Treating Childhood Shyness and Related Behavior: Empirically Evaluated Approaches to Promote Positive Social Interactions

Behavioral and cognitive–behavioral strategies, including exposure, social skills training, and peer-mediated approaches, used to treat childhood shyness and related impairments are described. In addition, relevant outcome studies published within the past 20 years are evaluated, and limitations regarding the generalization, maintenance, and social validity of the reported treatment gains are addressed. Although the interventions reviewed have demonstrated short-term merit in ameliorating social and emotional impairments, such as problematic peer relations and internalizing difficulties, there currently is a lack of evidence to support the social validity and long-term generalization and maintenance of such behavioral gains. Thus, recommendations for future research are made, including the need to (a) assess the social validity of treatment outcomes, (b) utilize important socialization agents (e.g., parents, teachers, peers), and (c) conduct prevention research and longitudinal outcome studies.     

Selection for encoding: No evidence of better endogenous orienting following forget than following remember instructions

In an item-method directed forgetting task, attentional resources are withdrawn from forget item processing (e.g., Taylor & Fawcett in Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 73, 1790–1814, 2011). Taylor and Hamm (Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78, 168–186, 2016) demonstrated that there is no corresponding increase in the proclivity for exogenous attention to be captured following a forget instruction. This means either that the attentional resources withdrawn from the forget item are reallocated immediately (and therefore not especially vulnerable to capture) or that it is not exogenous attention that is withdrawn. Given that endogenous attention is distinct from exogenous attention, we therefore extended the Taylor and Hamm study by using endogenous orienting rather than exogenous orienting. Words appeared individually in a peripheral location (Exp. 1) or in a central location (Exp. 2), followed by an instruction to either remember or forget. After a short (50-ms) or long (250-ms) interstimulus interval (ISI), a central cue (80% accurate) directed participants to allocate their attention to the left or right. This was followed by a discrimination target that appeared at a 1,000-ms cue–target stimulus onset asynchrony. A subsequent yes–no recognition test assessed memory for all study items. In both experiments, we observed better recognition of remember words than forget words—a directed forgetting effect. We also found a cueing effect, revealed as faster reaction times to discriminate cued targets than to discriminate uncued targets. There was not, however, an effect of memory instruction (and/or instruction–cue ISI) on the magnitude of this cueing effect. Thus, neither exogenous attention nor endogenous attention remains in an unengaged state following an instruction to forget.     

Test of a potential link between analytic and nonanalytic category learning and automatic, effortful processing

The link between automatic and effortful processing and nonanalytic and analytic category learning was evaluated in a sample of 29 college undergraduates using declarative memory, semantic category search, and pseudoword categorization tasks. Automatic and effortful processing measures were hypothesized to be associated with nonanalytic and analytic categorization, respectively. Results suggested that contrary to prediction strong criterion-attribute (analytic) responding on the pseudoword categorization task was associated with strong automatic, implicit memory encoding of frequency-of-occurrence information. Data are discussed in terms of the possibility that criterion-attribute category knowledge, once established, may be expressed with few attentional resources. The data indicate that attention resource requirements, even for the same stimuli and task, vary depending on the category rule system utilized. Also, the automaticity emerging from familiarity with analytic category exemplars is very different from the automaticity arising from extensive practice on a semantic category search task. The data do not support any simple mapping of analytic and nonanalytic forms of category learning onto the automatic and effortful processing dichotomy and challenge simple models of brain asymmetries for such procedures.     

“They're Scared of It”: Intergroup Determinants of Attitudes Toward Children With HIV1

The study used an intergroup perspective to explore teachers’ willingness to teach children with HIV within mainstream education. One hundred thirty‐eight teachers from 13 high schools across the United Kingdom participated in a survey. The results suggest that previous contact with an individual who was HIV positive (whether an adult or a child) was strongly associated with greater willingness to teach a child with HIV. However, this effect disappeared when intergroup anxiety, positive affect, and positive beliefs were included as covariates. There was little evidence that instrumental variables (i.e., relatively pragmatic concerns about infection) were associated with willingness to teach. Participants who had some contact reported lower fear of contagion from a child with HIV, but there was no evidence that this was associated with overall attitudes. The results are interpreted to suggest that interventions to reduce prejudice should not simply concentrate on improving knowledge about HIV transmission.     

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS AND TREATMENT OF INAPPROPRIATE VERBAL BEHAVIOR

The present study examined the possible function of inappropriate verbal behavior of an adult man who had been diagnosed with both mental retardation and psychosis. Results of a functional analysis indicated that inappropriate verbal utterances were maintained by attention. An intervention consisting of the differential reinforcement of appropriate verbal behavior effectively reduced the inappropriate behavior.     

Interactions between emotion regulation strategies and affective style: Implications for trait anxiety versus depressed mood

Affective style reflecting approach and inhibition is thought to be associated in distinct ways with anxious versus depressed mood; relatively few studies, however, consider how the interaction between affective style and the strategies individuals use to regulate mood and emotion might influence these associations. Sixty-seven non-disordered adults self-reported on their use of two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), behavioral approach (BAS) and behavioral inhibition sensitivity (BIS) dimensions of affective style, and anxious and depressed mood (trait anxiety and symptoms of depression). Trait anxiety versus depressed mood was associated with unique interactive patterns of emotion regulation and affective style: enhanced use of reappraisal was linked to less depressed mood in those reporting low BAS, whereas high suppression was linked to greater trait anxiety in those reporting low BIS. The implications of findings for typical emotional processes and for clinical disorders and interventions are discussed.     

Inhibition of return for expected and unexpected targets

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to slower reaction times (RTs) to targets that occur in the same, rather than in a different, location as a preceding onset cue. The present study examined IOR for expected (likely) and unexpected (unlikely) targets under conditions in which stimulus-response (S-R) expectancies were generated on a trial-by-trial basis or maintained across a block of trials. Three boxes were aligned along the vertical midline. In Experiments 1 and 2, the appearance of a cue in the upper or lower box was a signal to generate an expectancy about the most likely color of an impending discrimination target. In Experiment 3, one target color was more likely than another across a block of trials. In all cases, cue location did not predict target location. When S-R expectancies were generated on a trial-by-trial basis, IOR occurred for Unlikely targets but not for Likely targets; this was true across a range of cue-target stimulus onset asynchronies. In contrast, when S-R expectancies were maintained over a block of trials, IOR was larger for Likely than for Unlikely targets. These findings reveal a critical interaction of S-R expectancies with IOR. This interaction not only demonstrates the modulation of IOR by cognitive expectancies, but in doing so also provides evidence that is consistent with the view that IOR reflects a conservative response bias.     

The Relations of Effortful Control and Impulsivity to Children's Sympathy: A Longitudinal Study

The relations of children's (n = 214 at Time 1; M age = 6 years at Time 1) dispositional sympathy to adult-reported and behavioral measures of effortful control (EC) and impulsivity were examined in a longitudinal study including five assessments, each two years apart. Especially for boys, relatively high levels of EC and growth in EC were related to high sympathy. Teacher-reported impulsivity was generally modestly negatively related to measures of teacher-reported sympathy for boys, and a decline in impulsivity was linked to boys’ sympathy. Some findings suggested a positive association between impulsivity and children's self-reported sympathy. EC, especially when reported by teachers, was more often a unique predictor of sympathy than was impulsivity. Results generally support the argument that sympathetic individuals, especially boys, are high in EC and that EC is a more consistent predictor of sympathy than impulsivity.     

Long-term effects from a randomized trial of two public health preventive interventions for parental depression.

This article presents long-term effects of a randomized trial evaluating 2 standardized, manual-based prevention strategies for families with parental mood disorder: informational lectures and a brief, clinician-based approach including child assessment and a family meeting. A sample of 105 families, in which at least 1 parent suffered from a mood disorder and at least 1 nondepressed child was within the 8- to 15-year age range, was recruited. Parents and children were assessed separately at baseline and every 9 to 12 months thereafter on behavioral functioning, psychopathology, and response to intervention. Both interventions produced sustained effects through the 6th assessment point, approximately 4.5 years after enrollment, with relatively small sample loss of families (<14%). Clinician-based families had significantly more gains in parental child-related behaviors and attitudes and in child-reported understanding of parental disorder. Child and parent family functioning increased for both groups and internalizing symptoms decreased for both groups, with no significant group differences. These findings demonstrate that brief, family-centered preventive interventions for parental depression may contribute to long-term, sustained improvements in family functioning.     

College dating and social anxiety: using the Internet as a means of connecting to others.

With the advent and widespread use of the Internet, various online media are being used to connect and maintain social relationships in individuals of all ages. Social relationships are vital to healthy development, and individuals with social and/or dating anxiety may have marked difficulty in establishing appropriate, supportive relationships because of fear of negative evaluation by others. For these individuals, the Internet may open avenues of communication and provide an outlet through which relationships can be formed and preserved. This study investigated the characteristics of computer and Internet use in young adults to determine whether individuals who were high in social/dating anxiety symptoms were more likely to make and maintain social relationships online. To further understand the patterns of these behaviors, several measures of social and dating anxiety were collected and analyzed along with demographic, computer use, and relationship characteristics. Results indicated differences between high and low social/dating anxiety with respect to media use and relationship formation. Limitations and future directions are discussed.