This article develops the hypothesis that intervention strategies that cultivate positive emotions are particularly suited for preventing and treating problems rooted in negative emotions, such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and stressrelated health problems. Fredrickson's (1998) broaden–and–build model of positive emotions provides the foundation for this application. According to this model, the form and function of positive and negative emotions are distinct and complementary. Negative emotions (e.g., fear, anger, and sadness) narrow an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire toward specific actions that served the ancestral function of promoting survival. By contrast, positive emotions (e.g., joy, interest, and contentment) broaden an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire, which in turn can build that individual's enduring personal resources, resources that also served the ancestral function of promoting survival. One implication of the broaden–and–build model is that positive emotions have an undoing effect on negative emotions. By broadening

This review discusses the relationship between the psychological and physiological factors responsible for airways obstruction in asthma and indicates the mechanisms by which psychological methods of treatment may influence airway caliber. The effects of mental and muscular relaxation therapy, systematic desensitization, and biofeedback-assisted relaxation are evaluated in children and adults with asthma. The methodology and results of studies are analyzed critically to present a balanced opinion of the subjective and objective effects of these methods of treatment. Muscular relaxation therapy alone appears to have no effect. Certain mental relaxation techniques, such as autogenic training and transcendental meditation, systematic desensitization, and biofeedback-assisted relaxation, can produce subjective improvement as well as clinically significant improvement in respiratory function and other objective parameters. As with any therapy the response is variable and is influenced by factors such as age and severity of asthma.

A historical analysis of the literature pertaining to psychoprophylaxis demonstrates that contemporary treatment methods have diverse and complex origins. Although many training manuals are presented as outlines of the "Lamaze " method, historical evidence indicates that

supported principles of change (ESPs) and not credential trademarked therapies or other treatment packages. Behavior Modification, 27, 300–312] recommended that empirically supported principles be listed instead of empirically supported treatments because the latter approach enables the creation of putatively new therapies by adding functionally inert components to already listed effective treatments. This article attempts to facilitate inquiry into empirically supported principles by reviewing possible mechanisms responsible for the effectiveness of systematic desensitization and exposure therapy. These interventions were selected because they were among the first empirically supported treatments for which some attempt was made at explanation. Reciprocal inhibition, counterconditioning, habituation, extinction, two-factor model, cognitive changes including expectation, self-efficacy, cognitive restructuring, and informal network-based emotional processing explanations are considered. Logical problems and/or available empirical evidence attenuate or undercut these explanations. A connectionist learning-memory mechanism supported by findings from behavioral and neuroscience research is provided. It demonstrates the utility of preferring empirically supported principles over treatments. Problems and limitations of connectionist explanations are presented. This explanation warrants further consideration and should stimulate discussion concerning empirically supported principles.

Research article Relaxation training for anxiety: a ten-years systematic review with meta-analysis

Technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) that induce presence in a virtual, but still external, perceived world, have great power to evoke emotional experiences that can lead to psychotherapeutically valuable changes in the individual. This reflects the power of presence – seen as the feeling of being located in a perceived, external world – in developing and affecting psychological wellbeing. Until today Virtual reality Environments (VEs) have been incorporated into a variety of clinical and everyday settings to improve mental health. Nevertheless many areas in the health field can be still explored by using this innovative technology. One example is represented by stress management area, one of the leading mental health problems of western societies linked to several pathologies. Following this trend our proposal is to investigate with a non clinical sample the efficacy of a relaxing narrative through a virtual experience. In a controlled study we compared three different media: Immersive VR, DVD and Audio speaker, by using the same therapeutic narrative and protocol. A control group without treatment was also included in the study. The sample included 60 university students, randomly divided in four experimental conditions. Non parametric test and correlation were used to analyse self-reports and physiological parameters. Within groups analysis- in both VR and DVD conditions- showed a significant improvement of the emotional state and significative physiological changes. Furthermore, regression analysis showed that a relationship exists between the sense of presence and the outcome achieved by the mediated experience. However, the absence of significant differences from the analysis between groups suggests that the principal determinant of presence might be the content proposed within the mediated experience. Further reflections about sense of presence in relaxing virtual environments will be discussed.

University, USA—Although the health care costs and the number of disability cases across all medical illnesses have increased, disability management programs implementing stress management interventions have been found to improve physical and mental health, reduce costs to employers, and facilitate the reintegration of injured individuals into the work environment. Stress management programs limit the impact and chronicity of disabilities and can be used to reduce and control the cost of disability in the workplace. Providing the most efficacious behavioral interventions thereby allows employers, employees and health professionals to work cooperatively to achieve optimum health and cost effectiveness. This review presents a variety of group and individual interventions, which have been utilized to aid disabled employees in coping with work-related injuries and medical illness. The implementation of stress management interventions in the workplace is described in detail, with special emphasis on the use of cognitive behavioral stress management. Finally, this review outlines a team approach to the application of a workplace stress management intervention aimed at reducing the overall impact of disability.

which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by a constant and unspecific anxiety that interferes with daily-life activities. Its high prevalence in general population and the severe limitations it causes, point out the necessity to find new efficient strategies to treat it. Together with the cognitive-behavioural treatments, relaxation represents a useful approach for the treatment of GAD, but it has the limitation that it is hard to be learned. To overcome this limitation we propose the use of virtual reality (VR) to facilitate the relaxation process by visually presenting key relaxing images to the subjects. The visual presentation of a virtual calm scenario can facilitate patients ' practice and mastery of relaxation, making the experience more vivid and real than the one that most subjects can create using their own imagination and memory, and triggering a broad empowerment process within the experience induced by a high sense of presence. According to these premises, the aim of the present study is to investigate the advantages of using a VR-based relaxation protocol in reducing anxiety in patients affected by GAD.