Childhood personality predicts long-term trajectories of shyness and aggressiveness in the context of demographic transitions in emerging adulthood

In a 19-year longitudinal study, childhood personality characteristics (assessed by teachers at ages 4 to 6) were significantly related to both initial levels and changes in parental judgments of shyness and aggressiveness. Long-term stability was demonstrated by the fact that overcontrollers had consistently higher scores in shyness and undercontrollers in aggressiveness. However, undercontrollers' shyness and overcontrollers' aggressiveness changed over time from a low to a high level. Also, both types assumed adult social roles, such as leaving the parental home, establishing a first romantic relationship, and getting a part-time job, at a later time than the resilient participants. A mediation analysis indicated that under- and overcontrollers' increasing aggressiveness between age 17 and 23 was due to their longer latency of getting a part-time job. Together, results demonstrate the importance of considering person-environment transactions in explaining both change and stability in personality between childhood and adulthood.     

Self-esteem reactions to social interactions: evidence for sociometer mechanisms across days, people, and nations

People have a fundamental need to belong that motivates them to seek out social interactions with close others (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Leary and Baumeister's (2000) sociometer theory (SMT) poses that people who succeed in satisfying this need have higher self-esteem (SE). This prediction was tested across three hierarchical levels: intraindividual, interindividual, and international. Indicators of social interaction quantity, quality, and the interaction between quality and quantity were collected for relationships with friends, family members, and romantic partners. On the intraindividual level, relationship quality and the interaction between quantity and quality emerged as significant predictors of daily fluctuations in SE. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that this association is at least partly due to the effect of social inclusion on changes in SE. On an interindividual level, people who generally reported higher quality relationships also had higher levels of trait SE. On an international level, countries whose inhabitants regularly interact with friends were characterized by higher nationwide SE levels than countries without such practices, even when happiness, individualism, gross domestic product, and neuroticism were controlled.     

Autonomy-Connectedness and Gender

The present study aimed to examine gender differences in autonomy-connectedness in a large, Dutch, representative community sample (N?=?2,256). All participants completed the Autonomy-Connectedness-Scale (ACS-30; Bekker and van Assen, J Pers Assess 86:51–60, 2006) with subscales self-awareness (SA), sensitivity to others (SO), and capacity to manage new situations (CMNS), and a scale measuring demographic factors. We found much higher SO in women than in men, and slightly higher scores of men on SA and CMNS. Associations between SO and socio-demographic variables related to caring for others could be completely explained by gender, while the associations between SA and CMNS with socio-economic independence variables could only partly be explained by gender. ACS-30 norm scores are presented, and clinical implications of our results are discussed.     

Neuropsychological Measures that Predict Progression from Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer's type dementia in Older Adults: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This study aimed to determine the extent to which cognitive measures can predict progression from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s type dementia (AD), assess the predictive accuracy of different cognitive domain categories, and determine whether accuracy varies as a function of age and length of follow-up. We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed data from longitudinal studies reporting sensitivity and specificity values for neuropsychological tests to identify individuals with MCI who will develop AD. We searched articles in Medline, Cochrane, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and the Web of Science. Methodological quality was assessed using the STARDem and QUADAS standards. Twenty-eight studies met the eligibility criteria (2365 participants) and reported predictive values from 61 neuropsychological tests with a 31-month mean follow-up. Values were pooled to provide combined accuracy for 14 cognitive domains. Many domains showed very good predictive accuracy with high sensitivity and specificity values (≥ 0.7). Verbal memory measures and many language tests yielded very high predictive accuracy. Other domains (e.g., executive functions, visual memory) showed better specificity than sensitivity. Predictive accuracy was highest when combining memory measures with a small set of other domains or when relying on broad cognitive batteries. Cognitive tests are excellent at predicting MCI individuals who will progress to dementia and should be a critical component of any toolkit intended to identify AD at the pre-dementia stage. Some tasks are remarkable as early indicators, whereas others might be used to suggest imminent progression.     

The influence of action observation on action execution: Dissociating the contribution of action on perception,perception on action,and resolving conflict

For more than 15 years, motor interference paradigms have been used to investigate the influence of action observation on action execution. Most research on so-called automatic imitation has focused on variables that play a modulating role or investigated potential confounding factors. Interestingly, furthermore, a number of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have tried to shed light on the functional mechanisms and neural correlates involved in imitation inhibition. However, these fMRI studies, presumably due to poor temporal resolution, have primarily focused on high-level processes and have neglected the potential role of low-level motor and perceptual processes. In the current EEG study, we therefore aimed to disentangle the influence of low-level perceptual and motoric mechanisms from high-level cognitive mechanisms. We focused on potential congruency differences in the visual N190 ? a component related to the processing of biological motion, the Readiness Potential ? a component related to motor preparation, and the high-level P3 component. Interestingly, we detected congruency effects in each of these components, suggesting that the interference effect in an automatic imitation paradigm is not only related to high-level processes such as self-other distinction but also to more low-level influences of perception on action and action on perception. Moreover, we documented relationships of the neural effects with (autistic) behavior.     

Cue-switch effects do not rely on the same neural systems as task-switch effects

The cued task-switching paradigm is often used to study cognitive control. In this paradigm, people are generally slower and make more errors when switching tasks as compared with repeating the same task. When two cues are mapped to each task, these switch costs could result from a mixture of cue-switch effects (which are thought to reflect cue encoding) and task-switch effects (which are thought to reflect task set preparation). In the behavioral literature, there has been a lively debate on the degree to which cue-switch effects and task-switch effects indeed reflect different phenomena. In the present study, we used fMRI to examine whether and to what extent the neural network underlying task-switch effects is also involved in cue-switch effects. We found task-switch but no cue-switch effects in the frequently observed preparation-related activation in fronto-parietal areas. These results suggest that the fronto-parietal areas displaying preparatory activity in task-switching paradigms are engaged in task preparation but not in cue encoding and that task preparation and cue encoding rely on completely different processes.     

EMDR: eye movements superior to beeps in taxing working memory and reducing vividness of recollections

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is effectively treated with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) with patients making eye movements during recall of traumatic memories. Many therapists have replaced eye movements with bilateral beeps, but there are no data on the effects of beeps. Experimental studies suggest that eye movements may be beneficial because they tax working memory, especially the central executive component, but the presence/degree of taxation has not been assessed directly. Using discrimination Reaction Time (RT) tasks, we found that eye movements slow down RTs to auditive cues (experiment I), but binaural beeps do not slow down RTs to visual cues (experiment II). In an arguably more sensitive “Random Interval Repetition” task using tactile stimulation, working memory taxation of beeps and eye movements were directly compared. RTs slowed down during beeps, but the effects were much stronger for eye movements (experiment III). The same pattern was observed in a memory experiment with healthy volunteers (experiment IV): vividness of negative memories was reduced after both beeps and eye movements, but effects were larger for eye movements. Findings support a working memory account of EMDR and suggest that effects of beeps on negative memories are inferior to those of eye movements.     

An Evaluation of the Relation Between Distress Tolerance and Posttraumatic Stress within a Trauma-Exposed Sample

The present investigation examined the incremental associations between distress tolerance, or the perceived capacity to tolerate emotional distress, and global posttraumatic stress symptom severity as well as symptom cluster severity, beyond the variance accounted for by number of trauma exposure types and negative affectivity. The sample consisted of 140 adults (72 women; M _age = 25.9, SD = 11.1) who endorsed exposure to traumatic life events, as defined by posttraumatic stress disorder diagnostic criterion A (American Psychiatric Association 2000). Participants did not meet diagnostic criteria for current axis I psychopathology. Distress tolerance demonstrated significant incremental associations with global posttraumatic stress symptom severity (p < .01) as well as re-experiencing (p < .05), avoidance (p = .05), and hyperarousal (p < .001) symptom cluster severity. Given the cross-sectional study design, causation cannot be inferred. Theoretical implications and future directions for better understanding associations between distress tolerance and posttraumatic stress are discussed.     

Who benefits from chatting, and why? The roles of extraversion and supportiveness in online chatting and emotional adjustment

The current study aimed to provide more insight into the role of online chatting in young adults' emotional adjustment. A model was tested that takes into account (a) extraversion of individuals who communicate online, (b) the kind of peers these individuals communicate with online (i.e., online-exclusive peers vs. friends), and (c) the extent to which effects of online chatting on emotional adjustment are mediated by individuals' ability to provide support to others. Young adults (age M = 18.9) filled out questionnaires about themselves and their fellow students at three measurements with a 4-month interval. Results showed that only for less extraverted individuals, chatting with peers found exclusively online directly predicted higher self-esteem and indirectly predicted less depressive symptoms through increases in supportiveness. Thus, results supported a model of social compensation where effects of online chatting with online-exclusive peers improved young adults' emotional adjustment.