Comorbid interpretation and expectancy bias in social anxiety and alcohol use

Background: In two studies, the present research examined whether being high in both social anxiety and alcohol use disorder symptoms is associated with a comorbid interpretation and expectancy bias that reflects their bidirectional relationship.

Design: Cross-sectional, quantitative surveys.

Methods: Measures of social anxiety and alcohol use disorder symptoms, as well as an interpretation and expectancy bias task assessing biases for social anxiety, drinking, and comorbid social anxiety and drinking.

Results: In Study 1 (N?=?447), individuals high (vs. low) in social anxiety had stronger social threat bias and individuals high (vs. low) in alcohol use disorder symptoms had stronger drinking bias. Those high in both social anxiety and alcohol use disorder symptoms endorsed interpretations and expectancies linking social interaction with alcohol use. Comorbid bias predicted membership into the high social anxiety/drinking group, even after taking into account single-disorder biases. In Study 2 (N?=?325), alcohol use disorder symptoms predicted drinking bias and social anxiety symptoms predicted social anxiety bias. Alcohol use disorder symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and their interaction predicted comorbid interpretation and expectancy bias.

Conclusion: Results indicate unique cognitive vulnerability markers for persons with comorbid social anxiety and alcohol use disorder symptoms, which may improve detection and treatment of this serious comorbidity.     

Burnout and depressive symptoms are not primarily linked to perceived organizational problems

In this 257-participant study (76% female; mean age: 44.84), we examined two ideas that are widespread among burnout researchers: (a) the idea that burnout is primarily related to occupational-level factors; and (b) the idea that burnout should be considered a sentinel indicator in research on negative occupational outcomes. We investigated the links between burnout and a series of generic and work-related variables, namely, depressive symptoms, neuroticism, extraversion, effort-reward imbalance in the job [ERI], social support at work (SSW), and turnover intention. Burnout was assessed with the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure, depressive symptoms with the PHQ-9, neuroticism and extraversion with the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, ERI with the 10-item version of the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, SSW with the Job Content Questionnaire, and turnover intention with a dedicated 3-item measure. Correlation, multiple regression, and relative weight analyses were conducted. Burnout was not found to be more strongly linked to organizational and work-contextualized variables than to personality traits. In addition, turnover intention was not associated to a greater extent with burnout than with ERI. Burnout and depressive symptoms were highly correlated and exhibited overlapping nomological networks. Overall, our findings question the way burnout has been generally conceived.     

Being both – A European and a national citizen? Comparing young people’s identification with Europe and their home country across eight European countries*

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that forming a mature and coherent political identity is one developmental task in adolescence and young adulthood. However, given different degrees of commitment on the regional, national, and European level, the question remains whether young people’s identification varies among those spheres? Drawing on data from the European Catch-EyoU-project, it was the goal of this study to examine whether young people can be classified according to their identification toward their home country and Europe and how these types are associated with age, gender, country as well as political interest, tolerance, and political participation. The study is based on adolescents and young adults from the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Estonia, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden (N = 9339; Mage = 19.62; 59.1% female). Cluster analysis revealed five types of young people’s identification with country and Europe which showed significant associations between group membership and tolerance, political interest, and participation. The implications of distinguishing types of identification and their associations with political outcomes are discussed.     

Life satisfaction and competence of Bosnian refugees in Norway

In this study the relative influence of age, gender, locus of control, preferred acculturation strategy, perceived majority members' attitude, and social support on life satisfaction and competence of Bosnian refugees was examined. Hundred and six Bosnians living temporarily in Norway completed a questionnaire. The results showed that persons with a higher internal locus of control had a higher life satisfaction and higher feelings of competence. The acculturation option assimilation was related to the highest life satisfaction, while the integration option was related to the highest feelings of competence. The more positive reactions the respondents received from Norwegians, the higher their life satisfaction and the higher their feelings of competence. Older refugees reported the highest feelings of competence.     

Chemical aversion treatment of alcoholism: Lithium as the aversive agent

Animal work indicating flavour aversion produced by chemical aversion therapy (CAT) with lithium might be effective in the treatment of alcoholism led to this treatment being given to 25 patients. The abstinence rate six months later of 36% was significantly better than the 12% rate for an equivalent group of patients, treated with a disulfuram-like drinking deterrent, calcium carbimide. The rate for the CAT group improves to 47% if 8 patients are excluded who did not develop sickness reactions to lithium. CAT with lithium appears safe given proper medical precautions.     

Natural categories: Well defined or fuzzy sets?

Thirty college students made category membership decisions for each of 540 candidate exemplar-category name pairs (e.g.,apple-fruit) in each of two separate sessions. For highly typical category members (e.g., chair for thefurniture category), and for items unrelated to a category (e.g.,cucumber-furniture), subjects agreed with each other and were consistent in their decisions. However, for intermediate-typicality items (e.g.,bookends-furniture), subjects disagreed with each other and were frequently inconsistent from one session to the next. These data suggest that natural categories are fuzzy sets, with no clear boundaries separating category members from nonmembers.     

Does interpolated interference affect only the short-term store in a free recall task?

Counting backward by threes following list presentation depresses only the terminal segment of the serial position curve in a free recall task. It was found that if the list is presented a second time, the entire curve is reduced uniformly, not merely the terminal segment. The significance of this result is discussed with respect to the duplexity and unitary theories of memory.