Self-medication Hypothesis and Family Socialization Theory: Examining Independent and Common Mechanisms Responsible for Binge Drinking

For many, binge drinking behaviors start early and become a persistent pattern of use throughout the lifespan. In an effort to strengthen understanding of etiology, this study considered the mechanisms from the self-medication hypothesis and family socialization theory. The goal was to identify whether emotional distress is a potential shared mechanism that accounts for the development of binge drinking in different developmental periods. This study used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) dataset to examine binge drinking across time for n = 9,421 participants ranging in age from 11 to 18 (M = 15.39, SD = 1.62) at Wave I and ranging from 24 to 32 (M = 28.09, SD = 1.61) at Wave IV of the study. Using an autoregressive cross-lagged model, I examined how parent-child closeness, depressive symptoms, and binge drinking were related over three developmental periods. In examining cross-sectional and longitudinal relations, depressive symptoms were significantly related to binge drinking more often than parent-child closeness; however, results indicated the self-medication model may primarily account for concurrent drinking behaviors rather than long-term. The family socialization theory was indicated to account for some variability above and beyond the self-medication hypothesis. No indirect association between binge drinking and the parent-child relationship was detected through depressive symptoms, failing to support a shared mechanism between the two theories. The results provide support for a multifaceted assessment process for substance using clients, and support the use of Multisystemic Family Therapy, Multidimensional Family Therapy, and perhaps Attachment-Based Family Therapy.     

Judging Knowledge in the Digital Age: The Role of External‐Memory Organization

Two studies examined relations between features of external‐memory repositories (personal computers) and confidence in knowing. Participants judged their confidence in knowledge related to their work or studies and then answered questions about the way they store and use information. Participants who maintained more organized repositories were more confident in their knowledge. Furthermore, moderation analyses showed that the participants who navigated through their files by manually clicking through folders to find documents, but not those who use an automated search feature, felt more knowledge confident if they maintained a well‐organized electronic repository. These results provide evidence for relation between assessments of internally ‘stored’ knowledge and the degree of organization of their externally stored ‘knowledge.’ Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Health-Related Quality of Life,Functioning and Social Experiences in People with Psychotic Disorders

Applied Research in Quality of Life - To inform development of a model for health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with psychotic disorders, we aimed to assess correlations between...     

Customer Loyalty to the Salesperson and the Store: Examining Relationship Customers in an Upscale Retail Context

Only recently has research interest in relationship marketing and customer loyalty converged in the retail context. Although this research shows that relationship customers maintain their primary loyalty to the salesperson, which then “spills over” and affects loyalty to the store, other research suggests that salesperson loyalty has direct effects on store-level outcomes, such as spending and word of mouth. However, this has not been comprehensively investigated, and relationship researchers have specifically called for research examining the effects of salesperson and store loyalty on store-level outcomes. Our research addresses this call, and shows that in an upscale retail context a relationship customer's loyalty to the salesperson is significantly related to store loyalty as well as the important store-level outcomes of share of purchases, word of mouth and competitive resistance.     

Characteristics and Correlates of Cigarette Use Among Recent U.S. Veterans

Little is known about the smoking habits and cessation efforts of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom will seek health care services in the public sector. This project documents rates of smoking and quit attempts among veterans receiving Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) health care and describes the relationship between current smoking use/cessation and demographic characteristics, quality of life, and potential alcohol misuse.

A large representative sample of Iraq/Afghanistan era veterans was surveyed using the VA Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients (Wright, Craig, Campbell, Schafer, &; Humble, 2006 Wright, S. M., Craig, T., Campbell, S., Schaefer, J. and Humble, C. 2006. Patient satisfaction of female and male users of Veterans Health Administration services. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(Suppl. 3): S26–S32. [Crossref], [PubMed] , [Google Scholar]). One third of respondents reported smoking during the past year and 24% reported currently smoking. Current smoking status was more prevalent among those who reported less education and lower household income. Current smoking status was also related to lower mental and physical health quality of life and higher potential alcohol misuse scores. Quit attempts were significantly less common among reserve component veterans and quitters reported higher incomes and were slightly older. The frequency of cigarette smoking among recent veterans underscores the importance of addressing smoking cessation efforts within this population. Individual characteristics associated with current smoking, cessation efforts, and relapse may help tailor cessation treatment for this growing cohort of new veterans.     

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.     

The pigeon's variability discrimination with lists of successively presented visual stimuli.

Pigeons previously trained to peck 1 button (same) after the successive presentation of 16 identical pictures and to peck a 2nd button (different) after the successive presentation of 16 nonidentical pictures were tested on lists involving different degrees of variability, different list lengths, and different temporal organizations of list items. The pigeons' performances on this successive same-different task revealed a strong sensitivity to list entropy; but, their discrimination was also affected by their memory for list items and by the accumulated evidence for a same versus a different response. Statistical models confirmed and quantified the importance of these additional factors.     

Personality traits and university program

Participants were 147 undergraduates majoring in programs classified as more professional (education, n = 28; business, n = 33) or less professional (natural sciences, n = 36; social science, n = 50) and more people-oriented (education, social sciences) or less people-oriented (business, natural sciences). They completed self-report tests for 13 personality constructs (five from Goldberg's version of the Five Factor Model, three from Eysenck and Eysenck's theory, and five others). Students in less professional disciplines scored higher on openness to experience (intellect/imagination) than those in more professional disciplines. Students in more people-oriented disciplines scored higher on empathy than those in less people-oriented disciplines. Women scored higher than men on conscientiousness, industriousness, and empathy, but lower than men on independence. Critical comments are offered and suggestions for research are made.