General and specific avoidance: the development and concurrent validation of a new measure of avoidance coping

Research on coping has been hampered by psychometric shortcomings in coping scales, which have typically relied on items based on face-value, extracted too many factors or lacked the evidence for the obtained structure from confirmatory factor analysis. The present paper describes the development and concurrent validation of a new three-factor avoidance coping scale, the General and Specific Avoidance Questionnaire (GSAQ), which comprises General Avoidance, Emotional Avoidance and Conflict Avoidance. In contrast to earlier scales the items were derived from a scenario technique which elicits items from participants’ experience, and the three factor structure was endorsed by two confirmatory factor analyses on independent samples and a further exploratory factor analysis based on the total pooled sample of participants from all three analyses. Factor correlations indicate that the scales measure discrete facets of the avoidance coping domain, and while concurrent validation showed that General and Conflict Avoidance were related in predictable ways to criterion measures, the pattern for Emotional Avoidance was unexpected

General and Specific Avoidance Coping:The Development and Validation of a New Scale.

The impact of a sustained stress response on psychological and physical health is well established. However, the moderating role in this relationship of coping, and especially maladaptive avoidance coping, has been hampered by psychometric shortcomings in existing coping scales. Some of these shortcomings include generating items based on theory or face-validity alone, the extraction of too many factors, and the absence of confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) evidence for the obtained structure. This thesis describes the development of a new avoidance coping scale, the General and Specific Avoidance Questionnaire (GSAQ), to address these issues in multidimensional avoidance coping scales in particular. In contrast to previous scales, the GSAQ items were derived from a scenario technique which elicits responses from participants' experience. Exploratory factor analysis extracted a three-factor solution comprising General, Emotional, and Conflict Avoidance. The scales showed satisfactory reliability, and the structure was confirmed by CFA in independent English and Spanish samples. Concurrent validation and an exploration of differences between high and low avoiders showed that General Avoidance and Conflict Avoidance related to criterion measures in predictable ways, but Emotional Avoidance showed an unexpected pattern. An analysis of the role of avoidance coping in deliberate self-harm showed no statistically significant effects in a non-clinical university student sample, but the overall trend suggested that self-harmers do, on average, score higher on avoidance coping than non-self-harmers. A subsequent laboratory study introducing research participants to a mild laboratory stressor suggested that individuals who score high on avoidance coping showed greater cardiovascular reactivity compared to low conflict avoiders. The findings reported in this thesis show that the GSAQ is a reliable tool to use for future research on the role of multidimensional avoidance coping in psychological and physical health

Positive psychological interventions aimed at enhancing psychological ownership

\u3cp\u3eInterventions aimed at the enhancement of positive organisational behaviours, within organisational contexts, are imperative for creating and sustaining a high-performance culture, where individual and organisational strengths are optimized and top-talent retained. Psychological ownership, one form of positive organisational behaviour, comprises of self-identity, belongingness, self-efficacy, accountability and territoriality, and is a critical factor in the enhancement of individual performance. Despite this importance, limited research exists regarding evidence-based positive psychological intervention strategies aimed at the development of psychological ownership within organisational contexts (Olckers and van Zyl in Soc Ind Res 127(2):887-901, 2016). As such, the purpose of this chapter will be to propose evidence-based intervention strategies centred on the development of self-identity, belongingness, self-efficacy, and accountability as well as the management of territorial behaviours within multi-cultural contexts from a positive psychology perspective. This chapter aims to present both the theoretical implications and practical guidelines for building psychological ownership.\u3c/p\u3

Positive psychological interventions aimed at enhancing psychological ownership

Interventions aimed at the enhancement of positive organisational behaviours, within organisational contexts, are imperative for creating and sustaining a high-performance culture, where individual and organisational strengths are optimized and top-talent retained. Psychological ownership, one form of positive organisational behaviour, comprises of self-identity, belongingness, self-efficacy, accountability and territoriality, and is a critical factor in the enhancement of individual performance. Despite this importance, limited research exists regarding evidence-based positive psychological intervention strategies aimed at the development of psychological ownership within organisational contexts (Olckers and van Zyl in Soc Ind Res 127(2):887-901, 2016). As such, the purpose of this chapter will be to propose evidence-based intervention strategies centred on the development of self-identity, belongingness, self-efficacy, and accountability as well as the management of territorial behaviours within multi-cultural contexts from a positive psychology perspective. This chapter aims to present both the theoretical implications and practical guidelines for building psychological ownership.</p

Virtual Reality for Supporting the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety: Scoping Review

BackgroundMental health conditions pose a major challenge to health care providers and society at large. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030, mental health conditions will be the leading cause of disease burden worldwide. The current need for mental health care is overwhelming. In New Zealand, 1 in 6 adults has been diagnosed with common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety disorders, according to a national survey. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to effectively help patients overcome a wide variety of mental health conditions. Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) might be one of the most exciting technologies emerging in the clinical setting for the treatment of anxiety and depression. ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the virtual reality (VR) technologies currently being used to help support the treatment of depression and anxiety. We also aim to investigate whether and how CBT is included as part of VRET and look at the VR technologies and interventions that have been used in recent studies on depression and anxiety. MethodsWe performed a scoping review. To identify significant studies, we decided to use already aggregated sources from the Google Scholar database. Overall, the goal of our search strategy was to limit the number of initial results related to VR in mental health to only a relevant minimum. ResultsUsing our defined keywords, Google Scholar identified >17,300 articles. After applying all the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we identified a total of 369 articles for further processing. After manual evaluation, 34 articles were shortlisted; of the 34 articles, 9 (26%) reported the use of CBT with VR. All of the articles were published between 2017 and 2021. Out of the 9 studies, CBT was conducted within a VR environment in 5 (56%) studies, whereas in the remaining 4 (44%) studies, CBT was used as an addition to VRET. All 9 studies reported the use of CBT either in vivo or in a virtual environment to be effective in supporting the treatment of anxiety or depression. ConclusionsMost studies demonstrated the use of VR to be effective for supporting the treatment of anxiety or depression in a range of settings and recommended its potential as a tool for use in a clinical environment. Even though standalone headsets are much easier to work with and more suitable for home use, the shift from tethered VR headsets to standalone headsets in the mental health environment was not observed. All studies that looked at the use of CBT either in vivo or in a virtual environment found it to be effective in supporting the treatment of anxiety or depression

Individualized Virtual Reality for Increasing Self-Compassion: Evaluation Study

BackgroundDepression and anxiety are common and debilitating mental disorders with severe negative repercussions at both individual and societal levels. Although virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a safe and effective tool for the treatment of anxiety disorders, studies of the therapeutic application of VR to treat depression are more limited. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to test whether a novel type of individualized VR (iVR) can be used to improve self-compassion and decrease depressive symptoms and to evaluate the usability and acceptability of this approach, as rated by participants. The iVR system was designed and developed based on the feedback obtained from a previous study, with improved appearance and feel of the avatar and enhanced graphical quality. MethodsA total of 36 young adult participants were recruited from a university community social media site. Participants were aware that the study was investigating a treatment for depression but were not recruited based on depression diagnosis. Participants were asked to complete 2 iVR sessions, spaced 2 weeks apart. At baseline and upon completion of each iVR session, participants were asked to complete validated measures of self-compassion and depression. Upon completion of both iVR sessions, additional measures were administered to assess participants’ perceptions about the perceived usability and system acceptability of the iVR approach. ResultsSelf-compassion was assessed at the beginning of session 1 (preintervention baseline) and at the end of session 1 (postintervention assessment). Owing to COVID-19 constraints, 36% (13/36) of the participants were unable to complete the follow-up iVR session. Self-compassion was assessed again for the remaining 64% (23/36) of the participants at the end of session 2 (postintervention assessment). Within-group analyses revealed that self-compassion was significantly increased at the end of both session 1 (P=.01) and session 2 (P=.03) relative to baseline. There was also a nonsignificant trend for depressive symptoms to be low at the end of session 2 relative to baseline. Both quantitative and qualitative participant data supported the iVR approach as being acceptable and usable. ConclusionsAlthough these data must be treated as preliminary owing to the small sample size and potential selection bias, the data provide encouraging initial evidence that iVR might be a useful tool to enhance self-compassion and reduce depressive symptoms, highlighting the need for randomized controlled trials in the future

Positive psychological interventions aimed at enhancing psychological ownership

Interventions aimed at the enhancement of positive organisational behaviours, within organisational contexts, are imperative for creating and sustaining a high-performance culture, where individual and organisational strengths are optimized and top-talent retained. Psychological ownership, one form of positive organisational behaviour, comprises of self-identity, belongingness, self-efficacy, accountability and territoriality, and is a critical factor in the enhancement of individual performance. Despite this importance, limited research exists regarding evidence-based positive psychological intervention strategies aimed at the development of psychological ownership within organisational contexts (Olckers and van Zyl in Soc Ind Res 127(2):887-901, 2016). As such, the purpose of this chapter will be to propose evidence-based intervention strategies centred on the development of self-identity, belongingness, self-efficacy, and accountability as well as the management of territorial behaviours within multi-cultural contexts from a positive psychology perspective. This chapter aims to present both the theoretical implications and practical guidelines for building psychological ownership