Dependency,impulsivity, and self-harm: traits hypothesized to underlie the association between cluster B personality and substance use disorders

Cluster B personality disorders (PDs) (i.e., antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic) typically show a high degree of comorbidity with substance use disorders (SUDs). Previous research suggests that the broad-based personality domains of Disinhibition and Negative Temperament/Neuroticism may be common factors to both types of disorders. Using a two-phase process (i.e., screening and follow-up), this study examined three lower-order personality traits (i.e., dependency, impulsivity, and self-harm) that fall within the Disinhibition and Neuroticism domains. The study evaluated the hypotheses that these traits (a) are related both to cluster B PDs and to SUDs; and (b) underlie the association between the two types of disorders. Results indicate that impulsivity and self-harm play a significant role in cluster B PDs and SUDs, as well as in their association with each other. However, dependency was not associated with either type of disorder. These results indicate that sets of individual traits can be of significant utility in understanding the comorbidity between PDs and SUDs.     

Psychiatric patient- and informant-reported personality: predicting concurrent and future behavior

The authors investigated the criterion and incremental validity of personality reports from psychiatric patients and knowledgeable informants in predicting patient substance use, social and risky behaviors, and psychological distress. Patient and informant reports of patient personality and behavior were collected from an adult psychiatric sample (N = 94). Hierarchical regressions indicated that patient reports of personality accounted for significant variance in both concurrent (17%-42%) and future behavior assessed 1 year later (17%-40%). Informant reports contributed significantly to the prediction of several behaviors and most strongly to social behaviors. Behaviors were predicted equally well by self-reports and informant reports in prospective as in concurrent regressions. Thus, both patient and informant reports of personality contribute importantly to prediction of behavior, and predictive ability is stable across time.     

Comparison of Egyptian and Canadian children on a picture apperception test

Individualism-collectivism theory predicted that Egyptian and Canadian children's performance would differ on relevant scales of the Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC). The RATC was administered to 34 Egyptian and 34 Canadian children ages 6-13 years. Canadian children scored higher on autonomy and lower on receiving support from others and parental limit setting. At older ages, Egyptian children manifested less rejection, desire for help from others, and aggression. There were no cultural differences in anxiety or depression and few differences on indicator and resolution scales related to understanding the task and resolving problems. The findings validated cross-cultural use of the RATC and demonstrated that the increasingly general theory of collectivism allowed meaningful predictions about personality and clinical traits.     

Linking theory of mind and central coherence bias in autism and in the general population

Three experiments investigated whether 2 characteristic aspects of the psychological profile of autism, theory-of-mind deficits and weak central coherence, might be functionally related. Experiment 1 showed that in the general population, performance on a proposed test of theory of mind was inversely related to speed on the Embedded Figures Test, a measure of central coherence bias. Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed that poor theory-of-mind performance was linked to weak central coherence among typically developing children and among children with autism; however, the correlations between these measures were reliable only after accounting for differences in individuals' verbal mental ages. This pattern of results is interpreted in terms of a relationship between individual differences in theory of mind and central coherence bias, a relationship that is separate from any developmental differences in these domains.     

Do Executive Function Deficits Differentiate Between Adolescents with ADHD and Oppositional Defiant/Conduct Disorder? A Neuropsychological Study Using the Six Elements Test and Hayling Sentence Completion Test

Two neuropsychological measures of executive functions—Six Elements Tests (SET) and Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT)—were administered to 110 adolescents, aged 12–15 years. Participants comprised four groups: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) only (n = 35), ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder/Conduct Disorder (ODD/CD) (n = 38), ODD/CD only (n = 11), and a normal community control group (n = 26). Results indicated that adolescents with ADHD performed significantly worse on both the SET and HSCT than those without ADHD, whether or not they also had ODD/CD. The adolescents with ADHD and with comorbid ADHD and ODD/CD were significantly more impaired in their ability to generate strategies and to monitor their ongoing behavior compared with age-matched controls and adolescents with ODD/CD only. It is argued that among adolescents with clinically significant levels of externalizing behavior problems, executive function deficits are specific to those with ADHD. The findings support the sensitivity of these two relatively new tests of executive functions and their ecological validity in tapping into everyday situations, which are potentially problematic for individuals with ADHD.     

Appraisal and control of sexual and non-sexual intrusive thoughts in university students

This study examined differences in the appraisal and thought control strategies associated with the perceived control of unwanted sexual and non-sexual intrusive thoughts. Eleven appraisal dimensions, subjective physiological arousal and 10 thought control strategies were measured in 171 university students who were administered the Revised Obsessive Intrusions Inventory-Sex Version, a self-report measure of unwanted intrusive thoughts. Thought-action fusion (TAF) likelihood was a significant unique predictor of the perceived controllability of respondents' most upsetting sexual and non-sexual intrusive thought. Moreover greater subjective physiological arousal was a significant predictor of reduced control over sexual intrusions, whereas worry that one might act on an intrusive thought and greater effort to control the intrusion were significant unique predictors of the control of non-sexual intrusive thoughts. Various thought control strategies were more often used in response to non-sexual than sexual cognitions. The results are discussed in terms of the differential role of various appraisal processes in the control of unwanted sexual and non-sexual thoughts.     

Sequelae of cesarean and vaginal deliveries: psychosocial outcomes for mothers and infants

Mother-infant dyads grouped according to whether the infants had been delivered vaginally (n = 74) or by planned (n = 37) or unplanned cesarean (n = 56) were compared on psychosocial outcomes at 4 and 12 months postpartum. Hypotheses were that unplanned cesarean delivery would be related to less optimal outcomes and that this relationship would be mediated by mother's appraisal of the delivery and would attenuate over time. No delivery-related differences in mother-infant interactions were found at 4 or 12 months postpartum with one exception: Women low in neuroticism who delivered by unplanned cesarean showed less positive affect toward their infants at 4 months than did women high in neuroticism who delivered by unplanned cesarean or women in any other group. There was some evidence of the mediating role of maternal appraisal of the delivery on these effects. In general, the results indicate little cause for concern about the quality of mother-infant interactions following cesarean deliveries.     

Is perceptual salience needed in explanations of the isolation effect?

The isolation effect is a well-known phenomenon that has a well-accepted explanation: An item that is isolated on a list becomes perceptually salient, which leads to extra rehearsal that enhances memory for the isolate. To evaluate this hypothesis, the authors isolated an item near the beginning of a list. Immediately after each item was presented for study, participants judged the likelihood of recalling the item. Although the isolation effect occurred, participants did not judge the isolate as being more memorable than the preceding item, suggesting that the isolate was not salient. In a second experiment, participants rehearsed items aloud. Isolation at the beginning of the list did not produce extra rehearsal. By contrast, isolation in the middle of the list produced extra rehearsal; however, even when the isolate did not receive extra rehearsal, an isolation effect was evident. Thus, salience and extra rehearsal are not necessary for producing an isolation effect.     

Group collaboration in recognition memory

Group collaboration was examined in item and associative recognition. The present study distinguishes between group effects versus collaborative processes and defines the latter as interactive information exchange among group members. By that definition, many group effects do not involve collaboration. For example, group performance can exceed individual performance by pooling the increased resources of the group. Specifically, a group advantage can be obtained by deferring to a majority vote or to the group's best member. For both item and associative recognition, a group advantage was obtained that could not be accounted for by resource pooling. Collaborative facilitation was shown reliably in recognizing targets but not for rejecting distractors.     

The effects of age upon the perception of depth and 3-D shape from differential motion and binocular disparity

The ability of younger and older adults to perceive the 3-D shape, depth, and curvature of smooth surfaces defined by differential motion and binocular disparity was evaluated in six experiments. The number of points defining the surfaces and their spatial and temporal correspondences were manipulated. For stereoscopic sinusoidal surfaces, the spatial frequency of the corrugations was also varied. For surfaces defined by motion, the lifetimes of the individual points in the patterns were varied, and comparisons were made between the perception of surfaces defined by points and that of more ecologically valid textured surfaces. In all experiments, the older observers were less sensitive to the depths and curvatures of the surfaces, although the deficits were much larger for motion-defined surfaces. The results demonstrate that older adults can extract depth and shape from optical patterns containing only differential motion or binocular disparity, but these abilities are often manifested at reduced levels of performance.