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Revenge is one of the possible responses to a transgression, a way to take control over the offender and making them suffer. Nevertheless, research has shown that avengers delude themselves into thinking that they will feel better when they have acted. Actually, taking vengeance protracts the negative emotional states, contributing to negative feelings and ruminations. So far, no study has investigated the mediational role of Negative Affect in the association between revenge and depression, and revenge and anxiety. 274 adult participants were tested with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the State-Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI-Y), the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and the Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory-18 (TRIM-18). Mediational regression analyses showed that participants who were more vengeful were also more likely to be anxious and depressed. Therefore, interventions aimed at reducing vengeful feelings and ruminations, could be an effective resource for well-being in clinical settings., Author(s): Barbara Barcaccia [sup.1] [sup.2] , Marco Salvati [sup.3] , Susanna Pallini [sup.1] , Angelo Maria Saliani [sup.2] , Roberto Baiocco [sup.3] , Giovanni Maria Vecchio [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) [...]

Objective: Fear of moral guilt and conseque:nt increased attention to personal actions and intentions are the main ingredients of the self-criticism in patients suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This pathogenic attitude takes shape in a typical guilt-inducing self-talk. The purpose of this work is to describe in detail a novel cognitive therapeutic procedure for OCD called "Dramatized Socratic Dialogue" (DSD). Method: DSD is a theory-oriented intervention that combine elements of Socratic dialogue, chairwork, and cognitive acceptance strategies derived from Mancini's model, which posits that obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms stem from a fear of deontological guilt. Results: DSD appears to have many strengths, being a theory-oriented treatment and focusing, as a therapeutic target, on the cognitive structures that determine pathogenic processes and OC symptoms. Furthermore, it is a short, flexible and tailormade intervention. Conclusions: Detailed description of the intervention could foster future research perspectives and thus be used in evidence-based effectiveness studies to establish whether DSD reduces OC symptoms and to investigate its mechanism of action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, Pathological Affective Dependence (PAD)—as a risk factor for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)—has undergone considerable attention among clinical and social psychologists. However, the psychological nature of PAD has been described in discordant terms throughout the literature. We try to give a clear definition of the construct (1), theorize a first cognitive model of PAD (2), and describe the prototypical characteristics of a pathological affective dependent (in terms of goals, anti-goals, and dysfunctional self-other beliefs) based on goal-oriented theories (3). We finally present (4) the resulting specific TADs (typical affective dependent) profiles (Saver, Unworthy, Traumatic, and Mixed). We believe that our manuscript on the PAD makes a significant contribution to achieve the fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal aimed at eliminating "all forms of violence against all women": in fact, understanding the psychological risk factors of IPV as PAD is an essential protective factor for designing effective prevention social strategies against IPV. Moreover, this work contributes to achieving one of the "outcome targets" of the sixteenth UN Sustainable Development Goal. It is dedicated to the promotion of "peaceful and inclusive societies", through the reduction of all forms of violence and the protection of children from abuse. Indeed, IPV strongly affects (physical and mental) health and social sustainability of well-being. However, empirical studies on this topic are limited and there is a lack of a theoretical model of PAD. This work represents a theoretical starting point for a broader project aimed at building a cognitive-behavioral protocol and social interventions for the reduction of negative consequences on IPV victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The therapeutic alliance has been recognized as one of the most researched key elements of treatment across different therapeutic approaches and diagnostic domains. Despite its importance, our current understanding of its clinical relevance in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is still debated. This study aimed to examine empirical evidence on the effect of alliance on treatment outcomes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in patients with OCD in a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Original peer-reviewed articles until March 2022 were included if they were (1) written in English; (2) included a clinical group with a current primary OCD diagnosis; (3) involved individual CBT; (4) used a validated therapeutic alliance scale that was related to the outcome measurement; (5) reported an effect size. Results: Thirteen studies were included, six of which contained sufficient statistical information to be included in the meta-analysis. A total of 897 patients took part in all reviewed studies. We found a modest effect of alliance on post-treatment outcome [Tau2 D 0.1562 (C.I. 95%: 0.2542 to 0.0582)]. Discussion: The results show the existence of considerable variability and methodological inconsistencies across studies. We discuss the role of methodological factors that could account for this divergence, the research limitations, and the implications for current research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guilt plays a role in various forms of psychopathology. However, different types of guilt might be involved in different mental disorders. Obsessive-compulsive (OC) patients are prone to a type of guilt in which the violation of an internalized moral norm is necessary and sufficient, whereas data suggest that depression might be linked to more interpersonal types of guilt. However, the extent to which a specific guilt phenomenology is involved in each condition is yet to be determined. Here we assessed the association between different types of guilt and different diagnostic groups. Two clinical samples (33 OCD and 35 non-OCD) filled in the Moral Orientation Guilt Scale (MOGS) along with other OCD and depression measures. Regression was employed to test group differences in the MOGS subscales and to test the influence of MOGS subscales on OCD and depression levels. Results confirm that different types of guilt might be implicated in different psychopathological conditions. Specifically, moral norm violation guilt is more present in OC patients than in other disorders. Depression seems to be associated with different guilt feelings depending on the psychopathological condition, specifically in non-OC patients, with types of guilt involving a "victim", supporting the accounts viewing interpersonal guilt as involved in the emergence of depressive symptomatology and hyper-altruistic behavior as a vulnerability factor for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive–behavioral therapy is a well-established treatment for obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). There are a variety of cognitive and behavioral strategies, and it is necessary to analyze the outcomes of the treatments. The aim of the present study is to verify the effectiveness of a treatment that combines evidence-based procedures and specific cognitive interventions highlighting the issue of acceptance. Forty patients with OCD were recruited and underwent a specific treatment procedure. All patients had a psychodiagnostic assessment for OCD using the Y–BOCS (Yale–Brown obsessive–compulsive scale) performed twice: before treatment (t0) and after nine months (t1). Data analysis showed a decrease in the scores between t0 and t1 according to the Y–BOCS in terms of the interference, severity, and impairment of obsessive–compulsive symptoms. A repeated-measures ANOVA showed a significant reduction in symptoms after treatment, with values of F (1, 39) = 137.56, p < 0.001, and η2 = 0.78. The ANOVA results were corroborated by a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. A reliable change index analysis indicated that 33 participants reported improvements in symptoms, of which 23 were clinically significant. The results showed clinical relevance for OCD treatment and highlighted how this cognitive procedure favored positive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The close link between obsessive symptomatology, guilt and inflated responsibility is well documented, although one might suppose that guilt sensitiveness and dysfunctional beliefs about responsibility are rooted further in time. Imagery with rescripting (IWR) is an emotion-focused technique that binds actual stressful emotions to past memories where similar feelings were activated. It is used to change the meaning of emotionally distressing memories, turning aversive mental images into positive ones, and achieving a healthier prospective on the event. the aim of this study was to compare the content of IWR exercises, collected during an on-going cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, in OCD and non-OCD patients, in order to explore eventual differences in their early negative childhood memories. We expected guilt and blame-related childhood episodes to be more frequent in OCD, compared against non-OCD patients. Method: forty-one imagery exercises were collected and categorized according to their content, emotions, needs, type of re-scripting, and final cognitive re-attribution. Results: OCD patients reported significantly more blame/reproach memories, expressing more guilt emotion and needs for acceptance. Within the re-scripting phase, all patients, regardless of their diagnosis, concluded the exercise protecting, reassuring and fostering emotional and needs expression, with no specific difference between groups. Conclusions: this work has several limitations, including the subjective nature of the study, the small sample size and unbalanced gender distribution across samples. However, our findings are in line with cognitive models on OCD, supporting the role of guilt-related early experiences that seem to be specific to this disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examined the gender differences in self-reported forgiving behaviours in a sample of Italian preadolescents (aged 11 to 14 years), who were either involved or not involved in religious practises. Were asked 289 Catholic, Italian preadolescent students were asked about their involvement in the religious practises. They also completed measures of forgiveness, avoidance and revenge motivations. The results showed that forgiveness was negatively correlated to avoidance and revenge, as expected, given that these constructs represent two different forms of non-forgiveness. Avoidance and revenge motivations were positively inter-correlated, highlighting how these forms of non-forgiveness are two distinct, but related pathways, leading away from forgiveness. Regarding age, younger participants reported higher degrees of forgiveness than their older counterparts. Lastly, regarding the association between involvement in one’s faith and gender as predictors of forgiving behaviours, only girls actively practising their faith emerged as significantly more forgiving than the other participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Much research and theorizing suggest that compulsive acquisition is a central component of hoarding disease. The Compulsive Acquisition Scale (CAS; Frost et al. 2002) is a self-rating scale measuring the extent to which individuals acquire and feel compelled to acquire possessions. The present study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the CAS, in terms of reliability and construct validity. Method: The scale was administered to a sample of 491 non-clinical adults along with a battery of selected selfreport measures. Participants were randomly divided into two subsamples. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Support for construct validity was provided by correlations between CAS and the other administered measures. Results: Unlike the originally suggested 2-factor structure, both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed an underlying 3-factor structure (Emotions, Time and Money, and Free Stuff). Our outcomes showed good subscales homogeneity; support for concurrent validity was provided by significantly positively correlations between CAS scores and the other measures of hoarding severity; convergent validity was gathered examining correlations between CAS and measures of depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Conclusions: Overall, empirical results indicated promising psychometric properties of the CAS Italian version in a nonclinical sample. Limitations of the study and the need for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complex dissociative disorders (CDD) include dissociative identity disorder (DID) and the most common other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD, type 1). While consensus-based treatments for CDD are lacking in several international guidelines, patients suffering from CDD show high levels of impairment, treatment utilization and costs. Migrants and refugees often present risk factors for trauma-related and dissociative disorders and need effective and culturally adapted treatments. Schema Therapy (ST) is an integrative psychotherapy that has been recently proposed as a treatment for CDD. This case study examined the process of individual ST, in a three phases-based approach, with a 38-year-old male Yemeni refugee with OSDD, type 1, posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder. The treatment was provided in a Western country and the setting included two Western therapists (co-therapy) and an Arabic interpreter/cultural mediator. We assessed the patient's change by using self-report assessments of dissociative and PTSD symptoms, cognitive schemas over 2-year and 4-months treatment periods and a 6-months follow-up. Posttreatment and follow-up reliable change analyses showed significant improvements in dissociative and PTSD symptoms as well as in some cognitive schemas. Despite any firm conclusion cannot be drawn due to the limitations of this study (i.e., single case study), the findings suggest that ST integrated in a phase-oriented approach may be an effective treatment for CDD. Additionally, our study provides some preliminary elements about cross-cultural validity of the schema modes construct as well as cross-cultural effectiveness of ST. More research based on larger samples and specific cross-cultural focused design is needed to confirm these assumptions.