PURPOSE: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a positive psychology improvement program on elders' depression and death anxiety. METHODS: This was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were community elders aged over 65 recruited by convenient sampling. A total of 94 elders (32 in the individual experimental group, 32 in the collective experimental group, and 30 in the control group) participated. Data were collected between April and September, 2012 and analyzed by using SPSS/WIN 21. RESULTS: The individual and group approach experimental groups had significantly lower scores of depression than the control group after the treatment (F=7.50, p=.001). For death anxiety, however, only the individual experimental group had a significantly lower score compared to the control group (F=4.56, p=.013). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the positive psychology improvement program was effective in decreasing depression and death anxiety in the elderly. Therefore, the program needs to be applied in a customized way fittingly to the characteristics of the elderly in community, and individually and/or collectively according to its purposes.
Aged ; Anxiety* ; Depression* ; Humans ; Psychology*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dependency and abuse on depression according to gender in widowed elderly. METHOD: A convenient sample consisted of 246 widowed elderly who were more than 65 years old in four cities. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from August to September, 2002. A dependency Scale developed by Ahn (1999) was used to measure the level of dependency. Emotional abuse and physical abuse were measured by 10 items for emotional abuse and 7 items for physical abuse selected out of the Conditions Scale of Elder Abuse. The level of depression was measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).The SPSS WIN 11.0 version program was used for data analysis. RESULT: In male widowed elderly, dependency affected depression indirectly through emotional abuse. While in female widowed elderly, dependency affected depression directly and affected emotional abuse indirectly. CONCLUSION: The study showed that dependency was the most explainable variable on depression in widowed female elderly. Therefore, it dependency should be assessed first in nursing intervention to relieve depression of widowed elderly.
Widowhood/*psychology ; Male ; Humans ; Female ; Elder Abuse/*psychology ; Depression/*etiology ; *Dependency (Psychology) ; Aged, 80 and over ; Aged

This study was performed to examine the relationship between the abstinence results of alcohol dependents after discharge and the level of insight at the time of discharge. 117 male Korean alcohol dependents discharged from a community-based alcohol treatment center were followed up to determine the initial months of abstinence on a successive basis (IMA), total months of abstinence during 12-month period (TMA), and complete abstinence for one full year after discharge. Analyses of abstinence results with adjustment for the differences in baseline characteristics were performed for subjects' insight levels (poor, fair and good). The mean IMA of patients with good insight was significantly (p<0.01) longer than that of patients with poor insight and TMA of patients with good insight was significantly (p<0.001) longer than that of others. Using patients with good insight as the reference, patients with poor insight showed an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 0.07 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.01-0.75, p<0.05) for complete abstinence for one full year after discharge and patients with fair insight, adjusted OR of 0.17 (95% CI=0.03-0.81, p<0.05). These results suggest that alcohol dependents' insight could be regarded as a factor related with abstinence.
Temperance/*psychology ; Middle Aged ; Male ; Humans ; Alcoholism/*psychology ; Adult

Aged ; Humans ; Inpatients ; psychology ; Loneliness ; Male ; Pneumoconiosis ; psychology

Delusions ; psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Psychotic Disorders ; psychology ; Syndrome

PURPOSE: Smoking temptation is communicated frequently among people related to smoking cessation and has specific meanings within the context of smoking. However, the concept of smoking temptation has not been well articulated in the literatures. This study was conducted to clarify and to conceptualize the phenomena of smoking temptation. METHOD: The Hybrid Model of concept development was applied to develop a concept of smoking temptation, which included a field study carried out in Seoul, South Korea using in-depth interviews with 5 adult smokers. RESULT: The concept of smoking temptation emerged as a complex phenomenon having meanings in several different dimensions which encompassed several attributes. In addition, the conceptual structure of smoking temptation centered around five dimensions: Response to conditioned stimuli, Distancing from harsh reality, Nicotine dependency, Habitual routine, and Lack of control. CONCLUSION: Smoking temptation is a concept that needs to be treated in a specified individual way and it is possible to enrich the meanings and methods to manage smoking temptation in nursing smoking cessation interventions that its application may have positive impacts on patients' well being.
Adult ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Smoking/*psychology ; Smoking Cessation/*psychology

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychological type and marital satisfaction, divorce proneness, positive affect, and conflict regulation in couple visiting a clinic. METHODS: Couples (n=62) who visited "M" couple clinic participated in the study. Data were collected from March to June 2009 using the Marital Satisfaction Scale, Marital Status Inventory, Positive Affect Inventory, and Conflict Regulation Inventory. RESULTS: The couples showed no significant differences in marital satisfaction, positive affect, and conflict regulation according to similarities between spouses in MBTI types. However, they showed significant differences in divorce proneness of husband according to a similarity in the Sensing/Intuition indicator. They also showed significant differences in divorce proneness, positive affect, and conflict regulation between the couples for ISTJ (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) or ESTJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) types compared to other couples. CONCLUSION: When nurses counsel couples, they should understand that differences in psychological type between spouses affects their marital relationship. In addition, nurses should educate couples on the characteristics of each type according to the couple's types and help them to understand each other, especially for couples where one spouse is the ISTJ/ESTJ type. These interventions will improve marital satisfaction and prevent the divorce in these couples.
Adult ; *Conflict (Psychology) ; *Divorce ; Extraversion (Psychology) ; Female ; Humans ; Introversion (Psychology) ; Judgment ; Male ; *Marriage ; Middle Aged ; *Personality Inventory ; Spouses/psychology ; Thinking

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to clarify the meaning and the nature of empowerment concept in some Iranian old people suffering from chronic diseases. METHODS: Concept analysis was undertaken according to the hybrid model, which consists of three phases: an initial theoretical phase, a fieldwork phase and a final analytical phase. After an extensive review of the literature in order to describe the characteristics and definition of the concept, a fieldwork phase followed in order to empirically elucidate the empowerment concept in the Iranian old people with chronic diseases. In the third phase, attributes of empowerment were extracted from the first and second phases. Purposive sampling was done for 13 participants consisted of 7 old people with chronic diseases, 3 family caregivers of elderly adult with chronic disease and 3 health care providers with experience of care with elderly patients with chronic disease. RESULTS: The review of literature in theoretical phase determined the attributes of the concept, including "active participation", "informed change", "knowledge to problem solve", "self-care responsibility", "presence of client competency", and "control of health or life". Fieldwork phase determined attributes such as "awareness promotion", "sense of control", "the development of personal abilities", "autonomy", and "coping". In the final analytical phase, the critical attributes of old people with chronic diseases were investigated. They included "social participation", "informed change", "awareness promotion to problem solve", "presence of client competency", and "control of health or life", "autonomy", "coping" and "the development of personal abilities". CONCLUSION: The concept analysis of empowerment showed some of the required conditions for the empowerment of older people with chronic diseases in nursing care, which have not been mentioned in the literature.
*Adaptation, Psychological ; Aged/*psychology ; Aging/*psychology ; Attitude to Health ; Chronic Disease/*psychology ; Female ; Humans ; Iran ; Male ; *Models, Psychological ; *Power (Psychology)

OBJECTS: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS). METHODS: GDS, BDI, SDS, MMPI-D, K-CES-D were administered to 81 depressed elderlies and 75 nondepressed elderlies. Those who obtained the 'definite impairment' score in MMSE-K were excluded in the final analyses. RESULTS: The values of Cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlation coefficient were 0.88 and 0.66(p< .001) respectively, The GDS was highly correlated with BDI(r= .72), SDS(r= .78), K-CES-D(r= .75), and MMPI-D(r= .65). The result of the factor analysis showed that GDS had seven factors. They could be labeled as core depressive feature(factor 1), loss of interest/pleasure(factor 2), feeling of unhappiness(factor 3), agitation(factor 4), cognitive inefficiency (factor 5), social withdrawal tendency(factor 6), and lack of motivation(factor 7), which represent important characteristics (emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects) of depression in the elderly. The total percent of variance of 7 factors was 53.4%. finally, the result of discrimination analysis showed that the hit ratio of GDS was 64%. CONCLUSION: Although GDS had the reasonable reliability and validity, it seemed to have some limitations in relation to absolute discrimination power. It is necessary to investigate the cultural differences in geriatric depressive symptoms and to develope a new depression scale for elderly people with consideration of the cultural differences.
Aged ; Depression* ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results*

In order to examine elderly depression in the elderly that too weakened cognitively, and physically to check depressive symptoms reliably, the authors deviced collateral source version of elderly depression scale and tested it's validity. Sixty elderly depression patients and forty-eight old person in normal group completed the KGDS (Korean Form of Geriatric Depression Scale), and their collateral source (CS) completed a CS version of the KGDS (CS-KGDS). The differences of CS-KGDS means was signified at alpha=.001 level (patients group mean=18.33 (4.71), control group mean=7.60 (5.25), t=11.18). The values of Cronbach's alpha and Split-half reliability were .88 and .81 respectively, and correlational coefficent with KGDS was .68. On factor analysis, 5 factors were extracted. They were labeled 'Physical weakening and decreased vitality' (factor 1), 'Emotional discomfort' (factor 2), 'Negative thinking and Unhappiness feeling' (factor 3), 'Cognitive dysfunction' (factor 4), 'Decreased social interest and activity' (factor 5), which congruous with internal structure of KGDS. The result of discrimination analysis showed 87.09% of hit ratio, and suggested the score of 13 as optimal cut-off score. This cut-off score was identical to that of KGDS. Conclusively, CS-KGDS could be a useful tool for evaluaion of elderly depression instead of KGDS in such case that KGDS can not be administered reliably.
Aged ; Depression* ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Thinking