether or not alexithymia moderated the outcomes of an online intervention for depression and alcohol use.
As part of a randomized controlled trial, 988 participants were randomly assigned to receive an intervention dually focused on depression and alcohol use, or an intervention only focused on depression. The pre-specified mediation hypothesis was that changes in drinking at 3 months follow-up would effect the association between the intervention and change in depression at 6 months. This secondary analysis extends the investigation by adding alexithymia as a moderator.
The current analysis demonstrated that including alexithymia as a moderator resulted in a conditional direct effect. Specifically, there was an intervention effect where participants who received the combined depression and alcohol intervention had larger improvements in their depression scores at 6 months, but this was only when their alexithymia score at baseline was also high (60.5 or higher).
These results suggest that treatment planning and intervention effectiveness could be informed and optimized by taking alexithymia severity into consideration. This is especially merited as alexithymia can contribute to the weaker therapeutic alliance, more distress and dysphoria, shorter periods of abstinence, and more severe depression, compounding the complexity of supporting individuals with comorbid conditions. More research is needed to systematically investigate these possible modifying effects.
Does difficulty identifying/describing emotions or externally-oriented thinking influence the effectiveness of an intervention among people with both depression and hazardous alcohol use?
Objective
Research has shown that three personality traits—Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness—moderate one another in a three‐way interaction that predicts depressive symptoms in ...healthy populations. We test the hypothesis that this effect is driven by three lower‐order traits: withdrawal, industriousness, and enthusiasm. We then replicate this interaction within a clinical population for the first time.
Method
Sample 1 included 376 healthy adults. Sample 2 included 354 patients diagnosed with current major depressive disorder. Personality and depressive tendencies were assessed via the Big Five Aspect Scales and Personality Inventory for DSM‐5 in Sample 1, respectively, and by the NEO‐PI‐R and Beck Depression Inventory‐II in Sample 2.
Results
Withdrawal, industriousness, and enthusiasm interacted to predict depressive tendencies in both samples. The pattern of the interaction supported a “best two out of three” principle, in which low risk scores on two trait dimensions protects against a high risk score on the third trait. Evidence was also present for a “worst two out of three” principle, in which high risk scores on two traits are associated with equivalent depressive severity as high risk scores on all three traits.
Conclusions
These results highlight the importance of examining interactive effects of personality traits on psychopathology.
People with depression select avoidant emotion regulation (ER) strategies more often than engagement strategies. While psychotherapy improves ER strategies, examining the week-to-week changes in ER ...and their relationship to clinical outcomes is warranted to understand how these interventions work. This study examined the changes in six ER strategies and depressive symptoms during virtual psychotherapy.
Treatment-seeking adults (N = 56) with moderate depression severity completed a baseline diagnostic interview and questionnaires and were followed for up to 3 months as they completed virtual psychotherapy in an unrestricted format (e.g., individual) and orientation (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy; CBT). Participants completed weekly assessments of depression and six ER strategies along with assessments of CBT skills and participant-rated CBT components for each psychotherapy session. Multilevel modeling was used to examine associations between within-person changes in ER strategy use and weekly depression scores, controlling for between-person effects and time.
Depressive symptoms, rumination, and experiential avoidance decreased non-linearly over time while cognitive reappraisal and acceptance increased non-linearly. Controlling for CBT skills, within-person increases in acceptance and cognitive reappraisal, as well as within-person decreases in experiential avoidance, were associated with fewer depressive symptoms over time. People who reported greater CBT components in their sessions also reported fewer depressive symptoms over time.
The study was unable to make more causal inferences or standardize the type, baseline, or length of psychotherapy received.
Improvements in ER strategies were associated with depression symptom reduction during psychotherapy. Future research to elucidate ER strategies as mediators of treatment response is warranted.
•Six common emotion regulation strategies and depression were assessed during virtual psychotherapy.•Depressive symptoms, rumination, and experiential avoidance decreased non-linearly.•Cognitive reappraisal and acceptance increased non-linearly.•Within-person changes in some ER strategies were associated with reduced depressive symptoms.•Sessions with greater components of cognitive-behavioral therapy were associated with reduced depressive symptoms.
Background:
The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) has revised its 2009 guidelines for the management of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults by updating the evidence and ...recommendations. The target audiences for these 2016 guidelines are psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
Methods:
Using the question-answer format, we conducted a systematic literature search focusing on systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Evidence was graded using CANMAT-defined criteria for level of evidence. Recommendations for lines of treatment were based on the quality of evidence and clinical expert consensus. “Psychological Treatments” is the second of six sections of the 2016 guidelines.
Results:
Evidence-informed responses were developed for 25 questions under 5 broad categories: 1) patient characteristics relevant to using psychological interventions; 2) therapist and health system characteristics associated with optimizing outcomes; 3) descriptions of major psychotherapies and their efficacy; 4) additional psychological interventions, such as peer interventions and computer- and technology-delivered interventions; and 5) combining and/or sequencing psychological and pharmacological interventions.
Conclusions:
First-line psychological treatment recommendations for acute MDD include cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), interpersonal therapy (IPT), and behavioural activation (BA). Second-line recommendations include computer-based and telephone-delivered psychotherapy. Where feasible, combining psychological treatment (CBT or IPT) with antidepressant treatment is recommended because combined treatment is superior to either treatment alone. First-line psychological treatments for maintenance include CBT and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Patient preference, in combination with evidence-based treatments and clinician/system capacity, will yield the optimal treatment strategies for improving individual outcomes in MDD.
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