The adrenergic receptor α-2A gene (ADRA2A) and neuropsychological executive functions as putative endophenotypes for childhood ADHD

There is resurgent interest in the psychiatric literature in endophenotypes, variables thought to more strongly reflect the effects of candidate genes than do manifest disorders. In a sample of 176 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 52 of their siblings, we examined the validity of several putative endophenotypes for ADHD that represent commonly used clinical measures of multiple cognitive/neuropsychological domains of executive functions (EFs). We review their distributional normality, their relations to ADHD symptoms in probands and unaffected siblings relative to nonADHD controls, and their correlation in siblings. We also tested the EF measures’ associations with the ADRA2A gene and whether they mediated or moderated the associations between ADHD and ADRA2A. Several EF measures showed association with ADRA2A, as well as moderation, but not mediation, of its association with ADHD. Implications of the results for evaluating the validity and utility of putative endophenotype measures and for finding candidate gene effects on ADHD are discussed.     

Cultural differences in neural function associated with object processing

Behavioral research suggests that Westerners focus more on objects, whereas East Asians attend more to relationships and contexts. We evaluated the neural basis for these cultural differences in an event-related fMRI study. East Asian and American participants incidentally encoded pictures of (1) a target object alone, (2) a background scene with no discernable target object, and (3) a distinct target object against a meaningful background. Americans, relative to East Asians, activated more regions implicated in object processing, including bilateral middle temporal gyrus, left superior parietal/angular gyrus, and right superior temporal/supramarginal gyrus. In contrast to the cultural differences in object-processing areas, few differences emerged in background-processing regions. These results suggest that cultural experiences subtly direct neural activity, particularly for focal objects, at an early stage of scene encoding.     

Environmental coupling modulates the attractors of rhythmic coordination

A simple instance of coupling behavior to the environment is oscillating the hands in pace with metronome beats. This environmental coupling can be weaker (1 beat per cycle) or stronger (2 beats per cycle). The authors examined whether strength of environmental coupling enhanced the stability of in-phase bimanual coordination. Detuning by manipulanda that produced different left and right eigenfrequencies shifted the relative phase angle from 0 degrees, with the size of the shift larger for higher movement frequencies. Stronger environmental coupling was found to decrease this relative-phase shift, with accompanying increase and reduction, respectively, in recurrence quantification measures related to coordination stability and coordination noise. Stronger environmental coupling also increased oscillation amplitude. Results are considered from the perspective of parametric stabilization.     

A contextual interference account of distinctiveness effects in recognition

In this article, we report on two experiments that aimed to shed light on the memorability effect that derives from varying the uniqueness of contextual cues presented at encoding and retrieval. We sought to understand the locus of the recognition advantage for studying and testing words with nominally irrelevant features that are rarely shared with other words ("low-fan" features) as compared with features that are studied with more words ("high-fan" features). Each word was studied with one high-fan feature and one low-fan feature, but only one of the two features was reinstated at test. Recognition judgments were more accurate when the low-fan feature was reinstated than when the high-fan feature was reinstated. The data suggest that encoding cues that suffer from contextual interference negatively affect retrieval and do so by hindering recollection-based processing.     

Can Religion Help Prevent Obesity? Religious Messages and the Prevalence of Being Overweight or Obese Among Korean Women in California

This research examines the influence of messages from religious leaders and congregants on whether Korean women are overweight or obese. Data were drawn from telephone interviews with a probability sample (N = 591) of women of Korean descent living in California. Overweight or obese prevalence was measured using World Health Organization standards for Asians (BMI > 23). Respondents reported the frequency of messages discouraging “excessive eating” or encouraging “exercise” from religious leaders and congregants during a typical month. When conditioned on leaders’ messages, the frequency of congregants’ messages was associated with a significantly lower probability of being overweight or obese, although messages from either in the absence of the other were unassociated with being overweight or obese. At least for Korean women, religion may help prevent obesity via religious-based social mechanisms.     

Proximal antecedents and correlates of adopted error approach: a self-regulatory perspective

The current study aims to further investigate earlier established advantages of an error mastery approach over an error aversion approach. The two main purposes of the study relate to (1) self-regulatory traits (i.e., goal orientation and action-state orientation) that may predict which error approach (mastery or aversion) is adopted, and (2) proximal, psychological processes (i.e., self-focused attention and failure attribution) that relate to adopted error approach. In the current study participants' goal orientation and action-state orientation were assessed, after which they worked on an error-prone task. Results show that learning goal orientation related to error mastery, while state orientation related to error aversion. Under a mastery approach, error occurrence did not result in cognitive resources "wasted" on self-consciousness. Rather, attention went to internal-unstable, thus controllable, improvement oriented causes of error. Participants that had adopted an aversion approach, in contrast, experienced heightened self-consciousness and attributed failure to internal-stable or external causes. These results imply that when working on an error-prone task, people should be stimulated to take on a mastery rather than an aversion approach towards errors.     

Prehistoric dangers and contemporary prejudices

We review the logical principles that guide the application of evolutionary ideas to psychological problems, and show how these principles can be used to derive novel, testable hypotheses about contemporary prejudice processes. We summarise two recent lines of research employing this approach. One line of research examines prejudices resulting from perceived vulnerability to physical injury. The other examines prejudices resulting from perceived vulnerability to disease. Results from both lines of research support novel psychological hypotheses identifying variables--pertaining to both personality and to local context--that trigger specific prejudices against specific categories of people. We conclude by discussing more broadly some of the useful conceptual and practical implications of this evolutionary approach to prejudice.     

A longitudinal examination of the relationship between teacher burnout and depression

This study investigates the longitudinal relationships between burnout and depression among teachers. Middle and high school teachers participated in a 3‐wave survey. The results of the latent growth modeling analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between the initial status of burnout and the initial status of depression. Results also indicated a significant relationship between the change rate of burnout and the change rate of depression. Moreover, the autoregressive cross‐lagged modeling revealed a causal relationship such that teacher's burnout leads to subsequent depression symptoms, not vice versa.     

Assessing Interpersonal Aspects of Schizoid Personality Disorder: Preliminary Validation Studies

In 2 studies, we examined the reliability and validity of an interpersonal measure of schizoid personality disorder (SZPD) based on nonverbal behaviors and interpersonal interactions occurring during interviews. A total of 556 male jail inmates in the United States participated in Study 1; 175 mentally disordered offenders in maximum security hospitals in the United Kingdom participated in Study 2. Across both samples, scores on the Interpersonal Measure of Schizoid Personality Disorder (IM–SZ) exhibited adequate reliability and patterns of correlations with other measures consistent with expectations. The scale displayed patterns of relatively specific correlations with interview and self-report measures of SZPD. In addition, the IM–SZ correlated in an expected manner with features of psychopathy and antisocial personality and with independent ratings of interpersonal behavior. We address implications for assessment of personality disorder.