Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Psychological autopsy (PA) is a systematic and retrospective method in order to figure out the risk factors of suicide. Collecting materials from the informants and the proxy respondents of the deceased, Psychological autopsy could reconstruct the physical, psychological and social state of the deceased. Studies have shown that psychological autopsy is one of the most valuable tools for suicide research. This paper systematically introduces the research method of psychological autopsy, and its applications in the field of suicide research. Consequently, the paper discusses the research advancement on the risk factors of suicide using the method of psychological autopsy. Further studies should be carried out from a culturally sensitive perspective. It is also necessary to implement the method of psychological autopsy to explore the complex interaction among the multiple risk factors of suicide. Key words:
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Topic Model is a computerized text analysis method and has been used widely in the field of psychology. For counseling research, this method has the potential for exploring themes of conversations between the therapist and patient, comparing the semantic similarity of different treatments and establishing behavioral coding systems. Using data from social media, researchers may use topic model to identify and predict various mental disorders, carry out calculations pertaining personality. Further, this paper discusses needed improvements of the topic model, and its application in the Chinese language environment. Topic model can be used to explore the psychological meaning of Chinese texts.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Mindfulness meditation (MM) has enjoyed a growing popularity in healthcare in recent years when bio-psycho-social approaches are becoming more and more emphasized in modern medicine. There has been mounting empirical evidence showing MM’s significant effectiveness in alleviating anxiety for both nonclinical and clinical populations. However, the effect size of the available empirical investigation results has remained inconsistent and possible moderators have yet to be explored comprehensively. In order to determine the immediate and long-term efficacy of MM in overcoming anxiety, we conducted a meta-analysis based on a systematic and comprehensive review of the published studies on mindfulness-based interventions for anxiety. We also examined whether some characteristics of research participants (e.g. age, geographic areas) and interventions (e.g. format, duration, at-home practice), and specifics of the study (i.e. types of control, quality of the study) and data analysis (e.g. attrition rate) moderate the magnitude of the effectiveness of MM interventions (11variables). The review was performed following the rigorous PRISMA Protocol. Published studies using randomized controlled trial were selected from major databases worldwide to include investigations conducted in both Western and Eastern countries. Databases used include VIP Journal Integration Platform, Wan fang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and PubMed. Keywords used are mindfulness, meditation, MBSR, MBCT, anxi*, mood, intervention, therapy, program. Using the random effect model, we pooled the effect size (Hedge’s g), and conducted a publication bias evaluation, a moderating effect analysis and an interaction analysis in CMA 3.3. Results of our analyses revealed fifty-five RCTs from both Eastern and Western countries (k = 68 samples, N = 4595 participants). Mindfulness meditation for treating anxiety is shown to be efficacious with a medium to large immediate effect (g = 0.60), but the effect is not reliably shown at follow-up assessments. The post-heterogeneity test result suggests that using the random effect model is reasonable. Univariate meta-regression analysis yielded that study quality, geographic areas, participants’ age, intervention format (Group vs. Individual), amount of at-home practice, and attrition rate shown in data analysis remarkably influenced the effect size of MM’s immediate effect, while types of control, health condition, mindfulness practice experience, intervention duration, or statistical analysis methods used (ITT vs. PP) did not appear to moderate MM’s immediate effectiveness for reducing anxiety. Additionally, geographic areas affect the effect size the most. Multiple meta-regression models suggested that type of control and geographic areas, as well as statistical analysis methods significantly moderate the effect size of intervention effectiveness. Overall, the study results demonstrated high immediate effect of mindfulness-based practices for alleviating anxiety, but the effect did not seem to last. In addition, geographic area turns out to be the strongest moderator, and practitioners in the East seem to benefit more than those who are in the West. Study quality, participants’ age, mindfulness practice experience, intervention format, at-home practice quantity and attrition rate also affect the effect size to a certain extent. Future research is warranted to improve methodological quality of outcome studies, to provide more clear and replicable evidence of MM efficacy, and to explore more underlying moderators for the intervention effect size, such as participant satisfaction and so forth.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Leary’s circumplex model of interpersonal behavior categorizes the manifestation of personality in interpersonal interactions into two dimensions: affiliation (i.e., hostile-friendly) and control (i.e., dominant-submissive). Interpersonal complementarity refers to mutually adjusted and complementary behaviors along the affiliation and control dimensions during dyadic interactions, such that greater dominance in one partner invites greater submissiveness in the other (i.e., reciprocity) and greater friendliness invites greater friendliness (i.e., correspondence). The first aim of the study was to develop an assessment manual to reliably measure interpersonal complementarity using the computer joystick method. Using this innovative measurement method, the study tested the high-low-high pattern of interpersonal complementarity in early, middle and late stages of therapy sessions, and examined the relationships between interpersonal complementarity and therapists’ experience, working alliance, session depth and therapeutic outcomes. Segments of early (first session), middle (sessions between first and last sessions), and late (last session) stages of session videos were selected from the “Directiveness Research” database from a university counseling center in central region of China. 48 selected segments were from 16 clients (5 male and 11 female) working with 13 therapists (3 male and 10 female) for 4 to 8 sessions (M = 5.8). Using the Interpersonal Complementarity Evaluation Manual of Counseling, two well-trained raters performed joystick assessments of interpersonal complementarity. In addition, therapists and clients filled out WAI-SR and SEQ after each session, and clients filled out OQ-45 at the start of treatment and one week after termination. The results showed that: (1) Therapists’ experience and counseling stage had an interactive effect on interpersonal complementarity. Specifically, experienced therapists (more than 3 years of experience) showed higher correspondence of affiliation in the early stage than that in the middle and late stages, and higher complementarity of dominance in the late stage than that in the early and middle stages. In contrast, novice therapists (less than 3 years of experience) showed no significant change in interpersonal complementarity over the three stages; (2) In the middle stage, the affiliation correspondence negatively predicted working alliance and interpersonal complementarity negatively predicted session depth; (3) The cases with a high-low-high pattern of affiliation correspondence tended to have better therapeutic outcomes. Results provided partial support for the three-stage high-low-high model of interpersonal complementarity in psychotherapy. Findings help shed light on the underlying mechanism of the three-stage model of interpersonal complementarity, because lower interpersonal complementarity uniquely predicted greater working alliance and session depth in the middle stage of therapy.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Trauma-related flashback (also called intrusive imagery) is one of the most typical re-experience symptoms of acute stress disorder (ASD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has important impacts on the development of PTSD. The cognitive model of PTSD and the dual representation theory of PTSD both emphasize the effects of abnormal peritraumatic cognitive processing (i.e., data-driven processing or sensational representation being strengthened while conceptual processing or contextual representation being weakened). Some vulnerable personality traits of PTSD and working memory abilities are also focused in studies of analogue and real trauma, and are considered as risk factors and protective factors respectively. This study aimed to examine the effects of vulnerable personality traits of PTSD, working memory abilities and peritraumatic cognitive processing on flashbacks in different periods after analogue trauma. A total of 159 healthy college students (38 males; age = 17~26 ys, M = 20.44 ± 1.80) participated in the study, who were screened by a self-designed health status questionnaire (e.g., “Did you receive psychotherapy or psychopharmaceutical treatment in recent two years?”), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and Self-report Anxiety Scale (SAS). In the laboratory, they were asked to watch a 14’34’’ long Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) film alone. Trait anxiety, trait dissociation, neuroticism and attentional control were measured before watching the film respectively by State-trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait version (STAI-T), Dissociative Experiences Scale-II (DES-II), the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Short Scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC), and Attentional Control Scale (ACS), while working memory capacity was tested by a revised Operation Span Task (OSPAN) seven days later. Immediately after the film, data-driven processing and conceptual processing were measured by Thoughts and Feelings Questionnaire-Chinese Revised (TFQ-CR). Five minutes after the film, participants firstly read a standardized description about the film-related flashback until they fully understood it with the help of the experimenter, and then reported immediate flashback (number, vividness and distress level). In the following week after the laboratory portion, participants independently reported flashback at three regular time points every day through WeChat or QQ. Upon coming back to the laboratory, they reported the frequency of posttraumatic symptoms through the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and triggered flashback after finishing a single-blind fake task assessing the degree in which they liked (10 relevant to the film). Structural equation model (SEM) and Bootstrap method were mainly adopted in the statistical analyses. Results showed that data-driven processing positively predicted the number, vividness and distress level of all three kinds of flashbacks (i.e., immediate, one-week and triggered) and one-week frequency of intrusion; higher neuroticism predicted higher distress level of triggered flashback; attentional control and working memory capacity both negatively predicted one-week frequency of intrusion. Conceptual processing played a mediating role between attentional control and distress level of immediate flashback. Furthermore, attentional control was positively associated with conceptual processing, whereas conceptual processing negatively predicted distress level of immediate flashback. These findings suggest that data-driven processing is the main factor influencing flashbacks in different periods after trauma; conceptual processing mainly affects the early acute stress response, while attentional control functions as a protective factor; neuroticism and working memory ability have long-term effects on flashback, and working memory ability serves as a protective factor.
Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2021-10-19
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Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2021-06-22
Abstract： Students’ externalizing problem behaviors negatively impact on the current and future development of themselves, classmates and teachers. Managing students’ externalizing problems is a great challenge for teachers. Previous studies in a Western educational environment and experience of excellent domestic head teachers indicate that head teachers can effectively reduce students’ externalizing problem behaviors by adopting negotiation management strategies and building positive teacher-student relationships. Most of the existing studies emphasize the influence of teachers’ negotiation management behavior and the teacher-student relationship on students’ externalizing problem behaviors. However, conversely, the transactional model suggests that students’ externalizing problem behaviors may also affect teachers’ negotiation management behavior and the teacher-student relationship. The present study aims to explore the reciprocal relationships between head teachers’ negotiation management behavior and teacher-student relationship and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors from grades four to six in China. The questionnaire on head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire, and the student perception of affective relationship scale was used for measurement were administered to 1407 students from grades four to six at three different periods in one school year. All the measures were reliable and valid. SPSS 20.0 and Mplus 7.4 were used to analyze the data. A cross-lagged model was used to investigate the reciprocal relationship among the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, the teacher-student relationship, and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors. The results reflected that, after controlling for covariates, simultaneous correlation, and auto-regression of variables, head teachers’ negotiation management behavior drove the positive interaction cycle. The head teachers’ negotiation management behavior at Time 1 reduced the students’ externalizing problem behavior, improved the intimacy of the teacher-student relationship, and decreased the conflicts of the teacher-student relationship at Time 2, which further affected the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, the teacher-student relationship, and the students’ externalizing problem behaviors at Time 3. The students’ externalizing problem behaviors drove the negative interaction cycle. The students’ externalizing problem behaviors at Time 1 reduced the head teachers’ negotiation management behavior, decreased the intimacy of the teacher-student relationship, and increased the conflicts of the teacher-student relationship at Time 2, which further affected the students’ externalizing problem behaviors, the teacher-student relationship, and the head teacher’s negotiation management behavior at Time 3. These observations deepen the understanding of the complex reciprocal relationships between head teachers’ negotiation management behavior and teacher-student relationship and primary school students’ externalizing problem behaviors from grade four to six in China. Additionally, the findings have important implications for preventing and intervening in students’ externalizing problem behaviors. The results reflect that the head teachers need to be aware of the negative “driver” role of students’ externalizing problem behaviors, and consciously use the positive “driver” role of negotiation management behavior to break the negative cycle driven by students’ externalizing problem behaviors. " " " " "
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2020-11-11
Abstract： Based on a new conceptual frame of mental health literacy (MHL), which refers to two structural dimensions including “coping with mental illness–mental health promotion” and “self–others” and three aspects including knowledge, attitude, and behavior tendency, a systematic nationwide sampling survey was conducted for the purpose of understanding the mental health literacy profile of the Chinese. This study further explored the influences of four group variables (geographical and gross domestic product (GDP) distribution, basic demographic variables, socio-economic status, and mental health background) on mental health literacy. Another aim of this study was to provide some strategies for improving mental health literacy more effectively. The Chinese Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire and Basic Background Information Questionnaire were used to assess the mental health literacy levels of the Chinese and their influencing factors. The Chinese Mental Health Literacy Questionnaire contains six sub-scales (knowledge and concepts related to mental health, knowledge and concepts related to mental illness, attitudes and behavior tendency to maintain and promote one’s mental health, attitudes and behavior tendency to cope with one's mental illness, attitudes and behavior tendency to maintain and promote the mental health of others, and attitudes and behavior tendency to cope with the mental illness of others). The questionnaires were administered to 8866 Chinese adults in nine cities (Beijing, Wuhan, Chengdu, Lishui, Kaifeng, Guilin, Zhangye, Baoding, and Linfen), which covered the well-developed, developing, and less-developed regions in China. With a balanced development considering geographical and GDP distribution, the results indicated that the mental health literacy levels among adults in different cities were low to moderate. Their influences on mental health literacy were small but significant with respect to geographical distribution, gender, age, familiarity with professional mental health service, and the frequency of contact with psychiatric patients. Regarding the structure of mental health literacy, the results of the development of national mental health literacy demonstrated that mental health maintenance and promotion literacy was better than mental illness coping literacy, and self-help literacy was better than helping others literacy. The survey found that the knowledge had relatively high individual differences, whereas attitudes and behaviors had relatively low individual differences concerning the contents of the mental health literacy. In addition, among the social influencing factors of mental health literacy this research tested, the socio-economic status was the most effective one, which showed large effect size in the knowledge and small to medium effect size in the attitudes and behavior tendency. These findings implicate that (1) improving mental health literacy is an arduous task; (2) improving the literacy of coping with mental illness should be the focus and breakthrough point of the current practice of mental health literacy promotion; (3) socio-ecological perspective should be adopted when developing a mental health literacy promotion policy; and (4) the mechanism of the attitude and behavior tendency change needs to be explored and clarified. "
Subjects: Psychology >> Medical Psychology submitted time 2019-12-27
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Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology submitted time 2019-03-13
Abstract： Following the Behavioral Therapy and the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is considered as one of the third wave of behavioral therapies. ACT is based on the relational frame theory, and its therapeutic model includes 6 components (i.e., acceptance, cognitive defusion, self-as-context, committed action, contact with the present moment, values) and psychological flexibility. What is the empirical evidence for these hypothesized components or mechanisms? In recent years, integrating meta-analysis and structural equation modeling, the meta-analytic structural equation model (MASEM) has made it possible to systematically examine the mechanisms of psychotherapy. Compared to the traditional single randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies, the MASEM combines multiple samples to increase statistical power and obtain more robust model estimates. The current study utilized two-stage structural equation modeling (TSSEM) to examine three aspects of the mechanisms of ACT, including: (1) the mediational effects of psychological flexibility and the 6 components, (2) the unique mechanisms of ACT compared to CBT, and (3) the generalizability of these mechanisms to internet-based ACT interventions. Studies were identified by searching Web of science, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Pubmed, Elsevier, EBSCO, Wiley Online Library from the first available date until November, 2017. We used the search term Acceptance and Commitment Therapy combined with acceptance, cognitive defusion, self-as-context, committed action, contact with the present moment, values, or psychological flexibility. Selection criteria included: (1) adult sample (age > 18), (2) RCT or quasi-experimental design, which measured pre-post change with ACT interventions, (3) quantitative measures of psychological outcomes (clinical or non-clinical) before and after treatment, and (4) quantitative measures of mediational variables at pre and post treatment. Excluding criteria were (1) not having a control group, (2) mixed intervention studies, which integrated ACT with other interventions, or included the Acceptance component but not the complete ACT model, or used CBT with the Acceptance component, and (3) medication treatment as the control group. The metaSEM package in R was used for the TSSEM analysis to examine the mechanisms of ACT. The literature search resulted in 50 studies, involving issues such as pain disorder, personality disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and work-related burnout among healthy populations. Most studies examined psychological flexibility (k = 39), followed by contact with the present moment (k = 14), acceptance (k = 6), cognitive defusion (k = 9), and values (k = 5), whereas the studies of self-as-context (k = 1) and committed action (k = 1) were excluded from further MASEM analysis due to a low number of publications. Results indicated that (1) the mediational effects of psychological flexibility, acceptance, contact with the present moment, and values were significant, while the effects of cognitive defusion were not significant, (2) the mechanisms of ACT are evident in internet-based interventions, suggesting the generalizability of these mechanisms, and (3) compared to the traditional CBT, the hypothesized mechanisms of ACT have their unique advantages. Implications for future studies: (1) measure all 6 core mechanisms as comprehensively as possible; (2) focus more on the increase of wellbeing as opposed to improvement of symptoms; (3) use RCT based multiple measurements combined with the experience sampling method; and (4) apply more advanced statistical methods in addition to the traditional mediation statistics.
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2018-11-14
Abstract： Contact intervention is an important way to reduce the public stigma of mental disorders. Various forms of contact have been widely used in intervention studies of this approach, and have proven to be effective in reducing stigma in terms of attitude, emotion, behavior intention and so on. The effect of contact intervention depends on how the intervention is carried out and individual differences of the intervention object. Regarding implementation, effective contact intervention involves three key ingredients: people with mental disorders, information and interaction, which may be affected by certain characteristics. During study, the presence of multi-form contact, continuous contact, contact quality and other ingredients can further magnify the effect of the intervention. As for the intervention object, the effect varies according to individual differences. In the future, the study design for contact intervention should be further improved, to enrich the study of the theoretical mechanism of contact intervention, and promote development of evidence-based practices of contact intervention. In addition, further study will focus on application of contact intervention in reducing public stigma of specific groups and specific types of mental disorders, as well as verification of the effect of contact intervention in the culture of China.
Subjects: Psychology >> Psychological Measurement submitted time 2018-04-18 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： In rural areas of China, more than 50 million elderly people are left-behind, and they have a strong sense of loneliness. The relationship between husband and wife plays an important role in alleviating the loneliness feeling of the elderly, therefore, it is crucial to understand the association between marital attachment and loneliness of left-behind elderly. Previous study showed that Chinese elderly’s marital attachment was composed in three dimensions: security, avoidance and anxiety. However, the three-dimensional structure of Chinese elderly’s marital attachment has not been tested in the rural elderly population. In addition, the association between Chinese elderly’s loneliness and their three-dimensional marital attachment is also not clear. Therefore, further studies are needed. The current study, firstly, tested the three-dimensional structure of the Chinese elderly’s marital attachment, and secondly, investigated the relationship between marital attachment and loneliness of left-behind elderly. The Older Adults’ Marital Attachment Scale, Scale of Perceived Social Support, Core Self-Evaluations Scale, and ULS-8 Loneliness Scale were administered to 510 left-behind elderly from rural areas in China. All cases were randomly assigned to two subsets: one set was for exploratory factor analysis, and the other was for confirmatory factor analysis. The SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 were used for this analysis, and the structural equation model and the bootstrapping analysis were employed to examine the hypothesized mediating model. The key findings were as follows: (1) the 14-item revised OAMAS showed a three-dimensional construct of attachment, namely security, avoidance, and anxiety; (2) the marital attachment of left-behind elderly could be clustered into three types, including secure marital attachment (37.84%), refusal marital attachment (31.18%), and anxious marital attachment (30.98%). The proportion of secure marital attachment in left-behind elderly was significantly lower than that in community elderly (Z = −5.63, p < 0.001), and the proportion of refusal marital attachment in left-behind elderly was significantly higher than that in community elderly (Z = 7.01, p < 0.001) ; (3) perceived social support fully mediated the association among security attachment, avoidance attachment and loneliness. Perceived social support and core self-evaluations had multiple mediation effects on the association among security attachment, avoidance attachment and loneliness. While the association between anxiety attachment and loneliness was partially mediated by core self-evaluations. The results indicated that three-dimensional structure of Older Adults’ Marital Attachment Scale was an effective measurement of marital attachment in left-behind elderly group. There was a close relationship between the marital attachment and loneliness of the left-behind elderly, safe marital attachment could effectively relieve the loneliness of left-behind elderly. The results may help to expand the study range of elderly’s marital attachment, and provide a reference for reducing the loneliness of the left-behind elderly. implications and limitations are discussed.
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