Flashbulb memories: Conceptual and methodological issues

Abstract

Although flashbulb memory research is now well established, it is still not clear exactly what researchers are referring to as flashbulbs, and what is the best way to address the phenomenon. There are at least two ways in which the term “flashbulbs” is used, and at least two conceptual approaches that can be used to research them. The first usage corresponds to the bold theoretical conjectures put forward by Brown and Kulik (1977). The second results from empirical classification and intuitively lacks the essence conveyed by the first meaning. The two approaches concentrate on the cognitive and societal aspects, respectively. Although these are not incompatible, they make different assumptions and use different methodologies. We argue that research should be directed towards more unified theorising, and we describe methodologies appropriate for this approach.     

Depression and self-focused attention

Recent research on self-focused attention has indicated effects that parallel several cognitive and affective phenomena associated with depression. Specifically, discrepancies between perceived real and ideal self, increased affective response, self-attribution for negative events, and accurate self-reports occur both in depression and as a result of self-focused attention. A study is reported that investigated the relationship between depression and a measure of private self-consciousness, a dispositional measure of the tendency to attend to one's inner thoughts and feelings. As predicted, a reliable positive relationship was found. The potential role of self-focused attention in maintaining and exacerbating depression was discussed.The order of authorship was determined randomly.     

Rethinking current approaches to psychological abuse: Conceptual and methodological issues

Numerous ways in which we currently approach conceptualizing and measuring “psychological abuse” are highly problematic and likely inaccurate for understanding this complex phenomenon. While a major goal of this type of research often appears to be the identification of individuals considered to have been “psychologically abused”, this may be both a premature and misplaced goal. “Psychological abuse” has not been adequately defined, validated, or conceptually anchored in a way which provides a sound basis for its measurement, or which allows for conclusions to be made and applied to real-life settings. Rather, more important for this area of research is the development of sophisticated thought and measurement approaches applied to the broader field of psychological aggression (which does not attempt to determine a threshold for claiming “abuse” has occurred). The conceptualization and measurement of this complicated interpersonal phenomenon needs inclusion of not only the recipient's perspective, but also observers' views, the perspective of the initiator, outcome of the actions, analysis of contextual variables, as well as analysis of the recipient's and initiator's views.     

Within-person variations in self-focused attention and negative affect in depression and anxiety: A diary study

This study examined within-person co-occurrence of self-focus, negative affect, and stress in a community sample of adolescents with or without emotional disorders. As part of a larger study, 278 adolescents were interviewed about emotional disorders. Later, they completed diary measures over three days, six times a day, reporting their current thoughts, affect, and levels of stress. Negative affect was independently related to both concurrent stress and self-focus. Importantly, the association between negative affect and self-focus was stronger among participants with a recent unipolar mood disorder, compared to those with an anxiety disorder, comorbid anxiety and depression, or those without an emotional disorder. The implications of these findings to theories of self-focus and its role in emotional disorders are discussed.     

Avoiding and seeking self-focused attention

Male and female undergraduates read aloud statements about women which were either attitudinally consistent, discrepant, or neutral relative to their attitudes toward women. Following this, they were given the opportunity to choose to wait in front of a mirror or a nonreflecting wall. Subjects engaging in attitudinally discrepant behavior avoided self-focusing stimuli; those engaging in attitudinally consistent behavior sought contact with self-focusing stimuli. Intermediate tendencies to seek or avoid self-focused stimuli were demonstrated by subjects reading attitudinally neutral material. The theory of objective self-awareness was extended by demonstrating that self-focusing stimuli are not just avoided in response to negative discrepancies, but are sought out in response to attitude-behavior consistencies.     

Conceptual,methodological, and clinical issues in cognitive-behavioral assessment

This article reviews cognitive-behavioral assessment principles and procedures. The functions of such assessments are noted, and issues and advances in cognitive assessment are discussed. The need for integrated cognitive, behavioral, and affective assessments is then explored. Finally, conceptual methodological, and clinical issues in the integration of assessments and study of reciprocal determinants are presented.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by a General Research Board Faculty Research Award from the University of Maryland. The author would like to thank Steve Graham, Donald Meichenbaum, Barbara Keogh, and Bernice Wong for their feedback during the preparation of this paper.     

Conceptual and methodological issues in examining behavioral development through environment-organism interactions

The importance of understanding behavior in terms of interactions between organismic and environmental variables has become more salient and calls for research focused on such interactions have been made. However, several conceptual paths may encourage investigating and understanding behavior in terms of organism-environment interactions. One such path is the development and testing of constructs which cut across the traditional organism-environment dichotomy and conceptualize behavioral development as fundamentally an organism-environment interaction. In this paper, a metatheoretical framework for thinking about behavioral development as fundamentally an organism-environment interaction is presented. Issues involved in conceptualizing and examining behavior and behavioral development as fundamentally an organism-environment interaction are also examined by reviewing the concept of affordances and some of the illustrative research that has been conducted. From the review, it is suggested that research which attempts to understand behavior as inseparably a function of organism-environment interactions will benefit if additional methodological avenues are developed. Marken's (1997, Psychological Methods, 2, 436–446) test for controlled variables is presented as an example of one such method. Finally, suggestions for developing the ideas reviewed in this paper for other research domains (i.e., anxiety in children) are also presented.     

Conceptual and methodological issues in the judgment of facial expressions of emotion

In two studies, subjects judged a set of facial expressions of emotion by either providing labels of their own choice to describe the stimuli (free-choice condition), choosing a label from a list of emotion words, or choosing a story from a list of emotion stories (fixed-choice conditions). In the free-choice condition, levels of agreement between subjects on the predicted emotion categories for six basic emotions were significantly greater than chance levels, and comparable to those shown in fixed-choice studies. As predicted, there was little to no agreement on a verbal label for contempt. Agreement on contempt was greatly improved when subjects were allowed to identify the expression in terms of an antecedent event for that emotion rather than in terms of a single verbal label, a finding that could not be attributed to the methodological artifact of exclusion in a fixed-choice paradigm. These findings support two conclusions: (1) that the labels used in fixed-choice paradigms accurately reflect the verbal categories people use when free labeling facial expressions of emotion, and (2) that lexically ambiguous emotions, such as contempt, are understood in terms of their situational meanings.This research was supported in part by a Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 06091) to Paul Ekman.     

Effects of emotion-induced self-focused attention on item and source memory

Motivation and Emotion - Affective states are closely linked to attention to internal aspects of the self (i.e., self-focused attention). We investigated how self-focused attention induced by...     

Effects of performance expectancy and self-focused attention on social interaction

We investigated the impact of performance expectancies and self-focused attention on social performance in a mixed-sex dyad. A group of 48 undergraduate men with self-reported moderate social anxiety were divided into two groups on the basis of their high or low performance expectancies. Subjects were asked to respond to several self-report questionnaires before and after making a 4-5-min phone call to a female confederate for the purpose of getting acquainted. Half of the subjects in each expectancy group performed in the presence of a self-focusing stimulus (video camera). When anxiety level was controlled for, focus of attention alone had a very limited effect on performance. Expectancy had a significant influence on social performance, but only if subjects were self-focused. Thus confident subjects were rated by judges as more socially skilled than were doubtful subjects, but only when the camera was present. The interaction between these variables parallels previous research and supports the self-regulation model of Carver and Scheier.     

Conceptual,methodological, and clinical issues in the assessment of anxiety disorders

Many conceptual, methodological, and clinical issues remain unresolved in the assessment of anxiety disorders. Despite the prevalence, incidence, chronicity, and severity of anxiety disorders, research efforts and funding have fallen behind with regard both to other disorders and to addressing critical issues in the field. The primary objective of this paper is to provide a scientific critique regarding a number of often ignored yet salient considerations in anxiety-disorders assessment. Critical analyses of and recommendations regarding the multidimensional nature of anxiety, comorbidity, uniformity myths, synchrony, normative comparisons, psychometric properties of measures, and treatment integrity are offered. Finally, promising areas of clinical research are presented to enhance further the current understanding of the complexities inherent in assessing anxiety disorders.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by NIMH Grant MH36299.     

Emotional dimensions as determinants of self-focused attention

Negative emotions, and particularly sadness, have been found to induce self-focused attention among both depressed and normal individuals. However, positive emotion, such as happiness, is sometimes found to have a similar effect. The present study examines the effect of emotion on self-focus induction by looking separately at the emotional dimensions of valence and arousal. It postulates that arousal would be even more potent than valence in increasing self-focus, since it increases the salience of the self. Results of Experiment 1 showed that emotions that are both intense and negative, such as fear, induce the most self-focus, but pleasant relaxation also resulted in increased self-focusing. Experiment 2, using a similar design, replicated the arousal effect, and showed that fear and joy, the two most arousing emotions resulted in the most self-focus.     

The contributions of arousal and self-focused attention to avoidance in social anxiety

Abstract

Fear of blushing is a specific syndrome generally subsumed under the diagnostic category of social anxiety disorder (SAD). This study aims at gathering preliminary data about an intensive weekend intervention specifically designed for individuals with fear of blushing as the predominant complaint. Treatment consisted of a combination of attention training and behavioral therapy. Thirty-one blushing-fearful individuals meeting the criteria for SAD following the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) were treated in three groups. The study was conducted as an open trial. Full assessments were performed before treatment, six weeks after treatment, and at six-month follow-up. Only fear of blushing, the main outcome criterion, was assessed immediately before and after the treatment weekend. The intensive therapy program was well accepted. Fear of blushing and SAD were significantly reduced and reductions remained stable. At follow-up, nearly two-thirds of the participants achieved significant changes in fear of blushing. Despite the preliminary nature of this study, the condensed format of weekend therapy for treating fear of blushing calls for further investigation.     

Refining fit: Conceptual and methodological challenges

In some respects the development of research on person-environment fit has paralleled that of other methods and constructs in psychology such as psychotherapy and social support. Initial efforts have focused on basic questions such as: “Does psychotherapy work?; What are the correlates of social support?; and Is fit good for you?” However, as research has accumulated, it becomes clear that the initial questions raised were too simple (Gottlieb, 1981; Kiesler, 1971). Like psychotherapy and social support, some kinds of fit may be good for some people, in some places, some of the time, and in some ways. The challenge for researchers in the area is the development of models and methods that capture more fully the richness of the transaction between person and environment.     

The sociological study of suicide: methodological issues

This paper is a critical review of selected methodological issues in the sociological study of suicide. It first distinguishes between two broad research orientations: the micro and macro approaches to the subject. The paper than focuses on a critical assessment of the dominant macro-level methodology. Three recurrent problems are identified: measurement issues on four key variables (suicide and parasuicide, economic conditions, religion, and political conditions such as war); problems in studying the effect of mass media stories on suicide; and reasons why we need to adopt a cross-national method in order to test sociological theories for contextual effects. Partial remedies to many of these problems are discussed.     

The holophrastic hypothesis: Conceptual and empirical issues

A conceptual distinction is drawn between a structural and a functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis. The structural version of this hypothesis views the single-word utterances of children as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic structural relations, while the functional version views each of these utterances as consisting of a single lexical item which is used for a particular communicative function. The arguments which have been proposed in favour of these two versions of the hypothesis are critically examined in the light of the empirical evidence which is currently available. It is concluded that this evidence only supports the functional version of the holophrastic hypothesis, there being no evidence available to support the interpretation of children's single-word utterances as implicit expressions of either syntactic or semantic relations.     

Effect of self-focused attention on post-event processing in social anxiety

The study investigated the relationship between self-focused attention (SFA) and post-event processing (PEP) in social anxiety. SFA is the process of directing attention to internal stimuli during a social interaction. PEP is a detailed review of performance following an interaction. Highly socially anxious students (N = 82) were randomly assigned to a high SFA (n = 40) or low SFA condition (n = 42) and completed baseline measures of social anxiety, depression, trait SFA, and trait rumination. After SFA was manipulated via instructions, participants engaged in a 5-min unstructured conversation with a confederate, followed by a manipulation check. PEP was assessed the next day online. The high SFA group reported a similar amount of positive PEP but more frequent negative PEP over the 24-h period compared to the low SFA group. These results provide support for a causal relationship between SFA and PEP and have important applications for the development of effective cognitive-behavioural interventions.