Empirically Defining Treatment Response and Remission in Body Dysmorphic Disorder Using a Short Self-Report Instrument

Determining response or remission status in body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) usually requires a lengthy interview with a trained clinician. This study sought to establish empirically derived cutoffs to define treatment response and remission in BDD using a brief self-report instrument, the Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI). Results from three clinical trials of BDD were pooled to create a sample of 123 individuals who had received cognitive-behavioral therapy for BDD, delivered via the Internet. The AAI was compared to gold-standard criteria for response and remission in BDD, based on the clinician-administered Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, modified for BDD (BDD-YBOCS), and evaluated using signal detection analysis. The results showed that a ≥ 40% reduction on the AAI best corresponded to treatment response, with a sensitivity of 0.71 and a specificity of 0.84. A score ≤ 13 at posttreatment was the optimal cutoff in determining full or partial remission from BDD, with a sensitivity of 0.75 and a specificity of 0.88. These findings provide benchmarks for using the AAI in BDD treatment evaluation when resource-intensive measures administered by clinicians are not feasible.     

Expansion of arbitrary stimulus classes and function-transfer measured by sorting performances

Sorting (SRT) and matching-to-sample (MTS) tests have measured the formation of arbitrary stimulus classes. This experiment used SRT and MTS tests to document the expansion of class size. Thirty-two participants learned 12 conditional discriminations with a linear series training structure (A➔B➔C➔D➔E). SRT tests documented the formation of 5-member classes by 17 of the participants. Thereafter, 6-member class expansion was implemented by FC training. Nine of these 17 participants showed class expansion when tracked with a sequence of an SRT, MTS, and a final SRT test, and the other 8 showed expansion when tracked with a sequence of MTS and SRT tests. Thus, SRT tests documented class expansion, and the sequence of tests did not influence class expansion. The 15 participants who did not form the 5-member classes learned the baselines for new 3-member classes (A➔B➔C) and formed them as documented by an SRT test. Then, 4-member class expansion was implemented by FB training. Expansion was assessed using the above-mentioned testing sequences. All 15 showed class expansion with 100% correspondence between the SRT and MTS performances. Sorting documented the expansion of arbitrary stimulus classes, while the MTS tests showed that the stimuli also functioned as members of equivalence classes.     

Developmental Variation in the Associations of Attention Bias to Emotion with Internalizing and Externalizing Psychopathology

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Attention biases to emotion are associated with symptoms of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents. It is...     

The implicit power motive predicts decisions in line with perceived instrumentality

Past research suggests that the implicit power motive (i.e., an unconsciously held motivational disposition to derive pleasure from having impact on others) predicts a preference to interact with individuals having submissive-looking faces. The present research extends this finding by testing whether the relation between the implicit power motive and approaching submissiveness depends on instrumentality. In two experiments, participants were assigned to a group that would ostensibly compete with another group. Within this intergroup context, they were asked to select persons as leaders or members for the in-group or the out-group. Potential leaders and members were displayed as submissive-looking or dominant-looking. Results showed that the implicit power motive predicted decisions favoring dominant-looking persons as in-group leaders, and submissive-looking persons as out-group leaders (Study 1) or in-group members (Study 2). These findings indicate that the tendency for people high in the implicit power motive to approach submissive-looking persons depends on the perceived instrumentality for gaining influence over others.     

Profile of cognitive deficits and associations with depressive symptoms and intelligence in chronic early‐onset schizophrenia patients

Cognitive deficits in several domains have been demonstrated in early‐onset schizophrenia patients but their profile and relation to depressive symptoms and intelligence need further characterization. The purpose was to characterize the profile of cognitive deficits in chronic, early‐onset schizophrenia patients, assess the potential associations with depressive symptom severity, and examine whether cognitive deficits within several domains reflect intelligence impairments. This study compared attention, visual‐construction, aspects of visual and verbal memory, and executive functions in chronic, early‐onset schizophrenia patients (mean age = 20.7 years) (N = 18) and healthy controls (N = 38). Schizophrenia diagnoses were established at the time of the patients' first clinical presentation during childhood or adolescence and were confirmed five years later. In the chronic phase of early‐onset schizophrenia, significant deficits were observed in all specific cognitive functions. The profile of cognitive deficits was jagged, and visual‐construction, attention, and one aspect of verbal memory (verbal stories recall) were differentially impaired. Deficits of visual recall, visual recognition, and executive functions were accounted for by deficits in intelligence, while this was not the case for deficits of verbal recall of stories or attention. No significant associations were observed between the severity of cognitive deficits and that of depressive symptoms. Chronic, early‐onset schizophrenia is characterized by a broad and jagged profile of cognitive deficits. Deficits of attention and verbal recall of stories appear not to be accounted for by deficits in intelligence, and the severity of cognitive deficits seems independent from that of depressive symptoms     

Do computer simulations support the Argument from Disagreement?

According to the Argument from Disagreement (AD) widespread and persistent disagreement on ethical issues indicates that our moral opinions are not influenced by moral facts, either because there are no such facts or because there are such facts but they fail to influence our moral opinions. In an innovative paper, Gustafsson and Peterson (Synthese, published online 16 October, 2010) study the argument by means of computer simulation of opinion dynamics, relying on the well-known model of Hegselmann and Krause (J Artif Soc Soc Simul 5(3):1–33, 2002; J Artif Soc Soc Simul 9(3):1–28, 2006). Their simulations indicate that if our moral opinions were influenced at least slightly by moral facts, we would quickly have reached consensus, even if our moral opinions were also affected by additional factors such as false authorities, external political shifts and random processes. Gustafsson and Peterson conclude that since no such consensus has been reached in real life, the simulation gives us increased reason to take seriously the AD. Our main claim in this paper is that these results are not as robust as Gustafsson and Peterson seem to think they are. If we run similar simulations in the alternative Laputa simulation environment developed by Angere and Olsson (Angere, Synthese, forthcoming and Olsson, Episteme 8(2):127–143, 2011) considerably less support for the AD is forthcoming.     

Religiously Conservative Citizens and the Ideal of Conscientious Engagement: A Comment on Wolterstorff and Eberle

Nicholas Wolterstorff and Christopher J. Eberle have defended the view that the ethics of liberal citizenship allows citizens to publicly support the passage of coercive laws based solely on their religious convictions. They also develop positive conceptions of virtuous citizenship that place moral limits on how citizens may appeal to their religion. The question I address in this essay is whether the limits they impose on citizens’ appeals to their religion are adequate. Since Eberle’s “ideal of conscientious engagement” provides us with the most extensive statement of these limits, it is the primary focus of my attention here. My conclusion is that in its current form, Eberle’s ideal is not constraining enough. In the first section, I argue that Eberle’s ideal does not require citizens to be self-critical enough about their religious and political commitments. In the second section, I highlight a conflict between Eberle’s ideal and the need for citizens to respect the religious freedom of their fellow citizens. I argue that the way to resolve this conflict is to adopt a more fine-grained conception of religious reasons and to hold that citizens should not rely on religious reasons of certain kinds. In the final section, I argue that laws punishing or discouraging homosexual conduct (which Eberle’s ideal would apparently allow) violate what Wolterstorff calls “the Idea of liberal democracy” and so are not the kind of proposal that virtuous citizens can defend.     

Risk-appraisal,outcome and self-efficacy expectancies: Cognitive factors in preventive behaviour related to cancer

Abstract

Health education often attempts to influence or persuade through risk-appraisal of impending danger or harm. Risk: appraisal implies cognitive processes concerning the severity of the threatening event and the probability of its occurrence. In two studies we investigated whether risk factors could adequately predict preventive behaviour with respect to cancer. The tint study concerned the health belief model. the second study the protection motivation theory. Protection motivation theory includes the health belief factors but also self-efficacy expectancy. The most important finding is that risk-appraisal does not predict preventive behaviour adequately: outcome expectancy and self-efficacy expectancy should be included in the prediction of preventive behaviour. In general, our findings suggest the superiority of the protection motivation theory to the health belief model in predicting preventive behaviour with respect to cancer.     

Attachment relationships and health behavior: the mediational role of self-esteem

Many young adults exhibit poor preventive health behavior (e.g., exercise, diet), thereby increasing their long-term risk to health. Recent research has focused on factors related to the development of health behavior in an effort to design effective early interventions. The present study evaluates how attachment styles are related to health behavior in young adults, and the potential mediational role of self-esteem. University students (N = 793) completed surveys assessing attachment style, self-esteem, and health behavior. Results showed that those with secure attachment styles participated in healthier preventive health behavior and had higher self-esteem than those with insecure styles (all ps < 0.05). Self-esteem partially mediated the relation between attachment styles and health behavior (p < 0.01). These results suggest that the development of self-esteem may represent a pathway by which individual styles of interaction with significant others, acquired early in life, can significantly impact key long-term preventive health behaviors.