Not Just Right Experiences: Association with Obsessive Compulsive Symptoms and Sensory Over-Responsivity

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder describe “not just right experiences” as a constant uncomfortable feeling of imperfection toward sensory stimuli. This study examined the relation between “not just right experiences,” obsessive-compulsive disorder and sensory over-responsivity symptoms. Sixty college students participated in the in vivo “not just right experiences” assessment. This included four tasks for which participants rated pre-task discomfort, post-task discomfort, and urge to counteract auditory, visual, and tactile stimuli. “Not just right experiences” scores significantly correlated with obsessive-compulsive disorder scores. Tactile, auditory, and visual sensory over-responsivity scores were correlated with specific “not just right experiences” scores. Sensory over-responsivity is rarely addressed in obsessive-compulsive disorder while it contributes to symptomatology and participation.     

When friends exchange negative feedback

In four studies, we document an increase in the amount of negative feedback friends and colleagues exchange as their relationship deepens. We find that both actual and perceived relationship depth increase the amount of negative feedback people seek from and provide to each other, as well as their tendency to invest in a focal (relationship or performance) goal in response to negative feedback. The amount of positive feedback on goal pursuit, by contrast, remains stable as the relationship deepens. We attribute the increase in negative feedback to the different meaning of such feedback for people in deep versus shallow relationships: only in the context of deep relationships does negative feedback signal insufficient resource investment in the focal goal, and hence close friends and colleagues seek, provide, and respond to negative feedback.     

The Role of Anticipated Emotions in the Endowment Effect

This research explored the role of anticipated negative feelings in the observed disparity between buying and selling prices for the same endowed object. We assumed that anticipated negative reactions to losses deter people from trading an endowed object and therefore psychological variables that attenuate the emotional response to negative events should further reduce the price disparity between buyers and sellers. In 3 studies, we tested whether factors that either decrease concern about negative feelings (e.g., positive mood, framing of the transaction as involving no action) or increase the anticipated negative reaction to failure to act (e.g., priming errors of omission) further eliminate the disparity between buying and selling prices. These studies provide a novel conceptualization of the endowment bias and, more generally, illustrate the role of anticipated negative feelings in decision making.     

The substitutability of external control and self-control

Three experiments offered participants the opportunity to undertake an activity that had long-term benefits but either small or large short-term costs. The experiments investigated how self-control efforts to undertake the activity are affected by real or primed externally imposed controls. Two forms of self-control were assessed: bolstering the value of the offered activity and self-imposed penalties for failure to undertake it. The results showed that greater short-term costs elicited more self-control efforts when externally imposed controls were absent and less self-control efforts when externally imposed controls were present. Both externally imposed controls and self-control efforts prevented short-term costs from affecting participants’ intention to undertake the activity. The results were interpreted as suggesting that externally imposed control and self-control are substitutable means for pursuing activities with long-term benefits and short-term costs.     

Emotional transfer in goal systems

Five experimental studies explored the phenomenon of affective transfer in goal systems. We find that affect associated with goal attainment may be transferred to means cognitively associated with such goal-events, and that factors affecting the dimensions of transfer include the magnitude of affect invested in the goal, the quality of invested affect and the strength of association between a given means and the goal-event. Accordingly, the transfer mechanism was shown to impact the magnitude of affect experienced in regard to the means in question, as well as its kind (involving, e.g., promotion-type affect or prevention-type affect), and was shown to influence the interpersonal feelings toward others perceived as helpful to the attainment of various goals.     

Attachment anxiety,intra‐group (dis)respect,actual efforts,and group donation

The current study examines attachment‐style differences in responses to inductions of group respect and disrespect. Participants completed a scale assessing attachment anxiety and avoidance, performed group tasks, and received high, average, or low respect feedback from group members. Then we assessed commitment to this group, actual effort expenditure on behalf of the group, and money donation to the group. For participants scoring relatively high on attachment anxiety, high group respect heightened group commitment and effort expenditure on behalf of the group, whereas group disrespect led to lower group commitment but to more money donation to the group and higher effort expenditure. Participants who scored relatively low on attachment anxiety were not significantly affected by group respect or disrespect. The implications of attachment theory for group dynamics were discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Schizophrenia--a high-risk factor for suicide: clues to risk reduction.

Suicide is the chief cause of premature death among schizophrenic persons. The lifetime incidence of suicide for patients with schizophrenia is 10% to 13% compared to a general population estimate of about 1%, and is quite close to that observed among those with major affective disorder. The magnitude of increased risk for suicide among schizophrenics peaks before middle age and declines thereafter, although schizophrenic persons tend to be at increased risk throughout the life span. Among psychiatric patients, schizophrenics are overrepresented among suicides, and often schizophrenics constitute the majority of inpatient suicides. It is important in evaluating suicide risk among schizophrenic persons to assess depression and suicidal ideation especially during index admission and during acute phases of the illness. It is noteworthy that schizophrenic persons often commit suicide as the overall level of psychopathology decreases during a nonpsychotic phase. Research has yielded salient risk factors for suicide in schizophrenic persons and "types" of especially vulnerable patients, even though statistical prediction of individual suicides has not proven effective.     

Wide-angle memories of close-up scenes: A demonstration of boundary extension

Boundary extension refers to a tendency to remember seeing a greater expanse of a scene than was shown in a photograph. It is hypothesized that the view shown in the stimulus activates expectations about the scene’s layout just outside the picture’s borders. Following presentation, the viewer remembers having seen this expected information, and this yields boundary extension. We provide photographs and instructions for conducting two brief demonstrations of the phenomenon and provide materials for a related class experiment on the journal’s World-Wide Web site. These demonstrations of boundary extension provide graphic illustrations of the role of schematic expectancies in the representation of scenes and help to illustrate the role of real-world knowledge in cognition.     

Biological and genetic contributors to violence--Widom's untold tale

In her review of the literature on the intergenerational transmission of violent behaviors, Widom (1989a) addressed the social issues but omitted all references to the relevant biological and genetic literature. This addition to her review introduces studies of criminality, delinquency, and violence from a behavioral genetic standpoint. There is clear evidence for a genetic role in criminality and for a physiological basis for violent behavior. The inclusion of such genetic and biological evidence is necessary for a more complete understanding of the transmission of violence from one generation to another.     

Working through. A process of restitution.

A number of authors, including Freud, have written about the process of working through but have left unsettled what is actually involved. I have attempted to outline the step-by-step process of working through, starting with recollection and repetition and ending with restitution and resolution. I have introduced the term restitution in order to give more importance to an already existing step in the working-throught process; it should not be looked upon as an artificial device. Restitution allows the patient to find appropriate gratification in present reality, and this helps him to relinquish the past. Rather than allowing the patient to "wallow in the muck of guilt," as Eveoleen Rexford suggests society "wallows" in its inability to help its children, restitution gives appropriate direction for change. It is a natural step in the successful resolution of treatment.