The implicit affiliation motive moderates cortisol responses to acute psychosocial stress in high school students

It has been previously shown that the implicit affiliation motive – the need to establish and maintain friendly relationships with others – leads to chronic health benefits. The underlying assumption for the present research was that the implicit affiliation motive also moderates the salivary cortisol response to acute psychological stress when some aspects of social evaluation and uncontrollability are involved. By contrast we did not expect similar effects in response to exercise as a physical stressor. Fifty-nine high school students aged M = 14.8 years were randomly assigned to a psychosocial stress (publishing the results of an intelligence test performed), a physical stress (exercise intensity of 65–75% of HRmax), and a control condition (normal school lesson) each lasting 15 min. Participants’ affiliation motives were assessed using the Operant Motive Test and salivary cortisol samples were taken pre and post stressor. We found that the strength of the affiliation motive negatively predicted cortisol reactions to acute psychosocial but not to physical stress when compared to a control group. The results suggest that the affiliation motive buffers the effect of acute psychosocial stress on the HPA axis.

Motive-Oriented Psychotherapeutic Relationship Facing a Patient Presenting with Narcissistic Personality Disorder: A Case Study

Motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTHER), a prescriptive concept based on an integrative form of case formulation, the Plan Analysis (PA) method (Caspar, in: Eells (ed.), Handbook of psychotherapy case formulations, 2007), has shown to be of particular relevance for the treatment of patients presenting with personality disorders, in particular contributing to better therapeutic outcome and to a more constructive development of the therapeutic alliance over time (Kramer et al., J Nerv Ment Dis 199:244–250, 2011). Several therapy models refer to MOTHER as intervention principle with regard to borderline and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) (Sachse et al., Clarification-oriented psychotherapy of narcissistic personality disorder, 2011; Caspar and Berger, in: Dulz et al. (eds.), Handbuch der Borderline-Störungen, 2011). The present case study discusses the case of Mark, a 40-year-old patient presenting with NPD, along with anxious, depressive and anger problems. This patient underwent a seven-session long pre-therapy process, based on psychiatric and psychotherapeutic principles complemented with PA and MOTHER, in preparation for further treatment. MOTHER will be illustrated with patient–therapist verbatim from session 4 and the links between MOTHER and confrontation techniques will be discussed in the context of process-outcome hypotheses, in particular the effect of MOTHER on symptom reduction.

Implizite und explizite Motive von Leistungs- und Freizeitsporttreibenden

Nach Krug und Kuhl (2006) sollten die Motivprofile von Leistungssportlern eine Passung zu den Anforderungen der jeweiligen Sportart aufweisen. Diesen Annahmen zufolge sollten bei Leistungssporttreibenden insbesondere das Leistungs- und Machtmotiv dominant sein. Im Rahmen zweier Studien wurde die Stärke des Macht-, Leistungs- und Anschlussmotivs von Leistungssporttreibenden mit denen von Freizeitsporttreibenden verglichen. In Studie 1 wurden die Motivprofile von 29 Leistungssporttreibenden mit denen von 34 Freizeitsportreibenden aus technik- und ausdauerorientierten Sportarten verglichen. An Studie 2 nahmen 86 Tennis-, Tischtennis- und Badmintonspieler als Hochleistungssportler teil deren Motivprofile mit denen von 57 Freizeitsporttreibenden aus interaktiven Sportarten verglichen wurden. Die impliziten Motive wurden mit Bildgeschichtenübungen (Picture Story Exercise, Operanter Motive Test) erhoben, die expliziten Motive mit Fragebögen (Zielsetzungsinventar, Personality Research Form). Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Annahmen, dass Leistungssporttreibende höhere implizite und explizite Leistungsmotive als Freizeitsporttreibende zeigen. Die Unterschiede in den Anschlussmotiven und impliziten Machtmotiv wurden nur bei Hochleistungssportlern aus interaktiven Sportarten (Studie 2) gefunden.

Preliminary Evidence for a Nexus between Rumination, Behavioural Avoidance, Motive Satisfaction and Depression

The present study tested a theoretically derived link between rumination and depressive symptoms through behavioural avoidance and reduced motive satisfaction as a key aspect of positive reinforcement. Rumination, behavioural avoidance, motive satisfaction and levels of depression were assessed via self-report measures in a clinical sample of 160 patients with major depressive disorder. Path analysis-based mediation analysis was used to estimate the direct and indirect effects as proposed by the theoretical model. Operating in serial, behavioural avoidance and motive satisfaction partially mediated the association between rumination and depressive symptoms, irrespective of gender, medication and co-morbid anxiety disorders. This is the first study investigating the associations between behavioural avoidance, rumination and depression in a clinical sample of depressed patients. The findings are in line with an understanding of rumination in depression as also serving an avoidance function. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Motive-oriented therapeutic relationship building for patients diagnosed with schizophrenia

Treatment options for patients with schizophrenia demand further improvement. One way to achieve this improvement is the translation of findings from basic research into new specific interventions. Beyond that, addressing the therapy relationship has the potential to enhance both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. This paper introduces motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR) building for schizophrenia. MOTR enables therapists to proactively adapt to their patient’s needs and to prevent problematic behaviors. For example, a patient might consider medication as helpful in principle, but the rejection of medication might be one of his few remaining means for his acceptable motive to stay autonomous despite hospitalization. A therapist who is motiveoriented proactively offers many degrees of freedom to this patient in order to satisfy his need for autonomy and to weaken the motivational basis for not taking medication. MOTR makes use of findings from basic and psychotherapy research and is generic in this respect, but at the same time guides therapeutic action precisely and flexibly in a patient oriented way.

Motive zu einem Aufrufe an die landwirthschaftlichen Vereine des preußischen Staates zur Wahrung der Interessen des Grundbesitzes

Boberach: Da die Grundbesitzer in der Preußischen Nationalversammlung nur schwach vertreten sind, sollen die Vereine gemeinsam auf die Abgeordneten einzuwirken versuchen

Geistesgeschichtliche Grundlagen der Wissenschaft des Judentums : (Motive des Kulturvereins vom Jahre 1819)

Siegfried Ucko

The shorter the better? A follow-up analysis of 10-session psychiatric treatment including the motive-oriented therapeutic relationship for borderline personality disorder

OBJECTIVE: There is little research on short-term treatments for borderline personality disorder (BPD). While the core changes may occur only in long-term treatments, short-term treatments may enable the study of early generic processes of engagement in therapy and thus inform about effective treatment components. It was shown that a 10-session version of a psychiatric treatment was effective in reducing borderline symptoms at the end of this treatment [Kramer, U., Kolly, S., Berthoud, L., Keller, S., Preisig, M., Caspar, F., … Despland, J.-N. (2014). Effects of motive-oriented therapeutic relationship in a ten-session general psychiatric treatment for borderline personality disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 83, 176-186.]. Also, it was demonstrated in a randomized design that adding the motive-oriented therapeutic relationship (MOTR), following an individualized case formulation based on Plan Analysis, further increased general outcome after session 10 and had a positive effect on the early changes in self-esteem and alliance. METHOD: The present study focuses on the follow-up period after this initial treatment, examining treatment density and outcomes after 6 months and service utilization after 12 months. Outcome was measured using the OQ-45. RESULTS: Results on a sub-sample of N = 40 patients with available OQ-45 data at follow-up (n = 21 for MOTR-treatment, n = 19 for comparison treatment) showed maintenance of gains over the follow-up period, which did not differ between both conditions. It appeared for this sample that MOTR treatments, while using the same number of sessions, lasted more weeks (i.e., lower treatment density, defined as the number of sessions per week), when compared to the treatments without MOTR. Density marginally predicted symptom reduction at follow-up. Patients in MOTR treatments had a greater likelihood of entering structured psychotherapy after the initial sessions than patients in the comparison group. CONCLUSIONS: These results are overall consistent with earlier studies on short-term treatments for BPD and underline the importance of individualizing interventions, by using case formulations that rely on idiographic methods and integrative concepts.