Is there less to social anxiety than meets the eye? Emotion experience,expression, and bodily responding

Emotions are widely held to involve changes in experiential, behavioural, and physiological systems. It is not clear, however, just how tightly coupled these changes are during emotional responding. To examine this issue, we induced social anxiety in 47 high trait social anxiety (HTSA) and 50 low trait social anxiety (LTSA) participants using an impromptu speech paradigm. We assessed anxiety experience, behaviour, perceived physiological activation, and actual physiological activation. HTSA participants felt more anxious, perceived greater physiological activation, and exhibited more anxiety behaviour than LTSA participants. Unexpectedly, the two groups did not differ in objectively measured physiological responding. Internal analyses indicated that for both HTSA and LTSA participants, anxiety experience was associated with perceived physiological activation, but not with actual physiological responding. These results suggest that anxiety experience and perceived physiological activation may be less tightly coupled with actual physiological responses than is typically thought.     

Book reviews

Cutting, J. E. Perception with an eye for motion. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 1986. Pp. 321.ISBN 0-262-03119-1. £29.95.

Kimble, G. A. and Schlesinger, K. (Eds.). Topics in the history of psychology, Volume 1. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1985. Pp. 409. ISBN 0-89859-312-3. £36.00.

Bruce, V. and Green, P. (1985). Visual perception :Physiology, psychology and ecology. London : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 369. ISBN 0-86377-012-6. Hardback £26.95; paperback £8.95.

Pylyshyn, Z. W. & Demopoulos, W. (Eds.). Meaning and cognitive structure : Issues in the computational theory of mind. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1986. Pp. xi + 264. ISBN 0-89391-372-3.£36.50.

Pylyshyn, Z. W. (Ed.). The robot's dilemma: The frame problem in artificial intelligence. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1987. Pp. xi +156. ISBN 0-89391-371-5. £25.50.

Beaton, A. (1985). Left side, right side : A review of laterality research. London: Batsford. Pp. 364. ISBN 0-7134-4389-8. £25.00.     

The neonate brain's sensitivity to repetition-based structure: Specific to speech?

Newborns are able to extract and learn repetition-based regularities from the speech input, that is, they show greater brain activation in the bilateral temporal and left inferior frontal regions to trisyllabic pseudowords of the form AAB (e.g., “babamu”) than to random ABC sequences (e.g., “bamuge”). Whether this ability is specific to speech or also applies to other auditory stimuli remains unexplored. To investigate this, we tested whether newborns are sensitive to regularities in musical tones. Neonates listened to AAB and ABC tones sequences, while their brain activity was recorded using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). The paradigm, the frequency of occurrence and the distribution of the tones were identical to those of the syllables used in previous studies with speech. We observed a greater inverted (negative) hemodynamic response to AAB than to ABC sequences in the bilateral temporal and fronto-parietal areas. This inverted response was caused by a decrease in response amplitude, attributed to habituation, over the course of the experiment in the left fronto-temporal region for the ABC condition and in the right fronto-temporal region for both conditions. These findings show that newborns’ ability to discriminate AAB from ABC sequences is not specific to speech. However, the neural response to musical tones and spoken language is markedly different. Tones gave rise to habituation, whereas speech was shown to trigger increasing responses over the time course of the study. Relatedly, the repetition regularity gave rise to an inverted hemodynamic response when carried by tones, while it was canonical for speech. Thus, newborns’ ability to detect repetition is not speech-specific, but it engages distinct brain mechanisms for speech and music.

Research Highlights

• The ability of newborns’ to detect repetition-based regularities is not specific to speech, but also extends to other auditory modalities.
• The brain mechanisms underlying speech and music processing are markedly different.

     

Living with painful diabetic neuropathy: insights from focus groups into fears and coping strategies

Objective: Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) is known to negatively affect quality of life. Being physically active is a crucial part of successful diabetes self-management, but regimen adherence is often low. Coping strategies and fears have shown to be related to less physical activity (PA). The aim of the present study was to obtain more in-depth information on psychological risk factors leading to less PA in persons with PDN.

Design: Three semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with a representative sample of persons with PDN (N?=?12). Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a hybrid method of thematic analyses and a grounded theory approach.

Main Outcome Measures: Fears and coping strategies related to PA in persons with PDN.

Results: Several specific fears were identified; fear of hypoglycaemia, fear of pain increase, fear of total exhaustion, fear of physical injury, fear of falling, fear of loss of identity, and fear of negative evaluation by others. To cope with these fears, avoidance, remaining active, cognitive distraction, and acceptance strategies were described.

Conclusion: In persons with PDN, diabetes-related fears and pain-related fears play a role in less engagement in PA, indicating the need for new methods for improving self-management in persons with PDN.     

ADOLESCENT DAUCHTER/MIDLIFE MOTHER DYAD A New Look at Separation and Self-Definition

The mother-daughter relationship is seen as complex, unique, and emotionally charged, with adolescence being the most difficult period for this dyad. Yet much of the literature has highlighted the struggle of adolescents, while underemphasizing that many of their mothers themselves are confronting their own developmental issues at this time. In this article, the developmental tasks and dyadic issues of adolescent daughters (aged 13–19) and their midlife mothers (aged 35–55) are examined from a psychodynamic perspective. The authors posit that both mother and daughter are experiencing a lifecycle crisis of separation and self-definition. Drawing from psychoanalytic and lifespan developmental literature as well as their own clinical experience, the authors propose that the current generation of mothers and daughters requires a new look at old models, parts of which may still be relevant and parts of which need to be revised or dropped. The issues of competition and rebellion as they relate to separation and self-definition are also addressed.