Fact and fantasy: The effects of internally generated events on the apparent frequency of externally generated events

As John Locke pointed out, there are at least two sources of the contents of the mind: events that occur in the world and events that originate in the mind. Memory, as a record of experience, should contain information from both sources. The present studies investigated memory for the frequency of externally and internally generated events. Individual items were presented to subjects varying numbers of times and tested varying numbers of times. Later, subjects were asked to estimate the frequency of both types of events. Experiment 1 showed that internally generated events influenced the judged frequency of externally generated events and vice versa. The first of these was called the IFE effect and the second the IFI effect. Experiment 2 indicated that the IFE effect was greater when tests consisted of overt, as compared to covert, recall trials. The results were discussed in terms of a model for storing and using occurrence information which would account for both our ability to discriminate between and our tendency to confuse internally and externally generated memory representations.     

Construction of a more coherent story: Prior verbal recall predicts later verbal accessibility of early memories

The question of whether early event memories are later accessible for verbal report is of major interest to those concerned with mnemonic processes. In a controlled laboratory study, we examined this question in children 16 and 20 months of age at the time of exposure to event sequences in the context of an elicited-imitation paradigm and who were subsequently tested for memory for the events at delays of 1, 3, 6, 9, or 12 months, and again at the age of 36 months. Stepwise regressions revealed that the number of mnemonic utterances elicited by direct interview at 36 months is predicted by the number of spontaneous mnemonic utterances at the first delayed recall session. Language abilities at exposure were not predictive of verbal report at 36 months of age. Thus, variables from the most recent exposure were of more import than were variables from the time of the initial experience of the events.     

Jane Ellen Harrison's contribution to the study of religion

Sandra J. Peacock, Jane Ellen Harrison: The Mask and the Self, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1988.     

The relations between emotional understanding,intellectual functioning,and disruptive behavior problems in elementary-school-aged children

This study examined individual differences in children's emotional understanding and behavioral adjustment. Participants included 220 first- and secondgrade children (75% regular education, 25% special education) who were individually interviewed using the Kusche Affective Interview—Revised. Dependent measures of emotional understanding and experience included the ability to provide personal examples of 10 different emotions and the cues used for recognition of five emotions in oneself and other persons. Children were also administered the WISC-R Vocabulary, Block Design, and Coding subtests. One parent independently completed an Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist for each child. Results indicated that children who were rated as higher in behavior problems showed deficits in emotional understanding. Intellectual functioning was negatively associated with behavior problems and attenuated the effects of behavior problems on emotional understanding. Implications of the current findings for prevention and treatment programs for children with behavior problems are discussed.This research was supported by Grant PHS RO1 MH42131 from the Prevention Branch, National Institute of Mental Health. The authors thank Lisa Anderson and Dawn Kresevich for their invaluable help with data collection; Bob Beilke for his assistance in the development of the KAI-R coding system; and the dedicated coders of the KAI-R for their careful work.     

Psychological androgyny and personality adjustment in college and psychiatric populations

In two separate studies, 106 female and 84 male undergraduates and 48 female and 48 male psychiatric inpatients were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Faschingbauer Abbreviated Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The masculine, feminine, androgynous, and undifferentiated groups identified from the BSRI differed on a variety of personality scales in both normal and clinical populations. Androgynous females were significantly lower on the Depression (D) and Social Introversion (Si) scales than feminine females, and, in the college sample, were also lower on the Schizophrenia and Mania scales than masculine females. In the hospitalized male sample, this pattern was partially sustained, with androgynous and masculine subjects being significantly less deviant than feminine on the Si scale, and tending to score lower on the D scale. In the group of college males, androgynous males scored lower on the Si scale than feminine males. Hypotheses concerning the relationship of sex-role flexibility (androgyny) to mental health appear to be supported for females in both college and psychiatric populations by these results. These results also indicate that sex-role conformity may relate differently to personality development and psychological functioning for males and females.     

Problem-Solving Appraisal and Psychological Adjustment of Persons with Chronic Low-Back Pain

To examine the role of self-appraised problem-solving ability in the prediction of psychosocial impairment, depression, hopelessness, average pain unpleasantness, and current pain ratings among persons with chronic low-back pain. A second purpose was to enhance theoretical understanding of the mechanisms by which problem-solving appraisal influences adjustment. Correlational and regression procedures were used to test the hypothesized relations procedures between elements of self-appraised problem-solving ability and each criterion variable. Seventy-eight persons enrolled in an inpatient multidisciplinary chronic pain management program. The psychosocial subscale of the Sickness Impact Profile, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and Visual Analogue Scales of Pain Sensory Intensity and Affective Response were the main outcome measures. After first controlling demographic characteristics, elements of self-appraised problem-solving ability assessed by the Problem-Solving Inventory were significantly predictive of depression, hopelessness, psychosocial impairment, and average pain unpleasantness (accounting for 20, 26, 29, and 11% of the respective variance in these constructs). Results indicate complex relations among the elements of problem-solving appraisal, suggesting that the Approach–Avoidance link to psychological adjustment was mediated by Problem-Solving Confidence. Comprehensive problem-solving interventions may be beneficial to persons with chronic pain     

Day-to-Day Variability in Empathy as a Function of Daily Events and Mood

Despite broad agreement that understanding a personality construct requires integrating trait and state levels of analysis, few studies have explicitly attempted such an integration. The present study did this by examining the relationships between trait and state measures of empathy. State measures were taken daily, with a focus on the day level (within-person) covariation between empathy and daily mood and events. Twice a week for up to 10 weeks, 103 participants provided measures of their daily empathy and mood (NA and PA) and described the events that occurred each day. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses found that daily empathy covaried positively with the impact of daily positive and negative social events and with daily positive and negative affect. Empathy did not covary with achievement-related events. Analyses that simultaneously included empathy, mood, and events suggested that daily NA mediated relationships between daily empathy and daily negative social events. Although mean daily empathy was positively related to trait empathy, trait empathy did not moderate relationships between daily empathy and events nor between daily empathy and mood. Moreover, daily empathy did not covary with daily depressogenic thinking, need for cognition, nor self-esteem, suggesting that empathy is distinct from these constructs. Possible mechanisms linking social events and empathy, such as emotional contagion, are discussed.     

The importance of mutual positive expressivity in social adjustment: understanding the role of peers and gender

The relations between young children's mutual (reciprocated) and overall positive emotion (PE) with same- and other-gender peers and their social adjustment were explored. Children's PE and peers' PE were observed across the preschool year during peer interactions (N = 166; 46% girls; M age = 52 months). Results revealed that girls and boys had similar frequencies of overall PE and mutual PE when interacting with same-gender peers, but girls were marginally higher compared with boys in overall and mutual PE when interacting with other-gender peers. Girls and boys did not have greater rates of either type of PE after controlling for gender segregation during same- or other-gender interactions. Using structural equation modeling, children's mutual PE, regardless of their gender, positively predicted indicators of positive adjustment (e.g., prosocial behavior, cooperation) and negatively predicted indicators of negative adjustment (e.g., hyperactivity, disruption, exclusion by peers). Children's overall PE did not predict either type of adjustment. Findings support the importance of mutual PE for children's development.     

Medically Documented Suicide Ideation Among U.S. Army Soldiers

We used administrative data to examine predictors of medically documented suicide ideation (SI) among Regular Army soldiers from 2006 through 2009 (N = 10,466 ideators, 124,959 control person‐months). Enlisted ideators (97.8% of all cases) were more likely than controls to be female, younger, older when entering service, less educated, never or previously deployed, and have a recent mental health diagnosis. Officer ideators were more likely than controls to be female, younger, younger when entering service, never married, and have a recent mental health diagnosis. Risk among enlisted soldiers peaked in the second month of service and declined steadily, whereas risk among officers remained relatively stable over time. Risk of SI is highest among enlisted soldiers early in Army service, females, and those with a recent mental health diagnosis.