Emotional expression and heart rate in high-risk infants during the face-to-face/still-face

In infants, eye constriction—the Duchenne marker—and mouth opening appear to index the intensity of both positive and negative facial expressions. We combined eye constriction and mouth opening that co-occurred with smiles and cry-faces (respectively, the prototypic expressions of infant joy and distress) to measure emotional expression intensity. Expression intensity and heart rate were measured throughout the face-to-face/still-face (FFSF) in a sample of infants with prenatal cocaine exposure who were at risk for developmental difficulties. Smiles declined and cry-faces increased in the still-face episode, but the distribution of eye constriction and mouth opening in smiles and cry-faces did not differ across episodes of the FFSF. As time elapsed in the still face episode potential indices of intensity increased, cry-faces were more likely to be accompanied by eye constriction and mouth opening. During cry-faces there were also moderately stable individual differences in the quantity of eye constriction and mouth opening. Infant heart rate was higher during cry-faces and lower during smiles, but did not vary with intensity of expression or by episode. In sum, infants express more intense negative affect as the still-face progresses, but do not show clear differences in expressive intensity between episodes of the FFSF.     

Last Words: Analysis of Suicide Notes from an RECBT Perspective: An Exploratory Study

A sample of 86 suicide notes was analyzed to identify the common cognitive and emotional themes contained in the text from a rational-emotive and cognitive behavior therapy (RECBT) perspective. Using grounded theory and statistical analysis to examine the data, this study found that the most frequent emotional categories to be present in these suicide notes are autonomous depression, sociotropic depression, guilt, shame, hurt and anger. It was also discovered that men, more than women, are likely to write about their experience of guilt in their suicide notes at the end of a relationship, while women are more likely to express feelings of hurt. This study may enable RECBT practitioners to better understand the cognitive and emotional factors of suicide behavior, and it may encourage future research into more specific suicide prevention protocols.     

Mechanisms of Risk and Resilience in Military Families: Theoretical and Empirical Basis of a Family-Focused Resilience Enhancement Program

Recent studies have confirmed that repeated wartime deployment of a parent exacts a toll on military children and families and that the quality and functionality of familial relations is linked to force preservation and readiness. As a result, family-centered care has increasingly become a priority across the military health system. FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress), a family-centered, resilience-enhancing program developed by a team at UCLA and Harvard Schools of Medicine, is a primary initiative in this movement. In a large-scale implementation project initiated by the Bureau of Navy Medicine, FOCUS has been delivered to thousands of Navy, Marine, Navy Special Warfare, Army, and Air Force families since 2008. This article describes the theoretical and empirical foundation and rationale for FOCUS, which is rooted in a broad conception of family resilience. We review the literature on family resilience, noting that an important next step in building a clinically useful theory of family resilience is to move beyond developing broad “shopping lists” of risk indicators by proposing specific mechanisms of risk and resilience. Based on the literature, we propose five primary risk mechanisms for military families and common negative “chain reaction” pathways through which they undermine the resilience of families contending with wartime deployments and parental injury. In addition, we propose specific mechanisms that mobilize and enhance resilience in military families and that comprise central features of the FOCUS Program. We describe these resilience-enhancing mechanisms in detail, followed by a discussion of the ways in which evaluation data from the program’s first 2 years of operation supports the proposed model and the specified mechanisms of action.     

The holistic theory of Andras Angyal: measuring the system principle

Scales were devised to measure Andras Angyal's concepts of the trends toward autonomy and homonomy and the patterns of vicarious living and noncommitment. In a sample of 82 undergraduates (62 women, 20 men), scores for the trends were negatively associated with psychoticism scores (-.42 and -.39, respectively), while scores for the patterns were positively associated with neuroticism scores (.42 and .49, respectively).     

National anthems and suicide rates

In a sample of 18 European nations, suicide rates were positively associated with the proportion of low notes in the national anthems and, albeit less strongly, with students' ratings of how gloomy and how sad the anthems sounded, supporting a hypothesis proposed by Rihmer.