E-ISSN : 2733-4538
The purpose of this study was to examine whether different clinical features were associated with different combinations of temperament dimensions in patients with depressive disorder. A cluster analysis with three temperament dimensions in the Temperament and Characteristics Inventory subscales (Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Sensitivity) was performed on 278 depressive disorder patients. Using diagnostic comorbidity and Minnesota Multiple Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form, clinical features were compared in accordance with the different types of temperament. Four clusters were identified. The cluster 1 group (n=98) which is characterized by high harm avoidance and low reward dependence, have more severe typical depressive symptoms than remaining clusters. The cluster 2 group (n=40) which is characterized by not having any high dimensions, have significantly lower depressive symptoms and overall psychopathology. The cluster 4 group (n=86) who is characterized by high harm avoidance, high novelty seeking and low reward dependence, has more severe overall psychopathology except typical depressive symptoms. The cluster 3 group (n=54) which is characterized by high harm avoidance, high novelty seeking, and high reward sensitivity, have lower typical depressive symptoms than cluster 1, and have lower overall psychopathology than the cluster 4. The results implicate that there exists distinct clinical characteristics among the four different temperament types. However, the cross-sectional design did not allow for any definitive conclusion as to whether the TCI score was a premorbid trait or the result of illness.
This study aimed to identify the clinical characteristics of male alcoholics using the MMPI-2 profile typology. Three types were found in a cluster analysis of the MMPI-2 scores (9 validity and 10 clinical scales) of 337 male patients admitted for alcohol-dependence. Type 1 (n=143, 42.4%) showed a “defensive normal profile,” with all clinical scale scores falling within the normal range while having high scores on defensive scales (L/K/S) and low scores on infrequency scales (F/Fb/Fp/FBS). Type 2 (n=136, 40.4%) was characterized as “psychopathic” with elevated Scale 4 (Pd) and Scale 2 (D). Type 3 (n=58, 17.2%) suggested“severe psychological disturbance” with elevated scores on several clinical scales (D, Pd, Pa, Pt, Sc) and on infrequency scales. Among the substance abuse supplementary scales, only Addiction Admission Scale (AAS) significantly differed across the types. Based on these results, each type is discussed with implications for intervention.
This research is intended to study—based on the Broaden and Build theory—whether positive emotion can broaden the attention function, cognitive function, and self-complexity via repeated experimentation and expansion of the theory, incorporating the depression group and the control group. The Broaden and Build theory suggests that positive emotion develops the physical, intellectual, and social resources of an individual by broadening the breadth of attention and cognition. In ‘Research 1’, both the depression group (40 subjects) and control group (42 subjects) were sub-categorized into either the positive emotion induction group or the neutral emotion induction group, and underwent global/local processing and thought-action repertory tasks. In this research, the group with positive emotion induction has shown that the number of global processing and thought-action repertory increased significantly regardless of the degree of depression. In ‘Research 2’, the same two groups from ‘Research 1’, with the positive and neutral emotion inductions switched this time, underwent the self-complexity task. In this second research, the level of positive self-complexity appeared significantly higher in the positive emotion status than in the neutral one, and the negative self-complexity has not displayed much difference depending on the emotion induction. The results explain that when individuals with cognitive vulnerability experience positive emotion, their breadth of attention and cognition can be expanded and self-complexity can become positive and diverse. However, there is a limit of positive emotion that can control the negative complexity. Furthermore, to maximize the benefit of positive emotion intervention, effort is required to ease the negative experiences and memories of depression patients and to help them experience positive emotion more frequently on a daily basis.
Depressive disorders are known to be closely related to emotional dysregulation and therefore, emotional instability. Previous studies suggested that emotional instability can be characterized by two components, emotional variability and emotional inertia, the indice of which are emotional variability and emotional inertia, respectively, but there have been few studies which comprehensively examined emotional instability of depressed individuals. The current study, by utilizing experience sampling method, aimed to compare variance and autocorrelation with the Mean Square Successive Difference, a newly introduced index of emotional instability reflecting both variability and inertia of emotion. In addition, this study aimed to examine the dynamics of emotional instability with respect to activation dimension as well as valence dimension of emotion. For this purpose, 25 participants with depression and 24 non-depressed participants were asked to rate their positive-activated (happy, pleasant), positive-deactivated (calm, comfortable), negative-activated (irritated, anxious), and negative-deactivated (depressed, tired) emotional states, five times a day for seven consecutive days. The results of the independent sample t-tests were as follows: First, participants with depression displayed higher valence variability, activation variability, and spin compared with non-depressed individuals, while no significant group difference in pulse was found. Second, there was no significant group difference in valence and activation of emotional inertia. Third, the depressed group showed significantly higher scores in valence and activation of mean successive difference, compared with the non-depressed group. The current study is significant with respect to the synthetically analyzed dynamics of emotional instability by comparing three major indexes including variance, autocorrelation, and mean square successive difference, as well as by considering two dimensions of emotion.
The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of sexual abuse on sexual delinquency and risky sexual behavior in juvenile delinquents and to examine the mediation effect of borderline personality traits. A total of 111 adolescents on probation in Seoul, Kyunggi and Cheongju completed the questionnaires, including Child Sexual Experience Inventory, Korean Personality Assessment Inventory of Borderline Features Scale, Sexual Delinquency Scale, and Risky Sexual Behavior Scale. The results of this study were as follows. First, significant correlations were found among sexual abuse, sexual delinquency, risky sexual behavior, and borderline personality traits. Second, sexual abuse directly affected both sexual delinquency and risky sexual behavior, and the mediation effect of borderline personality traits was only significant for risky sexual behavior. It is presumed that unstable and impulsive interpersonal relationships and affective features that stand out in the borderline personality trait are more related to exposing themselves to sexually dangerous environment either voluntarily or involuntarily rather than causing sexual delinquency at the level of infringing the laws. Implications and limitations of this study were also discussed.
Distress tolerance (DT) has been considered as an important factor that pertains to the manifestation and maintenance of problematic/heavy drinking. However, to date, there have only been a few studies that examined variables influencing DT in heavy drinkers. This study aimed to examine the variables proposed by the affective judgment model regarding the process of withstanding distress in long-term heavy drinkers. We examined whether the positive/negative affects linked to avoidance options (AO) and withstanding options (WO) influence DT using an experimental design. Thirty long-term heavy drinkers participated in this study. Participants in the experimental group performed a series of tasks (i.e., the Lexical Decision Task with emotional words and the Withstanding Behaviors Task) that were developed to enhance the negative affect associated with AO and the positive affect associated with WO. Those who in the control group performed the monitoring task of drinking behaviors and the Lexical Decision Task with neutral words for one week. The level of DT after the tasks were higher than the level before the tasks in the experimental group; conversely, the level of DT showed no significant changes in the control group. These results support the idea that affects related to AO and WO influence DT in long-term heavy drinkers. Implications and future directions of research are discussed.
This study examined the moderating effects of impulsivity based on the UPPS-P model in the relationship between positive, negative affect and binge eating behavior of Korean high school students. A total 284 students in the first and second grades of five high schools in Seoul participated. First, there was no gender difference in binge eating behavior. The lack of premeditation and the lack of perseverance were significantly higher in girls while sensation seeking, positive urgency and positive affect were significantly higher in boys. Second, there were no correlations among positive/negative affect and binge eating behavior in boys, while girls had significant positive correlations among positive/negative affect, impulsivity, and binge eating behavior. Finally, the lack of perseverance moderated the relationship between positive affect and binge eating behavior in boys, while positive urgency and negative urgency moderated the relationship between positive affect and binge eating behavior in girls. However, none of the five sub-factors of impulsivity moderated the relationship between negative affect and binge eating behavior in both boys and girls. The implications and limitations of this study were further discussed.
A number of previous studies reported that patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) perform poorly on executive function tests. However, due to the low specificity of most executive function tests, it is uncertain whether these results reflect deficits in the executive function or some other cognitive functions. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to distinguish between two hypotheses: (1) low performance of PD patients on executive function tests reflects deficits in the executive function and (2) low performance of PD patients on executive function tests is due to impairment in some other cognitive functions. To this end, Cognition Scale for Older Adults was administered to patients with PD (n=30) and matched controls (n=26). They were compared on six sets of paired tasks, in which one strongly demanded the executive function while the other did not. The major findings were as follows. First, relative to the matched controls, PD patients showed significantly greater impairment in word fluency than in information fluency, Rey copy than picture naming, delayed recall than delayed recognition, and Executive Function Index than Basic Function Index, indicating that low performance on word fluency, Rey copy, Delayed recall, and Executive Function Index is associated with impairment in executive function. Second, PD patients showed a large impairment in both the Stroop simple and interference trials, indicating prominent deficit in the psychomotor speed. Third, PD patients and controls were not significantly different with respect to Digit span forward and backward, indicating relative preservation of working memory capacity. Taken together, these results indicate that PD is associated with relatively greater cognitive impairment in the domains of the executive function and psychomotor speed.
Humans are capable of empathizing and responding approximately when others express their feelings even though they may not fully understand the situation. In this regard, emotional empathy is the fundamental and unique concept in the meaning of empathy. Spreng et al. (2009) developed the 16 item Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) by focusing on emotional empathy. This study focused on examining psychometric properties of the TEQ. First, The TEQ was translated into Korean. Then, 200 graduate students answered the TEQ. The authors analyzed the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and factor structure. Another sample of 255 undergraduate students took the package test which includes the ex-empathy questionnaires and aggression scale. With the second sample data, the authors examined the correlation between the scales. Results showed that the test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the TEQ - Korean version were appropriate. Furthermore, it accurately measured convergent validity by showing a significantly positive relationship with ex-empathy questionnaires and a negative relationship with aggression. In terms of factor structure according to the confirmatory factor analysis, there lacked a goodness of fit in the single factor model; conversely, according to the exploratory factor analysis, the single factor was suggested. In addition, implications and limitations of this study were discussed.
The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) has been used in many countries since its psychological properties have been verified. However, as there is significant heterogeneity in affective experiences among cultures, a population-specific validation study is necessary. This study examined the psychometric properties of the BAI in a non-clinical Korean population. The BAI, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 were used to assess the concurrent and discriminant validity. The factorial structures suggested by previous research were examined using the mean- and varianceadjusted weighted least squares estimation. The internal consistency and the item-total correlations were favorable. The testretest reliability was slightly higher in this present study compared with that in previously reported studies. There was a moderate correlation between the BAI and the STAI. Among the five different factor structures, the four-factor model provided the best overall fit. Overall, the current results support the use of the BAI to assess the anxiety severity in community-dwelling populations of Korean adults.
The inclusion of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) in the DSM-5 appendix has facilitated research on the development and validation of assessment tools of IGD. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the validity of the Structured Clinical Interview for IGD (SCI-IGD) was examined using a community sample of adults. Second, the diagnostic accuracy of the nine IGD criteria proposed in the DSM-5 was evaluated. A total of 99 adults participated in this study, and the administration of SCI-IGD was individually conducted, and self-report measures such as the Perceived Daily Stress Scale (on daily life and self), Brief Symptoms Inventory, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale were also carried out. The results were as follows: 1) Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the SCI-IGD has good construct validity; and 2) 2PL-IRT showed that the “deception” and “escape” criteria have relatively low discrimination accuracy, and the probability of fulfilling “tolerance” criteria was lowest among the nine diagnostic criteria. Implications and suggestions for the future research were discussed.
This study investigated the effect of visuospatial rehabilitation on the cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia. Fortythree patients with schizophrenia were randomly assigned into one of the three groups (rehabilitation, comparative, and control groups). The comprehensive neuropsychological tests including Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure Test (RCFT), Block Design, Puzzle, Korea-California Verbal Learning Test (K-CVLT), Stroop test, Digit Span, Spatial Span, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were administered before and after rehabilitation for the three groups. In addition, schizophrenic symptoms and social function were measured by PANSS, and BASIS-32, respectively. Participants in the rehabilitation group received individual visuospatial rehabilitation three times a week for a 6 weeks durations, and the comparative group received the individual tetris game three times a week for a 6 weeks durations; the control group did not receive any treatment. The three groups did not differ on the performances of the neuropsychological tests, PANSS, and BASIS-32, which were administered before rehabilitation. However, the rehabilitation group showed significantly better performances on RCFT copy condition, Digit Span forward condition, color-word condition of the Stroop test, and PANSS negative symptom than the comparative and control groups after rehabilitation. These findings suggest that visuospatial rehabilitation is effective in improving visuospatial function, attention, and negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia.
This study systematically reviewed previous theories that are fundamental to behavioral activation and support evidences accumulated over the past 25 years, in order to introduce behavioral activation for depression into the domestic clinical field. Recently, behavioral activation has been recognized as a stand-alone psychotherapy for depression with results supporting comparable effects as antidepressant medications or traditional cognitive therapy. In this comprehensive literature review on behavioral activation, we aimed to introduce the latest definition with a brief history, underlying theories, and core therapeutic components, and to provide information on studies evaluating efficacy, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness. Moreover, we have also summarized the most recent efforts and studies evaluating its effects that have been made to extensively deliver the behavioral activation in various form (e.g., internet based) and to patient groups with diverse comorbidity disorders. Future directions and implications for clinicians and researchers were also discussed to encourage behavioral activation research, including dissemination to the local community.