Positive Cognitive Appraisal Research Articles

Effectiveness of taking in the good based-bibliotherapy intervention program among depressed Filipino female adolescents.

Adolescent depression is a severe mental health problem. Philippines has the highest incidence of depression in South East Asia. Depressed female adolescents habitually seek and retain negative experiences. Aim of this research was to develop and to assess effectiveness of a Taking in the Good Based-Bibliotherapy Intervention Program for female adolescents. As an innovative type of psychotherapy treatment, program aimed to build up their inner strengths by experiencing, enriching and absorbing daily events with a positive attitude and installing them in brain. Program was conducted in two phases: 1. Development of taking in the good based-bibliotherapy intervention. 2. Implementation and assessment of pioneering treatment for alleviating depression and thereby increasing positive cognitive appraisal by employing true experimental research design particularly between subjects. Beck Depression Inventory-II, Asian Adolescent Depression Scale and Kutcher Adolescent Depression Scale-11 were administered before and after implementation of the program. A total of 30 female adolescents, Filipino High School students, (mean age=13.9), were randomly assigned to experimental (n=15) and control (n=15) conditions. Data analysis was done by employing percentage and frequency distribution, mean scores, standard deviation, dependent t-test, independent t-test statistics and Cohen's d. The null hypothesis was tested at the 0.05 level of significance. Statistical analysis between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group showed significant difference (p=0.000) and scores of control and experimental group showed significant difference (p=0.000) in all dependent variables in the post-test. These results revealed that "Taking in the Good based-Bibliotherapy Intervention" was effective in reducing depression in female adolescents.

Pregnant women's cognitive appraisal of a natural disaster affects DNA methylation in their children 13 years later: Project Ice Storm.

Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) can impact a variety of outcomes in the offspring throughout childhood and persisting into adulthood as shown in human and animal studies. Many of the effects of PNMS on offspring outcomes likely reflect the effects of epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation, to the fetal genome. However, no animal or human research can determine the extent to which the effects of PNMS on DNA methylation in human offspring is the result of the objective severity of the stressor to the pregnant mother, or her negative appraisal of the stressor or her resulting degree of negative stress. We examined the genome-wide DNA methylation profile in T cells from 34 adolescents whose mothers had rated the 1998 Québec ice storm's consequences as positive or negative (that is, cognitive appraisal). The methylation levels of 2872 CGs differed significantly between adolescents in the positive and negative maternal cognitive appraisal groups. These CGs are affiliated with 1564 different genes and with 408 different biological pathways, which are prominently featured in immune function. Importantly, there was a significant overlap in the differentially methylated CGs or genes and biological pathways that are associated with cognitive appraisal and those associated with objective PNMS as we reported previously. Our study suggests that pregnant women's cognitive appraisals of an independent stressor may have widespread effects on DNA methylation across the entire genome of their unborn children, detectable during adolescence. Therefore, cognitive appraisals could be an important predictor variable to explore in PNMS research.

Responses to Peer Stress Predict Academic Outcomes Across the Transition to Middle School

This study examined physiological and coping responses to peer-evaluative challenges in early adolescence as predictors of academic outcomes. The sample included 123 young adolescents ([Formula: see text]age = 12.03 years) who participated in the summer before (T1) and the spring after (T2) the transition to middle school. At T1, respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity (RSAR) and engaged coping responses (prosocial problem-solving, positive cognitive appraisals) were assessed in real-time during lab-based simulations of peer-evaluative challenges. Academic performance was assessed with multiple informants (teachers, parents, adolescents) at T1 and T2. Parents provided reports about academic adjustment to middle school at T2. RSAR significantly predicted improved academic performance between T1 and T2 and positive academic adjustment at T2. Engaged coping was marginally associated with improved academic performance and significantly associated with positive academic adjustment; these results were partially corroborated by analyses with an alternative measure of engaged coping (engaged planning), which significantly predicted improved academic performance.

Understanding the utility of emotional approach coping: evidence from a laboratory stressor and daily life

Background: Dispositional emotional approach coping (EAC) marks an adaptive tendency to process and express emotions. EAC's association with cognitions, affect, and intra- and interindividual characteristics that may account for its utility was examined in response to an acute stressor and in daily life. Design: This study included a laboratory stress task and ecological momentary assessment. Methods: Healthy undergraduate students (n = 124; mean age: 20; women: 56%) completed a laboratory component (baseline survey, speech stress task, pre- and posttask measures) and five subsequent days of surveys via palm pilot (six surveys/day). Results: Controlling for sex, neuroticism, and social support, greater EAC was associated with more positive cognitive appraisals, personal resources, and positive affect and less-negative affect during the lab stressor, and with more perceived control and positive affect in daily life. Significant EAC × sex interactions were found for poststressor affect: men with high EAC reported more positive affect and women with high EAC reported less negative affect. Conclusions: Findings provide support that EAC's utility may be independent of intra- and interindividual characteristics, and that men and women may benefit from EAC in different ways in regards to affect. The proclivity to use EAC may come with a resiliency that protects against stress and promotes general well-being.

Attachment Mediates Effects of Trait Mindfulness on Stress Responses to Conflict

While the regulation of stress is usually thought of as an intrapersonal process, research suggests that relational factors such as attachment anxiety and avoidance play an influential role in stress regulation. Mindfulness, the process of intentionally paying attention to present moment experiences in a nonjudgmental way, has been associated with both enhanced romantic attachment security and stress regulation, though the precise role of attachment in mindfulness–stress paths remains unclear. The current study explores (1) the association between mindfulness and romantic partners’ physiological and subjective stress responses to a relationship conflict discussion and (2) the role of attachment anxiety and avoidance in statistically mediating that association. Heterosexual couples (n = 114 dyads) completed self-report measures of mindfulness and attachment approximately 1 week prior to a lab session involving a conflict discussion task. Participants rated state positive and negative affect and stress appraisals following the discussion, and five saliva samples were collected for cortisol assay to measure physiological stress. Results supported the proposed mediational model, with significant indirect effects of total mindfulness scores on stress outcomes through attachment. Specifically, mindfulness is related to lower cortisol levels during the conflict discussion via lower attachment avoidance and predicted less negative affect and more positive cognitive appraisals following the conflict discussion via lower attachment anxiety.

Effectiveness of preventive family intervention in improving cognitive attributions among children of depressed parents: A randomized study.

Our randomized trial examined the effectiveness of preventive interventions in increasing positive cognitive attributions and reducing negative cognitive attributions in children of depressed parents. In addition, it tested the role of attribution changes in mediating the intervention effects on children's depressive and emotional symptoms. The participants were 109 Finnish families with at least one parent in treatment for affective disorder, for a total of 145 children, 8-16 years of age. Families were randomized into two groups: the "family talk intervention" (FTI, a whole-family approach enhancing communication and child resilience, Beardslee et al., 1997) group, and an active control, the "let's talk about the children" (LTC, a parent-only psycho-educational approach, Solantaus, Paavonen, Toikka, & Punamäki, 2010) group. Children reported their cognitive attributions (CASQ-R, Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised (Thompson, Kaslow, Weiss, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 1998)), depressive (CDI/BDI, Child Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1981)/Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Steer, & Garbin, 1988)) and emotional (SDQ, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997)) symptoms, and mothers reported their children's emotional symptoms (SDQ at baseline (T1) and 10-month (T2) and 18-month (T3)) follow-ups. Contrary to our hypothesis, no beneficial attribution changes were found in the FTI group across the follow-ups. Instead, positive cognitive appraisals increased in the LTC group, especially from T2 to T3. The increase of positive attribution further served as a mediator for changes in children's emotional and depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that a short preventive intervention can enhance beneficial cognitive processes in high-risk families in routine adult psychiatric care.

Cognitive and Psychological Reactions of the General Population Three Months After the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

BackgroundThe largest earthquake on record in Japan (magnitude 9.0) occurred on March 11, 2011, and the subsequent tsunami devastated the Pacific coast of Northern Japan. These further triggered the Fukushima I nuclear power plant accidents. Such a hugely complex disaster inevitably has negative psychological effects on general populations as well as on the direct victims. While previous disaster studies enrolled descriptive approaches focusing on direct victims, the structure of the psychological adjustment process of people from the general population has remained uncertain. The current study attempted to establish a path model that sufficiently reflects the early psychological adaptation process of the general population to large-scale natural disasters.Methods and FindingsParticipants from the primary disaster area (n = 1083) and other areas (n = 2372) voluntarily participated in an online questionnaire study. By constructing path models using a structural equation model procedure (SEM), we examined the structural relationship among psychological constructs known related to disasters. As post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTS) were significantly more present in people in the primarily affected area than in those in secondary- or non-affected areas, the path models were constructed for the primary victims. The parsimoniously depicted model with the best fit was achieved for the psychological-adjustment centered model with quality of life (QoL) as a final outcome.ConclusionThe paths to QoL via negative routes (from negative cognitive appraisal, PTS, and general stress) were dominant, suggesting the importance of clinical intervention for reducing negative cognitive appraisal, and for caring for general stress and PTS to maintain QoL at an early stage of psychological adaptation to a disaster. The model also depicted the presence of a positive route where positive cognitive appraisal facilitates post-traumatic growth (PTG) to achieve a higher QoL, suggesting the potential importance of positive psychological preventive care for unexpected natural disasters.

Resilience and crime victimization

What do we know about resilience in crime victimization? In this article, the authors discuss resilience defined as protective factors (e.g., personality characteristics, biological characteristics, social and cultural factors, and community characteristics); as a process of adaptation (e.g., self-enhancement, positive cognitive appraisals, coping styles, and spirituality), including an iterative perspective on resilience as a cascade of protective processes; and as positive outcomes (e.g., lack of symptoms) following exposure to adverse events. Within each of these definitional frameworks, they consider general conceptual issues pertaining to resilience and then the small body of research that has focused specifically on resilience and some type of crime victimization. Research and clinical implications are discussed.

Accentuate the positive to mitigate the negative: Mother psychological coping resources and family adjustment in childhood disability

Background Mothers’ cognitive appraisal of the family impact of childhood disability and their positive affect as a psychological coping resource, both key elements of the process model of stress and coping, were tested as explanatory variables of family adjustment.Method In a sample of Canadian families, 195 mothers of children with intellectual and developmental disability completed telephone interviews.Results In regression modelling, 35% of the variance in family adjustment was explained by mothers’ positive cognitive appraisal of family impacts of childhood disability and by their positivity (ratio of positive to negative affect). After controlling for positivity, negative cognitive appraisal of family impacts of childhood disability was non-significant.Conclusions Family adjustment to childhood disability is associated with elements of strength in mothers’ psychological coping; namely, their ability to perceive positive family consequences of childhood disability and to maintain higher proportions of positive emotion in their daily activities. The findings of this study provide support for the broaden-and-build theory to explain the role of positivity in mothers’ coping and adjustment to childhood disability.

Supporting a curriculum for delivering Type 2 diabetes patient self-management education: a patient-needs assessment

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guideline for diabetes patient education offers little to inform National Health Services (NHS) Trusts in the curriculum design of self-management education programmes. The study aim was to conduct a patient-needs assessment of the educational curriculum content and support needs for Type 2 diabetes self-management. Different stages of the condition were chosen to identify whether needs remained constant or changed with time and experience. Six focus groups were convened for people who had recently received a new diagnosis or changed therapy. Twenty-three participants were recruited from primary care and the media in the UK. The educational curriculum support needs comprised: access to care and support, continuity of health care professional, lay support, high-quality care and support, and a positive cognitive appraisal of experiences. Needs were broadly similar irrespective of the new change situation. The current emphasis on lay support concurs with a proportion of the needs of our study participants. Motivational communications with patients need to be prioritized to enable patients to address therapeutic goals.

Getting to the heart of the matter: written disclosure, gender, and heart rate.

The present study examined gender differences in the psychologic and physical symptom changes associated with written disclosure. Male (n = 48) and female (n = 46) college students were assigned to either a written disclosure condition or a control writing condition. Participants in each condition wrote on 3 consecutive days for 20 minutes each session. Heart rate was recorded during each writing session and the narratives were examined for linguistic content. Participants completed measures of psychologic and physical health at baseline and again 1 month later. Participants assigned to the written disclosure condition reported significantly greater psychological and physical health benefits at follow up compared with the control group participants. No significant gender differences were found among those participants assigned to the written disclosure condition. Additionally, although heart rate reactivity and changes in the use of words denoting positive emotion, negative emotion, and cognitive appraisal significantly differed between the writing conditions, no significant gender differences in these variables were found among individuals assigned to the written disclosure condition. Written disclosure is associated with significant improvements in both psychologic and physical health for men and women. There was no support for the notion that men may derive greater benefits than women from written disclosure. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that changes in physiological reactivity and word use associated with written disclosure do not differ between men and women.

Sibling Relationship Troubles and Well-Being in Middle and Old Age

Sibling Relationship Troubles and Well-Being in Middle and Old Age* Victoria Hilkevitch Bedford** The purpose of this stud) was to investigate whether sibling troubles are related to well-being. It was predicted that well-being would be greater when more positive cognitive appraisals are generated to manage the stress engendered by these troubles than when fewer positive appraisals are made. Qualitative data regarding age-near same-sex siblings were solicited via open-ended questions. These data were coded for each indication of a benefit derived from sibling troubles. Respondents were 40 well-educated middle-class men and women in middle and late life. Using multiple regression analyses that controlled for socio-economic status and size of social support nen ork, results suggested that the use of positive cognitive appraisals of sibling troubles was related to positive affect, but not negative affect. Social support also contributed uniquely to positive affect. Notably, these.findings only applied to coping with sibling troubles originating in childhood, not in adulthood. The findings suggest a connection between sibling childhood experiences and well-being in adulthood Key Words: aging, siblings, social support, stress, well-being. Many adults do not have family in the traditional sense of a co-residing spouse and dependent children who are minors (Bedford & Blieszner, 1997). Kin are especially likely to constitute primary family ties for adults who have launched their children, the ever single, widowed, divorced, and childless (Troll, 1986). In the present study the focus is on one relationship category from the extended kinship family-the siblings of middle-aged and older adults. The family literature tends to focus on intergenerational and spousal relationships; however, sibling relationships have gained visibility in recent years (e.g., see literature reviews by Bedford, 1995, and Cicirelli, 1995). Although there are exceptions, siblings play an especially important and unique role in adulthood. Caring for and burying their parents, and settling the parental estate often bring siblings into close contact to accomplish common goals (Brody, 1990; Matthews & Rosner, 1988). As the most long-lived relationship, siblings may become valued increasingly with age as other relationships dissolve through divorce, death, and geographical relocation (e.g., Avioli, 1989). Siblings sometimes function as confidants and companions (Connidis & Davies, 1992), especially for women. Most people believe their siblings will provide help in a crisis (Bedford, 1995), which has been demonstrated at the onset of widowhood (Lopata, 1973). As the longest survivors of the original family, siblings also may become a valued repository of family memories and partners in shared reminiscence (Cicirelli, 1985: Goetting,1986; Gold, 1987). Siblings and well-being. Despite the important functions of siblings, little is known about sibling contributions to the wellbeing of adults. The few studies addressing this issue have focused on older adults. Generally speaking, frequency of contact with siblings shows no relation to well-being (Lee & Ihinger-Tallman, 1980) with one exception. O'Bryant (1988) found that widows who had more contact with their sisters had higher levels of positive affect than did those widows who had less contact with their sisters. Most studies have found other aspects of the sibling relationships to be relevant to well-being. McGhee (1985) found that for rural aged women, simply having a sister live nearby was associated with greater life satisfaction. Cicirelli found that the closer men and women over 65 felt to their sisters, the fewer symptoms of depression they had (Cicirelli, 1989). Consistent with these findings, Wilson, Calsyn, and Orlofsky (1994) found that the quality of the sibling relationship correlated more with morale than did frequency of contact. Little is known about the mechanisms that may link the sibling relationship to well-being. …

Development and Testing of a Measure of Depressive Cognitions in Older Adults

Assessment of cognitive processes that predispose or contribute to clinical depression in elders is important for planning interventions that facilitate positive cognitive appraisal and effective coping strategies. Instruments evaluating severity of depression exist; however, none measure specific depressive cognitions. This paper describes the development and pilot testing of the Depressive Cognitions Scale (DCS) for older adults. Derived from Erikson's Psychosocial Theory, the 8 items comprising the scale were selected by clinical experts from a pool of 24 items. Each item reflects a depressive cognition that may arise from less than successful resolution of one of Erikson's developmental phases. Psychometric testing of the DCS was conducted with 60 functionally independent, community dwelling older adults (age 65+). An alpha of .78 indicated acceptable internal consistency. Construct validity was demonstrated by significant correlation with measures of psychosocial development. Further psychometric study of the DCS is recommended.

The Theoretical Foundations of Incorporating Islamic Beliefs in a Stress Inoculation Program for Muslims

Little data are available about the nature of stress which Muslims inNorth America frequently endure. Muslim scholars have not attempted todefine the major stressors these Muslims experience, nor have they furnishedMuslims with an inocuIation program that integrates Islamic beliefs withcognitive techniques in order to change stress quality and quantity. Thedevelopment of such a program, however, is not possible without theoreticalfoundations that employ the findings of stress research. On the other handsuch a theory, if fuIly deveIoped, is not functional without empirical datato sustain its basic propositions.Hence, the purpose of this paper is to: a) develop the theoreticalfoundations of the interreIationship between stress cognition and Islamic beliefs;b) present a stress cognition paradigm that explains the moderation functionof certain Islamic beliefs; and c) incorporate certain Islamic beliefs in theapplication of the cognitive techniques of stress management.The Relationship between Stress Cognitionand Religious BeliefsStress is defined as the outcome of the cognitive process through whicha person interprets and attaches meaning(s) to an event. Selye (1974) explainsit as being the negative or positive cognitive appraisal that causes the individualto perceive an event as stressful. Based on the outcomes of the cognitiveappraisal, Selye distinguishes between two types of stress: a) distress orpathogenic stress “which goes beyond people’s optimum arousal point so thatperformance and health deteriorate” (Savery 1986, 17), and b) eustress, which ...