Early maladaptive schemas and non-suicidal self-injury among young adults: A preliminary investigation

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) represents a critical mental health issue among young adults. Accordingly, it is important to understand potentially modifiable processes involved in its enactment. The current investigation built on previous work to better understand the nature of early maladaptive schemas (EMS) in the context of NSSI. One hundred and thirty young adults completed questionnaires assessing NSSI history, EMS and depressive symptoms. Results indicate that EMS may play a role in NSSI engagement after controlling for depressive symptoms. Specifically, higher scores on social isolation and emotional inhibition and possibly lower scores on entitlement/grandiosity schemas may differentiate those who self-injure from those who do not. Furthermore, higher levels of dependence/incompetence schema may differentiate those who report a higher NSSI frequency and those who report a less frequent NSSI history. Although a nascent area of study, our findings suggest that it may be fruitful to consider conceptualizing NSSI within a schema therapy framework.     

Christopher Bollas: Catch Them Before They Fall: The Psychoanalysis of Breakdown

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Development of the AAS Statement on “Suicide” and “Physician Aid in Dying”

In August 2017, the American Association of Suicidology board passed a statement titled “Suicide” is not the same as “Physician aid in dying,” which was developed partly in response to the fact that aid in dying is now legal in a number of jurisdictions. In Phase 1, eight members of the AAS who had indicated interest in this issue were asked to independently draft such a statement; the convener consolidated these drafts and comments into an initial statement. In Phase 2, five additional experts who might be expected to object were asked for their independent input; the convener consolidated these with the previous draft. No one objected to the statement altogether; extensive copyediting and rewording suggestions focused primarily on issues of overlap between “suicide” and “physician aid in dying.” The resulting document represents an effort to try to accommodate the basic concerns of all participants. The document does not speak for or against legalization of this practice, but it may have bearing on whether suicide prevention professionals have an obligation to try to prevent such deaths and whether they may serve as consultants for psychological or psychiatric evaluations as sometimes required under US state law.     

DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT OF OTHER BEHAVIOR AND NONCONTINGENT REINFORCEMENT AS CONTROL PROCEDURES DURING THE MODIFICATION OF A PRESCHOOLER'S COMPLIANCE1

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and noncontingent reinforcement were compared as control procedures during the modification of a 3-yr-old preschooler's compliance. The recorded reinforcer was teacher proximity (within 3 ft (0.9 m) of the subject for at least 5 sec) which was often accompanied by positive verbal comments that varied in content across experimental conditions. The verbal content during contingent reinforcement might have been: “Thank you for picking up the blocks”; during noncontingent reinforcement: “You're wearing a pretty dress”; and during DRO: “I don't blame you for not picking up because it isn't any fun”. Contingent reinforcement increased compliance in all manipulation conditions. Noncontingent reinforcement decreased compliance during two reversal conditions. However, the behavior was variable and did not decrease to the low levels reached during the two DRO reversals.     

Romantic love and sexual desire in close relationships

Drawing on recent claims in the study of relationships, attachment, and emotion, the authors hypothesized that romantic love serves a commitment-related function and sexual desire a reproduction-related function. Consistent with these claims, in Study 1, brief experiences of romantic love and sexual desire observed in a 3-min interaction between romantic partners were related to distinct feeling states, distinct nonverbal displays, and commitment- and reproductive-related relationship outcomes, respectively. In Study 2, the nonverbal display of romantic love was related to the release of oxytocin. Discussion focuses on the place of romantic love and sexual desire in the literature on emotion.     

Implicit memory for novel conceptual associations in amnesia

In two experiments, we evaluated the status of implicit memory for novel associations in amnesia. Experiment 1 assessed priming in a category exemplar generation task in which contextual information associated with a target could increase the likelihood of target generation. Control participants, but not amnesic patients, showed associative priming. Amnesics’ impairment was not due to the use of explicit memory by control subjects but reflected a genuine impairment in implicit memory for novel conceptual associations. Experiment 2 assessed priming in a relatedness judgment task, in which associative priming was manifest as longer latencies for old than for recombined pairs of unrelated words. Amnesic patients showed intact associative priming in this task. We discuss differences in the status of implicit memory for novel conceptual associations in amnesia, with reference to the nature of the representation that supports priming in the two tasks and the type of processing that is required at test.     

Mutually responsive orientation between parents and their young children: toward methodological advances in the science of relationships

The authors captured mother-child and father-child relationships when children were 7 and 15 months old by coding 4 explicitly dyadic components of mutually responsive orientation (MRO): coordinated routines, harmonious communication, mutual cooperation, and emotional ambiance. These components were coded in 102 families in naturalistic contexts at home and in the laboratory. Using confirmatory factor analytic methods, the authors demonstrated that MRO (a) is a unidimensional latent construct, (b) can be distinguished from and is not reducible to the 2 interacting individuals' qualities (responsiveness and positive affect), and (c) has remarkable measurement equivalence from ages 7 to 15 months for both mother-child and father-child relationships and has remarkable measurement equivalence across both parent-child relationships at both child ages. This study represents an effort to advance the science of relationships by moving away from individual-based measures to dyadic measures and by using contemporary data analytic strategies.