Rumination and Impaired Cortisol Recovery Following a Social Stressor in Adolescent Depression

Response styles theory promotes rumination as a central cognitive construct driving negative mood and depression, and past research suggests that at least part of the mechanism driving rumination’s depressogenic effect is through inhibiting the individual’s ability to shift attentional focus away from negative environmental stimuli. In the current study, we hypothesized that high trait rumination would be associated with impaired recovery of the body’s biological response to psychological stress. In a community sample of depressed (n?=?31) and non-depressed (n?=?33) adolescents we assessed rumination and the more adaptive trait of distraction and problem-solving with the Children’s Response Styles Questionnaire (CRSQ; Abela 2000), and diagnostic status was confirmed using the Child and Adolescent Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS; Kaufman et al. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 36:980–988, 1997). Participants completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al. Neuropsychobiology 28:76–81, 1993), and the focus of our analyses was the change in salivary cortisol concentration between peak cortisol output (25 min post-stressor) and a sample taken during the “Recovery” period 65 minutes post-stressor. Consistent with the predictions of response style theory, among the depressed adolescents only, high trait rumination was associated with delayed post-stressor cortisol recovery, whereas high trait distraction and problem-solving was associated with more rapid recovery. In contrast, response styles were not associated with cortisol recovery in the non-depressed group. These findings implicate impaired post-stress cortisol recovery as a potential mechanism underlying the pathological effect of rumination on the development and maintenance of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).     

‘Lyin' Ted’, ‘Crooked Hillary’, and ‘Deceptive Donald’: Language of Lies in the 2016 US Presidential Debates

Language in the high‐stakes 2016 US presidential primary campaign was contentious, filled with name‐calling, personal attacks, and insults. Language in debates served at least three political functions: for image making, to imagine potential realities currently not in practice, and to disavow facts. In past research, the reality monitoring (RM) framework has discriminated accurately between truthful and deceptive accounts (~70% classification). Truthful accounts show greater sensory, time and space, and affective information, with little evidence of cognitive operations. An RM algorithm was used with Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software to code candidates' language. RM scores were significantly higher in fact‐checked truth statements than in lies, and debate language in the 2016 primaries was as deceptive as fact‐checked lies. In a binary logistic regression model, one RM criterion, cognitive processes, predicted veracity using computerized RM, classifying 87% of fact‐checked truth statements but only 28% of fact‐checked lie statements (63% classification overall).Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychometric properties of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire in preschool children

We examined the psychometric properties of the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ; Bishop, Spence, & McDonald, 2003), a rating scale for children's behavioral inhibition. Parent and teacher ratings, parent interviews, and laboratory observations were obtained for 495 preschoolers. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded 6 factors, each reflecting the BIQ's subscales, and all loading onto a second-order general dimension. Model fit was acceptable for parent ratings, but only marginal for teacher ratings. The convergent and discriminant validity of the BIQ was examined by using a multitrait-multimethod approach. Results indicate that the BIQ displays evidence of reliability and validity that can complement observational paradigms.     

Trouble articulating the right words: Evidence for a response‐exclusion account of distraction during semantic fluency

It is widely held that single‐word lexical access is a competitive process, a view based largely on the observation that naming a picture is slowed in the presence of a distractor‐word. However, problematic for this view is that a low‐frequency distractor‐word slows the naming of a picture more than does a high‐frequency word. This supports an alternative, response‐exclusion, account in which a distractor‐word interferes because it must be excluded from an articulatory output buffer before the right word can be articulated (the picture name): A high, compared to low, frequency word accesses the buffer more quickly and, as such, can also be excluded more quickly. Here we studied the respective roles of competition and response‐exclusion for the first time in the context of semantic verbal fluency, a setting requiring the accessing of, and production of, multiple words from long‐term memory in response to a single semantic cue. We show that disruption to semantic fluency by a sequence of to‐be‐ignored spoken distractors is also greater when those distractors are low in frequency, thereby extending the explanatory compass of the response‐exclusion account to a multiple‐word production setting and casting further doubt on the lexical‐selection‐by‐competition view. The results can be understood as reflecting the contribution of speech output processes to semantic fluency.     

Worldviews and individual vulnerability to suicide: The role of social axioms

Research investigating the role of generalized beliefs about the world or worldviews is relatively scarce in the suicide literature. Two studies, using Hong Kong Chinese samples, examined how worldviews, as assessed by the Social Axioms Survey (SAS), were linked with individual vulnerability to suicide. In Study 1, we investigated the relationships of social axioms with various suicide indicators in cognitive, emotional and interpersonal domains, viz., suicidal ideation, negative self‐esteem, psychache, burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness. Results from canonical correlation analysis showed that beliefs along the axiom dimensions of social cynicism, reward for application, and social complexity were linked to these suicide indicators. In Study 2, we tested the interplay of worldviews and personality traits in the prediction of suicidal thoughts. Hierarchical regression results demonstrated the predictive power of social axioms over and above that provided by the Big Five personality dimensions. Moreover, a significant interaction was observed between belief in reward for application and negative life events in predicting suicidal ideation, showing that reward for application buffered the effect of negative life events on suicidal ideation. Based on these results, we discussed the significance of worldviews as a consideration in suicide research and their implications for clinical assessment and intervention. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correspondence of children's anticipated vocations, perceived competencies, and interests: Results from an Italian sample

Relations among anticipated vocations, self-assessments of competence, and interests in sample of 190 Italian children were examined. Children were asked what activities they liked, those they thought they were good at, and what job they expected when they grew up. The responses were coded into RIASEC Holland codes and agreement across the three questions was examined using kappa statistics. Results indicated that there was no relation between anticipated occupations and either interest or perceived competence. Thus, these anticipated occupations appear to be based on unrealistic criteria and the validity of studying such early expressions of interest is questionable. Conversely, results demonstrated a correspondence between interest and competence and this correspondence was similar for boys and girls and increased with age.     

The Application of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in Predicting General Social Adaptation and Specific Social Behaviors in a Dyadic Interaction

The goal of this study was to evaluate the ability of the harm avoidance (HA) and cooperativeness (C) dimensions of the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) to predict general social adaptation as measured by the Social Adaptation Self-Evaluation scale and specific social behaviors during a dyadic social interaction. A sample of 58 healthy volunteers participated in a social interaction with confederates. Social adaptation was negatively associated with HA scores (β= -.49), but positively associated with C scores (β= - .46). Eye-contact patterns were predicted by C scores based on general linear modeling (GLM) analysis. The results suggest that TCI should be included for the evaluation of treatment effects on social functioning.