Positive sexuality, relationship satisfaction, and health: a network analysis.

Introduction: Positive sexuality, defined as the happiness and fulfillment individuals derive from their sexual experiences, expressions, and behaviors, has been linked to relationship satisfaction and health. However, the intricate associations between positive sexuality and relationship functioning and health indicators have rarely been explored from a network perspective. This approach, by analyzing the interconnections among these factors within a broader system, can offer insights into complex dynamics and identify key variables for targeted interventions. Methods: The present study applied network analysis to uncover interconnections between positive sexuality, relationship satisfaction, and health indicators, highlight the most relevant variables and explore potential gender-based differences in a sample of 992 partnered individuals (51% women, aged 18-71 years). Networks were estimated via Gaussian Graphical Models, and network comparison test was used to compare men and women. Results: Results indicated that variables related to positive sexuality were more highly interconnected than the rest of the network. There were small-to-negligible connections between positive sexuality and relationship satisfaction variables, both of which had negligible or no connections with health. The network was globally invariant across gender, though a few connections were gender-specific. The most important variables, regardless of gender, related to pleasurable feelings during sexual intercourse. Discussion: The findings underscore the importance of enhancing positive sexual experiences within intimate relationships and have implications for research and clinical practice in positive sexuality.

Analysis of General Practitioners' Attitudes and Beliefs about Psychological Intervention and the Medicine-Psychology Relationship in Primary Care: Toward a New Comprehensive Approach to Primary Health Care.

The biopsychosocial paradigm is a model of care that has been proposed in order to improve the effectiveness of health care by promoting collaboration between different professions and disciplines. However, its application still faces several issues. A quantitative-qualitative survey was conducted on a sample of general practitioners (GPs) from Milan, Italy, to investigate their attitudes and beliefs regarding the role of the psychologist, the approach adopted to manage psychological diseases, and their experiences of collaboration with psychologists. The results show a partial view of the psychologist's profession that limits the potential of integration between medicine and psychology in primary care. GPs recognized that many patients (66%) would often benefit from psychological intervention, but only in a few cases (9%) were these patients regularly referred to a psychologist. Furthermore, the referral represents an almost exclusive form of collaboration present in the opinions of GPs. Only 8% of GPs would consider the joint and integrated work of the psychologist and doctor useful within the primary health care setting. This vision of the role of psychologists among GPs represents a constraint in implementing a comprehensive primary health care approach, as advocated by the World Health Organization.

Linguistic Markers of the Emotion Elaboration Surrounding the Confinement Period in the Italian Epicenter of COVID-19 Outbreak.

The expressive writing method has rarely been proposed in contexts of large-scale upheavals that affect large populations. In this study this method was applied as an intervention and tool of investigation during the confinement period in the Lombardy region, the Italian Epicenter of COVID-19 outbreak. Sixty-four participants took part in an online expressive writing project, and a total of 167 writings were collected together with some self-report evaluations on emotions and physical sensations. A linguistic analysis through two different sets of computerized linguistic measures was conducted on the collected writings in order to study the linguistic markers of emotion regulation and elaboration. Results indicated that online expressive writing has helped respondents to get more in touch with the intense emotions that were experienced following the upheavals they witnessed. Writing even only once or twice helped, particularly those respondents who had at least one COVID-19 patient among close friends or relatives. Their writings showed an intense emotional involvement together with the ability to reflect and reorganize the personal meaning of the events and emotions experienced. This study shows that expressive writing can be used in the context of a psychological emergency, both as a powerful instrument to investigate and detect the complex psychodynamic processes underpinning the distress, and as a useful intervention to reduce the negative impact of traumatic events.

First Validation of the Referential Process Post-Session Scale - Therapist Version (RPPS-T).

OBJECTIVE: Bucci's multiple code theory maintains that for a significant change the patient-therapist relationship should foster a referential process shaping in three alternating phases: arousal of emotion schemas, symbolizing/narrating emotional experiences, and reflecting/reorganizing the emotional meanings. Until now to monitor these phases clinicians and researchers have used several referential process computerized linguistic measures, which however need the sessions verbatim transcription. In order to have a less time-consuming method we developed and tested a therapist self-report questionnaire measuring the referential process phases. METHOD: We asked eight psychotherapists in a first study and nine psychotherapists in a second study to complete the Referential Process Post-session Scale - Therapist version (RPPS-T) just after the end of their sessions. In a third study we transcribed 29 sessions conducted by three psychotherapists to calculate the correlations between the RPPS-T scores and the computerized linguistic measures of the referential process calculated on the session transcripts. RESULTS: In the first study we collected 105 evaluations regarding 29 patients and an exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor pattern consistent with the hypothesized constructs. The analysis reduced the initial pool of 42 items to 12. In the second study 130 sessions with 25 different patients have been evaluated on the shortened version of the RPPS-T and a confirmatory factor analysis found that the four-factor model satisfactorily fitted the new data as well. In the third study we found that the factors of RPPS-T regarding the symbolizing phase correlated with the corresponding computerized linguistic measures calculated on the session transcripts. CONCLUSIONS: The RPPS-T received a first validation as a concurrent measure of the referential process, especially for the symbolizing phase, and could be considered a useful instrument for research and supervision.

Linguistic features of the therapeutic alliance in the first session: a psychotherapy process study.

Critical aspects of the therapeutic alliance appear to be established as early as the first session. Specifically, the affective bond between the therapeutic dyad appears to develop early in treatment and tends to remain stable over time, while agreements on goals and tasks tend to fluctuate over the course of treatment. Are there distinguishable early signs of a strong therapeutic alliance? In this study, we examined how some linguistic measures indicative of joint emotional elaboration correlated with a measure of the therapeutic alliance assessed within a single session. Initial intake sessions with 40 patients with varying diagnoses were videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using linguistic measures of referential process and then scored with the Segmented Working Alliance Inventory-Observer form. Results showed that patients who were rated as more emotionally engaged in relating their experiences and then reflecting on them by mid-session also had higher scores in the therapeutic alliance by the final part of that same session. An implication of this study is that the interpersonal factors facilitating elaboration of inner experience, including elements of warmth, safety, and analytic trust, are related to the development of early therapeutic alliance. These findings did not appear to be dependent on the patient's psychopathology. This study is one in a growing line of research exploring how patients speak rather than just the content of what they say.

Psychotherapy trainees' epistemological assumptions influencing research-practice integration.

Over the last few decades a growing number of psychotherapy scholars as well as psychotherapy researchers have joined a paradigm shift, moving from a reductionist to a complexity-oriented epistemology. Many authors recognize that when human subjectivity is the object of intervention and study, it is appropriate to resist simplification and to assume a more complex approach. While this paradigm shift is taking place not only in psychology but also in other disciplines, many psychotherapists still share the assumption that psychotherapy practice and psychotherapy research have opposite values; hence, they are worlds that cannot be reconciled. Considering this as one of the main reasons preventing a useful integration of evidence-based practice and clinical training in psychotherapy, we conducted an online survey of 126 Italian trainees from three differently-oriented psychotherapy institutes (cognitive-behavioral, relational-psychoanalytic and relational-systemic) to explore the epistemology underling the clinical and research practices. After presenting a clinical vignette, we asked questions about diagnostic considerations, case formulations, and treatment plans; we also asked questions about participants' involvement in research projects or in research methodology courses and about willingness to be involved in future research studies in their clinical practice. We found some significant differences among trainees with different orientations, but in general most of the responses reflected a positivistic epistemology underlying both clinical and research activities. These findings suggest that a deeper awareness of one's own epistemological assumptions could help trainees foster a more theory-coherent and research-informed clinical practice.

Effect of Hatha Yoga on Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Some evidence suggests that Hatha yoga might be an effective practice to reduce anxiety. To examine the effect of Hatha yoga on anxiety, we conducted a meta-analysis of relevant studies extracted from PubMed, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, and manual searches. METHODS: The search identified 17 studies (11 waitlist controlled trials) totaling 501 participants who received Hatha yoga and who reported their levels of anxiety before and after the practice. We estimated the controlled and within-group random effects of the practice on anxiety. RESULTS: The pre-post within-group and controlled effect sizes were, Hedges' g = 0.44 and Hedges' g = 0.61, respectively. Treatment efficacy was positively associated with the total number of hours practiced. People with elevated levels of anxiety benefitted the most. Effect sizes were not moderated by study year, gender, presence of a medical disorder, or age. Although the quality of the studies was relatively low, the risk of study bias did not moderate the effect. CONCLUSIONS: Hatha yoga is a promising method for treating anxiety. However, more well-controlled studies are needed to compare the efficacy of Hatha yoga with other more established treatments and to understand its mechanism. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.