Toward a social psychophysiology of vagally mediated heart rate variability: Concepts and methods in self‐regulation,emotion, and interpersonal processes

Theory and research on self‐regulation, emotional adjustment, and interpersonal processes focus increasingly on parasympathetic functioning, using measures of vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). This review describes models of vmHRV in these areas, and issues in measurement and analysis. We propose a framework organizing theory and research as examining (a) vmHRV as an individual difference or a situational response, and (b) resting, reactive, or recovery levels. Evidence supports interpretation of individual differences in resting vmHRV as a broad biomarker for adaptive functioning, but its specificity and underlying mechanisms require elaboration. Individual differences in vagal reactivity (i.e., trait‐like differences in vmHRV decreases during challenge or stress) are less commonly studied in adults and results are mixed. Many stressors and challenges evoke temporary decreases in vmHRV, and in some research self‐regulatory effort evokes increases. In a smaller literature, positive interpersonal experiences and some restorative processes increase resting vmHRV, whereas depletion of self‐regulatory capacity through related effort decreases it. Greater attention to conceptual distinctions regarding vmHRV constructs and several methodological issues will strengthen future research. Importantly, researchers should exercise caution in equating vmHRV with specific psychosocial constructs, especially in the absence of converging assessments and precise experimental manipulations.     

The relationship between STD locus of control and STD acquisition among adolescent girls

This longitudinal study examined adolescent girls' perception of control over sexually transmitted disease (STD) acquisition. Participants were asked questions regarding their perception of their STD locus of control (internal control; control by parents, partners, peers, and health care providers; and chance) at two waves of data collection. Of the 116 participants (mean age = 17 years), 82% were African-American and 18% were Caucasian. Responses to the measure of locus of control were significantly correlated across a 6-month interval. The responses regarding internal control, control by partner, and chance were not related to the acquisition of an STD in the next 6 months. Further, they were not influenced by an STD in the preceding 6 months. These results indicate that responses to a locus of control measure were stable over a 6-month period, and internal, partner, and chance locus of control perceptions seem to be neither determined by STD experience nor directly related to future STD acquisition. However, understanding an individual's locus of control may be helpful in providing appropriate counseling. Future research could examine how adolescent girls form their perceptions of control over STD acquisition.     

Talking about the silent fear: adolescents' experiences of violence in an urban high-rise community

The self-reported violent experiences of adolescents living in a public-subsidized urban high-rise building were examined. This effort was part of an interdisciplinary, community-university collaboration program called the HOME (High-rise On-site Multifamily Environments) Family Support Project. A survey of violent experiences and a one-on-one structured interview were conducted with 20 adolescent residents. Results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed high degrees of exposure to violence among these adolescents, concerns for their personal safety, as well as insights into what they believe adults could and should be doing to address increasing levels of community violence. The implications of these results for conducting ecologically valid research on sensitive issues with adolescents and for family support program planning are discussed.     

Is there a natural order for expressing semantic relations?

All languages rely to some extent on word order to signal relational information. Why? We address this question by exploring communicative and cognitive factors that could lead to a reliance on word order. In Study 1, adults were asked to describe scenes to another using their hands and not their mouths. The question was whether this home-made "language" would contain gesture sentences with consistent order. In addition, we asked whether reliance on order would be influenced by three communicative factors (whether the communication partner is permitted to give feedback; whether the information to be communicated is present in the context that recipient and gesturer share; whether the gesturer assumes the role of gesture receiver as well as gesture producer). We found that, not only was consistent ordering of semantic elements robust across the range of communication situations, but the same non-English order appeared in all contexts. Study 2 explored whether this non-English order is found only when a person attempts to share information with another. Adults were asked to reconstruct scenes in a non-communicative context using pictures drawn on transparencies. The adults picked up the pictures for their reconstructions in a consistent order, and that order was the same non-English order found in Study 1. Finding consistent ordering patterns in a non-communicative context suggests that word order is not driven solely by the demands of communicating information to another, but may reflect a more general property of human thought.     

The interactive effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness on job performance

The authors hypothesized that the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance would be stronger for persons high in agreeableness than for those low in agreeableness. Results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses for 7 independent samples of employees across diverse occupations provided support for the hypothesis in 5 of the samples. In samples supporting the hypothesis, among the highly conscientious workers, those low in agreeableness were found to receive lower ratings of job performance than workers high in agreeableness. One explanation for lack of an interaction between conscientiousness and agreeableness in the other 2 samples is that those jobs were not characterized by frequent, cooperative interactions with others. Overall, the results show that highly conscientious workers who lack interpersonal sensitivity may be ineffective, particularly in jobs requiring cooperative interchange with others.     

Reviews: Books, Art

POLITICS ON THE COUCH: CITIZENSHIP AND THE INTERNAL LIFE. By Andrew Samuels, 235 pp. New York: Karnac (Other Press). $16.00. MARTHA, MARTHA: HOW CHRISTIANS WORRY. By Elaine Leong Eng, M.D. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc., 2000. $14.95. SPILT MILK: PERINATAL LOSS AND BREAKDOWN. Edited by Joan Raphael-Leff. 100 pp. London: Institute of Psychoanalysis, 2000. MOTHERHOOD AND SEXUALITY. By Marie Langer, 305 pp. New York: Other Press, 2000. $30.00. BRANCHING STREAMS FLOW IN THE DARKNESS: ZEN TALKS ON THE SANDOKAI. By S. Suzuki. Eds: M. Weitsman and M. Wegner. 193 pp. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. $22.50. RESTORED HARMONY: AN EVIDENCE BASED APPROACH FOR INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE INTO COMPLEMENTARY CANCER CARE. By Stephen Sagar, MD. xviii + 134 pp. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Dreaming Dragonfly Communications, 2001. $19.95 (US); $29.95 (Can.), paperback. (ISBN: 0-9689488-0-4). CHIYO-NI, WOMAN HAIKU MASTER. By Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi, 184 pp. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1998. $16.95. THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB: A STORY OF IDEAS IN AMERICA. By Louis Menand, 442 pp. New York: Farrrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001. $27.00. BUDDHISM WITHOUT BELIEFS: A CONTEMPORARY GUIDE TO AWAKENING. By Stephen Bachelor, 127 pp. Riverhead Books, 1997. $21.95. Video Art is Dead, Long Live Video Art     

Revisiting bias effects in word-initial phonological priming

The phonological priming paradigm, in which participants respond to the second of 2 consecutively presented spoken words, has the potential to be a useful tool with which to study lexical processing. Concerns about response biases distorting the results have persisted since its introduction. This study explored the manifestation of biases by modifying the standard priming experiment such that the magnitude of priming effects using the same items could be compared at different points during the testing session. Four experiments investigated whether a recent dissociation of response biases and priming effects is evidence of lexical inhibition when the prime and target overlap by the first 3 word-initial phonemes (M. Hamburger & L. M. Slowiaczek, 1996). Biases were found in conditions previously thought to prevent their influence.     

The accuracy of abstracts in psychology journals

This article provides an empirically supported reminder of the importance of accuracy in scientific communication. The authors identify common types of inaccuracies in research abstracts and offer suggestions to improve abstract-article agreement. Abstracts accompanying 13% of a random sample of 400 research articles published in 8 American Psychological Association journals during 1997 and 1998 contained data or claims inconsistent with or missing from the body of the article. Error rates ranged from 8% to 18%, although between-journal differences were not significant. Many errors (63%) were unlikely to cause substantive misinterpretations. Unfortunately, 37% of errors found could be seriously misleading with respect to the data or claims presented in the associated article. Although deficient abstracts may be less common in psychology journals than in major medical journals (R. M. Pitkin, M. A. Branagan, & L. F. Burmeister, 1999), there is still cause for concern and need for improvement.     

MMPI-A scores and high points of male juvenile delinquents: scales 4, 5, and 6 as markers of juvenile delinquency

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent (MMPI-A) clinical, supplementary, and content scale score patterns for 655 male delinquents were examined. Low scores on Scale 5 (Masculinity/Femininity) were found to be the most frequent deviation, followed by elevations on Scales 6 (Paranoia) and 4 (Psychopathic Deviate). This is consistent with previous research, although the importance of Scale 5 deviations has been little noted because of the traditional focus on scale elevations only. Classification analysis indicated that a combination of MMPI-A scales discriminated between this delinquent sample and the normative sample, with a sensitivity of 90%-95% and a specificity of 80%-85%. This level of sensitivity was maintained in a replication sample (N = 473).