Increased spreading activation in depression

The dopaminergic system is implicated in depressive disorders and research has also shown that dopamine constricts lexical/semantic networks by reducing spreading activation. Hence, depression, which is linked to reductions of dopamine, may be associated with increased spreading activation. However, research has generally found no effects of depression on spreading activation, using semantic priming paradigms. We used a different paradigm to investigate the relationship between depression and spreading activation, one based on word frequencies. Our sample included 97 undergraduates who completed the BDI-II and the Controlled Oral Word Association test as well as the Animal Naming test. The results indicated that the group scoring within the depressed ranged evidenced greater spreading activation as compared to those who scored within the normal range on the BDI-II. The implications of these results as they relate to creativity in depression is discussed.     

Disentangling the Importance of Psychological Predispositions and Social Constructions in the Organization of American Political Ideology

Ideological preferences within the American electorate are contingent on both the environmental conditions that provide the content of the contemporary political debate and internal predispositions that motivate people to hold liberal or conservative policy preferences. In this article we apply Jost, Federico, and Napier's (2009) top-down/bottom-up theory of political attitude formation to a genetically informative population sample. In doing so, we further develop the theory by operationalizing the top-down pathway to be a function of the social environment and the bottom-up pathway as a latent set of genetic factors. By merging insights from psychology, behavioral genetics, and political science, we find strong support for the top-down/bottom-up framework that segregates the two independent pathways in the formation of political attitudes and identifies a different pattern of relationships between political attitudes at each level of analysis.     

Publication bias in psychological science: comment on Ferguson and Brannick (2012)

It is well documented that studies reporting statistically significant results are more likely to be published than are studies reporting nonsignificant results--a phenomenon called publication bias. Publication bias in meta-analytic reviews should be identified and reduced when possible. Ferguson and Brannick (2012) argued that the inclusion of unpublished articles is ineffective and possibly counterproductive as a means of reducing publication bias in meta-analyses. We show how idiosyncratic choices on the part of Ferguson and Brannick led to an erroneous conclusion. We demonstrate that their key finding--that publication bias was more likely when unpublished studies were included--may be an artifact of the way they assessed publication bias. We also point out how the lack of transparency about key choices and the absence of information about critical features of Ferguson and Brannick's sample and procedures might have obscured readers' ability to assess the validity of their claims. Furthermore, we demonstrate that many of the claims they made are without empirical support, even though they could have tested these claims empirically, and that these claims may be misleading. With their claim that addressing publication bias introduces subjectivity and bias into meta-analysis, they ignored a large body of evidence showing that including unpublished studies that meet the inclusion criteria of a meta-analysis decreases (rather than increases) publication bias. Rather than exclude unpublished studies, we recommend that meta-analysts code study characteristics related to methodological quality (e.g., experimental vs. nonexperimental design) and test whether these factors influence the meta-analytic results.     

Empathy,Perspective Taking and Prosocial Behaviour: The Importance of Parenting Practices

The current study analyzed the relationships among maternal empathy (emotional and cognitive), parenting that encourages the child to take the perspective of others, child cognitive empathy and child prosocial behaviour. Participants were 72 typically developing children (66 Caucasian, six Asian) aged between 47 and 76 months (M = 61.5 months, SD = 8.3 months). Results support the facilitative effect of parenting that encourages the child to take the perspective of others. Thus, the role played by parents in the development of prosocial behaviour extends beyond warm/sensitive/responsive parenting in infancy. Together these forms of parenting are key factors that facilitate the development of prosocial behaviour. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Treatment of co-occurring child maltreatment and substance abuse

Despite high prevalence and severe negative consequences of child maltreatment (e.g., Brown, G. R., & Anderson, B., (1991). Psychiatric morbidity in adult inpatients with childhood histories of sexual and physical abuse. American Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 55–61; Jaudes, P. K., Ekwo, E., & Van Voorhis, J.V., (1995). Association of drug abuse and child abuse. Child Abuse and Neglect, 19, 1065–1075; Murphy, J. M., Jellinek, M., Quinn, D., Smith, G., & Goshkom, M., (1991). Substance abuse and serious child mistreatment: Prevalence, risk, and outcome in a court sample. Child Abuse and Neglect, 15, 197—211), the treatment of perpetrators and victims of child abuse and neglect remains grossly understudied (Behl, L. E., Conyngham, H. A., & May, P. F., (2003). Trends in child maltreatment literature. Child Abuse and Neglect, 27, 215–229). More than half of parentes founded for the abuse and neglect of their children have evidenced drug abuse, yet no treatments have been validated that concurrently address these problems. The reciprocal interaction between substance abuse and child maltreatment supports the need to concurrently treat these problems. This article illustrates the relationship between child maltreatment and parental substance abuse and proposes a behavioral model to explain the reciprocal influence of drug abuse and child maltreatment. A behavioral treatment plan that is designed to concurrently address drug abuse and child abuse is proposed and suggestions are made for future directions in this area.     

Systemic strategies for dealing with problem children in institutional settings

Family therapy when a problem child enters residential treatment is complicated and treacherous because of the need to coordinate what may often be competing hierarchies (parental, residential, school). If the goal of residential treatment truly is one of deinstitutionalization, of reintegrating the child into his/her home, school, and community, the family therapist must see to it that the parental hierarchy is the primary one and that all institutional hierarchies are kept secondary. This paper presents, through a discussion of the forces that operate as institutionalization of children progresses and through case illustrations, a framework in which family therapy can be conducted within a residential treatment setting.The author expresses appreciation to Barbara DiCocco, MSW, Phyllis Stern, MA, John Rhead, PhD, and Karen Meckler, MD, for their helpful comments on the initial draft of this article and to Linda McClure, MSW, and Larry McAvoy for their administrative support.     

Explaining the Social and Psychological Impacts of a Nuclear Power Plant Accident1

This research investigates the antecedents of psychosocial impacts of the TMI nuclear power plant accident. A model of factors that are hypothesized to affect impact levels is developed and configured to approximate a hypothetical causal sequence. Using data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission telephone survey, the technique of path analysis is used to test relationships in the model. The results show that the antecedents explain 12% of the variance in individual stress, 45% of the variance in family disruption, and 16% of the variance in perceived community change. The analysis shows that the TMI specific attitudes and sensitivity to radiation risks are strong antecedents of impacts. Although general attitudes toward nuclear power have minor indirect effects, it appears that situational experiences with the accident are the major contributors toward explaining impact levels.     

Rational-emotive therapy and religiousness: A review

Rational-emotive therapy has often been scrutinized and rejected by religious clinicians. Incompatibilities are frequently cited between rational-emotive psychology and theistic religious philisophies. Religious authors have been most notably oppossed to Ellis' ethical humanism, situational ethics and personal atheism. A review of these criticisms offers no evidence for a fundamental incompatibility between RET and religious faith. Several arguments exist for the application of cognitive-behavior therapy (RET in particular) to explicitly religious clients. The sparse empirical literature suggests that RET is effective with religious clients.W. Brad Johnson, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary. A commissioned Lieutenant in the United States Navy, he is currently an intern at the National Naval Medical Center.The author wishes to express thanks to Raymond N. Sampson, Albert Ellis, Charles R. Ridley and Siang-Yang Tan for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense nor the U.S. Government.     

The Relation of Psychotherapy Integration to the Established Systems of Psychotherapy

That individuals (and groups) have vested interests is part of the nature of the human condition and is captured in the cognitive theoretical concept “personal domain” (Beck, 1976, p. 56). Of relevance to psychotherapy integration (and consistent with this concept), there are some apparent philosophical differences between advocates of psychotherapy integration and those of the major systems of psychotherapy. In the same manner that the various schools of integrative and eclectic psychotherapy compete with one another (Lazarus & Messer, 1991, p. 144), so too do they contend with the established systems. In this article, we present several issues about which the systems of psychotherapy and the integration movement may differ, and we respond to criticisms of cognitive therapy that have been the focus of previous articles in this journal. Finally, we give examples of how those who research and apply the contemporary systems of psychotherapy can, within those systems, explore possibilities for psychotherapy integration. We conclude that there is probably much that the integration movement and the established systems of psychotherapy can offer each other.     

Why Are Women Paid Less than Men, but Given Higher Raises?

We replicated and extended a largely ignored pattern of findings in the literature, namely, that women receive lower base pay but higher pay increases than men within the same organization. Despite the fact that we were able to explain about 95% of the variance in base pay, gender differences remained. We found that unequal starting pay was a significant factor in subsequent base pay. In addition, we compared two explanations for the finding that women receive higher pay raises than men. The results suggested that structural features of the pay increase system, rather than the reduction of stereotypes, seemed to account for women receiving higher pay increases.