Effects of daily events on mood states in major depressive disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by high negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), but little is known about emotional reactivity in daily life. The authors used experience sampling methodology to investigate changes in NA and PA following minor daily events in MDD compared with healthy participants. Contrary to expectation, MDD participants did not report more frequent negative events, although they did report fewer positive events. Multilevel regression showed that both NA and PA responses to negative events were blunted in the MDD group, whereas responses to positive events were enhanced. NA responses to negative events persisted longer in MDD participants. Depressed participants with a positive family history or longer current episodes showed relatively greater NA responses to negative events.     

Latent growth curve analyses of accelerating decline in cognitive abilities in late adulthood

Latent growth models were applied to data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging to discover if the rate of change in cognitive performance increased from middle age to later adulthood. The sample included 590 participants aged 44 to 88 years at first measurement. Data were gathered at 2 follow-up occasions at intervals of 3 years. Cognitive ability was assessed through 11 tests that tapped crystallized, fluid, memory, and spatial abilities and perceptual speed. Results indicated stability for measures of crystallized ability, linear age changes for many cognitive abilities, and a significant acceleration in linear decline after age 65 for measures with a large speed component. Gender differences were found only in mean level, not in rate of decline.     

Analysis of precurrent skills in solving mathematics story problems

We conducted an analysis of precurrent skills (responses that increase the effectiveness of a subsequent or "current" behavior in obtaining a reinforcer) to facilitate the solution of arithmetic word (story) problems. Two students with developmental disabilities were taught four precurrent responses (identifying the initial value, change value, operation, and resulting value) in a sequential manner. Results of a multiple baseline design across behaviors showed that the teaching procedures were effective in increasing correct performance of each of the precurrent behaviors with untaught problems during probes and that once the precurrent behaviors were established, the number of correct problem solutions increased.     

Longitudinal effects of lean production on employee outcomes and the mediating role of work characteristics

The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N = 368), which suggest negative effects on employee outcomes after the implementation of 3 lean production practices: lean teams, assembly lines, and workflow formalization. Employees in all lean production groups were negatively affected, but those in assembly lines fared the worst, with reduced organizational commitment and role breadth self-efficacy and increased job depression. A nonequivalent control group had no negative changes in outcomes. Mediational analyses showed that the negative effects of lean production were at least partly attributable to declines in perceived work characteristics (job autonomy, skill utilization, and participation in decision making). The study also shows the longitudinal effects of these work characteristics on psychological outcomes. Implications for lean production, work design, and employee well-being are discussed.     

The Role of Creativity in Marriage and Family Therapy Practice: A National Online Study

The purpose of this study, using an online methodology, was to investigate therapists' perceptions of the role of creativity in couples' and family therapy. Along with completing a quantitative measure assessing creativity in their work, participants responded to four open-ended questions which addressed the meaning of creativity, characteristics of a creative family therapist, some creative interventions they have used with couples and families, and barriers to their own creativity as a family therapist. A total of 142 marriage and family therapists in 36 states in the United States participated. The findings shed light on the unique importance of creativity in couples and family treatment.     

What is meant by telling the truth: Bonhoeffer on the ethics of disclosure

This article explores Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings on truth telling with reference to the problem of medical error in the US, the UK, and other developed nations, with particular attention to physicians' resistance to disclosing their own mistakes to injured patients and their families. The brief essay 'What is Meant by "Telling the Truth"?' and its historical context--Bonhoeffer's imprisonment and interrogation in 1943--is proposed as a text for medical ethicists and others seeking to overcome the barrier of the 'hidden curriculum' within the culture of medicine, which encourages medical students and physicians to conceal their errors and to fear disclosure.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the WMS-III in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy

Five competing models specifying the factor structure underlying the Wechsler Memory Scale-Third Edition (D. Wechsler, 1997b) primary subtest scores were evaluated in a sample of patients with intractable temporal lobe epilepsy (N = 254). Models specifying separate immediate and delayed constructs resulted in inadmissible parameter estimates and model specification error. There were negligible goodness-of-fit differences between a 3-factor model of working memory, auditory memory, and visual memory and a nested--more parsimonious--2-factor model of working memory and general memory. The results suggest that specifying a separate visual memory factor provides little advantage for this sample--an unexpected finding in a population with lateralized dysfunction, for which one might have predicted separate auditory and visual memory dimensions.     

Effects of environmental enrichment on spatial memory and neurochemistry in middle-aged mice

The present study compared the effects of environmental enrichment on spatial memory, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity, and synaptophysin levels in middle-aged male and female mice. Prior to testing, a subset of 18-month-old male and female C57BL/6 mice was housed with two to three toys and a running wheel in the home cage for up to 29 d. Adult mice (7 mo) of both sexes and the remaining middle-aged mice were group (social) housed, but not exposed to enriching objects. After the enrichment period, all mice were tested in a 1-day version of the Morris water maze, in which both spatial and nonspatial memory were assessed. Immediately after testing, the hippocampus and frontoparietal cortex were dissected, and GAD activity and synaptophysin levels were measured. Environmental enrichment reduced the age-related impairment in spatial acquisition and retention; relative to adult social controls, middle-aged enriched mice were unimpaired, whereas middle-aged social controls were impaired. This reduction was similar in middle-aged males and females. Enrichment did not affect cued memory in either sex. Although hippocampal GAD activity was increased by enrichment in males, all other neurochemical measurements were unaffected by enrichment or aging in either sex. These data suggest that environmental enrichment initiated at middle age can reduce age-related impairments in spatial memory in males and females, although the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect remain unknown.     

The origins of height fear: an evaluation of neoconditioning explanations

The present research sought to establish a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the relevance of neoconditioning factors (e.g. latent inhibition, UCS inflation/revaluation, prior fear levels, prior expectancies of harm, fear and pain levels experienced during supposed learning events), in the development of human fear. Fifty-four undergraduate height-fearful students completed the new origins instrument (OQ-II), while 54 matched controls completed a modified version (OQM-II) that examined their prior experiences with heights. In general, few differences between groups were found. Height-fearful and control subjects did not differ on trait anxiety, the frequency of negative encounters with heights, the age at which these events had occurred, prior fear levels, prior expectancies of harm, or reports of UCS inflation/revaluation procedures. However, in a finding directly opposite to that expected from a conditioning account, the mean fear and pain scores reported by subjects who had experienced direct conditioning events were significantly higher in the non-fearful group than in the height-fearful group. These findings are discussed in terms of associative and non-associative models of fear.