Developmental Personality Styles: An Attachment Theory Conceptualization of Personality Disorders

Attachment theory, as a developmentally based theory of personality formation, provides a viable framework for understanding the development and maintenance of personality disorders, or what A. E. Ivey and M. B. Ivey (1998) have referred to as “developmental personality styles.” Using K. Bartholomew's (1990) 4‐dimensional model of adult attachment as an organizational framework, 10 developmental personality styles are differentiated regarding their unique attachment experiences, working models of self and other, and feedforward beliefs. Implications of an attachment theory framework for counseling clients with problematic developmental personality styles are discussed.     

Reliability and validity of a new scale to measure prejudice: The GRISMS

The goal of the present research was to assess the reliability and validity of the fiftyitem Modified Godfrey-Richman ISM Scale (M-GRISMS). The sample consisted of seventy-one female and sixty male introductory psychology students. Test items included various ethnic groups (Racism subscale), religious groups (Religion subscale), and the Heterosexist and Sexist subscales. Each of these was parsed into various subcategories, e.g., the Racism subscale assessed attitudes toward African-Americans, Asian-Americans, European-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The final version of the M-GRISMS (the M-GRISMS-M) was found to be highly reliable and valid. Eight independent factors traversed two or more “isms.”     

Memory for what, where, and when in the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

Episodic memory is the ability to remember personally experienced past events (Tulving in Organization of memory. Academic Press, San Diego, pp. 381–403, 1972). In non-human animals, the behavioural criterion for episodic-like memory is remembering “what” occurred in conjunction with “when” and “where” (Clayton and Dickinson in Nature 395:272–274, 1998). We conducted tests for “what, where, and when” memory in a food-storing bird, the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). In Experiment 1, chickadees found sunflower seeds and mealworms in concealed sites in their home cage. Birds later re-visited these sites after either a short (3 h) or long (123 h) retention interval. Chickadees normally prefer mealworms, but at the long retention interval mealworms were degraded in taste and appearance. Chickadees showed some memory for what kind of food they had encountered and where, but no memory for when food had previously been found. Experiment 2 followed a similar procedure, except that chickadees searched for hidden sunflower seeds and mealworms in trees in an indoor aviary. These more natural conditions increased both the spatial scale of the task and the effort required to find food. In this experiment, birds showed evidence for all three components of what–where–when memory. Unlike some previous studies of episodic-like memory, birds’ behaviour cannot be accounted for by differential memory strength for more recent events. The results show that memory for what, where, and when occurs in food-storing birds outside the corvid family, does not require food caching or retrieval, and that remembering “when” can depend on the nature of the task.     

Perfectionism dimensions,appearance schemas,and body image disturbance in community members and university students

The present study examined the relationship between a self-presentational style involving an extreme need to conceal perceived imperfections from others and body image disturbance (BID). Findings from both a community and a university sample indicated that nondisplay of imperfection (i.e., concerns over behavioral displays of imperfections to others) predicted BID beyond self-imposed perfectionistic expectations and other contributors to BID. Mediational analyses suggested that dysfunctional appearance schemas represent one possible mechanism through which nondisplay of imperfection influences BID. In contrast to earlier work on perfectionism and BID, which emphasized the role of self-imposed perfectionistic expectations, the current study offers a novel view of the connection between perfectionism and BID. That is, rather than striving to achieve perfection, the present study suggests that individuals with BID are characterized by a strong need to avoid appearing imperfect to others.     

Taxometric and factor analytic models of anxiety sensitivity among youth: exploring the latent structure of anxiety psychopathology vulnerability

This study represents an effort to better understand the latent structure of anxiety sensitivity (AS), a well-established affect-sensitivity individual difference factor, among youth by employing taxometric and factor analytic approaches in an integrative manner. Taxometric analyses indicated that AS, as indexed by the Child Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI; Silverman, Flesig, Rabian, & Peterson, 1991), demonstrates taxonic latent class structure in a large sample of youth from North America (N=4,462; M(age)=15.6 years; SD=1.3). Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the latent continuous, multidimensional, 4-factor model of AS among youth (Silverman, Goedhart, Barrett, & Turner, 2003) provided good fit for the CASI data among the complement class ("normative form" of AS), but not among the taxon class ("high-risk form" of AS). EFAs supported the prediction that the AS taxon demonstrates a unique, heretofore unexplored latent continuous, unidimensional factor structure among youth. Findings are discussed in relation to refining our understanding of the latent structure of AS and the clinical implications that arise from it.     

Suicidal Behaviors in the African American Community

This article reviews the risk and protective factors associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors in the African American community. The authors provide a brief review of the history of suicide research in African American communities and critique some of the paradigms and underlying assumptions that have made it difficult to address the problem of suicidal behaviors in the African American community. The article also summarizes the articles that are presented in this special edition of the Journal of Black Psychology on suicidality in the African American community.     

Are perfectionism dimensions risk factors for anxiety symptoms? A meta-analysis of 11 longitudinal studies

Background: Over 50 years of theory and research implicates perfectionism in anxiety. However, it is unclear which (if any) perfectionism dimensions are risk factors for anxiety.

Objective: To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis testing whether socially prescribed perfectionism, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, self-oriented perfectionism, and personal standards predict increases in anxiety.

Method: Our literature search yielded 11 relevant studies for inclusion, composed of children, adolescents, undergraduates, community adults, and psychiatric patients.

Results: Meta-analysis using random-effects models revealed concern over mistakes (r^+?=?.11), doubts about actions (r^+?=?.13), and personal standards (r^+?=?.08), but not socially prescribed perfectionism or self-oriented perfectionism, displayed significant small positive relationships with follow-up anxiety, after controlling for baseline anxiety.

Conclusion: Research is needed to understand the conditions under which the connection between perfectionism and anxiety becomes stronger (e.g., stress).