Depressive symptoms are more common among sedentary individuals with longitudinal studies supporting inactivity as a potential risk factor for mood disturbances. Observational and experimental designs find that lack of exercise or exercise deprivation is associated with increased depressive and anxiety symptoms, fatigue, and pain. However, literature has not examined risk factors influencing mood deterioration in response to exercise deprivation. The current study tested the hypothesis that physically active individuals with high levels of cognitive vulnerability (i.e., a tendency towards negative thought content and processes when under stress) are at high risk for mood disturbance when undergoing exercise cessation. Community adults who met guidelines for recommended physical activity (N=36) were examined in a 4-week prospective, longitudinal study. Mood was assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and the Brief Profile of Mood States at baseline, after two weeks of maintained exercise, and after one and two weeks of exercise cessation. Cognitive vulnerability variables (i.e., dysfunctional attitudes, brooding rumination, cognitive reactivity) were assessed following the maintained exercise phase. Similar to prior studies, results indicated a main effect of time, such that depressive and anxiety symptoms increased over the exercise cessation protocol. Results additionally lend support for a vulnerability-stress model, with brooding rumination identified as a risk factor for the development of symptoms during exercise deprivation. This study suggests that individuals who engage in brooding rumination to cope with negative affect are at elevated risk for mood symptoms when ceasing their exercise routine.

The aim of this study is to investigate the vulnerability stress model in prediction of the psychological problems and life satisfaction of newcomer Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. Vulnerability factors were considered to be personal characteristics of immigrants which they had both prior and after to their arrival. Stress factors, on the other hand, were selected based on the immigrants&rsquo / experiences after their arrival. Depending upon this distinction, attachment, independent and interdependent self construals, ethnic identity and ethnic self-esteem, religiousness, religious support, and social support were all organised as vulnerability factors. Migration related factors, namely time spent in the Netherlands, level of spoken Dutch, level of socialisation with Dutch natives, level of media use, satisfaction with life in the Netherlands, perceived discrimination, and acculturation orientations were organised as stress factors. Psychological problems of the immigrants were measured by their scores of depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic complaints. The participants of the study were 109 newcomer Turkish immigrants who arrived in the Netherlands after 1998. In the regression analysis that attempted to predict the psychological problems of immigrants, the results revealed several significant effects including gender, host culture acculturation orientation, perceived discrimination, and independent self construals. Furthermore, the interaction of independent self construal and host culture acculturation orientation as well as the interaction of religion and host culture orientation showed significant effects on psychological problems. In the regression analysis to predict life satisfaction, only independent self construal revealed a significant relationship with life satisfaction.

This study set out to explore the subjective experience of crises and life changes in the family which precede the onset of schizophrenia. The motivation for it arose from the vulnerability-stress model of schizophrenia which proposes that environmental factors such as stressful life events may help to trigger the onset or exacerbation of symptoms in people who have a genetic vulnerability for the condition. Related research suggests that crises and life changes in the family can contribute to the stress experienced by those who go on to become psychologically disturbed. This has led to an increased interest in accessing the subjective experience of schizophrenia as shared by individuals and their families through the use of narratives to provide alternative perspectives on the condition. Indeed, a growing body of evidence from research conducted with people diagnosed with schizophrenia suggests that the content of their actions and statements can be construed as meaningful and logical in the context of their family and life situations. Four individuals who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and their families participated in this study. In each case study, two interviews were conducted, one with the individual participant and a second interview with the individual and those members of their family that were willing to attend. The interviews were guided by a semistructured interview schedule and data from the interviews was analysed using content analyses and the most prominent themes were discussed in relation to the literature. The themes in the data describe the participants’ subjective experience of the many crises and life events and change in psychological functioning that precedes the onset of florid psychotic symptoms. These findings suggest that the schizophrenic symptoms of the participants in this study helped to absorb the impact of family stressors and played a fundamental role in keeping the family systems intact. The associated behaviour appeared to sustain the roles in the family as well as long-standing patterns of interaction between the family members. The numerous interacting influences and sheer variation in the experience of just four families indicates that much still needs to be understood about the experience of schizophrenia. It is recommended that future research investigate how the subjective understanding of schizophrenia affects the lives of those affected. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Psychology / unrestricted

8 HANZLOVSKÝ, Michal. Vplyv užívania psychoaktívnych látok na pracovné správanie : psychická vulnerabilita k alkoholovej závislosti u manažérov. Diplomová práca. Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze. Filozofická fakulta. Katedra psychologie, 2011. 104 s. Vedúci diplomovej práce Doc. PhDr. Milan Rymeš, CSc. Abstract The presented thesis focuses on the topic of psychoactive substance addictions in terms of work and organisational psychology. Specifically, we introduce these issues of dependence with people in managerial positions, and their impact on work-related functions and leadership. Besides the principal clinical contexts of addictions as biopsychosocial issues, the theoretical part of the thesis deals with the problems of stress and mental vulnerability of managers to alcohol dependency with an emphasis to problems of alcohol at the workplace. The practical part of the paper presents a screening of alcohol abuse on the sample of Czech managers. Key words: alcohol, alcohol abuse, psychoactive substance, addiction, manager, stress, mental vulnerability

This research program represents the first systematic exploration of the subjective experience of alogia, anhedonia, attention problems, avolition, and emotional blunting, and its relation to other objective and subjective factors in schizophrenia. Using a combined rational-empirical approach, a vulnerability-stress-coping model of adjustment to the 5 negative symptoms was developed and tested. Three aspects of appraisal were examined, the primary appraisals of symptom severity and distress, and the secondary appraisal of control. The dimensions of coping with individual symptoms were initially examined using a rational approach, and then empirically using exploratory factor analyses. The Appraisal and Coping with Negative Symptoms Interview Schedule (ACNSIS) was developed for use in Study 1. Both qualitative and quantitative appraisal and coping data were examined for 20 people with negative symptoms. Responses to the ACNSIS demonstrated that appraisals and coping responses varied across participants and individual negative symptoms. Previously employed categorisations of coping behaviour were used to examine and quantify coping. Negative symptom-specific differences were found in awareness of negative symptom presence, degree of agreement with objective ratings, appraisals, reliance on different types of coping, and relations with participant characteristics. Participant coping responses from Study 1 were used to construct the self-report measure used in subsequent studies. Study 2 involved the development, administration, and evaluation of the self-report Appraisal and Coping with Negative Symptoms Questionnaire (ACNSQ). Both an electronic and paper version of the ACNSQ were developed. The ACNSQ was administered to 120 people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Participants were required to make severity, distress and control appraisals for each negative symptom they believed they were suffering from. Following symptom appraisals, a number of symptom-specific and general coping items were presented for each negative symptom. In Study 2A, the multidimensionality of coping responses and the nature of empirically derived subscales were explored individually for each negative symptom. Factor analyses of data from 119 participants resulted in 3 underlying coping dimensions for each symptom. These dimensions, which formed the basis of the ACNSQ coping subscales, were labelled as active, emotional, or avoidant forms of coping. Coping subscales were found to be moderately similar across symptoms. The subscales were shown to be internally consistent and largely independent within symptoms. It was found that the degree of reliance on particular coping subscales was negative symptom-specific, although participant coping was related across symptoms. In Study 2B, the nature of negative symptom appraisals and the psychometric properties of the ACNSQ were examined. There was evidence that the nature of appraisals varied according to negative symptom. Retest reliability analyses indicated that overall, ACNSQ appraisals had a low to moderate degree of reliability while coping subscales demonstrated a moderate to high degree of reliability. Differential associations between appraisal and coping and a range of theoretically related variables provided evidence of the construct validity of the ACNSQ. Study 3 used exploratory techniques to conduct cross-sectional tests of a vulnerability-stress-coping model of adjustment to individual negative symptoms based on the data of the 119 participants. Associations between the objective indicator of negative symptom stressor level, and the subjective experience variables of insight, appraisal and coping were examined in relation to adjustment using a multidimensional approach. Two models of the relations between negative symptom predictors and 3 separate domains of adjustment were investigated. Study 3A provided moderate support for a direct effects model for each of the 5 negative symptoms. Objective negative symptom level, insight, primary appraisals and coping subscales all had significant direct effects on one or more domains of adjustment. In general, higher objective negative symptom levels, higher severity and distress appraisals, and greater reliance on avoidant forms of coping were associated with poorer adjustment. The direct effects of active and emotional forms of coping were less consistent and varied across symptoms and adjustment domains. Study 3B extended these findings by providing a limited amount of support for a mediated effects model. Appraisal and coping were found to act as mediators in some of the relations between objective indicators and subjective experience variables for alogia, attention problems and avolition. There was evidence that the impact of insight on coping was partly mediated by control appraisals. Coping partly mediated the relation between stress and adjustment, and appraisal and adjustment. Overall, this series of exploratory studies make a unique contribution to understanding the subjective experience of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The proposed vulnerability-stress-coping model demonstrated utility in identifying variables important in the prediction of adjustment to individual negative symptoms, and in delineating the nature of associations between variables. Further research is required to improve the psychometric properties of the ACNSQ. However, it offers promise as an instrument with which to assess negative symptom appraisals and coping responses, in both clinical and research settings. The present findings have important theoretical and clinical implications concerning the role of subjective and objective factors involved in adjustment to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This research program provides a valuable foundation for future research to test the vulnerability-stress-coping model in its entirety.