A cascade of rejection and appearance preoccupation: Adolescents’ body dysmorphic symptoms and appearance rejection sensitivity over 4 years

Adolescence is a high-risk period for body image disturbance and appearance concerns. In a cascade model, we examined interrelations of body dysmorphic symptoms (BDS) with appearance rejection sensitivity (ARS) and tested gender moderation. Participants were 397 Australian adolescents (T1 Mage = 11.7, SD = 0.91; 56% girls) who completed six surveys over 4 years. In a random-intercept cross-lag model, two (of five possible) paths showed ARS predicted higher subsequent BDS, and three (of five possible) paths showed BDS predicted higher subsequent ARS. Girls reported more BDS and ARS than boys, and random intercepts of BDS and ARS were correlated with the correlation stronger in girls than boys. Cross-lag BDD-ARS associations over the six waves were not significantly moderated by gender. Overall, girls are at higher risk of appearance concerns than boys, but BDD-ARS cascade effects do not differ between girls and boys.     

The development of stimulus control with and without a lighted key

In two experiments, the effect of an illuminated response key on the acquisition of stimulus control by an airflow stimulus was assessed. In the first experiment, pigeons were given nondifferential training with airflow emerging from behind the response key in one of three conditions of illumination: trained to peck a lighted key, trained to peck an unlighted key with a houselight present, trained to peck a key in total darkness. After 10 days of training on a variable-interval schedule of reinforcement, all subjects were given a generalization test on airflow velocity. The gradients for subjects trained in the dark were sharp, while those for subjects trained in lighted conditions were shallow. In the second experiment, the effect of an irrelevant keylight on the acquisition of an airflow velocity discrimination was assessed. Two groups of pigeons were trained to discriminate two airflow velocities. One group was trained with a lighted response key and the other was trained to peck the response key in total darkness. The dark-trained subjects acquired the discrimination more rapidly. The results demonstrate that the acquisition of stimulus control by airflow with either a differential or nondifferential training procedure can be overshadowed by keylight.     

Interpersonal functioning and depressive symptoms in childhood: Addressing the issues of specificity and comorbidity

Research has supported linkages between depression and social impairment in youngsters, but has often focused on depressive symptoms in isolation. We collected data on depressive, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms in 161 school children. Information about interpersonal competence was gathered from several sources, including children, teachers, and behavioral observations. Depressive symptoms were found to be related to difficulties in multiple areas of competence, including maladaptive social problem-solving styles, conflict-negotiation and affect-regulation deficits, and peer rejection. Comparisons of the relative contributions made by depressive and anxiety symptoms to the prediction of functioning yielded some evidence for a specific relation between depressive symptoms and impairment. Children with cooccurring internalizing and externalizing symptoms generally suffered from the most social dysfunction. If replicated in clinical samples, findings such as these may help to guide intervention efforts with depressed children.We thank Daphne Isenberg, Margie Limon, Leslie Scher, and Jennifer Silverman for their assistance in various aspects of this study. We would also like to express our appreciation to the participating children and teachers and to the UCLA Bruin Kids Day Camp.     

Some effects of lick-contingent delays on the development of schedule-induced polydipsia

Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of various durations of lickcontingent delays of reinforcement on the development of schedule-induced polydipsia. Food was provided every 1 min in the absence of licking. Delays of 1 min or more effectively disrupted the development of the licking behavior. In Experiments 3 and 4 a lick-contingent stimulus was provided in addition to the delay of food delivery. A light, which was turned on by a lick and turned off by food, greatly enhanced the development of polydipsia under delays that had previously prevented such development. A tone proved less effective than the light in promoting the development of polydipsia. Adventitious reinforcement and conditioned punishment explanations of these results were considered. A distinction was drawn between the mechanism responsible for the development of schedule-induced behavior and that responsible for its maintenance.     

Testing the Structured Free Recall Intervention for Reducing the Impact of Bodyweight-Based Stereotypes on Performance Ratings in Immediate and Delayed Contexts

Purpose

This article investigates the efficacy of the Structured Free Recall Intervention (SFRI; J Bus Psychol 15:229?C246, 2000a; Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 82:237?C267, 2000b ) for reducing the impact of bodyweight-based stereotype endorsement on performance ratings, both immediately and when a time delay occurs between the observation and rating of performance.

Design/Methodology/Approach

512 undergraduates participated in a 2?×?2?×?2 between-subjects factorial experiment. A measure of bodyweight-based stereotype endorsement was pre-screened, and participants were randomly assigned to (a) either a no-delay or two-day time delay condition, (b) view either an average bodyweight or overweight ratee, and (c) undergo the SFRI or not.

Findings

Results suggest that (a) bodyweight-based stereotype endorsement predicts performance ratings for overweight ratees, (b) the SFRI is effective at reducing the impact of such stereotypes on performance ratings when conducted immediately after the observation of performance, and (c) the SFRI maintains this efficacy after a two-day delay between the observation and rating of performance.

Implications

These findings suggest that the best real-world application of the SFRI paradigm may be to situations with minimal delays between the observation and rating of performance, such as selection assessment centers or pre-employment interviews.

Originality/Value

Drawing on theories from the cognitive information processing literature, this paper extends previous research regarding the efficacy of the SFRI by demonstrating that short time delays between performance observation and rating??a common organizational phenomena??have minimal observed effects on the efficacy of the SFRI as a performance rating intervention.     

Transactional Associations Between Youths’ Responses to Peer Stress and Depression: The Moderating Roles of Sex and Stress Exposure

This study examined transactional associations between responses to peer stress and depression in youth. Specifically, it tested the hypotheses that (a) depression would predict fewer effortful responses and more involuntary, dysregulated responses to peer stress over time; and (b) fewer adaptive and more maladaptive responses would predict subsequent depression. Youth (M age = 12.41; SD = 1.19; 86 girls, 81 boys) and their maternal caregivers completed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires at three annual waves. Multi-group comparison path analyses were conducted to examine sex and stress-level differences in the proposed reciprocal-influence model. In girls and in youth exposed to high levels of peer stress, maladaptive stress responses predicted more depressive symptoms and adaptive stress responses predicted fewer depressive symptoms at each wave. These findings suggest the utility of preventive interventions for depression designed to enhance the quality of girls’ stress responses. In boys, depression predicted less adaptive and more maladaptive stress responses, but only at the second wave. These findings suggest that interventions designed to reduce boys’ depressive symptoms may help them develop more adaptive stress responses.     

Depressive Symptoms Following Coping with Peer Aggression: The Moderating Role of Negative Emotionality

The way in which children cope with peer aggression may determine their subsequent adjustment, but different forms of coping may be more or less effective for particular children. This research examined whether the contribution of children’s coping to subsequent depressive symptoms was contingent on children’s temperament (i.e., level of negative emotionality; NE) and gender. Children (N?=?235, 102 boys, 133 girls, M?=?7.94 years, SD?=?0.33) reported on exposure to peer victimization. Parents rated children’s NE and depressive symptoms, and teachers rated children’s coping. For girls with high NE, problem solving protected against depressive symptoms whereas seeking retaliation heightened risk for depressive symptoms. Advice seeking protected children with low NE against depressive symptoms whereas ignoring protected children with high NE against depressive symptoms. Humor predicted fewer depressive symptoms in boys with high NE but more depressive symptoms in boys with low NE. This research helps to elucidate individual differences in the effects of coping on adjustment, and has implications for interventions aimed at reducing risk resulting from exposure to peer aggression.     

Dynamics of alpha oscillations elucidate facial affect recognition in schizophrenia

Impaired facial affect recognition is characteristic of schizophrenia and has been related to impaired social function, but the relevant neural mechanisms have not been fully identified. The present study sought to identify the role of oscillatory alpha activity in that deficit during the process of facial emotion recognition. Neuromagnetic brain activity was monitored while 44 schizophrenia patients and 44 healthy controls viewed 5-s videos showing human faces gradually changing from neutral to fearful or happy expressions or from the neutral face of one poser to the neutral face of another. Recognition performance was determined separately by self-report. Relative to prestimulus baseline, controls exhibited a 10- to 15-Hz power increase prior to full recognition and a 10- to 15-Hz power decrease during the postrecognition phase. These results support recent proposals about the function of alpha-band oscillations in normal stimulus evaluation. The patients failed to show this sequence of alpha power increase and decrease and also showed low 10- to 15-Hz power and high 10- to 15-Hz connectivity during the prestimulus baseline. In light of the proposal that a combination of alpha power increase and functional disconnection facilitates information intake and processing, the finding of an abnormal association of low baseline alpha power and high connectivity in schizophrenia suggests a state of impaired readiness that fosters abnormal dynamics during facial affect recognition.