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Consideration of client preferences has been emphasized as important to therapeutic outcomes, such as treatment engagement and retention. Although studies have investigated several client and therapist characteristics associated with client preferences, few have considered whether people have preferences regarding a potential therapist's personality. The current study extended prior research on client preferences by examining the influence of participants' Big Five personality traits on preferences for therapist personality characteristics utilizing latent profile analysis. We expected congruence between client personality traits and preferred psychotherapist personality traits. In both undergraduate and community samples, results indicated that participants generally prefer a psychotherapist with personality characteristics similar to their own. Our findings establish the presence of preferences based on personality factors and have implications for future research directions and the role of personality assessment in routine clinical practice.

This study examined effects of a mindfulness induction on proximal and distal defense responses to mortality salience and negative affect. Three experimental conditions were included: mindfulness, mind-wandering, and worrying. Participants in the mindfulness condition underwent a mindfulness induction at the experiment’s outset, while participants in the other two conditions underwent a mind-wandering or worry induction. Inductions involved following guided audio instructions presented via headphones. All conditions ( N = 77) underwent a mortality salience induction after experimental manipulation, involving a written exercise pertaining to one’s death. Results indicated fewer proximal responses in the mindfulness and mind-wandering groups, compared with the worrying group, but no differences in distal responses. Negative affect was lower in the mindfulness group than in the worrying group following mortality salience. Results suggest that mindfulness exercises effectively buffer against negative affect and some responses to mortality salience, although these effects are not different from those of mind-wandering.

We document the development of the Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire—for use in multiple areas of psychology. It is designed to measure current feelings of and memory of love towards a specific parent during important time periods in childhood. In all samples (total N = 1527), we consistently found high internal reliability. We report the basic psychometrics of the 28-item subscale version in both undergraduate and US nonclinical adult samples and identified 10-item and 4-item subscale versions. The Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire has eight subscales: assessing mother and father separately during first, sixth, and ninth grade, as well as current feelings. We found a pattern of correlations that one would expect between existing attachment scales and the Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire. A factor analysis demonstrated that Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire items capture something different from the factors in established attachment measures. We found that the order of the subscales can be presented in a fixed order (mother-first and chronologically) without large order effects. The Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire demonstrated a single factor within subscales, reliability, and validity. The Memory of Love towards Parents Questionnaire can be used in clinical, social, developmental, and cognitive psychology.

This study describes the development and psychometric evaluation of an adolescent self-report version of the Pediatric Diabetes Routines Questionnaire (PDRQ:A), a measure of diabetes-specific routines for youth with type 1 diabetes, and further validation of the parent-version (PDRQ:P) in an adolescent sample. Participants included 120 parent-adolescent dyads (ages 12-17) and an additional 24 parents who completed measures of diabetes-specific adolescent routines, general adolescent routines, diabetes self-care, and family support of youth diabetes care. The PDRQ:P/A demonstrated good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and parent-child agreement, and adequate validity coefficients. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a one-factor model. Promising results were obtained. The PDRQ:P/A is a clinically feasible parent- and self-report measure that can provide valuable information regarding how frequently adolescents engage in their diabetes management tasks in a consistent manner. Addition of an adolescent report format will enhance the utility of the measure for clinical and research use.

The Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale is a short, self-report measure initially developed to assess psychopathic traits in noninstitutionalized samples. The present study aimed to explore factor structure and convergent and discriminant validity of the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale in a large U.S. military sample (90.7% Army National Guard). Factor analytic data, regression, and correlational analyses point to the superiority of Brinkley, Diamond, Magaletta, and Heigel's three-factor model in this sample. Implications for theory and the study of psychopathic personality traits in a military sample are discussed.

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether self-esteem instability moderated the association between self-esteem level and the use of humor. This was accomplished by examining the associations that humor styles had with self-esteem level and self-esteem instability among 499 undergraduates. The results of the present study show that self-esteem instability moderated the association between self-esteem level and humor styles such that individuals with stable high self-esteem reported the highest levels of affiliative humor as well as the lowest levels of aggressive and self-defeating humor. These results suggest that individuals with stable and unstable forms of self-esteem employ different styles of humor.

The nociceptive flexion reflex (NFR) is a polysynaptic withdrawal reflex typically assessed from biceps femoris electromyogram (EMG) following noxious stimulation of the ipsilateral sural nerve. Electrophysiological evidence suggests the reflex is elicited following the activation of small diameter A-delta afferents. As a result, the NFR is assumed to be a categorically distinct construct that emerges from EMG activity only following nociceptor activation. Despite the widespread use of the NFR in pain research, there has been little attempt to verify the latent structure of the NFR. The present study used "coherent cut kinetics" taxometric analyses to examine whether the latent structure of biceps femoris EMG reflects the taxonic structure that would be predicted from electrophysiological evidence. To achieve this end, preliminary analyses first compared different methods of scoring NFR magnitude. Results suggested the presence of a taxon in the covariance of biceps femoris EMG and stimulus intensity that is likely to be the NFR. Furthermore, preliminary analyses suggested the best method of scoring NFR magnitude was using Cohen's d. Implications of these results are discussed.

Objective A ruminative cognitive style has been associated with a variety of mood and anxiety disorders. This study examined whether a ruminative cognitive style is associated with health anxiety, even when controlling for negative affect. Method College students ( N =198) completed measures of health anxiety, rumination, and negative affect and estimated the likelihood that ambiguous symptoms were indicative of catastrophic illnesses. These data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results A ruminative cognitive style was both indirectly associated with health anxiety via its strong relationship with negative affect and was also directly associated with health anxiety. Furthermore, catastrophizing ambiguous symptoms was also directly related to health anxiety. Conclusion High health anxiety individuals not only hold dysfunctional beliefs about health and illness but they also think about their distress in a ruminative manner. A more complete cognitive–behavioral model of health anxiety should include not only cognitive contents (“what”) but also cognitive style (“how”).

This study tested the prospective effects of hope on depression and anxiety using a longitudinal design. A sample of 522 college students completed self-report measures of hope, depression, and anxiety at three time points, with 1-month delays between administrations. Structural equation modeling was employed to test two cross-lagged panel models of the reciprocal effects of the Agency and Pathways components of hope on depression and anxiety. Results indicated statistically significant negative effects for the Agency component of hope on later depression but no unique effect of the Pathways component of hope on depression. Likewise, Agency showed a statistically significant negative effect on later anxiety, but again Pathways had no significant influence on anxiety. In both cases, neither depression nor anxiety demonstrated any longitudinal effects on either the Agency or Pathways components of hope. Implications of these findings are discussed, along with potential directions for future research.

McNulty, Harkness, Ben-Porath and Williams recently developed Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scales for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory– A (MMPI-A). This study examined these new scales in a sample of 545 adolescents receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment. Item-level principal components analyses were employed to determine the internal structure of each PSY-5 scale and to aid in the creation of facet subscales for each PSY-5 scale. Results suggest that the MMPI-A PSY-5 scales display adequate internal consistency and our findings generally replicate the original work of McNulty et al. but also extend this work by showing that several of the PSY-5 scales may also be subdivided into meaningful lower level dimensions. These facet subscales for each of the MMPI-A PSY-5 scales are offered for further study.

The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicidal behavior (IPTS; Joiner, 2005) posits that suicidal behavior occurs when an individual has a desire for death (due to the combination of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness) in addition to an acquired capacity for suicide, which is present when the individual has a low fear of death and high pain tolerance. Previous research has demonstrated an expected negative relation between trait hope and perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness, as well as a more perplexing finding that hope is positively associated with the acquired capability. In a sample of 230 college students, measures of the three components of the IPTS were administered, along with measures of hope, depression, and painful and/or provocative events. Hierarchical regression analyses replicated the previously found associations between hope and burdensomeness and belongingness while controlling for depression and demographic variables. The positive association between hope and acquired capacity was also replicated, but a mediation analysis demonstrated that the effect was statistically accounted for by distress tolerance. The results further support the incremental validity of hope as a consideration in suicide risk assessments and suggest that hope may serve as a protective factor with respect to suicidal desire.

Psychometrically sound measures of the use of protective behavioral strategies are only in a development stage at this point. One such measure, the Protective Behavioral Strategies Scale (PBSS), has shown particular promise in this area. This study aimed to build on the PBSS by (a) evaluating revisions to the measure intended to yield more reliable scores from the serious harm reduction (SHR) subscale and (b) evaluating the factor structure of the revised measure and the stability of the factor structure across White non-Hispanics and African Americans and between women and men using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Three additional items were added to the SHR subscale, which improved its functioning. A 2-factor model best fit the data, and the factor structure of the measure was invariant across White non-Hispanic and African American men and women. Suggestions for further refinement of the measure and future research are provided.

Narcissism is a multifaceted construct that is inconsistently defined and assessed between clinical psychology and social-personality psychology. The purpose of the present study was to examine the similarities and differences in the cognitive schemas underlying various forms of narcissism. This was accomplished by examining the associations of normal and pathological forms of narcissism with the early maladaptive schemas. The results showed important similarities in these associations (e.g., all of the narcissism scales were positively associated with the entitlement schema) as well as differences (e.g., vulnerable narcissism was the only form of narcissism that was positively associated with subjugation). Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for the ways in which individuals with these forms of narcissism perceive and navigate their social environments.

The most commonly used measure of anxiety sensitivity is the 36-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index—Revised (ASI-R). Exploratory factor analyses have produced several different factors structures for the ASI-R, but an acceptable fit using confirmatory factor analytic approaches has only been found for a 21-item version of the instrument. We evaluated the fit of all published factor models for the 36- and 21-item ASI-R, modified the hierarchical model using an approach that does not eliminate items, evaluated the invariance of the modified model across Caucasian and African-American subsamples, and compared the reliability and validity of the 36-item and 21-item versions. The 21-item version of the ASI-R fit a four factor model, as did the 36-item version after several meaningful model modifications. The modified 36-item model was replicable in independent cases and its structural properties were generally invariant across race. Scores from the 36-item version exhibited superior reliability and criterion-related validity.

Anxiety sensitivity has been implicated as a risk factor for the development and maintenance of panic and other anxiety disorders. Although researchers have generally assumed that anxiety sensitivity is a dimensional, rather than categorical, variable, recent taxometric research has raised questions concerning the accuracy of this assumption. The present study examined the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity by applying four taxometric procedures (MAXEIG, MAXCOV, MAMBAC, and L-Mode) to data collected from two large nonclinical samples (n = 1,025 and n = 744) using two distinct measures of anxiety sensitivity (Anxiety Sensitivity Profile and Anxiety Sensitivity Index—Revised). In contrast to previous taxometric analyses of anxiety sensitivity, results of the present research provided convergent evidence for a latent anxiety sensitivity dimension. Several potential explanations for the discrepancy between these findings and those of previous research are discussed, as well as the implications of these findings for the conceptualization and measurement of anxiety sensitivity.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI-A) and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (MMPI-2) True Response Inconsistency (TRIN) scales are measures of acquiescence and nonacquiescence included among the standard validity scales on these instruments. The goals of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of these scales in detecting varying degrees of acquiescence and nonacquiescence and to evaluate cutoff scores for clinical use. After the removal of invalid protocols from the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A normative samples, each normative sample was randomly divided in half. For each measure, one half of the normative sample served as a comparison group and the other half was modified with increasing degrees (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%) of randomly inserted true or false responses. The results for a 9.1% base rate of acquiescence or nonacquiescence provide support for TRIN cutoff scores at or near those presented in the MMPI-A and MMPI-2 manuals.

The Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) is a five-factor personality trait model designed for assessing personality pathology using quantitative dimensions. Harkness, McNulty, and Ben-Porath developed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) scales based on the PSY-5 model, and these scales were recently added to the standard MMPI-2 profile. Although the PSY-5 constructs are multidimensional in definition, explicit subscales for the broader PSY-5 scales have not been developed. The primary goals of this study were to empirically derive subscales for the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales using principal components analysis (PCA) and to replicate these subscales with an independent sample. Individual PSY-5 scales were analyzed using PCA with an initial sample of 4,325 MMPI-2 protocols, and the component structure was replicated with a second sample of 4,277 MMPI-2 protocols. A third sample of 4,327 protocols was used to further evaluate the internal consistency reliabilities of the resulting facet subscales. Overall, replicable facet subscales were identified with content areas that are largely congruent with Harkness and McNulty’s model.

The research literature is replete with evidence of and concerns about the prevalence and undertreatment of mental disorders in primary care. Although screening, on its own, may not directly affect clinical outcomes, it is still the most efficient and effective way to identify psychologically distressed patients for either research purposes or to provide patients with or refer patients to appropriate care. The current study sought to establish the utility of the MHI-5 for the detection of patients suffering from major depression or panic disorder, two of the most common psychiatric conditions seen in primary care settings. This study was conducted in a family medicine clinic and 246 adult outpatients participated. Patients completed the Mental Health Index-5 (MHI-5) as the screening measure and the PRIME-MD Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) as the diagnostic instrument. ROC analyses indicated that a cut-off score of 23 on the MHI-5 yielded a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 58% for predicting provisional diagnoses of major depression or panic disorder from the PHQ. Using a single item to screen for a PHQ diagnosis of major depression yielded a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 62% and a second question had a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 63% for PHQ diagnosis of panic disorder. These results indicate that it is possible to use a small number of items to efficiently and effectively screen for mental disorders affecting a significant portion of primary care patients.

This study examined a Jungian picture interpretation schema, which utilizes a specific quadrant method. This proposed schema, which is used in training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zürich, attaches significance to specific areas of a drawing. The upper left of a drawing is associated with the father; the lower left with the unconscious; the lower right with the mother; and the upper right with the future. Three questions served as the foci of this study: Is the schema valid? Do certain types within Jung's personality theory respond better than others to the schema? Does the schema work best when it elicits a strong affective response from the person who created the picture? Subjects took one of two tests: a space domain test, or a colour associative test. The results revealed only two significant effects: a positive association (in the space domain test) between unconscious material with the unconscious quadrant and a negative association (in the colour associative test) of mother material with the mother quadrant. These results suggest that the Jungian quadrant schema used to interpret drawings is invalid and of minimal practical utility. Other methods of picture interpretation are discussed as well as suggestions for future research that would be helpful to this field.

Objective and methods Two experiments examined the impact of viewing unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral photographic slides on cold-pain perception in healthy men and women. In each experiment, participants viewed one of three slide shows (experiment 1 = fear, disgust, or neutral; experiment 2 = erotic, nurturant, or neutral) immediately before a cold-pressor task. Skin conductance and heart rate were recorded during the slide shows, whereas visual analog scale ratings of pain intensity and unpleasantness thresholds and pain tolerance were recorded during the cold-pressor task. Results Viewing fear and disgust slides decreased pain intensity and unpleasantness thresholds, but only the fear slides decreased pain tolerance. In contrast, viewing erotic, but not nurturant, slides increased pain intensity and unpleasantness threshold ratings on the visual analog scale in men, whereas neither nurturant nor erotic slides altered pain tolerance. Conclusions These results are consistent with a motivational priming model that predicts that unpleasant affective states should enhance pain and that pleasant affective states should attenuate it.

This paper focuses on the Singer-Loomis Type Deployment Inventory (SL-TDI), which is an alternative to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The SL-TDI utilizes a continuous, non-forced choice format and therefore is a more accurate representation of Jung's personality theory of psychological types. The purpose of the study reported here is to evaluate the reliability and validity of scores from the SL-TDI. Specifically, the goals were to (a) provide estimates of the internal consistency of SL-TDI scores; (b) evaluate the divergent validity of SL-TDI scores by examination of their relationships with the scores on a social desirability responding measure; and (c) examine the test-retest stability of scores from the SL-TDI. Strong support was found for both the reliability and validity of SL-TDI scores.