Thin-Ideal Media and Women’s Body Dissatisfaction: Prevention using Downward Social Comparisons on Non-Appearance Dimensions

Exposure to thin-ideal media has adverse effects on the body satisfaction of women with higher levels of body image disturbance. In a study involving 109 UCLA female undergraduates, we examined the effectiveness of an intervention that was based on downward social comparison theory and the selection of alternative comparison dimensions. All participants had higher levels of body dissatisfaction and viewed pictures of fashion models; the intervention group compared downward with the models on non-appearance dimensions in writing, whereas the control group described the models in writing. We hypothesized that the intervention group would experience more positive shifts in body and weight satisfaction, anxiety about appearance, and desire to lose weight than would the control group. The results supported our hypotheses.     

Intrusive images and memories in major depression

Individuals with current major depression were interviewed to investigate the prevalence of distressing intrusive mental imagery among depressed patients and study the phenomenology of these intrusions. Of the 39 currently depressed patients, 17 experienced some form of repetitive intrusive imagery (i.e., either an intrusive memory or image), with intrusive memories being more common than images. The intrusive imagery was experienced as highly uncontrollable and interfered significantly with patients' everyday lives. The intrusions were experienced with a sense of 'nowness', as well as physical and emotional re-experiencing. Despite high levels of re-experiencing, levels of dissociation were very low. The intrusive imagery was in some patients part of a wider network of key defining autobiographical memories, consistent with the idea that it is likely to play a significant role in maintaining the patient's depressive mood. Interventions targeting these intrusions could potentially result in a positive shift in depressed mood.     

Fear of Hypoglycemia and Self Reported Posttraumatic Stress in Adults with Type I Diabetes Treated by Intensive Regimens

This study investigated the prevalence of hypoglycemic fear (FH) and hypoglycemia-specific posttraumatic stress (PTS) among individuals with Type I diabetes. Over 25% of participants met diagnostic criteria for current PTSD. High percentages of participants endorsed PTS symptom clusters, suggesting that individuals may be experiencing distress without necessarily meeting diagnostic criteria. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that perceived threat of death from hypoglycemia and FH were significantly related to PTS. Number of recent hypoglycemic episodes did not predict PTS/PTSD. Depression and nonspecific anxiety did not contribute to the statistical prediction of PTSD, suggesting that symptomatology endorsed represents hypoglycemia-specific anxiety rather than global psychological distress. The hypothesis that greater PTS symptomatology would relate to poorer glycemic control was unsubstantiated. Perceived death-threat from hypoglycemia and nonspecific anxiety were the only variables that contributed to prediction of glycemic control, suggesting that PTS did not represent a significant barrier for glycemic control in this sample.     

Pediatric Whole Exome Sequencing: an Assessment of Parents’ Perceived and Actual Understanding.

Whole exome sequencing (WES) is an integral tool in the diagnosis of genetic conditions in pediatric patients, but concerns have been expressed about the complexity of the information and the possibility for secondary findings that need to be conveyed to those deciding about WES. Currently, there is no validated tool to assess parental understanding of WES. We developed and implemented a survey to assess perceived and actual understanding of WES in parents who consented to clinical WES for their child between July 2013 and May 2015. Fifty-three eligible surveys were returned (57% response rate). Areas with both low perceived and actual understanding about WES included how genes are analyzed and lack of protection against life insurance discrimination. Parents also had low actual understanding for two questions related to secondary findings – reporting of secondary findings in a parent (if tested) and whether secondary findings can be related to traits such as height and hair color. Further work to develop a validated tool to assess understanding of WES would be beneficial as WES is integrated more frequently into clinical care.     

Comparison of scores for abused and nonabused young adults on the Psychological Trauma and Resources Scale

The Psychological Trauma and Psychological Resources Scale has been developed to identify adolescents and adults who have experienced traumatic events, i.e., physical, sexual, or emotional abuse and neglect. The scale also attempts to identify the presence of compensatory or resource factors such as social support that may serve to ameliorate the effects of traumatic events. 98 college participants who reported a history of abuse were compared with 464 nonabused students on the seven subscales. As predicted, the abused participants reported significantly more incidents of abuse and neglect than the nontraumatized group. In addition, the abused group reported receiving less emotional support, and they were less likely to use positive self-talk as a way to decrease emotional distress. These results provide empirical support for using the Psychological Trauma and Psychological Resources Scale to identify individuals with a history of abuse. Findings underscore the importance of assessing resource variables that may moderate the effects of abuse.     

Serial murder by children and adolescents

Six cases of serial murder by children and adolescents spanning the past 150 years are presented. The available literature pertaining to this area is reviewed. Each of these six offenders committed sexually homicidal behavior as demonstrated by their expression of erotic interest or engagement in overt sexual behavior at the crime scenes. From a DSM-IV-TR perspective they all exhibited signs of sexual sadism, and their crime characteristics reflected behavior of a more predatory than affective nature. Hands on methods of killing were preferred, i.e., cutting, stabbing, or strangulation. These crimes are extremely rare. Case reports in this area are encouraged to advance our knowledge of these youths.     

Students' Machiavellianism and motives for communicating with instructors

This study investigated the relationship between scores of college students (N=210, 114 women, 95 men, 1 unidentified; Mage=19.3 yr., SD=2.8) on Machiavellianism and their motives for communicating with their instructors in the classroom. Students' Machiavellianism scores were positively but weakly related to three motives of Functional (r=.22, p<.01), Excuse-making (r=.16, p<.05), and Sycophancy (r=.17, p<.05).     

Different mechanisms of fear extinction dependent on length of time since fear acquisition

Fear extinction is defined as a decline in conditioned fear responses (CRs) following nonreinforced exposure to a feared conditioned stimulus (CS). Behavioral evidence indicates that extinction is a form of inhibitory learning: Extinguished fear responses reappear with the passage of time (spontaneous recovery), a shift of context (renewal), and unsignaled presentations of the unconditioned stimulus (reinstatement). However, there also is evidence to suggest that extinction is an "unlearning" process corresponding to depotentiation of potentiated synapses within the amygdala. Because depotentiation is induced more readily at short intervals following LTP induction and is not inducible at all at a sufficient delay, it may be that extinction initiated shortly following fear acquisition preferentially engages depotentiation/"unlearning," whereas extinction initiated at longer delays recruits a different mechanism. We investigated this possibility through a series of behavioral experiments examining the recoverability of conditioned fear following extinction. Consistent with an inhibitory learning mechanism of extinction, rats extinguished 24-72 h following acquisition exhibited moderate to strong reinstatement, renewal, and spontaneous recovery. In contrast, and consistent with an erasure mechanism, rats extinguished 10 min to 1 h after acquisition exhibited little or no reinstatement, renewal, or spontaneous recovery. These data support a model in which different neural mechanisms are recruited depending on the temporal delay of fear extinction.     

Integrating incremental learning and episodic memory models of the hippocampal region

By integrating previous computational models of corticohippocampal function, the authors develop and test a unified theory of the neural substrates of familiarity, recollection, and classical conditioning. This approach integrates models from 2 traditions of hippocampal modeling, those of episodic memory and incremental learning, by drawing on an earlier mathematical model of conditioning, SOP (A. Wagner, 1981). The model describes how a familiarity signal may arise from parahippocampal cortices, giving a novel explanation for the finding that the neural response to a stimulus in these regions decreases with increasing stimulus familiarity. Recollection is ascribed to the hippocampus proper. It is shown how the properties of episodic representations in the neocortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and hippocampus proper may explain phenomena in classical conditioning. The model reproduces the effects of hippocampal, septal, and broad hippocampal region lesions on contextual modulation of classical conditioning, blocking, learned irrelevance, and latent inhibition.