Symptoms Among Partners,Family, and Friends of Individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Associations with Social Support Behaviors,Gender, and Relationship Status

Social support represents an important recovery factor for individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nevertheless, partners, family, and friends who take on the role of caregiver for individuals with PTSD might face multiple difficulties. For example, they are at risk for developing anxiety and depressive symptoms, which could negatively affect their ability to offer support. This study examined the associations between the difficulties of individuals with PTSD (i.e., symptoms and level of functioning), their caregivers’ (partners, family, and friends) anxiety and depressive symptoms, and social support behaviors according to 2 variables: relationship status and gender. Sixty-five individuals with PTSD and either their partner, family member, or friend filled out questionnaires and participated in a trauma-oriented discussion. Social support behaviors were coded. Results revealed no associations between the difficulties of individuals with PTSD and their caregivers’ symptoms. However, caregivers’ depressive symptoms were negatively associated with the quality of some of their social support behaviors. Moreover, relationship status and gender were significant moderators, indicating stronger negative associations between anxiety and depressive symptoms and some social support behaviors of men and caregiving partners. Male caregivers could have difficulties offering appropriate support and responding to traditional masculine roles (e.g., being strong and self-reliant) when they report symptoms themselves. Partners are particularly involved in the everyday life of individuals with PTSD. Thus, they could have difficulties keeping an optimal emotional distance to offer support when they report symptoms themselves. Future directions as well as clinical implications are discussed.     

Changing the focus of attention: The interacting effect of valence and arousal

We examined how valence and arousal of an image influence visual attention. “Spotlight of attention” theory suggests that positive affect broadens, and negative affect narrows, one's aperture of attention, whereas the arousal theory literature suggests that arousal level is what modulates attentional focus, with highly arousing affect capturing attention, regardless of valence. In two experiments, a digit parity task was used to index the influence of valence, and arousal, on visual attention. Positive or negative images were displayed centrally on each trial, with single digits presented more peripherally (Experiment 1) or more centrally (Experiment 2) to the image. In both Experiments participants were slower, and less accurate at making parity decisions (e.g., both digits odd or both even) when the image was negative relative to positive, and of high arousal. For low arousal images, positive, relative to negative, valence images led to greater impairment of the digit parity task. Findings suggest that arousal level of images modulates the influence of valence on distribution of visual attention. Highly negative emotional images may command or capture attention, but there are other factors that can lead to attention capture, even in low arousing positive stimuli.     

Age-Related Changes in the use of Study Context to Increase Recollection

ABSTRACT

We examined how context presented at study affects recollection of words in younger and older adults. In Experiment 1, participants studied words presented with a picture of a face (context-rich condition) or a rectangle (context-weak condition), and subsequently made ‘Remember’, ‘Know’, or ‘New’ judgments to words presented alone. Younger, but not older, adults showed higher Remember accuracy following rich- than weak-context trials. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the type of processing engaged during the encoding of context–word pairs. Younger and older adults studied words presented with a picture of a face under a surface feature (gender) or binding feature (match) instruction condition. Both age groups showed higher Remember accuracy in the binding than surface instruction condition. Results suggest that providing rich contextual detail at encoding boosts later item recollection in younger adults. Older adults, however, do not spontaneously engage in the processes required to boost recollection, though instructional manipulation during encoding lessens this deficit.     

Attention,Memory, and Language after Pediatric Ischemic Stroke

A previous study evaluating receptive language after unilateral brain damage in childhood hypothesized lateralized attention and memory deficits without direct measurement. Our study directly measured attention, memory, and language in order to evaluate empirically the severity and laterality of sequelae. The performances of 11 individuals with a unilateral ischemic-lesion (7 right and 4 left hemisphere) were compared to controls matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Results suggest subtle but persistent deficits in verbal memory, functional memory, and speed of processing after a lesion to either hemisphere. Lesions sustained before two years of age were associated with the lowest IQ scores. Our findings provide support for a configural representation of language that can to some extent compensate for inefficient or damaged components (Bates, 1994), and the middle-ground lateralization position (Thal et al., 1991) that asserts initial hemispheric specialization with the potential for reorganization.     

The Five-Factor Framing of Personality and Beyond: Some Ruminations

The five-factor conceptualization of personality has been presented as all-embracing in understanding personality and has even received authoritative recommendation for understanding early development. I raise various concerns regarding this popular model. More specifically, (a) the atheoretical nature of the five-factors, their cloudy measurement, and their inappropriateness for studying early childhood are discussed; (b) the method (and morass) of factor analysis as the exclusive paradigm for conceptualizing personality is questioned and the continuing nonconsensual understandings of the five-factors is noted; (c) various unrecognized but successful efforts to specify aspects of character not subsumed by the catholic five-factors are brought forward; and (d) transformational developments in regard to inventory assessment of personality are mentioned. I conclude by suggesting that repeatedly observed higher order factors hierarchically above the proclaimed five may promise deeper biological understanding of the origins and implications of these superfactors.     

Age-related differences in attentional bias for emotional faces

Past research suggests an aging-related positivity effect in orienting to faces. However, these studies have eschewed direct comparison of orienting when positive and negative faces are presented simultaneously, thereby potentially underestimating the degree to which emotional valence influences such effects. In the current study younger and older adults viewed face pairs for 1000 ms, and upon face-pair offset indicated the location of a dot that appeared in the former location of one of the faces, to assess attentional orienting. When shown negative–neutral pairs, both age groups were biased to attend to negative faces, but when shown positive–negative pairs only younger adults showed a bias toward negative; older adults showed a lack of orienting toward either emotional face. Results suggest younger adults have a negativity bias in attention orienting regardless of the valence of nearby stimuli, whereas older adults show an absence of this bias when positive information is present.     

The Dual Effects of Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Relationships to Research Productivity and Career Outcomes in Academe

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has been shown to be important for organizational effectiveness, yet less is known about the relationship between OCB and objective outcomes for individuals. We investigate the relationship between OCB and both short-term and longer term outcomes within the context of an outcome-based reward system. We also investigate a type of OCB specific to professional occupations, namely, professional service OCB. Using resource allocation and social exchange theories, we hypothesize that OCB directed internally to the employing organization may have a negative impact on individuals’ productivity and career outcomes while engaging in professional service OCB would be positively related to these outcomes. Results from a survey of 622 faculty members in research universities provide support for these hypotheses. Future research directions are discussed.