Responding to symptoms of depression and anxiety: emotion regulation, neuroticism, and engagement in risky behaviors

The current study examined whether neuroticism, emotional regulation deficits, and/or their interaction predict increased engagement in risky behaviors following increases in symptoms of depression or anxiety over the course of 6 weeks. Results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that individuals who exhibited high levels of both neuroticism and emotional regulation deficits were more likely than other individuals to report increased engagement in risky behaviors following increases in symptoms of either depression or anxiety. Unexpectedly, individuals who exhibited high levels of neuroticism and adaptive emotion regulation strategies exhibited decreased engagement in risky behaviors following increases in depressive or anxious symptoms.     

`Reference' to D. Z. Phillips

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression in Canadian and Chinese Adolescents

The goal of the current study was to compare diathesis-stress and transactional models of cognitive vulnerability to depression in samples of Canadian (n = 118) and Chinese (n = 405) adolescents. We utilized a six-month multi-wave, longitudinal design in order to examine whether (a) perceived control moderated the association between the occurrence of dependent interpersonal stressors and subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (i.e., a diathesis-stress perspective) and (b) dependent interpersonal stressors mediated the association between perceived control and subsequent increases in depressive symptoms (i.e., a transactional perspective). Results from idiographic, time-lagged, hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that for Canadian adolescents both diathesis-stress and transactional models were significant predictors of depressive symptomology. When examining the diathesis-stress model, boys, but not girls, who reported lower perceived control, reported higher levels of depressive symptoms following the occurrence of dependent interpersonal stress. Gender differences, however, were not present in the transactional model. In contrast, transactional, but not diathesis-stress, models were significant in Chinese adolescents, and gender differences did not emerge. Overall, these results may reflect culturally-relevant differences in the etiology of depression in Canadian and Chinese adolescents.     

Predictors of multitasking performance in a synthetic work paradigm

This study investigated determinants of success in a ‘synthetic work’ task designed to reflect the requirement for multitasking that is common to many occupations. Participants were administered tests of working memory capacity (WMC) and processing speed (PS), and they reported experience with videogames, a type of activity presumed to involve multitasking. Results revealed that WMC was a strong predictor of multitasking in a ‘non‐emergency’ condition when the pace of the tasks was relatively slow, whereas PS was a weaker predictor. Additionally, there was evidence for the incremental validity of videogame experience (VGE), consistent with the possibility that multitasking is supported by a general, trainable skill. Finally, individual differences in strategy use accounted for a large proportion of the variance in multitasking, above and beyond other predictor variables, and WMC predicted use of an effective strategy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When hoarding is a symptom of OCD: A case series and implications for DSM-V

Hoarding, the excessive collection and failure to discard objects of apparently little value, can represent a serious psychiatric problem and pose a threat to public health. Hoarding has traditionally been considered a symptom (or symptom dimension) of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), but its nosological status has recently been debated. Mounting evidence suggests that, once other primary causes are ruled out, hoarding may be a discrete diagnostic entity, recently named Hoarding Disorder. However, hoarding can sometimes be a genuine OCD symptom. This can be confusing and clinicians may sometimes struggle making the differential diagnosis. To illustrate this, we describe 10 OCD patients with severe hoarding behavior that is better conceptualized as a symptom of OCD. We focus on the motivations for hoarding and the overlapping of hoarding with other obsessive-compulsive symptom dimensions. We estimate that this clinical presentation is relatively rare and accounts for a minority of severe hoarding cases. We discuss the unique characteristics of hoarding as a symptom of OCD and the implications for DSM-V.     

On the adaptive origins and maladaptive consequences of human inbreeding: Parasite prevalence, immune functioning, and consanguineous marriage

We propose that consanguineous marriages arise adaptively in response to high parasite prevalence and function to maintain coadapted gene complexes and associated local adaptation that defend against local pathogens. Therefore, a greater prevalence of inbreeding by consanguineous marriage is expected in geographical regions that historically have had high levels of disease-causing parasites. Eventually such marriages may, under the contemporary high movement of people with modern transportation, jeopardize the immunity of those who practice inbreeding as this leads to an increased susceptibility to novel pathogens. Therefore, a greater frequency of inbreeding is expected to predict higher levels of contemporary mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases. This parasite model of human inbreeding was supported by an analysis involving 72 countries worldwide. We found that historically high levels of pathogen prevalence were related positively to the proportion of consanguineous marriages, and that a higher prevalence of such marriages was associated with higher contemporary mortality and morbidity due to pathogens. Our study addresses plausible alternative explanations. The results suggest that consanguineous marriage is an adaptive consequence of historical pathogen ecologies, but is maladaptive in contemporary disease ecologies.     

Media and Metanoia: Documentary ‘Impact’ Through the Lens of Conversion

How do contemporary understandings of religious conversion and formation shed light on the “impact” and “effectiveness” of social change media? This paper evaluates three case studies, public television documentaries produced in the mid-1990s, to reflect on their social effect. Contemporary conversion theory provides a nuanced perspective with which to interpret the nature and circumstances under which social documentary—media created specifically so as to have a social effect—may in fact be said to have an “impact.” Innumerable media theorists have discredited market models where the uncritical television viewer gets off her couch straightaway and goes out to join a social movement in the same manner as she might buy a new brand of toothpaste, and yet an expectation of being able to demonstrate (often quantifiable) “results” insistently follows documentarians and public television outreach professionals. This “high-impact” model may be seen to be analogous to a “Road to Damascus” view of instant and permanent religious conversion, likewise discounted yet tenacious. It is an illuminating exercise to consider the operations of documentary media from the perspective of developmental conversion theorists such as Rambo, Tippett, Fowler, Lovland and Stark, and others. In this light, it is possible to understand both how these documentary case studies did create certain very particular kinds of change, as well as why most social documentaries, in truth, do not.