ABSTRACT

Objective: A novel brief intervention was used to investigate how empathic support and expectation can induce changes in mood, anxiety, and perceived stress. Method: Seventy-six undergraduates with high negative affect were assigned to three conditions of a program involving tasks with no known therapeutic benefit. In Group 1: Expectation Only, participants were given a deceptive description of the benefits of the program to quantify the magnitude of symptom change due to expectation alone. In Group 2: Empathic Support + Expectation, participants were also instructed to write about past and current sources of distress and provided with supportive notes each week to quantify the role of empathic support plus expectation. In Group 3: Control, participants were told they were “norming” the instruments. Results: Participants in Groups 1 and 2 demonstrated decreases in depression, anxiety, and rumination, with significant medium effect reductions found in the empathic support plus expectation condition. Conclusions: Evidence suggests that empathic support and expectation cause reduction of symptoms spanning depression and anxiety.

摘要

目的：使用一种新颖的简短干预来研究移情支持和期望如何引起情绪、焦虑和感知压力的变化。方法： 76 名具有高度负面影响的本科生被分配到一个项目的三个条件下，该项目涉及没有已知治疗益处的任务。在第 1 组：仅期望中，参与者被给予对项目益处的欺骗性描述，以量化仅由于期望引起的症状变化幅度。在第 2 组：移情支持 + 期望中，参与者还被指示写下过去和当前的痛苦来源，并每周提供支持性笔记，以量化移情支持和期望的作用。在第 3 组：控制组中，参与者被告知他们正在“规范”仪器。结果：第 1 组和第 2 组的参与者表现出抑郁、焦虑和反刍的减少，在移情支持加期望条件下发现显着的中等效果减少。结论：有证据表明，移情支持和期望可以减少跨越抑郁和焦虑的症状。