Experiential Avoidance and Emotion Regulation in Borderline Personality Disorder

Many of the severe behavioral difficulties observed among persons with BPD (e.g., self-harm, suicidal behaviors) have been conceptualized as attempts to avoid or escape unwanted emotional experiences. As such, experiential avoidance likely plays a prominent role in the difficulties faced by persons with BPD. Individuals with BPD have demonstrated heightened levels of experiential avoidance in several studies. Several key features of BPD may contribute to experiential avoidance among persons with BPD, including a vulnerability to negative or distressing emotions, difficulty regulating emotions, and distress intolerance. Some research also suggests that a vulnerability to negative emotions among persons with BPD may be partly due to the use of experiential avoidance strategies to cope with emotional experiences. Within this paper, we review the literature on experiential avoidance and possible mechanisms underlying experiential avoidance among persons with BPD, and discuss the research and clinical implications of this literature.     

Factors Associated with Perpetration of Physical Intimate Partner Violence among College Students: Russia and Lithuania

This study examined factors associated with physical IPV perpetration in Russia and Lithuania. The data from the International Dating Violence Study 2001–2006 were analyzed (N= 818). Male and female perpetrators as compared to non-perpetrators of physical IPV have a higher prevalence of being perpetrators of other forms of IPV. Perpetrators of physical IPV as compared to non-perpetrators are more likely to have been victims of IPV. Male and female ‘intimate terrorist’ perpetrators exhibit different characteristics. Factors associated with IPV are different between male and female perpetrators. Interventions should focus on victimization and perpetration.     

“It wasn’t your fault,but …...”: Schadenfreude about an undeserved misfortune

Although it is well-established that an objectively deserved misfortune promotes schadenfreude about the misfortune, there is a small body of research suggesting that an undeserved misfortune can also enhance schadenfreude. The aim of the present study was to investigate the processes that underlie schadenfreude about an undeserved misfortune. Participants (N?=?61) were asked to respond to a scenario in which a person was responsible or not responsible for a negative action. In the responsible condition, two independent routes to schadenfreude were observed: deservingness of the misfortune (traditional route) and resentment towards the target. More importantly, results showed that when the target of the misfortune was not responsible for the negative action, the relationship between schadenfreude and resentment towards the target was mediated by the re-construal of an objectively undeserved misfortune as a ‘deserved’ misfortune. The study further found that expressing schadenfreude about another’s misfortune makes one feel better about oneself without affecting moral emotions. The findings expand our understanding of schadenfreude about undeserved negative outcomes.     

Bimanual comfort depends on how extreme either hand’s posture is,not on which hand is in the more extreme posture

Psychological Research - Although hand preference is one of the best known features of performance, a recent study of object transfer behavior (Coelho, Studenka, & Rosenbaum, J Exp Psychol...     

role stress,interrole conflict,and job satisfaction among university employees: the creation and test of a model

Many universities have experienced financial hardships during the recent economic downturn. To save money, several have resorted to laying off employees, which has often resulted in increased work and stress for the remaining employees. Such an increase has the potential to adversely affect employees' sense of job satisfaction. This study created and tested the fit of a conceptual model containing role stress and interrole conflict as a way to account for employees' job satisfaction. The model demonstrated an acceptable fit to the data and contained several significant paths. Implications of the results, study limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.     

Reengagement With Education: A Multidisciplinary Home-School-Clinic Approach Developed in Australia for School-Refusing Youth

School refusal (SR) can result in decreased academic achievement, impaired social connections, and family stress. Current interventions for SR include behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatments that are not always effective. Incorporating multidisciplinary work that includes therapeutic and educational interventions may enhance outcomes for youth displaying SR. The In2School program fosters a working partnership between mental health clinicians and teachers. It was designed to meet the needs of young people missing more than 50% of school in the previous 6 weeks due to mental health disorders, including anxiety or depression. This paper reports on an action research study in which the In2School program was piloted. Over a 14-week period, therapeutic and educational interventions were integrated into the learning environment via a transitional classroom to support youths’ return to school. Outcomes of this program are reported for the first cohort of 7 youth. Of these youth, 6 returned to mainstream schooling with attendance levels being maintained for 6 months after completing the intervention. Progress was observed in mental health recovery, quality of life reports, increased social interactions with peers, and positive experiences at school. The preliminary results presented in this paper suggest that a multidisciplinary, home-school-clinic intervention holds promise for helping school-refusing youth to return to school.     

Autism as a Form of Life: Wittgenstein and the Psychological Coherence of Autism

Autism is often taken to be a specific kind of mind. The dominant neuro‐cognitivist approach explains this via static processing traits framed in terms of hyper‐systemising and hypo‐empathising. By contrast, Wittgenstein‐inspired commentators argue that the coherence of autism arises relationally, from intersubjective disruption that hinders access to a shared world of linguistic meaning. This paper argues that both camps are unduly reductionistic and conflict with emerging evidence, due in part to unjustifiably assuming a deficit‐based framing of autism. It then develops a new Wittgensteinian account—autism as a different form of life—which avoids these issues. Rather than autistic systemising being the basis of autistic cognition, it is taken to be a reaction to pre‐epistemic and semantic anxieties that come with developing as a minority within a different form of life. This re‐framing can provide a coherent account of the autistic mind, and has significant conceptual, practical, and ethical implications.