The Effectiveness of a School-based Self-injury Prevention Program on Reducing Interpersonal Cognitive Distortion and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Adolescent Girls

Background: Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) is a prevalent, harmful, and transdiagnostic behavior that can comprehensively be assessed in daily life studies. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of the student self-injury prevention program in mitigating the Interpersonal Cognitive Distortion (ICD) and the fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE). Materials & Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design, a one-month follow-up, and a control group. The statistical population consisted of all female adolescents studying at the middle schools of Rasht City, Iran, in the 2019–2020 academic years. They must have experienced self-injury at least once. The purposive non-random sampling technique was employed to select 34 self-injuring adolescents, who were then randomly assigned to case and control groups. The interpersonal cognitive distortion scale and the brief fear of negative evaluation scale were adopted to collect data. The case group received 16 sessions of self-injury prevention training for students (twice a week), whereas the control group had no training programs. Analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance were then used for data analysis in SPSS v. 25. Results: The results demonstrated the significant effectiveness of the training program in mitigating the ICD (interpersonal rejection: P<0.01; F=21.780, unrealistic relationship expectations: P<0.01; F=51.096, interpersonal misperception: P<0.01; F=20.557), reducing negative meta-emotion, and increasing positive meta-emotion (P<0.05; F=43.591). Conclusion: The student self-injury prevention program effectively reduced the ICD and FNE of female adolescents. Additionally, these two variables have high levels in adolescents struggling with self-injury.

Migration Processes in the Context of Behavioral Economics Theories

The aim of this article is to investigate the connection between behavioral economy and migration processes. Behavioral economics is a relatively new phenomenon in science and the fact that some research in this area has earned the Nobel Prize makes its contribution significant in the consideration of economic processes. The analysis of sources shows that in the field of Russian studies there is practically no mention of the fact that migration behavior can be explained by the behavioral economics theses. In this article, we explore several key ideas in this area: nudge theory, prospect theory, evolutionary game theory, cognitive distortion, and hedonistic adaptation. In this article, we put forward a hypothesis that migration processes can not only be explained from the standpoint of behavioral economics but can also be regulated using the tools of this direction. Behavioral economics can be the key for discovering the dynamics and true motives of migration. The analysis of information in this area shows, that a person makes decisions mainly based not on the laws of logic and rationalism. Paradoxes such as cognitive biases, etc. reduce the effectiveness of an individual's actions and provide an incentive for the scientific community to expand the number of empirical studies of migration processes within the framework of behavioral economics theories.

Trauma Bonding: concepts, causes and mechanisms in intimate relationships

When, after a violent incident, strong emotional bonds are established in order to connect two people, there is the installation of a trauma called by the literature as bonding trauma. It is an emotional dependence between two people, in a relationship characterized by periods of abuse, violence and power imbalance, with bonds of intense connection, cognitive distortion and behavioral strategies of both individuals that paradoxically strengthen and maintain the bond, which is reflected in the vicious cycle of violence. However, there is a lack of literature and scientific research on the subject in Brazil, which highlights the need for a refined and in-depth study, since the causes and effects of bonding trauma are still not exactly clear, which makes the understanding and treatment of individuals, as well as their recovery, a slow and painful process. Thus, this research is guided by the question: what is bonding trauma and what are its mechanisms? Thus, it was defined as the general objective to analyze bonding trauma in loving relationships, in order to give birth to the neuropsychobiological processes of trauma generated in intimate relationships and to investigate the reasons why victims remain in pathological relationships, we will also address the functioning of Stockholm Syndrome and posttraumatic stress in victims of abuse in loving relationships as factors that generate bonding trauma. For contextualization, problematization and validation of the theoretical framework used in the research undertaken, the methodology used was the literature review or bibliographic review, from the reading, selection and analysis of texts of different genres, such as records, reviews and scientific articles related to the subject and which were published in journals and newspapers in the area. It was concluded that several emotional and neuropsychobiological factors are the cause for bonding trauma to be established within a relationship.

Resilience: A Protective Factor from Depression and Anxiety in Mexican Dialysis Patients

Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent psychological disorders in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) that have a negative clinical impact. The purpose of our study was to identify factors associated with the presence of depression and anxiety, in a sample of ESRD patients treated with hemodialysis. We included 187 patients from two dialysis facilities, age 18–65 years. Beck’s depression and anxiety inventories, KDQOL36 questionnaire, the cognitive distortion scale and the Mexican scale of resilience were used. Socio-demographic and clinical information was obtained from medical records. Depression was present in 143 (76.4%) patients. Patient with depression were older (33 (26–52) years vs. 30 (24.43) years, p = 0.025), had a lower education level (36% vs. 9%, p = 0.001), used more medications (67% vs. 36%, p = 0.001), had a comorbidity (75% vs. 41%, p = 0.001), and a higher proportion were waiting for a kidney transplant. Anxiety was present in 112 (59.8%) cases. By multivariate analysis, depression was independently associated with lower education, absence of previous kidney transplant, anxiety, higher cognitive distortion, lower psychological resilience, and lower quality of life scores. In conclusion, lower psychological resilience, lower education level, and higher cognitive distortions are factors associated with depression and anxiety in ESRD patients.

What Were They Thinking? An Experimental Investigation of Child Sexual Offenders' Beliefs.

<p>In the field of forensic psychology, child sexual offenders (CSOs) are often hypothesised to hold abnormal beliefs that facilitate the onset and maintenance of their offending. This idea has had considerable impact upon current CSO assessment and treatment practices. However, despite its intuitive appeal, empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis is unfortunately lacking. Information regarding the role that cognition plays in child sexual offending has been gathered almost exclusively using self report (i.e. interview and questionnaire) methods. In interview studies, CSOs talk at length about their offending and their statements are analysed for the presence of so-called cognitive distortions: utterances deemed to represent abnormal, offence-facilitating beliefs. In questionnaire studies CSOs and controls rate the veracity of listed cognitive distortion items and their answers are compared. In general, interview and questionnaire studies have tended to find that CSOs endorse cognitive distortions, which seemingly supports the notion that they hold offence-supportive beliefs. However, serious issues plague the use of these self-report methods because endorsement of cognitive distortions might reflect phenomena other than beliefs. The primary aim of this thesis was to examine the idea that CSOs hold offence-supportive beliefs using methods designed to side-step issues associated with self-report methods. Across three studies, three cognitive experimental techniques were for the first time applied to the study of CSO cognition. In Study One, CSOs and offender and community controls completed an experimental procedure called the lexical decision task. Against hypotheses, when compared to controls CSOs did not interpret offence-related sentences in line with distorted beliefs. A possible explanation for this finding was that CSOs' offence-supportive beliefs were insufficiently activated during testing. To investigate, in Study Two half the CSO and half the offender control participants were primed with images of scantily-clad children before commencing experimental testing. During testing, CSOs and offender controls read sentences describing children behaving in potentially sexualised ways. Participants were then given a surprise recognition test in which half the sentences were re-presented in an unambiguously sexual form, and half in an unambiguously nonsexual form. Contrary to hypotheses, neither primed nor control child sexual offenders showed memory biases for sexualised sentences, suggesting they did not interpret the original sentences in line with offence-supportive beliefs. Finally, in Study Three, CSOs' beliefs were examined using interview methods, and CSOs' and offender controls' beliefs were measured using a questionnaire as well as an experimental technique that used sentence reading times to implicitly measure beliefs. As hypothesised, CSOs showed evidence of holding offence-supportive beliefs according to the interview and questionnaire measures, but against predictions they demonstrated no experimental evidence of such beliefs. In fact, the three methods showed virtually no agreement regarding the belief-types each CSO was deemed to hold, raising important questions about the phenomena measured by each method. Overall, the results of this thesis did not support the stance that CSOs generally hold offence-supportive beliefs that set them apart from others. The implications of these findings for theory and treatment are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.</p>

What Were They Thinking? An Experimental Investigation of Child Sexual Offenders' Beliefs.

<p>In the field of forensic psychology, child sexual offenders (CSOs) are often hypothesised to hold abnormal beliefs that facilitate the onset and maintenance of their offending. This idea has had considerable impact upon current CSO assessment and treatment practices. However, despite its intuitive appeal, empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis is unfortunately lacking. Information regarding the role that cognition plays in child sexual offending has been gathered almost exclusively using self report (i.e. interview and questionnaire) methods. In interview studies, CSOs talk at length about their offending and their statements are analysed for the presence of so-called cognitive distortions: utterances deemed to represent abnormal, offence-facilitating beliefs. In questionnaire studies CSOs and controls rate the veracity of listed cognitive distortion items and their answers are compared. In general, interview and questionnaire studies have tended to find that CSOs endorse cognitive distortions, which seemingly supports the notion that they hold offence-supportive beliefs. However, serious issues plague the use of these self-report methods because endorsement of cognitive distortions might reflect phenomena other than beliefs. The primary aim of this thesis was to examine the idea that CSOs hold offence-supportive beliefs using methods designed to side-step issues associated with self-report methods. Across three studies, three cognitive experimental techniques were for the first time applied to the study of CSO cognition. In Study One, CSOs and offender and community controls completed an experimental procedure called the lexical decision task. Against hypotheses, when compared to controls CSOs did not interpret offence-related sentences in line with distorted beliefs. A possible explanation for this finding was that CSOs' offence-supportive beliefs were insufficiently activated during testing. To investigate, in Study Two half the CSO and half the offender control participants were primed with images of scantily-clad children before commencing experimental testing. During testing, CSOs and offender controls read sentences describing children behaving in potentially sexualised ways. Participants were then given a surprise recognition test in which half the sentences were re-presented in an unambiguously sexual form, and half in an unambiguously nonsexual form. Contrary to hypotheses, neither primed nor control child sexual offenders showed memory biases for sexualised sentences, suggesting they did not interpret the original sentences in line with offence-supportive beliefs. Finally, in Study Three, CSOs' beliefs were examined using interview methods, and CSOs' and offender controls' beliefs were measured using a questionnaire as well as an experimental technique that used sentence reading times to implicitly measure beliefs. As hypothesised, CSOs showed evidence of holding offence-supportive beliefs according to the interview and questionnaire measures, but against predictions they demonstrated no experimental evidence of such beliefs. In fact, the three methods showed virtually no agreement regarding the belief-types each CSO was deemed to hold, raising important questions about the phenomena measured by each method. Overall, the results of this thesis did not support the stance that CSOs generally hold offence-supportive beliefs that set them apart from others. The implications of these findings for theory and treatment are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.</p>

What Were They Thinking? An Experimental Investigation of Child Sexual Offenders' Beliefs.

<p>In the field of forensic psychology, child sexual offenders (CSOs) are often hypothesised to hold abnormal beliefs that facilitate the onset and maintenance of their offending. This idea has had considerable impact upon current CSO assessment and treatment practices. However, despite its intuitive appeal, empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis is unfortunately lacking. Information regarding the role that cognition plays in child sexual offending has been gathered almost exclusively using self report (i.e. interview and questionnaire) methods. In interview studies, CSOs talk at length about their offending and their statements are analysed for the presence of so-called cognitive distortions: utterances deemed to represent abnormal, offence-facilitating beliefs. In questionnaire studies CSOs and controls rate the veracity of listed cognitive distortion items and their answers are compared. In general, interview and questionnaire studies have tended to find that CSOs endorse cognitive distortions, which seemingly supports the notion that they hold offence-supportive beliefs. However, serious issues plague the use of these self-report methods because endorsement of cognitive distortions might reflect phenomena other than beliefs. The primary aim of this thesis was to examine the idea that CSOs hold offence-supportive beliefs using methods designed to side-step issues associated with self-report methods. Across three studies, three cognitive experimental techniques were for the first time applied to the study of CSO cognition. In Study One, CSOs and offender and community controls completed an experimental procedure called the lexical decision task. Against hypotheses, when compared to controls CSOs did not interpret offence-related sentences in line with distorted beliefs. A possible explanation for this finding was that CSOs' offence-supportive beliefs were insufficiently activated during testing. To investigate, in Study Two half the CSO and half the offender control participants were primed with images of scantily-clad children before commencing experimental testing. During testing, CSOs and offender controls read sentences describing children behaving in potentially sexualised ways. Participants were then given a surprise recognition test in which half the sentences were re-presented in an unambiguously sexual form, and half in an unambiguously nonsexual form. Contrary to hypotheses, neither primed nor control child sexual offenders showed memory biases for sexualised sentences, suggesting they did not interpret the original sentences in line with offence-supportive beliefs. Finally, in Study Three, CSOs' beliefs were examined using interview methods, and CSOs' and offender controls' beliefs were measured using a questionnaire as well as an experimental technique that used sentence reading times to implicitly measure beliefs. As hypothesised, CSOs showed evidence of holding offence-supportive beliefs according to the interview and questionnaire measures, but against predictions they demonstrated no experimental evidence of such beliefs. In fact, the three methods showed virtually no agreement regarding the belief-types each CSO was deemed to hold, raising important questions about the phenomena measured by each method. Overall, the results of this thesis did not support the stance that CSOs generally hold offence-supportive beliefs that set them apart from others. The implications of these findings for theory and treatment are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.</p>

What Were They Thinking? An Experimental Investigation of Child Sexual Offenders' Beliefs.

<p>In the field of forensic psychology, child sexual offenders (CSOs) are often hypothesised to hold abnormal beliefs that facilitate the onset and maintenance of their offending. This idea has had considerable impact upon current CSO assessment and treatment practices. However, despite its intuitive appeal, empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis is unfortunately lacking. Information regarding the role that cognition plays in child sexual offending has been gathered almost exclusively using self report (i.e. interview and questionnaire) methods. In interview studies, CSOs talk at length about their offending and their statements are analysed for the presence of so-called cognitive distortions: utterances deemed to represent abnormal, offence-facilitating beliefs. In questionnaire studies CSOs and controls rate the veracity of listed cognitive distortion items and their answers are compared. In general, interview and questionnaire studies have tended to find that CSOs endorse cognitive distortions, which seemingly supports the notion that they hold offence-supportive beliefs. However, serious issues plague the use of these self-report methods because endorsement of cognitive distortions might reflect phenomena other than beliefs. The primary aim of this thesis was to examine the idea that CSOs hold offence-supportive beliefs using methods designed to side-step issues associated with self-report methods. Across three studies, three cognitive experimental techniques were for the first time applied to the study of CSO cognition. In Study One, CSOs and offender and community controls completed an experimental procedure called the lexical decision task. Against hypotheses, when compared to controls CSOs did not interpret offence-related sentences in line with distorted beliefs. A possible explanation for this finding was that CSOs' offence-supportive beliefs were insufficiently activated during testing. To investigate, in Study Two half the CSO and half the offender control participants were primed with images of scantily-clad children before commencing experimental testing. During testing, CSOs and offender controls read sentences describing children behaving in potentially sexualised ways. Participants were then given a surprise recognition test in which half the sentences were re-presented in an unambiguously sexual form, and half in an unambiguously nonsexual form. Contrary to hypotheses, neither primed nor control child sexual offenders showed memory biases for sexualised sentences, suggesting they did not interpret the original sentences in line with offence-supportive beliefs. Finally, in Study Three, CSOs' beliefs were examined using interview methods, and CSOs' and offender controls' beliefs were measured using a questionnaire as well as an experimental technique that used sentence reading times to implicitly measure beliefs. As hypothesised, CSOs showed evidence of holding offence-supportive beliefs according to the interview and questionnaire measures, but against predictions they demonstrated no experimental evidence of such beliefs. In fact, the three methods showed virtually no agreement regarding the belief-types each CSO was deemed to hold, raising important questions about the phenomena measured by each method. Overall, the results of this thesis did not support the stance that CSOs generally hold offence-supportive beliefs that set them apart from others. The implications of these findings for theory and treatment are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.</p>

SELF-EFFICACY AMONG STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS DURING ONLINE LEARNING SELF-EFFICACY AMONG STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS DURING ONLINE LEARNING

Distance learning around the world has set new requirements for educational institutions and particularly for the students. Self-efficacy is one of the essential factors for success. Self-efficacy in an online learning environment is related to the confidence in one's ability to succeed, knowledge and ability to use the technology, and the casualness of success in the new education model, which is evolving rapidly from Education 2.0. to Education 4.0. A survey was conducted among 134 students from higher educational institutions (HEIs). The results of the study demonstrate that self-assessment, emotional responses, motivation for academic success, and self-referential information of students in HEIs regarding the learning content are unstable. A rise in the knowledge and usage of various electronic devices and electronic resources has been reported along with a rise in cognitive load. There is an effect of cognitive distortion on mastering the learning content and setting more challenging goals in terms of the transition from the traditional model of learning to distance learning and on their learning competencies .