Response to hyperventilation and inhalation of 5.5% carbon dioxide-enriched air across the DSM-III-R anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorder patients (n = 198; under criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; rev. 3rd ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) and nonanxious control subjects (n = 25) underwent challenges of 90 s of voluntary hyperventilation and 15 min of 5.5% carbon dioxide in air. Panic disorder subjects showed a greater subjective response to both challenges than did subjects with other anxiety disorders, who in turn responded more than did control subjects. Furthermore, subjects with panic disorder as an additional diagnosis tended to report more subjective response than did anxiety disorder subjects without panic disorder. The best prechallenge predictor of response to each procedure was a measure of fear of physical symptoms. The findings support previous results that have pointed to a greater fear or anxiety-inducing effect of these challenge procedures in panic disorder patients, as compared with other subjects.     

Social Motives,Emotional Feelings,and Smiling

Previous research has established that the facial displays of those who listen to stories are influenced by the social context in which this happens. H owever, experienced affect was not measured in these studies, and the story stimuli were not systematically manipulated. We report a study in which participants listened to stories that varied in rated funniness, and that were told by either a friend or a stranger via one of the following channels: Tape recorder, telephone, or face-to-face. D ependent measures included facial activity, subjective feelings, and social motives. We anticipated that facial displays would be influenced by story type and by social context, and that the former effects would be mediated by experienced affect, whereas the latter effects would be mediated by social motives. The funnier story elicited more smiling, but this was not mediated by experienced affect. Social context also influenced smiling, and this effect appeared to be mediated by social motives.     

Assessing Safety Behaviors in Fear of Storms: Validation of the Storm-Related Safety Behavior Scale

With the exception of one self-report questionnaire assessing storm fear severity (Nelson et al. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 36(1), 105–114, 2014), there are few brief published assessment tools to measure the cognitive, behavioral, and physical manifestations of storm fear. A principal feature of phobic disorders is the use of safety behaviors to alleviate distress. Safety behaviors are believed to perpetuate anxiety by preventing the disconfirmation of feared outcomes (Salkovskis Behavioural Psychotherapy, 19(1), 6–19, 1991). To date, no studies have examined the use of safety behaviors in storm fear. The purpose of the current research was to develop and validate the Storm-Related Safety Behavior Scale (SRSBS; Vorstenbosch and Antony 2017), a 24-item self-report scale that measures safety behavior use in adults with a fear of storms. Two studies examined the (1) factor structure, internal consistency, validity, and test-retest reliability of the SRSBS, as well as the frequency with which specific safety behaviors were endorsed; and (2) ability of the SRSBS to differentiate between a group of adults with low and high fear of storms after exposure to a virtual thunderstorm. Factor analysis revealed that the SRSBS is best captured by one factor. Results provided preliminary evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, as well as test-retest reliability. Finally, significant group differences were found between participants with high versus low fear of storms following a virtual thunderstorm. These findings demonstrate the value of the SRSBS for assessing safety behavior use.     

The relationship between miscellaneous symptoms and major symptom factors in obsessive-compulsive disorder

The diverse symptomatology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is being increasingly regarded as reducible to a few symptom dimensions. However, prevailing factor-analytically derived models of symptom structure omit a number of the well-recognized “miscellaneous” symptoms of OCD. This study sought to determine whether miscellaneous OCD symptoms, ascertained by the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale symptom checklist, could be differentially and reliably predicted by four symptom factors (obsessions and checking, symmetry and ordering, contamination and cleaning, and hoarding) in two independent groups of individuals with OCD (n = 381 and n = 107). Logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association of each of the miscellaneous symptoms with the symptom factors; then a single confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test the model of associations in the smaller sample. Sixteen (89%) of the 18 symptoms examined were reliably predicted by one (11 items) or two (5 items) of the factors, with obsessions and checking and symmetry and ordering emerging as foremost predictors. The expanded four-factor model showed good fit with data from the second sample. Results are conceptually meaningful, but suggest the inadequacy of groupings based solely upon overt behaviors. These findings may aid clinical understanding of OCD and be of value to studies using symptom factors to guide investigation of its causes and correlates.     

Two functions of verbal intergroup discrimination: identity and instrumental motives as a result of group identification and threat

In two studies, the authors examined the circumstances under which discrimination has an identity confirmation function or an instrumental function (instigating collective action). In Study 1, participants (N = 601) described a situation in which they had discriminated and then completed measures of functionality, group identification, and group threat. Both functions were predicted by group identification, whereas the instrumental function (but not identity confirmation) operated under group threat. In Study 2, "die-hard" soccer fans (N = 1,546) suggested soccer chants in reaction to either a group-reinforcing (own team scores) or group-threatening (other team scores) situation and rated the perceived functionality of the song. Although both of these conditions evoked discriminating songs, as predicted, these served a more identity-confirming function in the reinforcing situation but a more instrumental function (pepping up the team) in the threat situation. Results are discussed in terms of a contextual-functional model of intergroup discrimination.     

Cognitive features of social phobia

New cognitive models of social phobia have been developed based, in part, on a growing number of studies suggesting that people with social phobia process information related to social threat differently than people who are not socially anxious and, in some cases, differently than individuals with other anxiety disorders. In addition to providing an overview of recent models of social phobia, this paper reviews the research literature to date on the following aspects of cognition in social phobia: attention, memory, attributions and appraisals, imagery and perspective, and perfectionism.     

Dimensions of perfectionism across the anxiety disorders

To explore the role of perfectionism across anxiety disorders, 175 patients with either panic disorder (PD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), social phobia, or specific phobia, as well as 49 nonclinical volunteers, completed two measures [Frost, R. O., Marten, P., Lahart, C., & Rosenblate, R., (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 449-468; Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L., (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470.] that assess a total of nine different dimensions of perfectionism. Relative to the other groups, social phobia was associated with greater concern about mistakes (CM), doubts about actions (DA), and parental criticism (PC) on one measure and more socially prescribed perfectionism (SP) on the other measure. OCD was associated with elevated DA scores relative to the other groups. PD was associated with moderate elevations on the CM and DA subscales. The remaining dimensions of perfectionism failed to differentiate among groups. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Psychological and Socio-cultural Adjustment during Cross-cultural Transitions: A Comparison of Secondary Students Overseas and at Home

The study further explores the distinction of psychological and socio-cultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions. One hundred and seventy-eight New Zealand American Field Service (AFS) students residing in 23 different countries completed questionnaires which contained assessments of the following: Personality (extraversion and locus of control); life changes (Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire); homesickness, cultural distance, acculturation (cultural identity and cultural integration—separation); attitudes toward host country; language ability; amount of contact with host and co-nationals; relationship satisfaction with co-nationals, host nationals and host family; and outcome measures of socio-cultural (social difficulty) and psychological adjustment (Profile of Mood States). Stepwise regressions revealed that homesickness, external locus of control, life changes, and social difficulty accounted for 55% of the variance in psychological adjustment. In contrast, cultural distance, language ability, satisfaction with host national contact, cultural separation and mood disturbance explained 52% of the variance in socio-cultural adaptation. In the second part of the research, psychological and socio-cultural adjustment of AFS students was compared with a sample of 142 home-based New Zealand secondary school students. Although there were no significant differences in psychological adjustment between the two groups, the students who were resident abroad experienced greater socio-cultural difficulties than the students resident in New Zealand (P < 0.0005), and, as hypothesized, the correlation between psychological and socio-cultural adjustment was significantly greater in the home-based students compared to the AFS group (P < 0.0001).     

The Shattering of the Stimulus Barrier: The Case for an Integrative Approach in Short-Term Treatment of Psychological Trauma

The paper argues that the integrative psychotherapy approach is ideally suited to the treatment of psychological trauma. A brief term intervention model, devised by psychotherapists working with trauma in the South African context, is presented to illustrate this premise. It is asserted that posttraumatic stress represents a disorder in which dysfunction occurs both internally and externally, according to Freud at the interface of these two aspects of psychological functioning, i.e., at the ego boundary. Disturbance manifests in recognizable cognitive, behavioral, and somatic symptoms and in addition carries unconscious associations and anxieties. The ideal approach to treatment thus appears to be to draw on the relative strengths of both the psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral schools. Existing trauma intervention models reflect the centrality of integration in many respects, although this does not seem to be explicitly recognized. The five components of the model referred to above are outlined and each component is explored in terms of its efficacy within both a cognitive-behavioral and a psychodynamic framework. Illustrative case material is provided to demonstrate the mechanisms at work in each case. The paper argues that the clinical success of the model lies in its integrative perspective and that psychotherapy integration should be recognized as the approach of choice in the treatment of traumatized individuals.