Determinants of depressive mood states in everyday life: An experience sampling study

This study tests relative contributions and time-course of proposed risk/protective factors (e.g., stress, coping, and lack of social interactions) for influencing depressed mood states in daily life. Seventy-three participants completed baseline measurement of major depressive disorder symptomatology, followed by smartphone app-based monitoring of momentary experiences of depressed mood and risk/protective factors for 7 days. All predictors had deteriorating impacts on mood as lag increased, and the optimal lag appears to be less than 120 min. Linear decay in effect sizes was found for physical activity, social interaction, and tiredness, whereas exponential decline in effect sizes was found for stress and coping ability. Stress, coping, and depressed mood at the prior time-point were the best predictors of subsequent mood. These effects did not differ as a function of trait depressive symptom severity. Findings highlight the influence of spacing of assessments in identification and magnitude of predictors of mood states, and provide insights into key drivers of change in mood and their time-course.     

Taxometric analysis supports a dimensional latent structure for schizotypy

The existence of a discrete class of people vulnerable to schizophrenia spectrum disorders is the most replicated finding of taxometric research. Evidence for such a “taxon” has been obtained with diverse measures of schizotypy in clinical, high-risk, and normal samples. However, recent demonstrations that skewed indicators of a latent dimension can yield a spuriously taxonic pattern of results may call some of these findings into question. Normal adults (N = 1073) completed measures of positive (perceptual aberration, magical ideation) and negative (physical and social anhedonia) components of schizotypy. Taxometric curves resembled those obtained previously, but when a simulation procedure took skew into account, dimensional models of schizotypy received stronger support than taxonic models for most schizotypy components, with findings for magical thinking inconclusive. A re-evaluation of previous taxonic conclusions regarding the latent structure of schizotypy is indicated.     

Limitations on the Notion of Quantal Stimulus Control

The Psychological Record -     

Assessment of tripartite efficacy beliefs within school-based physical education: Instrument development and reliability and validity evidence

Objectives

In educational contexts, Lent and Lopez (2002) proposed that students develop a tripartite network of efficacy beliefs, comprising their confidence in their own capabilities (i.e., self-efficacy), their confidence in their teacher’s ability (i.e., other-efficacy), and their estimation of their teacher’s confidence in their ability (i.e., relation-inferred self-efficacy). In spite of the potential for school-based physical education (PE) to stimulate leisure-time activity patterns among adolescents, it is noteworthy that this framework has yet to be explored in school PE contexts.

Design and methods

In Phase 1, we recruited 62 Australian high school students (aged 11-13) in order to develop instruments designed to assess self-efficacy, other-efficacy, and relation-inferred self-efficacy within PE settings. In Phases 2 and 3, we sought to provide evidence for measurement reliability, validity, and invariance with cross-sectional and prospective data derived from Australian (N = 602, M_age = 13.54, SD = .76) as well as Singaporean (N = 606; M_age = 14.10, SD = 1.01) students.

Results

Results revealed (a) support for the factorial validity of these measures in both locations, (b) evidence of gender-related and cross-national measurement invariance, (c) positive inter-relationships between students’ tripartite efficacy perceptions that were consistent with theory, and (d) positive correlations with key in-class (e.g., effort, enjoyment) and leisure-time (e.g., physical activity levels) outcomes.

Conclusions

Taken together, the results provide preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of measures derived from these tripartite efficacy instruments, and support their use in future research designed to examine PE engagement.     

Inhibited prime-trial distractor responses solely produce the visual spatial negative priming effect

Responding to a target??s current (probe trial) location is slower when it appears at a former distractor-occupied position (i.e., ignored-repetition [IR] trial), relative to when it arises at a new location (i.e., control trial). This RT(IR) > RT(Control) inequality defines the spatial negative priming (SNP) effect in latency terms. It is uncertain whether the elevated RT(IR) is due to the inhibition of the distractor-occupied location or to the inhibition of this location??s assigned manual response (SNP locus issue). The main aim here was to examine the SNP locus issue. Notably, our SNP design used centrally presented visual events and included having two locations share a common response (many:1 location-to-response mapping) and the use of informative (70?% validity) or uninformative probe-trial response cues. The many:1 mapping trials allowed for the detection of location and response inhibition presence. Results showed that the latter, but not the former, causes inhibitory aftereffects (e.g., SNP) following uninformative response cues. Consistent with this finding, when the informative response cue was valid and was assigned to the many:1 probe response that had just served as the prime distractor response, inhibitory aftereffects were eliminated, when the probe target appeared at the prime distractor position (IR trial) or at a new location (distractor?Cresponse repeat trial). Blocked retrieval of stored distractor-processing representations was proposed as the mechanism for inhibitory aftereffect prevention.     

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy improves emotional reactivity to social stress: results from a randomized controlled trial

The high likelihood of recurrence in depression is linked to a progressive increase in emotional reactivity to stress (stress sensitization). Mindfulness-based therapies teach mindfulness skills designed to decrease emotional reactivity in the face of negative affect-producing stressors. The primary aim of the current study was to assess whether Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is efficacious in reducing emotional reactivity to social evaluative threat in a clinical sample with recurrent depression. A secondary aim was to assess whether improvement in emotional reactivity mediates improvements in depressive symptoms. Fifty-two individuals with partially remitted depression were randomized into an 8-week MBCT course or a waitlist control condition. All participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) before and after the 8-week trial period. Emotional reactivity to stress was assessed with the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory at several time points before, during, and after the stressor. MBCT was associated with decreased emotional reactivity to social stress, specifically during the recovery (post-stressor) phase of the TSST. Waitlist controls showed an increase in anticipatory (pre-stressor) anxiety that was absent in the MBCT group. Improvements in emotional reactivity partially mediated improvements in depressive symptoms. Limitations include small sample size, lack of objective or treatment adherence measures, and non-generalizability to more severely depressed populations. Given that emotional reactivity to stress is an important psychopathological process underlying the chronic and recurrent nature of depression, these findings suggest that mindfulness skills are important in adaptive emotion regulation when coping with stress.     

The ability to self-tickle following Rapid Eye Movement sleep dreaming

Self-produced tactile stimulation usually feels less tickly--is perceptually attenuated--relative to the same stimulation produced externally. This is not true, however, for individuals with schizophrenia. Here, we investigate whether the lack of attenuation to self-produced stimuli seen in schizophrenia also occurs for normal participants following REM dreams. Fourteen participants were stimulated on their left palm with a tactile stimulation device which allowed the same stimulus to be generated by the participant or by the experimenter. The level of self-tickling attenuation did not differ between REM and non-REM sleep awakening conditions, where presence or absence of an accompanying dream was not controlled for. However, for the female participants, when awakening occurred from an REM sleep dream, self-stimulation ratings were higher than for external stimulation, whereas ratings after NREM sleep unaccompanied by a dream were lower for self-stimulation than for external stimulation. These results indicate deficits in self-monitoring and a confusion between self- and externally generated stimulation accompany REM dream formation.