Multiple trajectories of physical aggression among adolescent boys and girls

Latent growth mixture modeling was used to identify discrete patterns of physical aggression from Grades 7 to 11 among a sample of 1,877 youth. Four trajectory classes adequately explained the development of physical aggression in both boys and girls: Low/No Aggression; Persistent High Aggression; Desisting Aggression, characterized by decreasing risk throughout adolescence; and Adolescent Aggression, characterized by low early risk that increases until Grade 9, levels out, and then declines in late adolescence. Girls were less likely than boys were to be in any trajectory besides the Low/No Aggression trajectory. Parental supervision, deviant peer association, academic orientation, impulsivity, and emotional distress at Grade 7 were all strongly associated with trajectory class membership. These associations did not differ by gender. These findings strongly suggest that the processes involved in the development of physical aggression in adolescence operate similarly in boys and girls.     

The role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor genotype, parental depression, and relationship discord in predicting early-emerging negative emotionality

The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene is a plausible candidate for early-emerging negative emotionality (NE), and evidence suggests that the effects of this gene may be especially salient in the context of familial risk for child maladjustment. We therefore examined whether the single-nucleotide polymorphism producing a valine-to-methionine substitution at codon 66 (val66met) of the BDNF gene was associated with childhood NE, in the context of parental depression and relationship discord. A sample of 413 three-year-old children was assessed for NE using standardized laboratory measures. The children's parents completed clinical interviews as well as a measure of marital satisfaction. Children with at least one BDNF methionine (met) allele exhibited elevated NE when a parent had a history of depressive disorder or when relationship discord was reported by a parent. In contrast, this allele was associated with especially low NE when parental depression was absent and when the parental relationship was not discordant. Our findings suggest that the BDNF met allele confers increased child sensitivity to both positive and negative familial influences.     

Abnormal Neural Sensitivity to Monetary Gains Versus Losses Among Adolescents at Risk for Depression

Major depressive disorder aggregates within families, although the mechanisms of transfer across generations are not well understood. In light of converging biological and behavioral evidence that depressive symptoms are associated with impaired reward processing, we examined whether adolescent girls with a parental history of depression would also exhibit abnormal reward sensitivity. We performed a negative mood induction and then recorded the feedback negativity, a neural index of reward processing, while individuals completed a gambling task. High-risk adolescents reported greater sadness following the mood induction compared to low-risk adolescents. Among the high-risk group, sadness was strongly associated with a blunted feedback negativity, even after controlling for baseline mood and trait neuroticism. This suggests that high-risk adolescents are more reactive to negative stimuli, which significantly alter neural sensitivity to monetary gains and losses. The feedback negativity might be used to identify information processing abnormalities in high-risk populations prior to the onset of a major depressive episode.     

Do authorship policies impact students' judgments of perceived wrongdoing?

Although authorship policies exist, researchers understand little about their impact on perceptions of authorship scenarios. Graduate students (N=277) at a large university read 1 of 3 vignettes about a graduate student-faculty collaboration. One half of the surveys included the American Psychological Association's statement on authorship. Participants rated (a) the ethics of the professor as first author and (b) the likelihood of a dissatisfied student reporting the authorship result, as well as the effectiveness and negative consequences of reporting. Work arrangements on the project had a consistent main effect. Also, an authorship policy impacted women's ratings of first authorship when the student contributed the idea for a project. For men, a policy impacted only ratings of the likelihood of reporting when a professor was first author on a student's dissertation. Apart from sex, no other demographic variables on participants were predictive. Discussion focuses on the policy's potential for making only some specific issues salient.     

The Effects of Scene Inversion on Change Blindness

In two experiments, participants searched for a difference between two views of a scene. In Experiment 1, the authors extended the change-blindness findings from previous work by R. A. Rensink, J. K. O'Regan, and J. J. Clark (1997), which used an experimenter-induced global transient, to a less artificial situation in which participants searched for a difference in a pair of photographic images presented simultaneously. To examine the idea that meaning-driven endogenous orienting was responsible for the previously observed advantage for changes in center-of-interest items, the authors inverted half of the image pairs. The advantage for center-of-interest items was replicated with upright displays, but it was completely eliminated by inversion, strongly supporting the role of meaning-driven endogenous orienting in this task. With flickering displays (Experiment 2), the center-of-interest effect was completely unaffected by inversion. The authors suggest that when change blindness is induced via flicker, scene modifications are typically found by stimulus-driven rather than by meaning-driven processes.     

Implicit Attitudes Toward Arab-Muslims and the Moderating Effects of Social Information

Three studies examined the relative valence and strength of implicit attitudes toward Arab-Muslims using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) while exploring the moderation of such implicit effects. Studies have suggested that repeated exposure to information associating members of a social group (e.g., Arab-Muslims) with evaluative attributes (e.g., terrorism) might create automatic attitudes toward them. Consistent with this notion, the IAT results indicated strong implicit preference for White over Arab-Muslim, whereas the magnitude of such a bias was substantially diminished when assessed by explicit measures (Study 1). It is also interesting to note that participants exhibited implicit preference for Black over Arab-Muslim when measured by the IAT, whereas no difference was found between the 2 groups in stimulus familiarity and in explicit attitudes (Studies 2 and 3). However, such implicit effects were moderated when participants were exposed to positive information about Arab-Muslims (Study 3). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are further discussed.     

The influence of context and UCS intensity on the UCS preexposure effect in a flavor aversion paradigm

Three studies were conducted to evaluate the influence of environmental context and UCS preexposure intensity on the acquisition of a flavor aversion. In the first study, rats were exposed to two UCS-alone presentations at one of three dose levels of LiCl. The rats were given the two UCS preexposures in one of two contexts (familiar or novel). Following the UCS-alone treatment, all of the subjects received two pairings of sucrose and LiCl (1.25 meq) in the familiar context. Animals receiving UCS preexposures in the same context as used during conditioning consumed significantly more sucrose than did saline control animals. In contrast, the influence of prior UCS preexposure was not evident when UCS preexposure was experienced in a context different from that experienced during conditioning. In Experiment 2, all animal received UCS preexposure and conditioning in the novel room. Animals received either two or four preexposures at 0, 1.25, or 3.75 meq dose of LiCl. Two UCS preexposures at 3.75 meq dose produced a stronger UCS preexposure effect than did the 1.25 meq dose. Animals in Experiment 3 received two exposures to either 0-, 1.25-, or 3.75-meq LiCl in one of two contexts, followed by conditioning with the 1.25-meq LiCl dose in the same context as preexposure. Greater UCS interference occurred in animals preexposed to LiCl in the novel rather than familiar environment, with no specific dose effects in either context. These observations are discussed in terms of context blocking and generalization decrement models of the UCS preexposure effect.     

Comparison of DSM-III-R chronic major depression and major depression superimposed on dysthymia (double depression): validity of the distinction

The nosology of chronic depression has become increasingly complex since the publication of the revised third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987), but there are few data available to evaluate the validity of the distinctions between the subtypes of chronic depression. The validity of the distinction between DSM-III-R chronic major depression (CMD) and major depression superimposed on dysthymia (double depression, DD) was examined. Participants were 635 patients with chronic depression in a 12-week trial of antidepressant medications. Patients with CMD, DD, and a 3rd group with a chronic major depressive episode superimposed on dysthymia (DD/CMD) were compared on demographic and clinical characteristics, family history, and response to treatment. Few differences were evident, although the depression of patients with DD/CMD tended to be more severe.     

Psychosocial predictors of the short-term course and outcome of major depression: a longitudinal study of a nonclinical sample with recent-onset episodes

Three variables have been hypothesized to play important roles in prolonging the course of depressive episodes: a ruminative response style, significant interpersonal relationships, and childhood adversity. The authors examined whether these variables predicted the short-term course of major depressive disorder (MDD). Participants (n = 84) were college students with a recent-onset major depressive episode. Assessments included several interview and self-report measures, and data on interpersonal relationships were obtained from close confidants. Follow-up interviews were conducted 6 months later. After controlling for baseline severity, harsh discipline in childhood significantly predicted mean level of depression across the follow-up and level of depression at follow-up. Harsh discipline was also significantly associated with relapse but not with recovery. After controlling for baseline severity, rumination and the interpersonal variables did not predict the outcome of MDD.