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Biomedical subjects

David A F Haaga

Publications and source records attributed to David A F Haaga.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Effect of cognitive behavior therapy on smokers' compensatory coping skills.

Cognitive behavior therapy for depression has been adapted for use in cigarette smoking cessation groups. CBT appears to be an effective treatment, though results are mixed as to whether it is especially helpful for smokers vulnerable to depression, and little is known about what mediates its effects. Based on the hypothesis that CBT works by way of teaching compensatory skills for coping with negative thinking and emotions, this study compared CBT with a time-matched comparison condition incorporating health education and scheduled, reduced smoking. There was a nonsignificant trend favoring CBT in achieving abstinence, but CBT did not enhance smokers' compensatory coping skills. Discussion focuses on the need to examine a wide range of possible mediating variables in future research on CBT for smoking cessation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

Integrative principles for treating substance use disorders.

This article, based on B. McCrady, D. Haaga, and J. Lebow (2006), provides guidance for the treatment of substance use disorders by identifying empirically based principles that underpin effective treatment systems and effective treatments. To promote the flexible application of empirically based principles to individual clients, the authors (a) integrate therapeutic, participant, and relationship factors (drawn from reviews by B.S. McCrady & P.E. Nathan, 2006; D.A.F. Haaga, S.M. Hall, & A. Haas, 2006; and J. Lebow, J. Kelly, L.M. Knobloch-Fedders, & R. Moos, 2006) into a comprehensive description of treatment, (b) integrate common and specific principles of changes into articulated descriptions of treatment, and (c) identify directions for research to improve the sensitivity and specificity of treatment.

Clinical Protocols↗
PubMed2006

Perceptions of depression among recovered-depressed and never-depressed individuals.

Research on lay beliefs about depression has shown that recovered-depressed people evaluate their own depressive experiences as more distressing than do those who have never experienced major depression. This study tested whether history of depression would influence beliefs about others' experiences of depression. Recovered-depressed (n = 63) and never-depressed adults (n = 64) completed the Self-Appraisal Questionnaire (R-SAQ; J.C. Coyne & M.M. Calarco, 1995) revised to address perceptions of others' experiences of depression. History of depression was not associated with R-SAQ scores. In supplementary analyses, self-reported depression proneness was also uncorrelated with perceptions of others' depression. People without a history of major depression were just as likely to recognize the highly debilitating nature of depression for others. Although nondepressed people frequently fail to convey empathy to friends or relatives who are depressed, this failure probably does not reflect lack of knowledge that depression is incapacitating.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Nicotine dependence, PTSD symptoms, and depression proneness among male and female smokers.

Several studies have linked posttraumatic stress disorder with heavy smoking. It is not known to what extent this association is specific, as opposed to being a function of a joint association of PTSD and heavy smoking with a third variable such as depression proneness. In a cross-sectional study of 157 current regular smokers, severity of nicotine dependence (but not cigarettes smoked per day) was positively correlated with total PTSD symptoms, hyperarousal symptoms, and avoidance symptoms. These correlations were not eliminated by controlling statistically for depression vulnerability, whether it was measured on a continuous self-rating scale or on the basis of interview-diagnosed history of major depression. The association between PTSD and nicotine dependence was stronger among men than among women.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

The association between seasonal and premenstrual symptoms is continuous and is not fully accounted for by depressive symptoms.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) frequently co-occurs with premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Explanations of this comorbidity highlighting the cyclical nature of female sex hormones imply that seasonal and premenstrual symptoms should correlate positively even in nonclinical samples. In a sample of 91 female college students, we found a sizable positive correlation (r = .45; p < 0.001) between seasonal and premenstrual symptoms. This relation held up even in a subsample selected on the basis of not qualifying for SAD or subsyndromal SAD on a screening measure. Although the correlation was reduced when depressive symptom severity was statistically controlled, it remained positive and significant. Future research testing possible explanations of the co-occurrence of seasonal and premenstrual symptoms should incorporate the full range of severity on symptom variables, treating them as continua rather than solely as binary categories.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Depression proneness and reactions to a depressive stimulus.

In the context of a project examining depression vulnerability and cigarette smoking, the authors tested whether depression-vulnerable people differed from less vulnerable people in their reactions to a depressive stimulus. Regular smokers with a history of depression but not currently depressed (n = 63) and never-depressed smokers (n = 64) listened to audiotapes of confederates reading depressive and nondepressive scripts and reported their reactions. Neither a history of depression nor self-reported depression proneness predicted reactions to depression. However, depression proneness was positively correlated with beliefs about depression contagion. Likewise, stronger depression-related contagion beliefs and lower levels of empathic responding predicted behavioral rejection of the depressive stimulus.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Effects of training intensity on observers' ratings of anxiety, social skills, and alcohol-specific coping skills.

Few studies have addressed the amount of training needed to obtain reliable ratings in behavioral observation data. The current study examined the effects of differing intensities of frame-of-reference (FOR) rater training on observers' ratings of anxiety, social skills, and alcohol-specific coping skills in community volunteers with and without social anxiety and alcohol use disorders. Interrater reliability was assessed by comparing three training conditions (no-training, moderate FOR, and intensive FOR) on discrepancies between raters'scores and the strength of association between raters'scoring patterns. The discrepancies between raters' scores were significantly larger in the control condition than in the intensive and moderate training conditions. Generally, small and nonsignificant differences were found between intensive and moderate training's discrepancy scores. Strength of association results showed significantly lower correlations in the control group compared to the intensive group. However, these correlational results showed less consistent differences between the moderate and other training conditions; differences when found were in the expected directions. Study findings suggest that differing training intensities can affect rating scores and that interrater reliability may be meaningfully assessed through multiple methods.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2005

Depression vulnerability, cigarette smoking, and the serotonin transporter gene.

People with current or past depression are more likely to have been smokers at some point in their lives. Smokers with depression histories are also less likely to quit. Attempts to understand this relationship are important insofar as they can help treatment efficacy for this group of smokers. Prior research indicates that different genetic variations affect the relationship between smoking and neuroticism. This study examined whether people with a short serotonin transporter genotype would likewise show a stronger relationship between depression vulnerability and smoking behavior than those with the long genotype. Although depression vulnerability was associated with smoking behaviors, genotype did not significantly affect this relationship. Discussion centered on possible reasons for varying results across conceptually similar studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Effects of an education program on radiation oncology patients and families.

Patients and family members in a radiation oncology department participated in a study of a new education/orientation program. Information was presented in oral and in written form. After the intervention, orientation program participants did not differ significantly from control group members in state anxiety, general distress, treatment adherence, or knowledge of radiation therapy. Orientation group patients reported greater satisfaction with clinic care, and the orientation group was significantly more likely to utilize psychological counseling services within the clinic, as well as outside support. Discussion focused on possible explanations for the strikingly favorable program evaluations given by participants despite little evidence that the program was of significant benefit.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Defining psychology: what can it do for us?

"Psychology," like many abstract terms, is difficult to define precisely. Henriques' (this issue) argument that psychology, though unified and coherent, actually spans two realms-psychological formalism ("the science of mind," this issue) and human psychology ("the science of human behavior at the individual level," this issue)-seems likely to improve the clarity of the concept. The strongest contribution of his analysis may be its placing "psychology" in the larger conceptual framework of the Tree of Knowledge taxonomy.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Cognitive coping skills and depression vulnerability among cigarette smokers.

Cigarette smokers vulnerable to depression experience considerable difficulty in quitting smoking, possibly because they use smoking to manage negative affect and possess underdeveloped alternative coping skills for doing so. Efforts to adapt cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) of depression to the treatment of depression-vulnerable smokers have achieved inconsistent results. This research tested one possible explanation for these mixed results, the possibility that depression-vulnerable smokers are not actually deficient in the skills taught in CBT. Regular smokers with a history of major depression, but not currently in a depressive episode (n = 66), scored worse than did the never-depressed smokers (n = 68) on the Ways of Responding [WOR; Behav. Assess. 14 (1992) 93] test of skills for coping with negative moods and automatic thoughts. Results were similar in analyses using self-rated depression proneness, rather than interview-based diagnosis of past major depression, as the marker of depression vulnerability. Results were (nonsignificantly) stronger for Caucasian (n = 54) than for African-American (n = 73) smokers. Implications for future research on cognitive coping, CBT, and smoking are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2004

A healthy dose of criticism for randomized trials: comment on Westen, Novotny, and Thompson-Brenner (2004).

D. Westen, C. M. Novotny, and H. Thompson-Brenner identified many important concerns in their critique of methods typically used in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy outcome and by extension in methods of identifying empirically supported therapies (ESTs). Some of the concerns would be mitigated if empirical support of treatments were assessed multidimensionally (separating favorability of results from definitiveness of research methods used) and continuously rather than categorically. Other concerns can and should be addressed within the existing framework of RCTs and ESTs, including consideration of inclusion criteria other than a single Axis I condition, experimental evaluation of some of the procedural assumptions codified in psychotherapy manuals, and far more detailed reporting of RCT results.

Humans↗
PubMed2004

Metatraits and assessment of attributional style.

Some personality trait dimensions may not be equally applicable to all people. The degree of applicability of a given trait, or traitedness, is conceptually distinct from trait level. In this study, 3 ways of assessing traitedness--interitem variance (R. F. Baumeister & D. M. Tice, 1988), scalability (K. Lanning, 1988), and construct similarity (W. F. Chaplin, 1991)--were applied to attributional style. A nonclinical sample (N = 123) completed measures of attributional style and depressive symptoms. In a series of multiple regression analyses, none of the traitedness indicators significantly moderated the relation of attributional style with depressive symptoms. The authors discuss several methodological and conceptual explanations for these null results.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

The influence of cognitive coping and mood on smokers' self-efficacy and temptation.

Previous descriptive and treatment studies imply that the association between depressed affect and cigarette smoking may be strongest among those with limited cognitive coping skills. This study, therefore, experimentally examined whether the combination of poor mood management skills and negative affect results in reduced self-efficacy and increased temptation to smoke. Current smokers were randomly assigned to an elated-mood or a depressed-mood induction condition. State mood, temptation, and self-efficacy were measured before and after the induction. Contrary to prediction, mood induction condition did not interact with cognitive coping skill to predict change in self-efficacy or temptation. However, there was a significant interaction of (measured) state happiness and "positive" (functional according to expert cognitive therapists) responses on the Ways of Responding (WOR) test of coping skills in predicting temptation: those with low levels of positive coping responses and low positive affect after the induction were especially tempted to smoke. This latter finding suggests that smokers with a history of depression may respond well to interventions aimed at increasing positive affect and augmenting positive cognitive coping skills.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2002

Construct validity of the Life Orientation Test.

The Life Orientation Test (LOT; Scheier & Carver, 1985) is a common measure of optimism. Previous studies of the convergent and discriminant (vis-à-vis neuroticism) validity of the LOT have relied solely on questionnaires. Our Study 1 was a multitrait, multimethod investigation of the LOT incorporating Gottschalk and Gleser's (1969) method of content analysis of speech samples as a nonquestionnaire assessment method. The LOT did not correlate significantly with the Gottschalk Hope Scale (Gottschalk, 1974) derived from speech samples. Study 2 was an initial attempt to determine the nature of the differences between these alternate measures of optimism. In particular, it was hypothesized and found that the LOT was more fakable than the Hope Scale. Participants who received special instructions to "fake good" scored significantly higher on the LOT than did control participants who received no special instructions. Faking instructions did not significantly affect scores on the Hope Scale.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hope as a predictor of entering substance abuse treatment.

Identification of characteristics that predict entry into substance abuse treatment programs may facilitate efforts to make effective programs more attractive to people who could benefit from them. We examined dispositional hope as a predictor of entering a voluntary substance abuse treatment program for federal prison inmates. Controlling statistically for demographics, comorbid diagnoses, and drug-use history, increased hope was associated with lower probability of entering treatment. Discussion focused on the possibility that in the context of incarceration and substance abuse, high levels of hope may serve as a marker of excessive self-reliance and underestimation of the need for professional treatment.

Adult↗