Parent-child discrepancies in report of psychopathology: the contributions of response bias and parenting stress

This study explored the associations between response-bias features, parenting stress, and parent-child discrepancies in self-report and parent ratings of psychopathology in a sample of 153 preadolescents from an inpatient psychiatric setting. Correlational and multiple regression analyses utilized combinations of dissimulation (FB) and defensiveness (DEF) validity scales from the Personality Inventory for Youth (PIY; Lachar & Gruber, 1995) and Personality Inventory for Children (PIC-2; Lachar & Gruber, 2001) and components from Abidin's (1995) Parenting Stress Index (PSI) to predict normalized parent-child discrepancies between the PIY/PIC-2 clinical scales. Response-bias features were significantly associated with hypothesized patterns of under- and overreporting and accounted for most of the variance in parent-child discrepancies. Although child stress components of the PSI demonstrated a generalized pattern of moderate relationships with parent-child discrepancies, parent stress components demonstrated a weaker and more specific pattern of relationships.     

Distress and coping with hot flushes at work: Implications for counsellors in occupational settings

This study explored whether mid-life women regard hot flushes at work as a substantial stressor. A sample of 29 working women reporting hot flushes for at least 12 months rated the degree to which each of ten work situations influenced flush distress or discomfort. Ratings were compared with qualitative accounts of coping with flushes at work. Results showed that women differed markedly in the work situations that they regarded as most problematic, but flush distress was commonly magnified during formal meetings, in hot enclosed spaces and in the presence of male colleagues. A substantial minority viewed colleagues as conveying negative attitudes towards menopausal problems, which jeopardised general confidence at work as well as creating specific difficulties during frush episodes. Flush distress was higher among those reporting embarrassment and dificulties disclosing menopausal status to others. Respondents made suggestions for ways in which the working environment could be improved to assist women in managing hot flushes. Coping with flushes was largely seen as an individual rather than organisational responsibility. Other stigmatising health problems may present similar subjective problems at work, and this needs further study. Some implications for counsellors working in organisational settings are explored.     

Expectancy bias and the persistence of posttraumatic stress

Anxious individuals tend to overestimate the probability that encounters with anxiogenic stimuli (CS) will be followed by aversive consequences (UCS). This study examined whether such (biased) UCS expectancies predict the persistence of PTSD symptoms. A total of 265 soldiers were recruited before a four-month deployment to Iraq in 2004. About 2-5 months after deployment, 171 (65%) soldiers completed self-report scales about adverse events in Iraq and PTSD symptoms, and a UCS expectancy task. In this task, participants were exposed to a series of deployment-related and deployment-unrelated (control) picture stimuli. For each trial, the participants indicated the subjective probability that a particular slide would be followed by an imminent loud noise. Around 15 months after deployment, 130 (76%) soldiers completed surveys about PTSD symptoms again. Only a small group of participants had high levels of PTSD symptoms. Regression analyses showed that the level of PTSD symptoms at 15 months was predicted by earlier PTSD symptoms, but also and independently by an enhanced UCS expectancy to deployment-related stimuli. The findings support the notion that UCS expectancy bias contributes to the persistence of PTSD symptoms.     

Cortisol,stress, and attentional bias toward threat

Abstract

Attentional bias toward threatening stimuli is a central characteristic of anxiety and acute stress. Recent small-scale studies have provided divergent perspectives on the association between the stress hormone cortisol and attentional bias toward threat cues. In a larger sample size than previous studies, we examined this association by investigating the impact of cortisol on attentional bias in two studies using a psychological stressor (N=35) and a physical stressor (N=65), respectively. Attentional bias and salivary cortisol were measured prior to and following the administration of a stressful task designed to increase cortisol levels. Results across these studies were equivocal relative to the association between baseline cortisol and baseline attentional bias. In addition, the association between acute change in cortisol and change in attentional bias appeared to differ as a function of the presence or absence of psychological stress. There was a trend toward a stronger negative association between acute cortisol change and attentional bias change among women relative to men. These results imply that the association between cortisol and attentional bias may be moderated by additional factors, such as gender or presence of stress.     

Effect of cognitive appraisal on d' and response bias to experimental stress.

The effects of an intellectualization-denial passage designed to modify cognitive appraisal of stressor stimuli (gory scences) were evaluated in terms of sensory-decision theory analysis. The passage was found to reduce "felt stress" ') for certain pairs of the stimuli addressed by the passage content but to less effective in reducing stress (Lx) was reduced rather than increased wi;h presentation of the passage for the included simuli only. Differences in d' between subjects classified within treatment groups as repressors versus sensitizers were obtained for certain stimulus pairs generally in the direction of lower sensitivity for repressors. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of altered cognitive appraisal on the "prevention of stress" and on "defensive"denial.     

The generality of cognitive bias in acute stress disorder

Cognitive bias was investigated in acutely traumatised civilians with either acute stress disorder (ASD; n = 26) or no ASD (n = 24). Participants completed the Acute Stress Disorder Interview, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Impact of Event Scale (IES), and an Event Probability Questionnaire and an Event Cost Questionnaire that comprised items pertaining to (a) external harm, (b) somatic sensations and (c) social events. ASD participants exaggerated both the probability of negative external harm, somatic and social events occurring, and the adverse cost of those events more than non-ASD participants. Elevated probability and cost estimates were predicted by BAI and IES-Avoidance scores, respectively. These findings are discussed in the context of different patterns observed in other anxiety disorders, and interpreted in terms of network theories of posttraumatic stress.     

MCMI-II report style and bias: profile and validity scales analyses

This study examines the behavior of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) in the face of various response styles and biases. The profiles and validity configurations of eight different test-taking styles were analyzed. Four hundred MCMI-II inventories (50 for each of the following categories) were administered or generated to produce the following: (a) normal endorsement by subjects, (b) fake good for administrative reasons, (c) fake good for clinical reasons, (d) fake bad administratively, (e) fake bad clinically, (f) 50% true/50% false computer generated, (g) 95% true computer generated, and (h) 95% false computer generated. Good statistical and clinically relevant separation of the profiles was found for normal, fake good, fake bad, and the randomly generated profiles with 44% of the variance predicted. The percentage of profiles identified by validity scales, however, was modest.     

Implicit and explicit memory bias for threat in post-traumatic stress disorder.

We investigated explicit (cued recall) and implicit (word completion) memory in Vietnam combat veterans with (n = 24) and without (n = 24) post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Half of the subjects in each group encoded combat, social threat, positive, and neutral words elaboratively, whereas the others encoded these words nonelaboratively. On the cued recall test, under both encoding conditions, both groups recalled more combat words than other words. However, difference scores obtained by subtracting the mean recall for neutral words from the mean recall scores for the other words revealed that PTSD patients exhibited a relative explicit memory bias for combat words. That is, PTSD patients tended to exhibit poor memory for everything but combat words. On the word completion test, only PTSD subjects exhibited an implicit memory bias for combat words. This bias was greater for primed than for unprimed words, thereby ruling out a response bias. Such memory bias may underlie the 'reexperiencing' symptoms characteristic of PTSD (e.g. intrusive thoughts, nightmares).     

Dynamic measures of anxiety-related threat bias: Links to stress reactivity

Exaggerated attention to threatening information, or the threat bias, has been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Recent research has highlighted methodological limitations in threat bias measures, such as temporal insensitivity, leading to the development of novel metrics that capture change and variability in threat bias over time. These metrics, however, have rarely been examined in non-clinical samples. The present study aimed to explore the utility of these trial-level metrics in predicting anxiety-related stress reactivity (stress-induced negative mood state) in trait anxious adults (N?=?52). Following a stressor, participants completed the dot probe task to generate threat bias scores. Stress reactivity was measured via stress-induced changes in subjective mood state. More variability in trial-level bias scores (TL-BSs) and greater bias away from threat (both mean and peak negative TL-BSs) predicted increased stress reactivity. The temporal characteristics of threat bias and implications for clinically-relevant measurement are discussed.     

The role of attributional bias and visual stress on the improvement of reading speed using colored filters

This study tested the predictions derived from two explanatory theoretical models of the effects of colored filters on reading speed: the theory of attributional bias and the theory of visual stress associated with reading. The experimental group consisted of 27 secondary school students (14 boys, 13 girls) diagnosed with the Meares-Irlen syndrome; the control group had 27 students paired in age and sex with the experimental group. The mean age of the sample was 12 years, 10 months (SD = 8.9 mo.). The effects of colored filters on reading speed and accuracy were tested using a word reading test and a visual stress induction text. The presentation method tapped individuals' visual sensitivity and response criteria. The results support some predictions of the theory of attributional bias, but more research is needed to assess each theory of reading speed.     

Emotional intelligence and attentional bias for threat‐related emotion under stress

Emotional intelligence (EI ) can buffer potentially harmful effects of situational and chronic stressors to safeguard psychological wellbeing (e.g., Mikolajczak, Petrides, Coumans & Luminet, 2009 ), yet understanding how and when EI operates to promote adaptation remains a research priority. We explored whether EI (both trait and ability) modulated early attentional processing of threat‐related emotion under conditions of stress. Using a dot probe paradigm, eye movement (fixation to emotive facial stimuli, relative to neutral) and manual reaction time data were collected from 161 adults aged 18–57 years (mean age = 25.24; SD = 8.81) exposed to either a stressful (failure task) or non‐stressful (control) situation. Whilst emotion management ability and trait wellbeing corresponded to avoidance of negative emotion (angry and sad respectively), high trait sociability and emotionality related to a bias for negative emotions. With most effects not restricted to stressful conditions, it is unclear whether EI underscores ‘adaptive’ processing, which carries implications for school‐based social and emotional learning programs.     

Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias training on cardiovascular responses to stress in women

Abstract

Experimental studies show that training people to attend to negative stimuli makes them more likely to respond with greater anxiety to stress. The present study investigated this effect in students using measures of cardiovascular responses to stress and examined whether individual differences influence the impact of attention training on stress responses. Using a standard dot probe task, 30 participants underwent negative attentional bias training and 34 participants underwent anti-negative training before completing a stressful speech task. Results indicated that, overall, participants exhibited acclimatization to the procedures (indicated by a dip in blood pressure post-training) and normal stress responding (indicated by elevated blood pressure in response to stress; p<.001). However, consideration of participants’ scores for neuroticism/emotional-stability revealed important differences in how the intervention impacted on cardiovascular profiles (p=.008). For participants with high neuroticism scores, the negative attentional bias intervention elicited more exaggerated stress responding than the anti-negative intervention. For those with low neuroticism scores (i.e., emotionally stable participants), the anti-negative intervention was associated with elevated post-intervention blood pressure and higher blood pressure reactivity to stress. These findings provide evidence of the impact of attentional bias manipulation on physiological stress reactivity and suggest the effect is highly contingent on individual temperaments.     

Individual differences in the impact of attentional bias training on cardiovascular responses to stress in women

Experimental studies show that training people to attend to negative stimuli makes them more likely to respond with greater anxiety to stress. The present study investigated this effect in students using measures of cardiovascular responses to stress and examined whether individual differences influence the impact of attention training on stress responses. Using a standard dot probe task, 30 participants underwent negative attentional bias training and 34 participants underwent anti-negative training before completing a stressful speech task. Results indicated that, overall, participants exhibited acclimatization to the procedures (indicated by a dip in blood pressure post-training) and normal stress responding (indicated by elevated blood pressure in response to stress; p<.001). However, consideration of participants' scores for neuroticism/emotional-stability revealed important differences in how the intervention impacted on cardiovascular profiles (p=.008). For participants with high neuroticism scores, the negative attentional bias intervention elicited more exaggerated stress responding than the anti-negative intervention. For those with low neuroticism scores (i.e., emotionally stable participants), the anti-negative intervention was associated with elevated post-intervention blood pressure and higher blood pressure reactivity to stress. These findings provide evidence of the impact of attentional bias manipulation on physiological stress reactivity and suggest the effect is highly contingent on individual temperaments.     

Impact of caffeine and psychological stress on blood pressure in black and white men

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of caffeine and psychological stress on systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR) in 40 healthy Black and White male regular coffee drinkers. Half the subjects had a positive family history of hypertension (FH+), and half did not. The effects of 250 mg of caffeine versus placebo (3 mg) in decaffeinated coffee were compared in a within-subject, double-blind, cross-over design. SBP and HR were measured at rest, after caffeine ingestion, during mental arithmetic stress, and during recovery. Results confirmed previous findings with White men that a moderate dose of caffeine produced significant increases in SBP and little effect on HR and that the pressor effects of caffeine and stress combined additively. Contrary to expectations, no overall race or family history differences in SBP levels or in SBP reactivity were observed. FH+ Blacks, however, evidenced slower SBP recovery than Whites. Whites evidenced higher overall HR levels than blacks, but this difference was not specific to caffeine or to mental stress. Mechanisms of racial differences in reactivity underlying differential risk for hypertension are discussed, as well as the utility of caffeine as a pharmacologic probe for such differences.     

Impact of perceived consensus on stereotypes about obese people: a new approach for reducing bias.

In 3 experiments, the authors tested the effect of perceived social consensus on attitudes toward obese people. Participants completed self-report measures of attitudes toward obese people prior to and after manipulated consensus feedback depicting attitudes of others. In Study 1 (N=60), participants decreased negative and increased positive stereotypes after learning that others held more favorable attitudes toward obese people. In Study 2 (N=55), participants improved attitudes when they learned about favorable attitudes of obese people from an in-group versus an out-group source. In Study 3 (N=200), a consensus approach was compared with other stigma reduction methods. Social consensus feedback influenced participants' attitudes and beliefs about causes of obesity. Providing information about the uncontrollable causes of obesity and supposed scientific prevalence of traits also improved attitudes.     

The impact of E-diaries and accelerometers on young adults' perceived and objectively assessed physical activity

ObjectiveE-diaries and accelerometers promise more objective, real-time measurements of health behavior. However, social-psychological theory suggests that using electronic behavioral monitoring may influence rather than just record physical activity (PA), especially when a device is novel.DesignParticipants (n = 146) were randomly assigned to either an accelerometer-only, e-diary-only, accelerometer + e-diary, or a no-technology control group for one week to assess how these technologies influenced PA, both perceived and actual, in young adults.MethodParticipants reported their PA, overall and number of discrete exercise sessions (DES) at baseline and follow-up; accelerometers provided daily step counts and e-diaries captured daily reports of PA for the active week of the study.ResultsAverage daily steps in the accelerometer-only and accelerometer + e-diary groups did not differ nor did daily reports of PA via e-diary compared to accelerometer + e-diary group, showing that neither technology affected actual PA. ANCOVAS tested group differences in perceived PA; The accelerometer-only group had increased perceived overall PA but not DES compared to no-technology control.ConclusionsAccelerometers may increase perceived overall PA, but the tested technologies did not increase DES or actual PA, suggesting that they may be viable unbiased measures of PA.     

Judgments of salary bias and test bias from statistical evidence

Academics examined correlation scatter plots and made judgments of group bias. Half of the subjects judged bias in salaries from graphs that showed salaries plotted against merit with a separate correlation ellipse for each of two groups. The others judged test bias from graphs that showed job performance vs test scores. Relative positions of the centroids for the two groups and the within-group correlation were systematically varied. Judgments of bias were not consistent with either “forward” or “reverse” regression definitions of bias. Judged bias is not a monotonic function of the group difference in salary between persons of equal merit nor is it a monotonic function of the group difference in merit between persons of equal salary. Instead, judgments in both tasks were consistent with a difference of differences model; for example, when the group difference in standard deviation units is equal on both salary and merit, judges say the situation is unbiased. The results are consistent with a one-mediator model of group equity, which assumes that both measures are imperfectly and equally correlated with the mediator.