Classical fear conditioning in the anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis

Fear conditioning represents the process by which a neutral stimulus comes to evoke fear following its repeated pairing with an aversive stimulus. Although fear conditioning has long been considered a central pathogenic mechanism in anxiety disorders, studies employing lab-based conditioning paradigms provide inconsistent support for this idea. A quantitative review of 20 such studies, representing fear-learning scores for 453 anxiety patients and 455 healthy controls, was conducted to verify the aggregated result of this literature and to assess the moderating influences of study characteristics. Results point to modest increases in both acquisition of fear learning and conditioned responding during extinction among anxiety patients. Importantly, these patient-control differences are not apparent when looking at discrimination studies alone and primarily emerge from studies employing simple, single-cue paradigms where only danger cues are presented and no inhibition of fear to safety cues is required.     

Eye movements and hazard perception in police pursuit and emergency response driving

How do police cope with the visual demands placed on them during pursuit driving? This study compared the hazard ratings, eye movements, and physiological responses of police drivers with novice and with age-matched control drivers while viewing video clips of driving taken from police vehicles. The clips included pursuits, emergency responses, and control drives. Although police drivers did not report more hazards than the other participants reported, they had an increased frequency of electrodermal responses while viewing dangerous clips and a greater visual sampling rate and spread of search. However, despite an overall police advantage in oculomotor and physiological measures, all drivers had a reduced spread of search in nighttime pursuits because of the focusing of overt attention.     

Considerations for ethical practice in managed care

How does one maintain an ethical practice while facing the requirements and limits of a health care system that is dominated by managed care? Psychologists are increasingly raising such questions about ethical issues when working in or contracting with managed care organizations. The authors review the process involved in ethical decision making and problem solving and focus on 4 areas in which ethical dilemmas most commonly arise in a managed care context: informed consent, confidentiality, abandonment, and utilization management-utilization review. The need for sustained and organized advocacy efforts to ensure patient access to quality health care is discussed, as is the impact of managed care's competitive marketplace on professional relationships. Hypothetical examples of typical dilemmas psychologists face in the current practice environment are provided to illustrate systematic ethical decision making.     

A multifunctional on-line brain stimulation system

A flexible on-line electrical brain stimulation system designed for brain stimulation reward (BSR) research is described. A Cromemco Z-2D microcomputer is interfaced with a constant-current stimulator and a standard operant chamber. The system programs, written substantially in BASIC, calculate BSR threshold by two rate-independent methods, measure rate of operant responding, and determine resistance of the brain. Other software programs are used for training rats on complex schedules of reinforcement, for system hardware calibration, and for sophisticated statistical data analyses.     

Cross-Lagged Relationships Between Insomnia and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Treatment-Receiving Veterans

Insomnia is a risk factor for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while it is also plausible that PTSD symptoms can maintain insomnia symptoms. The present study examined longitudinal bidirectional relationships between insomnia and PTSD symptoms in treatment-seeking veterans. Participants were 693 ex-serving members of the Australian Defence Force who participated in an accredited, hospital-based outpatient PTSD program. Participants completed self-reported assessments of PTSD and insomnia symptoms at four time points: intake, discharge, 3-month, and 9-months posttreatment follow-up.Cross-lagged pathway analyses indicated significant bi-directional pathways between insomnia symptoms and PTSD symptoms at most time points. A final cross-lagged model between insomnia symptoms and the PTSD symptom clusters indicated that the PTSD symptom paths on insomnia symptoms, between intake and discharge, were attributable to reexperiencing PTSD symptoms. In contrast, across posttreatment follow-up time points there were significant paths of insomnia symptoms on all PTSD symptom clusters except from insomnia at 3-months to avoidance symptom at 9-months. PTSD symptoms and insomnia symptoms have bidirectional associations over time that may lead to the mutual maintenance or exacerbation of each condition following PTSD treatment. Where residual insomnia symptoms are present post-treatment, a sleep-focussed intervention is indicated and a sequenced approach to treatment recommended.     

Race, Behavior, and the Brain: The Role of Neuroimaging in Understanding Complex Social Behaviors

Recent advances in brain imaging techniques have allowed us to explore the neural basis of complex human behaviors with more precision than was previously possible. As we begin to uncover the neural systems of behaviors that are socially and culturally important, we need to be clear about how to integrate this new approach with our psychological understanding of these behaviors. This article reviews findings about the neural systems involved in processing race group information, in particular the recognition of same-race versus other-race faces and the explicit and implicit evaluation of race groups. Combining the psychological and neural approaches can advance our understanding of these complex human behaviors more rapidly and with more clarity than could be achieved with either approach alone. However, it is inappropriate to assume that the results of neuroimaging studies of a given behavior are more informative than the results of psychological studies of that behavior.     

Well-being vocabulary in media language: An analysis of changing word usage in Norwegian newspapers

Well-being is a widely discussed topic in research, policy, and media. This study was aimed at examining usage patterns of core terminology related to well-being in Norwegian newspapers during the past two decades. Specifically, we investigated occurrence across time of 39 words describing well-being facets from four theoretical perspectives: affective approaches, cognitive or life satisfaction approaches, eudaimonic and humanistic approaches, and character strengths. Four major newspapers were selected in order to capture sociocultural and regional variation. Evidence of significant changes in usage frequency was detected for about half of the search terms. Affective words showed variable trends, while usage of words referring to satisfaction declined. The most notable magnitude of change concerned the increase in eudaimonic words related to mastery, motivation, and self-development. Findings suggest that core vocabulary of well-being belongs to a changeable field of linguistic practice. Implications for positive psychology are proposed.     

Agonistic character displacement in social cognition of advertisement signals

Interspecific aggression between sibling species may enhance discrimination of competitors when recognition errors are costly, but proximate mechanisms mediating increased discriminative ability are unclear. We studied behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying responses to conspecific and heterospecific vocalizations in Alston’s singing mouse (Scotinomys teguina), a species in which males sing to repel rivals. We performed playback experiments using males in allopatry and sympatry with a dominant heterospecific (Scotinomys xerampelinus) and examined song-evoked induction of egr-1 in the auditory system to examine how neural tuning modulates species-specific responses. Heterospecific songs elicited stronger neural responses in sympatry than in allopatry, despite eliciting less singing in sympatry. Our results refute the traditional neuroethological concept of a matched filter and instead suggest expansion of sensory sensitivity to mediate competitor recognition in sympatry.     

An investigation of the effects of dog visits on depression,mood, and social interaction in elderly individuals living in a nursing home

The present study investigated the effects of weekly dog visits on depression scores, mood, and social interaction in elderly individuals living in a nursing home. Five elderly residents participated in baseline assessments for 4–8 weeks and then received weekly dog visits for 6 weeks. Assessments, consisting of weekly observations of social interaction and paper and pencil measures of mood and depression, continued during the dog visits. The effect of dog visits was evaluated in a multiple baseline across participants design. Dog visits did not improve depression scores, mood (with the exception of one resident), or social interaction (with the exception of one resident). Residents did interact with the dog during the visits, however, and reported that they enjoyed the visits. These results show that dog visits do not always have therapeutic effects and suggest the need for further research in the area before the beneficial effects of dog visits can be substantiated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The structure and developmental course of Positive Youth Development (PYD) in early adolescence: Implications for theory and practice

Using data from Grades 5 to 7 of the longitudinal 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (PYD), this research assessed the structure and development of PYD. Building on Grade 5 findings, that “Five Cs” (Competence, Confidence, Connection, Character, and Caring) could be empirically defined as latent constructs converging on a second-order construct, labeled PYD, we used structural models to assess the fit of this original model for Grades 5, 6, and 7. Results indicated that PYD continued to be a robust construct that can be defined comparably for Grades 6 and 7, as it was in Grade 5. We discuss implications for future research and for applications of the finding that, across the three years of early adolescence that we assessed (about ages 10 to 12), there is continuity in the structure of PYD.