Parents' and teachers' concordance with children's self-ratings of suicidality: findings from a high-risk sample

This study examined concordance between adult and child reports of child suicidality using a sample of 1,046 8-year-old children at risk for, or having experienced, maltreatment. Concordance was low with both caregivers and teachers. For children reporting no suicidality, caregiver-child agreement was associated with few transitions in caregiver and low social withdrawal and aggression, and teacher-child agreement was associated with non-White ethnicity, good academic performance, and low thought problems. For children reporting suicidality, care-giver-child agreement was associated with perceptions of child mental health needs, aggression, and somatic complaints, and teacher-child agreement was associated with thought problems.     

THE EFFECTS OF FIXED‐TIME ESCAPE ON INAPPROPRIATE AND APPROPRIATE CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR

Few studies have explored the effects of fixed‐time (FT) reinforcement on escape‐maintained behavior of students in a classroom setting. We measured the effects of an FT schedule on the disruptive and appropriate academic behaviors of 2 junior high students in a public school setting. Results demonstrated that FT escape from tasks resulted in a substantial decrease in disruptive behavior and an increase in time engaged in tasks for both participants.     

Field Conditions: Discussion of Donnel B. Stern's Field Theory in Psychoanalysis

In this discussion we applaud Donnel B. Stern for undertaking his rigorous comparison of the “field” concept in interpersonal and relational psychoanalysis (IRP) and Bionian field theory (BFT). Stern offers a balanced presentation of similarities and differences between these two conceptual models, but we focus primarily on certain differences, starting with what we perceive as differing notions of the nature, purpose, and clinical function of the field itself. We distinguish the interactional view of an essentially relational model of the field in IRP (where the clinical aim is to enlarge the domain of the interpersonal dialogue and the capacity for mutual recognition) from the BFT model of a field viewed in terms of emergent phenomena, realized in multiple modalities of experience (here the clinical aim is to expand the scope of contact with unconscious life and to facilitate the capacity to transform emotional, psycho-sensory and proto-emotional experience). We also take up the differing relationships to external reality and authority within these two models, with special reference to the role of the frame in the function of the field.     

Making Our Hairs Stand on End—A Call to Psychoanalysis to Look Outside Itself: Response to Commentaries

I am grateful for the rich commentaries of Ogden and Ferro and Civitarese, and wish we could continue this discussion, as it speaks to the importance of psychoanalysis looking outside itself to the arts and other disciplines to enrich and expand our ways of hearing. In my response I take up Ogden's discussion of the resistance of the medium of psychoanalysis and the necessity of “changing the terms.” I present a short sequel to the clinical material presented in my paper to illustrate what Ogden is discussing. I also agree with the importance of Ferro and Civitarese's focus on the primacy of incarnate emotional experience and the necessity of moving in and out of integration and nonintegration as we struggle to register what is going on in the analytic encounter and how we may all generate meaning out of these experiences.     

Reduced willingness to approach genuine smilers in social anxiety explained by potential for social evaluation,not misperception of smile authenticity

ABSTRACT

We investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 (N?=?141) found perception of smile authenticity was unaffected, but that approach ratings, which are known to be reduced in social anxiety for happy faces, are more strongly reduced for genuine than polite smiles. Moreover, we found an independent contribution of social anxiety to approach ratings, over and above general negative affect (state/trait anxiety, depression), only for genuine smiles, and not for polite ones. We argue this pattern of results can be explained by genuine smilers signalling greater potential for interaction – and thus greater potential for the scrutiny that is feared in social anxiety – than polite smiles. Experiment 2 established that, relative to polite smilers, genuine smilers are indeed perceived as friendlier and likely to want to talk for longer if approached. Critically, the degree to which individual face items were perceived as wanting to interact correlated strongly with the amount that social anxiety reduced willingness to approach in Experiment 1. We conclude it is the potential for social evaluation and scrutiny signalled by happy expressions, rather than their positive valence, that is important in social anxiety.     

Attentional biases using the body in the crowd task: Are angry body postures detected more rapidly?

Research using schematic faces has consistently demonstrated attentional biases towards threatening information (angry faces), which are accentuated for individuals with higher levels of anxiety. However, research has yet to reveal whether this is the case for other nonverbal channels of communication. In the research reported here, ninety-five undergraduates completed a body in the crowd task analogous to the face in the crowd task, to examine whether attentional biases for threat existed for schematic body postures. Participants demonstrated faster detection of threat. A discrepant angry posture in a neutral crowd was identified quicker than a discrepant happy posture in a neutral crowd. This effect was pronounced for individuals with higher self-reported levels of trait anxiety. Results also demonstrated evidence of delayed disengagement from threat. Individuals were slower (i.e., more distracted) by identical crowds of angry postures rather than happy or neutral crowds and were slower to detect a discrepant neutral posture among an angry crowd than neutral among a happy crowd. These findings are the first to establish threat biases using body postures in a visual search paradigm. The results are in accordance with previous research using schematic face stimuli. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Gender-Moderated Dorsolateral Prefrontal Reductions in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: Implications for Risk for Schizophrenia

To investigate the impact of the microdeletion on morphology of the prefrontal cortex in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2 DS), high-resolution, anatomic magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 19 children and adolescents with 22q11.2 DS (11 females, 8 males) and 18 unaffected controls (10 females, 8 males). Tissue volumes of the dorsolateral, dorsomedial, orbitolateral, and orbitomedial prefrontal cortex were measured. Tasks of executive function and working memory were administered to investigate the association between anatomy and function. Whole brain volume and frontal lobe tissue volume were preserved in girls but reduced in boys with 22q11.2 DS relative to age-matched controls. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) volumes were reduced in participants with 22q11.2 DS, although the gender-by-diagnosis effect found for frontal lobe was not as robust for DLPFC. DLPFC volumes were associated with performance on tasks of planning and emotional facial recognition. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify whether gender differences in frontal lobe and DLPFC persist with development, and whether the volumes of the DLPFC are associated with eventual deterioration in adaptive/psychosocial function that may presage the onset of schizophrenia, for which individuals with 22q11.2 DS are at a disproportionately high risk.     

A comparison of computer and questionnaire methods of history-taking in a genito-urinary clinic

Abstract

Information on the medical history and symptomatology of 69 patients presenting at a genito-urinary (GU) clinic was obtained either by a computerized interview or a paper questionnaire and the results compared. A comparison was also made between these methods and notes taken during a standard physician interview. Significantly more symptoms were elicited by the computer than the paper questionnaire. Both methods also elicited significantly more symptoms than were recorded by the physician. The patients reported having previously attended a GU clinic more often to the computer than to the physician whereas the questionnaire was no different from the physician. The results indicate that computers can be used satisfactorily to facilitate medical history- taking in GU clinics and may result in a more complete profile of symptoms than either written questionnaire or physician interview.     

Time-Based Prospective Memory Performance and Time-Monitoring in Children with ADHD

The current study investigated prospective memory (PM) performance in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and controls and aimed at exploring possible underlying factors of PM performance. Twenty-two children with ADHD and 39 age- and ability-matched typically developing children performed a computerized time-based PM task. As predicted, children with ADHD had fewer correct PM responses than controls. Neither differences in overall ongoing task performance nor, remarkably, differences in overall frequency and accuracy of time monitoring were found. Exploratory analyses suggest that individual differences in time monitoring in the final interval before target times may be related to PM performance in ADHD.