Sleep deprivation and stressors: Evidence for elevated negative affect in response to mild stressors when sleep deprived

Stress often co-occurs with inadequate sleep duration, and both are believed to impact mood and emotion. It is not yet known whether inadequate sleep simply increases the intensity of subsequent stress responses or interacts with stressors in more complicated ways. To address this issue, we investigated the effects of one night of total sleep deprivation on subjective stress and mood in response to low-stress and high-stress cognitive testing conditions in healthy adult volunteers in two separate experiments (total N = 53). Sleep was manipulated in a controlled, laboratory setting and stressor intensity was manipulated by changing difficulty of cognitive tasks, time pressure, and feedback about performance. Sleep-deprived participants reported greater subjective stress, anxiety, and anger than rested controls following exposure to the low-stressor condition, but not in response to the high-stressor condition, which elevated negative mood and stress about equally for both sleep conditions. These results suggest that sleep deprivation lowers the psychological threshold for the perception of stress from cognitive demands but does not selectively increase the magnitude of negative affect in response to high-stress performance demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Emotional engagement in the context of development and spirituality research

An awareness of spirituality and religion is increasingly being integrated within development theory and practice in order to recognise the way that many people approach community development. There are significant implications for researchers and their methodological practice that arise in paying attention to this area of development studies, particularly with regard to spiritual aspects of emotional engagement for researchers. This paper explores some of those implications from an analysis of my participatory research into geographies of development and spirituality. Two community groups with self-identified Christian spiritualities took part: a Melanesian settlement in Fiji and a women’s church-based group in rural Tanzania. I argue that emotional engagement and spiritual engagement are implicitly connected and demonstrate how attention to emotional knowledge provides valuable insight within this area of research. In particular, I illustrate how a relational approach to emotional knowledge, inspired by the philosophic and psychoanalytic work of Luce Irigaray, is particularly suited to approaching human and spiritual relationships and resonates with key concerns within participatory and community development. Paying particular attention to the concept of fidelity and the spatiality of subjectivity within her work, this paper illustrates the challenge from Luce Irigaray’s work regarding the relational framing of emotional knowledge and the transformational potential implicit within all research relationships.     

Introducing counselling in secondary schools: A case study with reference to frame issues

Abstract

I am a deputy headteacher in a comprehensive school. I believe that the widespread re-introduction of counselling into secondary schools offers possibilities for great benefit, both in terms of the personal well-being and emotional health of students, and also in terms of academic results and other educational indicators. It is my view that, currently, this may particularly be true for boys.

This paper is a double case study: first, of the failure of a student to cope with ordinary schooling because of his emotional difficulties; and, second, of the establishment of a counselling service which resulted from his permanent exclusion from the school.

I allude to some of the theoretical issues which meshed with the practical details of establishing the counselling service, and offer some tentative conclusions about the rationale for counselling in secondary schools and the kind of model which seems most likely to be beneficial.     

Effects of Training Goals and Goal Orientation Traits on Multidimensional Training Outcomes and Performance Adaptability

This research examined the effects of mastery vs. performance training goals and learning and performance goal orientation traits on multidimensional outcomes of training. Training outcomes included declarative knowledge, knowledge structure coherence, training performance, and self-efficacy. We also examined the unique impact of the training outcomes on performance adaptability by predicting generalization to a more difficult and complex version of the task. The experiment involved 60 trainees learning a complex computer simulation over 2 days. The research model posited independent effects for training goals relative to goal orientation traits and independent contributions of training outcomes to the performance adaptability of trainees. The findings were consistent with the proposed model. In particular, self-efficacy and knowledge structure coherence made unique contributions to the prediction of performance adaptability after controlling for prior training performance and declarative knowledge. Implications and extensions are discussed. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.     

Partial knowledge in a tip-of-the-tongue state about two- and three-word proper names

Participants in this study attempted to name 44 famous people in response to reading biographical information about them. Half of the celebrities had names that contained two words (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow and Sean Penn), and half of them had names containing three words (e.g., Catherine Zeta Jones and Billy Bob Thornton). Half of the names had previously been judged to be of high familiarity (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow), and half were of lower familiarity (e.g., Billy Bob Thornton). The results showed that when in a tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) state, the participants were able to estimate at above-chance rates whether a celebrity’s name comprised two or three words. Accurate information about the number of words was not available to the participants unless they were in a TOT state or had already named the person. Attempts to identify celebrities whose name had three elements were associated with an increased number of TOTs, relative to celebrities whose name had two units, but there was no difference in the number of don’t know responses for names containing two or three words. Calculations based on Gollan and Brown (2006) suggested that having three names impaired the phonological but not the semantic stage of lexical retrieval, whereas low familiarity impaired both semantic and phonological retrieval stages.     

An examination of the relationships among emotion management,interpersonal hassles,and depressive symptomatology

This study extended previous research by testing three models predicting depressive symptoms from emotion management (EM) and interpersonal hassles in a sample with a wide range of depression scores. Adults (n = 218) from sources including a depression internet site completed measures of interpersonal hassles, depression, and three aspects of EM (attention to, clarity of, and repair of emotions). Regression analyses supported a model in which lower clarity and repair scores and greater frequency of interpersonal hassles each contributed directly to depression scores. While lower attention to emotions was associated with fewer interpersonal hassles, it did not correlate significantly with depression scores. Moderation analyses did not support a model of EM components acting on depression by buffering effects of interpersonal hassles. A model of depression and hassles predicting EM difficulties was also considered; when both hassles and depression scores were entered to predict EM, only depressive symptoms uniquely predicted clarity and repair.     

Examining Current Conceptualizations of Psychopathology With the MMPI–2/MMPI–2–RF Restructured Clinical Scales: Preliminary Findings From a Cross-Cultural Study

Watson (2005 Watson, D. (2005). Rethinking the mood and anxiety disorders: A quantitative hierarchical model for DSM–V. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 522–536.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) proposed a hierarchical reorganization of the underlying structure of emotional disorders. This study cross-culturally evaluated Watson's (2005) structure of mood and anxiety disorders, using mainly dichotomous criteria, and explored the placement of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) in this model. It also tested Sellbom, Ben-Porath, and Bagby's (2008) proposed elaboration of the 2-factor model (positive and negative activation) that incorporates a higher order dimension of demoralization. One hundred men and 133 women from psychiatric settings in Israel completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (Butcher et al., 2001 Butcher, J. N., Graham, J. R., Ben-Porath, Y. S., Tellegen, A., Dahlstrom, W. G., &; Kaemmer, B. (2001). Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (MMPI–2): Manual for administration, scoring and interpretation (Rev. ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and the Maudsley Obsessional–Compulsive Inventory (Hodgson &; Rachman, 1977 Hodgson, R. J., &; Rachman, S. (1977). Obsessive–compulsive complaints. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 389–395.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). They were interviewed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (Sheehan et al., 1998 Sheehan, D. V., Lecrubier, Y., Sheehan, K. H., Amorim, P., Janavs, J., &; Weiller, E. (1998). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM–IV and ICD–10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59, 22–33.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Confirmatory factor analyses replicated Watson's structure for women but not for men. Mixed results were obtained regarding OCD's location in the model. Findings among women support the applicability of Watson's (2005) model across a variety of assessment modalities, as well as in a different language and for diversified cultural backgrounds. This conclusion, however, should be tempered in consideration of the results among men. Findings also provide evidence of the importance of demoralization in mood and anxiety disorders.     

Body Dissatisfaction, Dating, and Importance of Thinness to Attractiveness in Adolescent Girls

The primary aim of this study was to test a multivariate model of predictors of body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls in which psychological variables, beliefs about the importance of popularity with boys, and beliefs about the importance of thinness to attractiveness and dating were included. We also aimed to explore boys' perceptions of the importance of thinness for attractiveness. Grade 10 girls (n = 573) and boys (n = 145) completed questionnaires. Path analysis provided partial support for the model proposed. Dating did not predict body dissatisfaction, but a relationship between importance of popularity with boys and body dissatisfaction was fully mediated by the belief that boys see thinness as important in rating girls' attractiveness. Although girls underestimated the body size that is attractive to boys, over 85% of boys reported a girl's slimness influenced her attractiveness. Dating was not correlated with body mass index.     

Decoding overlapping memories in the medial temporal lobes using high-resolution fMRI

The hippocampus is proposed to process overlapping episodes as discrete memory traces, although direct evidence for this in human episodic memory is scarce. Using green-screen technology we created four highly overlapping movies of everyday events. Participants were scanned using high-resolution fMRI while recalling the movies. Multivariate pattern analysis revealed that the hippocampus supported distinct representations of each memory, while neighboring regions did not, demonstrating that the human hippocampus maintains unique pattern-separated memory traces even when memories are highly overlapping. The hippocampus also contained representations of spatial contexts that were shared across different memories, consistent with a specialized role in processing space.     

Life experiences of people who stutter, and the perceived impact of stuttering on quality of life: personal accounts of South African individuals

The purpose of the study was to investigate the life experiences of a group of South African adults who stutter and the impact of stuttering on their quality of life. Participants were 16 adults with a mean age of 28.9 and ranging from 20 to 59 years. Methods involved individual interviews designed to explore the life domains of education; social life; employment; speech therapy; family and marital life; and identity, beliefs and emotional issues. Main findings of the study indicated that the majority of participants perceived their stuttering to have impacted on their academic performance at school, and relationships with teachers and classmates. Although their stuttering was not perceived to adversely influence their ability to establish friendships, people generally reacted negatively to their stuttering. Many felt that their stuttering did not have an adverse effect on their choice of occupation, ability to obtain work, and relationships with managers and co-workers, although it was perceived to influence their work performance and hamper their chances for promotion. Although the majority viewed their speech therapy experiences as being negative; more than half the sample believed that speech therapy had, nevertheless exerted a positive effect on their quality of life. Overall, stuttering did not appear to have influenced participants’ family and marital life. Most participants felt that stuttering had affected their self-esteem and self-image, and had evoked strong emotions within them. Findings are taken to suggest the need to incorporate subjective feelings about stuttering into the clinical practice of speech-language therapy; to provide information and coping strategies for teachers and employers; and for further research.

Educational objectives: After completing this activity, the reader will be able to: (1) describe and explain the perceived impact of stuttering on quality of life in terms of education; social life; employment; speech therapy; family and marital life; and identity, beliefs and emotional issues; (2) to interpret and utilize the subjective meanings that individuals attach to their stuttering to improve stuttering treatment, counseling and research.