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Background Beliefs about the controllability of behaviour have been consistently shown to be important in understanding the responses of carers to the challenging behaviour of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs). This paper reports the reliability and validity of the Controllability Beliefs Scale (CBS), a 15-item measure of beliefs regarding the controllability of challenging behaviour when used with carers of people with IDs. Methods Two hundred and sixty-four carers of people with IDs completed the CBS, 74 people also completed the Modified Attributional Style Questionnaire and the Self-Injury Behavioural Understanding Questionnaire scale to determine concurrent and convergent validity and 34 people completed the scale twice within a 2- to 4-week period to determine test-retest reliability. Results The scale has a two-factor structure and has adequate internal reliable. The scale is significantly correlated with the controllability, internality and stability items from the Modified Attributional Style Questionnaire, showed expected associations with behavioural and internal emotional understanding items from the Self-Injury Behavioural Understanding Questionnaire. The scale has good test-retest reliability. Conclusions The data support use of the CBS in clinical practice and research to assess carers' beliefs regarding challenging behaviour of people with IDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty is a key contingency in the relationship between work characteristics and outcomes such as employee performance and well-being. In this paper, we specify and test a self-report measure of work uncertainty for use in any setting to facilitate research and decision making regarding the design of work. Using data collected from three diverse samples, analyses found support for a multi-dimensional model that corresponds to resource, task, and input/output sources of uncertainty. The scales showed discriminant validity, and task uncertainty was found to moderate the relationship between job control and intrinsic job satisfaction in a form consistent with theoretical predictions. Practitioner Points The self-report measure of work uncertainty may be used to evaluate existing work design and facilitate its redesign., As research demonstrates, it is critical that the level of job control afforded to employees is congruent with the level of uncertainty they experience. Failure to consider the role of uncertainty in linking job control to outcomes (e.g., performance, well-being) can undermine work redesign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of self-forgiveness that merely focus on the outcome of positive self-regard risk neglecting the process through which offenders restore it. They may thus tap pseudo self-forgiveness where offenders downplay their responsibility for the wrongdoing. For genuine self-forgiveness, the process should instead involve an attenuation of the negative link between responsibility acceptance and positive self-regard. In this paper, we examine how acts of value reaffirmation facilitate genuine self-forgiveness. In Study 1, a role-play experiment (N = 90), participants either confessed their wrongdoing to the victim or not. Although responsibility acceptance was strongly negatively related to reported self-forgiveness (i.e., self-regard), this relationship was tempered when participants confessed their wrongdoing to the victim and, through this, reaffirmed the violated values. In Study 2, a longitudinal study referring to self-reported transgressions (N = 74), responsibility acceptance was negatively related to self-forgiveness measures as well as self-esteem when offenders showed little value reaffirmation, but not when they more strongly reaffirmed the violated values. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a major problem for mental health. Empirical studies and clinical observations have shown that the symptoms of depression occur across four main domains-emotional, cognitive, somatic and interpersonal. However, commonly used depression assessment scales fail to address the evaluation of interpersonal symptoms, as summarized in this paper. Therefore, a new depression assessment scale, which aimed to evaluate all four domains of depressive symptomatology, was developed. In an initial analysis, a pilot 85-item questionnaire containing possible depressive symptoms was distributed for evaluation to experts from different mental health professions, from which 52 items were subsequently selected for the new multidimensional depression assessment scale. One hundred community participants completed the questionnaire along with the Beck Depression Inventory-II. The results indicated that the new depression scale had good psychometric properties. It was found to be reliable and valid for the assessment of depression severity and symptomatology, though it is emphasized that these data are only preliminary and based on a relatively healthy sample. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]