Generalized anxiety disorder: acute and chronic treatment

Clinical and epidemiological data suggest that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a chronic illness causing patients to suffer for many years leading to significant distress in daily life functioning. The literature suggests the several conclusions. GAD is a disorder in need of appropriate treatment and often has a chronic course with comorbid conditions, such as major depression and other anxiety disorders. Benzodiazepines, while effective anxiolytic agents acutely, when prescribed for >4 weeks cause rebound anxiety and following prolonged therapy may lead to withdrawal symptoms. Antidepressants cause significant anxiety relief compared with placebo and for psychosocial treatment cognitive-behavioral therapy is an efficacious psychosocial treatment. Many GAD patients are in need of long-term medication management. Furthermore, there is limited data for patients diagnosed with GAD the treatment outcome with the combination of medication and psychotherapy both acutely and long-term; how to best sequence these treatments; for those patients who do not meet remission criteria what is the ideal approach for augmentation; and for patients with treatment-refractory GAD the empirical evidence is lacking on medication switching and augmentation strategies. Research is needed in the area of developing treatment strategies for patients suffering from treatment-refractory GAD. There is still an urgent need to explore treatment combinations and duration strategies in the management of patients suffering with GAD.     

Subjective qualities of memories associated with the picture superiority effect in schizophrenia

Patients with schizophrenia (n = 24) matched with 24 normal subjects were presented with both words and pictures. On a recognition memory task, they were asked to give remember, know, or guess responses to items that were recognized on the basis of conscious recollection, familiarity, or guessing, respectively. Compared with normal subjects, patients exhibited a lower picture superiority effect selectively related to remember responses. Unlike normal subjects, they did not exhibit any word superiority effect in relation to guess responses; this explains why the overall picture superiority effect appeared to be intact. These results emphasize the need to take into account the subjective states of awareness when analyzing memory impairments in schizophrenia.     

Sleeping beauties in psychology: comparisons of "hits" and "missed signals" in psychological journals

Scientific publications tend to be forgotten quickly. A few works, however, are still cited 100 years and more after their publication. The author used bibliometric methods to compare "hits" (works noticed by the scientific community soon after their publication) with "missed signals" (works that went unnoticed until much later) by investigating 2 psychological journals founded in the 1890s: Zeitschrift für Psychologie and Psychological Review. All articles that were published in either of these journals up to 1920 and cited more than 25 times in the Web of Science up to the year 2000 were considered for inclusion in the analysis. It emerged that hits corresponded more closely to the focus of scientific attention at the time of the publications than missed signals.     

Self-talk and affective problems in college students: valence of thinking and cognitive content specificity

The aim of this study was to develop a Self-Talk Inventory for young adults. This inventory consisted of two scales. The Negative Self-Talk Scale included three categories of self-talk (depressive, anxious, and angry thoughts) and the Positive Self-Talk Scale, three categories (minimization, positive orientation, and coping self-instructions). Participants were 982 undergraduate students (Mean age = 20.35 years, SD = 2.16). They completed the self-talk scales together with the following scales to measure symptoms of affective disorders: the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI-T). Factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized structure for the Self-Talk Inventory. The relations between self-talk and symptoms of affective disorders (depression, anxiety, and anger) were also evaluated. In general, states-of-mind -SOM- ratios and negative cognitions showed a greater association with psychological symptoms than did positive cognitions. Results concerning the cognitive characteristics of depression, anxiety, and anger were mixed and partially supported the cognitive content specificity theory.     

Is the Motor or the Garage More Important to the Car? The Difference Between Semantic Associations in Single Word and Sentence Production

The aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of part-whole (e.g., car-motor) and functional associations (e.g., car-garage) on single word (Experiment 1) and sentence production (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, a classical picture-word task was used. In Experiment 2, the same stimuli and distractors were embedded into a sentence. The relation between target and distractor was either part-whole, functional or unrelated. At single word level, part-whole and functional relations facilitate naming. Additionally, the facilitation effect was stronger for part-whole in comparison to functional associations. During sentence production, facilitation shifted to interference. The difference between both relations disappeared. The findings of the different effects between functional and part-whole associations depend on the length of utterances and highlight the divergent impact of associations. The differences between part-whole and functional associations in single word production might reflect a differential organization of associative links at the conceptual level. In contrast, during sentence production the syntactic processing at the lexical level seem to be more important than types of semantic associations at the conceptual level.     

Maternal Role Confusion: Relations to Maternal Attachment and Mother–Child Interaction from Infancy to Adolescence

Self‐reports of role confusion with the parent in childhood are associated with a variety of adverse outcomes. However, role‐confusion has been studied primarily from the point of view of the child. The current study evaluated an instrument for assessing role confusion from maternal interviews rather than from child observations or self‐reports in adulthood. Fifty‐one mothers participating in a longitudinal study since their own child's infancy were administered the Experiences of Caregiving Interview (C. George & J. Solomon, 1996) when the child was age 20. Interviews were coded using the newly developed Parental Assessment of Role Confusion (PARC; L. Vulliez‐Coady & K. Lyons‐Ruth, 2009). Maternal PARC scores were related to observational measures of role‐confusion in interaction with the child both in infancy and late adolescence. PARC scores also were related to mothers’ hostile‐helpless states of mind on the Adult Attachment Interview (C. George, N. Kaplan, & M. Main, 1984, 1985, 1986) and to the extent of Unresolved loss, but not Unresolved Trauma. PARC scores also were related to mothers’ self‐reports of helplessness experienced in the parenting role. Discriminant validity of the PARC was demonstrated in that role confusion on the PARC was not related to hostile or disoriented forms of parent–child interaction. Implications for clinical assessment of role confusion are discussed.     

A Person-Environment Fit Approach to Volunteerism: Volunteer Personality Fit and Culture Fit as Predictors of Affective Outcomes

This study employed a person-environment (P-E) fit approach to explaining volunteer satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions. It was hypothesized that personality fit would explain additional variance in volunteer affective outcomes above and beyond motives to volunteer. This hypothesis was supported. Personality fit but not culture fit was related to satisfaction and affective commitment. Volunteer turnover intentions were predicted by gender and by social and values motives. The implications of the results are discussed with respect to the two literature domains that were combined in this study: the functional approach to volunteerism and P-E fit theory. Functional approaches to volunteerism and paid work should be more strongly linked to each other in future research. Moreover, P-E fit theory should be extended by including conditional determinants that moderate P-E fit effects.     

Multiple Mediators of the Attitude Similarity-Attraction Relationship: Dominance of Inferred Attraction and Subtlety of Affect

The authors examined the mediation of the attitude similarity–attraction relationship. When affect was the sole measured mediating variable, the hypothesized partial mediation held in Experiment 1 (N = 60). In Experiment 2 (N = 96), ratings of the 3 potential mediators (affect, inferred attraction, and cognitive evaluation) and of an irrelevant variable (inferred cognitive evaluation) were taken at 2 orders of mediator measurement. The attitude similarity-attraction link was more strongly mediated by inferred attraction than by cognitive evaluation. Surprisingly, however, the effect of affect on attraction was reversed in the multiple-mediation analysis. Post hoc analyses disclosed that affect transmitted the similarity effect from its preceding variable only to the succeeding one. Theoretical and methodological implications of the dominance of inferred attraction and the subtlety of affect are discussed.     

Marital Problems and Marital Satisfaction Among Brazilian Couples

As the practice of marriage and family therapy is spreading across the world, it is important for knowledge regarding marital processes and patterns to expand to countries outside of North America and Europe. This study examined common marital problems faced by Brazilian couples. The sample consisted of 80 married couples living in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Results showed that money, children, jealousy, and sex were common problems faced by Brazilian couples. There were few gender differences found. Sex and alcohol had a significant impact on marital satisfaction of wives, and sex had a significant impact on marital satisfaction of husbands.     

Brief Report: Non-suicidal Self-injury in the Context of Self and Identity Development

This brief report describes an exploratory qualitative study that examined online narratives of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in the context of critical developmental tasks of early adulthood: the development of self and identity. Thematic analyses of online autobiographical accounts of NSSI suggest that self and identity processes that are particularly relevant in early adulthood may contribute to vulnerability to NSSI. Specifically, NSSI may provide a source of self-identification in the service of developing self-identity and a community of others with whom to identify, a means for managing negative emotions specifically related to negative self-concept, and it may provide a basic sense of a coherent self who persists across time. Implications are discussed with respect to research, clinical practice, and prevention, with a particular emphasis on the Internet as a context for early adult development.