1,721,027 research outputs found
The relevance of confidence and security: a latent domain of attachment relationships.
No full textIn the present study an adult attachment dimension, latent to the constructs of security, anxiety, and avoidance, was hypothesized, wherein security was
expected to occupy the most relevant position. Furthermore, the reciprocal functioning of attachment constructs and their interactions with self-esteem
were explored. Four hundreds and thirty-four Italian university students responded to two adult attachment questionnaires (Attachment Style Questionnaire and Adult Attachment Questionnaire) and to the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale. A Many-Facet Rasch Measurement modeling approach was adopted.
The main results can be summarized as follows: (a) security, anxiety, and avoidance are nested under one latent attachment dimension; (b) security
occupies the most prominent position on the dimension; (c) security is positively associated with a moderate level of attachment anxiety and negatively
related to avoidance; and (d) a positive interaction between self-esteem and security, and a negative relation between self-esteem and anxiety, were
detected. Theoretical, clinical, and empirical implications of the results are further discusse
Assessing decision-making in romantic relationships: A first Italian validation of the relationship deciding scale
No full textRecent changes in the development of romantic relationships suggest the need for a thorough assessment of factors underlying decision-making processes about important steps in the couple's life, to prevent constraints that could increase relational distress. This research examines the dimensionality and convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the first validation of the Relationship Deciding Scale (RDS) in the European context. Study 1 (N = 426) tests the original RDS three-factor structure with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and provides reliability data for the factors. In Study 2 (N = 337), the replicated RDS factors (Relationship Confidence, Knowledge of Warning Signs, and Deciding) demonstrate acceptable construct validity. Confidence and Deciding further predict relationship satisfaction and conflict management. The results provide evidence for the use of the RDS scale in educational and clinical settings for the assessment of decision-making strategies and relational skills that can be helpful in preventing the risk of negative relational experiences
Pregiudizio e credenze eziologiche dei disturbi mentali: misurazione implicita ed esplicita.
No full textAnxiety, bulimia, drug and alcohol addiction, depression, and schizophrenia: what do you think about their aetiology, dangerousness, social distance, and treatment? A Latent Class Analysis approach
No full textMental illness stigma is a serious societal problem and a critical impediment to treatment seeking for mentally ill people. To improve the understanding of mental illness stigma, this study focuses on the simulta- neous analysis of people’s aetiological beliefs, attitudes (i.e. perceived dangerousness and social distance), and recommended treatments related to several mental disor- ders by devising an over-arching latent structure that could explain the relations among these variables.
Three hundred and sixty university students randomly received an unlabelled vignette depicting one of six mental disorders to be evaluated on the four variables on a Likert-type scale. A one-factor Latent Class Analysis (LCA) model was hypothesized, which comprised the four manifest variables as indicators and the mental disorder as external variable.
The main findings were the following: (a) a one- factor LCA model was retrieved; (b) alcohol and drug addictions are the most strongly stigmatized; (c) a realistic opinion about the causes and treatment of schizophrenia, anxiety, bulimia, and depression was associated to lower prejudicial attitudes and social rejection.
Beyond the general appraisal of mental illness an individual might have, the results generally point to the acknowledgement of the specific features of different diagnostic categories. The implications of the present results are discussed in the framework of a better understanding of mental illness stigma
Exploratory Structure Equation Modeling of loneliness dimensions in relation to self-esteem, adult attachment, and social anxiety in young adults
No full textCognitive bias modification of alcohol approach tendencies: A rasch model-based evaluation of a longitudinal study
No full textThe present study explores the applicability of the Many-Facet Rasch Measurement model to an Approach Avoidance Task assessing automatic approach tendencies toward alcohol. The MFRM was applied to 54 alcohol dependent outpatients who completed a combined Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) training, targeting alcohol approach and attentional bias. Main objectives were to examine a) occurrence of change; effect of b) experimental conditions and c) gender; d) measurement status of the measure. Main results included a) no main effect of time, which only modulates effects of experimental condition on approach/avoid tendencies; b) double CBM, and to a lower degree double placebo, outperformed the other conditions, while approach bias placebo/attentional CBM had a negative effect; c) no gender differences; d) the measure taps into general and drink-specific approach/avoid tendencies, is stable in time, and is slightly sensitive to stimuli context. Methodological and clinical implications of study results are further discussed
An Implicit Measure of Associations with Mental Illness versus Physical Illness: Response Latency Decomposition and Stimuli Differential Functioning in Relation to IAT Order of Associative Conditions and Accuracy.
Full text linkThe present study aimed at the definition of a latent measurement dimension underlying an implicit measure of automatic associations between the concept of mental illness and the psychosocial and biogenetic causal explanatory attributes. To this end, an Implicit Association Test (IAT) assessing the association between the Mental Illness and Physical Illness target categories to the Psychological and Biologic attribute categories, representative of the causal explanation domains, was developed. The IAT presented 22 stimuli (words and pictures) to be categorized into the four categories. After 360 university students completed the IAT, a Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) modelling approach was applied. The model specified a person latency parameter and a stimulus latency parameter. Two additional parameters were introduced to denote the order of presentation of the task associative conditions and the general response accuracy. Beyond the overall definition of the latent measurement dimension, the MFRM was also applied to disentangle the effect of the task block order and the general response accuracy on the stimuli response latency. Further, the MFRM allowed detecting any differential functioning of each stimulus in relation to both block ordering and accuracy. The results evidenced: a) the existence of a latency measurement dimension underlying the Mental Illness versus Physical Illness - Implicit Association Test; b) significant effects of block order and accuracy on the overall latency; c) a differential functioning of specific stimuli. The results of the present study can contribute to a better understanding of the functioning of an implicit measure of semantic associations with mental illness and give a first blueprint for the examination of relevant issues in the development of an IAT
Combining cognitive bias modification training with motivational support in alcohol dependent outpatients: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Full text linkBackground
Addiction research has hypothesised that automatic and reflective cognitive processes play an important role in the onset and maintenance of alcohol (ab)use, wherein automatic reactions to drug-related cues steer the drug user towards consuming before reflective processes can get over and steer towards a different behavioural response. These automatic processes include the tendency to attend and approach alcohol cues. These biases may be trained away from alcohol via computerised cognitive bias modification (CBM). The present protocol describes the design of a double-blind randomised controlled trial (RCT) testing the effectiveness of attentional bias and approach bias re-training with a 2×2 factorial design, alongside a brief motivational support (MS) program.
Methods/Design
Participants (n = 120) are adult alcohol dependent outpatients, recruited from a public health service for addiction in Italy, who have been abstinent for at least two months, and with a main diagnosis of alcohol dependence disorder. Participants are randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions and complete 11 sessions of training after a baseline assessment. The MS takes place before each training session. Post-intervention and three-month follow-up assessments examine the change in clinical outcome variables and attentional and approach biases (measured with the Visual Probe Task and the Approach-Avoidance Task, respectively). Alcohol approach-avoidance implicit memory associations (measured with the Brief Implicit Association Test) are also evaluated at pre- and post-intervention to explore generalisation effects. Primary outcome measure is relapse rate at follow-up. Secondary outcome measures include change in cognitive biases, in alcohol-related implicit memory associations, and in the clinical variables assessed. An exploratory analysis is also planned to detect interaction effects between the CBM modules and possible moderators (interference control capacity, gender, age, number of previous detoxifications) and mediators (change in cognitive bias) of the primary outcome measure.
Discussion
This RCT is the first to test the effectiveness of a combined CBM intervention alongside motivational support in alcohol-dependent outpatients. The results of this study can be extremely valuable for future research in the optimisation of CBM treatment for alcohol addiction
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