Nostalgia counteracts self‐discontinuity and restores self‐continuity

Nostalgia is a resource that functions, in part, as a response to self‐discontinuity and a source of self‐continuity. We tested and supported this regulatory role of nostalgia in the tradition of establishing a causal chain. In Study 1, we examined the naturalistic association between events precipitating self‐discontinuity and nostalgia. Self‐discontinuity, especially when stemming from negative life events, was associated with higher proneness to nostalgia. In Study 2, we experimentally induced negative self‐discontinuity (i.e. relatively disruptive), positive self‐discontinuity (i.e. relatively non‐disruptive) or self‐continuity (i.e. neutral non‐disruptiveness) and subsequently assessed state levels of nostalgia. Only negative self‐discontinuity evoked heightened nostalgia. In Study 3, we experimentally induced nostalgia (versus ordinary autobiographical recollection) and assessed self‐continuity. Nostalgia augmented self‐continuity. In Study 4, we experimentally induced nostalgia (versus ordinary autobiographical recollection versus positive autobiographical recollection) and assessed self‐continuity. Again, nostalgia augmented self‐continuity and did so above and beyond positive affect. Here, we ruled out demand characteristics as a rival hypothesis. Taken together, the findings clarify the role of nostalgia in the dynamic between self‐discontinuity and self‐continuity and elucidate the restorative properties of nostalgia for the self‐system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining the Efficacy of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) on Irrational Beliefs and Anxiety in Elite Youth Cricketers

The use of rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) in sport psychology has received scant research attention. Therefore, this study examines the efficacy of REBT (comprising three counselling sessions and two homework assignments) in decreasing irrational beliefs and cognitive-anxiety in four elite youth cricketers using a single-case multiple-baseline across-participants design. Visual and statistical analyses indicated that REBT reduced irrational beliefs and cognitive-anxiety in all participants. The applied issues surrounding the use of REBT in a youth sport context are discussed, along with guidance for its future use in sport psychology research.     

Coloured Letters and Numbers (CLaN): A reliable factor-analysis based synaesthesia questionnaire

Synaesthesia is a heterogeneous phenomenon, even when considering one particular sub-type. The purpose of this study was to design a reliable and valid questionnaire for grapheme-colour synaesthesia that captures this heterogeneity. By the means of a large sample of 628 synaesthetes and a factor analysis, we created the Coloured Letters and Numbers (CLaN) questionnaire with 16 items loading on 4 different factors (i.e., localisation, automaticity/attention, deliberate use, and longitudinal changes). These factors were externally validated with tests which are widely used in the field of synaesthesia research. The questionnaire showed good test–retest reliability and construct validity (i.e., internally and externally). Our findings are discussed in the light of current theories and new ideas in synaesthesia research. More generally, the questionnaire is a useful tool which can be widely used in synaesthesia research to reveal the influence of individual differences on various performance measures and will be useful in generating new hypotheses.     

Adverse childhood experiences and coping strategies: identifying pathways to resiliency in adulthood

ABSTRACT

Objective

The current study examined whether coping strategies mediate the link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adult psychiatric and physical health outcomes.     

Memories of Childhood Threat,Fear of Disclosure and Paranoid Ideation: A Mediation Analysis Using a Nonclinical Sample

This study investigated whether associations between childhood memories of threat and adult paranoia could be partially mediated by factors associated with impeded interpersonal communication (concealment and fear of disclosure of personal and distressing information). University undergraduates (N = 179) completed a battery of psychometric scales. Mediation analysis identified a direct effect between early memories of threat and paranoid ideation (B = 0.11, 95% CI = [0.07, 0.14], p = .00). A mediated effect between these variables was also significant (B = .05, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.07], p = .01). However, although significant associations were identified between memories of threat and each of the mediating variables (self-concealment, fear of self-disclosure, anxiety, depression) only fear of self-disclosure displayed a significant association with paranoid ideation (B = .05, 95% CI = [0.02, 0.07], p = .01).     

What Are You Waiting For? Real‐Time Integration of Cues for Fricatives Suggests Encapsulated Auditory Memory

Speech unfolds over time, and the cues for even a single phoneme are rarely available simultaneously. Consequently, to recognize a single phoneme, listeners must integrate material over several hundred milliseconds. Prior work contrasts two accounts: (a) a memory buffer account in which listeners accumulate auditory information in memory and only access higher level representations (i.e., lexical representations) when sufficient information has arrived; and (b) an immediate integration scheme in which lexical representations can be partially activated on the basis of early cues and then updated when more information arises. These studies have uniformly shown evidence for immediate integration for a variety of phonetic distinctions. We attempted to extend this to fricatives, a class of speech sounds which requires not only temporal integration of asynchronous cues (the frication, followed by the formant transitions 150–350 ms later), but also integration across different frequency bands and compensation for contextual factors like coarticulation. Eye movements in the visual world paradigm showed clear evidence for a memory buffer. Results were replicated in five experiments, ruling out methodological factors and tying the release of the buffer to the onset of the vowel. These findings support a general auditory account for speech by suggesting that the acoustic nature of particular speech sounds may have large effects on how they are processed. It also has major implications for theories of auditory and speech perception by raising the possibility of an encapsulated memory buffer in early auditory processing.     

Anger response styles in Chinese and Dutch children: A socio‐cultural perspective on anger regulation

In this study, we evaluated hypotheses about cultural convergence and divergence in the nature and correlates of anger expressions. With a sample of 141 11‐year‐olds from the Netherlands and Hong Kong, we first examined a broad range of strategies for responding to a provocateur, finding that both Chinese and Dutch children were more likely to use intrapersonal strategies (for coping internally with the angry feelings) than interpersonal responses (to communicate anger to the provocateur). No cultural divergence was shown in the overall extent to which anger would be verbally expressed, but differences became apparent when we asked children precisely what they would say to an aggressor in a hypothetical anger‐eliciting situation. As predicted, Chinese children were more likely to react tolerantly to the aggressor than their Dutch peers, whereas Dutch children indicated that they would verbally confront the aggressor more often, trying to reinstate their personal goals. In comparison with Dutch children, the Chinese sample viewed their chosen strategies as more likely to elicit positive reactions from the aggressor and to reduce anger. Directions for further research on the personal and socio‐cultural functionality of anger response styles are discussed.     

The NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 blocks acquisition and extinction of conditioned hypoalgesic responses in the rat

The role of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in Pavlovian conditioning of hypoalgesic responses in the hotplate apparatus was examined using the non-competitive NMDA antagonist MK-801. Either MK-801 or saline were administered before the training phase, test phase, or both, and MK-801 disrupted the acquisition and extinction but not the expression of conditioned hypoalgesic responses. All rats received counterbalanced injections of both MK-801 and saline after the training phase, therefore the learning decrements could not be attributed to a delayed, non-specific action of the drug. MK-801 did not augment paw-lick latencies on either the training or test days, indicating that its behavioural effects are not due to alterations in nociceptive sensitivity or motor performance. Similarly, MK-801's effects upon acquisition and extinction could not be attributed to state-dependent generalization decrement or impairments in processing of the hot-plate apparatus cues during training, as rats displayed normal hypoalgesic responses when tested with MK-801, and MK-801-treated animals displayed normal habituation of novelty-induced hypoalgesia in the hot-plate apparatus. These data suggest that the NMDA receptor system is involved in the acquisition and extinction, but not the expression of conditioned hypoalgesia and parallels the effects of NMDA receptor antagonists on the acquisition and expression of long-term potentiation (LTP) both in vitro and in vivo. It is plausible that an endogenous NMDA-mediated form of LTP plays a vital role in the acquisition and storage of aversive representations mediating conditioned hypoalgesic responses.     

Psychological impact of benign breast biopsy: a longitudinal, comparative study.

The impact of benign breast biopsy (BBB) on distress and perceptions of risk for breast cancer (BC) was examined. Interviews were conducted with 100 women shortly after notification of biopsy results and 4 and 8 months post-BBB. Compared with matched healthy comparison (HC) women without BBB, the BBB group evidenced greater BC-specific distress at baseline. BC-specific distress declined after BBB, remaining elevated relative to the HC group at the 8-month follow-up. Dispositional (optimism, informational coping style), demographic (education), clinical (family history of BC), and cognitive (BC risk perception) variables were associated with baseline levels of BC-specific distress or persistence of distress. Results support the monitoring process model (S. M. Miller, 1995) and the cognitive social health information processing model (S. M. Miller, Y. Shoda, & K. Hurley, 1996).