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Despite the influence of Beck's cognitive models of depression, the presence and magnitude of the specific proposed cognitive biases have not been systematically investigated. After a systematic search in PsycInfo and PubMED, studies reporting self-reported outcomes on cognitive biases and depressive symptoms in depressed and/or healthy groups were included. From a total of 4840 records, two different meta-analyses were conducted. 23 studies on 4865 participants provided data about catastrophising and depression (g = 0.95, 95% CI [0.64; 1.26]) and 40 studies on 4678 participants provided data about interpretation bias in depression (g = 0.78, 95% CI [0.43; 1.13]). Moderation analyses showed that the relationship between catastrophising and depression was higher in studies with more women, when the corresponding author was from a Western country, and when the instrument to measure depression was the DSM criteria, the SCL-90, the BDI, or the DASS. The relationship between interpretation bias and depressive symptoms was significant only in studies comparing depressed and healthy groups, and when using specific instruments to measure symptoms (DSM/RDC criteria plus a scale cut-off score) and cognitive bias (CDQ/CBQ, SCT, AST-D, other). Some limitations are acknowledged, but risk of publication bias was found to be low, and these results support the utility of some self-reported measures of cognitive biases in depression., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

If the brain is a complex network of functionally specialized areas, it might be expected that mental representations could also behave in a similar way. We propose the concept of ‘psychonectome’ to formalize the idea of psychological constructs forming a dynamic network of mutually dependent elements. As a proof-of-concept of the psychonectome, networks analysis (NA) was used to explore structural changes in the network of constructs resulting from a psychological intervention. NA was applied to explore the effects of an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in healthy participants (N = 182). Psychological functioning was measured by questionnaires assessing five key domains related to MBSR: mindfulness, compassion, psychological well-being, psychological distress and emotional-cognitive control. A total of 25 variables, covering the five constructs, were considered as nodes in the NA. Participants significantly improved in most of the psychological questionnaires. More interesting from a network perspective, there were also significant changes in the topological relationships among the elements. Expected influence and strength centrality indexes revealed that mindfulness and well-being measures were the most central nodes in the networks. The nodes with highest topological change after the MBSR were attentional control, compassion measures, depression and thought suppression. Also, cognitive appraisal, an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, was associated to rumination before the MBSR program but became related to mindfulness and well-being measures after the program. Community analysis revealed a strong topological association between mindfulness, compassion, and emotional regulation, which supports the key role of compassion in mindfulness training. These results highlight the importance of exploring psychological changes from a network perspective and support the conceptual advantage of considering the interconnectedness of psychological constructs in terms of a ‘psychonectome’ as it may reveal ways of functioning that cannot be analyzed through conventional analytic methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although there is a growing interest in the role of attentional biases in depression, there are no studies assessing changes in these biases after psychotherapeutic interventions.Methods: We used a validated eye-tracking procedure to assess pre-post therapy changes in attentional biases toward emotional information (i.e., happy, sad, and angry faces) when presented with neutral information (i.e., neutral faces). The sample consisted of 75 participants with major depression or dysthymia. Participants were blindly assigned to one of two 10 weekly sessions of group therapy: a cognitive behavior therapy intervention (N = 41) and a positive psychology intervention (N = 34).Results: Both treatments were equally efficacious in improving depressive symptoms (p = .0001, η² = .68). A significant change in attentional performance after therapy was observed irrespective of the intervention modality. Comparison of pre-post attentional measures revealed a significant reduction in the total time of fixations (TTF) looking at negative information (i.e., sad and angry faces) and a significant increase in the TTF looking at positive information (i.e., happy faces)-all p < .02.Conclusions: Findings reveal for the first time that psychotherapeutic interventions are associated with a significant change in attentional biases as assessed by a direct measure of attention. Furthermore, these changes seem to operate in the same direction typically found in healthy populations (i.e., a bias away from negative information and a parallel bias toward positive information). These findings illustrate the importance of considering attentional biases as clinical markers of depression and suggest the viability of modifying these biases as a potential tool for clinical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has found that cognitive biases in attention, interpretation, and memory play an important role in depression. However, there is little knowledge of the interplay between these biases in clinical depression. The present study was aimed to model different pathways of relation among attention, interpretation and autobiographical memory biases, and to examine their contribution to account for depression status outcomes. Cognitive biases were evaluated in a sample comprising 22 currently-depressed and 36 never-depressed individuals representing a broad range of depression severity levels. Cognitive biases were assessed by three separate tasks using different types of stimuli. Our main finding was a significant indirect effect model in which attention bias to negative faces was linked to greater negative memory bias via its association with negative interpretation bias. Within this model, the specific pathway between attention bias to negative faces and negative interpretation bias accounted both for significant variance in depression severity as well as for depression diagnostic status. These findings increase our understanding of the complex interplay between cognitive mechanisms involved in clinical depression and highlight hypothetical pathways relevant for future interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research over the last two decades on the role of positive emotions and cognitions in psychological functioning is leading to conceptual changes regarding the nature of mental disorders and the mechanisms underlying their onset and maintenance. This introduction to the latest breakthrough research on positive emotions and cognition offers a brief description of the emerging presence of positivity in current diagnostic systems like the DSM5 and Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). It also analyzes some select findings from the literature on experimental psychopathology supporting the relevance of examining positive aspects of functioning in clinical psychology. In addition, the study of positive aspects of psychological functioning adds a more conceptually complex understanding of psychopathology. The multiple perspectives encompassed in this special issue shed light on our understanding of the different roles that positive emotions and cognitions play in mediating normal and abnormal human functioning and their importance to improving research methods and interventions in psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant advancements in the research of subjective well-being (SWB), little is known about its connection with basic cognitive processes. The present study explores the association between selective attention to emotional stimuli (i.e. emotional faces) and both the emotional and cognitive components of SWB (i.e. emotional well-being and satisfaction in life, respectively). Participants (N = 83) were asked to freely watch a series of 84 pairs of emotional (happy, angry, or sad) and neutral faces from the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database. Eye-tracking methodology measured first fixations, number of fixations, and the time spent looking at emotional faces. Results showed that both the emotional and cognitive components of SWB were related to a general bias to attend to happy faces and avoid sad faces. Yet, bootstrapping analyses showed that positive emotions, rather than life satisfaction, were responsible for the positive information-processing bias. We discuss the potential functionality of these biases and their implications for research on positive emotions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Negative interpretation bias is a potential risk factor for emotional disorders. • A new clinically-based online Cognitive Bias Modification program was administered. • Self-report and experimental tasks were used to disentangle mechanisms of change. • The program directly reduced interpretation and memory biases. • Changes in interpretation bias mediated improvement in depression symptoms. Negative interpretation bias is a potential risk factor for emotional disorders. In this study, we tested a clinically inspired 4-session online Cognitive Bias Modification-Interpretation (CBM-I Clin) program to modify negative interpretation biases. We randomized one hundred and twenty-one volunteer young adults (Mean age = 21.6 years, SD = 3.5; 85 % women) with varying levels of emotional distress to either an experimental or waitlist control group. Mediation analyses were used to disentangle the associations between the intervention, changes in interpretation biases (assessed by both a self-report and an experimental task), and changes in measures of cognitive vulnerability and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The results showed that the CBM-I Clin could change negative interpretation biases. Also, it had a direct effect on the change in negative memory bias, an indirect effect on the change in depression symptoms via the change in interpretation bias, and both direct and indirect effects on the change in self-reported dysfunctional attitudes. The study included a non-clinical sample of participants and it did not control for some potential confounding factors (e.g., attentional disorders). Furthermore, participants' engagement during the sessions at home was not supervised. The CBM-I Clin is a potential tool to prevent and intervene in emotional disorders in young adults and could complement other traditional CBM procedures or clinical interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]