The persistence of attention to emotion: brain potentials during and after picture presentation

Emotional stimuli have been shown to elicit increased perceptual processing and attentional allocation. The late positive potential (LPP) is a sustained P300-like component of the event-related potential that is enhanced after the presentation of pleasant and unpleasant pictures as compared with neutral pictures. In this study, the LPP was measured using dense array electroencephalograph both before and after pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant images to examine the time course of attentional allocation toward emotional stimuli. Results from 17 participants confirmed that the LPP was larger after emotional than neutral images and that this effect persisted for 800 ms after pleasant picture offset and at least 1,000 ms after unpleasant picture offset. The persistence of increased attention after unpleasant compared to pleasant stimuli is consistent with the existence of a negativity bias. Overall, these results indicate that attentional capture of emotion continues well beyond picture presentation and that this can be measured with the LPP. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Children's beliefs about instances of mechanical and electrical causation

Two main questions were asked regarding young children's beliefs about causal mediation: What sorts of beliefs about causal mediation are reflected by children's incomplete explanations of causal situations? In particular, do children hold a false belief in action at a distance or do they realize that something must mediate between cause and effect? When presented with a non-visible connection between cause and effect (Experiment I), the children's incomplete (Piagetion Stage 1) explanations either reflected the correct expectation of a mediating connection or else merely reflected identification of the causal agent and no concern one way or another with the issue of causal mediation. This was also the case when the mediating connection was visible and present at the outset (Experiment II). In neither experiment (both of which involved mechanical causation) was there evidence of a false belief in action at a distance. A third experiment involved instances of electrical causation in order to maximize the chances of tapping a false belief. The rationale was that, in their everyday lives, although children do have first-hand experience with the mediating connection in instances of mechanical causation, they do not have such experience with instances of electrical causation. The results from the third experiment were analogous to the results in the other two. It was concluded that, with respect to instances of physical causality, young children do not hold a false belief (in action at a distance) that is later relinquished. Rather, their concerns are, at first, restricted to identifying the causal agent and do not include any beliefs, true or false, about the issue of causal mediation. When they eventually do deal with the question of causal mediation, children hold approximately correct beliefs. In terms of school situations, these findings suggest a shift from providing the child with disconfirming data that will aid him in relinquishing his false beliefs to providing him, instead, with additional data that will supplement his existing, approximately correct beliefs.     

The symbolic drawing of the family life space.

Several innovative techniques have been developed in the last ten years for facilitating meaningful communication and interaction among family members. These techniques serve the purpose of highlighting relatively stable patterns of verbal and nonverbal communication among family members and bring to the surface various aspects of familial structure, thereby illuminating focal points for intervention. The purpose of the present article is to describe the technique of the Symbolic Drawing of the Family Life Space, to compare this technique with other techniques for facilitating communication and interaction among family members, and to illustrate the clinical use of this technique with case examples. In reviewing the literature, the authors extracted two types of symbolic and interactive procedures, which may be conveniently divided into those that tend to be task-centered and those that tend to be expressive modalities.     

A follow-up of a media-based,worksite smoking cessation program

Described an examination of data collected 2 years following the onset of a media-based, worksite smoking cessation intervention. Thirty-eight companies in Chicago were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions. In the inital 3-week phase, all participants in both conditions received self-help manuals and were instructed to watch a 20-day televised series designed to accompany the manual. In addition, participants in the group (G) condition received six sessions emphasizing quitting techniques and social support. In the second phase, which continued for 12 months, employees in G participated in monthly peer-led support groups and received incentives, while participants in the nongroup (NG) condition received no further treatment. Twenty-four months after pretest, 30% of employees in G were abstinent compared to only 19.5% in NG. This study is one of the few experimentally controlled worksite smoking cessation interventions to demonstrate significant program differences 2 years following the initial intervention. Our thanks to Lori Klett and Libby Yeager-Turner for their help in data collection. Work on the project was supported in part by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant DA-04406-01 and a grant from the Chicago Lung Association to the second author.     

Reducing the Risk for Preschool Expulsion: Mental Health Consultation for Young Children with Challenging Behaviors

Increasing numbers of young children are being expelled from child care settings because of their problem behavior. Access to mental health consultation is related to lower rates of expulsion, but additional data are needed to document the pathways through which mental health consultation reduces the risk of expulsion. We report on outcomes from a 4-year project designed to reduce the number of children expelled for problem behavior in a large suburban county in Maryland. Two master’s-level professionals provided behavioral consultation to child care providers who identified nearly 200 children at imminent risk for expulsion. Child care providers rated children’s social skills and problem behaviors at referral and discharge using the Preschool Kindergarten Behavior Scales and the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Statistically significant increases in social skills and reductions in problem behaviors were seen for children who received individualized consultation. More than three-quarters of the children who were at risk for expulsion were able to be maintained in their current child care placement; of those that changed placements, only half (n = 13) were removed involuntarily. These findings provide additional support for mental health consultation as a promising strategy to reduce the risk for expulsion for young children with problem behaviors.     

Characteristic interpersonal behavior in dependent and avoidant personality disorder can be observed within very short interaction sequences

We present a behavior observation study of interpersonal behavior in 96 female subjects, who had been screened for the presence of dependent, avoidant, narcissistic and histrionic personality disorder features. Each subject took part in three short role-plays, taken from assertiveness training. Afterwards, both the subject and her role-play partner judged, how assertive the subject had been. Although observation time was very short, dependent and avoidant subjects could be easily identified from their overly submissive behavior in the role-plays. Histrionic and narcissistic subjects did not show distinctive interpersonal behavior. Contrary to a common belief, higher scores on some personality disorder (PD) scales were positively related to cross-situational variability of behavior. Results are discussed with regard to their implications for clinical diagnostics, therapy and the methodology of personality disorder research in general.     

Detection of a Psychiatric Diagnosis in Heart Transplant Candidates with the MBHI

The utility of the Millon Behavioral Health Inventory (MBHI) in screening for the formal diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder was investigated in a sample of 90 heart transplant candidates, a population at risk for psychiatric disturbance. Psychiatric disorders were identified in 71% of patients, the majority being adjustment disorder. Sensitivity and specificity rates of >70% were determined in discriminant function analyses, for presence or absence of a psychiatric condition. When Axis I conditions were differentiated as mild (adjustment reaction only) or severe (all other Axis I conditions, including comorbid Axis II disorders), the MBHI correctly identified every severe case as a probable psychiatric diagnosis. The rate of clinically significant elevations on certain MBHI scales and severity of Axis I psychiatric condition was also significantly associated. These findings suggest that the MBHI may have potential utility in identifying high-risk patients with diagnosable psychiatric conditions and help justify mental health consultation referrals at a time when managed care entities are vigorously rationing ancillary services with medically ill populations.