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The purpose of this thesis is to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying anhedonic depression and thus provide a theoretical base for treatment innovations to alleviate anhedonic symptoms of depression. Anhedonic symptoms are defined as a decreased capacity to experience pleasure; and have been considered as a unitary concept. Accumulating evidence, however, indicates that two distinct sub–processes are involved in reward processing, i.e., anticipatory pleasure and consummatory pleasure. Building on this hypothesis, the present study seeks to explore how disturbances in each pleasure experience are related to anhedonic depression. A total of 305 undergraduate participants completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale, the BIS/BAS Scales (i.e., behavioral inhibition system [BIS]; and behavioral activation system [BAS]), Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire-Anhedonic Depression Scale as part of this study. The results revealed that anticipatory pleasure mediated the relationship between the BAS and anhedonic depression, and mental imagery ability and anhedonic depression. Furthermore, mental imagery ability predicted anticipatory pleasure, even controlling for the influence of the BAS. Finally, consummatory pleasure appeared to have a moderating effect on the relationship between mindful attention awareness and anhedonic depression. Based on these results the implications and limitations of the current study are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to elucidate the emotional factors underlying bulimic symptoms among high-risk female college students. Specifically, we investigated the additive and the interactive effects of negative affect and emotion dysregulation on levels of bulimic symptoms. Moreover, we examined whether such effects may vary across different subcomponents of emotion dysregulation. Participants included 109 female college students who were at risk for bulimia nervosa. They completed a series of self-report inventories assessing negative affect, emotion dysregulation, and bulimic symptoms. The results indicated that main effects (but not interactive effects) of both negative affect and emotion dysregulation, significantly and positively predicted bulimic symptoms. Additionally, none of the sub-components of emotion dysregulation, except for impulse control difficulties, significantly accounted for bulimic symptoms, over and above negative affect. The sub-components of lack of emotional awareness and lack of emotional clarity moderated the relationship between negative affect and bulimic symptoms such that negative affect was associated with bulimic symptoms only for individuals with average or high scores on each subcomponents of emotion dysregulation. These findings suggest that negative affect and emotion regulation, particularly emotional awareness and clarity, may be a promising target for early prediction and intervention of bulimic symptoms among college women.
The current research was conducted to examine the efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention for reducing smartphone overuse and functional impairment and improving mental health among undergraduate students at risk for smartphone addiction. Moreover, to shed light on its mechanism of action, we proposed self-regulation as a potential mediator of treatment efficacy, based on literature review. Of the undergraduate students who agreed to participate in the study, 40 participants who were classified as being at-risk, based on the Smartphone Addiction Scale, were assigned to one of two conditions: mindfulness- based intervention (n=21) and stress management education (n=19). Both the interventions consisted of four 90-minute weekly sessions. Compared to the participants in the stress management education group, those in the mindfulness-based intervention group demonstrated a decrease in smartphone overuse, depression and stress symptoms, functional impairment, as well as an increase in mental well-being and self-regulation. Moreover, improvement in self-regulation partially mediated the efficacy of the mindfulness-based intervention on smartphone overuse and functional impairment, and also fully mediated its efficacy on stress symptoms. These results suggest that mindfulness-based meditation is a useful intervention for reducing smartphone overuse and functional impairment and improving mental health among undergraduate students at risk for smartphone addiction, and that its efficacy may be mediated through an increase in self-regulation.
In this study we conceptualized the psychological process of suicide as a type of decision whether to continue an experience and tried to identify the main judgment factors involved in suicide decision making. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the evaluation of present and past experiences and future prediction, and how each one affects suicide decision. For this purpose, 128 undergraduate and graduate students were randomly assigned to two types of scenarios. Each scenario described adverse or favorable past life experiences while present and future conditions are the same. The results of this study were as follows: first, among past life satisfaction, current pain severity, and positive future expectation, the most relevant variable affecting the choice to die was positive future expectation. Second, current pain severity predicted the choice to die only under adverse past life conditions. Similarly, past life satisfaction and current pain severity showed significant correlation with positive future expectation, only under adverse past life conditions. Third, past life satisfaction did not predict the choice to die. The results of this study suggest that suicide decision making is based on two judgments - evaluation of experience and future prediction. The future predictions or suicide decisions of those who had a lot of adversity in their past lives may be influenced by how they assess the pain they face in the suicide crisis. Additionally, the results suggest that positive expectations for the future are the most important variables that inhibit suicide decisions.
Resisting the desire to conflict with goals in everyday life may lead to ego depletion and subsequent fatigue. However, even when goals and desires are not in conflict with each other, the psychological burden of goal achievement may also be a source of fatigue. The aim of the present study is to examine the moderating effect of narcissistic personality on the relationship between psychological burden and fatigue. A total of 104 adults participated in this study. Using the experience sampling method, we measured daily ego depletion and psychological burden seven times a day for one week. The level of fatigue was also measured at the end of each day. A series of multilevel analyses revealed that daily ego depletion and psychological burden positively predicted daily fatigue level. Covert narcissism was more related to psychological burden and fatigue than overt narcissism. Participants with overt narcissism were more severely fatigued when they experienced psychological burden than non-narcissistic participants. Lastly, we discussed the implications and limitations of the present study.
Social anxiety and depression are mental health conditions that exhibit a high rate of comorbidity. It has been demonstrated that the co-occurrence of the two conditions is associated with a negative prognosis. As such, it is important to identify conditions under which social anxiety and depression may co-occur. The present study thus examined the mediating effect of disqualification of positive social outcomes on the relationship between social anxiety and depression. This is based on the comorbidity model which suggests that social anxiety acts as a causal risk factor for secondary depression. A total of 147 adults (36 males and 111 females) participated in the study. Bootstrapping procedures were used to test for a mediation effect. The results indicated that social anxiety is indirectly associated with depression through the mediating mechanism of disqualification of positive social outcomes. These findings indicate that socially anxious individuals are more likely to experience difficulties in extracting positive meaning from positive social feedback, which then may lead to the development of depressive symptoms. The implications for the comorbidity between social anxiety and depression are discussed.
This study set out to translate into Korean the Informant-Report Form of Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5-IRF), which was developed to measure the DSM-5 Personality Trait Model comprised of five domains and 25 facets, and test the reliability and validity of the Korean version. For these purposes, the items of PID-5-IRF in English were translated into Korean through the process of translation and reverse translation and organized the entire items so that they would have consistent meanings with the items of the Korean version of the Self-Report Form of PID-5 (K-PID-5-SRF). K-PID-5-IRF (n=230) and K-PID-5-SRF & the Korean Personality Disorders Test (n=176) were conducted to college students and ordinary citizens aged 18 or older. The analysis results show that K-PID-5-IRF recorded a high level of internal consistency in domains and facets. Its factor structure properly matched overall that of PID-5-IRF in English and that of the DSM-5 Personality Trait Model despite number of factors and differences in three facets between them. Concordance between K-PID-5-SRF and KPID- 5-IRF was a little bit lower than that of their English counterparts, but it had statistically significant correlations and was in a proper level founded in researches on correlations between the informant-report form and the self-report form on personality. Finally, domains and facets of K-PID-5-IRF had a relatively appropriate match with the core personality traits of each personality disorder. These findings imply that K-PID-5-IRF is a tool to assess the personality traits of grown-ups in a reliably and valid manner.
The present study aimed to investigate the role that approach and avoidance tendencies play in motor control using a computer simulated driving task. We recruited one hundred and forty-nine undergraduates and assigned them to either the depression group (n=26) or non-depression group (n=123). Participants were instructed to use a joy-stick to move a virtual car as quickly as possible to a target point without crossing a stop-sign or crashing into a wall. We recorded their continuous actions on a joy-stick. Results showed that those who belonged to the depression group made fewer errors during the driving task and stopped at a longer distance from a target point in both the stop-sign and wall conditions, when compared to the non-depression group, indicating impaired cognitive control. The clinical implications of these findings and the limitations of this study are discussed.
Psychologists explore human behavior using scientific methods. The survey method is the most cost efficient research methods psychologists use. Clinical psychology research papers, including most research articles published by the Korean Journal of Clinical Psychology, frequently employ this method, which includes psychological assessment tools. However, the survey method is regulated by several laws, such as the research ethics law, bioethics law, copyright law, and privacy law. The whole structure and every elements of a survey comprise the expressions that are protected by the copyright law and the respondents of the survey are human subjects who are protected by the bioethics laws. The collected data in the survey contain personal information protected by the privacy law, and the resultant research paper is governed by the research ethics law. This study examined these laws from clinical psychologists’ perspective. Although ethics should encompass most laws, the ethical principles for the Korean Association of Clinical Psychology were poorly connected to related laws; the code of conduct are unclear and inconsistent compared to related laws, and they do not represent the core concept and general principles of Ethics (respect for human dignity and integrity). A comprehensive, active revision of the ethics laws for clinical psychologists is required to match the trends of related laws; furthermore, proactive action and discussion among psychologists is needed.
