Identification of patients at risk for nonresponse and negative outcome in psychotherapy.

This study evaluated the use of pretherapy patient variables as correlates of 3 categorical types of outcome: negative response (negative change of more than 1 normative SEest on depression measure): nonresponse (change within?±?1 SEest on depression measure); and positive response (positive change of more than 1 SEest on depression measure) to psychotherapy among 62 patients with major depressive disorder. By using 4 scales from the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, age, and sex, 75.8% of the Ss were correctly classified into the 3 groups. Negative responders were characterized by high levels of interpersonal difficulty and low levels of subjective distress. Nonresponders displayed moderate levels of both interpersonal difficulties and subjective distress. Positive responders displayed high levels of both interpersonal difficulties and subjective distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

You're changed if you do and changed if you don't: Mechanisms underlying paradoxical interventions.

We examined 2 mechanisms of change under paradoxical interventions: reactance and increased sense of self-efficacy. Procrastinating college students were randomly assigned to either paradoxical or self-control interventions. Effective study time and perceived self-efficacy were measured before and after treatment. In Study 1 nonverbal measure of initial reactance was employed. In Study 2 reactance was experimentally manipulated. Under paradoxical interventions, Ss higher on initial reactance benefited more from therapy than did Ss with low reactance; nonreactant Ss did not increase their effective study time, but they did improve in perceived efficacy to control their procrastination; increased study time was negatively correlated with increased self-efficacy. In self-control treatment, increased study time was accompanied by increased self-efficacy. Paradoxical interventions seem to reduce procrastination through the mechanism of reactance in some clients, whereas in others they lead to a cognitive change, possibly mediating a subsequent behavior change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are schizophrenics' behaviors schizophrenic? What medically versus psychosocially oriented therapists attribute to schizophrenic persons.

Tested the hypothesis that the medical and psychosocial therapeutic models are differentially reflected in therapists' perception of and attributions to schizophrenics. 36 20–58 yr old hospital staff (medically oriented) and 23 23–52 yr old alternative-care staff (psychosocially oriented) participated in 2 structured interviews; orientations were ascertained by the Client Attitude Questionnaire. Ss were given 4 hypothetical case studies, 2 of schizophrenic individuals and 2 of normal individuals. Ss rated case study personalities and explained their normal behaviors, such as selling T-shirts or singing in the shower. Relative to the alternative-care staff, the hospital staff attributed less freedom of choice and less purposefulness to the behaviors of the schizophrenics. They were also more likely to explain schizophrenic target persons' behaviors in terms of an underlying illness, rather than as a response to situational factors. No differences between groups were found in the amount of similarity perceived between self and the schizophrenic cases or in the degree of global freedom of choice attributed to the schizophrenic cases. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)