Personality,Resilience, and Psychopathology: A Model for the Interaction between Slow and Fast Network Processes in the Context of Mental Health

Network theories have been put forward for psychopathology (in which mental disorders originate from causal relations between symptoms) and for personality (in which personality factors originate from coupled equilibria of cognitions, affect states, behaviours, and environments). Here, we connect these theoretical strands in an overarching personality–resilience–psychopathology model. In this model, factors in personality networks control the shape of the dynamical landscape in which symptom networks evolve; for example, the neuroticism item ‘I often feel blue’ measures a general tendency to experience negative affect, which is hypothesized to influence the threshold parameter of the symptom ‘depressed mood’ in the psychopathology network. Conversely, events at the level of the fast-evolving psychopathology network (e.g. a depressive episode) can influence the slow-evolving personality variables (e.g. by increasing feelings of worthlessness). We apply the theory to neuroticism and major depressive disorder. Through simulations, we show that the model can accommodate important phenomena, such as the strong relation between neuroticism and depression and individual differences in the change of neuroticism levels and development of depression over time. The results of the simulation are implemented in an online, interactive simulation tool. Implications for research into the relationship between personality and psychopathology are discussed. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Personality in Action: Assessing Personality to Identify an ‘Ideal’ Conscientious Response Type with Two Different Behavioural Tasks

Performance on achievement tests is characterized by an interplay of different individual attributes such as personality traits, motivation or cognitive styles. However, the prediction of individuals' performance from classical self-report personality measures obtained during large and comprehensive aptitude assessments is biased by, for example, subjective response tendencies. This study goes beyond by using behavioural data based on two different types of tasks, requiring different conscientious-related response behaviours. Moreover, a typological approach is proposed, which includes different behavioural indicators to obtain information on complex personality characteristics. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

Applying a Process-Oriented Model of Cultural Competence to Behavioral Activation for Depression

Efforts to integrate cultural competence and evidence-based treatments (EBTs) typically take the form of cultural adaptations of EBTs, characterized by modifications to the existing treatment based on presumed cultural notions of a given race or ethnic group. Much less attention has been given to ways EBTs can integrate a process model of cultural competence, which focuses on what clinicians do in-session to identify and integrate key cultural factors for a given individual in the treatment. Our objective is to consider how a process model of cultural competence (Shifting Cultural Lenses) can be integrated with an EBT (Behavioral Activation). We present a theoretical rationale for integrating the SCL model with BA and illustrate this integration, which provides an additional approach to bringing culture to treatments and shows promise for identifying clinicians’ in-session behaviors that reflect cultural competence.     

Delays in seeking cancer diagnosis in relation to beliefs about the curability of cancer in patients with different disease locations

This study is aimed at investigating factors leading to delayed oncologic examinations versus immediate consultation with a physician in patients with various cancers. We analysed the results of a study of patients (n?=?291) reporting for their first oncologic examinations. We conducted structured interviews containing social, demographic and clinical data, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory and Harris and Guten's health appraisal scores. Based on an analysis of decision-making trees, the results indicate that it is possible to predict beliefs regarding the curability of cancer and immediate versus delayed reporting to a physician. Delayed reports may be predicted on the basis of two factors: (1) a belief that cancer is incurable combined with increased state anxiety, ‘good’ or ‘very good’ self-appraisal of health and low depression; and (2) a belief that cancer is incurable accompanied by increased anxiety and depression. The characteristics of patients delaying a visit to the oncologist suggest the existence of three independent factors leading to both considerable (longer than nine months) and minor (up to one month) delays in seeking treatment.     

The dialectics of sketching

The generation of architectural form is by definition a creative activity. As a rule, architects engage in intensive, fast, freehand sketching when they first tackle a design task. This study investigated the process of sketching and revealed that by sketching, the designer does not represent images held in the mind, as is often the case in lay sketching, but creates visual displays which help induce images of the entity that is being designed. Sketching partakes in design reasoning and it does so through a special kind of visual imagery. A pattern of pictorial reasoning is revealed which displays regular shifts between two modalities of arguments, pertaining to both figural and nonfigural aspects of candidate forms at the time they are being generated, as part of the design search. The dialectics of sketching is the oscillation of arguments which brings about gradual transformation of images, ending when the designer judges that sufficient coherence has been achieved.     

Common patterns of prediction of literacy development in different alphabetic orthographies

Previous studies have shown that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and verbal memory span are reliable correlates of learning to read in English. However, the extent to which these different predictors have the same relative importance in different languages remains uncertain. In this article, we present the results from a 10-month longitudinal study that began just before or soon after the start of formal literacy instruction in four languages (English, Spanish, Slovak, and Czech). Longitudinal path analyses showed that phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN (but not verbal memory span) measured at the onset of literacy instruction were reliable predictors, with similar relative importance, of later reading and spelling skills across the four languages. These data support the suggestion that in all alphabetic orthographies, phoneme awareness, letter-sound knowledge, and RAN may tap cognitive processes that are important for learning to read.     

Generativity in multiple roles

Interest in the Eriksonian notion of generativity and its role in the lives of mature adults has recently increased. In the present study, we examined generativity separately in the roles of wife, worker, and mother, and examined the utility of our strategy relative to more global measurement strategies in explaining variation in well-being. Two samples of employed mothers were studied, one sample employed in private industry and the other in a university setting. Statistical analyses demonstrated that measurement equivalence existed across the two samples (i.e., that the patterns and magnitudes of factor loadings did not differ significantly). For 8 of 11 indices of well-being examined across the two samples, role-specific measures of generativity explained significantly greater variation than did global measures.     

Tool use by naked mole-rats

Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber, Rodentia: Bathyergidae) excavate extensive subterranean burrows with their procumbent incisors. Captive individuals often place a wood shaving or tuber husk behind their incisor teeth and in front of their lips and molar teeth while gnawing on substrates that yield fine particulate debris. This oral barrier may prevent choking or aspiration of foreign material. Consistent use of tools has rarely been reported in rodents. Received: 14 February 1998 / Accepted after revision: 9 April 1998     

Perceived sexual harassment at work: meta-analysis and structural model of antecedents and consequences

Although sexual harassment has been extensively studied, empirical research has not led to firm conclusions about its antecedents and consequences, both at the personal and organizational level. An extensive literature search yielded 42 empirical studies with 60 samples. The matrix correlation obtained through meta-analytic techniques was used to test a structural equation model. Results supported the hypotheses regarding organizational environmental factors as main predictors of harassment.     

Opposite effects of a single versus repeated doses of gabapentin on retention performance of an inhibitory avoidance response in mice

CF-1 male mice were trained in an inhibitory avoidance (IA) task. A single gabapentin (GBP) administration (50mg/kg, ip) immediately after training enhanced retention performance when mice were tested 8 days after training. On the contrary, when the same dose of the anticonvulsant drug was given twice a day for 7 days (repeated treatment), a significant impairment on retention performance 12h after the last injection of GBP was observed. When the retention test was delayed 7 days after the end of the repeated treatment, the retention performance was not significant different from the control group, whereas if the retention test was delayed 14 days, retention performance was higher than control group but similar to that observed when GBP was administered once immediately after training. The impairment on retention performance was correlated with a significant decrease in the high affinity choline uptake in the hippocampus at the end of the retention test. The pretest administration of the direct muscarinic cholinergic agonist oxotremorine (50 microg/kg, ip) reversed the impairment on retention performance. This reversion was prevented by the muscarinic cholinergic antagonist scopolamine (0.5 mg/kg, ip). Taken together, these results suggest that the impairment on retention performance of an IA task in mice induced by repeated administration of GBP affected memory retrieval but not memory consolidation and that this impairment may be attributable to a reduction on central cholinergic activity.