Effects of learned helplessness training on instrumental heart rate control in humans

In Experiment 1, subjects who received feedback contingent on short interbeat intervals (relative to a baseline period) learned to accelerate their heart rates, but subjects who received noncontingent feedback did not. In Experiment 2, subjects who were exposed to noncontingent aversive noises later showed significant performance deficits on both an instrumental and a cognitive task. Attributional style predicted helplessness deficits on the cognitive but not the instrumental task. Experiment 3 demonstrated that experimentally induced helplessness interferes with biofeedback learning. Attributional style did not predict the occurrence of helplessness deficits in this context. Results are discussed in terms of the nature of biofeedback training and the range of behaviors that learned helplessness training affects.     

Young Women's Dating Behavior: Why/Why Not Date a Nice Guy?

The purpose of this study was to investigate why some women report a desire to date nice guys but prefer dating jerks. Specifically, young women's dating choices based on their reasons for dating in general and the attractive/unattractive traits that they perceive that a man possesses were explored. Popular texts offer evidence that young women may/may not select nice guys as dating partners because nice guys may/may not be able to provide them with what they want from their dating experiences. Scholarly texts offer evidence that the answer may lie in how the young woman perceives the nice guy—does he possess attractive or unattractive personality traits? The results of the present study suggest that reasons for dating (i.e., not wanting physical contact, wanting stimulating conversation, and wanting an exclusive relationship) and perceived personality traits (i.e., sweet/nice and physically attractive) influence a young woman's desire to date a nice guy, and that perceived personality traits are better predictors of her choice of a man to date than are reasons for dating.     

A Qualitative Exploration of the Theory of Triadic Influence in a Nigerian Setting: The Case of Cigarette Smoking

The theory of triadic influence (TTI) was employed as a framework to explore the risk influences for cigarette smoking among an inclusive sample of young smokers. This qualitative study involved a purposive sample of 18 young smokers aged 18–24 years. Data were collected using individual interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Following the TTI, factors found to influence young people’s initiation and perpetuation of smoking included at the intrapersonal level, sensation seeking, hedonic attitudes and poor coping skills; young smokers engage in cigarettes smoking to cope with social and psychological challenges like stress, worries, to aid digestion and for relaxation. At the interpersonal level, smokers were influenced by their peers and significant others like parents, brothers, teachers and mentors. Immediate risk influences for smoking included experimentation with cigarettes and the use of other substances like marijuana and alcohol. Intervention programmes targeted at building life skills and the ability to resist the pressure from peers and significant others to smoke are needed.     

Linking vitamin D status,executive functioning and self‐perceived mental health in adolescents through multivariate analysis: A randomized double‐blind placebo control trial

The aim of the present randomized double‐blind placebo control trial was to investigate if vitamin D supplementation had an effect on vitamin D status, executive functioning and self‐perceived mental health in a group of Norwegian adolescents during winter time. Fifty adolescents were randomly assigned into an intervention group (vitamin D pearls) or a control group (placebo pearls). Before (pre‐test in December/January) and after (post‐test in April/May) the intervention period the participants were exposed to a test procedure, consisting of blood draw, completion of cognitive tests (Tower of Hanoi and Tower of London), and the Youth Self‐report version of the Child Behavior Checklist. Multivariate data analysis showed that participants with low vitamin D status scored worse on the Tower of London tests and the more difficult sub‐tasks on the Tower of Hanoi tests. They also had a tendency to report higher frequency of externalizing behavior problems and attention deficit. At pre‐test, the overall mean vitamin D status measured as 25‐hydroxy vitamin D was 42 nmol/L, defining deficiency (Intervention group = 44 nmol/L, Control group = 39 nmol/L). However, vitamin D supplementation caused a significant increase in vitamin D status resulting in a sufficient level in the Intervention group at post‐test (mean 62 nmol/L). The results also revealed that the intervention group improved their performance on the most demanding sub‐tasks on the ToH. Overall, the study indicates that vitamin D status in adolescents may be important for both executive functioning and mental health.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills for Families of Individuals With Behavioral Disorders: Initial Feasibility and Outcomes

Family members of individuals with behavioral disorders are a valuable source of logistical and emotional support for patients. Family members may take on tremendous financial and/or psychological responsibility to care for their loved ones, which can result in poor psychological outcomes for the family and, in turn, impede the recovery of the patient. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training is an effective treatment that has been utilized with numerous populations, including family members of individuals with behavioral problems, and has shown efficacy in improving various interpersonal outcomes; however, no study has examined feasibility and outcomes of delivering all four unabridged DBT skills modules to this population. Twenty participants attended weekly DBT skills classes for 6 months, where they acquired skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance. There were significant pre-post improvements for emotion dysregulation, stress reactivity, and various interpersonal outcomes; there were no significant changes in depression or anxiety. These results suggest that DBT skills may be effective at improving broad clinical domains in a sample of family members of individuals with behavioral problems. This research is the first step in demonstrating that DBT skills might benefit family members of patients with heterogeneous mental health problems and, therefore, fits in to the field’s growing interest in cost-effective transdiagnostic interventions.     

Shifting Winds: Using Ancestry DNA to Explore Multiracial Individuals’ Patterns of Articulating Racial Identity

This study explored how genotype information affects identification narratives of multiracial individuals. Twenty-one multiracial individuals completed individual interviews before and after receiving a DNA analysis to clarify their genetically based racial ancestry. Based on results, this article proposes patterns of articulating racial identity by multiracial individuals. Four patterns extend evolving research in multiracial identification, namely (1) the individual articulates a monoracial identity; (2) the individual articulates one identity, but this can shift in response to various conditions; (3) the individual articulates an extraracial identity, opting out of traditional categories applied to race; and (4) the person distinguishes traditional categories of race from culture and owns the two identities in different ways. Implications of these findings are discussed. First, adding new ancestry DNA information further muddles the neat categories of race, consistent with the view of race as socially constructed. Second, results emphasize the fluidity of identification for multiracial individuals. Third, DNA information challenges the neat percentages people tend to associate with their backgrounds. Particularly for younger multiracial individuals, there was less of a sense that race was a real thing and more that culture played a big part in how they saw themselves.     

Out with the old? The role of selective attention in retaining targets in partial report

In the partial-report task, subjects are asked to report only a portion of the items presented. Selective attention chooses which objects to represent in short-term memory (STM) on the basis of their relevance. Because STM is limited in capacity, one must sometimes choose which objects are removed from memory in light of new relevant information. We tested the hypothesis that the choices among newly presented information and old information in STM involve the same process—that both are acts of selective attention. We tested this hypothesis using a two-display partial-report procedure. In this procedure, subjects had to select and retain relevant letters (targets) from two sequentially presented displays. If selection in perception and retention in STM are the same process, then irrelevant letters (distractors) in the second display, which demanded attention because of their similarity to the targets, should have decreased target report from the first display. This effect was not obtained in any of four experiments. Thus, choosing objects to keep in STM is not the same process as choosing new objects to bring into STM.     

Food cue exposure and body image satisfaction: the moderating role of BMI and dietary restraint

Effects of cue exposure to high and low-caloric food on body image satisfaction and the moderating role of body mass index (BMI) and restraint were investigated in 77 lean unrestrained, lean restrained and overweight restrained females. Body (BS) and weight satisfaction (WS) were assessed before and after the cue exposure. Lean restrained participants were significantly less satisfied with their weight after cue exposure to high-caloric foods in comparison to cue exposure to low-caloric foods, whereas no such effect was present in overweight restrained and lean unrestrained participants. Low-caloric food cues did not influence WS. Food cues had a nonsignificant trend effect on BS. Yet, only lean unrestrained participants experienced significantly more BS in response to food cue exposure.     

Parental Overprotection, Cultural Value Conflict, and Psychological Adaptation among Asian Indian Women in America

The present study related generational status, marital status, parental overprotection (control), and cultural value conflict to self-esteem and depression among first and second-generation Asian Indian immigrant women in the south-midwestern United States. Self-report data from 73 community-dwelling women supported the hypotheses that unmarried and second-generation women would report greater maternal control and cultural value conflict than would married and first-generation women. Second-generational status, high maternal control, and high cultural value conflict correlated with higher depressive symptomology; being married, low maternal control, and low cultural value conflict were related to high self-esteem. Regression analyses indicated a mediating role for cultural value conflict for depression symptom predictors, but not for self-esteem predictors. Open-ended response data provided enriched understanding of these women’s cultural and family conflicts.