Personality,life events and the course of anxiety and depression

Using data from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety, we examined among 1322 participants with a DSM‐IV diagnosis of depression or anxiety: (i) whether positive and negative life events influence 1‐year course of anxiety and depressive symptoms; (ii) whether personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion) predict symptom course and moderate the impact of life events on symptom course; and (iii) whether life events mediate relationships of neuroticism and extraversion with symptom course. Negative life events were predictive of both anxiety and depressive symptoms, while positive life events predicted the course of depressive symptoms only. Personality traits had significant predictive and moderating effects on symptom course, though these effects were rather small. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prognostic value of implicit and explicit self-associations for the course of depressive and anxiety disorders

Dysfunctional self-beliefs are assumed to play an important role in maintaining depression and anxiety. Current dual-process models emphasize the relevance of differentiating between implicit and explicit self-beliefs. Therefore, this study tested the prognostic value of automatic and explicit self-associations for the naturalistic course of depressive and anxiety disorders over two years follow-up. Both self-depressed and self-anxious associations were measured in unipolar depressed patients (n = 313), anxious patients (n = 566), and patients with comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders (n = 577) as part of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety. Outcomes showed that in single predictor models specifically automatic self-anxious associations were related to a reduced chance of remission from anxiety, whereas automatic self-depressed associations were related to a reduced chance of remission from depression. Explicit self-anxious associations and fearful avoidance behaviour showed independent predictive validity for remission from anxiety, whereas explicit self-depressed associations and having both major depressive disorder and dysthymia showed independent predictive validity for remission from depression. These findings are not only consistent with the view that both implicit and explicit dysfunctional self-associations are related to the course of anxiety and unipolar depressive disorders, but also suggest that both types of self-beliefs are proper targets for therapeutic interventions.     

Family transitions following the birth of a sibling: an empirical review of changes in the firstborn's adjustment

Nearly 80% of children in the United States have at least 1 sibling, indicating that the birth of a baby sibling is a normative ecological transition for most children. Many clinicians and theoreticians believe the transition is stressful, constituting a developmental crisis for most children. Yet, a comprehensive review of the empirical literature on children's adjustment over the transition to siblinghood (TTS) has not been done for several decades. The current review summarizes research examining change in first borns' adjustment to determine whether there is evidence that the TTS is disruptive for most children. Thirty studies addressing the TTS were found, and of those studies, the evidence did not support a crisis model of developmental transitions, nor was there overwhelming evidence of consistent changes in firstborn adjustment. Although there were decreases in children's affection and responsiveness toward mothers, the results were more equivocal for many other behaviors (e.g., sleep problems, anxiety, aggression, regression). An inspection of the scientific literature indicated there are large individual differences in children's adjustment and that the TTS can be a time of disruption, an occasion for developmental advances, or a period of quiescence with no noticeable changes. The TTS may be a developmental turning point for some children that portends future psychopathology or growth depending on the transactions between children and the changes in the ecological context over time. A developmental ecological systems framework guided the discussion of how child, parent, and contextual factors may contribute to the prediction of firstborn children's successful adaptation to the birth of a sibling.     

Predicting career-entry pay expectations: The role of gender-based comparisons

This research investigated three sets of factors (career path factors, perceived job inputs, and reference group comparisons) as predictors of career-entry pay expectations for management students about to enter the workforce. As predicted, reference group comparisons accounted for a larger proportion of unique variance in students' pay expectations than either career path factors or perceived job inputs. In addition, same-sex comparisons were stronger predictors of career-entry pay expectations than opposite-sex comparisons. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Gender differences in distributive justice preferences: The impact of domain

Past research has found that distributive justice preferences vary markedly both as a function of gender of allocator and the domain in which outcomes or rewards are allocated (e.g., relationships vs. work contexts). This study examined the interaction of these two factors in determining distributive justice preferences. Subjects were asked to fill out two scales designed to assess the degree to which their general distributive preferences in work contexts and in relationships were benevolent (prefer inputs to exceed outcomes), equity sensitive (prefer outcome/input ratios to be equal), or entitled (prefer outcomes to exceed inputs). Results revealed that women's preferences were significantly more benevolent (or less entitled) than men's in work domains, but that men's and women's distributive preferences did not differ significantly in relationships. In addition, both sexes indicated significantly more entitled preferences in work domains than in relationships, but the difference between domains was much greater for men than for women. These results suggest that, when considering issues of justice, men make a greater distinction between domains than do women, and that previously observed gender differences in distributive justice preferences may be specific to the work domain.     

An Examination of the Cognitive Mechanisms by Which Assigned Goals Affect Task Performance and Reactions to Performance1

In this study, cognitive mechanisms by which assigned goals affect task performance and reactions to performance were examined. Subjects working on a creativity task were assigned one of three performance goals varying in difficulty. Ratings of subjective probability of goal attainment, expected performance, expected satisfaction with goal attainment, and desired performance were obtained prior to each of five blocks of trials. Ratings of satisfaction with performance were obtained after each trial block and ratings of ability were obtained after all trials were completed. As predicted, with increased goal difficulty, subjective probability of goal attainment decreased, but expected performance, expected satisfaction with goal attainment, and desired performance increased. Contrary to prediction, the effect of goal difficulty on task performance was not significant. LISREL analyses revealed that goal difficulty exerted both positive (through expected and desired performance) and negative (through subjective probability of goal attainment) effects on performance. Goal difficulty had a negative effect on satisfaction with performance and ratings of perceived ability. The importance of identifying the cognitive mechanisms by which assigned goals affect performance and the need to consider consequences of assigned goals other than task performance are discussed.     

Handling greedy clergy roles: A dual clergy example

Striking changes have occurred in the number of women who have been ordained as clergy in the Protestant denominations in North America. With these changes has come a concomitant increase in the number of dual clergy couples. These couples are a new variant on the dual career theme. They share some of the same strains which have been identified for dual career couples in general; namely, identity issues, work and role overload, role cycling problems, social network dilemmas and discrepancies between personal and social norms. In addition, particular qualities of the clergy role create problems which these couples must address. One such problem is handling the ambivalent boundary between work and family roles. Two aspects of this issue are the absorptiveness of the role and the embeddedness of both work and family roles. The present paper discusses these boundary issues using data from a study of a population of dual clergy couples in two synods of the Lutheran church in two western Canadian provinces. Strategies for handling these issues are suggested for couples, church leaders and congregational representatives.Thanks are expressed to Les Vaala, Director of Student Life, Camrose Lutheran College, Camrose Alberta who was a cooperating researcher in the study.     

Memory for faces: Encoding and retrieval operations

The reliable finding that trait judgments of faces yield better recognition memory than do feature judgments of faces is conceptualized as an encoding-specificity effect. Specifically, both trait-judgment encodings of faces and face-recognition tests are argued to be holistic, involving topographical information with between-feature processing. Consistent with the concept that encoding and retrieval operations interact to produce retrieval success, it was expected that a memory-for-face test using the Identi-kit (which requires reconstructions of the face at a feature level of analysis) would show trait-encoding tasks to be inferior to feature-encoding tasks. Eighty subjects were assigned randomly to judge a face on 10 trait dimensions (e.g., honesty-dishonesty) or on 10 feature dimensions (e.g., narrow nose-wide nose) and subsequently attempted to recognize the target among five distractors or to reconstruct the face from an Identi-kit. The significant interaction between encoding and retrieval operations indicated that the face was best identified under trait-encoding conditions but best reconstructed under feature-encoding conditions. The match between trait encoding and recognition in yielding high memory performance suggests strongly that trait judgments foster holistic processing of faces (i.e., interfeature topographical information is p-art of the context) and that the recognition of faces also is holistic. Finally, the utility of the feature- vs. holistic-processing distinction is questioned, and an alternative is proposed.