The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Project: lifetime history of axis I psychopathology in individuals at high and low cognitive risk for depression

The authors tested the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression with a retrospective behavioral high-risk design. Individuals without current Axis I diagnoses who exhibited either negative or positive cognitive styles were compared on lifetime prevalence of depressive and other disorders and the clinical parameters of depressive episodes. Consistent with predictions, cognitively high-risk participants had higher lifetime prevalence than low-risk participants of major and hopelessness depression and marginally higher prevalence of minor depression. These group differences were specific to depressive disorders. The high-risk group also had more severe depressions than the low-risk group, but not longer duration or earlier onset depressions. The risk group differences in prevalence of depressive disorders were not mediated by current depressive symptoms.     

Perceiving circular heading in noncanonical flow fields

Five experiments examined circular heading perception with optical flows that departed from the canonical form. Noncanonicity was achieved through nonrigidity of the environment (Experiments 1 and 2), oscillations of the point of observation (Experiment 3), and the bending of light (Experiments 4 and 5). In Experiments 1 and 2, perception was impaired more by nonrigidity of the ground plane than by nonrigidity of the medium. In Experiment 3, perception was unimpaired by noncanonical flows induced by the bounce and sway of observer locomotion. In Experiments 4 and 5, perception was not impaired when light paths were distorted by a spherical projection, but perception was impaired when they were distorted by a sine function. Results are discussed in relation to the hypothesis that the information for perceiving heading is the ordinal pattern of optical flow.     

Dimensional complexity and power spectral measures of the EEG during functional versus predicative problem solving

Electroencephalograms were recorded in 22 men while solving tasks of visual-pattern completion and during mental relaxation. They were primed (by foregoing trials) to solve these tasks either in a predicative or functional mode of thinking. Predicative thinking required that in order to complete the pattern the subject had to get involved with the logic of the static structure of the pattern and therefore had to recognize the recurrence of certain features of the elements (e.g., shape, color, and size). Functional thinking required involvement in a dynamic reading of the logic of the pattern and therefore to search for operations and actions to be performed on the pattern elements (e.g., pushing, mirroring, and rotating). The EEG complexity during predicative thinking decreased in comparison to functional thinking and mental relaxation, with this reduction being most pronounced over the right parietal cortex. A reduction in dimensional complexity during functional thinking as compared to mental relaxation, which was concentrated over the left central cortex, although significant, was less clear. The reduced EEG complexity during predicative thought, dominant over the right hemisphere, could reflect increased competitive inhibition among respective cortical neuron assemblies in association with the visual analysis of static element features, converging upon those predicates relevant for the solution.     

The role of mental relaxation in experimental desensitization

Certain evidence indicates that training in peripheral muscle relaxation is not an essential factor in the successful experimental desensitization of phobias. Rachman (1968) has suggested that a sense of calmness or mental relaxation is the necessary component and that all the preliminary training techniques leading to successful desensitization, have, as the basis for their success, the inadvertent induction of this state of mental calmness. The direct induction of mental relaxation then, ought to be at least as effective an adjunct to desensitization as training in muscle relaxation. Using spider phobia as the target behaviour, the present study compared the effectiveness of (a) hierarchy presentation paired with deep muscle relaxation; (b) hierarchy presentation paired with instructions to feel calm and relaxed and alternated with imagining a pleasant scene; (c) a combination of these two procedures paired with hierarchy presentation; and (d) a placebo control procedure. The treatment groups all improved significantly more than controls and there there were no differences between treatments. The results were seen as offering strong support of Rachman's position. Both theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed with consideration being given to the nature of “mental calmness”.     

The clergyman's use of mental health resources

Pastoral Psychology -     

The course of depressive symptoms in men from early adolescence to young adulthood: identifying latent trajectories and early predictors

Heterogeneity in the longitudinal course of depressive symptoms was studied through the use of general growth mixture modeling for young men in the Oregon Youth Study (N=206), who ranged in age from 15 to 24 years. Four trajectory classes were identified: the very-low, the moderate-decreasing, the high-decreasing, and the high-persistent classes. The 3 lowest classes differed primarily quantitatively with the initial level or mean level across time being the major determinant of class differences, whereas the high-persistent class appeared qualitatively different in terms of long-term developmental trends and variation. Findings from univariate and multivariate analyses revealed specific effects of childhood, parental, contextual, and individual risk factors on the class membership as well as on the growth within each trajectory class.     

Choosing the path to bargaining power: an empirical comparison of BATNAs and contributions in negotiation

Although the negotiations literature identifies a variety of approaches for improving one's power position, the relative benefits of these approaches remain largely unexplored. The empirical study presented in this article begins to address this issue by examining how the size of the bargaining zone affects the relative benefit of an advantage in one's BATNA (i.e., having a better alternative than one's counterpart) versus contribution (i.e., contributing more to the relationship than one's counterpart) for negotiator performance. Results indicate that whereas BATNAs exerted a stronger effect on resource allocations than contributions when the bargaining zone was small, an advantage in contributions exerted a stronger effect on resource allocations than BATNAs when the bargaining zone was large. These findings provide needed insight and supporting evidence for how to alter one's power relationship in negotiation.     

The structure of goal contents across 15 cultures

The authors investigated the structure of goal contents in a group of 1,854 undergraduates from 15 cultures around the world. Results suggested that the 11 types of goals the authors assessed were consistently organized in a circumplex fashion across the 15 cultures. The circumplex was well described by positioning 2 primary dimensions underlying the goals: intrinsic (e.g., self-acceptance, affiliation) versus extrinsic (e.g., financial success, image) and self-transcendent (e.g., spirituality) versus physical (e.g., hedonism). The circumplex model of goal contents was also quite similar in both wealthier and poorer nations, although there were some slight cross-cultural variations. The relevance of these results for several theories of motivation and personality are discussed.     

Price sensitivity and innovativeness for fashion among Korean consumers

Price sensitivity is how consumers react to price levels and to price changes. Consumer innovativeness is a tendency to welcome and to adopt new products. Researchers (e.g., R. E. Goldsmith & S. J. Newell, 1997) consider innovative consumers relatively more price insensitive than other consumers, so there should be a negative correlation between measures of these constructs. The results of the present study supported the psychometric soundness of a self-report measure of price sensitivity among 860 Korean consumers and replicated earlier findings of the negative correlation between the 2 constructs.