Interpersonal precipitants and suicide attempts in borderline personality disorder

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is often characterized by multiple low lethality suicide attempts triggered by seemingly minor incidents, and less commonly by high lethality attempts that are attributed to impulsiveness or comorbid major depression. The relationships among life events, impulsiveness, and type of suicidal behavior has hardly been studied in BPD and mood disorders. This study compared depressed attempters with and without BPD to identify specific suicide precipitants and risk factors in BPD and their relationship to severity of suicidal behavior. Attempters with comorbid BPD and major depressive disorder (MDD) had a higher number of lifetime suicide attempts; made their first attempt at a younger age; reported more interpersonal triggers; and had higher levels of lifetime aggression, hostility, and impulsivity, compared with attempters with major depression only. Environmental triggers of attempts in BPD are more likely to be interpersonal stressors. Lethality of attempts in BPD plus MDD is equal to that in MDD only, indicating that the seriousness of precipitants is unrelated to the lethality of the suicidal behavior. The differences between groups suggest that risk assessment and treatment should target both depression and personality disorder in those with combined illness.     

Measurement Equivalence and Multisource Ratings for Non-managerial Positions: Recommendations for Research and Practice

ABSTRACT: The present investigation applies a comprehensive sequence of confirmatory factor analysis tests (Vandenberg and Lance, Organisational Research Methods, 3, 4–69, 2000) to the examination of the measurement equivalence of self, peer, and supervisor ratings of non-managerial targets across several performance dimensions. Results indicate a high degree of measurement equivalence across rater sources and performance dimensions. The paper illustrates how this procedure can identify very specific areas of non-equivalence and how the complexity of a multisource feedback system may be represented using such procedures. Implications of these results and recommendations for both research and practice are offered.     

Higher-order dimensions of personality disorder: hierarchical structure and relationships with the five-factor model, the interpersonal circle, and psychopathy

Two studies examined the higher-order factor structure of DSM-IV personality disorders using the International Personality Disorder Examination in male forensic psychiatric patients. In Study 1 (N = 168), exploratory factor analysis at the level of individual personality disorder criteria indicated nine primary factors. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of these first-order factors supported a hierarchical structure in which two of three second-order factors covaried to yield a third-order factor. The two resulting superordinate factors were labelled Anxious-Inhibited and Acting Out. In Study 2 (N = 160), we used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to test hypotheses of common dimensions underlying these superordinate factors of personality disorder and superordinate factors of the five-factor model of personality, dimensions of the interpersonal circle, and psychopathy. Of three common factors, one combined Anxious-Inhibited disorders, "neurotic introversion," and hostile-submission. The other two factors of Acting Out/ psychopathy and antagonism/hostile-dominance covaried to yield a superordinate factor. Possible substrates underlying two superordinate dimensions common to normal and abnormal personality were identified in the theoretical literature.     

Conditioned inhibition of cocaine seeking in rats

Despite its potential relevance to the treatment of drug abuse, conditioned inhibition of drug seeking has not been systematically investigated before. In this study, rats could self-administer cocaine by lever pressing whenever a click or tone was present. Responding was not reinforced when a light was present. The light was presented simultaneously with the click (i.e., in an excitatory context) in 1 group, but the light was always presented alone in another group. When it was later presented in compound with the tone, the light was a highly effective conditioned inhibitor, suppressing cocaine seeking by 92% in the former group and by 74% in the latter. These results suggest ways to improve cue-oriented behavioral treatments for drug abuse.     

Vocal behavior in the dyadic interactions of preadolescent and early adolescent friends and acquaintances

Conversational interactions of sixth-grade friends and acquaintances in mixed- and same-gender pairs were computer analyzed so that the individual and dyadic time patterns of their vocal behavior could be examined. A comparison of their time patterns revealed that the boy-boy pairs used more and longer segments of simultaneous speech with acquaintances than with friends whereas the girl-girl pairs did the opposite. In general, partners tended to coordinate the durations of their vocal behaviors with each other but, more specifically, the boys coordinated the timing of their speaking turns and switching pauses more when they were friends than when they were acquaintances, and the girls again did the opposite. Finally, the girls coordinated the durations of their pauses significantly more than did the boys regardless of whether they were with friends or acquaintances or in mixed- or same-gender pairs.     

Communication,conflict, and commitment: insights on the foundations of relationship success from a national survey

The key relationship dynamics of communication, conflict, and commitment were investigated using data from a randomly sampled, nationwide phone survey of adults in married, engaged, and cohabiting relationships. Findings on communication and conflict generally replicated those of studies using more indepth or objective measurement strategies. Negative interaction between partners was negatively associated with numerous measures of relationship quality and positively correlated with divorce potential (thinking or talking about divorce). Withdrawal during conflict by either or both partners, though quite common, was associated with more negativity and less positive connection in relationships. The most frequently reported issue that couples argue about in first marriages was money, and in re-marriages it was conflict about children. Overall, how couples argue was more related to divorce potential than was what they argue about, although couples who argue most about money tended to have higher levels of negative communication and conflict than other couples. Further, while the male divorce potential was more strongly linked to levels of negative interaction, the female was more strongly linked to lower positive connection in the relationship. Consistent with the commitment literature, higher reported commitment was associated with less alternative monitoring, less feeling trapped in the relationship, and greater relationship satisfaction.     

Decisions and the evolution of memory: multiple systems, multiple functions

Memory evolved to supply useful, timely information to the organism's decision-making systems. Therefore, decision rules, multiple memory systems, and the search engines that link them should have coevolved to mesh in a coadapted, functionally interlocking way. This adaptationist perspective suggested the scope hypothesis: When a generalization is retrieved from semantic memory, episodic memories that are inconsistent with it should be retrieved in tandem to place boundary conditions on the scope of the generalization. Using a priming paradigm and a decision task involving person memory, the authors tested and confirmed this hypothesis. The results support the view that priming is an evolved adaptation. They further show that dissociations between memory systems are not--and should not be--absolute: Independence exists for some tasks but not others.