Schizotypy and pathological personality profile in siblings of patients with psychosis

Schizotypy has been proposed to be the expression of the genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. Schizotypal features have been associated with personality dimensions found in patients with psychosis. In this study, we compared the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology - Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ) scores of patients with psychosis, siblings scoring higher on schizotypy (SSHS), and siblings scoring lower (SSLS). The SSHSs displayed a DAPP-BQ profile characterized by high scores in the dimensions of affective lability, anxiousness, submissiveness, social avoidance, identity problems, oppositionality, narcissism, and restricted expression, distinguishing them from the SSLS. Due to these dimensions, SSHSs are more similar to the patients' DAPP-BQ profile. The results suggest that this pathological personality profile might contribute to increase the risk of developing psychosis in siblings who have more schizotypal features.     

The Spanish version of the Wisconsin Personality Disorders Inventory-IV (WISPI-IV): tests of validity and reliability

Personality disorders (PD) are a prevalent class of mental disorders that interfere with functioning and cause subjective distress while increasing the intensity and duration of Axis I clinical syndromes, and therefore assessing PD is important even when PDs are not the focus of treatment. The purpose of these studies was to develop and test a new Spanish version of a self-report measure of PD, the Wisconsin Personality Inventory-IV (WISPI-IV) that would be psychometrically equivalent to the English version while also maintaining the same interpersonal content, which is based on Benjamin's analysis of the PD criteria using her Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) model (1974). Study 1 participants completed the WISPI-IV twice over a two-week interval. For Study 2, participants from two sites in Spain and one site in Argentina completed Spanish versions of the WISPI-IV and other personality measures. SASB-analysis of the translated items showed high correspondence between the interpersonal content of the English version and the Spanish version demonstrating theoretical validation in relation to other PD measures. The Spanish WISPI-IV showed satisfactory reliability based on test-retest correlations and alphas for internal consistency. Study 2 showed the Spanish WISPI-IV had good convergent validity with the Spanish versions of the IIP and SCID-II and performed similarly to the English versions of these measures. Our goal in translating the WISPI-IV was to extend this measure to Spanish-speakers in language that would be understood by different Hispanic sub-groups, however research team members and subjects had a variety of suggestions for changes in item wording. This reflects the difficulty with creating a "neutral" Spanish version of any assessment given regional differences.     

The bullied who bullies: the reciprocal relationship between victim and aggressor in workplace bullying situations

The aim of this study was to explore longitudinal relationships between organizational factors (workload and procedural justice) and targets and perpetrators of workplace bullying. We compared several causal models (baseline or stability, normal, reversed and reciprocal models). The sample comprised 286 employees from two companies in Madrid, and we used a time-lag of one year. Results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that reciprocal model fit the data the best. We found that T1 workload was related positively to T2 target of bullying, and T1 procedural justice was related negatively to T2 target of bullying. There was a significant reverse effect of T1 target of bullying on T2 workload. Furthermore, we found a reciprocal relationship between being the target and the perpetrator of bullying. Overall, these findings emphasize the need to extend the traditional causal models of workplace bullying to more dynamic approaches.     

Lessons learned from studies of psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder via video teleconferencing

This article summarizes two ongoing randomized controlled trials that compare individual in-person psychotherapy with psychotherapy provided using video teleconferencing for military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. We describe training methods, populations, technology, challenges, successes, and lessons learned so far during the trials.     

Structural model of acculturation attitudes and related psychosocial variables: Empirical evidence in native Spaniards

This work falls within the framework of the study of acculturation processes of natives and immigrants. Its goal is to test an explanatory multi‐group model of natives' acculturation attitudes as a function of diverse psychosocial variables: Prejudice and natives' appraisal of their own culture (in a direct way) and inter‐group contact and perceived inter‐group similarity (in an indirect way). Participants were 499 Spaniards surveyed for their attitude towards Romanian immigrants and 493 towards Ecuadorian immigrants. The indicators used took into account three socio‐cultural spheres: peripheral, intermediate and central areas. This multi‐group model shows an adequate fit to the data.     

The effects of age and emotional valence on recognition memory: An ex‐Gaussian components analysis

The aim of this work was to study the effects of valence and age on visual image recognition memory. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) battery was used, and response time data were analyzed using analysis of variance, as well as an ex‐Gaussian fit method. Older participants were slower and more variable in their reaction times. Response times were longer for negative valence pictures, however this was statistically significant only for young participants. This suggests that negative emotional valence has a strong effect on recognition memory in young but not in old participants. The τ parameter, often related to attention in the literature, was smaller for young than old participants in an ex‐Gaussian fit. Differences on the τ parameter might suggest poorer attentional performance in old participants.     

Understanding action language modulates oscillatory mu and beta rhythms in the same way as observing actions

The mu rhythms (8–13 Hz) and the beta rhythms (15 up to 30 Hz) of the EEG are observed in the central electrodes (C3, Cz and C4) in resting states, and become suppressed when participants perform a manual action or when they observe another’s action. This has led researchers to consider that these rhythms are electrophysiological markers of the motor neuron activity in humans. This study tested whether the comprehension of action language, unlike abstract language, modulates mu and low beta rhythms (15–20 Hz) in a similar way as the observation of real actions. The log-ratios were calculated for each oscillatory band between each condition and baseline resting periods. The results indicated that both action language and action videos caused mu and beta suppression (negative log-ratios), whereas abstract language did not, confirming the hypothesis that understanding action language activates motor networks in the brain. In other words, the resonance of motor areas associated with action language is compatible with the embodiment approach to linguistic meaning.     

Do Phonological Constraints on the Spoken Word Affect Visual Lexical Decision?

Reading a word may involve the spoken language in two ways: in the conversion of letters to phonemes according to the conventions of the language’s writing system and the assimilation of phonemes according to the language’s constraints on speaking. If so, then words that require assimilation when uttered would require a change in the phonemes produced by grapheme-phoneme conversion when read. In two experiments, each involving 40 fluent readers, we compared visual lexical decision on Korean orthographic forms that would require such a change (C stimuli) or not (NC stimuli). We found that NC words were accepted faster than C words, and C nonwords were rejected faster than NC nonwords. The results suggest that phoneme-to-phoneme transformations involved in uttering a word may also be involved in visually identifying the word.     

Inhibitory mechanism of the matching heuristic in syllogistic reasoning

A number of heuristic-based hypotheses have been proposed to explain how people solve syllogisms with automatic processes. In particular, the matching heuristic employs the congruency of the quantifiers in a syllogism — by matching the quantifier of the conclusion with those of the two premises. When the heuristic leads to an invalid conclusion, successful solving of these conflict problems requires the inhibition of automatic heuristic processing. Accordingly, if the automatic processing were based on processing the set of quantifiers, no semantic contents would be inhibited. The mental model theory, however, suggests that people reason using mental models, which always involves semantic processing. Therefore, whatever inhibition occurs in the processing implies the inhibition of the semantic contents.