The Opinions of Italian Psychology Students About People Diagnosed with Depression and Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study

This study explored the opinions about depression and schizophrenia among Italian psychology students, and whether students’ opinions changed during education. Of the 705 students who read a description of depression (N = 275) or schizophrenia (N = 430) and then completed a questionnaire on their opinions about the disorder, 490 made a correct diagnosis (depression = 243/275; schizophrenia: 247/430) and were included in the study. Compared to schizophrenia-group students, depression-group students: more frequently mentioned psychosocial factors and less frequently heredity among the causes; were more convinced about the usefulness of psychological therapies and less about pharmacotherapies; had more prognostic optimism; had lower perception of unpredictability and dangerousness. Compared to first-year students, fifth-year students (depression = 105; schizophrenia = 162): in both diagnostic groups more frequently cited heredity among the causes; in depression group, had lower perception of unpredictability; in schizophrenia group, had higher perception of dangerousness and more prognostic pessimism. More education about stigma should be provided to psychology students

An examination of the relationships between the psychobiological model of personality and cognitive theory in patients diagnosed with major depression and healthy individuals

PubMed ID: 28046195Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationships among temperament-character traits, dysfunctional attitudes, and automatic thoughts as well as to compare the patient group with a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and the healthy control group in terms of these variables. Method: 127 patients with a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder and 128 healthy subjects participated voluntarily in the study. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to the participants. Results: It was seen that the patient group had higher harm avoidance as well as lower self-directedness, cooperativeness, and persistence. Moreover, it was seen that the individuals in the patient group had increased frequency of dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts pertaining to depression, when comparing to the control group. In addition, according to the results of the multiple mediating variables analysis, dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts are fully mediated in the relationship between harm avoidance, self-directedness, and depression. Conclusion: This study shows that cognitive theory and the psychobiological personality model may be used together to explain depression. Accordingly, it can be said that harm avoidance and self-directedness are the risk factors for depression. Based upon the results of this research can be use for preventing depression. Moreover, the effectiveness of cognitive psychotherapy for people who have depression can be augmented by taking these temperament and character traits into consideration

Exploring dimensions of the beck depression inventory in a clinical sample

To examine the dimensions of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) in psychiatric patients, BDI responses of 354 patients with various psychiatric diagnoses were factor analyzed. Results indicate that the items on the BDI assess two primary dimensions of depression: cognitive and somatic-affective symptoms. Internal consistency reliabilities for the items comprising each of the factors were acceptable. Analyses showed that women scored significantly higher than men on both the factors and on total depression. In future research, it may be useful to develop scoring systems based on these two dimensions, both to differentiate between types of and levels of depression, and to consider implications for treatment response

ECO-TOURISM SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH PV TECHNOLOGY: A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Through the Economic Transformation program the Malaysian Government aims to consider tourism as one of the major contributors to the country’s economy and as an industry that imbibe on the principles of environmental responsibility and sustainable development. The growing challenges in the prevention of expansion in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, and over-exploitation of the natural resources, have made ecotourism extremely popular as a solution for developing tourism sites. Ecotourism attracts many people who wish not only to explore natural wonders but also to protect them for future generations. Most of the ecotourism sites are presumably situated far from the conventional energy resources and thus transporting electricity to those areas are discussed as inefficient and unsustainable. However, solar Photo-voltaic (PV) system is clean and alternative energy to suffice the energy demands of eco-tourist sites. This paper puts statements of the energy demand in global and its impact on the traditional fossil fuels and proposes PV as an alternative renewable technology pertaining to the eco-tourism application. The paper especially focuses on solar PV systems which not only could supply the energy demand of tourist sites but can also maintain the image of the ecotourism. A case of a model lodge is used for the study, through the energy demand analysis. A comprehensive review on the PV architecture is presented that derive interest in the implementation of such structure for the case presented

The role of dopamine 2 receptor gene and personality characteristics in alcohol dependence in Turkish population

In this paper, we study the Lehmer's type congruences for lacunary harmonicsums