The worm at the core: A terror management perspective on the roots of psychological dysfunction

A growing body of research derived from terror management theory [e.g., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. (1991). A terror management theory of social behavior: The psychological functions of self-esteem and cultural worldviews. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology: vol. 24 (pp. 93–159). New York: Academic Press] suggests that the human struggle with the awareness of inevitable death can greatly impact people's physical and psychological well-being. The current article reviews converging lines of research that investigate the role of terror management processes in physical and mental health. Specifically, we present research that elucidates the role of death concerns in (1) conscious threat-focused defenses, (2) self-esteem striving, (3) depression, (4) anxiety disorders, (5) discomfort with the physicality of the body and (6) neuroticism. We conclude that terror management theory builds upon the work of other existential scholars and mental health perspectives to provide a broad conceptual and empirically based account of how deeply rooted existential fears manifest in ways that prove both psychologically and physically problematic. We also suggest how future research and social interventions can be employed to help individuals manage basic fears in ways that do not compromise their psychological and physical health.     

Anterior temporal cortex and semantic memory: Reconciling findings from neuropsychology and functional imaging

Studies of semantic impairment arising from brain disease suggest that the anterior temporal lobes are critical for semantic abilities in humans; yet activation of these regions is rarely reported in functional imaging studies of healthy controls performing semantic tasks. Here, we combined neuropsychological and PE T functional imaging data to show that when healthy subjects identify concepts at a specific level, the regions activated correspond to the site of maximal atrophy in patients with relatively pure semantic impairment. The stimuli were color photographs of common animals or vehicles, and the task was category verification at specific (e.g., robin), intermediate (e.g., bird), or general (e.g., animal) levels. Specific, relative to general, categorization activated the antero-lateral temporal cortices bilaterally, despite matching of these experimental conditions for difficulty. Critically, in patients with atrophy in precisely these areas, the most pronounced deficit was in the retrieval of specific semantic information.     

Is Theory of Mind Understanding Impaired in Males with Fragile X Syndrome?

Males with fragile X syndrome (FXS) have difficulties with social interaction and many show autistic features. This study examined whether the social deficits characteristic of FXS are associated with theory of mind difficulties. Two groups of boys with FXS participated: a group with few autistic features and a group with many autistic features. An intellectual disability control group also participated. In addition to using standard theory of mind tasks, new techniques were used that were able to separate out the various processing demands of the task (e.g., memory, inhibitory control). Overall, the findings indicate that both groups of boys with FXS have difficulty with theory of mind tasks compared to an intellectual disability control group. However, both groups with FXS also performed worse on comparison trials that required working memory but not theory of mind. Theory of mind difficulties are likely to be an important aspect of the FXS clinical profile, but are most likely the result from a more basic difficulty with working memory.     

Lexical effects on speech perception in individuals with "autistic" traits

It has been claimed that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by a limited ability to process perceptual stimuli in reference to the contextual information of the percept. Such a connection between a nonholistic processing style and behavioral traits associated with ASD is thought to exist also within the neurotypical population albeit in a more subtle way. We examined this hypothesis with respect to auditory speech perception, by testing whether the extent to which phonetic categorization shifts to make the percept a known word (i.e., the 'Ganong effect') is weakened as a function of autistic traits in neurotypicals. Fifty-five university students were given the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and a segment identification test using two word-to-nonword Voice Onset Time (VOT) continua (kiss-giss and gift-kift). A significant negative correlation was found between the total AQ score and the identification shift that occurred between the continua. The AQ score did not correlate with scores on separately administered VOT discrimination, auditory lexical decision, or verbal IQ, thus ruling out enhanced auditory sensitivity, slower lexical access or verbal intelligence as explanations of the AQ-related shift in phonetic categorization.     

Why Choo‐Choo Is Better Than Train: The Role of Register‐Specific Words in Early Vocabulary Growth

Across languages, lexical items specific to infant‐directed speech (i.e., ‘baby‐talk words’) are characterized by a preponderance of onomatopoeia (or highly iconic words), diminutives, and reduplication. These lexical characteristics may help infants discover the referential nature of words, identify word referents, and segment fluent speech into words. If so, the amount of lexical input containing these properties should predict infants’ rate of vocabulary growth. To test this prediction, we tracked the vocabulary size in 47 English‐learning infants from 9 to 21 months and examined whether the patterns of growth can be related to measures of iconicity, diminutives, and reduplication in the lexical input at 9 months. Our analyses showed that both diminutives and reduplication in the input were associated with vocabulary growth, although measures of iconicity were not. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that phonological properties typical of lexical input in infant‐directed speech play a role in early vocabulary growth.     

The impact of maternal control on children’s anxious cognitions, behaviours and affect: An experimental study

Controlling parenting is associated with child anxiety however the direction of effects remains unclear. The present study implemented a Latin-square experimental design to assess the impact of parental control on children’s anxious affect, cognitions and behaviour. A non-clinical sample of 24 mothers of children aged 4-5 years were trained to engage in (a) controlling and (b) autonomy-granting behaviours in interaction with their child during the preparation of a speech. When mothers engaged in controlling parenting behaviours, children made more negative predictions about their performance prior to delivering their speech and reported feeling less happy about the task, and this was moderated by child trait anxiety. In addition, children with higher trait anxiety displayed a significant increase in observed child anxiety in the controlling condition. The pattern of results was maintained when differences in mothers’ levels of negativity and habitual levels of control were accounted for. These findings are consistent with theories that suggest that controlling parenting is a risk factor in the development of childhood anxiety.     

Understanding the Role of Neighborhood Context in the Long-Term Criminal Consequences of Child Maltreatment

This study investigated how neighborhood conditions influence the relationship between early child maltreatment and criminal behavior, using official data from a sample of maltreated children (N = 908) and matched controls (N = 667), as well as census data about respondents' neighborhoods. Using multilevel data that incorporated information about individuals, families, and neighborhoods, 2 hypotheses (direct influence and interaction effect) were examined using hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM). The results indicated that neighborhood disadvantage and stability moderated the relationship between early child maltreatment and offending. Specifically, the effect of early child maltreatment on later juvenile and adult criminal behavior was strongest for those individuals from the most disadvantaged and most stable neighborhoods. These results suggest that studying the interaction between family functioning and neighborhood conditions provides a more comprehensive understanding of offending than does studying each factor separately.     

Cultural differences in affective forecasting: the role of focalism

The impact bias in affective forecasting-a tendency to overestimate the emotional consequences of future events-may not be a universal phenomenon. This prediction bias stems from a cognitive process known as focalism, whereby predictors focus attention narrowly on the upcoming target event. Three studies supported the hypothesis that East Asians, who tend to think more holistically than Westerners, would be less susceptible to focalism and, consequently, to the impact bias. In Studies 1 and 2, Euro-Canadians exhibited the impact bias for positive future events, whereas East Asians did not. A thought focus measure indicated that the cultural difference in prediction was mediated by the extent to which participants focused on the target event (i.e., focalism). In Study 3, a thought focus manipulation revealed that defocused Euro-Canadians and East Asians made equally moderate affective forecasts.     

Speech-specific auditory processing: where is it?

Are speech-specific processes localized in dedicated cortical regions or do they emerge from developmental plasticity in the connections among non-dedicated regions? Here we claim that all the brain regions activated by the processing of auditory speech can be re-classified according to whether they respond to non-verbal environmental sounds, pitch changes, unfamiliar melodies, or conceptual processes. We therefore argue that speech-specific processing emerges from differential demands on auditory and conceptual processes that are shared by speech and non-speech stimuli. This has implications for domain- vs. process-specific cognitive models, and for the relative importance of segregation and integration in functional anatomy.