Intensity affects the preconscious processing of emotionally toned words in college students

The detectability of high and low intensity emotionally toned words was investigated in a signal detection paradigm using college students as subjects. Individually set thresholds kept word identification to an average of 16 percent. The results indicate a complicated pattern of interactions among intensity, gender, positive or negative tone, and hemispheric presentation. Greater detectability was found for right hemisphere presentations and low intensity words. In addition, positive words showed greater detectability than negative words. The findings are discussed in terms of factors that affect automatic attitude activation. This article is based on a presentation at the American Psychological Society Annual in Washington, D.C., June 1998.     

Water contaminant levels interact with parenting environment to predict development of depressive symptoms in adolescents

Contaminants in drinking water, such as lead, nitrate, and arsenic, have been linked to negative physical health outcomes. We know less, however, about whether such pollutants also predict mental health problems and, if so, the conditions under which such effects are strongest. In this longitudinal study, we examined whether drinking water contaminants interact with negative family environments (parental psychological control) to predict changes in depressive symptoms in 110 adolescents—a developmental period when symptoms often first emerge. We found that for adolescents in psychologically controlling families, levels of drinking water contaminants prospectively predicted depressive symptoms 2 years later; this effect was not present in adolescents in non‐controlling families. Importantly, these associations were not accounted for by family‐ or community‐level socioeconomic resources, demographic features, or by the adolescents’ stress exposure. These findings highlight the interplay of physical and psychological environments in influencing depressive symptoms in adolescents. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/thBV-DwnGcY     

Prevention of delinquency: Current status and issues

In the present review, we summarize the extant literature in the field of delinquency prevention. We do not provide a recounting of whether specific programs have or have not been effective but, rather, attempt to judge the overall utility of programs to prevent delinquency in its various forms and among various definable groups. Specifically, we organize our review of programs according to the characteristics of the targeted population, differentiating programs for universal, selected, or indicated populations. Within each population type, we further distinguish programs according to designated intervention context, relying on a biopsychosocial model that specifies four levels of influence on risk for delinquency: individual, close interpersonal relationships, proximal social settings, and societal macrosystems. At each level, we identify a number of effective intervention strategies and highlight those that are based on relevant risk factor research. As we note, the effectiveness of some approaches depends on the specific population, although, in general, multicomponent, multilevel programs appear to have the most substantial effects.     

Motivation and appraisal in perception of poorly specified speech

Normal-hearing students (n = 72) performed sentence, consonant, and word identification in either A (auditory), V (visual), or AV (audiovisual) modality. The auditory signal had difficult speech-to-noise relations. Talker (human vs. synthetic), topic (no cue vs. cue-words), and emotion (no cue vs. facially displayed vs. cue-words) were varied within groups. After the first block, effects of modality, face, topic, and emotion on initial appraisal and motivation were assessed. After the entire session, effects of modality on longer-term appraisal and motivation were assessed. The results from both assessments showed that V identification was more positively appraised than A identification. Correlations were tentatively interpreted such that evaluation of self-rated performance possibly depends on subjective standard and is reflected on motivation (if below subjective standard, AV group), or on appraisal (if above subjective standard, A group). Suggestions for further research are presented.     

The influence of mood on the search for supporting versus conflicting information: dissonance reduction as a means of mood regulation?

Focusing on similarities between the mood regulation approach and dissonance theory, this article addresses the interplay between dissonance and mood by examining how individuals search for information after making a decision while under the influence of positive versus negative mood. Study 1 suggested that negative mood increased the preference for consonant over dissonant information after decisions, whereas positive mood led to a more balanced information search. In Study 2, participants in negative mood rated consonant information as more pleasant and dissonant information as more annoying than participants in positive mood. In addition, the results suggested that mood regulation processes took place. In Study 3, the findings from Study 1 were replicated with a paradigm in which higher stakes were involved.