Publications by authors named "David Hallford"

Many people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) experience profound amotivation, which is strongly related to anticipatory anhedonia. Yet, the neuropsychological fundamentals of anticipatory anhedonia and amotivation are barely understood, resulting in a lack of effective treatments for these patients. Aberrancies in positive mental imagery may interfere with the anticipation of pleasure and could thus explain anticipatory anhedonia and amotivation.

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Current research indicates that anxiety disorders and elevated levels of trait anxiety are associated with biases and impairments when thinking of personally relevant future events, that is, future thinking. However, to date, little research has been conducted into how people with symptoms of clinical anxiety perceive the functions of future thinking. The current study presents a cross-sectional survey comparing individuals with elevated symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and related functional impact (N = 51, 43.

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Objective: Extending on previous findings that computerized Memory Specificity Training (c-MeST) improves memory specificity and depressive symptoms in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in adults, this study aimed to assess the effects of c-MeST in youth with MDD on memory specificity and depression in addition to other treatment.

Methods: Participants aged 15-25 (N = 359, 76 % female; M age = 19.2, SD = 3.

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Reminiscence-based interventions focus on recalling autobiographical memories and reflective reasoning to develop a healthy and adaptive view of oneself and one's life. This study aimed to replicate the effects of a three-session, group-based, positive-memory version of cognitive-reminiscence therapy (CRT) on psychological resources and mental well-being and extend the findings to anticipated pleasure. The participants (= 75, = 43.

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Impaired episodic future thinking (EFT), as reflected in reduced specificity, low levels of detail and less use of mental imagery, has been associated with depressive symptomatology. The beneficial impact of Future Event Specificity Training (FEST) on impaired EFT has recently been demonstrated, as well as on anhedonia, the core symptom of depression reflecting low positive affect. The current study aimed to replicate these previous findings.

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Article Synopsis
  • Stress-related mental health issues, like depression and anxiety, are rising among adolescents, prompting the development of Positive Events Training (PET) to enhance resilience through specific memory recall and future event anticipation.
  • * A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted with adolescents in two groups: one receiving the PET program and the other participating in Creative Writing Training (CREAT), assessing their outcomes on mental wellbeing and resilience before, after, and two months post-training.
  • * The study received ethical approval, has been preregistered, and aims to create a free, online PET program for teachers if successful, thereby increasing access to resilience-building resources for adolescents.*
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Article Synopsis
  • The relationship between mindfulness, psychological flexibility (PF), and psychopathology in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) needs more research.
  • SSD individuals exhibited lower levels of mindfulness and PF compared to control participants.
  • Enhancing mindfulness and PF may help reduce amotivational symptoms in those with SSD, associated with improved anticipatory pleasure and decreased depressive symptoms.
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Background: Emotion regulation is postulated to play an important role in Trichotillomania (TTM). Whilst a growing number of studies have examined the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and TTM symptoms, there have been no attempts to evaluate the overall strength of this association or the quality of the evidence base.

Method: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesise findings from studies that have examined the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and TTM symptoms, to inform future TTM treatment targets.

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Objective: Impairments in episodic future thinking and anticipatory pleasure were noted to explain the depressive symptoms in adults however similar studies are not there in adolescents. This study examined whether there are impairments in episodic future thinking and anticipatory pleasure in clinically-depressed adolescents as compared to non-depressed adolescents, and their association with depression when controlled for executive functions and anxiety symptoms among the depressed adolescents.

Methods: The study included 29 adolescents with major depression and 29 adolescents from local schools through convenient sampling technique.

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Autobiographical reasoning is a process by which an individual creates a coherent life account. The degree of coherence in autobiographical reasoning has been related to psychological health correlates such as depression and self-esteem in previous studies, but with inconsistent findings. Similarly, the basic psychological processes required to achieve coherence have been previously studied with regard to intelligence, but infrequently, and also with mixed findings.

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Individuals build a narrative identity through the construction of an internalised, unfolding life story based on significant autobiographical memories. The current study validated a Dutch version of the Awareness of Narrative Identity Questionnaire (ANIQ-NL), which assesses how aware individuals are of having a narrative identity as well as their perception of the global coherence within their autobiographical memories, specifically, in terms of temporal ordering, causal connections and thematic integration. The questionnaire was administered to 541 adults (65.

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Sext dissemination (i.e., the online sharing of sexually explicit images) has the potential to result in legal, social, and psychological harms.

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Article Synopsis
  • Researchers investigated how retrieval processes contribute to overgeneral autobiographical memories (OGM) in individuals with depression, focusing on negative cues and their connection to depressive symptoms.
  • A re-analysis of memory training data confirmed that directly retrieved OGM for negative cues significantly predicted higher levels of depression one month later, even after accounting for various factors.
  • Findings suggest that easily accessible negative memories may serve as a vulnerability factor for developing depressive symptoms, while specific memory retrieval is associated with lower depression levels.*
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Background And Objectives: Overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM) has been shown to occur in depressed and previously depressed populations regardless of the emotional valence of cues. However, recent research has pointed out that the retrieval process underlying OGM, generative retrieval (i.e.

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Several decades of research have established reduced autobiographical memory specificity, or overgeneral memory, as an important cognitive factor associated with the risk for and maintenance of a range of psychiatric diagnoses. In measuring this construct, experimenters code autobiographical memories for the presence or absence of a single temporal detail that indicates that the remembered event took place on a single, specific, day (Last Thursday when I rode bikes with my son), or multiple days (When I rode bikes with my son). Studies indicate that the specificity of memories and the amount of other episodic detail that they include (e.

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Difficulty in accessing specific memories, referred to as reduced memory specificity or overgeneral memory (OGM), has been established as a marker of clinical depression. However, it is not clear if this deficit persists following the remission of depressive episodes. The current study involved a systematic review and meta-analysis of empirical studies with the aim of establishing whether remitted depression was associated with retrieving fewer specific and more overgeneral autobiographical memories.

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Deficits in episodic future thinking (EFT) characteristics such as detail/vividness, specificity and the use of mental imagery are associated with psychopathology. However, whether these characteristics are associated with anxiety is not well understood. This article reports a systematic review and meta-analysis of research examining associations between anxiety and these EFT characteristics.

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Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a serious and persistent global issue affecting up to 5% of the child and youth population worldwide; yet there is no universally accepted definition. To develop a theoretically robust definition of CSE, this review systematically synthesized literature examining CSE definitions aiming to develop a conceptual model and typology. Electronic databases were searched to February 2021, yielding 384 nonduplicative records.

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Reminiscence-based interventions focus on the recall of autobiographical memories and reflective reasoning about these remembered experiences. This study assessed the effect of a three-session, positive-memory version of cognitive-reminiscence therapy (CRT) on the psychological resources and mental well-being of young adults. The participants (N = 62, M  = 24.

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with reduced specificity in autobiographical memory. It has been argued that this tendency occurs through a failure of effortful generative retrieval, regardless of valence of cue word. However, we propose that in MDD general memories are likely to be recalled via direct retrieval, and direct retrieval is more likely for negatively valenced cues.

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