Factors limiting romantic relationship formation for individuals with early psychosis.

BACKGROUND: Although many young adults with early psychosis (EP) desire to engage in a romantic relationship, many report having difficulties in engaging in such a relationship. However, almost no research has been conducted on factors potentially explaining impairments in their ability to form romantic relationships. AIM: To compare an EP single young adult sample with single students or students in stable romantic relationships on factors that can cause difficulties in romantic relationship initiation processes METHODS: Cross-sectional study comparing these three groups (n = 83) on self-esteem, attachment, social functioning and perceived difficulties in dating. RESULTS: No significant group differences were found on self-esteem, although lack of confidence was the second most frequent reason evoked by EP participants when asked why they were single. EP participants had greater attachment preoccupation than students involved in a relationship. Single EP individuals rated their social interaction abilities higher compared with single students, but did not engage in social interactions more often. Both single EP participants and single students had more negative perceptions of their intimacy abilities and fewer intimacy behaviours compared with participants involved in a relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Potential interventions to improve EP young adult's capacity to engage in romantic relationships could target perception of their interaction skills, preoccupation about being loved, negative perception of their intimacy abilities, frequency of intimacy related behaviours and lack of confidence.

Replacing craving imagery with alternative pleasant imagery reduces craving intensity.

Laboratory studies have shown that asking people to engage in imagery reduces the intensity of laboratory-induced food cravings. This study examined whether the intensity of naturally occurring cravings can be reduced by replacing the craving-related imagery with alternative, pleasant imagery. Participants were instructed to vividly imagine engaging in their favorite activity. They had to apply this imagery technique over a period of four days whenever they felt a craving arising and were asked to keep applying this technique until the craving passed. Compared to baseline, craving intensity and vividness of craving-related imagery were both significantly reduced. Vividness of craving-related imagery fully mediated the effect of the alternative imagery on craving intensity. No effects were found for control conditions in which participants (1) just formed the goal intention to reduce their cravings, (2) formed implementation intentions to reduce their cravings, and (3) engaged in a cognitive task (reciting the alphabet backwards). The findings suggest that vividly imagining a pleasant element can be an effective technique to curb cravings in everyday life.