The impact of group emotion regulation interventions on emotion regulation ability:A systematic review

Emotional regulation (ER) as a concept is not clearly defined, and there is a lack of clarity about how individuals can improve their ability to regulate emotions. Nevertheless, there is increasing evidence of the importance of ER as a transdiagnostic treatment target across mental health problems. This review examines the impact of ER group interventions on ER ability compared with no intervention, other comparable group interventions, or control conditions. A systematic review was conducted, in which 15 studies were included. Although types of ER intervention were mixed, the interventions had a considerable overlap in skills taught and how ER was measured. In all but one study, the ER intervention improved ER ability. ER interventions were superior to waitlist or treatment as usual, but there was limited evidence to suggest they were superior to other active treatments. Data from some studies suggest that improved ER was sustained at follow-up. Across the studies, there was generally poor linking of theory to practice, which hampers understanding of how interventions were constructed and why different skills were included. Although the results need to be interpreted with caution due to issues with methodological quality with the included papers, there is promising evidence that ER group interventions significantly improve ER ability

An Experimental Investigation of Repetitive Thinking in Depression and Research Portfolio

Clinical psychologist's training emphasises research as a key component of their professional skills. Recent surveys have shown, however, that the majority of clinical psychologists produce no research. Looking only at articles published as a definition of research may have led previous surveys to underestimate the level of research activity of clinical psychologists. Using a broader definition of research activity, "The RIPS: Research Involvement of Psychologists Scale" was constructed and distributed to a sample of qualified clinical psychologists working in the NHS. The survey revealed that previous surveys of this kind had underestimated the research activity of clinical psychologists, and that the majority of respondents indicated that they were dissatisfied with their lack of research involvement, pressure to spend time in clinical contact contributing significantly to this. Clinical psychologists must alter their working priorities if they are to fulfil the research potential promised by their lengthy and intensive research training

Examining the impact of androgen deprivation therapy, masculine self-esteem, and psychological flexibility on distress and quality of life in men with prostate cancer

Objective: Studies suggest that androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) exacerbates psychological and quality of life (QoL) issues associated with prostate cancer (PCa). However, quantitative research examining underlying psychosocial mechanisms for this is limited. We examined the association of PCa symptoms with distress and QoL in ADT-treated and ADT-naïve patients, and the influence of masculine self-esteem and psychological flexibility (PF) on these relationships. Methods: Secondary analysis of a quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 286 PCa patients. Independent samples t-tests, moderation, and conditional process analysis were used to assess relationships between predictor, mediator, moderator, and outcome variables. Results: ADT was associated with greater PCa symptomology, lower masculine self-esteem, and lower QoL. Moderation analysis showed that ADT potentiated adverse impacts of PCa symptomology on distress and QoL. High PF attenuated these relationships, though less so for ADT-treated participants. Conditional process analysis showed that masculine self-esteem mediated the predictive effect of symptoms on distress across treatments. However, ADT did not moderate this indirect effect, nor was moderation conditional on PF. Conclusion: PF appears to: (1) attenuate psychological distress in ADT patients; and (2) improve distress, QoL, and masculine self-esteem in ADT-naïve patients. Interventions targeting PF may thus be a viable adjunct to established approaches. However, their effects may be comparatively limited in ADT patients, who may benefit from more intensive and tailored treatment.</p