The pervasive use of Internet technologies has created new ethical dilemmas for psychology trainees and professionals. In particular, Web sites that allow users to post personal information have sparked controversy regarding the amount of freedom psychologists should have in placing personal information online and how discovering such information may impact professional relationships, including the therapeutic relationship. Results from a graduate student survey (N ϭ 302) address the prevalence of the use of online social networking sites, security measure efforts that limit public access, incidents of client access to psychotherapists' personal Web sites and Internet use by psychotherapists to obtain client information, and their subsequent effect on the therapeutic relationship. Using applicable ethical principles and standards, we provide recommendations for the field in an effort to decrease potential harm and maximize areas of opportunity for psychologists and constructive professional relationships.

The present study examined the longitudinal relationship between depressive symptoms and coping strategies in older adult primary caregivers of noninstitutionalized Alzheimer's patients. Coping and depression were measured in 51 healthy, nondepressed caregivers (37 women, 14 men) at 4 times of testing approximately 6 months apart. The caregivers' coping strategies and depressive symptoms were found to be largely stable over all times of testing-with a recently developed method for evaluating construct stability-despite significant decline in the patients' cognitive functioning over the same interval. Avoidance coping was also found to be positively associated with depressive symptoms. Results suggest that a strong stable component is present in caregiver coping style and that caregiver intervention researchers may want to examine the extent to which commonly used outcome measures are assessing stable caregiver traits rather than state-dependent distress.

Recent research has explored many aspects of affective well-being, including depressive symptoms, positive and negative affect. The present study sought to contribute to this line of inquiry by investigating the role of life stress, spiritual life integration (SLI), and social justice commitment (SJC) in predicting affective well-being. Participants were 136 undergraduate students with a mean age of 18.82 (SD = 1.07), and age range of 17–22. Participants completed a questionnaire packet including the Undergraduate Stress Questionnaire (USQ), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and Spiritual Involvement Scale which includes SLI and SJC subscales. In line with previous findings, life stress significantly predicted negative affect and depressive symptoms in hierarchical regression analyses. Contrary to previous research, SLI did not predict any aspect of affective well-being. Finally, SJC significantly predicted positive affect, negative affect, and depressive symptoms. Interpretations, implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract