Sunday, April 29, 2018

God, I Can’t Stop Thinking About Sex! The Rebound Effect in Unsuccessful Suppression of Sexual Thoughts Among Religious Adolescents

God, I Can’t Stop Thinking About Sex! The Rebound Effect in Unsuccessful Suppression of Sexual Thoughts Among Religious Adolescents. Yaniv Efrati. The Journal of Sex Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2018.1461796

Abstract: The rebound effect of thought suppression refers to attempts to suppress thoughts that result in an increase of those thoughts. The aim of this three-study research was to investigate the suppression of thoughts and its possible importance in the cognitive model of predicted compulsive sexual behavior (CSB) among Israeli Jewish religious and secular adolescents. Study 1 (N = 661): Do religious and secular adolescents differ in CSB and related psychopathology? Study 2 (N = 522): Does CSB mediate the link between religiosity and well-being? Study 3 (N = 317): Does religiosity relate to suppression of sexual thoughts, which relates to higher CSB and lower well-being? The analyses indicated that religious adolescents are higher in CSB than secular ones, and that sexual suppression and CSB mediate the link between religiosity and well-being. Results are discussed and address the need for a broader understanding of CSB and the function of thought suppression.

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Some limitations of the research should be acknowledged. First, the research population was very homogeneous and local: Jewish Israeli adolescents. Future studies should examine other age groups and diverse religious and cultural populations to ascertain the replicability and generalizability of the findings.

Future research might also address the relationship between sexually related problems and a broader spectrum of variables that examine social support available to adolescents: parents, family, peers, and additional significant others. It would also be interesting to distinguish between elements of spirituality and religion, dividing behavior into positive and negative coping. Thus, religious coping that relies on spiritual connections, forgiveness, and benevolence could be positive. However, it could also be negative if based on spiritual discontent, a “punishing” God, or interpersonal friction on religious grounds (Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998). In addition, Studies 1 to 3 are correlational and so do not allow us to conclude that religious beliefs are the cause of sexual suppression or individual CSB. Longitudinal studies could help in deciphering the directionality of these links.

Despite these shortcomings, we view the current research as an important step in understanding adolescents’ suppression of sexual thoughts, taking into account the culturalreligious context as a major component in adolescents’sexual development.

Clinical experience is positively associated with increased confidence & perceived mastery in clinical ability, increased flexibility in professional identity & therapeutic orientation, reduced stress & anxiety in clinical practice, & improvements in clinical judgment & decision-making, but not to ability to increase quality

Years of Clinical Experience and Therapist Professional Development: A Literature Review. Glen C. Dawson. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, June 2018, Volume 48, Issue 2, pp 89–97. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10879-017-9373-8

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to review the effect of years of clinical experience on aspects of therapist professional development. Themes within this specific literature were determined inductively as part of an all-inclusive review. Years of clinical experience were found to be positively associated with increased confidence and perceived mastery in clinical ability, increased flexibility in professional identity and therapeutic orientation, reduced stress and anxiety in clinical practice, and improvements in clinical judgment and decision-making. Although years of experience were found to relate to increased therapist focus on the therapeutic relationship, evidence does not suggest that it is associated with improved ability to increase its quality. It is unclear how years of clinical experience affect therapist usage of and attitude towards evidence supported treatments and evidence based practice given the interference of age cohort effects. This literature is limited by overly-proportionate psychodynamic samples and the use of primarily cross-sectional designs.

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Patient outcome's variability is weakly or not related to competence, training nor adherence of therapists:

Common versus specific factors in psychotherapy: opening the black box. RogerMulder, Greg Murray, Julia Rucklidge. The Lancet Psychiatry, Volume 4, Issue 12, December 2017, Pages 953-962. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2017/11/patient-outcomes-variability-is-weakly.html

Psychotherapy was a marvellous invention, but initial enthusiasm regarding its efficacy has now been obfuscated due to scientific biases that systematically inflate estimates:

Raising awareness for the replication crisis in clinical psychology by focusing on inconsistencies in psychotherapy research: how much can we rely on published findings from efficacy trials? Michael P. Hengartner. Front. Psychol. | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00256, https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2018/02/psychotherapy-was-marvellous-invention.html

Conspiracy theories about government officials and the institutions they represent are widespread, and span the ideological spectrum. System identity threat, or a perception that society's fundamental, defining values are under siege due to social change, predict conspiracy thinking

The Role of System Identity Threat in Conspiracy Theory Endorsement. Christopher M. Federico, Allison L. Williams, Joseph A. Vitriol. European Journal of Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2495

Abstract: Conspiracy theories about government officials and the institutions they represent are widespread, and span the ideological spectrum. In this study, we test hypotheses suggesting that system identity threat, or a perception that society's fundamental, defining values are under siege due to social change will predict conspiracy thinking. Across two samples (N=870, N=2,702), we found that system identity threat is a strong predictor of a general tendency toward conspiracy thinking and endorsement of both ideological and non‐ideological conspiracy theories, even after accounting for numerous covariates. We also found that the relationship between system‐identity threat and conspiracy‐theory endorsement is mediated by conspiracy thinking. These results suggest that conspiracy‐theory endorsement may be a compensatory reaction to perceptions that society's essential character is changing.

Found no difference in treatment completion rate & broad equivalence of treatment outcomes for participants treated through self-help & participants treated through a therapist; and the variability of outcomes was broadly equivalent

Understanding the Therapist Contribution to Psychotherapy Outcome: A Meta-Analytic Approach. Robert J. King et al. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, September 2017, Volume 44, Issue 5, pp 664–680. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10488-016-0783-9

Abstract: Understanding the role that therapists play in psychotherapy outcome, and the contribution to outcome made by individual therapist differences has implications for service delivery and training of therapists. In this study we used a novel approach to estimate the magnitude of the therapist contribution overall and the effect of individual therapist differences. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies in which participants were randomised to receive the same treatment either through self-help or through a therapist. We identified a total of 15 studies (commencement N = 910; completion N = 723) meeting inclusion criteria. We found no difference in treatment completion rate and broad equivalence of treatment outcomes for participants treated through self-help and participants treated through a therapist. Also, contrary to our expectations, we found that the variability of outcomes was broadly equivalent, suggesting that differences in efficacy of individual therapists were not sufficient to make therapy outcomes more variable when a therapist was involved. Overall, the findings suggest that self-help, with minimal therapist input, has considerable potential as a first-line intervention. The findings did not suggest that individual differences between therapists play a major role in psychotherapy outcome.