A Prospective Test of Cognitive Vulnerability to Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Cognitive models of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder [OCD; e.g., Rachman, 1997, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 793–802; Salkovskis, 1985, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571–583] propose that negative interpretations of intrusive thoughts and images are central to the development and maintenance of OCD. Despite consistent findings that specific interpretations (e.g., heightened responsibility) contribute to the maintenance of OC symptoms [see Salkovskis & Forrester, 2002, Theory, assessment, and treatment, New York: Pergamon], no research has examined the role of these interpretations in the development of OCD or whether OCD-related beliefs predict changes in symptom levels. In the current study, 377 undergraduate students participated in a 6-week prospective study for which they completed measures of OCD-related beliefs, life events, and OC symptoms. OCD-related beliefs and negative life events each significantly predicted residual change in OC symptoms over 6-weeks. However, there was not support for a cognitive–vulnerability–stress interaction. Exploratory analyses suggest that OCD-related beliefs may be more predictive of some particular types of OCD symptoms (e.g., neutralizing, ordering, and obsessing) than others (e.g., hoarding and washing). Findings from this study are important for clarifying predictors of changes in OCD symptom levels and for stimulating research on vulnerability to OCD.

Predicting Changes in Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms Over a Six-Month Follow-Up: A Prospective Test of Cognitive Models of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Cognitive models of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) propose that OCD-related beliefs (e.g., inflated responsibility) and negative life events should predict changes in OC symptoms over time (Rachman, 1997, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 793–802; Rachman, 1998, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 385–401; Rachman, 2002, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 625–639; Salkovskis, 1985, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 23, 571–583; Salkovskis & Kirk, 1997, In The science and practice of cognitive behavior therapy. Oxford: Oxford University Press). However, very little research has tested these longitudinal predictions. The current study sought to replicate and extend findings by Coles and Horng (2006, Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30, 723–746) showing that OCD-related beliefs and negative life events significantly predicted changes in the frequency of OC symptoms over 6 weeks. Results of the current study, using a 6-month prospective longitudinal design, provided modest support for cognitive models of OCD. Negative life events significantly predicted residual change in both the frequency of, and distress associated with, OC symptoms. Initial OCD-related beliefs significantly predicted residual change in the distress associated with OC symptoms, but there was much additional variance to be accounted for. Additional data are presented that both examine the specificity of these predictors to changes in OC symptoms versus social anxiety and depressive symptoms, and explore particular types of life events in predicting symptom changes over time.

Weight-related Teasing,Dysfunctional Cognitions,and Symptoms of Depression and Eating Disturbances

Although there is evidence that verbal victimization in childhood may be a nonspecific risk factor for a variety of disorders, there may be mediational pathways that are specific to each disorder. In this study, we hypothesized that disorder-specific cognitions would mediate the relation between reports of childhood verbal victimization and undergraduates’ current symptoms of depression and eating disorders. In addition, we hypothesized that a specific type of verbal victimization, weight-related teasing, would be more strongly related to the presence of dysfunctional eating cognitions than depressive cognitions. Both hypotheses were supported, providing preliminary evidence for the hypothesized disorder-specific mediational pathways.

Perceived Family Environment and Symptoms of Emotional Disorders: The Role of Perceived Control,Attributional Style,and Attachment

Findings from decades of research suggest that a perceived lack of parental care and overprotection are positively related to later symptoms of emotional disorders in children and adolescents. The present study used a cross-sectional design to evaluate models investigating reported family environment during childhood, current attachments, control-related cognitions, and current symptoms of emotional disorders in adolescence. It was hypothesized the effect of a perceived controlling and rejecting family environment during childhood would influence current depression and anxiety, and that these effects would be partially accounted for by the quality of current attachments, perceived control, and attributional style. A sample of 234 university students was assessed. Regression analyses of variables, including analyses of indirect effects, were conducted. As predicted, current attachment, perceived control, and attributional style helped to account for relationships between some family variables, and depression and anxiety. Findings are discussed with respect to the interplay of family variables and models of emotional disorders.

Stability and Continuity of Women’s Core Beliefs and Psychopathological Symptoms from Pregnancy to One Year Postpartum

Unhealthy core beliefs are theorized to be stable constructs throughout the life-span, but no research to date, outside of the context of clinical intervention, has addressed this claim over a period of greater than 6 weeks. This study explores the stability and continuity of core beliefs and psychopathological symptoms in a group of women over a major life event and for 1 year subsequently. Eighty-seven women completed measures assessing their core beliefs and psychopathological symptoms during pregnancy and at 6 and 12 months after giving birth. General maternal psychopathological symptoms significantly decreased across the group between pregnancy and 6 months postpartum, and between pregnancy and 1 year, but showed evidence of stability in the ranks of individuals across time. The majority of core beliefs remained both stable and continuous throughout this period of major transition. These findings generally support the theoretical contention that core beliefs are relatively stable and continuous self-constructs.

Emotional Abuse,Verbal Victimization,and the Development of Children’s Negative Inferential Styles and Depressive Symptoms

Given evidence that negative inferential styles contribute vulnerability to both symptoms and diagnoses of depression, it becomes important to examine factors that may contribute to the development of this cognitive vulnerability. The primary goal of the current studies was to test the hypotheses that experiences of emotional abuse from parents and verbal victimization from peers would contribute to negative changes in children’s inferential styles as well as increases in their depressive symptoms. We found support for these hypotheses among children of parents with a history of depression (Study 1) and among an unselected community sample of children (Study 2). These results add to the growing body of research suggesting the role of emotional abuse and verbal victimization in the development of depressive cognitions and symptoms.

Aggressive Cognitions of Violent Versus Nonviolent Spouses

This study extends previous research on the relationship between aggressive cognition and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by comparing the aggressive cognitions of both husbands and wives (not just husbands) in an actual (not hypothetical) relationship problem discussions across three groups of couples—bi-directionally violent (V), nonviolent but maritally distressed (NVD), and nonviolent and nondistressed (NVND). Further extending previous work, across these groups, we also compared spouses’ inferences of aggressive cognitions in their partners’ thoughts and objective observers’ inferences of aggressive cognitions. Violent spouses, whether male or female, had significantly more aggressive cognitions than NVD and NVND spouses. Findings are discussed in relation to how they extend past research and their clinical implications.

“To Avoid Evaluation,Withdraw”: Fears of Evaluation and Depressive Cognitions Lead to Social Anxiety and Submissive Withdrawal

We propose a cognitive model of social anxiety-related submission based upon psycho-evolutionary accounts of social anxiety and depression and present results of two studies supporting this model. We tested a confirmatory factor model consisting of three latent lower-order factors (fear of negative evaluation, fear of positive evaluation, and depressive cognitions), all of which load onto a single latent higher-order submissive cognitions factor. In essence, we propose that the symptoms associated with social anxiety and depression (in part) served adaptive functions for coping with social threats in the ancestral environment and that the cognitive symptoms associated with these disorders may function collectively as integrated components of a social anxiety-related submission mechanism. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the hypothesized model fit well. A score derived from the submissive cognitions factor correlated strongly with social anxiety-related measures and less strongly with measures of generalized anxiety/worry in Studies 1 and 2. Furthermore, this submissive cognitions score correlated in the expected direction with self-report measures of social comparison, negative affect, and positive affect in Study 2, and mediational analyses indicated that submissive cognitions may mediate the relationship between social comparison and submissive behaviors. Findings from both studies provide support for the proposed model.

The Ruminative Response Style in Adolescents: An Examination of Its Specific Link to Symptoms of Depression

This study further examined the relation between a ruminative response style and symptoms of depression in nonclinical adolescents aged 12–18 years (N = 231). Participants completed questionnaires that measure rumination, neuroticism, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Results indicated that rumination was significantly linked to symptoms of depression, and that this link remained significant when controlling for neuroticism. However, when concurrent anxiety symptoms were also taken into account, rumination was no longer significantly related to symptoms of depression. Interestingly, rumination appeared to be a significant correlate of anxiety symptoms, even after controlling for neuroticism and concurrent symptoms of depression. Support was found for a mediation model in which the link between neuroticism and depression and anxiety symptoms was partially mediated by rumination.

Die vereinfachte transartikuläre Platzierung des femoralen Bohrkanals bei der vorderen Kreuzbandplastik durch einen elektrischen Beinhalter

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Ansprache des neuen Präsidenten: Pläne für die Zukunft der IASP

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The Interactive Effects of Anxiety Sensitivity and Emotion Dysregulation in Predicting Anxiety-related Cognitive and Affective Symptoms

The present investigation examined the main and interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and emotion dysregulation in predicting anxiety-relevant cognitive and affective symptoms among a community-based sample of young adults (n = 242, 135 women; M _age = 23.0 years, SD = 8.71). Consistent with hypotheses, the interaction between AS and emotion dysregulation significantly predicted worry, catastrophic cognitions about bodily events, and anxious arousal symptoms above and beyond the respective main effects and negative affectivity; though this interactive effect contributed only 1% of unique variance to each of these criterion variables. Specifically, although the overall effect size for this interaction was small, the highest levels of each criterion variable were (marginally) evidenced by individuals reporting co-occurring high levels of AS and high levels of emotion dysregulation. Also as expected, explanatory specificity for cognitive and emotional symptoms of anxiety was evident, as no interactive effect was apparent for anhedonic depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the main effects of AS and emotion dysregulation, entered concurrently, were significantly incrementally predictive of each of the anxiety-relevant criterion variables; and only emotion dysregulation was significantly predictive of depressive symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing scientific understanding of anxiety vulnerability from an emotional dysregulation framework.

A Multi-wave Web-based Evaluation of Cognitive Content Specificity for Depression,Anxiety, and Anger

This study tested the cognitive content specificity hypothesis of Beck’s cognitive theory using a web based report of mood and cognitions for that day completed once a week for 5 weeks. The use of a multi-wave design and structural equation modeling allowed for the separation of occasion-specific variability from over-time stability, thereby increasing sensitivity to the relatively brief changes in negative affect typical of student populations. To further increase specificity, an expanded set of cognitive themes was tested for depression, anxiety, and anger. Consistent with models indicating that these mood states share a general negative mood, all cognitions had a significant non-specific relationship to all three mood states. For tests of occasion-specific cognitive content specificity, thoughts of Transgression were incrementally specific to angry mood whereas Defectiveness, Hopelessness, and Abandonment were each specific to depressed mood. Failure was more strongly related to depression and anxiety than anger. Contrary to hypotheses, both Dependence and Vulnerability to Harm were non-specific only.

An Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Consequences of Worry Scale (COWS)

Given the role that worry beliefs play in the perseveration of catastrophic worrying, there is a greater clinical need for psychologists to have access to valid measures of worry beliefs. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Consequences of Worry Scale (COWS) and assessed whether worry beliefs predict variables affecting clinical outcome. The sample included 252 undergraduates and 182 community residents self-identified as anxious. The psychometric properties of the scale were generally good although the factor structure did not replicate previous findings. Negative worry beliefs were related in expected directions to a number of measures of psychopathology and significantly predicted increased motivation for change across both samples. Future research should assess this instrument’s psychometrics with a clinical sample. Direct comparisons between the COWS and related indices (e.g., the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire) is also warranted.

Brooding Perfectionism: Refining the Roles of Rumination and Perfectionism in the Etiology of Depression

The current study examines the hypothesized interaction between certain dimensions of both perfectionism and rumination as diatheses for depressive symptoms. Three hundred and five participants completed measures of perfectionism, rumination, and depressive symptoms at Time 1, and then returned 4 weeks later at Time 2 to complete measures of stress and depressive symptoms. In line with our hypotheses, results indicated that individuals with high levels of certain dimensions of perfectionism (i.e., self-oriented and socially prescribed, but not other-oriented), high levels of brooding rumination (but not the reflection dimension of rumination), and high stress experienced the greatest increases in depressive symptoms over time. Moreover, results revealed that the role of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism as diatheses for depression is dependent upon brooding rumination. This work has potential benefits for understanding the cognitive mechanisms that lead to depression.

The Impact of Intensive Mindfulness Training on Attentional Control,Cognitive Style,and Affect

To evaluate the impact of an intensive period of mindfulness meditation training on cognitive and affective function, a non-clinical group of 20 novice meditators were tested before and after participation in a 10-day intensive mindfulness meditation retreat. They were evaluated with self-report scales measuring mindfulness, rumination and affect, as well as performance tasks assessing working memory, sustained attention, and attention switching. Results indicated that those completing the mindfulness training demonstrated significant improvements in self-reported mindfulness, depressive symptoms, rumination, and performance measures of working memory and sustained attention, relative to a comparison group who did not undergo any meditation training. This study suggests future directions for the elucidation of the critical processes that underlie the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness-based interventions.

Feeling Better and Smoking Less: The Relationship Between Trauma Symptoms and Smoking Over Time

Although it is well documented that individuals who have experienced traumatic events smoke cigarettes at significantly higher rates than individuals without exposure to trauma, the longitudinal relationship between smoking and trauma-related symptoms remains unclear. The present study examined this issue among 288 female veterans receiving treatment for trauma-related disorders over a period of up to 3 years. Consistent with previous cross-sectional research, across time points more symptomatology was associated with higher rates of smoking. Longitudinally, decreases in symptoms of negative affect over time were associated with decreases in smoking.

Executive Function Deficits,Rumination and Late-Onset Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults

Empirical evidence indicates that late-onset depression (i.e., age of onset ≥60 years) is associated with executive function decline. This relationship suggests the possibility that executive dysfunction (ED) may contribute to depressive symptoms because it leads to decreased ability to inhibit ruminative thinking. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 44 older adults reporting depressive symptoms with onset either late in adulthood or earlier in life. Consistent with hypotheses, older adults suffering from late onset, but not early onset, depressive symptoms showed an association between ED and depressive symptomatology. Furthermore, this selective relationship between ED and depressive symptomatology was mediated by ruminative tendencies. These results suggest that executive function deficits may contribute to late-onset of depressive symptoms by interfering with the ability to control ruminative thoughts.

Flexibility and Negative Affect: Examining the Associations of Explanatory Flexibility and Coping Flexibility to Each Other and to Depression and Anxiety

Recent research on vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety has begun to de-emphasize cognitive content in favor of the responsiveness of the individual to variations in situational context in arriving at explanations of events (explanatory flexibility) or attempts to cope with negative events (coping flexibility). The present study integrates these promising avenues of conceptualization by assessing the respective contributions of explanatory and coping flexibility to current levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. Results of structural equation modeling support a model of partial mediation in which both explanatory flexibility and coping flexibility independently contribute to the prediction of latent negative affect, with coping flexibility partially mediating the influence of explanatory flexibility.

A Cross-cultural Test of the Cognitive Theory of Obsessions and Compulsions: A Comparison of Greek, Italian, and American Individuals—a Preliminary Study

A widely-held theory is that obsessions arise from the misinterpretation of normal intrusive thoughts (e.g., misinterpreting unwanted harm-related thoughts as a sign that one is going to act on them). This leads the person to perform compulsions such as repeated checking. Misinterpretations are said to arise from various types of beliefs (e.g., the belief that thoughts inevitably give rise to actions). In support of this theory, some studies have shown that such beliefs are correlated with obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. We investigated whether the theory can be extended to conditions in which cultural differences are taken in consideration. Measures of OC beliefs and symptoms were completed by participants in Greece (n = 46) and Italy (n = 348) and, for comparison purposes, the US (n = 73). Beliefs were correlated with symptoms in all three groups. There were significant, albeit modest, cross-cultural effects. In particular, the relation between beliefs and cleaning and checking compulsions tended to be low in Greek participants, compared to Italian and US counterparts. Although the results generally support the cognitive model, some culture-specific modifications may be required, possibly by including variables that moderate or attenuate the correlations between OC symptoms and putatively related beliefs.