Is body checking in the eating disorders more closely related to diagnosis or to symptom presentation?

Body checking behaviours and cognitions are seen as underlying the core pathology of eating disorders-the over-evaluation of eating, shape and weight. While it has been demonstrated that levels of behaviours and cognitions differentiate eating-disordered women from non-eating-disordered women, little is known with regard to how these findings relate to diagnostic group. This study aimed to determine whether body checking cognitions and behaviours are best understood with regard to diagnostic category or symptom presentation. Eighty-four eating-disordered women (with diagnoses of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder or other Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified) completed measures of body checking behaviours and cognitions and eating psychopathology. Results showed that different aspects of body checking were more closely associated with diagnosis and with symptom presentation. Anorexia nervosa and binge-eating-disorder patients had particularly low levels of body checking behaviours and some related cognitions. However, the belief that body checking allows one to be accurate in knowing one's weight was associated with binging and vomiting behaviours, rather than diagnosis. Future directions for research include understanding the links between body checking phenomena and neurological features. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Temporal distance and ease of retrieval

Construal Level Theory (CLT; Trope & Liberman, 2003) proposes that pro-arguments (pros) constitute high-level construals and counter-arguments (cons) low-level construals. Therefore, pros are more salient for distant-future actions than are cons and the reverse holds for near-future actions (Eyal, Liberman, Trope, & Walther, 2004). We further predicted and results from one experiment show that participants found it easier to generate pros if an action pertained to the distant rather than the near future. For cons the effect was reversed: participants found it more difficult to generate cons if the action pertained to the distant rather than the near future. Consequently, people were more in favor of the action if it pertained to the distant rather than the near future. Ease of retrieval mediated the effect of temporal distance on attitudes. The mutual relevance of the CLT framework and research on ease of retrieval is discussed.     

The effects of physique-salient and physique non-salient exercise videos on women's body image, self-presentational concerns, and exercise motivation

This experiment examined the effects of exposure to physique-salient (PS) and physique non-salient (PNS) exercise videos and the moderating influence of perceived physique discrepancies, on body image, self-presentational concerns, and exercise motivation. Eighty inactive women (M age = 26) exercised to a 30 min instructional exercise video. In the PS condition, the video instructor wore revealing attire that emphasized her thin and toned physique. In the PNS condition, she wore attire that concealed her physique. Participants completed pre- and post-exercise measures of body image, social physique anxiety (SPA) and self-presentational efficacy (SPE) and a post-exercise measure of exercise motivation and perceived discrepancies with the instructor's body. No main or moderated effects emerged for video condition. However, greater perceived negative discrepancies were associated with poorer post-exercise body satisfaction and body evaluations, and higher state SPA. There were no effects on SPE or motivation. Results suggest that exercise videos that elicit perceived negative discrepancies can be detrimental to women's body images.     

Whatever? The effect of social exclusion on adopting persuasive messages

The aversive state of social exclusion can result in a broad range of cognitive deficits. Being unable or unmotivated to process relevant information, we assumed that social exclusion would also affect the success of persuasive attempts. We hypothesized that socially excluded people would adopt attitudes regardless of persuasion quality. In three studies using different manipulations of social exclusion and persuasion, we showed that participants who were socially excluded adopted persuasive messages regardless of argument quality. In contrast, this undifferentiated response was not shown by socially included participants who were more persuaded by high- compared to low-quality arguments. In Study 3, we moreover revealed that this pattern could only be replicated in reliable situations—that is, when the communicator appeared credible. These findings support the assumption that social exclusion can lead to reduced processing of information.     

The Association Between Sense of Humor and Trauma-Related Mental Health Outcomes: Two Exploratory Studies

Two studies (n?=?73, n?=?132) explored the association between sense of humor and trauma-related well-being outcomes. It was found that sense of humor was not associated with reports of posttraumatic growth as measured by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). Self-enhancing humor was positively associated with positive changes as measured by the CiOQ-P. Benign humor styles were associated negatively with emotion regulation difficulties and negative changes (CiOQ-N). Self-defeating humor was associated positively with negative changes, avoidant states, and emotion regulation difficulties. The results suggest that self-enhancing humor could be helpful in order to cope with trauma.     

Interference and facilitation among personal goals: differential associations with subjective well-being and persistent goal pursuit

Three studies demonstrate that mutual facilitation and interference among personal goals are distinct characteristics rather than mutually exclusive opposites and have different functions for psychological well-being and goal pursuit. The three studies vary in design (cross-sectional, short-termlongitudinal) and follow a multimethod approach using questionnaires, diaries, and objective behavioral information. Results show that interference among goals (resulting from resource constraints and incompatible goal attainment strategies) is negatively associated with trait and state well-being, whereas mutual facilitation among goals (resulting from instrumental goal relations and overlapping goal attainment strategies) is positively associated with involvement in goal pursuit.     

Extending the Validity of the Personality Assessment Inventory's (PAI) Level of Care Index (LOCI) in Multiple Psychiatric Settings

The purpose of this study was to extend the validity and clinical application of the Level of Care Index (LOCI) from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) in 2 independent psychiatric samples. In Study 1 (N = 201), the LOCI effectively differentiated level of care (inpatients from outpatients), and was also meaningfully associated with risk factors for psychiatric admission (e.g., suicidal ideation, self-harming behavior, previous psychiatric admission, etc.), even after controlling for other demographic variables (range of Cohen's ds = 0.57–1.00). Likewise, the LOCI also incremented other risk indicators (suicide and violence history) and relevant PAI indexes (i.e., Mean Clinical Elevation, and Suicide and Violence Potential) in predicting level of care, and explained an additional 6% to 12% of variance in the target variable. Diagnostic efficiency analyses indicated LOCI scores in the range of 15 to 18 optimize positive and negative predictive power, and classification rate. In Study 2 (N = 96), the LOCI was found to be significantly higher in those with a recent psychiatric admission within the past 6 months (d = 0.64), as compared to those without an admission. Similarly, those who were admitted for suicide risk had significantly higher mean LOCI scores as compared to those who did not (d = 0.70). The clinical implications of these findings and potential application of the LOCI are discussed.     

Infants’ grip strength predicts mu rhythm attenuation during observation of lifting actions with weighted blocks

Research has established that the body is fundamentally involved in perception: bodily experience influences activation of the shared neural system underlying action perception and production during action observation, and bodily characteristics influence perception of the spatial environment. However, whether bodily characteristics influence action perception and its underlying neural system is unknown, particularly in early ontogeny. We measured grip strength in 12‐month‐old infants and investigated relations with mu rhythm attenuation, an electroencephalographic correlate of the neural system underlying action perception, during observation of lifting actions performed with differently weighted blocks. We found that infants with higher grip strength exhibited significant mu attenuation during observation of lifting actions, whereas infants with lower grip strength did not. Moreover, a progressively strong relation between grip strength and mu attenuation during observation of lifts was found with increased block weight. We propose that this relation is attributable to differences in infants’ ability to recognize the effort associated with lifting objects of different weights, as a consequence of their developing strength. Together, our results extend the body's role in perception by demonstrating that bodily characteristics influence action perception by shaping the activation of its underlying neural system.     

Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness

Previous research on children’s and adolescents’ happiness has mainly focused on the different variables that may contribute to it. However, very few studies have investigated the beliefs that children and adolescents hold about happiness. It is important to study developmental and gender differences in the conceptions of happiness as beliefs affect people’s emotions and behaviors, and they may help explain how children and adolescents strive for their own (and potentially others’) happiness. To that aim, we conducted two different studies. In Study 1a 20 people (lay judges) completed two categorization tasks to obtain categorization systems that may include all the relevant content categories identified in previous literature with adults, adolescents and children. In Study 1b, we asked 162 children and adolescents to define—in their own words—what happiness meant for them. Their responses were coded according to two different systems derived from previous finding with adults and children and to an alternative coding system derived from the qualitative analyses of children’s and adolescents’ responses. Overall, results showed that hedonic conceptualization of happiness were mainly present in late childhood; whereas eudaimonic conceptualizations were mainly present in adolescence. No significant gender differences were found.