Involvement of 5-HT1A receptors in animal tests of anxiety and depression: evidence from genetic models

Clinical studies have suggested the involvement of 5-HT1A receptors in anxiety and depressive disorders because partial 5-HT1A receptor agonists such as buspirone are therapeutic. The present review considers evidence from genetic animal models that support a role for 5-HT1A receptors in anxiety-like and depressed-like behavior in animals. Selective breeding for differential hypothermic responses to a selective 5-HT1A receptor agonist led to the development of the high DPAT sensitive (HDS) and low DPAT sensitive (LDS) lines of rats. The HDS rats differ from the LDS rats on several behavioral measures reflective of anxiety or depression, including reduced social interaction, reduced responding in a conflict task and exaggerated immobility in the forced swim test. However, they do not differ from the LDS rats in the elevated plus maze task, which is a commonly used test of anxiety. Nor do the HDS rats exhibit a typical anxiogenic response to the hippocampal administration of the 5-HT1A agonist. Although the HDS rats do exhibit elevations in 5-HT1A receptors in regions of the limbic cortex, it is not clear whether these increases account for the behavioral differences. Paradoxically, 5-HT1A receptor knockout mice also exhibit anxiety-like behavior in the plus maze, open field and conflict tests compared to wild type mice. However, the knockouts exhibited less immobility in the forced swim test than wild type control mice. Recent studies using selective regional reinstatement of the receptor have implicated the postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors in these changes in anxiety-like behavior. Thus, preliminary evidence from two different types of genetic animal models suggests that anxiety-like behavior can arise if the 5-HT1A receptor function is eliminated or overexpressed. Further study with additional tests of anxiety are needed to confirm this intriguing relationship.     

An overview of the major changes in the 2002 APA Ethics Code

This article summarizes the major changes that were made to the 2002 Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association. The 2002 Ethics Code retains the general format of the 1992 Ethics Code and does not radically alter the obligations of psychologists. One goal of the Ethics Committee Task Force was to reduce the potential of the Ethics Code to be used to unnecessarily punish psychologists. In addition, the revised Ethics Code expresses greater sensitivity to the needs of cultural and linguistic minorities and students. Shortcomings of the 2002 Ethics Code are discussed.     

A case study of community-based participatory research ethics: The healthy public housing initiative

We conducted and analyzed qualitative interviews with 12 persons working on the Healthy Public Housing Initiative in Boston, Massachusetts in 2001. Our goal was to generate ideas and themes related to the ethics of the community-based participatory research in which they were engaged. Specifically, we wanted to see if we found themes that differed from conventional research that is based on an individualistic ethics. There were clearly distinct ethical issues raised with respect to projects and individuals who engage in community-based collaborations. The differences that arose from the interviews were seeking equality between the partners, the need for the community partner to defend the community, dealing with unflattering data, meeting community expectations and producing tangible benefits to the community. Alison Kole is an MD/MPH candidate, Tufts University School of Medicine.     

When does feedback facilitate learning of words?

Some researchers have suggested that although feedback may enhance performance during associative learning, it does so at the expense of later retention. To examine this issue, subjects (N = 258) learned Luganda-English word pairs. After 2 initial exposures to the materials, subjects were tested on each item several times, with the presence and type of feedback varying between subjects. A final test followed after 1 week. Supplying the correct answer after an incorrect response not only improved performance during the initial learning session--it also increased final retention by 494%. On the other hand, feedback after correct responses made little difference either immediately or at a delay, regardless of whether the subject was confident in the response. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Ethics education after licensing: ideas for increasing diversity in content and process

Continuing professional education in ethics for psychologists is becoming more common, as psychology licensing boards in 14 states now require continuing education in ethics as a condition of licensure renewal. This article suggests ways to improve the quality of ethics continuing education by diversifying the content and teaching methods.     

Cross-category revenue spillover in brand extensions: The role of within-category experience

Building on signaling theory, the current research proposes an empirical framework to help firms understand the degree to which cross-category purchases affect the revenue generated for each category and how within-category purchases influence the cross-category spillover effects. The framework is applied to novel individual-level, cross-sectional, and time-series transaction details from a leading lifestyle conglomerate in the Middle East. The empirical results provide strong support for the presence of revenue spillover across multiple categories of brand extensions, with the spillover being more pronounced in categories in which customers have infrequently purchased and thus had less within-category experience. These results add to the ongoing stream of research on brand extensions by offering evidence that both within- and cross-category learning play a significant role in revenue generation from brand extensions for multi-product or service firms.     

Neural control of behavior: countermanding eye movements

Understanding the self-control of action entails knowledge about how actions are initiated, how planned actions are canceled and how the consequences of actions are registered. We have investigated neural correlates of these processes using the countermanding paradigm – a task that required subjects to occasionally cancel a planned speeded response, and an analysis that provides an estimate of the time needed to cancel a planned movement. By monitoring the activity of single neurons in the frontal cortex of macaque monkeys performing this task we have distinguished signals responding to the visual stimuli, other signals that control the production of movements, and still other signals that seem to monitor behavior. Received: 31 March 1999 / Accepted: 23 July 1999     

Mean Girls: Adolescent Female Athletes and Peer Conflict in Sport

The purpose of this study was to explore adolescent female athletes’ experiences with peer conflict. In-depth, semistructured interviews (N = 15) were conducted with female athletes participating in high school/club-level sport. Inductive and deductive content analysis was then completed, and 4 distinct themes emerged regarding interpersonal conflict in the sport domain: causes of sport peer conflict, manifestations of sport peer conflict, outcomes of sport peer conflict, and attempts to reduce conflict. Findings imply that sport peer relationships can result in conflict behaviors that are both consistent with developmental literature and distinctive within the adolescent sport domain.     

White Psychologists and African Americans’ Historical Trauma: Implications for Practice

This article reviews and synthesizes literature on the historical trauma of African Americans with an emphasis on how White psychologists can integrate awareness of historical trauma into clinical practice. Research supports that African Americans are affected by White racism in ways that parallel the effects of other interpersonal traumas. How African Americans are affected by racism depends on the individual, although the effects on the individual also occur within a shared cultural context. In addition to negative impacts, the literature also identifies African Americans’ core strengths and coping strategies that have a similarly historical basis. These strengths and coping strategies are discussed in their implications for White psychologists’ role in African Americans’ trauma recovery process.     

Gender differences in adolescent coping behaviors and suicidal ideation: findings from a sample of 73,238 adolescents

Suicide among adolescents is an emerging global public health problem as well as a socioeconomic problem. Stress-coping strategies have been shown to be associated with suicidal ideation. We examined coping behaviors related to suicidal ideation and gender differences in adolescents using the data from the 2010 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey (ages 12–19 years; N = 73,238). Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate associations between suicidal ideation and specific coping behaviors while controlling for potentially confounding variables. In both male and female groups, the coping behavior “drinking alcoholic beverages” and “smoking cigarettes” were positively associated with suicidal ideation. “Watching TV,” “playing online/mobile games,” and “sleeping” were negatively associated with suicidal ideation in both groups. In males, “engaging in sports” was negatively related to suicidal ideation. In females, “venting by talking to others” and “eating” were negatively related to suicidal ideation. The results indicate that there are gender differences in the effects of coping behaviors on adolescent suicidal ideation, and that developing adaptive coping strategies may function to reduce suicidality. Future studies are needed to examine whether improving coping skills can reduce suicidal ideation in a gender-specific manner.