Type D personality predicts poor medication adherence in myocardial infarction patients

Type D personality, the combination of negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI), is an emerging risk factor in cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to examine one possible behavioural mechanism to explain the link between Type D and ill-health. It was hypothesised that Type D personality would predict medication adherence in myocardial infarction (MI) patients. In a prospective study, 192 MI patients (54 females and 138 males) completed measures of Type D personality and provided demographic and medical information 1 week post-MI, and then 131 patients went on to complete a self-report measure of medication adherence 3 months post-MI. It was found that Type D personality predicts adherence to medication, after controlling for demographic and clinical risk factors. Critically, the constituent components of Type D, NA and SI, interact to predict medication adherence, after controlling for the effects of each component separately. Poor adherence to medication may represent one mechanism to explain why Type D cardiac patients experience poor clinical outcome, in comparison to non-Type D patients. Interventions, which target the self-management of medication, may be useful in these high-risk patients.     

The influence of babbling patterns on the processing of speech

This study compared the preference of 27 British English- and 26 Welsh-learning infants for nonwords featuring consonants that occur with equal frequency in the input but that are produced either with equal frequency (Welsh) or with differing frequency (British English) in infant vocalizations. For the English infants a significant difference in looking times was related to the extent of production of the nonword consonants. The Welsh infants, who showed no production preference for either consonant, exhibited no such influence of production patterns on their response to the nonwords. The results are consistent with a previous study that suggested that pre-linguistic babbling helps shape the processing of input speech, serving as an articulatory filter that selectively makes production patterns more salient in the input.     

Appetitive and Defensive Arousal in Violent Video Games: Explaining Individual Differences in Attraction to and Effects of Video Games

Evidence surrounding the attraction to media violence is mixed and the effects of violent video game play on players varies across experimental participants. Differences in both may be explained by differences in experienced positive or negative arousal. This study utilizes the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) and the motivation activation measure (MAM), which measures resting activation of the appetitive and aversive arousal systems, to explore the relationship between attraction to media violence, arousal, and aggression. In part 1, a questionnaire found that men and frequent players of violent games expected to enjoy violent games more than nonviolent games. In addition, participants whose scores on the MAM characterized them as risk takers (high scores on appetitive arousal and low scores on aversive arousal) indicated a stronger preference for violent games compared to the other three arousal types, which is in line with the LC4MP. In the experimental portion of the research, after playing a violent game, those participants characterized as risk avoidant (high on aversive arousal and low on appetitive arousal) were significantly less aggressive than all other arousal groups. Overall, results show that individual differences in the appetitive and aversive arousal systems can explain attraction to violent media. Furthermore, arousal resulting from violent video game play can be experienced as pleasant or aversive, and it is this experience of arousal that explains variations in aggressive responses to violent video games.     

Mind-wandering and dysphoria

Mind-wandering shares a number of important similarities with thinking in depression. This experiment examines whether mind-wandering provides a useful marker of cognition in dysphoria during a word learning task. Dysphoria was associated with more accessible mind-wandering when attempting to encode verbal items. In addition, in the dysphoric population, periods when the mind wandered led to greater decoupling from task-relevant processing as indexed by slower response times, and greater physiological arousal, as indexed by faster heart rates. In the general population, periods of mind-wandering when attempting to encode information were associated with poor retrieval and high skin conductance. Finally, the extent to which mind-wandering was associated with poor retrieval was associated with an individuals’ latency to retrieve specific autobiographical memories from outside the laboratory. These results provide strong evidence for the utility of mind-wandering as a marker for depressive thinking and suggest a number of important implications for therapy for depression.     

Predicting hopelessness: The interaction between optimism/pessimism and specific future expectancies

Improving our understanding of hopelessness is central to suicide prevention. This is the first study to investigate whether generalised expectancies for the future (optimism/pessimism) and specific future-oriented cognitions (future thinking) interact to predict hopelessness and dysphoria. To this end, participants completed measures of future thinking, optimism/pessimism and affect at Time 1 and measures of affect and stress at Time 2, 10–12 weeks later. Results indicated that changes in hopelessness but not dysphoria were predicted by the interaction between positive future thinking (but not negative future thinking), optimism/pessimism and stress beyond initial levels of hopelessness and dysphoria. Additional moderating analyses are also reported. These findings point to the fruits of integrating personality and cognitive processes, to better understand hopelessness.     

Two Empirical Inquiries Into the Role of The Personnel and Guidance Journal As a Professional Publication

A survey of the APGA membership was undertaken in the fall of 1977 to determine interest and content-process priorities of readers of the Personnel and Guidance Journal. The survey was sent to a stratified random sample of members reflecting appropriate distribution by division membership and geographic area of residence. The list of members was obtained from the APGA central office. The result of the data analyses suggests that the Personnel and Guidance Journal has generally served the diverse interests of the membership well. Some differences in emphasis and content preferences were identified between divisions.     

A Sisyphean Tale: The Pathology Of Ethnic Nationalism And The Pedagogy Of Forging Humane Democracies In The Balkans

Studies in East European Thought -