Decision making and neuropsychiatry

Abnormal decision making is a central feature of neuropsychiatric disorders. Recent investigations of the neural substrates underlying decision making have involved qualitative assessment of the cognition of decision making in clinical lesion studies (in patients with frontal lobe dementia) and neuropsychiatric disorders such as mania, substance abuse and personality disorders. A neural network involving the orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum and modulatory ascending neurotransmitter systems has been identified as having a fundamental role in decision making and in the neural basis of neuropsychiatric diseases. This network accounts for the dissociations among decision-making deficits in different clinical populations. Ultimately, a more refined and sophisticated characterization of such deficits might guide the early diagnosis and cognitive and therapeutic rehabilitation of these patients.     

Narcissism in the modern world

Narcissism has been around since the time of Ovid more than 2000?years ago and the concept has long been a source of study, intrigue, fascination and literature both within and beyond the psychoanalytic community. While Narcissistic Personality Disorder remains a severe and fairly rare clinically diagnosed condition, sub-clinical narcissism or narcissistic traits have reached epidemic proportions with serious consequences. Ever increasing levels of greed, self-obsession, superficial relationships, arrogance and vanity are everywhere apparent and not making us any happier, with common mental health problems on the increase, especially among the young. Seemingly irreversible alterations to family life, technological development – including social media, attitudes to death and dying and celebrity worship, all feature in the rise of our narcissistic society and are interconnected trends. Group greed and grandiosity, as in the world of banking, have led to wide-scale corruption and cover-ups leaving us vulnerable and unable to place our trust in many organisations. Perhaps most sinister of all is our attitude to the planet that supports us, as we play a part in the destruction of much of the environment and many of the species that share the earth with us. Looking at the literature of narcissism, the aim of this paper is to consider ways in which cultural changes have brought about this huge rise in both individual and group egotism. We are seeing many more clients high on the narcissistic spectrum but consideration will be given to the narcissism of the therapist and the impact of the therapist’s narcissism on the client. We live in difficult times and cannot step outside our culture but there are ways of countering our narcissism and helping our clients to do the same. Having compassion for one’s self and recognising how ordinary we really are make for a good start.     

The IIS–32: A Brief Inventory of Interpersonal Strengths

It is shown that Rorer's exoneration of the F scale from acquiescent response style contamination is dependent on the finding-that various acquiescence measures fail to intercorrelate. When acquiescence is measured as the total score on adequate balanced scales scored without reversals, significant internal reliability is found. It is found, in fact, even with scales that are not particularly ambiguous.     

Edwards Personal Needs: The Choice of Comparable Groups

The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule was administered to a group of men seeking help with their marriages, as well as to a comparable group of men who reported having stable marriages. When the scores of men seeking help and those of men with stable marriages are compared to Edwards' Adult Males, the number and extent of the differences are quite similar. The comparison of the men with stable marriages versus those seeking help shows relatively few differences. This study highlights the need of having an appropriate group for comparison purposes before attributing differences found to selected group variables.     

The fool and the king

Peter Rogers is an established professional artist, whose work is known to both European and American audiences. His recent book, A Painter's Quest: Art as a Way of Revelation (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Bear & Company), traces with unusual integrity his development and growth as both an artist and an individual. In the following presentation, the artist has provided PSYCIIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES with an unpublished account of several synchronistic experiences relevant to his Quest. In parallel with these stories. we have chosen paintings from his book which reflect how these experiences were transmuted into works of art.     

Gaze Patterns in a Steering-Into-Lane Task on a Straight Road: The Effect of Driving Speed,Lane, and Expertise

The tau-dot hypothesis states that when tau-dot greater than or equal to -0.5, impact will be soft; when tau-dot < -0.5, impact will be "hard." Four experiments tested the usefulness of tau-dot for observers of collisions between 2 objects (rather than collisions between the observer and an object). Observers watched collisions depicted on a computer as 1 object approaching another. Results conformed to the tau-dot hypothesis and were consistent with previous research wherein observers watched collisions as participants. Results suggest that the information specifying collision severity is the rate of the relative rate of optical variation, a quantity that remains invariant over differing collision path trajectories and over differing perceivers (i.e., spectators or participants, viewing from different vantage points, moving or stationary).     

Dissociable effects of basolateral amygdala lesions on decision making biases in rats when loss or gain is emphasized

Individuals switch from risk seeking to risk aversion when mathematically identical options are described in terms of loss versus gains, as exemplified in the reflection and framing effects. Determining the neurobiology underlying such cognitive biases could inform our understanding of decision making in health and disease. Although reports vary, data using human subjects have implicated the amygdala in such biases. Animal models enable more detailed investigation of neurobiological mechanisms. We therefore tested whether basolateral amygdala (BLA) lesions would affect risk preference for gains or losses in rats. Choices in both paradigms were always between options of equal expected value—a guaranteed outcome, or the 50:50 chance of double or nothing. In the loss-chasing task, most rats exhibited strong risk seeking preferences, gambling at the risk of incurring double the penalty, regardless of the size of the guaranteed loss. In the betting task, the majority of animals were equivocal in their choice, irrespective of bet size; however, a wager-sensitive subgroup progressively shifted away from the uncertain option as the bet size increased, which is reminiscent of risk aversion. BLA lesions increased preference for the smaller guaranteed loss in the loss-chasing task, without affecting choice on the betting task, which is indicative of reduced risk seeking for losses, but intact risk aversion for gains. These data support the hypothesis that the amygdala plays a more prominent role in choice biases related to losses. Given the importance of the amygdala in representing negative affect, the aversive emotional reaction to loss, rather than aberrant estimations of probability or loss magnitude, may underlie risk seeking for losses.     

Discrepancy Analysis of Emerging Adult and Parental Report of Psychological Problems and Relationship Quality

Cross-informant discrepancies on reports of psychopathology can have detrimental consequences on the relationship between emerging adults and their parents. The current study utilized emerging adult reports of their own psychopathology and their perspective on their parent’s psychopathology as well as their parents’ reports of parental psychopathology and their perspective on the emerging adult’s psychopathology (measured using the Adult Self Report and Adult Behavior Checklist). Analyses were performed to further examine the associated between the discrepancies between emerging adult and parent reports of psychopathology on dyadic relationship qualities (i.e., affection, conflict, and satisfaction within the emerging adult-parent relationship). Emerging adults and their parents demonstrated significant differences in their reports of parental depression as well as emerging adult depression, anxiety, and antisocial personality problems. Furthermore, discrepancies on parental depression and antisocial problems and emerging adult depression were associated with differences on relationship qualities. Additional results and implications are discussed.

     

Development and Validation of the Parental Assistance with Child Emotion Regulation (PACER) Questionnaire

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Caregivers play a central role in promoting emotion regulation throughout infancy, childhood, and adolescence. However, there are no existing...     

Teaching About Genetic Testing Issues in the Undergraduate Classroom: A Case Study

Educating undergraduates about current genetic testing and genomics can involve novel and creative teaching practices. The higher education literature describes numerous pedagogical approaches in the laboratory designed to engage science and liberal arts students. Often these experiences involve students analyzing their own genes for various polymorphisms, some of which are associated with disease states such as an increased risk for developing cancer. While the literature acknowledges possible ethical ramifications of such laboratory exercises, authors do not present recommendations or rubrics for evaluating whether or not the testing is, in fact, ethical. In response, we developed a laboratory investigation and discussion which allowed undergraduate science students to explore current DNA manipulation techniques to isolate their p53 gene, followed by a dialogue probing the ethical implications of examining their sample for various polymorphisms. Students never conducted genotyping on their samples because of ethical concerns, so the discussion served to replace actual genetic testing in the class. A basic scientist led the laboratory portion of the assignment. A genetic counselor facilitated the discussion, which centered around existing ethical guidelines for clinical genetic testing and possible challenges of human genotyping outside the medical setting. In their final papers, students demonstrated an understanding of the practice guidelines established by the genetics community and acknowledged the ethical considerations inherent in p53 genotyping. Given the burgeoning market for personalized medicine, teaching undergraduates about the psychosocial and ethical dimensions of human gene testing seems important and timely, and introduces an additional role genetic counselors can play in educating consumers about genomics.