Treatment of depression from a self-regulation perspective: basic concepts and applied strategies in self-system therapy

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Kari Eddington (Creator)

Institution

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )

Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Self-regulation models of psychopathology provide a theory-based, empirically supported framework for developing psychotherapeutic interventions that complement and extend current cognitive-behavioral models. However, many clinicians are only minimally familiar with the psychology of self-regulation. The aim of the present manuscript is twofold. First, we provide an overview of self-regulation as a motivational process essential to well-being and introduce two related theories of self-regulation which have been applied to depression. Second, we describe how self-regulatory concepts and processes from those two theories have been translated into psychosocial interventions, focusing specifically on self-system therapy (SST), a brief structured treatment for depression that targets personal goal pursuit. Two randomized controlled trials have shown that SST is superior to cognitive therapy for depressed clients with specific self-regulatory deficits, and both studies found evidence that SST works in part by restoring adaptive self-regulation. Self-regulation-based psychotherapeutic approaches to depression hold significant promise for enhancing treatment efficacy and ultimately may provide an individualizable framework for treatment planning.

Treatment of depression from a self-regulation perspective: basic concepts and applied strategies in self-system therapy
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Additional Information

Publication

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 41(1), 1-15

Language: English

Date: 2017

Keywords

Depression, Comorbidity, Anxiety, Regulatory focus theory, Self-discrepancy theory, Self-regulation, Self-system therapy