Neurocognitive influences on health behavior in a community sample.

CONTEXT: Dominant models of individual health behavior omit biological variables entirely and are composed almost exclusively of social-cognitive and conative variables. Research from the neurosciences suggests a role for brain function in explaining behaviors that require active self-regulation for consistent performance. However, the association between brain function and health behavior is underexplored. OBJECTIVE: To examine the predictive power of executive function for 2 health risk behaviors and 2 health protective behaviors in healthy adults. DESIGN: A cross-sectional community sample (N = 216) of adults 20-100 years of age were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests and completed self-report questionnaires regarding their health practices. It was hypothesized that poor performance on neuropsychological tests tapping executive function would be associated with poor health behavior tendencies. RESULTS: Errors on the Stroop task were positively associated with health risk behavior and negatively associated with health protective behavior after controlling for demographics, education, and IQ. CONCLUSION: Executive function is associated with health behavior tendencies. If the association is causal, explanatory models of individual health behavior should be revised to account for individual differences in biologically imbued self-regulatory abilities.     

Temperamental Vulnerability and Suicide Risk After Attempted Suicide

The aim was to extend recent findings of suggested temperamental features in attempted suicide and to explore possible domains of vulnerability to suicide risk after attempted suicide. Fifty-four psychiatric inpatients hospitalized after a suicide attempt underwent lumbar puncture for analysis of CSF 5-HIAA concentration and also completed the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) before discharge from the hospital. Suicide attempters scored high on Somatic Anxiety, Psychic Anxiety, and Muscular Tension, and low on Socialization, findings that support recent findings in suicide attempters followed up after an emergency room visit. Five patients committed early suicide, i.e., within 3 years, and the overall long-term suicide mortality after attempted suicide was 13%. There were significant correlations between survival time among early suicides and CSF 5-HIAA (r = .87;p = .054), and the following KSP scale t scores: Somatic Anxiety (r = ?.96;p < .05), Impulsivity (r = ?.88; p < .05), and Socialization (r = .90; p < .05). KSP Socialization showed correlations with CSF 5-HIAA (r = .89; p = .046) among the early suicides. Features of temperamental vulnerability to suicide risk after attempted suicide might involve anxiety proneness, impulsivity, low socialization, and low CSF 5-HIAA.     

Terrorism as Collective Communication: The Collective Communication Model of Terrorism (CCMT)

This paper proposes that the psychological and behavioral effects of terrorist threat can be understood as a collective communication process that occurs between terrorists and their potential victims. Based on classic communication theory, terrorists are regarded as the senders of a specific collective message (such as ‘stop oppressing our culture’); a terrorist incident as the collective message itself (through its performance, modality and targets); and the potential victims as its collective receivers (who interpret the intention of the attack as a function of their pre-existing attributes, such as traits or salient social identities). The perception of terrorism as a dynamic and interactive process between collective senders, messages and receivers opens new theoretical perspectives regarding whether (a) terrorism can be successful in reaching its collective aim; (b) if it is interpreted as rational or irrational; and (c) how to counteract the vicious, cyclical relationship between terrorism and counter-terrorism. Previous findings on the psychology of terrorism can be organized within this theoretical framework, and the psychological impact of varying attributes of the perpetrators (senders), incident (message), and the reactions of the potential victims (receivers) systematically investigated. A series of self-conducted studies are also reviewed and found to provide direct support for the collective communication model of terrorism.     

Perceived racism and vascular reactivity in black college women: moderating effects of seeking social support.

This quasi-experimental study explored the association of perceived racism and seeking social support to vascular reactivity in a college sample of 110 Black women. Perceived racism and seeking social support were assessed via self-report, and vascular reactivity was measured before and during a standardized speaking task. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that perceived racism was positively related to changes in systolic blood pressure. These analyses also indicated that seeking social support moderated the relationship between perceived racism and systolic blood pressure changes. This interaction effect persisted after controlling for several potential confounders. Follow-up regression analyses showed that perceived racism was positively associated with reactivity among participants who were low in seeking social support. A significant relationship was not observed between perceived racism and systolic blood pressure changes among participants who were high in seeking social support. Perceived racism and seeking social support were not significantly associated with changes in diastolic blood pressure. These findings highlight the importance of examining psychosocial factors that may mitigate the hypothesized relationship between perceived racism and reactivity.