<p> Chronic pain is a prevalent disorder that is difficult to treat and has the potential to be stigmatizing for individuals with chronic pain. An exploratory literature review was conducted to examine chronic pain stigma. The review specifically investigated studies that addressed individuals&rsquo; experiences of chronic pain stigma, identified sources of chronic pain stigma, and chronic pain stigma&rsquo;s impact on treatment adherence. The following key terms were used to search 15 computerized databases (i.e. chronic pain AND stigma OR stigmatization OR disbelief OR stereotype OR invisible OR misconception). Studies were reviewed if they were relevant to chronic pain stigma, were conducted in the United States, the majority of participants were adults with a chronic pain condition, chronic pain condition was non-malignant, chronic pain was defined as persistent or intermittent for at least 3 months, and stigma was defined as being labeled, stereotyped, devalued, or discredited. The final review included 18 qualitative and quantitative studies from 1989-2015 that examined chronic pain and stigma. The findings of the study included twelve key themes that shed light on the experiences of stigma, sources of stigma, and impact on treatment adherence. Experiences of stigma included: estrangement, self-stigmatization, invisibility, medication stigma, and disbelief. The participants in the studies identified three sources of stigma: doctors, public, and family. Four themes emerged from the few studies that addressed treatment adherence: difficulty communicating about pain, management strategies, to seek care or not seek care, and to not take medications due to fears of addiction and stigma. The findings are further discussed in relation to the United State&rsquo;s societal values, beliefs, and culture. A cultural shift is suggested in how we view chronic pain and illness. Additionally, recommendations are made for the role of psychologists addressing chronic pain stigma from a multi-systems level approach. Keywords: Chronic pain, stigma, disbelief, diagnostic uncertainty, illegitimacy</p>

<p> The current study examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and false memory formation for negative information, while looking at emotion regulation as a potential mediator and working memory as a potential moderator using a sample of undergraduate students from a medium Midwestern University. Participants were 95 students currently attending college. All participants completed measures of emotion regulation abilities, depressive symptoms, working memory, and a false memory task. Results indicated that depressive symptoms and emotion dysregulation were correlated with one another. The meditational analysis indicated that emotion regulation abilities did not mediate the relationship between depressive symptoms and false memory formation. Subsequent moderation analyses indicated that working memory abilities moderated the relationship between emotion dysregulation and false memory recognition, but that working memory did not moderate at any other point in the model. Implications and limitations of the present study were discussed herein.</p>

<p> The implementation of telecommunication technologies has allowed traditionally underserved populations to receive healthcare, including those who lack access to mental health treatment. While previous literature has found <i>videoconference therapy</i> (VCP) as a viable alternative to traditional <i>face-to-face therapy</i> for specific disorders, common therapeutic factors, such as, <i>expectations</i> for therapy, has been largely overlooked. Vignettes depicting either VCP or traditional therapy and a scale for expectations of the therapy provider were given to 192 mechanicalTurk participants. Significant, yet clinically insignificant results indicated lower expectations for VCP psychotherapists in their ability to establish a working relationship and respond to an emergency. While a significant difference was identified, participants rated both modalities similar and relatively high. Analysis of a qualitative statement further indicates VCP providers may have an inability to establish a human connection. Future research should identify working relationship expectancy interventions for VCP therapy.</p>

<p> Posttraumatic growth (PTG) describes the experience of positive changes following one&rsquo;s struggle with trauma. Calhoun and Tedeschi (1999) recommended counseling strategies for how therapists may facilitate the process of PTG within psychotherapy with clients. Because the efficacy of these strategies had not yet been assessed empirically, this study sought to qualitatively explore their use by trainee therapists, an unstudied population in the PTG literature. A total of 9 videotaped psychotherapy sessions conducted with 5 clients at 2 community counseling centers were selected for analysis. Directed content analysis using a coding system developed for this study was employed to analyze therapist responses to clients&rsquo; discussions of trauma. Results indicated that the therapists in this study most commonly used responses consistent with Calhoun and Tedeschi&rsquo;s (1999) Recommendation #1 <i>Focus on Listening Without Trying to Solve</i>. Specifically, the most frequently used responses were <i>minimal encouraging</i> (<i>M</i> = 86.9, <i>SD</i> = 69.7), followed by <i>closed-ended questions about factual</i> information (M = 20.8, SD = 16.1) and <i>reflecting factual</i> information (<i>M</i> = 20.6, <i>SD</i> = 15.7) in both early and later sessions. Overall, therapists responded to <i> descriptions</i> of the clients&rsquo; traumatic events and <i> evaluative</i> content such as thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes about the traumatic event, more so than <i>affective</i> content such as one&rsquo;s feelings and emotions. Across participants, Recommendations #2, #3 and #4 were rarely used to promote growthful experiences among individuals suffering from trauma and adversity, and missed opportunities for growth were also identified by the researcher. As a result, this study offers additional recommendations to include in Calhoun and Tedeschi&rsquo;s (1999) counseling strategies for facilitating PTG, and speaks to the need for graduate clinical psychology programs to train students in facilitating client strengths and PTG following trauma.</p>

<p> Research centering on rape and sexual assault has revealed much regarding the various aspects that influence how people perceive sexual assault. There is an underrepresentation of the influence of language on how these perceptions are formed, yet preliminary research has suggested that in regards to sexual assault, language can alter how people view the perpetrator, the victim, and the assault in general (Bohner, 2001; Grubb &amp; Harrower, 2009; McDonald &amp; Kline, 2004; Sleath and Bull, 2009; Wilkinson, 2008). The previous literature on sexual assault and language focuses on the effect of language on attribution of blame between the victim and the perpetrator. Until the present study, there is no study that has looked at how language affects the clinical setting (the therapeutic relationship) between the survivor and a mental health professional. The study was conducted at medium-sized Midwestern University and recruited participants from an online research participation system for undergraduate students. The sample consisted of 124 participants that were mostly young adults, with 86.3% of participants aging between 18 to 19 years old. Participants were predominantly female (n=105) and Caucasian (n=107). After completing the brief demographics survey, participants completed a Sexual Assault Term Preferences Survey (SATPS) to assess their preferences on word choice when discussing sexual assault with a mental health professional. Terms associated with sexual assault were sorted into three main categories: terms describing the individual who was sexually assaulted, the act itself, and the individual who committed the sexual assault. Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted on the term preferences for each category. For each of the three major categories, there were statistically significant preferences and dislikes found. For example when describing the act itself, participants reported higher preferences for terms such as "sexual assault" and "crime" than terms such as "coerced sex" or "interaction." Results demonstrate the language component to treating individuals who have experienced sexual assault and that the language choices mental health professionals use to discuss a sexual assault could influence their therapeutic relationship with clients.</p>

This research represented an extension of previous work on the therapeutic application of the external inhibition phenomenon, and sought to examine the effects of such a procedure on the verbal- cognitive, motoric, and physiological components of the anxiety response. To accomplish this, subjects were selected and treatment effects evaluated on the basis of changes elicited in each of the three response modalities by a specific fear stimulus, The relative effectiveness of the external inhibition treatment in modifying the multiple components of the anxiety response was examined by a comparison with procedures controlling for expectancy effects and repeated exposure to the phobic stimulus. A series of hypotheses were derived which predicted that the external inhibition treatment would produce significant reductions in the self-report, behavioral, and physiological channels being assessed. It was also predicted that these reductions in anxiety for subjects receiving the external inhibition treatment would be significantly greater than those evidenced by subjects receiving procedures designed to control for expectancy effects and repeated stimulus exposures. Subjects were 24 female undergraduate students enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University who were selected from a pool of 316 females who answered the Spider Questionnaire (Klorman, Weerts, Hastings, Melamed, & Lang, 1974). Three separate selection criteria were utilized to help insure that only those subjects who were highly fearful of spiders were selected for participation in the study: (1) a total score on the SPQ that was within the upper 25% of the distribution of scores on the SPQ, (2) a distance score of at least 24 inches on a passive behavioral avoidance test (BAT), and (3) an increase in heart rate of at least 10% during the initial exposure to the spider. Eight subjects meeting these criteria were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: An External Inhibition group, a Graduated Exposure Group, or a Test-Retest Control group. Following an initial pretreatment assessment, subjects in the External Inhibition group were exposed to the spider in a BAT format, and were presented with an external stimulus (white noise administered in 2-second pulses for 30-seconds at 95dbA) each time they began to feel anxious and stopped the advance of the spider. Graduated Exposure subjects received the same procedure without the external stimulus and were instead instructed to ”relax” themselves whenever they began to feel anxious. Subjects in the Test-Retest group received no intervening procedure and simply sat quietly without the spider present for a comparable period of time. Dependent measures consisted of pre- and posttreatment BAT scores, subjective distress ratings (SUDS) elicited by the spider, heart rate responding, skin conductance activity, and SPQ scores. The results failed to provide any evidence of the relative efficacy of external inhibition in modifying phobic behavior. In all cases, the external inhibition treatment was found to be either ineffective or no more effective than the two control procedures in modifying the multiple components of the anxiety response. These findings are discussed in terms of various situational, procedural, and subject factors that may have contributed to the rapid habituation of anxiety among all three experimental groups, and thereby precluded the valid evaluation of potential treatment effects. The implications of these results for the external inhibition phenomenon and for analogue fear research are discussed.

This research investigated the effects of cognitive set on the physiological, subjective, and motoric responses of fearful and non-fearful subjects exposed to specific fear stimuli. High, moderate, and low mutilation fear subjects were given instructions designed to persuade them that they were or were not afraid of mutilation stimuli. The extent to which instructions differentially affected subjects in the three fear groups and produced differential effects on responses in the three modalities was examined. The degree to which the physiological, self-report, and behavioral channels responded concordantly was also investigated. A series of hypotheses were derived which generally indicated that high-fear instructions would produce significantly greater physiological, self-report, and behavioral indices of anxiety than low-fear instructions. It was also predicted that these effects would be great- est for subjects in the moderate-fear group, and that the subjective and motoric response systems would exhibit greater differential change due to instructions than the physiological channel. In addition, high mutilation fear subjects were predicted to show greater concordance between response systems than the moderate- or low-fear groups. Subjects were 48 female undergraduate students enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University who were selected from a pool of 168 females who answered the Mutilation Questionnaire (Klorman, Weerts, Hastings, Melamed, & Lang, 1974). Sixteen subjects were assigned to each of the three fear groups on the basis of their total MQ scores, with 8 subjects in each of the six combined fear-instructional conditions. Following the administration of either high- or low-fear instructions, each subject was exposed to 5 neutral and 5 fearful slides. Each slide was presented for a 10-second duration with a 120—second interval between slides. Dependent measures consisted of skin conductance responses (SCR), heart rate responses (HRR), and subjective distress ratings (SUDS) for each slide, total scores on a posttest administration of the MQ, and a behavioral avoidance Test (BAT) in seconds of latency to respond. Results indicated that instruction had the predicted effects on the SCR‘s produced by all three fear groups to neutral stimuli, and on the level of heart rate exhibited by high mutilation fear subjects to both fearful and neutral slides. With the exception of the SUDS ratings of the moderate-fear group, the predicted instructional effects were obtained on both self-report measures for all three groups. The BAT measure failed to produce any significant instructional effects. The results did not support the hypotheses predicting greater instructional effects for moderately fearful subjects and no significant differences were obtained in the degree of concordance between dependent measures for the three fear groups. Results are discussed with regard to the effects of cognitive set on the various components of the anxiety response and the relationship between arousal level and effectiveness of the instructional manipulation. Issues of clinical relevance, such as the treatment of phobias, were also discussed with regard to the results of the present study. Methodological problems in the present study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

The use of sociometric assessment as a method for investigating the social competence of children and the prediction of future adjustment difficulties was reviewed. Recent methods used to form up to five sociometric groups (Popular, Average, Rejected, Neglected, and Controversial) were surveyed. Various combinations of raw scores, standard deviation units, standardized scores, and binomial probability scores have been used in classification procedures. lnclusion/exclusion criteria, or cutoff scores, have been based on arbitrary statistical decisions regarding the ”extremeness" of children’s statements (positive and negative nominations) regarding their peers. These aspects of sociometric categorization result in limitations on the validity and generalizability of research in the area. The current study attempted to develop an empirically based categorization system to remedy limitations to sociometric research. Four components made up the study. The relationship between a set of teacher-reported behavioral descriptors and continuous sociometric data was determined. Second, contingent-frequency tables for the behavioral descriptors most strongly associated with the sociometric data were developed. Third, cutting scores to maximize the behavioral homogeneity of sociometric groups were determined from this information. Finally, the efficiency of binomial scores in classifying children sociometrically was compared to that achieved by arbitrary classification schemes. An empirically based method for sociometric categorization was developed which differed significantly from previously devised methods. Discriminant function analyses for the new method and two arbitrary methods were performed to assess the prediction of Average, Popular, and Rejected groups from parent ratings. No significant difference was found between the three methods’ ability to correctly classify cases into one of the three groups with parent ratings as predictor variables. However, two important groups (Neglected and Controversial children) were deleted from the comparison because of inadequate size. This placed an unintended limit on the validational comparison. Advantages of an empirical approach to sociometric classification and implications of the study are discussed in terms of the cognitive psychological concept of prototypes. Limitations of the current study together with possible directions for future research are presented.

<p> For many people, providing care for a seriously ill family member is a major life event that may disrupt their life and personal goals. Research has demonstrated the experience of such events is often associated with increased symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety. Although many researchers have examined factors that influence this relation, few have explored it from a motivational perspective. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to examine the influence of self-regulatory processes and motivational orientation on the relations between burden (caregiver and objective burden) and psychological distress (defined as the experience of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress). Caregivers of adult family members diagnosed with cancer in the past three years were asked to complete a battery of questionnaires on psychological distress, caregiver burden, objective burden, goal adjustment and regulatory focus orientation. It was predicted that caregiver burden would partially mediate the relation between objective burden and caregiver psychological distress. Furthermore, based on the notion of regulatory fit, the strength of the relation between objective burden and caregiver burden would be greater for caregivers who tend to exhibit a weaker prevention focus than a stronger prevention focus. Lastly, it was hypothesized that the strength of the relation between caregiver burden and psychological distress would be greater for caregivers who report a greater inability to disengage from goals than caregivers who report a greater ability to disengage from goals. Results suggested that objective burden is associated with psychological distress through caregiver burden. Inconsistent with our hypotheses, promotion focus, instead of prevention focus, moderated the relation between objective burden and caregiver burden. Lastly, findings suggest that an ability to disengage from goals alleviates symptoms of anxiety and stress, and an ability to disengage from goals alleviates symptoms of anxiety and stress, and an ability to reengage in goals alleviates symptoms of depressed mood.</p>

<p> The current study was conducted to assess if college students believed <i> Scared Straight</i> was an effective treatment for teens who commit crimes. This study also aimed to examine if a teaching component during the experimental group would change the students beliefs. There were 41 participants in this study all of which were recruited from an introductory psychology class. Participants were asked to complete the Treatment Evaluation Inventory- Short Form at pretest and posttest to assess the participants&rsquo; level of rated effectiveness. There was a significant relationship found between and within groups during pretest and posttest. Findings suggest that after viewing an episode of <i> Beyond Scared Straight</i> participants in both groups rated <i> Scared Straight</i> to be effective. After the Experimental group was presented with findings about the ineffectiveness of <i>Scared Straight </i> programs their effectiveness scores significantly decreased. </p>