Environmental anxiety: Assessing emotional distress and concerns after toxin exposure

Abstract

Anxiety in face of environmental risks is common, but few attempts have been made to assess individual differences psychometrically and to validate the measures in samples that have suffered from exposure to neurotoxic substances. The present study deals with this problem in two ways. First, levels of general anxiety were determined in two large independent samples of workers who were exposed to multiple organic solvents and in their nonexposed referents. In both samples, anxiety was substantially higher in exposed subjects than in their referents. Second, an Environmental Worry Scale (EWS) was developed and validated in three samples. This 17-item instrument and its 8-item subscale yielded satisfactory psychometric properties and also succeeded in discriminating solvent exposed from nonexposed subjects. Finally, the EWS was used in a structural equation model that was designed to predict the intention to avoid chemicals. The worry factor served as a mediator between exposure and intention, whereas exposure by itself did not influence intentions.     

Testimony,Knowledge, and Epistemic Goals

Various considerations are adduced toshow that we require that a testifier know hertestimony. Such a requirement apparentlyimproves testimony. It is argued that the aimof improving testimony explains why we have anduse our concept of knowledge. If we were tointroduce a term of praise for testimony, usingit at first to praise testimony that apparentlyhelped us in our practical projects, it wouldcome to be used as we now use the word``know'.     

The European Early Promotion Project: A new primary health care service to promote children's mental health

The number of children in Europe with significant psychologic and social problems is large and increasing. This article describes an innovative crosscultural method of working with families to promote the psychosocial well being of children and prevent the development of psychologic and social problems. A study designed to evaluate the effects of the service is also presented. Primary health care workers in five European countries have been trained to conduct promotional interviews with all prospective mothers in their area one month before and one month after birth. They have also been taught to work with mothers identified as in need of support as a parent by using a specific counselling model to try to prevent the onset of child mental health difficulties. Effects of the intervention on children's psychologic development and family adaptation are being evaluated at two years in comparison with matched groups not receiving the intervention. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Exploring the long-term experience of vasomotor instability: A 5 year follow-up study of distress,perceived control and catastrophizing

Some women experience vasomotor instability for many years post-menopause, but little is known about their appraisals of this health problem, their levels of distress or their coping strategies, and whether these change over time. This study followed up a group of women over 5 years, to examine changes and consistencies in frequency of flushing, flush-related distress/ discomfort, control beliefs and catastrophic thoughts. A further aim was to examine the validity of previously developed measures of perceived control and catastrophizing against conceptually relevant standardized scales. A questionnaire of 20 women (average age 53 years) was carried out, with follow-up 5 years later. Measures of flush distress, flush frequency, perceived control over hot flushes, and catastrophic thoughts about flushing was compared at Time 1 and Time 2. Additionally, multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) and depression (CES-D) scores were taken at follow-up. All measure showed improvements in well-being. Nevertheless, there were many individual consistencies in scores on most variables at Time 1 and 2. Flush distress at Time 2 was most related to catastrophic thinking, and was slightly elevated in more depressed women. Flush distress was completely unrelated to health locus of control. Psychological responses to hot flushes seem to improve over a 5-year period, yet women show some consistency in their appraisals of this mid-life health problem. Counsellors may find that cognitive re-framing strategies are helpful for alleviating flush distress in women who are continue to be distressed by chronic vasomotor instability, as distress is so closely related to catastrophic thinking.     

The Role of Attachment Styles and Interpersonal Problems in Suicide‐Related Behaviors

The relationships among adult attachment styles, interpersonal problems, and categories of suicide‐related behaviors (i.e., self‐harm, suicide attempts, and their co‐occurrence) were examined in a predominantly psychiatric sample (N = 406). Both anxious and avoidant attachment styles were associated with interpersonal problems. In turn, specific interpersonal problems differentially mediated the relations between attachment style and type of suicide‐related behaviors. These findings suggest the importance of distinguishing between these groups of behaviors in terms of etiological pathways, maintenance processes, and treatment interventions.     

An analysis of response and time matching to reinforcement in concurrent ratio-interval schedules

Key pecks by six pigeons were reinforced on concurrent fixed-interval fixed-ratio schedules. The value of the fixed-interval was held constant at 4 min while the fixed-ratio varied from 25 to 450 responses. All of the pigeons responded on, with pecks reinforced under, both of the schedules over most of the concurrent pairings, and four of the six distributed responses between the schedules such that matching was obtained between the proportions of responses and reinforcements. Previous studies using concurrent variable-interval schedules have shown that when response-reinforcement matching occurs, a comparable match of time to reinforcement proportions is obtained. In the present study, time devoted to each response alternative was measured from the first response on that alternative to a subsequent response on the other alternative. Using that measure, large differences existed in the local rates of responding on the two schedules, and a time-reinforcement match was not produced. These results indicate that in a situation where response-reinforcement and time-reinforcement matching are incompatible, the measurement of response proportions is the better means of evaluating the effects of reinforcement.     

A quantitative analysis of the responding maintained by interval schedules of reinforcement

Interval schedules of reinforcement maintained pigeons' key-pecking in six experiments. Each schedule was specified in terms of mean interval, which determined the maximum rate of reinforcement possible, and distribution of intervals, which ranged from many-valued (variable-interval) to single-valued (fixed-interval). In Exp. 1, the relative durations of a sequence of intervals from an arithmetic progression were held constant while the mean interval was varied. Rate of responding was a monotonically increasing, negatively accelerated function of rate of reinforcement over a range from 8.4 to 300 reinforcements per hour. The rate of responding also increased as time passed within the individual intervals of a given schedule. In Exp. 2 and 3, several variable-interval schedules made up of different sequences of intervals were examined. In each schedule, the rate of responding at a particular time within an interval was shown to depend at least in part on the local rate of reinforcement at that time, derived from a measure of the probability of reinforcement at that time and the proximity of potential reinforcements at other times. The functional relationship between rate of responding and rate of reinforcement at different times within the intervals of a single schedule was similar to that obtained across different schedules in Exp. 1. Experiments 4, 5, and 6 examined fixed-interval and two-valued (mixed fixed-interval fixed-interval) schedules, and demonstrated that reinforcement at one time in an interval had substantial effects on responding maintained at other times. It was concluded that the rate of responding maintained by a given interval schedule depends not on the overall rate of reinforcement provided but rather on the summation of different local effects of reinforcement at different times within intervals.