Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating The Attention Training Technique As A Transdiagnostic Intervention For Fear-Based Psychopathological Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Benjamin John Ellem

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Recent research indicates that fear-related psychological disorders are a distinguished class of psychopathology, all of which share the underlying endophenotype of maladaptive acute fear responding. The relationship between maladaptive fear responding and psychopathology has been found to be moderated by executive functioning capacity—most notably attentional control. However, the current psychopathological nosology does not link fear-based disorders together. As a result, many fear-based disorders are treated separately with different evidence-based psychotherapies. These psychotherapies tend to focus on reducing phenotypic behaviors or self-reported experience of symptoms. Individuals with fear-based disorders may be better served by treatments that focus on the aforementioned endophenotypes …

The Process Of Therapeutic Change In The Attention Training Technique, Benjamin J. Laman-Maharg

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Background: An unacceptably large proportion of individuals remain symptomatic after receiving first-line interventions. The attention training technique (ATT) is a potentially effective treatment augmentation and standalone treatment that may help improve the treatment of psychological disorders. The machanisms of therapuetic change of ATT remain understudied. This study is a randomized controlled trial of ATT compared to progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) that examined mindfulness and attentional control as potential mechisms of therapeutic change.

Method: A convenience sample of 64 participants (Mage = 20.13, SD = 3.65; 42.2% Male; 64.1% non-Hispanic White; 23.4% Black; 9.4% Hispanic/Latino; 3.1% Other) were randomly assigned to …