Abstract
The current study aimed to investigate whether the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) can be a suitable measure of hopelessness in elderly people. At the moment, studies involving implicit attitude assessments in this population are scarce and this study sought to contribute to the literature in this field. Thirty-seven participants (average age = 65) with normal cognitive functioning completed the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and an IRAP designed to measure hopelessness. Results revealed significant correlations between BHS and IRAP scores. In addition, performance in two IRAP trial types predicted BHS clusters on high and low hopelessness. To the extent of our knowledge, this is the first article describing an attempt to apply the IRAP as a procedure for psychological assessment of elderly people. The results suggest that further research for procedural refinement is needed and the potential application of the IRAP as a complement to self-report instruments for the diagnosis of hopelessness and depression.
References
Anda, R., Williamson, D., Jones, D., Macera, C., Eaker, E., Glassman, A., & Marks, J. (1993). Depressed affect, hopelessness, and the risk of ischemic heart disease in a cohort of U.S. adults. Epidemiology, 4, 285–294. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001648-199307000-00003.
Assari, S., & Lankarani, M. M. (2016). Depressive symptoms are associated with more hopelessness among white than black older adults. Frontiers in Public Health, 4, 82. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00082.
Barnes-Holmes, D., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Stewart, I., & Boles, S. (2010). A sketch of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and the Relational Elaboration and Coherence (REC) Model. The Psychological Record, 60, 527–542. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03395726.
Beck, A. T. (1988). Beck Hopelessness Scale. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Beck, A. T., & Steer, R. A. (1988). Manual for the Beck Hopelessness Scale. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.
Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: The Hopelessness Scale. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 42, 861–865. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0037562.
Cheruvu, V. K., & Chiyaka, E. T. (2019). Prevalence of depressive symptoms among older adults who reported medical cost as a barrier to seeking health care: Findings from a nationally representative sample. BMC Geriatrics, 19(1), 192. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1203-2.
Dong, X., & Chang, E. S. (2014). Understanding hopelessness among community-dwelling Chinese older adults in the greater Chicago area. Journal of Gerontology and Geriatric Research, 3, 193. https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-7182.1000193.
Dowd, E. T. (1992). Review of the Beck Hopelessness Scale. 11th Mental Measurement Yearbook, 81–82. Lincoln, NE: Buros Center for Testing, The University of Nebraska Press.
Finn, M., Barnes-Holmes, D., & McEnteggart, C. (2018). Exploring the single-trial-dominance-effect in the IRAP: Developing a Differential Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding Effects (DAARRE) model. The Psychological Record, 68, 11–25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-017-0262-z.
Folstein, M. F., Folstein, S. E., & McHugh, P. R. (1975). Mini-mental state: A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3956(75)90026-6.
Kim, B. J., Linton, K., Cho, S., & Ha, J.-H. (2016). The relationship between neuroticism, hopelessness, and depression in older Korean Immigrants. PLoS ONE, 11, e0145520. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0145520.
Kosnes, L., Whelan, R., O’Donovan, A., & McHugh, L. A. (2013). Implicit measurement of positive and negative future thinking as a predictor of depressive symptoms and hopelessness. Consciousness & Cognition, 22, 898–912. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2013.06.001.
Kuo, W.-H., Gallo, J. J., & Eaton, W. W. (2004). Hopelessness, depression, substance disorder, and suicidality: A 13-year community-based study. Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 39, 497–501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-004-0775-z.
Owen, S.V. (1992). Review of the Beck Hopelessness Scale. 11th Mental Measurement Yearbook, 82–83. Lincoln, NE: Buros Center for Testing, The University of Nebraska Press.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2014, May 6). Fueled by aging Baby Boomers, nation's older population to nearly double in the next 20 years, Census Bureau reports. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-84.html. Accessed 31 Jan 2020.
Availability of Data and Materials
Data supporting the findings presented in this article can be found at https://osf.io/bgpk8/.
Funding
This work was part of the research program of Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia sobre Comportamento, Cognição e Ensino (National Institute of Science and Technology on Behavior, Cognition, and Teaching), under the leadership of Deisy G. de Souza and supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Grant # 2014/50909-8) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Grant # 465686/2014-1).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
This manuscript has not been published or presented elsewhere, in part or in its entirety, and is not under consideration by another journal.
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee, as well as with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Proper informed consent was obtained, and the study design was approved by the appropriate ethics review boards.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rezende, M.C., Bast, D.F., Huziwara, E.M. et al. The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure as a Measure of Hopelessness in the Elderly: An Exploratory Study. Psychol Rec 71, 313–317 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00406-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-020-00406-1