Ann Macaskill

Failure to forgive self and others: a replication and extension of the relationship between forgiveness, personality, social desirability and general health

The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between forgiveness of self, forgiveness of others, and personality and general health measures. Three hundred and twenty-four undergraduate students (100 males, 224 females) completed measures of forgiveness of oneself, forgiveness of others, the Abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, and the General Health Questionnaire-28. Failure to forgive oneself is accompanied by personality and general health scores that reflect individual psychopathology, with men and women scoring higher in neuroticism, depression and anxiety. A failure to forgive others is accompanied by personality and general health scores that reflect social introversion among men (low extraversion scores) and social-pathology among women (social dysfunction, psychoticism). Further, a failure to forgive others is accompanied by higher depression scores among men and women. The findings suggest that the concept of forgiveness can be related to individual and social psychopathology.

Forgiveness of self and others and emotional empathy.

ALTHOUGH THERE IS STILL CONSIDERABLE DEBATE about definitions of forgiveness (Worthington, 1998), some commonality regarding the psychological constituents of the process of forgiveness is emerging from intervention models designed to promote forgiveness. All of those models focus on the victim’s development of empathy toward the perpetrator as a necessary step in forgiveness (Doyle, 1999; Enright & the Human Development Study Group, 1996; Gartner, 1988; Hunter, 1978; McCullough & Worthington, 1995; McCullough, Worthington, & Rachal, 1997; Worthington, 1998). According to all models, individuals with higher levels of trait empathy find it easier to work toward forgiveness than do those with lower levels, and individuals incapable of empathy find it very difficult to forgive. Two arguments merit further consideration. First, there has been no empirical examination, outside clinical samples, with standardized measuresof the relationship between forgiveness and empathy (Worthington, 1998). Second, because of the lack of a consensual definition of forgiveness, consideration of correlates

The development of a brief measure of learner autonomy in university students

A great deal of attention is paid to the requirement for university students to become autonomous learners. A review of the literature revealed a lack of relatively short psychometrically sound measures of autonomous learning despite its purported importance. This study aimed to develop a brief, psychometrically sound, measure of autonomous learning to facilitate empirical research in this area. Items for the scale were selected from reviewing the literature, and face validity was confirmed by experienced academics. In the first study, first‐year psychology students (n = 214) completed the measure. Principal components analysis produced a 12‐item measure with two subscales that appeared to be psychometrically sound. The factor structure was reproduced with a more diverse group of undergraduates (n =172) in a second study. The internal reliability and the concurrent validity of the scale were both found to be satisfactory, suggesting that this measure may prove useful to educational researchers.

Gambling as emotion management: developing a grounded theory of problem gambling

The numbers of individuals developing problems with gambling is on the increase. This study explored the nature of problem gambling through an analysis of the reported experiences of problem gamblers. A grounded theory approach involving the analysis of material from 14 male treatment seeking gamblers resulted in the identification of three main categories. These were emotion, control and costs of gambling. Central to the experience of all participants was the emotional nature of gambling, gambling being used either to induce or suppress arousal with a marked lack of other coping strategies. Control of gambling was an issue only in the context of efforts at behaviour change. Gambling costs were extensive including financial, relationship and emotional costs. Repeated failure of efforts at control resulted in tolerance of high levels of costs and repeated cycles of gambling. Patterns of interactions between these factors are identified in the emergent theory.

The Mental Health of University Students in the United Kingdom.

ABSTRACT There are increasing concerns globally about the mental health of students. In the UK, the actual incidence of mental disturbance is unknown, although university counselling services report increased referrals. This study assesses the levels of mental illness in undergraduate students to examine whether widening participation in education has resulted in increases as hypothesised by the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists. Patterns of disturbance across years are compared to identify where problems arise. Students (N=1197) completed the General Health Questionnaire-28 either on the first day at university or midway through the academic year for first, second and third year students. Rates of mental illness in students equalled those of the general population but only 5.1% were currently receiving treatment. Second year students reported the most significant increases in psychiatric symptoms. Factors contributing to the problem are discussed.

Developing autonomous learning in first year university students using perspectives from positive psychology

Autonomous learning is a commonly occurring learning outcome from university study, and it is argued that students require confidence in their own abilities to achieve this. Using approaches from positive psychology, this study aimed to develop confidence in first-year university students to facilitate autonomous learning. Psychological character strengths were assessed in 214 students on day one at university. Two weeks later their top three strengths were given to them in study skills modules as part of a psycho-educational intervention designed to increase their self-efficacy and self-esteem. The impact of the intervention was assessed against a control group of 40 students who had not received the intervention. The results suggested that students were more confident after the intervention, and that levels of autonomous learning increased significantly compared to the controls. Character strengths were found to be associated with self-efficacy, self-esteem and autonomous learning in ways that were theoretically meaningful.

Attitudes Towards Mental Health in an Urban Pakistani Community in the United Kingdom

The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of Pakistani families living in an urban area of the United Kingdom, towards mental health issues, to identify the emic models used and compare them with the etic model, predominant in Western medicine. This would allow the exploration of some of the inconsistencies in the research literature relating to the incidence of mental illness in this cultural group. The second aim was to explore the needs of this community, particularly women, in relation to mental health services. Due to problems gaining access to females on their own, interviews were held with family groups. Findings suggested that there were differences in the models of mental illness being employed with greater somatisation of symptoms in the Pakistani group and an emphasis on aggressive behaviour as a significant symptom. Treatment expectations also varied with some emphasis on traditional Pakistani treatments such as Faith healers and Hakims as well as General Practitioners and hospital treatments. Language difficulties, religious and cultural practices were also identified as barriers to female treatment in particular. Recommendations were made for improved training for interpreters and more emphasis on cultural factors and emic models of mental illness as part of medical training.

Rational-emotive therapy plus pharmacotherapy versus pharmacotherapy alone in the treatment of high cognitive dysfunction depression

A pilot study was conducted with 20 unipolar depressed outpatients with high levels of cognitive dysfunction. They were treated with either Lofepramine or Lofepramine plus rational-emotive therapy (RET) for 24 weeks. Previous studies of combined treatment versus pharmacotherapy have been criticized for selecting untypical clinical cases and for delivery of suboptimal pharmacotherapy. The present study was designed to address these issues as a preliminary to conducting a larger trial. The treatment protocol permitted a maximum of 30 RET sessions and 280 mg/day of Lofepramine. Elliss rational-emotive therapy was used. There were significantly more responders in the combined-treatment group than in the pharmacotherapy group. At treatment termination, combined treatment similarly produced significantly greater changes in both depression measures and improvement in social adjustment. Furthermore, at termination in the combined-treatment group there were significantly more improvers and remitters on the Hamilton Depression Scale and on the Global Index of Improvement and more improvers on the target problems ratings. The overall attrition rate in this study was low at 5%. The population studied was more severely depressed and dysfunctional than populations previously included in cognitive therapy/pharmacotherapy trials. Despite utilizing a more severely depressed and dysfunctional sample than previous trials, combined treatment was found to produce more improvement than pharmacotherapy alone.

Differentiating normal and problem gambling: a grounded theory approach

A previous study (Ricketts, T. and Macaskill, A. Gambling as emotion management: developing a grounded theory of problem gambling. Addiction Research and Theory 11(6).) delineated a theory of problem gambling based on the experiences of treatment seeking male gamblers and allowed predictions to be made regarding the processes that differentiate between normal and problem gamblers. These predictions are the focus of the present study, which also utilised a grounded theory approach, but with a sample of male high frequency normal gamblers. The findings suggest that there are common aspects of gambling associated with arousal and a sense of achievement. The use of gambling to manage negative emotional states differentiated normal and problem gambling. Perceived self-efficacy, emotion management skills and perceived likelihood of winning money back were intervening variables differentiating problem and normal gamblers.

Exploring religious involvement, forgiveness, trust, and cynicism

Forgiveness is a core value within Christianity and many other religions, but it is unclear whether valuing forgiveness results in individuals being more forgiving. This study examines the effect of Christian religious belief on forgiveness; tests the theoretical speculation that trust fosters forgiveness; explores the effect of cynicism, and examines age effects on forgiveness with a British sample. Christian clergy (N = 209), general population samples of Christians (N = 176), and a group with NRA (N = 65) completed the Heartland Forgiveness Scale measuring forgiveness of self, others, and situations, and measures of trust, cynicism, and the importance of forgiveness. The clergy score higher on total forgiveness, forgiveness of self, others, and situations; rate forgiveness as being more important; are more trusting; and are less cynical than the Christian and no religious affiliation (NRA) samples in the general population. While the Christian sample value forgiveness more than the NRA group, they are not more forgiving on any of the measures tested. Age is a significant predictor only for situational forgiveness. Trust is not a positive mediator of forgiveness for any of the participant groups, and neither is cynicism a negative mediator of forgiveness.