Pain Sensitivity: An Unnatural History from 1800 to 1965

Who was truly capable of experiencing pain? In this article, I explore ideas about the distribution of bodily sensitivity in patients from the early nineteenth century to 1965 in Anglo-American societies. While certain patients were regarded as “truly hurting,” other patients’ distress could be disparaged or not even registered as being “real pain.” Such judgments had major effects on regimes of pain-alleviation. Indeed, it took until the late twentieth century for the routine underestimation of the sufferings of certain groups of people to be deemed scandalous. Often the categorizations were contradictory. For instance, the humble status of workers and immigrants meant that they were said to be insensitive to noxious stimuli; the profound inferiority of these same patients meant that they were especially likely to respond with “exaggerated” sensitivity. How did physicians hold such positions simultaneously? Pain-assignation claimed to be based on natural hierarchical schemas, but the great Chain of Feeling was more fluid than it seemed.     

A comparison of Agreeableness scores from the Big Five Inventory and the NEO PI-R: consequences for the study of narcissism and psychopathy

Despite being significantly correlated, there is evidence to suggest that the scales measuring Agreeableness from the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) do not capture identical constructs. More specifically, NEO PI-R Agreeableness contains content related to "honesty and humility" that is not contained by the BFI. In a sample of undergraduates (N = 290), the authors compared the correlations between these two measures of Agreeableness with traits from the HEXACO-PI-R as well as measures of narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, and psychopathy. As expected, the two scores were significantly correlated but NEO PI-R Agreeableness manifested stronger correlations with the domains/facets of Honesty-Humility, narcissism/NPD, and aspects of psychopathy; these differences appear to be due primarily to the inclusion of the NEO PI-R facets of Straightforwardness and Modesty. These differences have important implications for the assessment and conceptualization of personality and personality disorder.     

Socialization of Emotion and Offspring Internalizing Symptoms in Mothers with Childhood-Onset Depression

This study examines how mothers with and without a history of childhood-onset depression respond to their 3-9 year-old children's emotions. Mother-child dyads included 55 offspring of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depressive disorders and 57 offspring of never-depressed mothers. Mothers with a history of childhood depression were less likely than control mothers to respond in supportive ways to their children's negative emotions and were more likely to magnify, punish, or neglect their children's negative emotions. Magnification, neglect, and punishment of children's negative emotions were concurrently associated with children's internalizing symptoms, and neglect and punishment were associated with internalizing over a one year follow-up. Maternal neglect of children's negative emotion was positively associated with later internalizing symptoms for children who already had higher internalizing symptoms at the initial assessment. Findings suggest that atypical socialization of emotion may be one mechanism in the development of internalizing disorders.     

Assessment of the Construct Validity of the EQ-5D in Patients with Acute Cough/Lower Respiratory Tract Infections

Although EQ-5D has been used in the context of acute cough/lower respiratory tract infections (acute cough/LRTI), it has not been formally validated in this disease area. The primary aim of this study is to assess the construct validity of EQ-5D as a measure for economic evaluation in the context of acute cough/lower respiratory tract infections. Data were collected alongside an observational study of the management of patients with acute cough/LRTI in thirteen European countries. However, the analysis was limited to 349 patients from the UK. Hypotheses were specified a priori and tested in order to establish the construct validity of EQ-5D. Statistical methods used to test the a priori hypotheses included Wilcoxon signed rank sum test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Chi-square test and regression analysis. Most of the relationships that were tested were in line with the a priori hypotheses. The main results indicate that there was a negative relationship between symptom severity scores and EQ-5D, smoking was associated with worse EQ-5D scores and EQ-5D was able to discriminate between patients with headache, interference with normal activities and disturbed sleep. This study also showed that the EQ-5D is moderately responsive in patients with acute cough/LRTI, and is a suitable measure for use in economic evaluation studies of acute cough/LRTI     

Getting to know you: from view-dependent to view-invariant repetition priming for unfamiliar faces

Recent research suggests that repetition priming (RP) for unfamiliar faces is highly view dependent and is eliminated when the viewpoint of target faces changes between study and test. The current research examined whether increased familiarity with novel faces from a single viewpoint at study would support RP from an alternative viewpoint at test. Participants passively viewed novel face images from a single viewpoint at study (i.e., either front or three-quarters), with half of the images seen once and half seen on five occasions. During a sex classification task at test, participants were faster to respond to face images seen from the same view as that at study than they were to previously unseen distractor faces for both single exposure faces and faces seen on five occasions (i.e., standard RP). When, however, face images at test were shown from a different viewpoint from that at study, RP only occurred for faces viewed on five occasions.     

Assessing pupil concerns about transition to secondary school

Background. The primary–secondary transition can negatively affect pupils' emotional and psychological adjustment. However, methods for assessing concerns regarding secondary school are limited. A reliable and valid measure of transition‐related concerns would be useful both in evaluating and shaping the content and delivery of universal and targeted transition support programmes. Aims. To assess the validity of a quantitative self‐report measure of school concerns as an assessment tool during the primary–secondary school transition. Sample. A UK sample of 147 Year 6 primary school pupils and 263 Year 7 secondary school pupils. Method. Self‐reports of school concerns and school liking as well as self‐reported and peer assessments on a range of psychological adjustment measures were collected. Results. The School Concerns Questionnaire (SCQ) showed good reliability at primary and secondary school. Secondary concerns reduced significantly post‐transition. Three factors emerged from an exploratory factor analysis of the SCQ and the pattern of results was replicated for post‐transition concerns. Pupils with higher school concerns at secondary school reported reduced liking of school and reduced trust and respect for teachers. The SCQ was associated with generalized anxiety and female gender both pre‐and post‐transition. Peer problems and depression were associated with pre‐ and post‐transition concerns, respectively. Conclusions. The SCQ is a simple to complete, reliable, and valid tool for assessing primary–secondary transition concerns. It could serve a valuable role in the evaluation and development of universal and targeted school‐based initiatives that aim to promote positive secondary transition.     

The Cost of Caring? Emotional Labour,Wellbeing and the Clergy

Although members of the clergy experience working conditions that have been associated with “emotional labour”, little is known about the impact of this aspect of the job role on wellbeing. This study examined relationships between emotional labour and psychological distress and intrinsic job satisfaction in 188 UK-based clergy. Also investigated were the potential moderating effects of social support and training in counselling skills. Findings revealed significant associations between emotional labour and both psychological distress and job satisfaction. Evidence was found that counselling training and a wider social network may protect clergy from the negative impact of emotional labour, but social network size may also be a risk factor for wellbeing. Further research should examine the impact of emotional labour on clergy, and the factors that might help them manage this more effectively.