E-ISSN : 2733-4538
Clinical psychologists in Korea have continuously grown and becoming as leading experts in the field of mental health over the past fifty years. The number of clinical psychologists along with members of the Korean Clinical Psychology Association have increased. More importantly, recent changes in mental health system require expanded and broadened expertise of clinical psychologists from traditional psychiatric hospitals or University Counseling Centers based work. Accordingly, training systems for clinical psychologists should accommodate the changes in mental health system and societal needs. The present article aimed to critically evaluate the current clinical psychology training system, and to propose ideas to improve the training system. First, we defined expert areas of clinical psychologists in Korea based on theoretical underpinning of clinical psychology. Second, we suggested ways to expand the scope and number of training institutions to modify the selection process of clinical psychology trainees, and to protect the rights and responsibility of trainees. Third, we discussed the changes in required activities during the training, including contents of psychological assessments and treatments. Fourth, we discussed diversification of training models from a traditional scientist-practitioner model to a practitioner-scholar model and a clinical scientist model. Fifth, we discussed the necessity of continuing education beyond the requirement of acquiring a license to maintain the expertise and be up-to-date. Finally, we highlighted the importance of integration of science and clinical practice in the training system, and discussed how the goals could be achieved during the training. We expect that this article may pave the direction of further discussions for advancing the clinical psychology training system.
The current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between cognitive function and psycho-social function in chronic schizophrenia patients using the recently revised K-WAIS-IV. K-WAIS-IV, BPRS, ILSS, SBS and WHOQOL-BREF was administered to 40 patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. All scores were analyzed. In a partial correlation analysis, the results showed that even controlling for sex, age, and severity of psychopathology, the Block Design (BD) subtest was significantly correlated with the care of personal possessions in independent living skills and Arithmetic(AR) and Comprehension (CO) subtests were significantly correlated with the transportation in independent living skills. In addition, Similarity (SI), CO, and Letter-Number sequencing (LN) subtests, as well as Processing Speed Index (PSI) were significantly correlated with the language ability in social behavior. Moreover Vocabulary (VC), AR and LN subtests were significantly correlated with the contents of conversation in social behavior. In addition, Symbol Search (SS) were significantly correlated with the physical domain of quality of life. These findings suggest that there is a strong association between each cognitive function and psychosocial function, regardless of the severity of psychopathology or demographic characteristics.
The purpose of this study was to examine the moderated mediating effect of attentional bias via negative urgency on the relationship between borderline personality trait and reactive aggression. A total of 126 Korean university students completed the following questionnaires and a dot probe task to measure attentional bias towards threatening faces: Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features Scale (PAI-BOR), Reactive-Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), and Korean UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. The main findings were as follows: First, the results of bootstrapping indicated that negative urgency mediated the relationship between borderline personality trait and reactive aggression. Second, the moderation effect of attentional bias on the relationship between negative urgency and reactive aggression was discovered using a hierarchical regression and slope analyses. Finally, attentional bias also moderated the mediating effect of borderline personality trait on reactive aggression through negative urgency. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
To determine the factors that differentiate between the violent alcoholic group and non-violent alcoholic group, impulsivity and aggression are examined. In measuring impulsivity, delay discounting—referring to the devaluation of future outcomes— is believed to explain the behavioral tendencies of aggressive alcoholics. Participants consisted of 82 male inpatients in an alcohol abuse clinic, as well as 30 male non-patients as control subjects. To examine the relationship between alcoholism, aggression, and impulsivity, Barratt impulsiveness scale (BIS), Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), and delay discounting task were used. The study’s results showed that BIS can be sensitive in differentiating the ‘trait’ aspect of impulsivity between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. However, the delay discounting task showed an effectiveness in the differentiation of the ‘behavioral’ aspect of impulsivity, and in this case, the distinction between those who display alcohol-fuelled violence and those who do not. More specifically, the rate of discounting was higher for the violent alcoholic group than the non-violent alcoholic group, suggesting that a further study examining the behavioral aspect of impulsivity could lead to a better understanding and treatment of those who display a more aggressive tendency while under the influence of alcohol.
This study aimed to clarify the effect of shame memory on paranoia and social anxiety, based on the study of Matos, Pinto- Gouveia, & Gilbert (2013). Shame has been conceptualized as a self-conscious emotion that focuses on the negative aspects of the self, but this study also notices that shame may be related to the perception of social put-down, neglect in interpersonal relationship. The three types of shame memories were measured; the internal shame memory, external shame memory, and external-humiliative shame memory. On the basis of threat anticipation model of paranoia, it is hypothesized that negative self and other schema mediate the relationship between the external-humiliative shame memory and paranoia. The effect of each shame memory on paranoia and social anxiety was analyzed. The results of regression analyses suggest that paranoia was predicted by the external-humiliative shame memory, and the social anxiety by internal shame memory. The negative beliefs about the self and others showed a partial mediation effect in the relationship between external-humiliative shame memory and paranoia. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future study are discussed.
The present study aimed to investigate the maladaptive effects of perfectionistic self-presentation on social anxiety. Additionally, social self-efficacy was examined as a moderator between perfectionistic self-presentation and social interaction anxiety. A total of 179 Korean undergraduate students participated in the study. Participants completed the Korean version of the Perfectionistic Self Presentation scale, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and Self Efficacy for Social Situation scale. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that when self-efficacy was low, the high perfectionistic self-presentational group showed a significantly higher social anxiety than the low perfectionistic self-presentational group. However, a significant difference in social anxiety was not observed in the case of high self-efficacy. That is, individual self-efficacy for interpersonal situations moderated the negative effect of perfectionistic self-presentation on social interaction anxiety. This study could be useful in implementing appropriate intervention plans for socially anxious people with concerns of perfection and competence. The potential implications for clinical applications and directions for future research were also discussed.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of psychopathy on empathy levels among the adolescent-bully group. In particular, we highlighted whether the exclusion experience changed the empathy levels of participants. The study data was collected from a self-reported questionnaire conducted by 1,794 adolescents. The data was divided into three groups: The bully-psychopathy group, bully-non psychopathy group and normal group. During this experiment, subjects participated in the Cyberball Game. The exclusion experience was manipulated by the game, and the empathy levels regarding the exclusive scenarios were measured before and after of Cyberball Game. As a result, before subjects were excluded from the Cyberball Game, both the bully-psychopathy and bully-non psychopathy groups did not demonstrate any significant differences in the empathy level of victims. After the exclusion experience, both groups showed meaningful differences with respect to the change of empathy level. Although the bully-psychopathy group did not show any drastic change of the empathy level before and after the exclusion experience, the bully-non psychopathy group showed a significant increase in the empathy level. Herein, the significance and limitation of this study are discussed and a future research direction is proposed.
The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of verbal and imagery processing during and following stress stimuli on the maintenance of negative affect. A total of 60 undergraduate students were included in the analysis. Participants were asked to use either the verbal or imagery cognitive processing during and after observing an emotion inducing stressful video clip. To explain the mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of emotional response, the emotional responses of participants were measured immediately after, one day after, and three days after the experiment. For immediately after the experiment, participants in the imagery task reported significantly more arousal than participants in the verbal task, but after one and three days later, these participants showed decreased negative affect. Verbal thoughts were found to lead to the maintenance of negative affect after one and three days following the experiment. Based on these results implications and limitations of the study were discussed.
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of emotional clarity on the relationship between negative urgency and the loss of control eating. In study I, the Eating Loss of Control Scale (ELOCS) was first translated into Korean, and then 116 undergraduate students answered it. To assess the factor structure, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Thereafter, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed on another set of data from 128 undergraduate students. As a result, the original factor structure was tested by CFA, obtaining a poor fit. An additional model was tested, after deleting the items with bad adjustments, obtaining the best fit. The ELOCS demonstrated a good convergent validity and was significantly correlated with eating pathology, emotion dysregulation, poor self-control, and depression. In study II, the role of emotional clarity was investigated to the hypothesis that emotional clarity has a moderating effect on the relationship between negative urgency and loss of control eating. There were 227 undergraduate students who completed self-report measures. The results of hierarchical analysis showed that after controlling for sex, negative urgency predicted the loss of control eating. When emotional clarity was low, a higher level of negative urgency was associated with a greater loss of control eating. Conversely, when emotional clarity was high, the effect of negative urgency on the loss of control eating was not significant. Such results suggest that the ability to understand and explain themselves as well as the emotions of others can potentially buffer the aggravation of impulsive traits.
This study aimed to validate the Korean version of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (K-IGDS) which consisted of factors examining nine criteria from the DSM-5. A total of 719 adults participated in the online (n=414) and offline (n=305) questionnaire including the Korean Game Addiction Scale for Adults, the Short-form of Problematic Online Gaming Questionnaire, the Brief Symptoms Inventory-18, the Perceived Daily Stress Scale, the Korean Version of the Self-control Scale, and the Korean Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Moreover, the Structured Clinical Interview for Internet Gaming Disorder was individually conducted to a subsample of 99 people among the total 719 participants. The results were as follows: 1) Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that K-IGDS had a satisfactory construct validity, 2) Correlation analyses showed that K-IGDS had a good convergent validity and concurrent validity, 3) Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that the Area Under Curve (AUC) covered 83.0%, suggesting that the K-IGDS was a good tool to diagnose the Internet Gaming Disorder. The cut-off score was proposed and implications and limitations of the study were discussed.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) with add-on exposure procedure among university students with speech anxiety, as well as to examine how their mindfulness levels and emotion regulation ability changes during the therapy process. Thirteen students with speech anxiety without high depression participated in this research, and they were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (7 students) or the wait-list control group (6 students). The pre-test, post-test, and a follow-up test(a month later) were administered. The results showed that the speech anxiety score was reduced more in the experimental group compared with the control group, and the effect was maintained a month later. The mindfulness levels of the experimental group was enhanced more than that of control group. Observation ability and sub-factor of mindfulness was significantly enhanced in the experimental group. As for emotion regulation ability, the experimental group did not improved more compared to the control group, but post-test score was significantly increased more than the pre-test score in the experimental group only. This result was due to the reduction of impulsive control difficulties and inaccessibility to emotional regulation strategies, the sub-factors of emotion regulation difficulties. The results of analyzing the individual cases of the experimental group showed that all participants improved significantly in their mindfulness levels and emotion regulation ability. Almost all participants showed a significant improvement of mindfulness leves after the 7th or 8th session. An improvement of emotion regulation ability was faster than that of the mindfulness level. That is, three participants improved after the 5th session, but there was remarkable variability. This study has significance in finding the effects of MBCT with an add-on exposure procedure against speech anxiety and in exploring the changes of patterns with respect to the mindfulness level and emotion regulation ability during the therapy process.
The purpose of this study was to examine the similarities and distinctiveness among Postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Major depressive disorder (MDD), and co-occuring PTSD and Depressive disorder (DD) with MMPI-2-RF. Data of 187 patients (59 with PTSD, 69 with MDD, 59 with PTSD+DD) were collected from the Department of Psychiatry of three university hospitals. Using Minnesota Multiple Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), clinical characteristics were compared to determine which scale has utility in differentiating among the groups. Significant differences in all of the Higher-Order (H-O) Scales, almost of the Restructured Clinical Scales and the Specific Problems Scales were observed among three groups. Multinominal logistic regression analyses showed that Emotion/Internalizing Dysfunction (EID) and Thought Dysfunction (THD) in H-O Scales were useful in differentiating between PTSD and MDD. Emotion/ Internalizing Dysfunction (EID) in H-O Scale, Malaise(MLS) in Somatic/Cognitive Scales and Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism-Revised (NEGE-r) in PSY-5 Scales were significant predictors in distinguishing comorbid group from PTSD. The results suggest that there are distinct clinical characteristics among the three groups, although PTSD, MDD, and comorbid group share many symptoms.