On the role of goal relevance in emotional attention: Disgust evokes early attention to cleanliness

Prior evidence has shown that aversive emotional states are characterised by an attentional bias towards aversive events. The present study investigated whether aversive emotions also bias attention towards stimuli that represent means by which the emotion can be alleviated. We induced disgust by having participants touch fake disgusting objects. Participants in the control condition touched non-disgusting objects. The results of a subsequent dot-probe task revealed that attention was oriented to disgusting pictures irrespective of condition. However, participants in the disgust condition also oriented towards pictures representing cleanliness. These findings suggest that the deployment of attention in aversive emotional states is not purely stimulus driven but is also guided by the goal to alleviate this emotional state.     

Main and interactive effects of social support in predicting mental health symptoms in men and women following military stressor exposure

Abstract

Evidence across a multitude of contexts indicates that social support is associated with reduced risk for mental health symptoms. More information is needed on the effectiveness of different sources of support, as well as sex differences in support. Associations between social support from two sources – the military unit and friends and family – and mental health symptoms were examined in a study of 1571 Marine recruits assessed at the beginning and end of a highly stressful 13-week training program. Military social support buffered the stressor exposure–posttraumatic stress symptomatology (PTSS) relationship, whereas the relationship between stressor exposure and PTSS was highest when civilian social support was high. Further inspection of the interactions revealed that military support was most important at high levels of stressor exposure. Sex differences in the relationship between social support and symptoms were found, such that support from military peers was associated with lower levels of PTSS for men, whereas civilian support was associated with lower PTSS for women. While civilian social support was associated with lower levels of depression symptom severity in both women and men, the relationship was stronger for women. Reviewed implications focus on the importance of considering the recipient, source, and context of social support.     

Gender differences in combat-related stressors and their association with postdeployment mental health in a nationally representative sample of U.S. OEF/OIF veterans

Though the broader literature suggests that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of trauma exposure, most available studies on combat trauma have relied on samples in which women's combat exposure is limited and analyses that do not directly address gender differences in associations between combat exposure and postdeployment mental health. Female service members' increased exposure to combat in Afghanistan and Iraq provides a unique opportunity to evaluate gender differences in different dimensions of combat-related stress and associated consequence for postdeployment mental health. The current study addressed these research questions in a representative sample of female and male U.S. veterans who had returned from deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq within the previous year. As expected, women reported slightly less exposure than men to most combat-related stressors, but higher exposure to other stressors (i.e., prior life stress, deployment sexual harassment). No gender differences were observed in reports of perceived threat in the war zone. Though it was hypothesized that combat-related stressors would demonstrate stronger negative associations with postdeployment mental health for women, only one of 16 stressor × gender interactions achieved statistical significance and an evaluation of the clinical significance of these interactions revealed that effects were trivial. Results suggest that female Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom service members may be as resilient to combat-related stress as men. Future research is needed to evaluate gender differences in the longer-term effects of combat exposure.     

Longitudinal investigation of reciprocal relationship between stress reactions and hardiness

Although many studies have examined hardiness as a protective factor against stress reactions, to the authors' knowledge no studies have yet examined the impact of stress reactions on hardiness. However, there is theoretical support for this notion. In this longitudinal study of 1,571 Marine recruits who participated in a highly stressful training program, the authors applied regression-based cross-lagged analyses to examine associations between stress reactions and hardiness over time for both men and women, and they investigated social support as a moderator of these relationships. Men who were hardier at Time 1 (T1) reported lower stress reactions at Time 2 (T2), and men who experienced more stress reactions at T1 were less hardy at T2. Although the negative impact of stress reactions on hardiness was strongest when social support was low for both genders, stress reactions predicted enhanced hardiness when social support was high for women only.     

Mechanisms by which childhood personality traits influence adult health status: educational attainment and healthy behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to test a life span health behavior model in which educational attainment and health behaviors (eating habits, smoking, and physical activity) were hypothesized as mechanisms to account for relations between teacher ratings of childhood personality traits and self-reported health status at midlife. DESIGN: The model was tested on 1,054 members of the Hawaii Personality and Health cohort, which is a population-based cohort participating in a longitudinal study of personality and health spanning 40 years from childhood to midlife. OUTCOME: Childhood Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Intellect-Imagination influenced adult health status indirectly through educational attainment, healthy eating habits, and smoking. Several direct effects of childhood traits on health behaviors and health status were also observed. CONCLUSION: The model extends past associations found between personality traits and health behaviors or health status by identifying a life-course pathway based on the health behavior model through which early childhood traits influence adult health status. The additional direct effects of personality traits indicate that health behavior mechanisms may not provide a complete account of relations between personality and health.     

Electromyograph responses and performance success estimates as a function of internal-external control.

For 12 externally scoring college women, marginally significant correlations of EMG recordings with self-estimates of success in tensing forearm muscles (-.50) and with success in relaxing these muscles (-.54) were obtained. Similar correlations for 12 internally scoring women were much smaller. Analysis of variance of means had indicated no differences in ability of these groups to control muscles of the forearm.     

"Archaic matrix of the oedipus complex"

The clinical implication of Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel's concept of the "archaic matrix of the Oedipus complex" is examined, the resulting deeper understanding of the Oedipus myth is considered. A discussion follows of Chasseguet-Smirgel's way of using this concept in her historical evaluation of German Romantism with regard to the Nazi times and nowadays politics of the Westgerman Green Party.     

Molecular and behavioral changes associated with adult hippocampus-specific SynGAP1 knockout

The synaptic Ras/Rap-GTPase-activating protein (SynGAP1) plays a unique role in regulating specific downstream intracellular events in response to N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activation. Constitutive heterozygous loss of SynGAP1 disrupts NMDAR-mediated physiological and behavioral processes, but the disruptions might be of developmental origin. Therefore, the precise role of SynGAP1 in the adult brain, including its relative functional significance within specific brain regions, remains unexplored. The present study constitutes the first attempt in achieving adult hippocampal-specific SynGAP1 knockout using the Cre/loxP approach. Here, we report that this manipulation led to a significant numerical increase in both small and large GluA1 and NR1 immunoreactive clusters, many of which were non-opposed to presynaptic terminals. In parallel, the observed marked decline in the amplitude of spontaneous excitatory currents (sEPSCs) and inter-event intervals supported the impression that SynGAP1 loss might facilitate the accumulation of extrasynaptic glutamatergic receptors. In addition, SynGAP1-mediated signaling appears to be critical for the proper integration and survival of newborn neurons. The manipulation impaired reversal learning in the probe test of the water maze and induced a delay-dependent impairment in spatial recognition memory. It did not significantly affect anxiety or reference memory acquisition but induced a substantial elevation in spontaneous locomotor activity in the open field test. Thus, the present study demonstrates the functional significance of SynGAP1 signaling in the adult brain by capturing several changes that are dependent on NMDAR and hippocampal integrity.     

Perceived Breast Development and Adolescent Girls’ Psychological Well-Being

This study, based on U.S. nationally-representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (8,593 13–18?year old girls), explored how perceived breast development was related to psychological well-being among adolescent girls including variations by age and race-ethnicity. It was hypothesized that greater breast development would detrimentally influence adolescent girls’ psychological well-being, although these associations were expected to be stronger for younger adolescent girls and for Whites. Results using multivariate regression analyses with robust standard errors showed that greater perceived breast development was associated with lower self-esteem and higher depressive symptoms for 13–15?year old White, African American (for self-esteem only), and Hispanic (for depressive symptoms only) girls. Although perceived breast development was not associated with 16–18?year old girls’ self-esteem, supplemental analyses found that 16–18?year old Asian American and White girls with considerable or little breast development had more depressive symptoms than those with some breast development. Menarche at a younger age, overweight BMI, perceptions of being overweight, and efforts to lose weight explained a substantial portion of these associations. This study shows that greater perceived breast development, particularly if it occurs at a younger age, is a risk factor for poorer psychological well-being among adolescent girls including racial-ethnic minorities.     

War-Zone Exposure and Long-Term General Life Adjustment Among Vietnam Veterans: Findings From Two Perspectives1

This two-part investigation examined associations between service in Vietnam and indices of long-term general life adjustment using a national sample of male and female members of the Vietnam generation. In Study 1, we documented reasonably high levels of satisfaction and attainment among Vietnam veterans, levels that differed minimally, on average, from those who served elsewhere and those who never served in the military. In Study 2, dimensions of war-zone stressor exposure were only marginally related to satisfaction and attainment, in contrast with research documenting strong relationships with psychopathol-ogy. These findings support the importance of expanding our thinking about dimensions of mental illness and mental health.