Browse Our Latest Psychology and Behavioral Science Journals
Psychological journals are peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journals that publish original work in some areas of psychology. The most common publications include cognitive, health and clinical psychology, applied, developmental, biological, social, experimental, and educational psychology, and psychoanalysis.
Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Background and aims
Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is highly prevalent in adolescents and is associated with various mental health problems. Repetitive NSSI (R-NSSI), as an extreme manifestation of NSSI, is a growing concern and has been proposed as a behavioral addiction. However, little is known about the potential addictive mechanisms of NSSI. This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of emotion dysregulation and the moderating effect of impulsivity using the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model in adolescents who repeatedly engage in NSSI.
Methods
A total of 3,915 adolescents (mean age = 13.21 years, SD = 0.87, 57.6% male) were recruited from three middle schools. Relevant questionnaires were used to evaluate childhood maltreatment, emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, and NSSI. Mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted separately for adolescents with occasional NSSI (O–NSSI) and R-NSSI to assess the relationship between childhood maltreatment, emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, and NSSI frequency.
Results
Our study found that childhood maltreatment was directly related to NSSI and indirectly related to NSSI through emotion dysregulation in both the R-NSSI and O–NSSI groups. Furthermore, impulsivity played a moderating role in the relationship between emotion dysregulation and NSSI in the R-NSSI group but not in the O–NSSI group.
Discussion and conclusions
The findings suggest that a high level of impulsivity and a high level of emotion dysregulation may be important risk addictive factors of NSSI through childhood maltreatment. Strengthening the emotion regulation skills and inhibitory control of adolescents with NSSI would be helpful to reduce their self-injury behaviors and maintain their mental health. This finding also supports the validity of the I-PACE model for evaluating R-NSSI.
Abstract
A renaissance is underway as research studies are substantiating psychotherapeutic and physiological benefits of psychedelic medicines, along with advancements towards legalization, expansion of professional training programs and a renewed cultural recognition of the healing qualities of the medicines. Pending legislation, a cadre of trained psychotherapists are poised to apply their expertise for those who might benefit however, they are currently largely blocked from doing so. There are also ranks of competent psychedelically informed psychotherapists who might provide support to clients engaging with the medicines but are lacking guidelines to do so.
‘Psychedelic-Supportive Psychotherapy’ is a proposed model which might be immediately implemented by qualified practitioners for working with clients adjacent to but not during a medicine experience without compromising ethical or legal risk. This model aimed at psychotherapists who are increasingly challenged to help clients already engaging with or considering psychedelics, draws from the current field of knowledge to respond to a moral imperative for practitioners to act in the service of client's best interests and expand access for diverse communities. It balances psychedelic harm reduction perspectives with support for the emotional, psychological, and spiritual gains to be had when clients use psychedelics outside of therapy and can process the experience within their therapy. The model of psychedelic-supportive psychotherapy,’ is transtheoretical, its core premise being centrality of the therapeutic relationship as a change agent even as the therapist is not physically present in the client's medicine journey. Here a foundational structure is presented along with criteria, parameters, and recommendations for practitioners in its application.
A változások szociálpszichológiája és a szociálpszichológia változásai
Social changes and the changes of social psychology
A 19. század végén az úgynevezett szellemtudományok ígérték a történelmi szereplők, fejlemények és időszakok pszichológiai leírását és megértését, ezek értékirányultsága alapján. Az elmúlt évszázad során a szociálpszichológia mint az empirikus humántudományok egyik ága fokozatosan átvette ezt a szerepet. McGuire periodizációjával egyetértően a szerző – az ELTE díszdoktorává avatása alkalmával – a szociálpszichológia fejlődésének öt fázisát jellemezte, mígnem elérte a hierarchikus társadalmi rendszerekkel kapcsolatos attitűdök és érzelmi kontextusok tematikus dominanciáját a jelenben. Amerika történetének társadalmi-politikai kihívásai mély nyomot hagytak ezen szakmai tudományos fejlődésen, és a kelet-közép-európai kutatások megtalálhatják és meg kell találniuk a saját kérdésfeltevéseiket és megközelítéseiket, hogy a továbbiakban kiegyensúlyozott együttműködés alakuljon ki a szociálpszichológia széles tudományterületén.
Abstract
Background
The addiction model of compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD) and problematic pornography use (PPU) predicts the presence of withdrawal symptoms and increased tolerance for sexual stimuli in the disorder phenotype. However, clear empirical evidence supporting this claim has largely been lacking.
Methods
In the preregistered, nationally representative survey (n = 1,541, 51.2% women, age: M = 42.99, SD = 14.38), we investigated the role of self-reported withdrawal symptoms and tolerance with respect to CSBD and PPU severity.
Results
Both withdrawal and tolerance were significantly associated with the severities of CSBD (β = 0.34; P < 0.001 and β = 0.38; P < 0.001, respectively) and PPU (β = 0.24; P < 0.001 and β = 0.27; P < 0.001, respectively). Of the 21 withdrawal symptom types investigated, the most often reported symptoms were frequent sexual thoughts that were difficult to stop (for participants with CSBD: 65.2% and with PPU: 43.3%), increased overall arousal (37.9%; 29.2%), difficult to control level of sexual desire (57.6%; 31.0%), irritability (37.9%; 25.4%), frequent mood changes (33.3%; 22.6%), and sleep problems (36.4%; 24.5%).
Conclusions
Changes related to mood and general arousal noted in the current study were similar to the cluster of symptoms in a withdrawal syndrome proposed for gambling disorder and internet gaming disorder in DSM-5. The study provides preliminary evidence on an understudied topic, and present findings can have significant implications for understanding the etiology and classification of CSBD and PPU. Simultaneously, drawing conclusions about clinical importance, diagnostic utility and detailed characteristics of withdrawal symptoms and tolerance as a part of CSBD and PPU, as well as other behavioral addictions, requires further research efforts.
Abstract
Backgrounds and aims
Given problematic Internet usage's (PIU) negative impact on individual health, this study evaluates how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect young adults' PIU and the possible underlying mechanism of the “feeling of loneliness” (FOL) trajectory.
Methods
Analyzing a retrospective cohort sample from the Taiwan Youth Project, 2,393 adolescents were interviewed from the average ages of 14–28. We constructed ACE in 2000 using six categories (e.g., abuse and low family socioeconomic status) and 5-item PIU in 2017 from Chen's Internet Addiction Scale. FOL trajectories measured eight times, at average ages 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25, 28 years-old.
Results
Overall, 12.65% of the participants did not have ACEs, and 12.78% exhibited PIU. FOL trajectory analyses yielded three groups: “constant low” (reference group: 53.25%); “moderate decline” (36.81%); and “increasing” (9.94%). Regression models showed a dose–response association between ACE and young adults' PIU (adjusted odds ratio = 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02–1.23) and the two risky loneliness groups (moderate decline: relative risk ratio [RRR] = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.32–1.54; increasing: RRR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.37–1.71). Structural equation modeling further found that ACEs increase young adults' risk of being in the increasing group, and consequently, the risk of PIU.
Discussion and conclusions
We demonstrated that ACE may be associated with 1) adults' PIU, 2) FOL from adolescence to emerging adulthood, and 3) young adults' PIU through its association with FOL trajectories.
Abstract
Background and aims
Legacy gambling harms are negative consequences of gambling that extend past periods of low risk, moderate risk and problem gambling. Gambling harm is typically measured within a 12-month timeframe and is often restricted to examining harm amongst active gamblers. The present research aimed to explore whether people experienced gambling harms 12 months or more after the resolution of at-risk or problem gambling, and how long these legacy harms lasted.
Methods
An online survey was conducted in New Zealand with past and current gamblers and concerned significant others (CSOs) of gamblers, N = 1,240 (50.8% female), that asked them about both past and current gambling harms.
Results
A majority of both gamblers and CSOs of gamblers indicated that they still suffered from gambling harm even after most of their behavioural issues with gambling had been resolved, 12+ months ago. Legacy gambling harms reduced over time, with harms diminishing most quickly in the early years, and having an average half-life of 4 years. Harms involving community-relationships, church involvement, and domestic and other violence resolved more quickly than others.
Discussion and conclusions
Legacy harms are common among ex-problem gamblers and should be considered in any full accounting of the impacts of gambling.
Conclusion
Understanding the time course and persistence of legacy harms from gambling can provide gamblers, treatment professionals and public health experts with insights into how to address gambling's long-term consequences.
Abstract
Background and aims
The Short Gambling Harm Screen (SGHS) is currently the most frequently applied dedicated measure of gambling-related harm (GRH), though concerns relating to scale validity have been expressed. The current study aimed to address criticisms that several SGHS items do not depict genuine harms that may occur as a result of gambling, causing the scale to overestimate harm. Specifically, we aimed to test convergence between the SGHS and its constituent items with: (1) wellbeing, and (2) psychological distress.
Methods
To test criterion validity of both the scale and the items, retrospective analyses of survey data from 2,704 Australian adults (36% non-gamblers; 64% gamblers) were conducted. Subjective wellbeing and psychological distress scores, captured using the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) and the Kessler-6 Psychological Distress Scale (K6), respectively, were used as external (non-gambling) benchmarks. A total of 428 (16%) respondents scored at least 1 on the SGHS.
Results
Monotonic decreases and increases, corresponding to poorer personal wellbeing and higher psychological distress, were found with each additional SGHS score increase. Gamblers endorsing a single SGHS item reported lower wellbeing and higher psychological distress than both non-gamblers and gamblers who scored zero on the SGHS.
Discussion and conclusion
These results show that the SGHS is a valid measure of GRH and contradict suggestions that low scores on the SGHS do not indicate true harm. The SGHS represents a valid and innovative short screening tool to measure GRH in population prevalence studies.
Abstract
Background and aims
Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is known to cause various psychological and physical complications. Through data collected from an adolescent prospective longitudinal cohort, we examined how IGD is related to lifestyle and physical symptoms, as well as the temporal relationship between them.
Methods
This study was conducted as part of iCURE (Internet user Cohort for Unbiased Recognition of gaming disorder in Early Adolescence) in Korea between 2015 and 2019. Sleep and physical activity time, dry eye symptoms, musculoskeletal pain, and near-miss accidents were measured at baseline and followed-up after one year. IGD risk was evaluated using the Internet Game Use – Elicited Symptom Screen (IGUESS). The association between IGD risk and measured variables was analyzed, both at baseline and at follow-up after one year.
Results
At baseline, the IGD risk group had significantly less physical activity time and sleep time and had more dry eye symptoms, musculoskeletal pain, and near-miss accidents than the IGD non-risk group. Additionally, in the IGD risk group at baseline, dry eye symptoms, musculoskeletal pain, and near-miss accidents occurred significantly more after one year of follow-up.
Discussion and conclusion
The results of this study show that IGD is a significant risk factor that increases the probability of physical disease and trauma in adolescents. Therefore, interventions aimed at reducing IGD risk and protecting the physical and mental health of adolescents are imperative.
Abstract
Background and aims
Although the Ten-Item Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGDT-10) has been translated into Japanese and widely used, the Japanese version has not previously been validated. We used the clinical diagnosis of IGD as a gold standard for validating the test.
Methods
The Japanese version was validated using 244 gamers drawn from the general young population in Japan. Expert interviews using the Japanese version of the Structured Clinical Interview for Internet Gaming Disorder evaluated diagnoses of Internet gaming disorder (IGD). This resulted in a diagnosis of IGD for eight individuals, categorized as the gold standard group. The screening performance of the two Japanese versions with different scoring conditions was examined: the scoring method proposed by the original study (original version) and a less stringent scoring method where responses of either “often” or “sometimes” were regarded as affirmative (modified version).
Results
The results of the sensitivity and specificity analyses, the Cronbach's alpha and the receiver operating characteristics analysis revealed a higher screening performance for the modified versus the original version. The optimum cutoff for the modified version was 5 or more – the sensitivity, specificity, and Youden's index were 87.5, 85.2, and 72.7%, respectively. The rate of probable IGD using the original and modified versions were 1.8% and 11.3%, respectively.
Discussion and conclusion
A less stringent scoring method for the Japanese version of IGDT-10 showed a higher screening performance than the original scoring method. Future studies comprising different ethnic groups and gaming cultures should further examine the suggested scoring method.
Az elektromágneses tereknek tulajdonított idiopátiás környezeti intolerancia (IEI-EMF) jelensége a szakemberek szemszögéből
Idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI-EMF) – from the viewpoint of the specialists
Kétrészes narratív összefoglalónkban áttekintést nyújtunk az elektromágneses tereknek tulajdonított idiopátiás környezeti intoleranciával (IEI-EMF, más néven elektromágneses túlérzékenységgel) kapcsolatos tudományos eredményekről, a kutatások jelenlegi állásáról. Az elektromágneses túlérzékenység olyan állapotot jelent, amely során az érintett személy tüneteket tapasztal az elektromos eszközök közelében vagy azok használatakor, és tüneteit az elektromágneses expozíciónak tulajdonítja. Az Egészségügyi Világszervezet jelenlegi álláspontja szerint az IEI-EMF nem diagnosztikus kategória, megállapításához jelenleg sem orvosi teszt, sem valid protokoll nem áll rendelkezésre. Jellemző az állapotra a nagyfokú distressz, gyakran vezet szociális izolációhoz, valamint a munkaképesség elvesztéséhez. Gyakoriak a különböző komorbid mentális zavarok, mint a szorongás, depresszió, szomatizáció. Az elektromágneses túlérzékenység etiológiájával kapcsolatos elméletek két fő irányvonalat képviselnek: míg a biofizikai megközelítés szerint a tüneteket elektromágneses mezők által aktivált fiziológiai folyamatok idézik elő, addig a pszichogén elméletet propagáló szerzők a tünetképzés jelenségét pszichológiai folyamatokkal magyarázzák (például torzult figyelmi és attribúciós folyamatok, nocebohatás, asszociatív tanulás). Számos kutató hangsúlyozza azonban, hogy a jelenség teljes megértéséhez a két megközelítés integrálására és interdiszciplináris kutatócsoportok felállítására van szükség. Jelen írásunkban a jelenséggel kapcsolatos jellemzőket kutatói és orvosi szemszögből járjuk körül: az etiológiával kapcsolatos elméletek bemutatásán túl kitérünk a vizsgálati, módszertani nehézségekre, a definíciós és diagnosztikus problémákra és a terápiás lehetőségekre.