1,721,153 research outputs found
Remediating reduced memory specificity in bipolar disorder: A case study using a Computerized Memory Specificity Training
No full textObjectivesReduced autobiographical memory specificity (rAMS) is a vulnerability factor found across unipolar depression (UD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder (BD). A group delivered psychological therapy training called Memory Specificity Training (MeST) remediates rAMS in UD and PTSD, with additional downstream effects on related psychological processes and symptoms. Its impact in BD is unknown. In this case study, we examined the impact of a computerized version of MeST (c-MeST) on improving AMS and related symptoms and processes in participant with rapid cycling type I BD.MethodAn experimental case study with an ABA design was used. During baseline (14 days, Phase A), the training phase (nine sessions across 17 days, Phase B), and a 1-month follow-up (Phase A), memory specificity, depressive symptoms, and related processes and symptoms were repeatedly measured.ResultsMemory specificity increased significantly after the participant completed c-MeST. Session-to-session scores indicated that AMS improved most from the in-person baseline assessment to the first online session. All other measures of processes and symptoms deteriorated during the training phase but regressed to baseline during follow-up.ConclusionMemory specificity was improved as indicated by increased AMS from pre-intervention measurement to 1-month follow-up. Other improvements in symptoms were not observed. Rather, some related maladaptive psychological processes and symptoms worsened during the training phase and regressed to baseline during follow-up
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Mindfulness - Toepassing bij diverse populaties en werkingsmechanismen
No full textChapter 1: General Introduction. The research described in this thesis is driven by two overall aims: [1] to investigate if mindfulness is a feasible and effective approach to relief different kinds of mental suffering as encountered in different contexts and settings such as social welfare centers (Chapter 2), schools (Chapter 3 and 4) and pediatric oncology units (Chapter 5); and [2] to investigate its working mechanisms across different study populations such as adolescents (Chapter 4 and 5) and adults (Chapter 2 and 6).
Chapter 2: A Mindfulness-Based Intervention for economically disadvantaged people: Effects on symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, and on cognitive reactivity and overgeneralization. The chronic exposure to stress of living with less money than one needs affects people's well-being. This study shows that a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) significantly reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, cognitive reactivity and overgeneralization (both cognitive vulnerability factors for depression), and significantly improved mindfulness skills. These findings provide promising evidence of the effectiveness of MBIs to promote economically disadvantaged people’s mental well-being and show that a MBI is feasible in social welfare centers.
Chapter 3: Potential Moderators of the Effects of a School-Based Mindfulness Program on Symptoms of Depression in Adolescents. A large randomized controlled trial delivering mindfulness or no treatment was conducted in secondary schools in Flanders. The mindfulness program was found to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression post-intervention and at six months follow-up. No moderation effects were found of gender, age, and school-track meaning that the training might work equally well for girls and boys, for younger and older students, and across school-tracks. The potential impact of mindfulness on curative as well as preventive aspects is discussed.
Chapter 4: Processes of change in a school-based mindfulness program: cognitive reactivity and self-coldness as mediators. A moderated time-lagged mediation model was used to test the mediation of training effect in the randomized controlled trial data conducted in schools from Chapter 3. Post-treatment changes in cognitive reactivity and self-coldness, an aspect of self-compassion, mediated subsequent changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. The transdiagnostic nature of the intervention is discussed.
Chapter 5: A Mindfulness-Based Intervention for adolescents and young adults after cancer treatment: Effects on quality of life, emotional distress, and cognitive vulnerability. The potential efficacy of a mindfulness based intervention to alleviate emotional distress and improve quality of life in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors was studied. Multilevel modelling showed 1) a significant reduction in emotional distress and improvement in quality of life at 3 months follow-up, 2) a significant reduction in negative attitudes toward self (i.e. a cognitive vulnerability factor for emotional distress, in particular depression) and 3) a significant improvement in mindfulness skills.
Chapter 6: An Experience Sampling Study Examining the Potential Impact of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Emotion Differentiation. In this study we hypothesize, and study empirically, whether MBI may impact the differentiation of negative and positive emotions, an essential skill for adaptive emotion regulation. Multilevel modeling showed a significant improvement in negative emotion differentiation post-intervention and at four months of follow-up, and a significant improvement in positive emotion differentiation at four months follow-up. A time-lagged mediation model showed that post-treatment changes in mindfulness skills mediated subsequent changes in negative emotion differentiation. These results suggest that MBI is a promising approach to improve people’s emotion differentiation skills.
Chapter 7: General Discussion. A summary and synthesis of the results is given in relation to the most recent findings in mindfulness research. Strengths and limitations are discussed and indications for future research are presented.status: Publishe
Deze thesis schittert/faalt op elk vlak! De impact van abstract 'waarom' en concreet 'hoe' denken op negatieve en positieve generalisatie
No full textMany psychological problems are characterized by a gradual broadening of the complaints over stimuli, contexts, and behaviors. This expansion of the complaints over stimuli, contexts, and behaviors is known as generalization. Notwithstanding the fact that generalization leads to the onset and maintenance of psychopathology, it remains unclear what cognitive factors underlie the process of generalization. This doctoral thesis focuses on the study of abstract repetitive thought or an abstract processing style (e.g., anxious worry and depressive rumination) as a potential key-factor driving generalization. The key hypothesis of this project, thus, is that an abstract processing style (vs. a concrete processing style) leads to more generalization. This key hypothesis has been examined in several studies with different paradigms in three parts.
In Part 1 we developed a depression-relevant generalization-conditioning paradigm. We adopted a well-known procedure from the fear conditioning literature to use in a more depression relevant context with a commonly used experimental manipulation of abstract and concrete processing style. In Chapter 1, we found that participants with more depressive symptoms in the abstract induction showed more negative generalization compared to participants in the concrete induction group. This effect was thus clearly moderated by depressive symptoms. In Chapter 2, using a more advanced and probably more sound and improved way for analyzing generalization gradients we found that an abstract processing style leads to slower and hence more generalization for negative stimuli compared to the concrete condition, confirming the maladaptive consequences of an abstract processing mode in negative contexts. Hence, both chapters indicate that abstract processing in this newly developed generalization-conditioning paradigm increases negative generalization.
In Part 2 we developed a memory paradigm with angry facial affect stimuli to assess generalization and used a processing style induction of abstract and concrete thought embedded within the memory task. Our dependent variable, the amount of angry faces falsely associated with the self, was a more implicit behavioral measure than measures used in our and other previous studies that examined the influence of processing mode. In Chapter 3, we found that an abstract processing style, compared to a concrete processing style, increases the false memory for angry faces being paired with the self (i.e., generalization to the self). These results were not moderated by level of social anxiety symptoms. In Chapter 4, we attempted to replicate the study of Chapter 3. We could not completely replicate the findings of the original study. However, when we post-hoc selected participants for whom the manipulation was more successful, the findings are in line with the previous findings. The results of this part suggest that abstract thought can lead to (over)generalization of bad/failure/angry feelings toward the self (‘Everyone is always angry at me’) that is often seen in social phobia and depression.
In Part 3 we examined positive generalization following a success performance (Chapter 5) and positive and negative generalization following a success or a failure performance (Chapter 6) in sport participants/athletes. These studies were online questionnaire-based experiments with a written induction of abstract and concrete processing style. Different forms of generalization were measured, namely generalization to future events following a single event and generalization to the self-concept. In Chapter 5, abstract processing about a positive event (i.e., a good performance) increased positive generalization relative to a concrete processing style. In Chapter 6, we did not find that abstract processing per se has any adaptive effects on positive generalization following a success or detrimental effects on negative generalization following a failure. However, individuals using an abstract ‘why’ processing style (i.e., thinking about causes) can make functional or dysfunctional causal attributions. Our results then indicated that sport participants with more internal, controllable, and stable attributions showed more positive generalization and sport participants with more external, uncontrollable, and stable attributions showed more negative generalization (for both measures of generalization to the self and across situations/to the future).
The three parts are preceded by a general introduction that sets the stage with a short introduction of the key concepts and aims of the doctoral project. A general discussion gives an overview and discussion of the overall results and provides limitations, directions for future research and clinical/practical implications.status: Publishe
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Depression diagnoses, but not individual differences in depression symptoms, are associated with reduced autobiographical memory specificity.
Full text linkOBJECTIVES: Difficulties recalling specific events from one's autobiographical past have been associated with a range of emotional disorders. We present the first examination of whether diagnoses of depression or individual differences in depression severity explain the most variance in autobiographical memory specificity. We also examine the contribution of other key cognitive factors associated with reduced memory specificity - rumination and verbal fluency - to these effects. METHODS: Participants with (n = 21) and without (n = 25) major depressive disorder completed self-report measures of depression severity (Beck Depression Inventory version II; BDI-II) and ruminative tendency (Ruminative Response Scale), a measure of verbal fluency, and the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) to assess memory specificity. RESULTS: People diagnosed with depression recalled significantly fewer specific memories in the AMT relative to healthy controls. In a linear regression, diagnostic status explained a significant amount of unique variance in specificity whereas BDI-II scores did not. Diagnostic group differences in verbal fluency also explained a significant amount of variance in specificity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings extend our understanding of the mechanisms involved in reduced memory specificity but future research must explore the causal contribution of weak executive functioning to reduced memory specificity. PRACTITIONERS POINTS: Diagnoses of depression were associated with problems recalling specific events from one's past. Problems with memory specificity amongst depressed people were associated with executive functioning difficulties. Problems with specificity were not associated with individual differences in depression severity or ruminative tendencies.sponsorship: This project was supported by a KU Leuven Research Council Grant PF/10/005. (KU Leuven Research Council|PF/10/005)status: Publishe
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