The Relation Between Emotional Dysregulation and Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms, Pain-Related Anxiety, and HIV-Symptom Distress Among Adults with HIV/AIDS

The current study investigated the relations between emotional dysregulation and anxiety and depressive symptoms, pain-related anxiety, and HIV-symptom distress among individuals living with HIV/AIDS. This research is important in its explanatory value regarding the unique effects of emotional dysregulation as it relates to psychological and disease-specific distress given high rates of distress specific to HIV infection (e.g. medicatin side-effects, stigma). Participants included 164 adults (17.1 % female, Mage = 48.40, SD?=?9.57) with HIV/AIDS. Results indicated that emotional dysregulation was significantly and positively related to anxiety and depressive symptoms, pain-related anxiety, and HIV-symptom distress. All emotional dyregulation effects were evidenced above and beyond the variance accounted for by demographic and HIV-specific characteristics, and the main effects of anxiety sensitivity and distress intolerance. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of emotional dysregulation in negative affective experiences within the HIV/AIDS population.     

Effects of Cannabis on Neurocognitive Functioning: Recent Advances, Neurodevelopmental Influences, and Sex Differences

Decades of research have examined the effects of cannabis on neurocognition. Recent advances in this field provide us with a better understanding of how cannabis use influences neurocognition both acutely (during intoxication) and non-acutely (after acute effects subside). Evidence of problems with episodic memory is one of the most consistent findings reported; however, several other neurocognitive domains appear to be adversely affected by cannabis use under various conditions. There is significant variability in findings across studies, thus a discussion of potential moderators is increasingly relevant. The purpose of this review was to 1) provide an update on research of cannabis’ acute and non-acute effects on neurocognition, with a focus on findings since 2007 and 2) suggest and discuss how neurodevelopmental issues and sex differences may influence cannabis effects on neurocognition. Finally we discuss how future investigations may lead to better understanding of the complex interplay among cannabis, stages of neurodevelopment, and sex on neurocognitive functioning.     

Academic Workload Typologies and Burnout Among Faculty in Seventh-day Adventist Colleges and Universities in North America

The focus of this investigation was to determine the possible relationship of workload typologies and other selected demographic variables to levels of burnout among full-time faculty in Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities in North America. Four typologies of academic workload emerged from the study of the data. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between academic workload typologies and other selected demographic variables in levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. No relationship was found between the variables studied and levels of personal accomplishment.     

Preparing for novelty with diverse training

This study investigated the ability to generalize acquired skills from training conditions to novel conditions, in a complex perceptual and cognitive task of luggage screening. We examined category and exemplar diversity during training for preparing learners to detect novel items during transfer. Category diversity was manipulated in terms of heterogeneity of training categories: Participants either trained with targets from one category or with targets from several categories. Exemplar diversity was manipulated between participants by presenting either a few or many exemplars for both category diversity conditions. Seventy‐two participants were trained to identify threats in pieces of luggage. Thereafter they were transferred to novel stimuli. Results can be summarized in support for the diversity of training hypothesis for preparing for novelty: To the best training for novel luggage screening situations is achieved using fewer items in a variety of categories. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Anxiety Sensitivity and Mindful Attention in Anxiety and Worry About Bodily Sensations Among Adults Living With HIV/AIDS

The current study examined cognitive factors that may be relevant to understanding anxiety and worry about bodily sensations among an HIV/AIDS population. Specifically, this investigation tested the main and interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity and mindful attention on anxious arousal, bodily vigilance, interoceptive fear, and HIV symptom distress among 164 adults with HIV/AIDS. Results indicated that anxiety sensitivity was positively related to anxious arousal, bodily vigilance, and interoceptive fear, but not HIV symptom distress. Mindful attention was negatively related to anxious arousal, interoceptive fear, and HIV symptom distress, but not bodily vigilance. These main effects for anxiety sensitivity and mindful attention were evident after controlling for disease stage, years with HIV, and demographic variables. There were no interactive effects between anxiety sensitivity and mindful attention. Results are discussed in terms of the clinical implications for identifying and treating anxiety and worry about bodily sensations among adults with HIV/AIDS. Limitations of this study include the use of cross-sectional data and self-report assessments.     

College‐Level Choice of Latino High School Students: A Social‐Cognitive Approach

Latino students attend 2‐year colleges more often than 4‐year colleges. This has an impact on the rate of bachelor's degree attainment, because the transfer rate between the 2 levels is low. The author uses national data to identify predictors associated with college‐level choice and then uses social‐cognitive career theory ( Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) to frame counseling implications. Los estudiantes Latinos se matriculan con más frecuencia en estudios universitarios de 2 años que en estudios de 4 años. Esto produce un impacto en el porcentaje de obtención de licenciaturas, porque la tasa de transferencia entre ambos niveles es baja. El autor emplea datos a nivel nacional para identificar predictores asociados con la elección del nivel de estudios universitarios, y después emplea la teoría social cognitiva de las carreras ( Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994 ) para formular las implicaciones para la consejería.     

The Role of Incentive Framing on Training and Transfer of Learning in a Visual Threat Detection Task

We examined the effects of different incentives on skill acquisition and transfer during threat detection in airline luggage screening. The incentives were presented within positive (gains) or negative (losses) frames, and points were given or taken away accordingly during training (with familiar targets) and transfer (to novel targets). During training, incentives exerted a more beneficial effect on skill acquisition than training without incentives. During transfer, incentives benefitted performance largely when presented as losses or penalties. Incentives framed as gains primed participants to say ‘yes’ more often leading to a high ratio of false positives; however, incentives framed as losses lead participants to become more selective in their ‘yes’ responses leading to a lower number of false positives but a comparable probability of correct detections. Interestingly, participants that received no training outperformed participants that received incentive‐based training, suggesting that incentives actually constrained rather than helped transfer of learning in this study. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Implicit Measurement in the Assessment of Risky Behavior: A Pilot Study with African American Girls

With the aim of developing a novel strategy for identifying vulnerability for early sexual activity and adjustment problems, African American girls (n?=?39) completed partially structured scenarios in which female characters of similar age faced circumstances characterized by varying levels of risk. Most girls indicated that they believed the characters would have sex, regardless of their own sexual history or the level of risk in the scenario. However, the combination of girls’ sexual history and girls’ predictions of characters’ behavior in the scenario provided more information regarding the girls at greatest risk for adjustment problems. Implicit techniques offer an additional strategy for identifying girls most vulnerable to adjustment difficulties in the context of early sexual activity.     

Phonotactic acquisition in healthy preterm infants

Previous work has shown that preterm infants are at higher risk for cognitive/language delays than full‐term infants. Recent studies, focusing on prosody (i.e. rhythm, intonation), have suggested that prosodic perception development in preterms is indexed by maturational rather than postnatal/listening age. However, because prosody is heard in‐utero, and preterms thus lose significant amounts of prenatal prosodic experience, both their maturation level and their prosodic experience (listening age) are shorter than that of full‐terms for the same postnatal age. This confound does not apply to the acquisition of phonetics/phonotactics (i.e. identity and order of consonants/vowels), given that consonant differences in particular are only perceived after birth, which could lead to a different developmental pattern. Accordingly, we explore the possibility that consonant‐based phonotactic perception develops according to listening age. Healthy French‐learning full‐term and preterm infants were tested on the perception of consonant sequences in a behavioral paradigm. The pattern of development for full‐term infants revealed that 7‐month‐olds look equally at labial‐coronal (i.e. /pat/) compared to coronal‐labial sequences (i.e. /tap/), but that 10‐month‐olds prefer the labial‐coronal sequences that are more frequent in the French lexicon. Preterm 10‐month‐olds (having 10 months of phonetic listening experience but 7 months of maturational age) behaved as full‐term 10‐month‐olds. These results establish that preterm developmental timing for consonant‐based phonotactic acquisition is based on listening age (experience with input). This questions the interpretation of previous results on prosodic acquisition in terms of maturational constraints, and raises the possibility that different constraints apply to the acquisition of different phonological subcomponents.     

What Valentine Announcements Reveal about the Romantic Emotions of Men and Women

Gender differences in the expression of romantic emotions were investigated by analyzing the content of 300 Valentine’s Day announcements. The emotions studied were love, praise, commitment, and fidelity, as expressed by dating and married individuals. Women emphasized love and fidelity relatively more than men did; men emphasized praise and commitment relatively more than women did. Relationship status influenced the gender differences; most interesting is that dating men expressed commitment, but not fidelity. Social-cultural and evolutionary perspectives are considered in the interpretation of the findings.