Regional conferences--a capacity-building mandate: report on CRCP2011-Building Bridges and Building a Regional Structure.

The Caribbean Regional Conference of Psychology was held in Nassau, The Bahamas, from 15 to 18 November 2011, under the auspices of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). The conference was hosted by the Bahamas Psychological Association, and organized by a committee chaired by Dr Ava Thompson, College of the Bahamas. The CRCP2011 attracted over 400 participants from 37 countries, including 20 nations/territories in the Caribbean. A broad scientific program, organized around six conference themes, addressed strengths and challenges to psychology in the region; the current state of psychological research, assessment, and intervention; historical, cultural, and language influences; and links between Caribbean and global models. Conference outcomes included planning for a series of publications to expand on conference themes and presentations, as well as establishment of a steering group to launch a regional organization to support the science and practice of psychology in the Caribbean.

Temporal relationship between dysfunctional beliefs, self-efficacy and panic apprehension in the treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia.

The aim of this study is to assess if changes in dysfunctional beliefs and self-efficacy precede changes in panic apprehension in the treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia. Subjects participated in a larger study comparing the effectiveness of cognitive restructuring and exposure. Four variables were measured: (a) the strength of each subject's main belief toward the consequence of a panic attack; (b) perceived self-efficacy to control a panic attack in the presence of panicogenic body sensations; (c) perceived self-efficacy to control a panic attack in the presence of panicogenic thoughts; and (d) the level of panic apprehension of a panic attack. Variables were recorded daily on a "0" to "100" scale using category partitioning. Multivariate time series analysis and "causality testing" showed that, for all participants, cognitive changes preceded changes in the level of panic apprehension. Important individual differences were observed in the contribution of each variable to the prediction of change in panic apprehension. Changes in apprehension were preceded by changes in belief in three cases, by changes in self-efficacy in six cases, and by changes in both belief and self-efficacy in the remaining three cases. This pattern was observed in participants in the exposure condition as well as those in the cognitive restructuring condition. These results provide more empirical support to the hypothesis that cognitive changes precede improvement. They also underlie the importance of individual differences in the process of change. Finally, this study does not support the hypothesis that exposure and cognitive restructuring operate through different mechanisms, namely a behavioral one and a cognitive one.

Efficacy of cognitive therapy for depression among women with metastatic cancer: a single-case experimental study.

Although depression is frequent among patients with advanced cancer, very few studies have been conducted on its treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of cognitive therapy for depression in women with metastatic cancer, using a multiple baseline experimental design. Six participants were enrolled in the study and were asked to complete daily and weekly mood assessments. Intervention time-series analyses conducted on daily mood data showed statistically significant improvement of depression symptoms, more importantly anhedonia, and associated features (i.e., anxiety, fatigue) for each participant. These improvements were also found to be clinically significant at post-treatment.