Exploration on the structure of college students’ optimism and development of questionnaire

Objective To explore the structure of college students’ optimism and develop a questionnaire. Methods The initial items of the questionnaire are formed by interview, open questionnaire and document retrieval. On the basis of forecast, 692 valid questionnaires are obtained from the subjects with the self-designed questionnaire. The life orientation questionnaire is used to test the validity of the criterion. Results The questionnaire on college students’ optimism contains 13 items, including two high-order factors: optimism and pessimism. Optimism includes optimistic expectation and optimistic explanatory style which pessimism factor includes pessimistic expectation and pessimistic explanatory style. The fitting indicators are better (X2/df = 3.45, GFI = 0.96, IFI = 0.95, NNFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.95 and RMSEA = 0.06), internal consistency reliability is between 0.61 and 0.74, and all sub-dimensions of the questionnaire are significantly correlated. The total scores of the questionnaire and four factors are positively correlated with the total scores of the life orientation questionnaire (0.74 ∼ 0.81). Conclusion The college students’ optimism is composed of four factors; the reliability and validity meet the requirements of psychometrics, and can be used in related research and practice. This study seemed to show that the CSOQ was a valid tool for measuring optimism among Chinese college students.

Explanatory Styles of Counsellors in Training

Explanatory style is based on how one explains good and bad events according to three dimensions: personalization, permanence, and pervasiveness. With an optimistic explanatory style, good events are explained as personal, permanent, and pervasive, whereas bad events are explained as external, temporary, and specific. For counsellors, an optimistic explanatory style creates positive expectancy judgments about the possibilities and opportunities for successful client outcomes. In this research study, we explored the explanatory styles expressed in 400 events (200 good events and 200 bad events) extracted from 38,013 writing samples of first year and final year graduate level counsellors in training. Across the three optimism dimensions and within good and bad events, there was one occurrence of a positive relationship between counsellor training time and the amount of expressed optimism. The implications of this study include the need to cultivate optimistic explanatory styles of counsellors in training and practicing counsellors.

Explanatory style in youth self-harm: an Indian qualitative study to inform intervention design

BackgroundThere are very few studies that have examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions (PIs) that have been developed and tested in high-income countries to reduce self-harm in low and middle-income countries.ObjectiveTo evaluate the perspectives and explanatory styles of youth with self-harm and their caregivers to inform the design of an evidence based PI in a non-Western cultural setting. An additional objective was to suggest ways of integrating local practices and traditions to enhance its acceptability.MethodsWe conducted 15 in-depth qualitative interviews with youth with self-harm and four interviews with the caregivers in the psychiatry department of a tertiary hospital located in Mumbai, India. Data were analysed using phenomenological thematic analysis.FindingsFive themes were uncovered: (i) contextual factors related to self-harm including interpersonal factors, intrapersonal factors and socio-cultural factors; (ii) formulation and current feelings about the attempt (iii) family members and friends as the perceived supports and deterrents for future self-harm attempts; (iv) treatment related experiences with counselling, in-patient and outpatient treatment and barriers to treatment; and (v) coping strategies. Recommendations for key areas of adaptation include therapist adaptation, content adaptation to accommodate for cultural considerations and broader social context. Gender based socio-cultural norms, beliefs and stigma attached to self-harm need to be specifically addressed in South Asian setting. Interpersonal conflicts are the most common triggers.Conclusion and clinical implicationsTo our knowledge this is the first study in the South Asian context evaluating explanatory styles of youth with self-harm and their caregivers to inform the design of an intervention to ensure its cultural congruence. Cultural adaptation of an evidence based PI results in competent delivery and ensures best results in diverse ethno-cultural populations.