Exploring the role of primary and supplementary motor areas in simple motor tasks with fNIRS

Studies employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have highlighted a covariation between the amplitude of hemodynamic responses recorded in primary and supplementary motor areas (M1 and SMA) and the duration of a motor task. A subset of these studies have hinted to a possible functional dissociation between processing carried out in these areas, with SMA primarily involved in action preparation, while M1 involved in action execution. This proposed functional dissociation was explored in the present study using a different technique—functional near-infrared spectroscopy—which enabled a finer-grained monitoring of the temporal characteristics of the hemodynamic response compared to fMRI. Here, hemodynamic responses in M1 and SMA were recorded in 7 participants during a right-finger-tapping task of short (1 s) or long (3 s) duration. Hemodynamic responses of larger amplitude were recorded from both contralateral M1 and SMA during long-duration than short-duration tapping. Furthermore, the analysis of the temporal profiles of these responses revealed a more sustained and prolonged activity for long-duration versus short-duration tapping in M1, but not in SMA. Rather than functionally dissociable areas, the present results are more compatible with the hypothesis that M1 and SMA subserve different, though strongly interacting, functional subroutines subtended in motor task preparation and execution.     

Assessing interpersonal functioning: Views from within and without

In order to better integrate research on personality pathology, interpersonal problems, and social skills, we applied the traditional methods of these three research strands (questionnaires, interviews, and interpersonal role-plays) to the same sample. Participants who attributed higher levels of interpersonal problems to themselves in general were also more critical of their own role-play performances, but these impressions were not mirrored by observer-ratings. Self-observer agreement in judging overall role-play performance was essentially zero. Interviewer-ratings of personality pathology had incremental validity over self-ratings in predicting observer-rated role-play performance. Self-reports of interpersonal functioning leave relevant behavioral variance untapped and thus should be complemented by other sources of information.     

What a feeling! Touching sexually laden stimuli makes women seek rewards

We argue that women's previously documented unresponsiveness to sexual primes when making economic decisions may be a consequence of the specific types of primes that have been used (i.e., visual primes). In three studies we show that presenting women with tactile sexual cues does influence their decisions about economic rewards. Similar to the effect found in men, the first study demonstrates that touching a pair of boxer shorts leads to a craving for monetary rewards in women. In the second study it is shown that touching a pair of boxers makes women less loss averse for both money and food. The third study explicitly focuses on the relative effectiveness of tactile versus visual sexual cues in altering women's economic decisions, and reveals that women's willingness-to-pay for economic rewards increases only when the sexual cue is tactile. We suggest that touching (vs. seeing) sexually laden stimuli prompts pre-programmed consummatory Pavlovian responses that promote approaching economic rewards.     

The Bidimensional Impression Management Index (BIMI): Measuring Agentic and Communal Forms of Impression Management

Measures of impression management have yet to incorporate two-factor models of person perception. The 2 primary factors are often labeled agency and communion. In Study 1, we assembled a new measure of impression management—the Bidimensional Impression Management Index (BIMI): It comprises 2 subscales designed specifically to tap agentic and communal content. Both subscales showed adequate alpha reliabilities under both honest and faking conditions. In Study 2, the BIMI was cross-validated in a new sample: The subscales remained relatively independent, and their reliabilities remained solid. A coherent pattern of personality correlates also supported the validities of both subscales. In Study 3, the differential sensitivity of the 2 subscales was demonstrated by manipulating the job type in simulated job applications. Implications and applications of the BIMI are discussed.     

Intergenerational Transfers: Associations with Adult Children’s Emotional Support of Their Parents

This study investigates how different factors in regard to intergenerational relationships are associated with emotional support given by adults to their parents. The analysis focuses on adult children and their parents in a representative German sample. Data were obtained from the second wave of the German Family Panel (pairfam) consisting of 2064 women and 1841 men. Results show that transfer of emotional support by the adult children was especially associated not only with received emotional support from parents, but also with affection, conflicts, and expectations concerning parents. A moderator analysis focuses on gender and showed differences for the association between given support by adults and conflicts between mothers and fathers. For the offspring, no gender effects were found.     

Psychometric Properties of the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale of Hewitt in a Dutch-Speaking Sample: Associations With the Big Five Personality Traits

We administered the Dutch Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale of Hewitt and Flett (1991, 2004) in a large student sample (N = 959) and performed a confirmatory factor analysis to test the factorial structure proposed by the original authors. The existence of a method factor referring to the negatively keyed items in the questionnaire was investigated by including it in the tested models. Next, we investigated how the 3 perfectionism dimensions are associated with the Five-factor model (FFM) of personality. The 3-factor structure originally observed by the authors was confirmed, at least when a method factor that refers to the negatively keyed items was included in the model. Self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism were both distinguished by low extraversion and low emotional stability. Self-oriented perfectionism's positive relationship with both conscientiousness and openness to experience differentiated the 2 perfectionism dimensions from each other. Other-oriented perfectionism was not well-characterized by the Big Five personality traits.     

Relating Coalition Capacity to the Adoption of Science-Based Prevention in Communities: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of Communities That Care

Coalition‐based efforts that use a science‐based approach to prevention can improve the wellbeing of community youth. This study measured several coalition capacities that are hypothesized to facilitate the adoption of a science‐based approach to prevention in communities. Using data from 12 coalitions participating in a community‐randomized trial of the prevention strategy Communities That Care (CTC), this paper describes select measurement properties of five salient coalition capacities (member substantive knowledge of prevention, member acquisition of new skills, member attitudes toward CTC, organizational linkages, and influence on organizations), as reported by coalition members, and examines the degree to which these capacities facilitated the community leader reports of the community‐wide adoption of a science‐based approach to prevention. Findings indicated that the five coalition capacities could be reliably measured using coalition member reports. Meta‐regression analyses found that CTC had a greater impact on the adoption of a science‐based prevention approach in 12 matched pairs of control and CTC communities where the CTC coalition had greater member (new skill acquisition) and organizational capacities (organizational linkages).     

Longitudinal trajectories of bicultural identity integration in recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents: Links with mental health and family functioning

This study examined, in a sample of recently immigrated Hispanic adolescents in Miami and Los Angeles, the extent to which bicultural identity integration (BII; involving the ability to synthesise one's heritage and receiving cultural streams and to identify as a member of both cultures) is best understood as a developmental construct that changes over time or as an individual‐difference construct that is largely stable over time. We were also interested in the extent to which these trajectories predicted mental health and family functioning. Recent‐immigrant 9th graders (N = 302) were assessed 6 times from 9th to 12th grade. Latent class growth analyses using the first 5 timepoints identified 2 trajectory classes—one with lower BII scores over time and another with higher BII scores over time. Higher heritage and US identity at baseline predicted membership in the higher BII class. At the 6th study timepoint, lower BII adolescents reported significantly poorer self‐esteem, optimism, prosocial behaviour and family relationships compared with their higher BII counterparts. These findings are discussed in terms of further research on the over‐time trajectory of biculturalism, and on the need to develop interventions to promote BII as a way of facilitating well‐being and positive family functioning.     

Is overgeneral autobiographical memory an isolated memory phenomenon in major depression?

The present study explored the relation between overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM) and other aspects of memory functioning in depression. A total of 26 patients with major depressive disorder completed a set of memory tasks measuring AM specificity (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986), working memory, semantic memory, verbal learning, delayed verbal recall, recognition memory, and source memory. Reduced specificity of AM was related to poor working memory (central executive functioning) and poor source memory. The former finding conforms to the idea that the voluntary retrieval of specific autobiographical memories (AMs) involves central executive processes (e.g., Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). The latter finding replicates and extends recent findings suggesting that overgeneral AM is part of a broader memory deficit in retrieving the specific details of the context in which information was acquired (Ramponi, Barnard, & Nimmo-Smith, 2004). Furthermore, in line with Ramponi et al. (2004), rumination was found to be related to both overgeneral AM and poor source memory.