Denise M. Sloan

Diminished response to pleasant stimuli by depressed women

This study examined the self-report and facial expressions of emotional response to pictorial stimuli and the incidental learning of pleasant and unpleasant words by depressed (n = 20) and nondepressed (n = 20) women. Depression was associated with reports of diminished emotional response and reduced frequency and intensity of facial expressions only to pleasant stimuli. The 2 groups did not differ in response to hedonically unpleasant stimuli, even those specifically relevant to the emotion of sadness. In a similar vein, depressed and nondepressed participants showed differences in incidental recall for only pleasant self-referential terms. There was no difference in recall of unpleasant words. These findings suggest the importance of hedonic deficits on psychological processes in clinical depression.

A closer examination of the structured written disclosure procedure

The current study examined psychological and physical health outcomes of the written disclosure paradigm and the hypothesis that the principles of therapeutic exposure account for the beneficial effects of the paradigm. Participants were randomly assigned to either a written disclosure condition or a control condition. Reactivity to the writing sessions was examined using both subjective and physiological measures. Measures of psychological and physical health were completed before and 1 month after the sessions. Participants assigned to the disclosure condition reported fewer psychological and physical symptoms at follow-up compared with control participants, though reductions were clinically significant for only 1 outcome measure. Physiological activation to the 1st disclosure session was associated with reduced psychological symptoms at follow-up for disclosure participants. Subjective reports of emotional responding corresponded with physiological reactivity. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The role of emotion in the psychological functioning of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse

This study examined the role of two aspects of emotion in the psychological distress of individuals with and without a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). It was hypothesized that experiential avoidance and expressivity would mediate the relationship between CSA status and psychological distress. Ninety-nine participants completed measures that assessed for a CSA history, experiential avoidance, emotional expressivity, and psychological functioning. The results indicated that CSA status, experiential avoidance, and emotional expressivity were significantly related to psychological distress. However, only experiential avoidance mediated the relationship between CSA status and distress. These results contribute to the growing body of literature indicating that experiential avoidance has an influential role in the development of psychological symptoms.

Further examination of the exposure model underlying the efficacy of written emotional disclosure

In the current study, the authors examined the effects of systematically varying the writing instructions for the written emotional disclosure procedure. College undergraduates with a trauma history and at least moderate posttraumatic stress symptoms were asked to write about (a) the same traumatic experience, (b) different traumatic experiences, or (c) nontraumatic everyday events across 3 written disclosure sessions. Results show that participants who wrote about the same traumatic experience reported significant reductions in psychological and physical symptoms at follow-up assessments compared with other participants. These findings suggest that written emotional disclosure may be most effective when individuals are instructed to write about the same traumatic or stressful event at each writing session, a finding consistent with exposure-based treatments.

Looking at facial expressions: dysphoria and facial EMG.

Previous research on interpersonal deficits among dysphoric individuals has been equivocal, with some studies finding that dysphoric persons show an increase in negative behavior and other studies finding no group differences. Most studies in this area have employed self-report instruments and behavioral coding systems to examine interpersonal displays. Using a different approach, we examined facial electromyography (EMG) reactivity to pictures of happy and unhappy expressions among dysphoric persons. Dysphoric and non-dysphoric persons viewed happy and unhappy facial expressions while zygomatic EMG and corrugator EMG activity was recorded. Results indicated that both groups showed the appropriate increase in corrugator EMG to unhappy expressions; however, dysphoric persons did not show the expected increase in zygomatic EMG activity to happy expressions while the control participants did show this response. Unexpectedly, the dysphoric group displayed an increase in corrugator EMG activity (e.g. frown response) to the happy facial expressions. These findings indicate that dysphoric persons have impaired interpersonal reactivity that is specific to happy facial displays.

Examining the high-end specificity of the Beck Depression Inventory using an anxiety sample

Although the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is one of the most widely used measures of depression, there is some concern whether high scores on the BDI represent the nosologic category of depression or psychological distress more generally. In this study the high-end specificity of the BDI was examined using a clinical sample of anxiety-disordered individuals, a group characterized by high negative affect. Results revealed using a high BDI cut score produced moderate specificity and sensitivity rates. Additional analyses indicated an overall fair performance of the BDI in classifying depression in the anxiety sample and an optimal cut score for differentiating anxiety clients with and without comorbid depression was identified. However, using the optimal cut score resulted in nearly one third of the sample being incorrectly classified on the basis on their BDI scores. The findings underscore the importance of not relying solely on BDI scores to classify depression samples, which is a current common practice in psychological research.

It’s All About Me: Self-Focused Attention and Depressed Mood

The present study examined self-focused attention in dysphoria under various mood conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to either a positive, negative, or neutral writing condition. Results indicated that dysphoric participants displayed significantly greater self-focused attention across all conditions relative to the non-dysphoric participants. Taken together, these findings indicate that heightened self-focused attention is a pervasive pattern in dysphoric persons that may contribute to maintenance of a dysphoric mood state.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Definition, Prevalence, and Risk Factors

In this chapter, we provide the definition and diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Next, the prevalence data for this disorder are reviewed, with a particular focus on how prevalence rates vary with demographic characteristics (e.g., gender) and trauma type. The literature on risk and resilience factors for the development and maintenance of PTSD is then discussed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of contemporary statistical methods that may be used to advance our knowledge and understanding of PTSD.

The use of contingency management in the treatment of a geriatric nursing home patient with psychogenic vomiting

A substantial percentage of nursing home residents evidence psychosocial and behavioral problems. However, surprisingly little is known about how effectively to treat geriatric patients with behavioral problems. The present study reports the behavioral treatment of a patient with psychogenic vomiting. The patient was successfully treated by changing the contingencies of her illness behavior and of behavior associated with rehabilitation goals. This indicates the importance of nursing home staff attending to the operants of illness behavior. Specifically, independent behavior should be rewarded by praise and attention and illness behavior should be ignored in terms of attention.

The Importance of Emotion in Psychotherapy Approaches

The history of emotion in the psychotherapy is as long as the field of psychotherapy. Freud (1912/1959) was one of the first therapists to articulate the central role of emotion in the development of psychological disorders and the importance of emotion in psychotherapy. Since Freud, the role of emotions in psychotherapy continues to be prominent. Although the role of emotions in therapeutic change has a rich history, the study of emotional processes in psychological disorders is relatively new. There are several reasons that empirical attention to the role of emotion in psychological disorders has only recently begun. One reason is that with increasing sophistication of research techniques such as fMRI and psychophysiological measures we are better able to investigate the basis of emotions, how emotions unfold over time, and how changes in emotional responding correlate with changes in context and stimulus presentation. In order to understand maladaptive emotions we must first have a clear understanding of normative emotional functioning. Thus, over the past 20 years research in emotion has focused on normal emotional processes and we have made great strides in our knowledge within this area. We are now applying this knowledge to gaining a greater understanding of maladaptive emotional functioning, though this is still a fledging field. One look at the criteria outline for psychological disorders in the DSM-IV (APA, 1994) and it is apparent that emotion impairment is thought to be a critical feature in nearly all Axis I and Axis II disorders. In some psychological disorders (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder), maladaptive emo-