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Background: Maladaptive trauma appraisal plays an important role in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of exposure and cognitive treatments for PTSD symptomatology, the effect of such treatments on specific trauma appraisals is still not well understood. Objective: The study investigated the effect of an exposure and a cognitive restructuring internet-based treatment on specific trauma appraisals in Arabic-speaking participants with PTSD. Method: 334 participants received either an exposure (n = 167) or a cognitive restructuring (n = 167) internet-based treatment. PTSD symptom severity (PCL-5) and specific trauma appraisals (TAQ) were assessed at pre- and post-treatment. Changes in specific trauma appraisals within and between the two treatments were analyzed using multi-group change modelling. Associations between changes in PTSD symptom severity and changes in trauma appraisals were evaluated using Pearson product-moment correlation. For both treatments, participants with versus without reliable improvement were compared regarding changes in specific trauma appraisals using Welch tests. Analyses were performed on 100 multiple imputed datasets. Results: Both treatments yielded significant changes in shame, self-blame, fear, anger, and alienation (all ps < .001). Changes in betrayal were only significant in the cognitive restructuring treatment (p < .001). There was no evidence of differences between treatments for any specific trauma appraisal. Changes in PTSD symptom severity were significantly associated with changes in trauma appraisals (all ps < .001). In both treatments, participants who experienced reliable improvement in PTSD symptom severity showed significantly larger pre- to post-treatment changes in specific trauma appraisals compared to those without reliable improvement. Again, differences in betrayal were only significant in the cognitive restructuring treatment. Conclusions: The findings indicate that both treatments are effective in reducing trauma appraisals in Arabic-speaking people with PTSD. Changes in trauma appraisal seem to be associated with changes in PTSD symptomatology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A literary criticism of the book “The Philosophy and Methods of Political Science" by Keith Dowding is presented. Topics discussed include philosophy of social science, political science research and qualitative analysis. Other topics which includes pluralism in political science and political scientists are also mentioned.

This article seeks to engage scholars in a richer understanding of post-civil war settlement implementation. It examines why some parties execute the provisions of these agreements fairly extensively, whereas others abide by few, if any, dimensions. We explore four peace settlements, developing a new measure that gauges various aspects of implementation. We examine how two factors in particular affect the degree to which parties abide by their commitments. First, we find that implementation is more likely as international support increases. This occurs through three chief mechanisms: mitigating commitment problems, generating audience costs, and the contingency of aid on implementation. Second, the balance of capabilities is a significant domestic influence on implementation. Parties are most prone to abide when the government is militarily superior, but the former rebels are powerful enough to meaningfully check government action. Implementation is less successful when government capabilities far exceed those of the rebels or when the rebels are particularly strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]