Beyond the DSM‐IV: Assumptions,Alternatives, and Alterations

Current diagnostic processes reflect the limitations and utility of the framework of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; DSM‐IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Clinical information in the DSM‐IV's 5‐axis system almost exclusively focuses on weaknesses and pathology and is summarized in a flawed categorical system. Hence, the authors describe 3 adjunctive, or alternative, means of conceptualizing behavior; several means of altering the current DSM‐IV system; and 2 future directions in the diagnosis of strengths.     

Diagnostic Accuracy of the French Version of the Adult Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Screening Scale for DSM-5 (ASRS-5)

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often persists into adulthood. However, few screening tools have been adapted to assess adult...     

Associations between use of self-regulatory strategies and daily eating patterns: An experience sampling study in college-aged women

Previous theorizing suggests there are multiple means by which people regulate their emotions and impulses, but that these strategies vary in the degree to which they support goal attainment. Some have proposed that proactive strategies (e.g. situation selection, distraction) may be particularly effective, while interventive strategies (e.g. suppression) are less effective. Despite these diverging predictions, researchers have yet to examine spontaneous use of these strategies and their respective and combined efficacy when applied to momentary food desires experienced in daily life. In the present study, we assessed eating patterns for one week via ecological momentary assessment in college-aged women (N?=?106). Results from pre-registered analyses indicated that using a variety of strategies, including preventative strategies such as situation selection and distraction, was associated with greater self-control success, as indexed by weaker desires, higher resistance, lower likelihood of enacting desires, and less food consumed. A similar pattern was observed when participants implemented additional strategies during desire episodes, which they were more likely to do when their desires conflicted with other self-regulatory goals. All associations were observed while controlling for momentary hunger levels, dieting status, age, and body mass index. These findings are consistent with a growing body of work assessing people’s spontaneous use of emotion regulation strategies in everyday contexts, suggesting potential meta-motivational tendencies marked by flexible and adaptive use of self-regulatory strategies.

     

Cross-task and cross-manipulation stability in shifting the decision criterion

In recognition memory experiments participants must discriminate between old and new items, a judgment influenced by response bias. Research has shown substantial individual differences in the extent to which people will strategically adjust their response bias to diagnostic cues such as the prior probability of an old item. Despite this significant between subject variability, shifts in bias have been found to be relatively predictive within individuals across memory tests. Experiment 1 sought to determine whether this predictability extends beyond memory. Results revealed that the amount a subject shifted response bias in a recognition memory task was significantly predictive of shifting in a visual perception task, suggesting that shifting can generalise outside of a specific testing domain. Experiment 2 sought to determine how predictive shifting would be across two manipulations well known to induce shifts in bias: a probability manipulation and a response payoff manipulation. A modest positive relationship between these two methods was observed, suggesting that shifting behaviour is relatively predictive across different manipulations of shifting. Overall, results from both experiments suggest that response bias shifting, like response bias setting, is a relatively stable behaviour within individuals despite changes in test domain and test manipulation.     

Mental Transformation Skill in Young Children: The Role of Concrete and Abstract Motor Training

We examined the effects of three different training conditions, all of which involve the motor system, on kindergarteners’ mental transformation skill. We focused on three main questions. First, we asked whether training that involves making a motor movement that is relevant to the mental transformation—either concretely through action (action training) or more abstractly through gestural movements that represent the action (move‐gesture training)—resulted in greater gains than training using motor movements irrelevant to the mental transformation (point‐gesture training). We tested children prior to training, immediately after training (posttest), and 1 week after training (retest), and we found greater improvement in mental transformation skill in both the action and move‐gesture training conditions than in the point‐gesture condition, at both posttest and retest. Second, we asked whether the total gain made by retest differed depending on the abstractness of the movement‐relevant training (action vs. move‐gesture), and we found that it did not. Finally, we asked whether the time course of improvement differed for the two movement‐relevant conditions, and we found that it did—gains in the action condition were realized immediately at posttest, with no further gains at retest; gains in the move‐gesture condition were realized throughout, with comparable gains from pretest‐to‐posttest and from posttest‐to‐retest. Training that involves movement, whether concrete or abstract, can thus benefit children's mental transformation skill. However, the benefits unfold differently over time—the benefits of concrete training unfold immediately after training (online learning); the benefits of more abstract training unfold in equal steps immediately after training (online learning) and during the intervening week with no additional training (offline learning). These findings have implications for the kinds of instruction that can best support spatial learning.     

Predicting well-being in managers: Test of a positive psychology model

Contemporary scholars in vocational, applied, and organizational psychology have emphasized that working must be understood as a relational act with important implications for worker well-being. Drawing upon emergent research extending the constructs of adult attachment security and authenticity to the workplace, this study tested a positive psychological model linking adult attachment orientations, and both experienced and expressed features of work authenticity, to the prediction of well-being within a sample of business managers. Findings indicated that, controlling for their gender and length of managerial experience, managers’ levels of adult attachment security and work authenticity accounted for significant and incremental variance in their reported levels of work stress and job satisfaction. In general, managers with high levels of adult attachment security and work authenticity reported lower work stress and higher job satisfaction. Implications of these findings for the counseling of distressed managers are briefly discussed.     

Amygdala upregulation of NCAM polysialylation induced by auditory fear conditioning is not required for memory formation, but plays a role in fear extinction

There is much interest to understand the mechanisms leading to the establishment, maintenance, and extinction of fear memories. The amygdala has been critically involved in the processing of fear memories and a number of molecular changes have been implicated in this brain region in relation to fear learning. Although neural cell adhesion molecules (NCAMs) have been hypothesized to play a role, information available about their contribution to fear memories is scarce. We investigate here whether polysialylated NCAM (PSA-NCAM) contributes to auditory fear conditioning in the amygdala. First, PSA-NCAM expression was evaluated in different amygdala nuclei after auditory fear conditioning at two different shock intensities. Results showed that PSA-NCAM expression was increased 24 h post-training only in animals subjected to the highest shock intensity (1mA). Second, PSA-NCAM was cleaved in the basolateral amygdaloid complex through micro-infusions of the enzyme endoneuraminidase N, and the consequences of such treatment were investigated on the acquisition, consolidation, remote memory expression, and extinction of conditioned fear memories. Intra-amygdaloid cleavage of PSA-NCAM did not affect acquisition, consolidation or expression of remote fear memories. However, intra-amygdaloid PSA-NCAM cleavage enhanced fear extinction processes. These results suggest that upregulation of PSA-NCAM is a correlate of fear conditioning that is not necessary for the establishment of fear memory in the amygdala, but participates in mechanisms precluding fear extinction. These findings point out PSA-NCAM as a potential target for the treatment of psychopathologies that involve impairment in fear extinction.