Doing good buffers against feeling bad: Prosocial impact compensates for negative task and self-evaluations

Although evidence suggests that negative task and self-evaluations are associated with emotional exhaustion, little research has examined factors that buffer against these effects. We propose that perceived prosocial impact, the experience of helping others, compensates for negative task and self-evaluations by focusing attention on positive outcomes for others. In Study 1, perceived prosocial impact attenuated the associations of low intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluations with emotional exhaustion among professional fundraisers. Study 2 replicated these results among public sanitation employees and extended them to supervisor performance ratings. Mediated moderation analyses indicated that by protecting against emotional exhaustion, perceived prosocial impact compensated for low intrinsic motivation and core self-evaluations to predict higher performance ratings. Our studies extend theory and research on burnout, helping, and citizenship.     

Perceptions of childfree women: The role of perceivers' and targets' ethnicity

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of ethnicity on perceptions of voluntary childfree women. We were interested in determining whether mothers were viewed as more stereotypically positive than women without children and how the ethnicity of the participant and the target impacted participants' ratings. We utilized vignettes and manipulated motherhood status and ethnicity of the target. Participants (n = 224) were comprised of female university students in the southwestern region of the United States. Results indicated that women view childfree women negatively. Moreover, women view African American mothers more favourably than childfree African American women. Results are discussed in terms of gender roles in communities of colour. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to Chronic Pain Management

More than one third of Americans suffer from recurring or persistent pain. Because this condition can result in depression, social isolation, disruption of intimate relationships, and prolonged disability, chronic pain sufferers may seek counseling. This article provides counselors with an introduction to the role of psychosocial processes in the experience of pain and offers assessment and intervention recommendations based on a cognitive-behavioral therapy approach to pain management.     

Working Memory and Motor Activity: A Comparison Across Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,Generalized Anxiety Disorder,and Healthy Control Groups

Converging findings from recent research suggest a functional relationship between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related hyperactivity and demands on working memory (WM) in both children and adults. Excessive motor activity such as restlessness and fidgeting are not pathognomonic symptoms of ADHD, however, and are often associated with other diagnoses such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Further, previous research indicates that anticipatory processing associated with anxiety can directly interfere with storage and rehearsal processes of WM. The topographical similarity of excessive motor activity seen in both ADHD and anxiety disorders, as well as similar WM deficits, may indicate a common relationship between WM deficits and increased motor activity. The relationship between objectively measured motor activity (actigraphy) and PH and visuospatial WM demands in adults with ADHD (n = 21), adults with GAD (n = 21), and healthy control adults (n = 20) was examined. Although all groups exhibited significant increases in activity from control to WM conditions, the ADHD group exhibited a disproportionate increase in activity, while activity exhibited by the GAD and healthy control groups was not different. Findings indicate that ADHD-related hyperactivity is uniquely related to WM demands, and appear to suggest that adults with GAD are no more active relative to healthy control adults during a cognitively demanding laboratory task.     

Psychometric Properties of the Response to Anxiety Questionnaire

Recent research highlights the importance of transdiagnostic factors of psychopathology, particularly in understanding comorbidity. Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is one such factor, which may elucidate anxiety-depression comorbidity. The Response to Anxiety Questionnaire (RAQ) aims to evaluate repetitive negative thinking (RNT) related to anxiety-depression comorbidity, specifically hopelessness and rumination about anxiety symptoms. Anxious hopelessness is negative thoughts about the future due to anxiety symptoms, and anxious rumination includes negative evaluations of the meaning of anxiety symptoms, therefore the current study assessed the RAQ in three studies. We used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methodologies to examine the factor structure of the RAQ. In addition, we tested indirect effects of the two factors of RAQ (Rumination and Hopelessness) between anxiety and depression, and tested measure convergent validity. Results of the current study provide additional support for the psychometric properties of the RAQ, suggesting a two factor makeup (hopelessness, rumination), as well as its use in predicting anxiety and depressive symptoms.     

Environmental sound priming: Does negation modify N400 cross-modal priming effects?

Human information processing is incredibly fast and flexible. In order to survive, the human brain has to integrate information from various sources and to derive a coherent interpretation, ideally leading to adequate behavior. In experimental setups, such integration phenomena are often investigated in terms of cross-modal association effects. Interestingly, to date, most of these cross-modal association effects using linguistic stimuli have shown that single words can influence the processing of non-linguistic stimuli, and vice versa. In the present study, we were particularly interested in how far linguistic input beyond single words influences the processing of non-linguistic stimuli; in our case, environmental sounds. Participants read sentences either in an affirmative or negated version: for example: “The dog does (not) bark”. Subsequently, participants listened to a sound either matching or mismatching the affirmative version of the sentence (‘woof’ vs. ‘meow’, respectively). In line with previous studies, we found a clear N400-like effect during sound perception following affirmative sentences. Interestingly, this effect was identically present following negated sentences, and the negation operator did not modulate the cross-modal association effect observed between the content words of the sentence and the sound. In summary, these results suggest that negation is not incorporated during information processing in a manner that word–sound association effects would be influenced.     

Context-dependent memory for meaningful material: information for students

Context-dependency effects on memory for lists of unrelated words have been shown more often with recall than with recognition. Context dependency for meaningful text material was examined using two standard academic testing techniques: short answer (recall) and multiple choice (recognition). Forty participants read an article in either silent or noisy conditions; their reading comprehension was assessed with both types of test under silent or noisy conditions. Both tests showed context-dependency effects in which performance was better in the matching conditions (silent study/silent test and noisy study/noisy test) than in the mismatching conditions (silent study/noisy test and noisy study/silent test). Context cues appear to be important in the retrieval of newly learned meaningful information. An academic application is that students may perform better on exams by studying in silence. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predictors and moderators of improved social-emotional functioning in mothers with substance use disorders and their young children enrolled in a relationship-based case management program

Mothers with substance use disorders (SUDs) typically have trauma histories and psychosocial difficulties that lead to poor social-emotional functioning and disrupted mother–child relationships. This 12-month study explored associations of family adverse circumstances and services (case management, therapeutic, and community-based) received by 57-mothers with SUDs and their infants (less than 24-months-old) with changes in social-emotional functioning. All mothers were enrolled in a relationship-based case management program (Parent–Child Assistance Program [PCAP]) that emphasized connecting mothers to appropriate community services. A subset of mothers was additionally provided a trauma-focused psychotherapeutic intervention (infant–parent psychotherapy [IPP]). Dyads in both treatment groups improved in overall social-emotional functioning as assessed by the Functional Emotional Assessment Scale (FEAS). A combined-sample regression analysis revealed that improved FEAS scores were significantly predicted by the number of community services received but not by PCAP case management hours (IPP was not included in this analysis). More adverse circumstances were associated with less improvement in social-emotional functioning in the children; but among the mothers trauma level did not predict FEAS scores. We also found a moderating effect of trauma: Dyads with relatively more adversity showed a significantly greater association of community services received with improvement in FEAS scores than did those with relatively less adversity.