Impact of stressors in a natural context on release of cortisol in healthy adult humans: a meta-analysis

Increased hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation, culminating in elevated circulating cortisol levels is a fundamental response to stressors. In animals, this neuroendocrine change is highly reliable and marked (approximately 5-10-fold elevations), whereas in humans, the increase of cortisol release is less pronounced, and even some potent life-threatening events (anticipation of surgery) only elicit modest cortisol increases. Meta-analysis of factors that influenced the increase of cortisol release in a laboratory context pointed to the importance of social evaluative threats and stressor controllability in accounting for the cortisol rise. The present meta-analysis, covering the period from 1978 through March 2007, was undertaken to identify the factors most closely aligned with cortisol increases in natural settings. It appeared that stressor chronicity was fundamental in predicting cortisol changes; however, this variable is often confounded by the stressor type, the stressor's controllability, as well as contextual factors, making it difficult to disentangle their relative contributions to the cortisol response. Moreover, several experiential factors (e.g. previous stressor experiences) may influence the cortisol response to ongoing stressors, but these are not readily deduced through a meta-analysis. Nevertheless, there are ample data suggesting that stressful events, through their actions on cortisol levels and reactivity, may influence psychological and physical pathology.     

The effects of a motivational general-arousal imagery intervention upon preperformance symptoms in male rugby union players

ObjectivesTo investigate the efficacy of a motivational general-arousal based imagery strategy in modifying precompetitive symptom interpretations.MethodA staggered multiple baseline single-subject design was employed with five male collegiate rugby union players (M = 24.5; SD = 3.05). The dependent variable was monitored over a full competitive season via measures of precompetitive anxiety and affect together with follow-up social validation procedures.ResultsMore facilitative interpretations of symptoms associated with competitive anxiety, and greater self-confidence levels were reported postintervention, together with changes in positive and negative affect.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the importance of employing individualized imagery with motivational general-arousal content to modify performers' perceptions of their precompetitive experiences. This effect is proposed to occur directly through adaptive changes in individuals' psychological response systems and indirectly via the protection mechanisms associated with enhanced efficacy expectations.     

An Eliminativist Theory of Religion

A philosophical theory of religion ought to meet four criteria: it should be extensionally accurate, neutral, phenomenological, and non-circular. I argue that none of the popular theories of religion meet all these criteria, and that, in particular, the extensional accuracy criterion and the non-circularity criterion can’t be met without sacrificing extensional accuracy. I conclude that, therefore, religions do not form a kind, and so, there is no such thing as religion.

Treating destructive behavior reinforced by increased caregiver compliance with the participant's mands

Functional analyses sometimes do not identify momentary fluctuations in the function of destructive behavior (Bowman, Fisher, Thompson, & Piazza, 1997). In such cases, individuals may mand for the reinforcer that is currently most preferred and display destructive behavior if that mand goes unreinforced. In this study, we conducted a mand analysis to test whether destructive behavior functioned as a precurrent response that increased reinforcement for the participant's mands. We then evaluated a treatment that matched this function of destructive behavior by providing differential or time-based reinforcement of participant mands in accordance with multiple or chained schedules with reinforcement-schedule thinning. Decreases in destructive behavior averaged 97.4% across cases. We discuss these results relative to the importance of matching treatments for destructive behavior to operant functions for both traditional and idiosyncratic functions of destructive behavior.     

Distinguishing between perceiver and wearer effects in clothing color-associated attributions

Recent studies have noted positive effects of red clothing on success in competitive sports, perhaps arising from an evolutionary predisposition to associate the color red with dominance status. Red may also enhance judgments of women's attractiveness by men, perhaps through a similar association with fertility. Here we extend these studies by investigating attractiveness judgments of both sexes and by contrasting attributions based on six different colors. Furthermore, by photographing targets repeatedly in different colors, we could investigate whether color effects are due to influences on raters or clothing wearers, by either withholding from raters information about clothing color or holding it constant via digital manipulation, while retaining color-associated variation in wearer's expression and posture. When color cues were available, we found color-attractiveness associations when males were judged by either sex, or when males judged females, but not when females judged female images. Both red and black were associated with higher attractiveness judgments and had approximately equivalent effects. Importantly, we also detected significant clothing color-attractiveness associations even when clothing color was obscured from raters and when color was held constant by digital manipulation. These results suggest that clothing color has a psychological influence on wearers at least as much as on raters, and that this ultimately influences attractiveness judgments by others. Our results lend support for the idea that evolutionarily-derived color associations can bias interpersonal judgments, although these are limited neither to effects on raters nor to the color red.     

Objective and subjective bulimic episodes in the classification of bulimic-type eating disorders: Another nail in the coffin of a problematic distinction

We sought to further explore the validity of the distinction between objective bulimic episodes (OBEs) and subjective bulimic episodes (SBEs) in the study of bulimic-type eating disorders. Drawing on data obtained at the second, interview phase of a large-scale epidemiological study, we identified mutually exclusive subgroups of women with bulimic-type eating disorders who engaged in regular OBEs but not SBEs (n = 37) or regular SBEs but not OBEs (n = 52). These subgroups were compared on a wide range of outcomes, including socio-demographic characteristics, current levels of eating disorder psychopathology, general psychological distress and impairment in role functioning, current and lifetime impairment in quality of life specifically associated with an eating problem, (self)-recognition of an eating problem, health service utilization and use of psychotropic medication. The only difference between groups was that participants who reported regular OBEs were heavier than those who reported regular SBEs. The findings converge with those of previous research in suggesting that bulimic-type eating disorders characterized by regular SBEs, but not OBEs, do not differ in any clinically meaningful way from those characterized by regular OBEs, but not SBEs. Inclusion of bulimic-type eating disorders characterized by regular SBEs as a provisional category requiring further research in DSM-V appears warranted.