Impulsivity as a predictor of newly diagnosed depression

Depression is a severe mental disorder, whose onset has been related to environmental, genetic and personality factors. This study examined the association between impulsivity and incidence of depression. Logistic regression models were related to prospective data from two surveys (2-year time lag) conducted in a large cohort of hospital employees (N= 4,505). Only respondents with no history of depression at baseline were included. Impulsivity was predictive of the onset of depression (OR = 1.95, CI 95%= 1.28-2.97) after adjustment for age, sex and education. This association remained statistically significant after additional adjustment for a variety of baseline characteristics, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and size of social network. A measure of mental distress (GHQ-12 responses), which may serve as a proxy measure for undiagnosed depression, was also associated with impulsivity. Impulsivity appears to be a distinct personality factor that may contribute to the onset of depressive illness in adults.     

Possessed for Success: Prosperity Buddhism and the Cult of the Guardians of the Treasure Trove in Upper Burma

Following the global spread of capitalism from the early 1990s, individualistic, non-institutionalised prosperity religion and ‘occult economies’ have emerged throughout the world, including South-East Asia, but have seemingly not yet been investigated with respect to Burma/Myanmar. This article focuses on the cult of the guardians of the treasure trove – a form of ‘prosperity Buddhism’ – in Upper Burma, wherein predominantly business women of lower middle classes perform possession dances to become successful in business. It has partly evolved from the lower status ‘traditional’ possession cult of the 37 Lords. The aim of this article is threefold. Firstly, it examines novel kinds of ‘Buddhicised’ possession rituals of higher status that discard religious specialists. These practices represent a democratisation of public spirit-mediumship and provide a route for success in business, agency and empowerment. Secondly, it is demonstrated that these cults seek to preserve Buddhism in the face of the current rapid changes in Burma. Thirdly, this article shows how these novel cults emerged in dynamic interplay with recent economic, social and political changes in Burma, as well as an increasing impact of globalisation.     

Cloninger's temperament dimensions and threat, stress, and performance appraisals during different challenges among young adults

ABSTRACT We examined the relationship of Cloninger's temperament factors—Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, Reward Dependence, and Persistence—to perceived threat and stress and performance appraisals during different challenges, i.e., mental arithmetic, the reaction time task, and three public speaking tasks, among 97 young adult men and women. Temperament was measured by the Temperament and Character Inventory. The results showed that, although some of the predictions made by Cloninger's model were confirmed, some were unsupported. The results revealed also some associations between temperament and cognitive appraisals that were intelligible, but not predicted by Cloninger's model. There were considerable domain specificity and gender differences in the associations found. Cloninger's temperament dimensions are related to threat, stress, and performance appraisals, thereby influencing individual's stress vulnerability, adjustment, and personal functioning.     

Effects of age on the mother-child interactions of ADD-H and normal boys

The interactions of 60 ADD-H boys with their mothers were compared to those of 60 normal boys during both freeplay and task situations. Both groups were equally subdivided into five age levels (years 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). In free play, ADDH boys played more independently of and were more negative toward their mothers, while their mothers gave more commands and initiated fewer interactions than normal motherchild dyads. There were no effects of age in this setting. During the task setting, ADD H boys were less compliant, sustained their compliance for shorter time periods, and were more negative and off task than the normal boys. Mothers of ADD-H boys gave more commands, were more negative, initiated fewer interactions, and responded with greater control over both compliance and offtask behavior than did normal mothers. Several age effects were noted suggesting that older boys in both groups were more compliant while their mothers gave fewer commands and controlled their compliance less than the motherchild dyads of younger boys. While the interactions of ADD-H boys appear to improve with age, the boys continue to display a developmental lag in social behavior that is more evident with increasing situational demands.This research was supported by NIMH Grant MH32334-01 to the first author and by funds provided by the Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin. The authors are grateful to Ann Thompson for her assistance with the compilation of the data.     

Relationships between hostility, affective ratings of pictures, and state affects during task-induced stress

The authors examined the relationship of hostility with (a) affective ratings of pictures and (b) state affects evoked by task-induced stress in 95 healthy men and women 22-37 years of age. Pictures were from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; P. J. Lang, M. M. Bradley, & B. N. Cuthbert, 1999). Stressors included a startle task, mental arithmetic task, and choice-deadline reaction time task. The circumplex model of affect was used to structure the self-reported state affects. The authors found that hostility was associated with displeasure, high arousal, and low dominance ratings of IAPS pictures. Hostility was related to unpleasant affect and unactivated unpleasant affect during the experiment, and subscale paranoia was related to activated unpleasant affect. Findings suggest that participants scoring high on hostility are prone to negative emotional reactions.     

Adaptive changes between cue abstraction and exemplar memory in a multiple-cue judgment task with continuous cues

The majority of previous studies on multiple-cue judgment with continuous cues have involved comparisons between judgments and multiple linear regression models that integrated cues into a judgment. The authors present an experiment indicating that in a judgment task withadditive combination of multiple continuous cues, people indeed displayed abstract knowledge of the cue criterion relations that was mentally integrated into a judgment, but in a task withmultiplicative combination of continuous cues, people instead relied on retrieval of memory traces of similar judgment cases (exemplars). These results suggest that people may adopt qualitatively distinct forms of knowledge, depending on the structure of a multiple-cue judgment task. The authors discuss implications for theories of multiple-cue judgment.     

Oscillatory brain responses evoked by video game events: the case of super monkey ball 2.

Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while the subjects played a video game where the player had to steer a monkey into a goal while collecting bananas for extra points and had to avoid falling off the edge of the game board. Each of these three studied events evoked differential EEG oscillatory changes. Picking up bananas evoked decreased theta activation on central electrodes, decreased high alpha activation on frontal electrodes, and increased beta activation on frontal electrodes. Falling off the game board evoked decreased central theta activation and increased fronto-central beta activation. Reaching the goal evoked increased theta activation on parietal electrodes, increased low alpha activation on frontal electrodes, increased high alpha activation on frontal, central, and parietal electrodes, and increased beta activation on frontal and central electrodes. It is suggested that the EEG oscillations evoked by picking up bananas reflect increased cortical activation and arousal; the oscillations evoked by falling off the edge of the game board reflect motor functions; and the oscillations evoked by reaching the goal reflect a relaxed state. Thus, EEG may turn out to be a valuable tool when examining psychological responses to video game events.     

Perceptions of the Targets and Sources of COVID-19 Threat are Structured by Group Memberships and Responses are Influenced by Identification with Humankind

The purpose of this study was to investigate which social groups are perceived as a threat target and which are perceived as a threat source during the COVID-19 outbreak. In a German sample (N = 1454) we examined perceptions of social groups ranging from those that are psychologically close and smaller (family, friends, neighbors) to those that are more distal and larger (people living in Germany, humankind). We hypothesized that psychologically closer groups would be perceived as less affected by COVID-19 as well as less threatening than more psychologically distal groups. Based on social identity theorizing, we also hypothesized that stronger identification with humankind would change these patterns. Furthermore, we explored how these threat perceptions relate to adherence to COVID-19 health guidelines. In line with our hypotheses, latent random-slope modelling revealed that psychologically distal and larger groups were perceived as more affected by COVID-19 and as more threatening than psychologically closer and smaller groups. Including identification with humankind as a predictor into the threat target model resulted in a steeper increase in threat target perception patterns, whereas identification with humankind did not predict differences in threat source perceptions. Additionally, an increase in threat source perceptions across social groups was associated with more adherence to health guidelines, whereas an increase in threat target perceptions was not. We fully replicated these findings in a subgroup from the original sample (N = 989) four weeks later. We argue that societal recovery from this and other crises will be supported by an inclusive approach informed by a sense of our common identity as human beings.     

Identification facilitation for emotionally arousing verbs during the attentional blink

The present study aimed to examine affective modulation of the "attentional blink" effect during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). Pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant written verbs were used as a 2nd target (T2) in an 8.6-Hz RSVP paradigm. Pronounced effects of 1st target (T1)-T2 stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) were found, showing reduced report accuracy for 232- and 464-ms SOAs. Affectively arousing (pleasant and unpleasant) T2s were associated with enhanced accuracy compared with neutral T2s specifically during short (232 ms) SOAs. In contrast, pleasant and unpleasant T2s rated low in terms of emotional arousal did not show this enhancement. These results suggest that affectively arousing information is selected preferentially from a temporal stream, facilitating processes such as working memory consolidation and action.