1
Week 1
What 3 ways are there for categorizing the world/mental illnesses?
- topographical way (descriptive or objective categorisation of information)
- functional way (focusing on the relation within an element or between multiple elements)
- syndromal way (information is organised into structures and categories of symptoms)
Topographical way
- Descriptive or objective categorisation of information
Functional way
- Focusing on the relation within an element or between multiple elements
Syndromal way
- Information is organised into structures and categories of symptoms
Welke manier van categoriseren is de DSM?
- Syndromal way
Wat zijn 2 limitaties van de syndromal way/DSM?
1. 1: "after over 100 years of effort, almost no psychological diseases have been clearly identified"
2. 2: "different topographical outcomes can come from the same process"
transdiagnostic approach
- Sees disorders as different expressions of a shared underlying process.
behavioral perspective of the transdiagnostic processes
- Environmental events trigger symptoms, and the co-occurence of two or more stimuli further leads to more
symptoms.
cognitive perspective of the transdiagnostic processes
- Mental operations and representations trigger symptoms, and the expectancy that one symptom will trigger another
further leads to symptomatology.
Wat kunnen worden gezien als de 'onderdelen' van meaningfulness in iemands leven?
1. Purpose
2. Comprehension
3. Mattering
purpose (= most frequent)
- Motivated by valued life goals, and involves a sense of engagement with life in which individuals feel pulled and
directed toward their goals
Comprehension (or coherence) (= most frequent)
- One's life makes sense; things seem clear in one's life (it is about your identity, who are you?)
Mattering
- Their existence is of significance importance, and value to the world.
Which 3 theories are there about why meaning can be important?
- Theory I: Access to Reward
- Theory II: Perspective
- Theory III: Protection against uncertainty
Theory I: Access to Reward
- Leven en streven naar onze doelen en waarden zorgt voor positieve emoties, en geeft de mate aan van de relatie
tussen positieve en negatieve emoties.
- Positive emoties --> dempen negatieve emoties
Theory II: Perspective
- Meaning in life gives us perspective + allows us to orient our resources towards greater goals rather than trivial
matters.
- Trivialization: it makes it smaller/less important (f.e. alcohol)
- Salience landscape: meaningfull landscape
Theory III: Protection against uncertainty
- Meaning is associated with several clinical outcomes, such as less depression, less anxiety, and less heavy alcohol
use and associated problems.
,2
- Uncertainty creates anxiety > goals or purpose protects against uncertainty/anxiety
What is thought about meaningfulness/meaninglessness in psychological well-being?
- Several influential theories argue that a sense of meaningfulness is integral to psychological well-being, while
meaninglessness is associated with distress.
Matching law (Hernstein)
- An appetitive reinforcer will be more strongly valued and have stronger influence on behavior regarding
dimensions of:
o It is more accessibility of alternative reinforcers
o It provides greater satisfaction than alternative reinforcers
o Reinforcement occurs sooner than alternative reinforcers (delayed discounting)
What was the aim of the study of Debats?
- To evaluate the clinical relevance and predictive power of meaning in life within a therapeutic context
encompassing diverse patient profiles.
What was the general hypothesis in the study of Debats?
- That patients' levels of meaning in life influence the process and outcome of psychotherapy, being a critical
condition for treatment success.
What were the main findings of the study of Debats?
- There is a significant and consistent relationship between meaning in life and psychological well-being.
- Patients with low pre-treatment levels of meaning in life show a lower probability of benefiting from
psychotherapy, emphasizing the need for treatments tailored to address existential concerns.
- a sense of fulfilment is a more critical determinant of psychological well-being than merely having life goals or
purpose.
Waarin speelt de PFC een belangrijke rol?
- PFC plays a crucial role in organising thoughts, behaviour, and emotion to achieve current goals.
- hierdoor greater cognitive and behavioral flexibility
understanding of subjective experiences and their significance.
Wat is Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology (horizons)? (artikel Hirsh)
- 'The horizon' describes the realm of possible meaning that can be derived from any experience.
Horizon consists of both current knowledge state and the phenomena that he/she encounters
Older animals appear to have a more limited horizon of interpretation
What can be said about goal-directed behavior (artikel Hirsh)?
- Mensen gedragen zich adhv hun doelen. er is een hierarchie van doelen:
o high level goals
o lower level goals
o lower subgoals
- De lower levels worden gebruikt om het higher-order goal te behalen
Wat kan worden gezegd over onbewust goal-directed gedrag?
- Vaak vertonen mensen gedrag dat in lijn ligt met hun doelen, maar wat niet bewust is, zoals:
o Organising sensory information by directing attention toward goal-relevant stimuli
o Engaging arousal, resulting in enhanced processing of goal-related information
o Goal-related information becomes processed more thoroughly
Existential weight
- The extent to which something is related to the highest levels of one's goal structures
Weighty moments
- Moments in which one's deepest goals and values are affected,
Watershed moments
- Events that have a strong influence in shaping a developmental trajectory.
- Such moments carried more weight than the many other moments that weren't as influential.
A state of 'excess meaning'
- Too much significance is read into every aspect of sensory experience (this happens, for example, in some drug-
induced forms of psychosis)
what can be said about individual differences, events, and goals?
- the same event can be different for individuals, due to:
, 3
o Interpretation: individuals can interpret the same event differently due to different goals
o Personality characteristics: particularly Openness to Experience, influence the adoption of goal structures,
with more open individuals perceiving a broader range of meanings in their environment
What can be said about openness to experience and meaning?
1) Openness to experience: is associated with heightened activity in the mesocortical dopaminergic system.
2) Openness predisposes individuals to perceive greater meaning in their environment.
What can be said about ethical responsibility and having clear goals?
- Individuals with clear, broadly defined goals tend to feel a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life, along with
a greater responsibility for achieving those goals.
- Oftewel: minder duidelijke doelen is vaak minder verantwoordelijk gedrag
What can be said about responsibility and obsession/addiction?
- Greater personal responsibility (greater/clearer goals) leads to strictly persuing the goal, which can result in
negligence of other life domains.
- Can in this way lead to addiction/obsession.
What can be said about goal conflict and existential anxiety?
- Competing goal systems can lead to conflicting interpretations of the same experience, resulting in existential
uncertainty and anxiety.
What were the main findings of the study of Ostafin et al about life meaning and psychological distress?
- They did 2 studies, both supporting the hypothesis that life meaning is inversely related to psychological distress
and that fear of the unknown mediates this relationship.
Wat is de onderliggende gedachte dat life meaning kan zorgen voor minder psychological distress?
- Life meaning may serve as a buffer against the unknown by limiting perceptual and behavioral uncertainty and
diminishing the motivational salience of uncertainty.
MCP-ED
- Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Eating Disorders.
- builds on the success of meaning-centered therapies in other populations.
- 6 weekly individual treatment sessions, targeting all relevant aspects of life meaning, like comprehension, purpose
and mattering.
What were the main findings of the study from Van Doornik et al about eating disorders and meaning in life?
- MCP-ED seemed to be effective in increasing meaning in life and reducing eating disorder symptoms among
woman with high weight and shape concerns.
Which disorders could benefit from an added meaning variable to treatment?
- Anorexia nervosa (zie study Van Doornik et al)
- Alcohol Use Disorder
- Depression
- Anxiety
Hoe kan het toevoegen van een 'meaning' onderdeel in therapie helpen bij Alcohol Use Disorder?
- Volgens de trivialisation theory zal alcohol minder aantrekkelijk worden en zal de client een sterkere, positievere
toekomstorientatie hebben. Dit zijn mediaters in de relatie tussen meaning en problematic alcohol usage.
Trivialisation theory
- Volgens de trivialisation theory zal alcohol minder aantrekkelijk worden en zal de client een sterkere, positievere
toekomstorientatie hebben. Dit zijn mediaters in de relatie tussen meaning en problematic alcohol usage.
Hoe kan het toevoegen van een 'meaning' onderdeel in therapie helpen bij depressie?
- The effectiveness of BAT (Behavioural Activation Theory) for depression encourages the idea that focusing on
life's meaning may lead to remission.
rewarding activities are reintroduced in one's life --> depressive symptoms subside.
- Klopt met de Self-Determination Theory, because intrinsic (I want to do this) and identified (It's important to me)
goals lead to lasting behavioural change and motivation, while external (My mom wants me to) and introjected (I
should do this) goals do not.
Hoe kan het toevoegen van een 'meaning' onderdeel in therapie helpen bij angst?
- Finding purpose in life serves as a buffer against the adverse effects of stressful events, zoals worrying and
rumination.
Behavioral activation therapy
Week 1
What 3 ways are there for categorizing the world/mental illnesses?
- topographical way (descriptive or objective categorisation of information)
- functional way (focusing on the relation within an element or between multiple elements)
- syndromal way (information is organised into structures and categories of symptoms)
Topographical way
- Descriptive or objective categorisation of information
Functional way
- Focusing on the relation within an element or between multiple elements
Syndromal way
- Information is organised into structures and categories of symptoms
Welke manier van categoriseren is de DSM?
- Syndromal way
Wat zijn 2 limitaties van de syndromal way/DSM?
1. 1: "after over 100 years of effort, almost no psychological diseases have been clearly identified"
2. 2: "different topographical outcomes can come from the same process"
transdiagnostic approach
- Sees disorders as different expressions of a shared underlying process.
behavioral perspective of the transdiagnostic processes
- Environmental events trigger symptoms, and the co-occurence of two or more stimuli further leads to more
symptoms.
cognitive perspective of the transdiagnostic processes
- Mental operations and representations trigger symptoms, and the expectancy that one symptom will trigger another
further leads to symptomatology.
Wat kunnen worden gezien als de 'onderdelen' van meaningfulness in iemands leven?
1. Purpose
2. Comprehension
3. Mattering
purpose (= most frequent)
- Motivated by valued life goals, and involves a sense of engagement with life in which individuals feel pulled and
directed toward their goals
Comprehension (or coherence) (= most frequent)
- One's life makes sense; things seem clear in one's life (it is about your identity, who are you?)
Mattering
- Their existence is of significance importance, and value to the world.
Which 3 theories are there about why meaning can be important?
- Theory I: Access to Reward
- Theory II: Perspective
- Theory III: Protection against uncertainty
Theory I: Access to Reward
- Leven en streven naar onze doelen en waarden zorgt voor positieve emoties, en geeft de mate aan van de relatie
tussen positieve en negatieve emoties.
- Positive emoties --> dempen negatieve emoties
Theory II: Perspective
- Meaning in life gives us perspective + allows us to orient our resources towards greater goals rather than trivial
matters.
- Trivialization: it makes it smaller/less important (f.e. alcohol)
- Salience landscape: meaningfull landscape
Theory III: Protection against uncertainty
- Meaning is associated with several clinical outcomes, such as less depression, less anxiety, and less heavy alcohol
use and associated problems.
,2
- Uncertainty creates anxiety > goals or purpose protects against uncertainty/anxiety
What is thought about meaningfulness/meaninglessness in psychological well-being?
- Several influential theories argue that a sense of meaningfulness is integral to psychological well-being, while
meaninglessness is associated with distress.
Matching law (Hernstein)
- An appetitive reinforcer will be more strongly valued and have stronger influence on behavior regarding
dimensions of:
o It is more accessibility of alternative reinforcers
o It provides greater satisfaction than alternative reinforcers
o Reinforcement occurs sooner than alternative reinforcers (delayed discounting)
What was the aim of the study of Debats?
- To evaluate the clinical relevance and predictive power of meaning in life within a therapeutic context
encompassing diverse patient profiles.
What was the general hypothesis in the study of Debats?
- That patients' levels of meaning in life influence the process and outcome of psychotherapy, being a critical
condition for treatment success.
What were the main findings of the study of Debats?
- There is a significant and consistent relationship between meaning in life and psychological well-being.
- Patients with low pre-treatment levels of meaning in life show a lower probability of benefiting from
psychotherapy, emphasizing the need for treatments tailored to address existential concerns.
- a sense of fulfilment is a more critical determinant of psychological well-being than merely having life goals or
purpose.
Waarin speelt de PFC een belangrijke rol?
- PFC plays a crucial role in organising thoughts, behaviour, and emotion to achieve current goals.
- hierdoor greater cognitive and behavioral flexibility
understanding of subjective experiences and their significance.
Wat is Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology (horizons)? (artikel Hirsh)
- 'The horizon' describes the realm of possible meaning that can be derived from any experience.
Horizon consists of both current knowledge state and the phenomena that he/she encounters
Older animals appear to have a more limited horizon of interpretation
What can be said about goal-directed behavior (artikel Hirsh)?
- Mensen gedragen zich adhv hun doelen. er is een hierarchie van doelen:
o high level goals
o lower level goals
o lower subgoals
- De lower levels worden gebruikt om het higher-order goal te behalen
Wat kan worden gezegd over onbewust goal-directed gedrag?
- Vaak vertonen mensen gedrag dat in lijn ligt met hun doelen, maar wat niet bewust is, zoals:
o Organising sensory information by directing attention toward goal-relevant stimuli
o Engaging arousal, resulting in enhanced processing of goal-related information
o Goal-related information becomes processed more thoroughly
Existential weight
- The extent to which something is related to the highest levels of one's goal structures
Weighty moments
- Moments in which one's deepest goals and values are affected,
Watershed moments
- Events that have a strong influence in shaping a developmental trajectory.
- Such moments carried more weight than the many other moments that weren't as influential.
A state of 'excess meaning'
- Too much significance is read into every aspect of sensory experience (this happens, for example, in some drug-
induced forms of psychosis)
what can be said about individual differences, events, and goals?
- the same event can be different for individuals, due to:
, 3
o Interpretation: individuals can interpret the same event differently due to different goals
o Personality characteristics: particularly Openness to Experience, influence the adoption of goal structures,
with more open individuals perceiving a broader range of meanings in their environment
What can be said about openness to experience and meaning?
1) Openness to experience: is associated with heightened activity in the mesocortical dopaminergic system.
2) Openness predisposes individuals to perceive greater meaning in their environment.
What can be said about ethical responsibility and having clear goals?
- Individuals with clear, broadly defined goals tend to feel a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life, along with
a greater responsibility for achieving those goals.
- Oftewel: minder duidelijke doelen is vaak minder verantwoordelijk gedrag
What can be said about responsibility and obsession/addiction?
- Greater personal responsibility (greater/clearer goals) leads to strictly persuing the goal, which can result in
negligence of other life domains.
- Can in this way lead to addiction/obsession.
What can be said about goal conflict and existential anxiety?
- Competing goal systems can lead to conflicting interpretations of the same experience, resulting in existential
uncertainty and anxiety.
What were the main findings of the study of Ostafin et al about life meaning and psychological distress?
- They did 2 studies, both supporting the hypothesis that life meaning is inversely related to psychological distress
and that fear of the unknown mediates this relationship.
Wat is de onderliggende gedachte dat life meaning kan zorgen voor minder psychological distress?
- Life meaning may serve as a buffer against the unknown by limiting perceptual and behavioral uncertainty and
diminishing the motivational salience of uncertainty.
MCP-ED
- Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Eating Disorders.
- builds on the success of meaning-centered therapies in other populations.
- 6 weekly individual treatment sessions, targeting all relevant aspects of life meaning, like comprehension, purpose
and mattering.
What were the main findings of the study from Van Doornik et al about eating disorders and meaning in life?
- MCP-ED seemed to be effective in increasing meaning in life and reducing eating disorder symptoms among
woman with high weight and shape concerns.
Which disorders could benefit from an added meaning variable to treatment?
- Anorexia nervosa (zie study Van Doornik et al)
- Alcohol Use Disorder
- Depression
- Anxiety
Hoe kan het toevoegen van een 'meaning' onderdeel in therapie helpen bij Alcohol Use Disorder?
- Volgens de trivialisation theory zal alcohol minder aantrekkelijk worden en zal de client een sterkere, positievere
toekomstorientatie hebben. Dit zijn mediaters in de relatie tussen meaning en problematic alcohol usage.
Trivialisation theory
- Volgens de trivialisation theory zal alcohol minder aantrekkelijk worden en zal de client een sterkere, positievere
toekomstorientatie hebben. Dit zijn mediaters in de relatie tussen meaning en problematic alcohol usage.
Hoe kan het toevoegen van een 'meaning' onderdeel in therapie helpen bij depressie?
- The effectiveness of BAT (Behavioural Activation Theory) for depression encourages the idea that focusing on
life's meaning may lead to remission.
rewarding activities are reintroduced in one's life --> depressive symptoms subside.
- Klopt met de Self-Determination Theory, because intrinsic (I want to do this) and identified (It's important to me)
goals lead to lasting behavioural change and motivation, while external (My mom wants me to) and introjected (I
should do this) goals do not.
Hoe kan het toevoegen van een 'meaning' onderdeel in therapie helpen bij angst?
- Finding purpose in life serves as a buffer against the adverse effects of stressful events, zoals worrying and
rumination.
Behavioral activation therapy
