Reply to Furedy (1991)

Furedy (1991) suggests that Goddard's (1991) US-US associative theory of habituation cites supporting studies that may not involve emotionally arousing stimuli or may not be associative in nature. The difficulty in characterizing a stimulus as emotionally arousing and the issues involved in what constitutes a US-US association are discussed. It is hoped that the Goddard-Furedy interchange might stimulate further empirical research on this issue and some constructive suggestions are offered.     

Medically Documented Suicide Ideation Among U.S. Army Soldiers

We used administrative data to examine predictors of medically documented suicide ideation (SI) among Regular Army soldiers from 2006 through 2009 (N = 10,466 ideators, 124,959 control person‐months). Enlisted ideators (97.8% of all cases) were more likely than controls to be female, younger, older when entering service, less educated, never or previously deployed, and have a recent mental health diagnosis. Officer ideators were more likely than controls to be female, younger, younger when entering service, never married, and have a recent mental health diagnosis. Risk among enlisted soldiers peaked in the second month of service and declined steadily, whereas risk among officers remained relatively stable over time. Risk of SI is highest among enlisted soldiers early in Army service, females, and those with a recent mental health diagnosis.     

Concurrent and short‐term longitudinal associations between peer victimization and school and recess liking during middle childhood

Background Prior studies outside of the UK have shown that peer victimization is negatively associated with school adjustment. Aims To examine concurrent and short‐term longitudinal associations between peer victimization (physical, malicious teasing, deliberate social exclusion, and malicious gossiping) and two measures of school adjustment (school liking and recess liking), and test if these associations were moderated by year and sex. Sample A UK sample of 429 pupils in Years 4, 5, and 6 (Grades 3, 4, and 5, respectively, in USA) participated in the Autumn/Winter (Time 1) and 189 of these provided follow‐up data during the Spring/Summer (Time 2) of the same school year. Method Peer nominations of victimization, and self‐reports of school adjustment were collected in individual and small group interviews. Results At time 2 (but not Time 1), victimization predicted concurrent school liking among year 6 pupils but not among year 4/5 pupils, and victimization predicted recess liking among all pupils. Victimization also predicted changes in School liking among boys (not girls) and among Year 6 (not Year 4/5) pupils, and victimization predicted changes in recess liking among all pupils. Conclusions The associations between victimization and poor school adjustment found elsewhere were replicated with this British sample. The implications of these results for children's social adjustment at school were discussed.     

Ethical Issues in Tissue Banking for Research: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Setting International Standards

Bauer, Taub, and Parsi's review of an international sample of standards on informed consent, confidentiality, commercialization, and quality of research in tissue banking reveals that no clear national or international consensus exists for these issues. The authors' response to the lack of uniformity in the meaning, scope, and ethical significance of the policies they examined is to call for the creation of uniform ethical guidelines. This raises questions about whether harmonization should consist of voluntary international standards or international regulations that include an official oversight mechanism and sanctions for noncompliance, and about who should participate in the harmonization process. Moreover, the normative assumptions and political dynamics that shape global policymaking need to be addressed. This commentary explores the policy implications and normative questions raised by the idea of international ethical guidelines for the use of biotechnologies and biotechnological resources such as stored samples of human tissue.     

Balancing connectedness and self-protection goals in close relationships: a levels-of-processing perspective on risk regulation

A model of risk regulation is proposed to explain how low and high self-esteem people balance the tension between self-protection and connectedness goals in romantic relationships. This model assumes that interpersonal risk automatically activates connectedness and self-protection goals. The activation of these competing goals then triggers an executive control system that resolves this goal conflict. One correlational study and 8 experiments manipulating risk, goal strength, and executive strength and then measuring implicit and explicit goal activation and execution strongly supported the model. For people high in self-esteem, risk triggers a control system that directs them toward the situations of dependence within their relationship that can fulfill connectedness goals. For people low in self-esteem, however, the activation of connectedness goals triggers a control system that prioritizes self-protection goals and directs them away from situations where they need to trust or depend on their partner.     

The effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder: results from the borderline personality disorder study of cognitive therapy (BOSCOT) trial

The outcome of a randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy in addition to treatment as usual (CBT plus TAU) compared with TAU alone (TAU) in one hundred and six participants meeting diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder is described. We anticipated that CBT plus TAU would decrease the number of participants with in-patient psychiatric hospitalizations or accident and emergency room contact or suicidal acts over twelve months treatment and twelve months follow-up, compared with TAU. We also anticipated that CBT plus TAU would lead to improvement in a range of secondary outcomes of mental health and social functioning compared to TAU. Of the 106 participants randomized, follow-up data on 102 (96%) was obtained at two years. Those randomized to CBT were offered an average of 27 sessions over 12 months and attended on average 16 (range 0 to 35). We found that the global odds ratio of a participant in the CBT plus TAU group compared with the TAU alone group having any of the outcomes of a suicidal act, in-patient hospitalization, or accident and emergency contact in the 24 months following randomization was 0.86 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45 to 1.66, p = 0.66). The corresponding global odds ratio, excluding accident and emergency room contact, was 0.75 (95% CI 0.37 to 1.54, p = 0.44). In terms of the number of suicidal acts, there was a significant reduction over the two years in favor of CBT plus TAU over TAU, with a mean difference of -0.91 (95% CI -1.67 to -0.15, p = 0.020). Across both treatment arms there was gradual and sustained improvement in both primary and secondary outcomes, with evidence of benefit for the addition of CBT on the positive symptom distress index at one year, and on state anxiety, dysfunctional beliefs and the quantity of suicidal acts at two year follow-up. CBT can deliver clinically important changes in relatively few clinical sessions in real clinical settings.