Cognitive and temperamental vulnerability to depression: Longitudinal associations with regional cortical activity

Posterior cortical activity may be related to individual differences in temperamental emotionality, especially traits implicated in depression vulnerability. We previously reported that electroencephalographic (EEG) indices of cortical activity in posterior regions were associated with temperamental positive emotionality (PE) in early childhood. This project examined whether EEG indices of regional cortical activity, assessed at age 5–6, were associated with child temperament and cognitive vulnerability to depression, assessed at age 7. Asymmetry in posterior cortical activity measured at age 5–6 was associated with PE at follow-up at age 7, and with greater helplessness during a standardised laboratory task simulating a mild interpersonal rejection. Findings provide further support for the notion that low PE and depression are associated with similar patterns of cortical activity. Furthermore, these patterns of activity may have observable behavioural and cognitive correlates that are meaningfully linked to the phenomenology of depression.     

Mapping Ethical Consumer Behavior: Integrating the Empirical Research and Identifying Future Directions

The concept of “ethical consumer behavior” has gained significant attention among practitioners and academic researchers, generating increasing but disjointed knowledge on the topic. By analyzing the empirical research on ethical consumer behavior, this article provides researchers with a map to guide future research. In total, we review 80 studies. The main contributions of the article include the identification of the main trends in the ethical consumer literature and the conceptualization of ethical consumer behavior. In addition, several areas for future research are proposed and discussed.     

Index for Volume 20

Sixteen adult subjects served in an experiment in which the writing of six unfamiliar graphemes was practiced. To investigate the learning process, we analyzed the absolute and relative changes of movement time of the first three consecutive segments as a function of practice. The results showed that movement time of all three segments decreased. This decrease was significantly less in the first segment than it was in the second and third segment, however. We interpret these effects of practice, from an information-processing viewpoint, as follows: (a) Initially separate response segments become integrated in more comprehensive response chunks, and (b) the preparation of later segments of the grapheme is realized more and more during the real-time execution of the initial segment. The results further revealed that these learning effects were more pronounced in graphemes composed of familiar segments than in graphemes that contained unfamiliar segments. Finally, it turned out that similarity between initial and final segments hindered the writing speed of the first segment; the effect of similarity was independent of the above-mentioned effects of practice. The latter effect is interpreted as confirming evidence for the view that the preparation of later segments of a grapheme is reflected by changes of movement time of the first segments of a grapheme.     

Effects of Spatial and Motor Demands in Handwriting

Four experiments were conducted to study response programming in handwriting tasks. Twelve right-handed subjects wrote acoustically presented words and phrases, and their handwriting was digitally recorded. Changes in latency, movement time, trajectory length, and pen pressure were studied as a function of response complexity (i.e., word length, complexity of initial letter, and spacing distance). The lengthening of the spatiotemporal parameters preceding the more complex structures is interpreted to be a reflection of the effects of mental load. The results further indicate that the choice of a programming strategy is dependent on the structural complexity of the task. Writing pressure decreased as a function of increased sequence length. The findings support a hierarchical model of handwriting.     

Heterogeneity of auditory verbal working memory in schizophrenia

The heterogeneity of schizophrenia remains an obstacle for understanding its pathophysiology. Studies using a tone discrimination screening test to classify patients have found evidence for 2 subgroups having either a specific deficit in verbal working memory (WM) or deficits in both verbal and nonverbal memory. This study aimed to (a) replicate in larger samples differences between these subgroups in auditory verbal WM; (b) evaluate their performance on tests of explicit memory and sustained attention; (c) determine the relation of verbal WM deficits to auditory hallucinations and other symptoms; and (d) examine medication effects. The verbal WM and tone discrimination performance did not differ between medicated (n = 45) and unmedicated (n = 38) patients. Patients with schizophrenia who passed the tone screening test (discriminators; n = 60) were compared with those who did not (nondiscriminators; n = 23) and healthy controls (n = 47). The discriminator subgroup showed poorer verbal WM than did controls and a deficit in verbal but not visual memory on the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (Wechsler, 1987), whereas the nondiscriminator subgroup showed overall poorer performance on both verbal and nonverbal tests and a marked deficit in sustained attention. Verbal WM deficits in discriminators were correlated with auditory hallucinations but not with negative symptoms. The results are consistent with a verbal memory deficit in a subgroup of schizophrenia having intact auditory perception, which may stem from dysfunction of language-related cortical regions, and a more generalized cognitive deficit in a subgroup having auditory perceptual and attentional dysfunction.     

Cognitive predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms six months following acute coronary syndrome

This study examined patients' illness representations assessed shortly after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms six months later. Illness representations were assessed in ACS patients using standard measures at a home visit three weeks after discharge from hospital. Posttraumatic stress symptoms were assessed at the same time, and again six months later. Patients were aged 61 years on average, the majority being men (89.8%) of white European decent (89%). Greater posttraumatic symptoms at six months were associated with beliefs that the illness would last a long time (timeline), that it had an unpredictable time course (timeline--cyclical), greater consequences, less personal and treatment control, poorer illness coherence and stronger negative emotional representations (emotional upset relating to the illness; p?相似文献   

Measuring episodic memory: A novel approach with an indefinite number of alternative forms

Both clinical practice and clinical research settings can require successive administrations of a memory test, particularly when following the trajectory of suspected memory decline in older adults. However, relatively few verbal episodic memory tests have alternative forms. We set out to create a broad‐based memory test to allow for the use of an essentially unlimited number of alternative forms. Four tasks for inclusion in such a test were developed. These tasks varied the requirement for recall as opposed to recognition, the need to form an association between unrelated words, and the need to discriminate the most recent list from earlier lists, all of which proved useful. A total of 115 participants completed the battery of tests and were used to show that the test could differentiate between older and younger adults; a sub‐sample of 73 participants completed alternative forms of the tests to determine test–retest reliability and the amount of learning to learn. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Experiment of Foster Care

We sought to provide a new framework for understanding the training and ongoing support of foster parents. The experiences of authorized foster parents were viewed in the context of an experiment, whereby foster parents entered an out-of-home care placement with preconceived ideas and expectations of what the provision of care would be like. We have investigated the experience of foster care from the perspective of the foster parent who tests expectations of providing care as one might conduct any experiment. Focus group discussion yielded five global domains of foster care experience: birth family, motivation, agency influences, relationship impacts, and attachment. Foster carers commonly described these domains as central to the overall experience of providing foster care. Furthermore, specific experiences within each domain were seen to either encourage or discourage the further provision of foster care. Individual interviews regarding the practical experiences related to these domains uncovered struggles of foster parents who sought to understand their role identity as a “foster parent”, and their self identity as a “mother”. We discuss implications arising from the experience of these domains of care and their related struggles.     

Psychiatric nurses' attitudes towards inpatient aggression: preliminary report of the development of attitude towards aggression scale (ATAS)

Professional skills to adequately manage patient aggression are a prerequisite for nurses working in psychiatric hospitals. These ‘technical’ skills, however, are necessary but not sufficient for effective nurse intervention. The attitude of nurses' towards client aggression also contributes to their response to a patient's behaviour. In order to study the domains (types) of attitudes towards aggression, a sample was taken of nurses working in the fields of general psychiatry (n=288), psychiatry for children and adolescents (n=242) and psychogeriatrics (n=88). A cross‐sectional survey design was adopted for the study. The Attitudes Towards Aggression Scale (ATAS) consisting of 32 items is presented, representing three types of attitudes towards aggression: aggression as a ‘harming’ reaction, a ‘normal’ reaction and a ‘functional’ reaction. The strongest predictors of the type of attitude respondents had towards the aggressive behaviour of their clients were (1) field, (2) setting they worked in, (3) gender and (4) type of shifts they predominantly had. Although the measure of domains of nurses' attitudes towards aggression needs further psychometric testing, it can be a useful tool in clinical practice for the assessment of staff attitudes towards aggression. This can support the decision‐making about the management of aggressive behaviour on a ward. Aggr. Behav. 00:1–10, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.