E-ISSN : 2733-4538
This study examined how Guided Autobiography affected elderly couples' subjective well-being and marital satisfaction. Guided Autobiography, which is based on the life review concept, includes two components. Participants first write an autobiographical essay on certain themes that have proven to be important in the lives of most people. Then, participants read their essays aloud to a group, to encourage and enrich life review. For this study, we revised the Guided Autobiography for elderly Korean couples. Participants were 43 older adults living in the community ranging in age from 60 to 84. There were 21 in the Guided Autobiography group and 22 in the control group. After the first and the eighth session, both groups filled out questionnaires that included measures of subjective well-being and marital satisfaction. Participants completed the course over 9 weeks, meeting weekly for about 90 minutes. Our analysis indicated that there were significant differences between pre-test and post-test scores for the Guided Autobiography group, whose members demonstrated a significant decrease in negative affect scores and improvement in global marital satisfaction scores. However, there were no significant differences between pre-test and post-test for the control group across all scale scores. Thus, these results suggest that Guided Autobiography may produce positive changes in negative affect and global marital satisfaction for elderly couples.
This study was an exploratory study to construct the Korean Rorschach Comprehensive System for children based on Exner's comprehensive system. One hundred thirteen Rorschach variables, rations, and special scores of 1,049 Korean children, 6~12 years old, were compared to American children norm. Also, we explored whether the location and popular responses were the same as those that suggested. The number of responses (R) totaled 22,067 and the analyzed results were as follows: First, Korean children showed significant differences on 53 variables of the 63 comparable variables (85.48%) and frequency indices were, also, significantly different. Second, 46 D responses and 23 Dd responses of Korean children’s response locations could be scored in the same location as Exner suggested (Exner suggested 82 D response locations and 130 Dd response locations). The Korean children's responses were commonly located on new 12 D and 84 Dd areas. Adding these new areas, there were 62 D and 132 Dd location areas. Third, form quality was rated on 19,357 responses, without Dd99 and DdS99, employing Exner's criteria. The number of responses rated as o, u, － were 6,862 (35.45%), 6,575 (33.97%), 5,920 (30.58%), respectively. Forth, examining Korean children’s popular responses, 5 same popular responses on card Ⅲ, Ⅳ, Ⅴ, Ⅷ were recorded among 13 popular responses given by Exner but not on the other cards.
This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the revised Korean version of the Anxiety Control Questionnaire (revised K-ACQ) among 508 outpatients with DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders and 469 non-clinical participants. Exploratory factor analyses produced a 3-factor solution based on 19 of the ACQ’s original 30 items. Confirmatory factor analysis of an independent clinical sample replicated the hierarchical 3-factor solution. Multiple-groups CFA indicated that the measurement properties of the revised K-ACQ were invariant in clinical and nonclinical samples. We discussed these results with regard to their conceptual and psychometric implications for the construct of perceived anxiety control.
This study aimed to investigate the role of dichotomous thinking (DT) as a major vulnerability in paranoia, testing the hypotheses that paranoid persons may use more DT and that paranoid symptoms may result from the dichotomous interpretation of interpersonal life events. When measured via the Dichotomous Thinking Index, the paranoid group (69 college students screened with Paranoia Scale) used DT more than control group (67 college students screened with Paranoia Scale) did. There was a larger difference between the groups on the ‘social splitting’ subscale, which divides persons into my side vs. your side, friend vs. enemy. We subsequently analyzed the whole sample (338 persons) by means of multiple regressions calculated with the paranoia score as a dependent measure and with each DT and life event as independent variables. The results showed DT interacted with interpersonal life events (such as criticism, and refusal) to predict the paranoid symptoms. However, non-interpersonal events (such as financial difficulty, and disease) didn't interact with DT in predicting paranoia. That is, the results showed the pathological functioning of DT in paranoia is confirmed but confined to the domain of interpersonal relationships. These results support the hypothesis that DT plays a role as cognitive vulnerability in paranoia. Finally, we discuss implications and limitations of this study and present directions for future researches.
This study aimed to develop and validate a short form Functional Assessment Scale for persons with psychiatric disabilities (FAS-S) and to explore the factor structure of the FAS-S. Participants in Study 1 were 640 persons with psychiatric disabilities (410 males and 230 females). Participants' mean age was 38.1 (SD = 9.47). Exploratory factor analysis produced eight factors: (1) hygiene/health care, (2) insight/help seeking, (3) problem solving, (4) conversation skills, (5) household management, (6) task performance, (7) problematic behavior, and (8) interpersonal relationships. Study II, to validate the FAS-S, enrolled 506 participants (306 males and 200 females), who had suffered from psychiatric disorders for a mean period of 11.92 years (SD = 8.13). Confirmatory factor analysis using 24 items resulted in favorable goodness of fit indices (Chi-square = 416.5, df = 236, p < .001, GFI=.930, AGFI=.910, NFI = .924, NNFI = .958, CFI = .964, RMSEA = .041). Secondary factor analysis results showed two secondary factors (factor 1: “activities of daily life [DAL]”; factor 2: social skills) had favorable goodness of fit indices (X2 = 506.0, df = 244,p < .001, GFI = .916, AGFI = .897, NFI =.910, NNFI=.945, CFI = .951, RMSEA = .048). In addition, we calculated concurrent validities between the FAS-S sub-scales and certain other scales. The results showed that the DAL subscale of the FAS-S had a significant negative correlation to the PANSS, while the social skills subscale score of the FAS-S had significantly higher positive correlations with recovery attitude, hope, quality of life, and social support than did the DAL subscale score. We discuss the implications of these results and applications of the FAS-S.
Studies of the diverseon subtypes of sex offenders should make it possible to develop effective forensic treatment and prevention approaches, since individual characteristics will be discovered. This study examined psychological and criminal characteristics, recidivism risk, and demographic features of sex offenders, who were classified based on cluster analyses of their MMPI-2 pre-trial evaluations. There were 3 subgroups. Type 1 (the “complaining group”) showed spikes on scales F, 6(Pa), 8(Sc), and 7(Pt). They had high-range profiles. They were “faking bad”, and got secondary gains. This group had previous sex offenses, mostly rape against people above 13. Type 2 (the “withdrawn group”) showed no spikes on most scales but did show small spikes 2(D), 4(Pd), and 7(Pt). They experienced depression, anxiety, impulsivity, and inferiority. This group had no previous offenses but had a high rate of sexual molestation toward children. Type 3 (the “antisocial group”) showed spikes on scales F, 4(Pd), 5(Mf), 6(Pa), and 0(Si), with antisocial behavior and relationship difficulties. They had the highest rate of previous nonviolent offenses and a relatively high rate of sexual offenses and rapes of people over 13. The results of this study indicate the need to consider sex offender's various psychological characteristics when treating them. For the withdrawn group, we propose using consistent and proper reinforcers in cognitive behavior treatment (CBT), challenging their distorted cognitive belief system, and focusing on relationship skill traing. They should be aided toward enhanced self-esteem, reduced depression and anxiety, and greater impulse control. For the antisocial group, we propose challenging their denial and cognitive distortions in CBT. They should be aided toward enhanced victim empathy, acceptance of their criminal responsibility, anger management, and reduced impulsiveness and aggression.
This study investigated the effect of experiencing failure on the self-esteem of both overt and covert narcissists. Out of 191 undergraduates, We selected three group by means of analyzing their results on the narcissistic personality disorder scale (NPDS) and covert narcissism scale (CNS), as follows 14 overt narcissists, 14 covert narcissists and 14 controls for a total of 42 participants. We measured participants' self-esteem before and after they experienced failure via a discrimination learning task. While the self-esteem scores of overt narcissists and controls increased, those of covert narcissists decreased after experiencing failure. By analyzing the differences among self-esteem scores before and after they experienced failure, we confirmed meaningful differences between overt narcissists and covert narcissists, and between covert narcissists and controls. The results suggest that experiencing failure can have negative effects on covert narcissists but not on overt narcissists. These results also show that overt narcissists have positive estimations of themselves and covert narcissists have negative estimations of themselves.
This study examined the relationships among parenting styles and children's life stress and negative automatic thoughts. It also investigated the moderating effects of parenting style with regard to the child's age and gender in order to clarify the mechanism of depression vulnerability. The participants were 345 male and female elementary and middle school students. The results showed middle school students experienced more life stress than elementary school students. In particular, female middle school students experienced appearance-related stress. Middle school students perceived more parental overprotection and mother's affection than did elementary school students. Correlational analysis revealed that across the whole sample, negative automatic thoughts were most strongly correlated with life stress, and also were significantly correlated with father's rejection, mother's rejection, father's overprotection, and mother's overprotection. Results varied according to child's age and gender. In the cases of elementary school children and male middle school children, father's rejection was most strongly correlated with negative automatic thoughts. Among female middle school students, mother's rejection was most strongly correlated with negative automatic thoughts. Multiple regression analysis showed that life stress, father's rejection and affection were significant predictors of negative automatic thoughts significantly across the whole sample. The moderating effects of mother's rejection and overprotection were also significant. There were age and gender differences here, too. In the case of male middle school students, the interaction of life stress and father's affection was significant. Among female middle school students, the interaction of life stress and mother's affection was significant. These results suggest that adolescents are more affected by the same gender parent's parenting style. This study's results may provide some important suggestions for preventive intervention in depression by increasing understanding of the mechanism of depression vulnerability according to age and gender.
This study examined the effects of emotion dysregulation and an acceptance-based treatment on changes in depressive mood among university students. To strictly test the effect of the acceptance-based treatment, it was also compared to a problem-solving treatment focusing on alternative solutions to problems. Participants were 54 university students, assigned randomly to either acceptance-based treatment or problem-solving treatment. Each participant completed the Korean version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. We induced depressive mood in the participants by providing mood-suggestive music and requiring them to recall sad mood-evoking events. Then, we provided theoretical rationales and instructions of the assigned treatment followed by a practical treatment session. Results demonstrated that emotion dysregulation was a significant predictor of psychomotor speed(a behavioral measure of depressive mood) and was superior to baseline depressive mood in this regard. The acceptance-based treatment condition showed a greater decrease in depressive mood, by a subjective measurement, than did the problem-solving treatment condition. Moreover, lack of emotional clarity(one dimension of emotion dysregulation) significantly moderated the acceptance-based treatment's effects on both short-term decrease in diastolic blood pressure and participants' willingness to engage in another challenge. The acceptance-based treatment's superior effectiveness as compared to the problem-solving treatment was more prominent the more participants lacked emotional clarity. When we explored the acceptance-based treatment's mechanism of action, we found that an increase in decentering showed a significant correlation with a decrease, pre- to post - treatment, in the subjective measure of depressive mood. We discuss the limitations and implications of the present study and its findings.
The purpose of this research was to examine the independent and shared contributions of experiential avoidance and mindful attention awareness to the prediction of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction. Participants were 216 university students, who completed self-report inventories measuring experiential avoidance, mindful attention awareness, depressive and anxiety symptoms, life satisfaction, psychological well-being, and general affect(positive and negative). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that experiential avoidance was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being, and a marginally significant predictor of anxiety symptoms, when controlling for general affect and mindful attention awareness. Mindful attention awareness was a significant predictor of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and psychological well- being, but not of life satisfaction, when controlling for general affect and experiential avoidance. Experiential avoidance and mindful attention awareness together significantly predicted all of the dependent variables examined, above and beyond general affect. The degree of their shared contribution was the greatest to psychological well-being, followed by life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms in descending order. In conclusion, these findings suggest it is important to consider the roles of both experiential avoidance and mindful attention awareness, in order to help clients improve their depressive and anxiety symptoms and to help them enhance their psychological well-being. This research also suggests clinicians should focus on experiential avoidance in order to increase clients' life satisfaction.
The increasing suicide rate is a serious social problem in Korea. This study aimed to verify the reliability and validity for the Korean version of the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck, Steer, & Ranieri, 1988) with university students. The BSI measures the intensity, duration, and specificity of suicidal ideation and plans; it is a self-report version of the Scale for Suicide Ideation (Beck, Kovacs, & Weissman, 1979). We administered the Korean version of the BSI (K-BSI) to 1,248 students, and 177 reported suicidal ideation. Within the sample of 177, K-BSI scores were positively correlated with suicide-related behaviors and with scores on the Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Osman, et al., 2001), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977), and Beck Hopelessness Scale (Beck, Weissman, Lester, & Trexler, 1974). Principle Axis factor analysis with promax rotation identified “ambivalence of suicide” and “active suicide ideation” dimensions. Finally, we discussed this study's limitations and implications for future research.
This study examined the validity and reliability of the Korean Academic Performance Rating Scale (K-APRS) Parent Form for assessing ADHD children’s academic performances. The participants were 952 elementary school children(486 boys, 466 girls), their parents assessed them via the K-APRS, K-ARS, and other ADHD scales. Factor analysis showed 3 subscale structures. Factor 1 was “Academic Success”, factor 2 was “Attention”, and factor 3 was “Academic Productivity” which was related to basic learning attitudes. In addition, we confirmed the fitness of the 3‐factor model, according to a confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling. Correlation analyses showed the K-APRS subscales had significant correlations. The correlation analysis between the K-APRS assessed by parents and by teachers to measure concurrent validity, showed significant correlations in Academic Success, Attention, Academic Productivity, and Total Score between parents and teachers. The ADHD rating scales such as the K-ARS, IOWA Conners scale, HSQ(Home Situation Questionnaire) and LPS-C(Life Participation Scale for ADHD Medication Child) showed significantly correlations with K-APRS thus demonstrating its concurrent validity. As a result of discriminant analysis, the clinical group showed lower scores than the normal group in all Academic Success, Attention, Academic Productivity, and Total Score areas. We measured the reliability of K-APRS, by showing the meaningful scores of internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
This study investigated the clinical availability of the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scale, developed to describe personality pathology. For this study normal adults(N=682) including college students completed the PSY-5 scale, the NEO-FFI, and the DTPD(Diagnostic Test of Personality Disorders). The results of correlational and multiple regression analysis showed significant correlations among the PSY-5 scale scores and PDs and clusters of PDs as expected, and also showed that 10 PDs could be significantly explained via the PSY-5 scale. To compare the relative potentialities of the PSY-5 scale and the NEO-FFI to explain PDs, Steiger's z-test to adjusted R square was carried out. The results revealed that the two scales accounted similarly for the variance in PDs, and the PSY-5 scale accounted for more of the variance in antisocial PD symptoms than did the NEO-FFI, while the NEO-FFI scale accounted for more of the variance in dependent PD, and obsessive-compulsive PD symptoms. These results suggest that the PSY-5 scale estimates both normal personalities and personality disorders well as does the FFM. Thus, we concluded that the PSY-5 scale is valid for estimating PDs. We discussed the results of this study compared to those of previous studies.
This study investigated the role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between nightmares and psychopathology in a sample of 461 college students. We considered nightmare frequency, nightmare distress, experiential avoidance, psychological symptoms, schizotypal personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder. The results indicated that the interaction between experiential avoidance and nightmare frequency was a significant predictor of nightmare distress. For lower nightmare frequencies, nightmare distress did not correlate with nightmare distress. However, at higher nightmare frequencies nightmare distress was positively correlated with experiential avoidance. The interaction between experiential avoidance and nightmare distress was a significant predictor of the psychopathological severity. The greater the nightmare distress, the greater the effect of experiential avoidance upon the psychopathological symptoms was found. We discuss the clinical implications of these results, limitations of the study, and possible directions for future study.
This study investigated the relationship between affect intensity and emotion regulation strategies, using the Emotion Regulation Strategy Questionnaire (ERSQ). The correlation between the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) and the ERSQ was examined among undergraduate students. The results were as follows. Six maladaptive strategies (“Think negatively”, “Blame others”, “Burst into negative emotion to others”, “Burst into negative emotion in a secure situation”, “Binge eating” and “Be engaged in addictive activity”) were positively correlated with affect intensity. Three distractive strategies (“Think passively”, “Imagine pleasurable things” and “Refresh oneself”) and three support-seeking strategies (“Express emotion and win the empathy”, “Ask for advice or help” and “Meet intimate person”) were positively correlated with affect intensity. However, affect intensity was not significantly correlated with four strategies that induced emotional change by approaching unpleasant emotions or situations. The study presents and discusses implications of these results, limitations of the study itself, and suggestions for future research.