Background: Many studies have documented the epidemic of mental ill-being among resident physicians, but fewer have focused on mental well-being or on guiding intervention design to make progress toward positive change in residency programs to support resident thriving. Informed by the job demands-resources model (JD-R) and positive psychology, the current study examines 4 potential predictors of residents' ill-being (burnout, depression) and well-being (engagement, stay intent) that are malleable and thus capable of change through intervention: psychological capital (PsyCap), supervising physicians' autonomy-supportive leadership style (ASL), social support, and meaningful work.
Methods: Three waves of data were collected between November 2017 and September 2018 at a large hospital system in the United States.
Background: This study evaluated wellness programs in a large hospital network to determine residency program directors' (PDs) perspectives on their wellness programs' state, including wellness prioritization, frequency of wellness activities, and wellness' influence on decision-making across organizational levels.
Methods: In 2021, 211 PDs were sent surveys on program policies, program implementation frequency, perceptions of the administration's ability to prioritize wellness, funding sources, and perceptions of resident wellness' impact on decision-making.
Results: Among 211 contacted programs, 148 surveys were completed (70.
Background: The current research used a qualitative approach to understand which factors facilitate and hinder wellness programming in residency programs.
Methods: Program directors identified from a previous quantitative study as having residency programs with notably more or less resident wellness programming than others (ie, high- and low-exemplars, respectively) were contacted. In total, semi-structured interviews were conducted over Zoom with 7 low-exemplars and 9 high-exemplars.
Residents report high levels of distress but low utilization of mental health services. Prior research has shown several barriers that prevent residents from opting into available mental health services. To determine the impact of a mental health initiative centered around an opt-out versus an opt-in approach to help-seeking, on the use of psychotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeven preregistered experimental studies investigated a potential mediator (self-blame) and moderator (the ) of Weiner's attribution-emotion-action model. When participants considered a nonchild close other experiencing depression, higher perceived controllability was related to lower sympathy, which correlated with less willingness to provide support; however, among parents considering their child experiencing depression, perceived controllability was either positively associated with sympathy (study 1) or did not influence sympathy (study 2). Offering an explanation, studies 3a/3b indicated a significantly weaker relationship between controllability and responsibility attributions when the target of help was the participant's child.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Medical residents experiencing depression can cause life-threatening harm to themselves and their patients. Treatment is available, but many do not seek help.
Methods: The current set of three studies investigated whether depressive symptomatology in and of itself served as a help-seeking barrier-and whether expectations of help-seeking benefits provided insight into why this occurred.
Rationale: As over 90% of people who register to be organ donors do so at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), DMVs are perceived as a key context for increasing donor registration rates. Scholars have recently noted that the driver's license application itself, including the placement of the donor registration item relative to other questions, can possibly influence donor registration behavior. The goal of the current study was to experimentally investigate this possibility.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Our aim was to determine the psychological and educational impact of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting on the graduate medical education (GME) mission within two cohorts of resident physicians and attending faculty at two nearby academic trauma centers.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey assessed 55 resident physicians and attending faculty involved in the acute care of the patients from the mass shooting. We measured the psychological impact of the event, post-traumatic growth, team cohesion, social support, and known risk factors for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The current research investigated two rarely used appeals for increasing organ donor registration-both with the potential to backfire. The three-in-1000 appeal explains that less than one percent of people will die in such a way that their organs can be donated. This appeal could heighten awareness that donor registration is needed, but it can also convey that registering is futile.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic transformed the final year of undergraduate medical education for thousands of medical students across the globe. Out of concern for spreading SARS-CoV-2 and conserving personal protective equipment, many students experienced declines in bedside clinical exposures. The perceived competency of this class within the context of the pandemic is unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Past research indicates that self-distancing through perspective-taking may increase help-seeking intentions among some people with depression.
Aims: The current pre-registered study tested the effect of self-distancing through mental time-travel on help-seeking attitudes, intentions, outcome expectations, and self-stigma.
Methods: Participants with elevated depressive symptomatology who had not yet sought help for current feelings of depression ( = 859) were randomly assigned to a self-distancing writing task, a self-immersive writing task, or a control condition.
Psychological reactance (PR) is a psychological state or trait typified by resistant responses to threats to behavioral freedom. PR has been linked with negative health behaviors, including risky substance use; however, factors that may foster approaches to mitigate the impact of PR on these behaviors, as well as rejection of other health promotion communications is less understood. The current studies examined relations between parental warmth and monitoring with trait PR and responses to preventive cannabis communications and usage intentions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGuided by vested interest theory, we assessed whether a lack of stake explains the discrepancy between people having positive attitudes toward their loved one's recovery from depression and the provision of support. We further investigated whether increasing the perceived personal consequences of providing support (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale: Prior studies that used positive emotion infusions (PEIs) to increase help-seeking for depression found initial support for the approach (Siegel & Thomson, 2016; Straszewski & Siegel, 2018, 2020). However, as people with depression experience negative biases that may be maximized when self-relevance is high (Clark et al., 1999), a potential way to maximize the effect of the PEI approach may be to reduce self-focus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To reduce uncertainty about the effectiveness of Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV) interventions, we assessed the influence of several DMV-based media campaigns on organ donor registration.
Method: Across 4 studies, campaigns were implemented in 8 (Studies 1-3) or 9 (Study 4) New Mexico DMVs. Three theories guided message development (i.
Many past cannabis prevention campaigns have proven largely ineffective due in part to the diversity of adolescents' cannabis-relevant beliefs. The current studies evaluated the impact of a sequential multiple message approach tailored to the usage norms of adolescents expressing negative attitudes toward a cannabis prevention appeal. A multiple-message strategy was implemented-initial unfavorable message evaluations were invalidated using attitudinal rebuttal feedback prior to presenting a third tailored communication.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Psychol Health Well Being
November 2020
Background: The current set of pre-registered studies tested the effect of savoring a high-arousal (exciting) or low-arousal (calm) positive experience on help-seeking intentions among people with heightened depressive symptomatology.
Methods: Across all three studies, participants with heightened depressive symptomatology who had not yet sought help were randomly assigned to complete a 6-minute writing task where they reflected on an exciting memory, a calm memory, or what they did today and yesterday.
Results: Savoring an exciting memory was associated with significantly greater arousal than savoring a calm memory and the control condition (Study 1; N = 218).
Vested interest theory (VIT) predicts that perceived importance and hedonic relevance of an expected behavioral outcome affects attitude-behavior consistency. Applied to college students' nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NUPS), the theory posits that persuasive information that weakens vested perceptions regarding assumed advantages of stimulant misuse will reduce usage intentions. The current study developed and experimentally assessed persuasive messages that targeted perceptions of vested interest (VI), and examined if message effectiveness varied as a function of users' risk status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Three studies explored whether self-distancing, a method where the self is treated as an other, can impact help-seeking among those with depression. Self-distancing was expected to reduce the negative biases associated with depression by minimizing self-relevance through taking the perspective of an objective other. We hypothesized that when thinking about a past experience of help-seeking, a selfdistancing prompt would cause increased help-seeking intentions and more favorable help-seeking outcome expectations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScholars have warned that mental health anti-stigma campaigns targeting the general public can possibly be detrimental to some who are stigmatized. Scholars also have noted that people with depression respond to some public service announcements (PSAs) differently than those without. Accordingly, the current study explored whether anti-stigma PSAs targeting the general public could cause problematic outcomes for people with depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression is a treatable condition; unfortunately, many do not seek help. Depression public service announcements (D-PSAs) are one means of increasing help-seeking behavior. However, as Beck's cognitive theory of depression indicates, it can be challenging to persuade people with depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Attitudes of drug-abstinent youth considering marijuana initiation can be highly ambivalent. Invalidating pro-usage elements (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGuided by vested interest theory, the impact of educating potential organ donors about the beneficial experiences afforded to families of deceased donors was assessed. Participants were informed about these benefits by taking a survey that asked them to indicate both their awareness, and the appeal, of numerous existing benefits (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Vested interest (VI) has been found to enhance attitude-behavior consistency in several contexts. With an eye toward a potentially novel method of prevention (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAppl Psychol Health Well Being
November 2018
Background: The current studies examined how positive affect (i.e. the blend of several positive feelings over time) and discrete positive emotions (i.
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