The functions of nonsuicidal self-injury: support for cognitive-affective regulation and opponent processes from a novel psychophysiological paradigm

Although research on the reasons for engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has increased dramatically in the last few years, there are still many aspects of this pernicious behavior that are not well understood. The purpose of this study was to address these gaps in the literature, with a particular focus on investigating whether NSSI (a) regulates affective valence in addition to affective arousal and (b) serves a cognitive regulation function in addition to an affect regulation function. To elucidate these issues, the present study utilized a sample of 112 participants (33 controls, 39 no pain controls, 16 NSSI individuals, and 24 controls matching the affect dysregulation levels of the NSSI group), employed psychophysiological measures of affective valence (startle-alone reactivity) and quality of information processing (prepulse inhibition), and used experimental methods involving an NSSI-proxy to model the NSSI process. Results largely were consistent with predictions, supporting the hypotheses that NSSI serves to regulate cognitive processing and affective valence. On this latter point, however, the control groups also showed a decrease in negative affective valence after the NSSI-proxy. This unexpected finding is consistent with the hypothesis that opponent processes may contribute to the development of self-injurious behaviors (Joiner, 2005). Overall, the present study represents an important extension of previous laboratory NSSI studies and provides a fertile foundation for future studies aimed at understanding why people engage in NSSI.     

Tenderness and Steadiness: Relating Job and Interpersonal Demands and Resources With Burnout and Physical Symptoms of Stress in Canadian Physicians

This study examined the extent to which job and interpersonal demands and resources are associated with burnout and physical symptoms of stress among Canadian physicians. Using the job demands‐resources (JD‐R) model, we predicted that demands would be more strongly related to emotional exhaustion and physical symptoms, whereas resources would be more strongly related to personal accomplishment and decreased depersonalization. The findings reveal that communication skills and emotional labor contributed to the explained variances beyond workload and work–life conflict (as job demands), as well as autonomy, predictability, and understanding (as job resources). The predictors were differentially associated with the outcome variables in a manner that is consistent with the JD‐R model. Implications for physician well‐being and improved patient outcomes are discussed.     

Prospective memory: The relative effects of encoding,retrieval, and the match between encoding and retrieval

Previous prospective memory studies have revealed some important features of encoding, retrieval, and the match between the encoding and the retrieval that contribute to prospective memory performance. However, these studies have not provided evidence concerning the relative importance of these three factors because no study has investigated all three in a single design. We developed a laboratory-based paradigm that allowed us to manipulate different characteristics of encoding, retrieval, and the match between encoding and retrieval simultaneously in a single experiment. The results of eight experiments showed that all three factors have an influence on prospective memory performance, but that the match between encoding and retrieval has a significantly larger influence than either encoding or retrieval factors.     

More than One Way to be Happy: A Typology of Marital Happiness

This study utilized observational and self‐report data from 57 happily married couples to explore assumptions regarding marital happiness. Suggesting that happily married couples are not a homogeneous group, cluster analyses revealed the existence of three types of couples based on their observed behaviors in a problem‐solving task: (1) mutually engaged couples (characterized by both spouses' higher negative and positive problem‐solving); (2) mutually supportive couples (characterized by both spouses' higher positivity and support); and (3) wife compensation couples (characterized by high wife positivity). Although couples in all three clusters were equally happy with and committed to their marriages, these clusters were differentially associated with spouses' evaluations of their marriage. Spouses in the mutually supportive cluster reported greater intimacy and maintenance and less conflict and ambivalence, although this was more consistently the case in comparison to the wife compensation cluster, as opposed to the mutually engaged cluster. The implications of these typologies are discussed as they pertain to efforts on the part of both practitioners to promote marital happiness and repair marital relations when couples are faced with difficulties.     

Sense of Humor and Its Relationship to Personality,Scholastic Aptitude,Emotional Maturity,Height, and Weight

Two experiments were performed having in common the use of sucrose concentration and volume as amount of reinforcement variables, and in situations permitting contrast between concentrations. The following conclusions are reached:

1. It is important to distinguish between the case in which separate subjects are exposed to different concentrations or volumes, and the case in which the same subjects receive different concentrations and volumes.

2. A distinction must be drawn between reinforcement contingencies in which force of response is or is not systematically related to concentration received. In nonforce contingent situations, emitted force is inversely related to concentration, when the same subjects are exposed to the different concentrations. In contingent situations, the relationship tends to be direct.

3. Rate and force of response vary inversely with nonforce contingent volume of sucrose reinforcement, when the same subjects are exposed to the different volumes.

4. Regardless of concentration and volume used, and presumably because of within-session satiation effects, there is a general tendency for rate to decline during nonforce contingent sessions.     

The Effect of Perceived Locomotor Constraints on Distance Estimation

Two experiments were conducted to examine the ways in which the visual estimation of distance to a target is affected by constraints perceived to be placed on the subsequent locomotion to the target without vision. We hypothesized that an appraisal of impending effort would play a role in ascertaining the distance to be walked. In Experiment 1, the amount of resistance to walking was variable and unpredictable. One group of subjects performed against relatively low resistance, whereas another group performed against substantially greater resistance. In the low-resistance condition, no significant differences in CE, VE, time to target, or number of steps to target were found between any of the eight combinations of predictable or unpredictable resistances during walking. In the high-resistance condition, however, significant differences were found for CE and number of strides to target when resistance varied unpredictably during walking. Experiment 2 was similar in design but required subjects to walk with combinations of normal or short steps after they had viewed the target knowing only the gait type that would be used to begin locomotion. No differences in CE, VE, or time to target were found between four different combinations of gait type and predictability, under subjectively controlled conditions. When the step constraints were externally imposed, however, differences were found for CE. None of the results from either experiment, in which the number of strides needed to reach the target or the predictability of gait did not change from normal, supported the hypothesis that motor output requirements are necessary in forming a mental representation of the target position that can be used to walk to the target with eyes closed. Whichever locomotor technique was used to walk the estimated distance in these cases, the representation was able to be used independently. When walking mechanics were altered by externally imposed constraints, however, the success at reaching the estimated target position was reduced. These latter results are consistent with those obtained using up, down, and level walking and support the premise that mental representations used in blind walking are linked to the locomotor mechanics afforded by environmental conditions.     

Confounding of Big Five Personality Assessments in Emotional Disorders by Comorbidity and Current Disorder

Foremost cross‐sectional studies of personality in common mental disorders show similar Big Five trait profiles [i.e. high neuroticism (N), low conscientiousness (C) and low extraversion (E)]. It remains undecided whether this lack of distinct personality profiles is partly due to comorbidity among disorders or contamination by current state. Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, we investigated 1046 participants with panic disorder (PD), social anxiety disorder (SAD) and/or major depressive disorder (MDD) and 474 healthy controls. Personality traits at baseline and two‐year follow‐up were assessed with the NEO‐Five Factor Inventory. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to determine the presence of emotional disorders at baseline and at two‐year follow‐up; the Life Chart Interview determined symptom severity in the month prior to baseline and during follow‐up. By analysing pure cases and investigating the effects in remitted cases, PD participants were found to be higher in N, but not lower in E and C than controls. Pure PD participants were also lower in N and higher in E than SAD and MDD participants. Both SAD and MDD participants were characterized by high levels of N and low levels of E, irrespective of comorbidity or current disorder state. Future studies should be more attentive to confounding of personality profiles by comorbidity and state effects. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A theory of the normative force of pleas

A familiar feature of our moral responsibility practices are pleas: considerations, such as “That was an accident”, or “I didn’t know what else to do”, that attempt to get agents accused of wrongdoing off the hook. But why do these pleas have the normative force they do in fact have? Why does physical constraint excuse one from responsibility, while forgetfulness or laziness does not? I begin by laying out R. Jay Wallace’s (Responsibility and the moral sentiments, 1994) theory of the normative force of excuses and exemptions. For each category of plea, Wallace offers a single governing moral principle that explains their normative force. The principle he identifies as governing excuses is the Principle of No Blameworthiness without Fault: an agent is blameworthy only if he has done something wrong. The principle he identifies as governing exemptions is the Principle of Reasonableness: an agent is morally accountable only if he is normatively competent. I argue that Wallace’s theory of exemptions is sound, but that his account of the normative force of excuses is problematic, in that it fails to explain the full range of excuses we offer in our practices, especially the excuses of addiction and extreme stress. I then develop a novel account of the normative force of excuses, which employs what I call the “Principle of Reasonable Opportunity,” that can explain the full range of excuses we offer and that is deeply unified with Wallace’s theory of the normative force of exemptions. An important implication of the theory I develop is that moral responsibility requires free will.     

A Dyadic View of Support in Marriage: The Critical Role of Men’s Support Provision

This study examined how sensitive support provision and receipt were related to marital outcomes in a sample of 57 happily married, middle-class couples from the Midwestern U.S. To assess how observed supportive behaviors may be differentially associated with self-reported support satisfaction, marital love, and marital conflict for men and women, we utilized a series of Actor Partner Interdependence Models (APIM). This dyadic approach revealed significant gender differences regarding how the supportive role enacted (i.e., provider versus recipient) contributed considerably to marital outcomes. Specifically, husbands’ sensitive support provision significantly predicted both spouses’ support satisfaction. Additionally, husbands’ sensitive support provision was significantly associated with wives’ marital love. Wives’ reported conflict was predicted by the combination of both providing and receiving sensitive support. For husbands’ outcomes, husbands’ own sensitive support provision was most critically associated with their reporting greater love and less conflict. These findings reveal notable gender differences as men’s ability to provide sensitive support was critical not only to their wives’ marital outcomes, but to their own as well. Our results build upon and extend the literature implicating the importance of examining gender differences in supportive interactions in marriage. Moreover, our findings suggest that simultaneous consideration of spousal support receipt and provision is critical when seeking to understand how support is related to marital outcomes for men and women.