Conjoint developmental trajectories of young adult alcohol and tobacco use

Developmental and etiological advances have set the stage for considering trajectories of problem behavior across the life course, but little work thus far addresses co-occurring problem behavior trajectories. Although recent work characterizes drinking and smoking trajectories, none has explored the course of concurrent drinking and smoking. Using panel data from the Monitoring the Future Project (N=32,087), the authors applied growth mixture modeling to 4 waves of heavy drinking and smoking in a young-adult sample. The authors extracted a single latent group membership factor from heavy drinking and smoking. Associations between trajectory classes and risk factors were relatively unique to the substance being predicted. The association of smoking with alcohol expectancies and delinquency appeared to exist by virtue of smoking's comorbidity with drinking.     

Culture and self: are there within-culture differences in self between metropolitan areas and regional cities?

Although differences in self-conception across cultures have been well researched, regional differences within a culture have escaped attention. The present study examined individual, relational, and collective selves, which capture people's conceptions of themselves in relation to their goals, significant others, and in groups, comparing Australians and Japanese participants living in regional cities and metropolitan areas. Culture, gender, and urbanism were found to be related to individual, relational, and collective selves, respectively. Australians emphasized individual self more than Japanese, women stressed relational self more than men, and residents in regional cities regarded collective self as more important than their counterparts in metropolitan areas. These findings provide support for the tripartite division of the self and suggest a need to construct a culture theory that links self and societal processes.     

Microstructure of eating behavior associated with Rorschach characteristics in obesity

The relationship between the microstructure of eating behavior and personality aspects according to the Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 1991, 1993) was investigated among obese participants (N = 32). Eating behavior was measured using a computerized eating monitor, VIKTOR (Cabmek, Stockholm, Sweden), calculating initial eating rate and the eating curve. A higher initial eating rate reflecting eating drive was associated with Rorschach signs of stress overload according to the D Score and higher affective responsiveness to external stimuli seen in the Affective ratio. The stress overload may prompt eating, and affective responsiveness may be linked to appetite through a higher sensitivity to food stimuli, thus increasing eating drive. An accelerating rate of consumption during the meal was associated with intense emotionality and oral dependency, suggested by Pure C and Food responses.     

Antisocial Behavior,Moral Disengagement,Empathy and Negative Emotion: A Comparison Between Disabled and Able-Bodied Athletes

Theories of morality suggest that negative emotions associated with antisocial behavior should diminish motivation for such behavior. Two reasons that have been proposed to explain why some individuals repeatedly harm others are that (a) they use mechanisms of moral disengagement to justify their actions, and (b) they may not empathize with and vicariously experience the negative emotions felt by their victims. With the aim of testing these proposals, the present study compared spinal cord injured disabled athletes and able-bodied athletes to determine the effect of reduced visceral afferent feedback caused by spinal cord injury on antisocial behavior, moral disengagement, empathy, and negative emotion (i.e., anger, anxiety, and dejection). Disabled athletes reported less frequent antisocial behavior and lower moral disengagement than able-bodied athletes. Group differences in antisocial behavior were mediated by differences in moral disengagement. The two groups did not differ in empathy or negative emotion. The findings of this study suggest that antisocial behavior may be regulated by mechanisms of moral disengagement.     

First Language Attrition Induces Changes in Online Morphosyntactic Processing and Re‐Analysis: An ERP Study of Number Agreement in Complex Italian Sentences

First language (L1) attrition in adulthood offers new insight on neuroplasticity and the role of language experience in shaping neurocognitive responses to language. Attriters are multilinguals for whom advancing L2 proficiency comes at the cost of the L1, as they experience a shift in exposure and dominance (e.g., due to immigration). To date, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying L1 attrition are largely unexplored. Using event‐related potentials (ERPs), we examined L1‐Italian grammatical processing in 24 attriters and 30 Italian native‐controls. We assessed whether (a) attriters differed from non‐attriting native speakers in their online detection and re‐analysis/repair of number agreement violations, and whether (b) differences in processing were modulated by L1‐proficiency. To test both local and non‐local agreement violations, we manipulated agreement between three inflected constituents and examined ERP responses on two of these (subject, verb , modifier ). Our findings revealed group differences in amplitude, scalp distribution, and duration of LAN/N400 + P600 effects. We discuss these differences as reflecting influence of attriters’ L2‐English, as well as shallower online sentence repair processes than in non‐attriting native speakers. ERP responses were also predicted by L1‐Italian proficiency scores, with smaller N400/P600 amplitudes in lower proficiency individuals. Proficiency only modulated P600 amplitude between 650 and 900 ms, whereas the late P600 (beyond 900 ms) depended on group membership and amount of L1 exposure within attriters. Our study is the first to show qualitative and quantitative differences in ERP responses in attriters compared to non‐attriting native speakers. Our results also emphasize that proficiency predicts language processing profiles, even in native‐speakers, and that the P600 should not be considered a monolithic component.     

Borderline personality disorder features predict negative outcomes 2 years later

In a sample of 351 young adults, the authors assessed whether borderline personality disorder (BPD) features prospectively predicted negative outcomes (poorer academic achievement and social maladjustment) over the subsequent 2 years, over and above gender and both Axis I and Axis II psychopathology. Borderline traits were significantly related to these outcomes, with impulsivity and affective instability the most highly associated. The present findings suggest that the impulsivity and affective instability associated with BPD leads to impairment in relating well with others, in meeting social role obligations, and in academic or occupational achievement. Therefore, these may be especially important features to target in interventions for BPD.     

"Do social networks explain 12-step sponsorship effects? A prospective lagged mediation analysis": Correction to Rynes and Tonigan (2011)

Reports an error in "Do social networks explain 12-step sponsorship effects? A prospective lagged mediation analysis" by Kristina N. Rynes and J. Scott Tonigan (Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Advanced Online Publication, Sep 5, 2011, np). There is an error in the last paragraph of the Participants section. It was reported that 14.8% of the sample were Asian, however, 14.8% of the participants were American Indian or Alaskan Native and no participants were Asian. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-20052-001.) Sponsorship is a basic and important part of the 12-step approach to recovery from substance abuse (Alcoholics Anonymous, 2005) and research has shown that having a sponsor is associated with increased involvement in 12-step programs and improved outcomes (Bond, Kaskutas, & Weisner, 2003; Tonigan & Rice, 2010). However, little is known about how sponsorship improves outcomes. Given research demonstrating bivariate associations between sponsorship and social support for abstinence (Majer, Jason, Ferrari, Venable, & Olson, 2002), we hypothesized that the association between having a sponsor and increased abstinence outcomes would be explained by increases in one's abstinence-based social network. Prospective fully lagged mediational analyses did not support this hypothesis and these results ran counter to findings of five previous studies (cf. Groh, Jason, & Keys, 2008). A review of these studies showed that researchers often used cross-sectional or partially lagged methods to test mediation and the mediational effect of the social network was small in magnitude. Results suggest that the prospective association between sponsorship and abstinence is not explained by increases in the abstinence-based social network and demonstrate the need for future studies to use rigorous and time-lagged methods to test social support for abstinence as a mediator of the effects of 12-step involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Leader mistreatment,employee hostility,and deviant behaviors: Integrating self-uncertainty and thwarted needs perspectives on deviance

Integrating self-uncertainty management and thwarted needs perspectives on leader mistreatment and workplace deviance, we examine when and why leader mistreatment is associated with workplace deviance. We propose that competence uncertainty strengthens the relationship between leader mistreatment and workplace deviance and that hostility mediates this interactive effect. Four field studies and one experiment support the hypotheses. The first two studies provide evidence for the predicted interaction between leader mistreatment and competence uncertainty, and the next three studies demonstrate that hostility mediates this interactive effect. We discuss an extended social exchange explanation of workplace deviance and highlight the psychological interplay between motives, cognition, and affect in reciprocating leader mistreatment.     

Assessing Innovation: A 360‐degree appraisal study

This study examines the evaluation of innovation in a wider competency framework and within a 360‐degree rating procedure among managerial‐level job holders. The total sample of 2,979 individuals consisted of 296 target employees and their 318 bosses, 1208 peers, 828 direct reports, and 329 others who provided ratings on a competency framework. The results showed significant differences in innovation‐related competence ratings between different raters. Self‐ratings were significantly lower compared to the overall observer ratings and were correlated only with peer ratings. Different patterns of results were found for the lower and upper quartiles based on self‐ratings. For instance, no correlations were observed between self‐ratings and the ratings of any observers in the group of best self‐rated individuals. Implications for practice and future research in assessment and evaluation of innovation are discussed in conclusion.     

Hungry pigeons make suboptimal choices, less hungry pigeons do not

Hungry animals will often choose suboptimally by being attracted to reliable signals for food that occur infrequently (they gamble) over less reliable signals for food that occur more often. That is, pigeons prefer an option that 50?% of the time provides them with a reliable signal for the appearance of food but 50?% of the time provides them with a reliable signal for the absence of food (overall 50?% reinforcement) over an alternative that always provides them with a signal for the appearance of food 75?% of the time (overall 75?% reinforcement). The pigeons appear to choose impulsively for the possibility of obtaining the reliable signal for reinforcement. There is evidence that greater hunger is associated with greater impulsivity. We tested the hypothesis that if the pigeons were less hungry, they would be less impulsive and, thus, would choose more optimally (i.e., on the basis of the overall probability of reinforcement). We found that hungry pigeons choose the 50?% reinforcement alternative suboptimally but less hungry pigeons prefer the more optimal 75?% reinforcement. Paradoxically, pigeons that needed the food more received less of it. These findings have implications for how level of motivation may also affect human suboptimal choice (e.g., purchase of lottery tickets and playing slot machines).