Doctorate in Clinical Psychology : Main Research Portfolio

: 1) Self-Report Measures of Beliefs about Emotion: A Systematic Review; 2) Neuropsychological Assessment Provision at Bristol Children’s Epilepsy Surgery Service: An Audit from 2012 to 2022; 3) Beliefs about Emotions, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy Skills, and Attitude towards Psychological Therapy in Young Adults in the United Kingdom.

Abstract

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is commonly offered for many mental health conditions. However, dropouts and less-than-optimal responses to CBT are prevalent. Recently, beliefs about emotions were identified as important transdiagnostic factor in mental health. To date, no research has explored the relationship between beliefs about emotions and CBT.

An online study using a CBT skills task and questionnaires measuring beliefs about emotions and attitude towards psychological help-seeking was completed with a sample of adults aged 18-25 living in the United Kingdom (N=87). It considered beliefs about cognitive mediation, stimulus-response, controllability, and usefulness of emotions. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyse data while controlling for gender and wellbeing.

This study to provided evidence that female gender and stronger beliefs that emotions are useful predicted better baseline CBT skills. It also showed that that weaker cognitive-mediation and stronger stimulus-response beliefs predicted stronger belief that emotions are uncontrollable, which, in turn, predicted more negative attitude towards therapy. The hypotheses that cognitive-mediation, stimulus-response or controllability beliefs would predict CBT skills were not supported. The implications for practice and research directions are discussed.

Date of Award	10 Sept 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Ailsa Russell (Supervisor), Jennifer Allen (Supervisor), Rebecca Wilson (Supervisor) & Kate Cooper (Supervisor)