Cognitive Vulnerabilities as Predictors of Stress Generation in Early Adolescence: Pathway to Depressive Symptoms

Although individuals with depression have been found to experience a higher rate of stress in their lives, it remains unclear to what extent other personal characteristics may contribute to stress generation. The current study extended past research by examining the effects of two theoretically and empirically supported cognitive vulnerabilities to depression (negative cognitive style and rumination) as predictors of dependent interpersonal and achievement events, independent events, and relational peer victimization. In a diverse sample of 301 early adolescents (56 % female; M_age?=?12.82 years), we found that negative cognitive style prospectively predicted the experience of dependent interpersonal stress and relational victimization, and that rumination did not predict stress in any of the domains. Furthermore, the occurrence of intervening stress mediated the associations between negative cognitive style and subsequent depressive symptoms. Additionally, whereas negative cognitive style predicted relational victimization among both boys and girls, girls were particularly vulnerable to developing depressive symptoms following the occurrence of relational victimization. Thus, a negative cognitive style may contribute to the occurrence of stressful events, which in turn increases depressive symptoms. Girls may be particularly reactive to relational victimization, representing one pathway through which sex differences in depression may emerge.     

A Lifespan Model of Interference Resolution and Inhibitory Control: Risk for Depression and Changes with Illness Progression

Neuropsychology Review - The cognitive processes involved in inhibitory control accuracy (IC) and interference resolution speed (IR) or broadly – inhibition – are discussed in this...     

Using Structural Equation Modeling and Multidimensional Scaling to Assess Female College Students’ Academic Adjustment as a Function of Perceived Parenting Styles

One understudied aspect of first-year students' transition to college is their relationship with their parents. This study investigated the relationship between three parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative) and adjustment to college life of Palestinian-Arab young females. The aims of the study were to measure Palestinian-Arab females' perceptions of their parents' parenting styles and the set of connections between these perceptions and adjustment to college constructs. This study used repeated measures analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) and smallest space analysis (SSA, a variant of multidimensional scaling MDS) statistical methods to compute the complex relationships indicated in previous research between the examined variables. Repeated measures analysis results showed that the participants perceived their parents as more authoritative than permissive or authoritarian. With regard to the authoritative parenting, the path model and the SSA solution indicated different results. Only the SSA has confirmed the postulated connection between authoritative parenting style and academic adjustment, for both parental structures. Both statistical methods showed a positive connection between the authoritarian parenting style and academic maladjustment. Permissive parenting style was not found to be related to positive or negative adjustment to college. Interpretation of these results, their congruence within the context of the theoretical frameworks and practical implications are discussed.     

Deflationism,Meaning and Truth-Conditions

Philosophical Studies -     

Cross-Validation of the Reactions to Faculty Incivility Measurement through a Multidimensional Scaling Approach

Incivility in the academic arena elicits a wide range of reactions: it interferes with learning, increases stress, feelings of disrespect and helplessness. Although reactions to incivility were mainly tested in workplaces, an extensive, robust framework to explain and measure responses to faculty incivility (FI) is yet to be offered. This study used Facet theory (FT) approach with a multidimensional scaling method of smallest space analysis (SSA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm the theoretical structure of reactions to FI. A mapping sentence was constructed expressing the composite of three individual facets based on the theoretical framework: Facet A including four types of reactions (1)Exit (2) Voice (3) Loyalty and (4) Neglect (EVLN); Facet B reflecting the destructiveness – constructiveness dimension, and Facet C illustrating a dimension ranging from passive to active responses. Data were gathered by a scale measuring students’ reactions to FI. According to the findings, the CFA result presented four relatively interpretable factors (EVLN) while the SSA showed these factors as well as additional facets (B and C).     

Action selection and action awareness

Human actions are often classified as either internally generated, or externally specified in response to environmental cues. These two modes of action selection have distinct neural bases, but few studies investigated how the mode of action selection affects the subjective experience of action. We measured the experience of action using the subjective compression of the interval between actions and their effects, known as ‘temporal binding’. Participants performed either a left or a right key press, either in response to a specific cue, or as they freely chose. Moreover, the time of each keypress could either be explicitly cued to occur in one of two designated time intervals, or participants freely chose in which interval to act. Each action was followed by a specific tone. Participants judged the time of their actions or the time of the tone. Temporal binding was found for both internally generated and for stimulus-based actions. However, the amount of binding depended on whether or not both the choice and the timing of action were selected in the same way. Stronger binding was observed when both action choice and action timing were internally generated or externally specified, compared to conditions where the two parameters were selected by different routes. Our result suggests that temporal action–effect binding depends on how actions are selected. Binding is strongest when actions result from a single mode of selection.

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Instruction-induced feature binding

In order to test whether or not instructions specifying the stimulus-response (S-R) mappings for a new task suffice to create bindings between specified stimulus and response features, we developed a dual task paradigm of the ABBA type in which participants saw new S-R instructions for the A-task in the beginning of each trial. Immediately after the A-task instructions, participants had to perform a logically independent B-task. The imperative stimulus for the A-task was presented after the B-task had been executed. The present data show that the instructed S-R mappings influence performance on the embedded B-task, even when they (1) have never been practiced, and (2) are irrelevant with respect to the B-task. These results imply that instructions can induce bindings between S- and R-features without prior execution of the task at hand.