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Existing research supports the therapeutic value of hope in different therapies and for diverse patient groups. Patients who are socially inhibited tend to have a particularly difficult time in group therapy, and the experience of hope in that context may be especially poignant for them. The present study investigated the impact of hope on the outcome of a group-based treatment and whether this impact differed for patients depending on their level of social inhibition. The sample consisted of 49 consecutively admitted patients who completed treatment in an intensive, integrative group therapy program. Patients completed four self-report measures to assess hope, social inhibition, quality of life, and depression. Regression with moderation analysis was employed. The analyses revealed that social inhibition significantly moderated the impact of hope on treatment outcome, indicating that hope had a more pronounced effect among those patients with relatively higher levels of social inhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The possibility that sex role orientation was a better predictor of care-oriented moral development than gender for both men and women was investigated in this study. Also, the relationship between care-oriented moral reasoning and prosocial behavior was examined. Subjects were university students with the majority being Caucasian (97%) and single (86%). Using pre-selected groups of sex role stereotyped and androgynous individuals (45 females, 45 males), the relationship between sex role orientation and care-oriented moral reasoning was found to be stronger than that between gender and moral reasoning. However, this finding was accounted for largely by differences among women. Although moral reasoning did not relate to prosocial behavior as expected, there were significant gender differences in prosocial behavior. Two implications are that the Ethic of Care Interview may need to be re-designed to be more applicable for men and that sex role subscription may be a more important psychological variable than gender.

The research on sexual assault program evaluation revealed that most sexual assault prevention programs are not effective. The most promising avenue for sexual assault prevention may be self-defense training, which is not a part of prevention program.

This study examined the effects of cognitive--behavior therapy (CBT) compared with traditional behavior therapy (exposure and response prevention [ERP]) in the group treatment of obsessive--compulsive disorder. Of the 76 participants who started treatment, 38 were wait-listed for 3 months before treatment to assess possible course effects. Both treatments were superior to the control condition in symptom reduction, with ERP being marginally more effective than CBT by end of treatment and again at 3-month follow-up. In terms of clinically significant improvement, treatment groups were equivalent on the conclusion of treatment, but 3 months later significantly more ERP participants met criteria for recovered status. Only 1 of 7 belief measures changed with treatment improvement, and the extent of this cognitive change was similar between CBT and ERP groups. Discussion includes consideration of optimal formats for the delivery of different types of treatment.

There is growing evidence for the important role of patients' outcome expectations to the process and outcome of psychotherapy, yet its relevance to group cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression has not been examined. In an effort to fill this void, the present study investigated expectations for improvement among 80 psychiatric outpatients attending a group CBT program for depression. The study addressed the following four questions: (1) Which baseline patient characteristics might be associated with patients' expectations for improvement? (2) Does providing a rationale and outline for treatment affect patients' expectations? (3) Are patients' expectations related to the quality of therapeutic alliance? and (4) Are patients' expectations associated with the outcome of treatment? The main findings of the study are as follows: (a) baseline symptoms of depression, quality of life and current suicidal ideations were consistently associated with outcome expectancies; (b) outcome expectancies were unrelated to treatment completion status; (c) although expectancy ratings did not change significantly for the group as a whole, there was some variability in how individual patient's expectancy ratings changed; (d) baseline expectancies were related to early-treatment alliance quality, but not to mid-treatment alliance, whereas early-treatment expectancies were significantly associated with mid-treatment alliance; and (e) baseline expectations of favourable outcome had a negative association with improvement in anxiety symptoms, yet expectancy ratings from session 3 had a positive association with improvement in quality of life and interpersonal problems. Increases in expectancy ratings were significantly related to improvement in anxiety, quality of life and interpersonal problems. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Message Patients who present in a particularly hopeless and demoralized state are likely to have low expectations for a positive outcome of treatment., Efforts should be made in the first few sessions of therapy to mobilize patients' hope and expectation of success, for increases in one's expectations may facilitate a favourable treatment outcome., An optimistic outlook on the probability of success in treatment may contribute to the development of a strong working relationship between the patient and the therapist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]