Daily mood patterns and bulimic behaviors in the natural environment

Objective

Negative affect has been purported to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of bulimic behaviors. The objective of this study was to identify daily mood patterns in the natural environment exhibited by individuals with bulimia nervosa and to examine the relationship between these patterns and bulimic behaviors.

Method

One hundred thirty-three women aged 18-55 meeting DSM-IV criteria for bulimia nervosa were recruited through clinical referrals and community advertisements. Ecological momentary assessment was used to collect multiple ratings of negative affect, binge eating and purging each day for a two-week period using palmtop computers. Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify daily mood patterns.

Results

Nine distinct daily mood patterns were identified. The highest rates of binge eating and purging episodes occurred on days characterized by stable high negative affect or increasing negative affect over the course of the day.

Conclusions

These findings support the conclusion that negative mood states are intimately tied to bulimic behaviors and may in fact precipitate such behavior.     

Brief experimental analysis of early reading interventions

The purpose of this study was to investigate how brief experimental analyses (BEAs) could be used to identify effective interventions for Kindergartners (2 girls and 2 boys, 5 years and 7-10 months old) with low performance and/or growth slope in letter sound fluency (LSF). Interventions were tested within a multielement design with brief mini-reversals until an intervention yielding at least 20% improvement on a specific subskill measure or a curriculum-based measure of LSF was identified. BEA-identified interventions were implemented one-on-one for 5 to 9 weeks. A multiple-baseline design across participants showed large intervention effects (average adjusted d = 2.4) on general outcome measures, supporting treatment validity of BEAs. Findings extend the BEA literature to younger participants, early reading interventions, and early reading measures.     

Word Length and Vowel Duration in Apraxia of Speech: The Use of Relative Measures

Previous research has established that the duration of stressed word stem vowels is shorter in polysyllabic words than in monosyllabic words for normal speakers and for speakers with aphasia and apraxia of speech (AOS). However, the results are inconsistent across studies with regard to the magnitude and pattern of the duration reduction for apraxic speakers. We hypothesized that this inconsistency may be explained based on different relative measures of duration reduction. A speech sample was obtained from 10 aphasic speakers with AOS, 10 aphasic speakers without AOS, and 10 normal controls. As predicted, the use of two different relative measures resulted in different vowel reduction patterns, both of which were consistent with previous reports. The results further indicate that the production of polysyllabic words is particularly taxing in AOS and is associated with a substantial reduction of speaking rate compared to other aphasic and normal speakers.     

Cognitive biases in the perception of discrimination: The importance of format

Previous work has shown that people seem less able to perceive sex discrimination on a personal level than on a societal level. The present experiment was performed to test the hypothesis that this phenomenon is in part an information-processing bias; that is, the perception of discrimination is more difficult when one makes case-by-case comparisons than when one encounters information in aggregate form. The experiment demonstrated the importance of formatting for the perception of discrimination. Among subjects with little or no emotional investment in the issue of sex discrimination, the format of the pertinent information has a large effect on information processing: subjects perceived less discrimination when they encountered the relevant information in little chunks than when they saw the total picture at a single shot.     

Interpersonal betrayal and cooperation: effects on self-evaluation in depression

Despite numerous studies demonstrating that depressed people are generally self-critical, little is known about interpersonal stressors that may activate or increase this negative self-evaluation. In this study, the effect of interpersonal betrayal and cooperative social interaction on self-evaluation processes in depressed and nondepressed women was assessed. Depressed subjects who experienced interpersonal betrayal were more critical of their performance on a subsequent task than were nondepressed subjects or depressed subjects who had experienced a cooperative interaction. Depressed subjects in the betrayal condition also behaved more aggressively toward their betraying partner than did nondepressed betrayed subjects. Depressed subjects were more critical of their own personality characteristics than were nondepressed subjects, regardless of condition. Results suggest that some negative cognitive schema among depressed persons may be altered by interpersonal factors, although it is not clear whether such effects are secondary to increases in self-criticism after conflict or to decreases in self-critical tendencies after positive interaction. Given the variability in results with different measures of self-evaluation, researchers are urged to use multiple, diverse measures of self-evaluation in future efforts to study variability in self-appraisal.     

Clarifying and measuring the concept of traditional vs. egalitarian roles in marriages

To clarify and develop a measure of the concept of traditional vs. egalitarian marriages, a 13-item scale was developed and administered to two traditional groups (N=35) and three egalitarian groups (N=51), and then to four cross-validation groups (N=52). Two distinct factors or dimensions were identified. In both analyses the traditional and egalitarian groups were significantly different on the first factor, designated “the leader,” and not on the second, socioemotional factor. Reliability and initial validity of the scale in measuring leadership in the marital dyad are thus demonstrated. However, the concept of traditional vs. egalitarian marriages either needs to be narrowed to refer to leadership only or there needs to be empirical demonstration that other dimensions can be fruitfully included.     

Counselling after Stroke: An Unmet Need?

Information was gathered by means of a questionnaire survey and interviews from a group of patients (N = 17) and health professionals (N=13) working within a stroke unit, concerning the emotional needs of patients and and their relatives and how staff responded to these needs. Although most of the staff had received some training or information about counselling and felt that their interactions with patients often involved an element of counselling, there was strong support for separate specialised counselling services to deal with psychological problems suffered by both patients and their relatives. Patients rated assistance with personal and emotional worries and advice about physical problems as equally useful. A strong need for a counselling service in some form or other was expressed by patients. Neither the level of the patients' social support nor the presence or absence of aphasia, however, predicted the strength of interest expressed. It is concluded that specialised psychological help could be useful in various ways for both in- and out-patients and for their families.     

School-Based Secondary Prevention for Children with Disruptive Behavior: Initial Outcomes

First through fourth graders from 22 suburban elementary schools were screened for cross-setting disruptive behavior as eligibility criteria for participation in a longitudinal secondary prevention study aimed at reducing the risk for serious externalizing behavioral disorders. Three hundred nine subjects participated in either a multicomponent competence enhancement intervention (MCEI) or an information/attention control (IAC) condition over a 2-year period. Following baseline measurements, initial intervention effects were assessed at the end of intervention Year 1, at the beginning of intervention Year 2 (fall of the next school year), and at the end of intervention Year 2. Multisource assessments were not supportive of the efficacy of the MCEI over the IAC condition. Children in both groups rated themselves as improved over time in terms of increased adaptive skills and decreased school problems and internalizing symptoms. Teacher and parent ratings of externalizing behavior did not yield evidence of positive change, but teachers noted improved problem solving and observers noted a decrease in behavioral interference in both groups over time, possibly as a result of maturation.     

Social problem-solving in depressed,conduct-disordered,and normal adolescents

Although past theory and research implicate social problem-solving deficits in both depression and aggressive disorders, research examining carefully diagnosed groups of adolescent depressed and conduct-disordered groups had not previously been conducted. In the current study three groups of adolescents (major depression, conduct-disordered, and normal) were studied using two social problem-solving measures. Both the Means-Ends Problem-Solving task (MEPS) and the Social Situations Analysis measure (SSA) failed to show social problem-solving problem deficits in the depressed group relative to their normal age peers, but did provide corroborative evidence for social problem-solving deficits in the conduct-disordered sample. Relative to the other two groups, the conduct-disordered adolescents were found to generate fewer means to a social end, to anticipate fewer obstacles in the pursuit of solutions to interpersonal situations, and to generate fewer assertive behavioral solutions to difficult social situations. The results are discussed in relation to other work with depressed and aggressive youth, and directions for future research are given.     

Discontent Among Male Lawyers, Female Lawyers, and Female Legal Secretaries

Female lawyers, female legal secretaries, and male lawyers were interviewed about their feelings of grievance and three grievance-related attitudes. The working women, like the men, are generally content with their personal situations at work and at home. The women are significantly more upset than are the men about the plight of working women.