Diagnostic validity of the Eppendorf Schizophrenia Inventory (ESI): a self-report screen for ultrahigh risk and acute psychosis

Providers of mental health services need tools to screen for acute psychosis and ultrahigh risk (UHR) for transition to psychosis in help-seeking individuals. In this study, the Eppendorf Schizophrenia Inventory (ESI) was examined as a screening tool and for its ability to correctly predict diagnostic group membership (e.g., help seeking, mild psychiatric complaints, highly symptomatic mood or anxiety disorder, UHR, acute psychosis). Diagnostic evaluation with established instruments was used for diagnosis in 3 research samples. UHR status was assessed with the Structured Interview for Prodromal Symptoms/Scale of Prodromal Symptoms (Miller et al., 1999) and the Bonn Scale for the Assessment of Basic Symptoms Prediction list (Gross, Huber, Klosterk?tter, & Linz, 1987; Klosterk?tter, Hellmich, Steinmeyer, & Schulze-Lutter, 2001). This study showed that members of different diagnostic groups rate themselves significantly differently on the ESI and its subscales. A new subscale was constructed, the UHR-Psychosis scale, that showed good utility in detecting individuals with interview-diagnosed UHR status and acute psychosis. The scale is also sensitive to the threshold between UHR and acute psychosis. Practical applications of the ESI include use as a diagnostic tool within various settings.     

Dispositional attribution: multiple inferences about motive-related traits

This research views dispositional inference as a process whereby perceivers integrate multiple inferences about a target person's motives and traits. The findings suggest that although perceived motives may stimulate extra attributional processing (S. Fein, 1996), the content of the inferred motive is important as well. Perceivers learned about situational forces implying that a target person had free choice, no choice, or an ulterior motive for helpful behavior. Inferences about the target's helpfulness differed depending on whether the target's behavior was attributed to an obedience motive (no-choice condition) or to a selfish motive (ulterior-motive condition). In general, inferences about motives were more predictive of dispositional inferences than were global causal attributions (to situational vs. dispositional forces) or base rate assumptions.     

Picture object recognition in an American black bear (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ursus americanus</Emphasis>)

Many animals have been tested for conceptual discriminations using two-dimensional images as stimuli, and many of these species appear to transfer knowledge from 2D images to analogous real life objects. We tested an American black bear for picture-object recognition using a two alternative forced choice task. She was presented with four unique sets of objects and corresponding pictures. The bear showed generalization from both objects to pictures and pictures to objects; however, her transfer was superior when transferring from real objects to pictures, suggesting that bears can recognize visual features from real objects within photographic images during discriminations.     

Individual differences in core affect variability and their relationship to personality and psychological adjustment

How people's feelings change across time can be represented as trajectories in a core affect space defined by the dimensions of valence and activation. In this article, the authors analyzed individual differences in within-person affective variability defined as characteristics of core affect trajectories, introducing new ways to conceptualize affective variability. In 2 studies, participants provided multiple reports across time describing how they were feeling in terms of core affect. From these data, characteristics of participants' core affect trajectories were derived. Across both studies, core affect variability was negatively related to average valence, self-esteem, and agreeableness, and it was positively related to neuroticism and depression. Moreover, spin, a measure of how much people experienced qualitatively different feelings within the core affect space, was related more consistently to trait measures of adjustment and personality than other measures of within-person variability, including widely used measures of within-person single-dimension standard deviations.     

Do chimpanzees know what others can and cannot do? Reasoning about ‘capability’

Much recent comparative work has been devoted to exploring what nonhuman primates understand about physical causality. However, few laboratory experiments have attempted to test what nonhumans understand about what physical acts others are capable of performing. We tested seven chimpanzees’ ability to predict which of two human experimenters could deliver a tray containing a food reward. In the ‘floor’ condition, legs were required to push the tray toward the subject. In the ‘lap’ condition, arms were required to hand the tray to the subject. In Exp. 1, chimpanzees begged (by gesturing) to either an experimenter whose legs were not visible (LNV) or whose arms were not visible (ANV). Rather than flexibly altering their preferences between conditions, the chimpanzees preferred the ANV experimenter regardless of the task. In subsequent experiments, we manipulated various factors that might have controlled the chimpanzees’ preferences, such as (a) distance between experimenter and subject (Experiment 2), (b) amount of occlusion of experimenters’ body (Experiments 2 and 3), (c) contact with the food tray (Experiments 3 and 4) and (d) positioning of barriers that either impeded the movement of the limbs or not (Experiment 5). The chimpanzees’ performance was best explained by attention to cues such as perceived proximity, contact, and maximal occlusion of body that although highly predictive in certain tasks, were irrelevant in others. When the discriminative role of such cues was eliminated, performance fell to chance levels, indicating that chimpanzees do not spontaneously (or after considerable training) use limb visibility as a cue to predict the ability of a human to perform particular physical tasks. Thus, the current findings suggest a possible failure of causal reasoning in the context of reasoning about the use of the limbs to perform physical acts.     

Take it or leave it for something better? Responses to fair offers in ultimatum bargaining

We investigated if responders accept a 50–50 split in a modified version of the ultimatum game, in which rejection yields a higher payoff (€7) than accepting the equal offer (€5). Therefore, the decision to accept the 50–50 split in this modified ultimatum game cannot be perceived as a self-interest act, as opposed to the standard game, in which acceptance may reflect resignation in the knowledge that the equal split is the best one can expect. A substantial proportion of responders accepts the equal split in this modified game (Study 1), which clearly establishes egalitarian preferences. Further studies show that the willingness to accept is not an artifact of indifference towards the extra payoff (Study 2), but reflects true concerns for proposers’ outcomes (Study 3).     

Organizational Support for Strengths Use,Work Engagement,and Contextual Performance: The Moderating Role of Age

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Personal strengths are those characteristics that allow us to be at our best, that is, to deliver high performance while feeling happy and energized. Research...     

Self-efficacy for health-related behaviour change in patients with TIA or minor ischemic stroke

Abstract

Objective: To assess levels of self-efficacy for health-related behaviour change and its correlates in patients with TIA or ischemic stroke.

Methods: In this prospective cohort study, 92 patients with TIA or ischemic stroke completed questionnaires on self-efficacy for health-related behaviour change and fear, social support and depressive symptoms. Relations between fear, social support, depressive symptoms, cognitive impairment, vascular risk factors and history and demographic characteristics and low-self-efficacy were studied with univariable and multivariable logistic regression.

Results: Median total self-efficacy score at baseline was 4 (IQR 4–5). Older age (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01–1.09), depressive symptoms (OR 1.09, 95% CI 1.03–1.16), presence of vascular history (OR 2.42, 95% CI 0.97–6.03), higher BMI (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.01–1.30), fear (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.01–1.12) and low physical activity (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.01–2.21) were significantly associated with low self-efficacy.

Conclusion: Patients with recent TIA or ischemic stroke report high self-efficacy scores for health-related behaviour change. Age, vascular history, more depressive symptoms, higher BMI, less physical activity and fear were correlates of low self-efficacy levels.

Practice implications: These correlates should be taken into account in the development of interventions to support patients in health behaviour change after TIA or ischemic stroke.     

Narcissism and recollections of early life experiences

Recent studies have found associations between narcissistic personality features and retrospective accounts of early experiences. The current study sought to extend these previous findings by examining whether adaptive and maladaptive features of narcissism were associated with recollections of early life experiences in a non-clinical sample of undergraduate students (N = 334). Results revealed that the Entitlement/Exploitativeness feature of narcissism was associated with low security, high parental discipline, and high threats of separation. Narcissistic Grandiosity was positively associated with peer affectional support and parental discipline, whereas Narcissistic Vulnerability was not uniquely associated with memories of early life experiences. The results provide partial support for models of narcissism in which parents are recalled as failing to provide a secure base while inducing threats of separation and discipline.     

How changes in subjective general health predict future time perspective,and development and generativity motives over the lifespan

In this study, we used the lifespan theories of selection optimization and compensation (SOC) and the socio‐emotional selectivity theory (SST) to integrate the disengagement and activity perspectives on aging and to explain intra‐individual changes in work motivation. A two‐wave longitudinal survey study was conducted among 600 Dutch university employees to test relations between intra‐individual changes in subjective general health, future time perspective (FTP), and generativity and development motives. In line with the two lifespan theories, two processes were found. First, consistent with the disengagement perspective on aging, losses in subjective general health negatively predicted open‐ended FTP, and open‐ended FTP was positively associated with an increase in growth motives. Secondly, consistent with the activity perspective on aging, losses in subjective general health positively predicted limited FTP, and limited FTP was positively associated with an increase in generativity motives. In addition, initial open‐ended FTP predicted future open‐ended FTP through a change in subjective general health. Finally, these relations were found to differ across age groups, and thus over the lifespan. More specifically, losses in subjective general health and increases in limited FTP particularly result in lower development motives and higher generativity motives among middle‐aged workers, indicating that interventions aimed at preventing losses in health are probably most effective for maintaining development motives in this group.