Helpers' self-assessment biases before and after helping skills training

Several studies have shown that therapists are generally biased concerning their performed helping skills, as compared to judges' ratings. As clients' ratings of therapists' performance are better predictors of psychotherapy effectiveness than judges' ratings, this study examined the validity and effectiveness of a helping skills training program at reducing novice helpers' self-enhancement biases concerning their helping skills, in comparison to their clients ratings. Helping skills were assessed by three objective measures (a knowledge multiple choice test, a video test and a role play), as well as by a self- and peer-reported questionnaire. In addition, some performed helping skills' correlates (relationship quality, session quality, and helpers' therapeutic attitudes) were assessed both by helpers and their simulated helpees. Seventy-two sophomores in psychology participated to this study, 37 being assigned to a 12-h helping skills training program, and 35 to a control group. Helpers were expected to assess the aforementioned performed helping skills and correlates as being better than their helpees' assessments at pretest, thus revealing a self-enhancement bias. At posttest, we expected that trained helpers would objectively exhibit better helping skills than untrained helpers while beginning to underestimate their performance, thus indexing a self-diminishment bias. In contrast, we hypothesized that untrained helpers would continue to overestimate their performance. Our hypotheses were only partly confirmed but results reflected a skilled-unaware pattern among trainees. Trained helpers went either from a pretest overestimation to a posttest equivalence (performed helping skills and performed therapeutic attitudes), or from a pretest equivalence to a posttest underestimation (performed session quality and performed therapeutic relationship), as compared to helpees' ratings. Results showed that trained helpers improved on all helping skills objective measures and that helpees' perceptions of their performance had increased at posttest. In conclusion, helping skills training leads helpers not only to improve their helping skills but also to have more doubts about their skills, two variables associated with psychotherapy outcome. Keywords: exploration helping skills, helping skillstwo variables associated with psychotherapy outcome

Emodiversity and the Emotional Ecosystem

Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce—and demonstrate the benefits of—emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience. Two cross-sectional studies across more than 37,000 respondents demonstrate that emodiversity is an independent predictor of mental and physical health—such as decreased depression and doctor's visits—over and above mean levels of positive and negative emotion. These results remained robust after controlling for gender, age, and the five main dimensions of personality. Emodiversity is a practically important and previously unidentified metric for assessing the health of the human emotional ecosystem

Profiles of Parental Burnout Around the Globe: Similarities and Differences Across 36 Countries

Parental burnout (PB) is a pervasive phenomenon. Parenting is embedded in cultural values, and previous research has shown the role of individualism in PB. In this paper, we reanalyze previously collected data to identify profiles based on the four dimensions of PB, and explore whether these profiles vary across countries’ levels of collectivistic-individualistic (COL-IND) values. Our sample comprised 16,885 individuals from 36 countries (73% women; 27% men), and we used a latent profile approach to uncover PB profiles. The findings showed five profiles: Fulfilled, Not in PB, Low risk of PB, High risk of PB and Burned out. The profiles pointed to climbing levels of PB in the total sample and in each of the three country groups (High COL/Low IND, Medium COL-IND, Low COL/High IND). Exploratory analyses revealed that distinct dimensions of PB had the most prominent roles in the climbing pattern, depending on the countries’ levels of COL/IND. In particular, we found contrast to be a hallmark dimension and an indicator of severe burnout for individualistic countries. Contrary to our predictions, emotional distance and saturation did not allow a clear differentiation across collectivistic countries. Our findings support several research avenues regarding PB measurement and intervention

Dis-moi qui tu es, je te dirais si tu es à risque de burn-out… » : L’influence des caractéristiques psychologiques des parents sur le risque de burn-out parental

International audienc

Dis-moi qui tu es, je te dirais si tu es à risque de burn-out… » : L’influence des caractéristiques psychologiques des parents sur le risque de burn-out parental

International audienc

Dis-moi qui tu es, je te dirais si tu es à risque de burn-out… » : L’influence des caractéristiques psychologiques des parents sur le risque de burn-out parental

International audienc

Adolescents choosing self-harm as an emotion regulations strategy : The protective role of trait emotional intelligence

Objectives: The present study seeks to extend the understanding of the role of dispositional factors in the aetiology of self-harm among adolescents. We hypothesized that higher trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) would be associated with a lower likelihood to harm oneself, and that this relationship would be mediated by the choice of coping strategies. - Design and Methods: Trait EI, coping styles and self-harm behaviours were assessed in 490 adolescents recruited from eight British schools. - Results: The results supported our hypothesis and showed that the relationship between trait EI and self-harm was partly mediated by the choice of coping strategies. Emotional coping was a particularly powerful mediator, suggesting that self-harm may be a way to decrease the negative emotions that are exacerbated by maladaptive emotional coping strategies, such as rumination, self-blame, and helplessness. Trait EI was correlated positively with adaptive coping styles and negatively with maladaptive coping styles, and depression. - Conclusions: These findings emphasize the potential value of incorporating coping coaching programmes in the treatment of self-harm patients

Différences individuelles dans le burnout parental

International audienc

Différences individuelles dans le burnout parental

International audienc

The big five personality traits and parental burnout: Protective and risk factors

International audienceParental burnout is an emotional disorder related to the context of parenthood (Roskam, Raes, & Mikolajczak, 2017). Personality differences in parental burnout were explored. One thousand seven hundred twenty-three parents, age 20 to 75 years, responded to a questionnaire. Results indicated that three personality traits are linked to this syndrome. A high level of neuroticism, a low level of conscientiousness, and a low level of agreeableness were all found to be risk factors for parental burnout. Parentswho have difficulty initiating and maintaining positive affective relations with their child(ren) (high neuroticism), identifying and responding to their child(ren)’s needs (low agreeableness), or providing their child(ren) with a structured and coherent environment (low conscientiousness) are more likely to experience parental burnout syndrome