Towards a cognitive resource limitations model of diminished expression in schizotypy

Diminished expression of speech is a pernicious feature of both schizophrenia and schizotypy--defined as the personality organization reflecting a putative genetic schizophrenia liability. As yet, the mechanism underlying diminished expression is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that diminished expression reflects a cognitive resource issue--that is, as cognitive resources are depleted, expression becomes diminished in individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypy. Acoustic analysis of natural speech was procured during experimentally manipulated baseline and high cognitive-load dual tasks and examined in 38 individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypy and 34 controls. For both groups, expression significantly decreased as a function of increased task demands, although there were no group differences in expression or magnitude of change across baseline to high cognitive-load conditions. Participants with self-reported constricted affect showed significant reductions in expression under high-load versus baseline speaking conditions relative to other schizotypal and control participants. Moreover, psychometrically defined schizotypal participants with poor cognitive performance on the high-load task, suggestive of depleted cognitive resources, also showed expressivity reductions compared with other participants. These findings suggest that diminished expression occurs as a function of limited cognitive resources in psychometrically defined schizotypy.     

Assessing daily fluctuations in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and substance use with Interactive Voice Response technology: protocol compliance and reactions

PTSD symptoms and substance use commonly co-occur, but information is limited regarding their interplay. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to capture fluctuations in PTSD symptoms and drinking within and across days. Fifty Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans completed four daily Interactive Voice Response (IVR) assessments of PTSD and substance use with cell phones for 28 days. The aims of this study were to (1) describe participant compliance and reactions to the protocol and (2) identify participant characteristics and protocol reactions that predict compliance. Protocol compliance was high, with participants completing an average of 96 out of a total of 112 IVR assessments (86%). While some participants perceived that the IVR assessments increased their drinking (21%) and PTSD symptoms (60%), self-report measures showed significant decreases in PTSD symptoms and nonsignificant decreases in drinking over the assessment period. Analyses revealed demographic (e.g., older than 24, full-time employment, more education), clinical (e.g., less binge drinking, less avoidance symptoms), and perceived benefit from participation predicted better protocol compliance. Results can guide future research on participant predictors of compliance with intensive EMA methods.     

Do Measures of Executive Functioning and Manipulation of Ego Depletion Predict How University Students Discount Probabilistic Gains and Losses?

Discounting occurs when the subjective value of an outcome is altered because the outcome is delayed or uncertain. Previous research has suggested that how individuals discount delayed gains is related to executive functioning. The present study attempted to extend this relationship to discounting of probabilistic gains and losses, and to examine whether diminishing cognitive resources would impact how participants discounted monetary outcomes. In Experiment 1, university students completed an executive function measure and then a probability-discounting task that involved the hypothetical sum of either $1,000 or $100,000 framed as either a gain or a loss. The executive function of organization was a significant predictor of how participants discounted all four outcomes while motivational drive predicted discounting of losses, but not gains. In Experiment 2, participants completed the same measures with the addition of an ego-depletion task to deplete cognitive resources before making discounting decisions. The executive function of motivational drive and empathy were significant predictors of how participants discounted both loss outcomes. The results suggest that discounting of monetary outcomes is related to the executive function of organization for gains and motivational drive, and empathy for losses. They also support the notion that the discounting of gains may be a distinct process from the discounting of losses.     

Examining Project Commitment in Cross-Functional Teams: Antecedents and Relationship with Team Performance

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to test a model positing both antecedents and consequences of project commitment for members of cross-functional teams. Signaling theory and previous research guided study hypotheses.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We collected primary data from 142 team members and 31 team leaders across 24 cross-functional product development teams nested within six manufacturing organizations in the US and Canada.

Findings

Findings suggest that project commitment among team members is an important driver of team performance as rated by the team leader. In addition, several factors contribute toward shaping project commitment among cross-functional team members, including team leaders’ encouragement of self-expectation, as well as team members’ perceptions of an organization’s support for the team project.

Implications

Cross-functional teams are often charged with completing projects critical to the profitability, growth, and even survival of a firm. Especially as we show that members’ project commitment is a meaningful predictor of team performance, managers may draw insight from study results as to what actions may be taken to promote the development of this important psychological state among members of cross-functional teams.

Originality/Value

Use of cross-functional teams for accomplishing a wide variety of firm objectives is becoming commonplace in organizations. Although theorized as an important construct in cross-functional team settings, empirical examinations of the nature and implications of project commitment have been limited. By examining both antecedents and potential team performance consequences of project commitment in multiple organizations, we contribute toward filling this gap.     

Religious Zeal and the Uncertain Self

In two studies, personal uncertainty threats caused compensatory religious zeal. In Study 1 an academic uncertainty manipulation heightened conviction for religious beliefs and support for religious warfare. In Study 2 a relationship uncertainty manipulation caused non-Muslim's to derogate Islam. Together, these findings demonstrate that two aspects of religious zeal—conviction for one's own beliefs and derogation of others'—are caused by personal uncertainty.     

Correlates of Victimization in a Juvenile Justice Population

The Practical Adolescent Dual Diagnostic Interview is a structured diagnostic interview designed to gather basic information about mental health conditions; past emotional, physical, and sexual abuse; suicide attempts; and substance use disorders. This instrument was administered to 435 males and 61 females in juvenile justice facilities and adolescent diversion courts to assess prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders relative to maltreatment (defined as physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse). Results showed that the majority of juveniles who experienced maltreatment were more likely to have diagnostic indications of behavioral health conditions. Additionally, for both males and females the odds of the individual having attempted suicide were more than twice as high for those acknowledging some form of maltreatment.     

How verbs and non-verbal categories navigate the syntax/semantics interface: Insights from cognitive neuropsychology

We report on two individuals with acquired language impairment who made thematic role confusion errors in both comprehension and production. Their confusions were remarkably specific, affecting the roles associated with spatial prepositions (“The box is in the bag” confused with The bag is in the box) and adjectival comparatives (“The glove is darker than the hat” confused with The hat is darker than the glove) but not the roles associated with verbs (e.g., in The woman helps the man). Additional results showed that the confusions did not arise from spatial deficits, deficits affecting the semantics of spatial terms and adjectives, or difficulties with spatial and comparative relationships. Interestingly, the selective deficits are well-explained by linguistic theories that propose that non-verbal lexical categories, when used as predicates, depend on special mechanisms and structures for linking their thematic roles to syntactic argument structures. These are the first neuropsychological results to show that thematic role assignment is supported by distinct brain mechanisms for verbal and non-verbal lexical categories. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the linguistic knowledge associated with verbal vs. non-verbal word classes and of the conditions under which these forms of knowledge support sentence processing.     

Behind the Mirror: Reflective Listening and its Tain in the Work of Carl Rogers

Although Rogerian reflective listening is considered a fundamental therapeutic practice, it is widely misunderstood. This article endeavors to dispel myths about Rogers’ reflective approach through detailed readings of his work, while also opening up a central problematic in Rogers’ thinking. Rogers struggled repeatedly with the dilemma of how the therapist can faithfully reflect the client's experience while avoiding insincerity. The metaphor of a mirror and its tain, or back surface, is used to guide a close analysis of how Rogers grappled with the tension between the therapist's reflective listening process and his or her inner experience while reflecting. It is shown that each of Rogers’ revisions of his conceptualization of reflective listening constitutes a dialectical shift that opens a different approach to the problem of the tain, eventually concluding in an interactional formulation of reflection as the provision of tentative therapist understandings designed to be amended in response to client feedback.     

Relationships between psychological stress,coping and disordered eating: A review

Abstract

Objective: Psychological stress and inadequate coping skills have been hypothesized to play important roles in the etiology of disordered eating. This paper reviews the empirical evidence which has emerged regarding the proposed relationships among stress. coping skills and various forms of disordered eating. Method: A search of psychological and medical databases was conducted to identify studies examining life events, and other types of psychological stress and coping strategies, in relation to the onset of disordered eating. Results: Despite methodological limitations such as the use of non-representative samples and retrospective methodologies, evidence of relationships between stress. coping and disordered eating was obtained in the majority of studies reviewed. Discussion: The implications of these findings am discussed and suggestions for future research, including the utilization of longitudinal. prospective studies, am presented.