Gender-Typed Behavioral Examples of Histrionic Personality Disorder

Findings that clinicians diagnose Histrionic Personality Disorder more frequently in women may be due to the feminine gender weighting of the criteria or because the diagnostic label elicits a feminine stereotype. Using a method derived from the act-frequency approach, undergraduates generated behavioral examples of the DSM-IIIR and DSM-IV Histrionic criteria without regard to sex or according to sex role instructions that elicited masculine or feminine sex roles. A national sample of psychologists and psychiatrists rated the representativeness of the symptoms for the Histrionic criteria or for Histrionic Personality Disorder. Feminine behaviors were rated more representative of Histrionic Personality Disorder and somewhat more representative of the Histrionic criteria than masculine behaviors suggesting that the feminine sex role is more strongly associated with the label than the criteria. Masculine behaviors were also rated less representative than sex-unspecified examples. Results provide a possible explanation for the higher rates of diagnosis of Histrionic Personality Disorder in women.     

When trying is not enough: Emotion regulation and the effort-success gap in bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder (BD) is presumed to involve difficulties in emotion regulation. Little is known, however, about the specific emotion regulation profile associated with this disorder. The present study examined the use of specific emotion regulation strategies among individuals with BD (n = 37) and healthy controls (n = 38). Participants' spontaneous use of reappraisal and suppression, as well as their associated effort and success at regulating their emotions, was measured in the context of three emotionally evocative films (neutral, happy, sad). Results indicated that the BD participants made greater use of spontaneous suppression and reappraisal across all films compared to the control group. BD participants also reported greater effort, but less success, when spontaneously regulating emotions. These findings suggest that bipolar disorder is associated with less success when regulating emotions despite a widespread engagement of regulatory efforts. Discussion focuses on the disjunction between troubled emotion functioning in bipolar disorder and sustained efforts to modify intense emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Positive emotion dysregulation across mood disorders: How amplifying versus dampening predicts emotional reactivity and illness course

Maladaptive regulation of positive emotion has increasingly been associated with psychopathology. Little is known, however, about how individual strategies used to manage positive emotion predict concurrent emotional responding and prospective illness course across mood disorders. The present study examined the concurrent and prospective influence of amplification and dampening regulation strategies of positive emotion (i.e., self-focused positive rumination, emotion-focused positive rumination, and dampening) among remitted individuals with bipolar I disorder (BD; n = 31) and major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 31). Rumination over positive emotional states concurrently predicted increased positive emotion across both mood disordered groups during an experimental rumination induction. However, dampening positive emotion concurrently predicted increased emotional reactivity (i.e., heart rate and negative affect) and prospective increases in manic and depressive symptoms for the BD group only. This suggests that amplifying positive emotion transdiagnostically increases positive emotion across mood disordered groups, while attempts to dampen positive emotion may paradoxically exacerbate emotional reactivity and illness course in BD. For individuals with BD, negative thinking about one's positive emotion (via dampening) may be particularly maladaptive.     

Reflections of a second-generation jungian analyst on the eve of the third millennium

Dr. F. David Peat is a theoretical physicist residing in Ottawa, Canada, whose recent book, Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind (Bantam, 1987) generalizes Jung's views on the ultimately a causal foundation of physics and psychology. Peat is currently collaborating with David Bohm in utilizing quantum theory to update the mathematical-philosophical foundations of psychology in a series of books of which Science, Order and Creativity (Banram, 1987) is a lucid and broadly-based introduction for the general reader. Our editor recently spent a few days with Peat and Bohm discussing their evolving world view. This essay by Peat was written in response to our editor's queries concerning what is generally known by the physicist community about the collaboration between C.G. Jung and the early quantum physicists on the foundations of analytical psychology.     

Reward Dysregulation and Mood Symptoms in an Adolescent Outpatient Sample

Research on bipolar spectrum disorders (BPSD) in adolescence has burgeoned in the last decade, but continued work is needed to identify endophenotypic markers associated with illness onset and course. The present study examined reward dysregulation—measured via the behavioral activation system (BAS)—as one putative marker of BPSD in adolescence. A diverse group of 425 outpatient adolescents between 11 and 17 years of age (52 % male) completed the Behavioral Inhibition and Activation Scale (BIS-BAS) scale to measure reward dysregulation. Semi-structured interviews determined diagnoses and severity of mood symptoms. Parent-reported BAS was associated with increased symptoms of mania, and parent and adolescent-reported BAS were associated with symptoms of depression. Parent-reported BIS scores were associated with increased symptoms of mania. Results held independent of diagnostic status. Furthermore, parent BIS/BAS reports were stronger predictors for manic symptoms compared to adolescent-reports. Results extend work in adults with BPSD, suggesting a transdiagnostic association between reward dysregulation and mood symptom severity in adolescence.     

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N=185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experiential and autonomic reactivity to pride, happy, and amusement film stimuli between depressive (n=24; DS) and non-depressive (n=31; NDS) symptom groups. Results indicate that symptoms of depression were most strongly associated with decreased trait pride and decreased positive emotion experience to pride-eliciting films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for understanding emotion deficits in depression as well as for the general study of positive emotion.