Reexamining the familial association between asthma and ADHD in girls

The objective of this study is to further evaluate the association between asthma and ADHD, addressing issues of familiality in female probands. A case control study of referred ADHD proband girls, controls, and relatives are used. Participants include 140 ADHD proband girls and 122 non-ADHD comparisons, with 417 and 369 first-degree biological relatives, respectively. Relatives are stratified into four groups according to proband ADHD and asthma status. The authors compare rates of asthma and ADHD in relatives. ADHD does not increase the risk for asthma in probands. Patterns of familial aggregation are mostly consistent with independent transmission of ADHD and asthma in families of girl probands. The results extend to female probands' previously reported findings that asthma and ADHD are independently transmitted in families. These findings further support the conclusion that ADHD symptoms should not be dismissed as part of asthma symptomatology or a consequence of its treatment.     

Working memory benefits creative insight, musical improvisation, and original ideation through maintained task-focused attention

Anecdotes from creative eminences suggest that executive control plays an important role in creativity, but scientific evidence is sparse. Invoking the Dual Pathway to Creativity Model, the authors hypothesize that working memory capacity (WMC) relates to creative performance because it enables persistent, focused, and systematic combining of elements and possibilities (persistence). Study 1 indeed showed that under cognitive load, participants performed worse on a creative insight task. Study 2 revealed positive associations between time-on-task and creativity among individuals high but not low in WMC, even after controlling for general intelligence. Study 3 revealed that across trials, semiprofessional cellists performed increasingly more creative improvisations when they had high rather than low WMC. Study 4 showed that WMC predicts original ideation because it allows persistent (rather than flexible) processing. The authors conclude that WMC benefits creativity because it enables the individual to maintain attention focused on the task and prevents undesirable mind wandering.     

Illusory expectations can affect retrieval-monitoring accuracy

The present study investigated how expectations, even when illusory, can affect the accuracy of memory decisions. Participants studied words presented in large or small font for subsequent memory tests. Replicating prior work, judgments of learning indicated that participants expected to remember large words better than small words, even though memory for these words was equivalent on a standard test of recognition memory and subjective judgments. Critically, we also included tests that instructed participants to selectively search memory for either large or small words, thereby allowing different memorial expectations to contribute to performance. On these tests we found reduced false recognition when searching memory for large words relative to small words, such that the size illusion paradoxically affected accuracy measures (d' scores) in the absence of actual memory differences. Additional evidence for the role of illusory expectations was that (a) the accuracy effect was obtained only when participants searched memory for the aspect of the stimuli corresponding to illusory expectations (size instead of color) and (b) the accuracy effect was eliminated on a forced-choice test that prevented the influence of memorial expectations. These findings demonstrate the critical role of memorial expectations in the retrieval-monitoring process.     

Mehr Liebe und weniger Gewalt?

This contribution analyzes changes in the role of fathers, which are embedded in overall social changes and changes in parental attitudes and behavior. It shows a trend towards paternal warmth and involvement and a tendency to avoid paternal functions related to dealing with the child??s aggression. The decrease in power and authority has, however, resulted in an increase of psychological control, which is detrimental for the child??s outcome. Today, many fathers face the dilemma of combining work and paternal duties. In particular, fathers of small children are confronted with the breadwinner function and the highest work load, compared to fathers of older children. In general, diversity in fathers?? roles has increased with a high number of traditional fathers and also fathers who were able to balance work and family; ??new fathers?? are not frequent at all. The consequences for therapeutic work are discussed.     

Diagnosespezifische Strukturdefizite

Central to this work are the axes structure and treatment requirements of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostic in Childhood and Adolescence (OPD-CA), which were studied on a sample of n?=?195 inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric patients [mean age (M)?=?12.9 years, SD±10.1 years] in Austria. The study shows the overall poorer structure of male patients in all structural dimensions and the better treatment requirements of older compared to younger patients. Structural deficits not only affect the capacity for insight and motivation for treatment and the working alliance, but also the possible presence of morbid gain. In the diagnosis-specific analysis it was shown that patients diagnosed as F6 were understructured in emotional control, while patients with a diagnosis F9 have more structural deficits in the self-object differentiation. Patients with F3 and F4 diagnosis have better structural capacities for treatment, but their higher degree of insight and motivation for treatment is counterbalanced by an equally high gain of illness. The implications of these findings for treatment planning are discussed.     

The adaptive effect of personal control when facing breast cancer: Cognitive and behavioural mediators

This prospective study examines the cognitive and behavioural mediators of the relation between personal control and the initial response to a breast cancer diagnosis as well as subsequent psychological adjustment. A total of 143 patients participated immediately after diagnosis (T1), after surgery (T2) and 2 months after the end of treatment (T3), of whom 92 also completed a questionnaire pre-diagnosis (T0). The buffering effect of personal control on psychological distress shortly after diagnosis was mediated by cancer-specific cognitions, i.e. threat appraisal and coping self-efficacy. Moreover, a strong sense of personal control predicted lower levels of anxiety 2 months after the end of treatment, but was unrelated to distress at T3. The adaptive effect on anxiety was mediated by threat appraisal and active engagement in social life after surgery, but not by active patient participation or coping self-efficacy. These results confirm and explain the adaptive effect of control. Apparently, women with a low sense of control appraise cancer and their personal coping skills more negatively, which makes them vulnerable to distress in response to diagnosis. Furthermore, women with a strong sense of control might regulate anxiety by remaining engaged in social life.     

Development and Psychometric Characteristics of the Dissociation Tension Scale

The newly developed Dissoziations-Spannungs-Skala (Dissociation Tension Scale; DSS) is a self-rating instrument for the assessment of psychological and somatoform dissociative features (ranging from normal up to pathological) as well as aversive inner tension occurring within the past 7 days. The DSS contains 21 items assessing dissociative symptoms and 1 additional item assessing aversive inner tension. Ratings are made on a time-oriented scale ranging from 0% (never) to 100% (constantly). We measured the psychometric qualities of the DSS in a total of 294 patients and healthy controls. Internal consistency of the DSS was high (Cronbach's α = .92; Gutmann's split-half r = .92). We found good support for convergent, discriminant, and differential validity. There was clear evidence for the DSS being a sensitive instrument for the assessment of changing symptomatology. Assessment of dissociation and other psychopathological features over the same period of time are now possible.     

Selective attention and response set in the Stroop task

Response set membership contributes much to the interference in the color-word Stroop task. This may be due to selective allocation of attention to eligible responses or, alternatively, to greater inhibition of distractors that are not responses. In the present article, we report two experiments that were designed to adjudicate between these accounts. In Experiment 1, membership was manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis by cuing the possible responses for each trial. Response time (RT) was longer for distractors that corresponded to a cued, eligible response than to an ineligible one. This cuing effect was independent of the number of different responses. In Experiment 2, the distractor was cued on half the trials. Cuing the distractor decreased RTs on both incongruent and congruent trials. Vincentile analyses in both experiments revealed that the effects were constant throughout the entire RT distributions. These results suggest that response set effects arise because of selective allocation of attention to eligible responses.     

Sex differences in the alcohol deprivation effect in rats

Few studies have investigated the relationship between early onset of alcohol drinking and relapse in adulthood, which may be larger in females, as revealed by studies using rats as subjects. The present study assesses the alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) in adult rats of both sexes that began alcohol consumption during preadolescence or adolescence. Female and male Wistar rats received free-choice access to water, 5, 10 and 20% (v/v) ethanol solutions during the ethanol exposures. The effects of age and sex on ADE in adult rats were assessed after repeated periods of abstinence. The results showed that female but not male rats increased ethanol intake after the second and third deprivation (showing ADE), irrespective of the onset-age of alcohol drinking.