Nostalgic recollections of high and low narcissists

Two functions of nostalgia are consistently documented in the literature: self-positivity and social connectedness. These reflect agency and communion, respectively. Such dimensions are polarized no more than in narcissists, who are high in agency and low in communion. In three studies we tested whether high and low narcissists differ in the content of nostalgic recollections, whether they become nostalgic about different objects, and whether nostalgia serves different functions for them. High (versus low) narcissists made more agentic references in their narratives and manifested nostalgic proclivity toward agentic objects. Furthermore, nostalgia served a self-positivity function, but not a social connectedness function, for high (versus low) narcissists. Findings highlight the relevance of personality—narcissism, in particular—for the experience of nostalgia.     

Brief report--associations of personality disorder with early separation anxiety in patients with adult separation anxiety disorder

A recent study has suggested a link between early separation anxiety and personality disorder. It is possible that this relationship is mediated or confounded by the presence of adult separation anxiety disorder (ASAD). In a clinic study of 397 anxiety patients, we found that ASAD patients with heightened early separation anxiety had higher rates of any Cluster C personality disorder compared to ASAD patients without elevated early separation anxiety, and higher rates of any Cluster B or C personality disorder compared to anxiety patients with low early separation anxiety and no ASAD. Although cross-sectional in design, the study supports a direct link between early separation anxiety and some adult personality disorders, irrespective of the type of adult anxiety disorder present, including ASAD.     

Drawings as memory aids: Optimising the drawing method to facilitate young children's recall

There has been supportive evidence of drawing facilitating young children's event recall. The present study investigated whether additional event details are recalled if the interviewer uses interactive questions in response to information children have spontaneously drawn or verbally reported. Eighty 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds were shown a video clip of a novel event and were interviewed the following day. The children were randomly allocated to one of four recall conditions: tell‐only, draw‐and‐tell, interactive draw‐and‐tell and interactive tell‐only. The children's verbal reports were transcribed and scored on four different categories of recall: items (objects and people), actions, colours and sayings. The interactive draw‐and‐tell group recalled more correct information for items compared to the other three recall groups, without any accompanying increase in errors. We propose that drawing increases the opportunity for the interviewer to ask interactive questions, which in turn facilitates children's accurate recall of item information. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A qualitative examination of the work–family interface: Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder

Within the work–family literature little is known about the work–family challenges and opportunities faced by families that have one or more children with autism spectrum disorder. However, it has been consistently demonstrated that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder are at a higher risk of experiencing a host of negative outcomes. Using a qualitative design, within grounded theory, the present study sheds light on the needs, experiences, and challenges that parents of children with autism spectrum disorder face and also offers insight into ways to expand the scope of work–family research in this area. The present research provides evidence of how the family domain can greatly impact experiences and decisions made in the work domain for families with special needs. The present research adds to the small but growing literature examining the interplay between home and work life for families with special needs and demonstrates that this is an important research domain in need of additional conceptual and empirical consideration.     

Rats’ memory for time and relational responding in the duration-comparison procedure

Rats were trained in a duration-comparison task to press one lever if the comparison duration (c) was 1.2-s shorter than a standard duration (s), and another lever if c was 1.2-s longer than s. The interval between s and c duration was 1 s. The 10 duration pairs used during training controlled for the absolute duration of c and the total duration of an s-c pair. The total duration of an s-c pair was not predictive of the correct response. In Experiment 1, during equal-duration pair test trials, rats increasingly responded long (i.e., c > s) as the s-c delay was lengthened. In Experiment 2, long responding increased as the s-c delay was lengthened, even when the illumination condition during the s-c delay differed from that during the intertrial interval (ITI). In Experiment 3, transfer to novel duration pairs was assessed. Overall accuracy for the novel duration pairs was significantly above chance, but transfer performance was also affected by the absolute value of the novel c durations. This is the first study to demonstrate that rats can acquire relational duration discriminations. As in previous studies with pigeons the evidence was consistent with subjective-shortening of the standard duration and there was also evidence of a reliance on a mixture of absolute and relational strategies in responding.     

Longitudinal relations among maternal behaviors, effortful control and young children's committed compliance

In a sample (n = 235) of 30-, 42-, and 54-month-olds, the relations among parenting, effortful control (EC), impulsivity, and children's committed compliance were examined. Parenting was assessed with mothers' observed sensitivity and warmth; EC was measured by mothers' and caregivers' reports, as well as a behavioral task; impulsivity was assessed by mothers' and caregivers' reports; and committed compliance was observed during a cleanup and prohibition task, as well as measured by adults' reports. Using path modeling, there was evidence that 30-month parenting predicted high EC and low impulsivity a year later when the stability of the outcomes was controlled, and there was evidence that 30- and 42-month EC, but not impulsivity, predicted higher committed compliance a year later, controlling for earlier levels of the outcomes. Moreover, 42-month EC predicted low impulsivity a year later. Fixed effects models, which are not biased by omitted time-invariant variables, also were conducted and showed that 30-month parenting still predicted EC a year later, and 42-month EC predicted later low impulsivity. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of differentiating between effortful control and impulsivity and the potential mediating role of EC in the relations between parenting and children's committed compliance.     

I Believe I Am So Called: Reflections on a Vocation in Medical Education

This essay is concerned with the fulfillment of ordination commitments through a pastoral role in medical education and review of medical research with human subjects. Stylistically, it combines memoir with the genre known as “creative non-fiction.” Its major issues have to do with the identity formation and transformation of the author, the function and ethics of institutional review boards, the teaching of medical ethics to medical students, and courses involved in the doctor–patient relationship and in palliative care intended to increase the sensitivity and self-awareness of physicians-in-becoming. This essay was presented in its initial form at the Annual Fellows Meeting of the Society for Values in Higher Education in 2010.     

Visual attention and emotional memory: recall of aversive pictures is partially mediated by concurrent task performance

The emotional enhancement of memory is often thought to be determined by attention. However, recent evidence using divided attention paradigms suggests that attention does not play a significant role in the formation of memories for aversive pictures. We report a study that investigated this question using a paradigm in which participants had to encode lists of randomly intermixed negative and neutral pictures under conditions of full attention and divided attention followed by a free recall test. Attention was divided by a highly demanding concurrent task tapping visual processing resources. Results showed that the advantage in recall for aversive pictures was still present in the DA condition. However, mediation analyses also revealed that concurrent task performance significantly mediated the emotional enhancement of memory under divided attention. This finding suggests that visual attentional processes play a significant role in the formation of emotional memories.     

The six most essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis: a pluralogue part 3: issues of utility and alternative approaches in psychiatric diagnosis

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in further work on the DSM. The six questions involve: 1) the nature of a mental disorder; 2) the definition of mental disorder; 3) the issue of whether, in the current state of psychiatric science, DSM-5 should assume a cautious, conservative posture or an assertive, transformative posture; 4) the role of pragmatic considerations in the construction of DSM-5; 5) the issue of utility of the DSM ?C whether DSM-III and IV have been designed more for clinicians or researchers, and how this conflict should be dealt with in the new manual; and 6) the possibility and advisability, given all the problems with DSM-III and IV, of designing a different diagnostic system. Part 1 of this article took up the first two questions. Part 2 took up the second two questions. Part 3 now deals with Questions 5 & 6. Question 5 confronts the issue of utility, whether the manual design of DSM-III and IV favors clinicians or researchers, and what that means for DSM-5. Our final question, Question 6, takes up a concluding issue, whether the acknowledged problems with the earlier DSMs warrants a significant overhaul of DSM-5 and future manuals. As in Parts 1 & 2 of this article, the general introduction, as well as the introductions and conclusions for the specific questions, are written by James Phillips, and the responses to commentaries are written by Allen Frances.