Strain and gender specific effects in the forced swim test: effects of previous stress exposure

The chronic mild stress (CMS) procedure was developed in rodents to target anhedonia, the core symptom of depressive melancholia. Stress exposure has been shown to induce a variety of physiological, biochemical and behavioral alterations associated with depression, although its anhedonic consequences as indexed by either sucrose intake and preference or thresholds for brain stimulation reward are less reliably observed. In the present study, we assessed the effects of six weeks of CMS on the latter measure in two strains of male and female rats subsequently challenged with an acute psychophysical stressor, forced swimming; their behavior in the swimming cylinder was evaluated on two consecutive days. While brain stimulation reward thresholds and response rates were unchanged by CMS exposure, significant differences in forced swim behaviors were observed between male control and CMS groups. In particular, male Long Evans rats with a history of CMS showed the largest decrease in the duration of active behaviors on the second test day, a pattern less evident in the Sprague-Dawley strain of rats, or in any of the female groups. The results suggest that the effects of depressogenic manipulations are strain and gender dependent, with male Long Evans rats most susceptible, as demonstrated by the selective reduction of struggling behaviors. Inclusion of multiple measures, including the forced swim test, would provide a better understanding of the psychopathological profile engendered by chronic exposure to mild stressors and its genetic specificity.     

Understanding metaphor: A relational frame perspective

The current article presents a basic functional-analytic interpretation of metaphor. This work involves an extension of Skinner's (1957) interpretation of metaphor using relational frame theory (RFT). A basic RFT interpretation of a particular metaphor is outlined, according to which the metaphor acquires its psychological effects when formal stimulus dimensions are contacted via the derivation of arbitrary stimulus relations. This interpretation sees the metaphor as involving four elements: (a) establishing two separate equivalence relations, (b) deriving an equivalence relation between these relations, (c) discriminating a formal relation via this equivalence-equivalence relation, and (d) a transformation of functions on the basis of the formal relation discriminated in the third element. In the second half of the paper, a number of important issues with regard to the RFT interpretation of metaphor are addressed.     

Mental Health and Incarcerated Youth. I: Prevalence and Nature of Psychopathology

The incarceration of mentally ill youth is a serious problem not receiving the same attention as in adults. In this study, we examine the prevalence of psychopathology and level of behavioral symptomatology in incarcerated youth versus youth receiving community mental health services or hospitalization. We randomly recruited youth from middle South Carolina served by a local CMHC (n = 60), youth served by the state adolescent inpatient program (n = 50), and youth in the S.C. Dept. of Juvenile Justice facilities from the same region (n = 75). We used the DISC-PC 2.3 to evaluate DSM-III-R diagnoses and the CBCL and YSR to evaluate behavioral symptomatology. On the DISC, incarcerated youth had significantly higher mean number of diagnoses and symptoms than CMHC youth, but lower numbers than hospitalized youth. Level of caseness (at least one diagnosis) was 86% in hospital youth, 72% in incarcerated youth, and 60% in CMHC youth. The groups differed in CBCL mean total T, internalizing T, and externalizing T scores as well as mean YSR internalizing T scores. Our results indicate the comparability in level of psychopathology in incarcerated and community-treated populations of youth, and the need to develop diversionary programs to prevent the entry of such youth into the juvenile justice system.     

Corporal Punishment by American Parents: National Data on Prevalence, Chronicity, Severity, and Duration, in Relation to Child and Family Characteristics

We present data on corporal punishment (CP) by a nationally representative sample of 991 American parents interviewed in 1995. Six types of CP were examined: slaps on the hand or leg, spanking on the buttocks, pinching, shaking, hitting on the buttocks with a belt or paddle, and slapping in the face. The overall prevalence rate (the percentage of parents using any of these types of CP during the previous year) was 35% for infants and reached a peak of 94% at ages 3 and 4. Despite rapid decline after age 5, just over half of American parents hit children at age 12, a third at age 14, and 13% at age 17. Analysis of chronicity found that parents who hit teenage children did so an average of about six times during the year. Severity, as measured by hitting the child with a belt or paddle, was greatest for children age 5–12 (28% of such children). CP was more prevalent among African American and low socioeconomic status parents, in the South, for boys, and by mothers. The pervasiveness of CP reported in this article, and the harmful side effects of CP shown by recent longitudinal research, indicates a need for psychology and sociology textbooks to reverse the current tendency to almost ignore CP and instead treat it as a major aspect of the socialization experience of American children; and for developmental psychologists to be cognizant of the likelihood that parents are using CP far more often than even advocates of CP recommend, and to inform parents about the risks involved.     

Predictors of therapeutic response to treatments for depression: a review of electrophysiologic and dichotic listening studies

There are few clinical or biologic predictors of response to treatments for depression. This article reviews growing evidence that electrophysiologic and neurocognitive measures of brain function may be of value as predictors of therapeutic response to antidepressants. Initial studies using dichotic listening, quantitative electroencephalography, or event-related brain potential measures have found differences between treatment responsive and nonresponsive subgroups of depressed patients. The neurophysiologic basis for these differences and the potential clinical utility of electrophysiologic and dichotic predictors of treatment outcome remain to be determined in future studies.     

Economic practices of Jesus movement groups

This paper examines in detail the multitude of ways used by Jesus Movement organizations to raise money to fund their many activities. The research was provoked by sharp differences between fund‐raising methods used by the two largest and well known JM organizations—the Children of God (now called The Family) and Christ Communal Organization (a pseudonym for a group called Shiloh). The COG mainly relied on various forms of public solicitation, while Shiloh depended on working for others and themselves in an effort to become self‐supporting. Seven other JM groups were examined to find out what patterns of support were most prevalent, and to examine possible relationships between sustenance activities and theological developments within the groups. A large number of experimental approaches were taken by JM groups trying to sustain themselves during their sometimes tumultuous histories, leading to a number of general conclusions.     

The Prediction of Negative Events Associated with Anxiety and Dietary Restraint: A Test of the Content Specificity Hypothesis

The prediction of future negative events was studied in a sample of undergraduate students varying on measures of anxiety and dietary restraint. Cognitive theories of psychopathology hypothesize that the emotional concerns of an individual determine which types of information are most often cognitively processed with a biased interpretation. This prediction has generally been called the content specificity hypothesis. Based upon this aspect of cognitive theory, we hypothesized that a high level of trait anxiety would be associated with higher ratings of the probability of future physically threatening events. In addition, it was hypothesized that a high level of dietary restraint would be associated with lower ratings of the probability of future occurrences of overeating. The results of the study supported these hypotheses. These prediction biases were found to be more pronounced in women, as compared to men. The findings were interpreted as supportive of the content specificity hypothesis.     

Perceptual asymmetry differences between major depression with or without a comorbid anxiety disorder: a dichotic listening study.

Predictions that anxious and nonanxious depression would differ in perceptual asymmetry (PA), as well as in sensitivity for perceiving emotional words, were evaluated using dichotic listening tasks. A total of 149 patients having a major depressive disorder (51 with and 98 without an anxiety disorder) and 57 healthy controls were tested on fused-word and complex tone tasks. The anxious and nonanxious depression groups showed a consistent difference in PA across tasks; that is, the anxious group had a larger left-ear advantage for tones and a smaller right-ear advantage for words when compared with the nonanxious group. There was no group difference in sensitivity for perceiving emotional words. Patients having an anxious depression appear to have a greater propensity to activate right than left-hemisphere regions during auditory tasks, whereas those having a nonanxious depression have the opposite hemispheric asymmetry.     

Do tricyclic responders have different brain laterality?

A previous study showed that depressed patients who improved with tricyclic antidepressant medication had dichotic complex tones test results suggesting right-hemisphere dysfunction relative to nonresponders and controls (G. E. Bruder et al., 1990). A new sample of 68 depressed patients completed dichotic consonant-vowel (CV) and complex tones (CT) tests and then were treated with imipramine or placebo. A significant Ear x Test x Treatment x Response interaction was accounted for by significantly poorer left-ear accuracy for CVs among imipramine responders compared with nonresponders, placebo responders, and controls. CV left-ear accuracy was also significantly greater among placebo responders than placebo nonresponders and controls. The results only partially replicate the prior study in that evidence of right-hemisphere dysfunction in tricyclic responders was seen for the CV test but not the CT test.     

Epidemiology of alcohol consumption and related problems in Latin American countries: Contributions of psychology

Alcohol consumption is the leading risk factor for morbi‐mortality in many Latin American Countries. However, epidemiologic studies are relatively scarce. Among factors such as limited research capacity, disciplinary traditions and an emphasis on psychopathology within the field of psychology, have been postulated to account for this. The aim of this article is to review epidemiologic research on alcohol in Spanish Speaking Latin American Countries, and to measure the contribution of psychology to the field. A systematic search was performed in English and Spanish using regional and international data bases. We identified 269 articles. Most focused on consumption patterns in youth, with samples from a single school and using a variety of measures. With the exception of multinational efforts like Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project or those supported by World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization, studies reviewed reflected little cross country collaboration. Mexico accounted for most of the productivity, while many countries had very few or no articles. Most research was performed by health science researchers with a small contribution from psychology, but which increased significantly over time. The results of this review provide a broad identification of patterns regarding epidemiologic research on alcohol, and demonstrate the need for national scientific policies to promote research on public health topics.