Examining the State-Trait Anxiety Relationship: A Behavioural Genetic Approach

State and trait anxiety define different aspects of anxiety, and may represent environmentally and genetically mediated components of this phenotype. Furthermore their relationship, where trait anxiety is expressed through levels of state anxiety under threatening circumstances, may represent a process of interplay between a genetic vulnerability factor and an environmental stressor. To test these hypotheses, we explored genetic and environmental influences on measures of state and trait anxiety in a sample of 1058 twins (521 males and 537 females) aged 8–16. The results were consistent with these hypotheses. State anxiety is largely influenced by environmental factors in males and females whereas trait anxiety shows moderate genetic effects and substantial non-shared environment effects. Their association was accounted for by non-shared environmental effects, with modest genetic and shared environmental inputs. The implications of these results for vulnerability mechanisms involving stress reactivity on anxiety are discussed.     

Men’s Likely Responses to Clinical Depression: What Are They and Do Masculinity Norms Predict Them?

This study was designed to investigate (1) men’s most likely and least likely actions in response to a vignette describing an episode of depression, (2) whether conformity to masculine norms related to the likelihood of men’s responses, and (3) which masculinity norms were associated with men’s responses. One hundred fifty-three mostly White and heterosexual undergraduate men were asked to read a vignette describing an episode of major depression, reported the likelihood of taking 20 separate actions in response to those symptoms, and completed the Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory (Mahalik et al., Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 4: 3–25, 2003b). Results identified the most likely and least likely responses to depression, indicated that global masculinity significantly related to four of the responses, and found three orthogonally distinct sets of relationships between specific masculinity norms and those four responses to symptoms of depression.     

Serial dependence in the estimation of a car's arrival time

Serial dependence of a car's arrival time. We have studied the sequential structure of data in the arrival- time estimations. Forty participants estimated the arrival-time of a vehicle under two experimental conditions: real car and video-image. Various time series regression models were fit to our data, and residuals autocorrelations were computed. For each serial-dependence model, data were fit to three functions, namely, power, logarithmic, and linear. In both experimental conditions, the response magnitude (R) on a given trial in t was a function of the stimulus intensity (S) in such a trial (t) and of the S and R on t-1 and t-2. Assimilation effect to the previous responses and contrast effect to the previous stimuli has been found.     

Hardy personality as moderator variable of burnout syndrome in firefighters

In last years, theorists and researchers have pointed to the relevance of personal factors in resilience and vulnerability on burnout. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of hardy personality as moderator of the relationship between job stressors and burnout. A total of 405 firefighters of the Community of Madrid participated in the study. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that the challenge component of hardy personality buffer the influence of job stressors on the occurrence of burnout. Results support the hypothesis that hardy personality may have moderator effects on burnout. Furthermore, commitment appeared as a mediator of the relationships between burnout and its associated symptomatology. Finally, discussion emphasized the need to focus on the interaction between personal and contextual factors in order to make advances in understanding the burnout process.     

Examining African self-consciousness and Black racial identity as predictors of Black men's psychological well-being

This study investigated African self-consciousness and Black racial identity as predictors of psychological distress and self-esteem for Black men. One hundred thirty Black men from a college and community sample completed the African Self-Consciousness Scale, the Racial Identity Attitude Scale-B, the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised, and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Canonical correlation analysis found 2 significant roots with the 1st root indicating that Black men whose attitudes reflected Preencounter and Immersion racial identity attitudes and who do not resist against anti-African/Black forces reported greater psychological distress and less esteem. Results from the 2nd root suggested that Black men whose attitudes reflect greater Internalization racial identity attitudes, greater resistance to anti-African/Black forces, and less identification with Blacks reported greater self-esteem.     

A fiber-optic system for recording skin conductance in the MRI scanner

The acquisition of the skin conductance response (SCR) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) raises significant safety issues, as well as practical ones, which need to be addressed in order for these experiments to be conducted safely and successfully. Metallic and conductive wires in the presence of time-varying gradient magnetic fields such as those present in fMRI experiments may induce heating, as well as electric fields, in these components and, if in contact with the subject, could produce severe burns and electric shocks. Moreover, these metallic and conductive components can significantly distort the magnetic field, resulting in image artifacts. A system for recording the SCR in humans simultaneously with fMRI is presented. The device is a fiber-optic-based transducer, which records the SCR from two fingers of the same hand, using electrodes containing inline radio frequency (RF) suppression filters and protective resistive loads. The fiber-optic SCR transducer was tested using 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla MRI scanners running EPI sequences. This system was able to safely record SCRs free of RF interference during an fMRI experiment, and the fiber-optic design of the transducer eliminated any artifacts on the MRI scan.     

The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26): reliability and validity in Spanish female samples

This paper focuses on the validation of the Spanish form of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; Garner, Olmsted, Bohr & Garfinkel, 1982) across two studies. Participants in Study 1 were 778 females recruited from community settings (aged 12-21). Study 2 included 86 females recruited from clinical and 86 females from community settings (aged 12-35). Results from Principal and Simultaneous Component Analyses showed a unidimensional structure of the EAT-26 item scores. Reliability analyses supported the internal consistency of the scale. Study 1 also explores the ability of the EAT-26 to discriminate between subjects with Eating Disorder (ED), Symptomatic or Asymptomatic by means of ROC analyses and using results from the Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses (Q-EDD; Mintz, O'Halloran, Mulholland, & Schneider, 1997) as criterion. The EAT-26 demonstrated good specificity but insufficient sensitivity to detect a full or partial ED. Study 2 explores the ability of the questionnaire to discriminate between subjects with and without ED. The EAT-26 demonstrated good specificity and moderate sensitivity to detect ED. Clinical and theoretical implications of these results are discussed.