Memory specificity as a risk factor for suicidality in non-affective psychosis: The ability to recall specific autobiographical memories is related to greater suicidality

A difficulty in recalling specific autobiographical memories has been noted as a risk factor for suicidal behaviour. However, the relationship between memory specificity and suicide has not previously been investigated in those with non-affective psychosis. It was predicted that in this group, more specific memory recall would be associated with an increased risk of suicide. This is because such specific memories are likely to be associated with greater levels of distress and negative affect than less specific memories. This prediction contradicts the prevailing belief that lower memory specificity is associated with greater suicidality. Sixty participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were recruited, 40 of whom reported past suicide attempts. Analyses showed suicide attempters recalled a greater proportion of specific memories, whilst controlling for trait anxiety and depressive symptoms. These results supported the main hypothesis, and suggest non-specific memory may have adaptive qualities in individuals with psychosis.     

Suicide schemas in non-affective psychosis: An empirical investigation

Suicide is the leading cause of premature death among individuals experiencing psychosis. The risk of suicide is proposed to increase with a greater potential for activation of suicide related schemas. Empirical representations of suicide schemas were compared between individuals experiencing non-affective psychosis, with and without a history of suicidal behaviour. Employing a cross-sectional between-groups comparison design, 84 participants, previously diagnosed with a non-affective psychotic disorder, were recruited from community mental health services. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and clinical measures of psychopathology. To assess participants’ suicide schemas, a series of direct and indirect cognitive tasks were designed and administered. Pathfinder analysis enabled the construction of empirically derived representations of the groups’ suicide schemas based on responses to the cognitive tasks. The suicide group achieved significantly greater scores on measures of anxiety, depression, hopelessness and suicidality than the non-suicide group, but not on measures indicative of the severity of psychosis. The suicide schema for the suicide group was more elaborate and extensive than for the non-suicide group, even when clinical measures were taken into account. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Psychosocial correlates of depressive rumination

The study examined the relationship between brooding, the maladaptive sub-component of depressive rumination, an important cognitive mechanism implicated in the aetiology of depression, and a range of depressogenic psychosocial factors, including insecure attachment styles and maladaptive interpersonal behaviours. It was hypothesised that brooding (but not the more adaptive reflection component) is associated with an attachment pattern characterised by fear of rejection, and an interpersonal style characterised by submissiveness. Currently depressed (n = 29), previously depressed (n = 42) and never-depressed (n = 32) adults completed self-report measures assessing depressive symptoms, rumination (brooding and reflection), attachment orientation and maladaptive interpersonal behaviours. The study hypotheses were partially supported: After controlling for gender and depressive symptoms, brooding was significantly associated with one indicator of underlying rejection concerns (rejection sensitivity, p = .05), but was not associated with another indicator of underlying rejection concerns (anxious attachment style) or with avoidant attachment style. After controlling for depressive symptoms, brooding was uniquely associated with the submissive interpersonal style (p < .01). Brooding was not correlated with needy or cold interpersonal styles after controlling for depressive symptoms.     

Expressed emotion and sociocultural moderation in the course of schizophrenia

This study examined whether the sociocultural context moderates the relationship between families' expressed emotion (EE) and clinical outcomes in schizophrenia. In a sample of 60 Mexican American caregivers and their ill relatives, we first assessed whether EE and its indices (criticism, emotional overinvolvement [EOI], and warmth) related to relapse. Second, we extended the analysis of EE and its indices to a longitudinal assessment of symptomatology. Last, we tested whether bidimensional acculturation moderated the relationship between EE (and its indices) and both relapse and symptom trajectory over time. Results indicated that EOI was associated with increased relapse and that criticism was associated with increased symptomatology. Additionally, as patients' Mexican enculturation (Spanish language and media involvement) decreased, EE was increasingly related to relapse. For symptomatology, as patients' U.S. acculturation (English language and media involvement) increased, EE was associated with increased symptoms longitudinally. Our results replicate and extend past research on how culture might shape the way family factors relate to the course of schizophrenia.     

Kant on Complete Determination and Infinite Judgement

In the Transcendental Ideal Kant discusses the principle of complete determination: for every object and every predicate A, the object is either determinately A or not-A. He claims this principle is synthetic, but it appears to follow from the principle of excluded middle, which is analytic. He also makes a puzzling claim in support of its syntheticity: that it represents individual objects as deriving their possibility from the whole of possibility. This raises a puzzle about why Kant regarded it as synthetic, and what his explanatory claim means. I argue that the principle of complete determination does not follow from the principle of excluded middle because the externally negated or ‘negative’ judgement ‘Not (S is P)’ does not entail the internally negated or ‘infinite’ judgement ‘S is not-P.’ Kant's puzzling explanatory claim means that empirical objects are determined by the content of the totality of experience. This entails that empirical objects are completely determinate if and only if the totality of experience has a completely determinate content. I argue that it is not a priori whether experience has such a completely determinate content and thus not analytic that objects obey the principle of complete determination.     

Goal pursuit,goal self-concordance,and the accessibility of autobiographical knowledge

Recent theory suggests that personal goals influence the accessibility of autobiographical knowledge. We suggest that this effect is moderated by goal self-concordance: the extent to which a goal is pursued for autonomous rather than controlling reasons. Cueing paradigms were used to measure the accessibility of autobiographical knowledge relating to (i) goals that participants were and were not pursuing, and (ii) currently pursued goals that were high and low in self-concordance. As predicted, autobiographical knowledge relating to currently pursued goals was more accessible than autobiographical knowledge relating to non-pursued goals. General event knowledge relating to self-concordant goals was more accessible than general event knowledge relating to non-self-concordant goals, but a corresponding relationship did not emerge for event-specific knowledge.     

Dealing With Complexity Differently: From Interaction-Dominant Dynamics to Theoretical Plurality

We describe how the work of Guy Van Orden has been deeply influential in a variety of ways and focus on 2 important features: measurement and context. The centrality of these variables in understanding how psychological regularities emerge in our investigative contexts, and evolve into theories, recommends a different way of dealing with complexity. We argue that the Van Orden approach has, as one possible consequence, a plural approach to psychological phenomena. We end by describing what this means for cognitive science.     

Morality and political orientations: An analysis of their relationship

Groups are social constructions with differences. People spontaneously attempt to explain differences between groups. Stereotypes often play this explanatory role. Specifically, group members tend to attribute different essences to social categories. Given widespread ethnocentrism, it is not surprising that individuals reserve “the human essence” for their ingroup, while other groups are attributed a lesser humanity. This phenomenon is called infra‐humanisation and happens outside people's awareness. Secondary emotions (e.g., love, hope, contempt, resentment) are considered uniquely human emotions in contrast to primary emotions (e.g., joy, surprise, fear, anger) that are shared with animals. The research programme summarised in this chapter demonstrates through various paradigms that members of groups not only attribute more secondary emotions to their ingroup than to outgroups, but are also reluctant to associate these emotions with outgroups. Moreover, people behave less cooperatively with an outgroup member who expresses himself with secondary emotions than with an ingroup member who uses the same terms. Interestingly, infra‐humanisation occurs for both high‐ and low‐status groups, even in the absence of conflict between groups.     

Fear and loving in social hierarchy: Sex differences in preferences for power versus status

Famous thinkers throughout history from Nepos to Machiavelli have had strong opinions about whether it is better to be feared or loved. A related debate continues today about whether it is preferable to have power or status, a distinction between resources and respect. Across three studies, I find that men desire power more than women do, whereas women desire status more than men do. Furthermore, the extent to which hierarchical differences are seen as fair and legitimate increases the desirability of status, but power legitimacy does not affect the desirability of power. This research indicates that people perceive and value power and status distinctly, and provides additional evidence that confounding the two theoretically or empirically may distort our understanding of psychological responses to social hierarchy.