Relationship commitment and its implications for unprotected sex among impoverished women living in shelters and low-income housing in Los Angeles County.

OBJECTIVE: To examine how relationship commitment among impoverished women is associated with their frequency of unprotected sex. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analyses were conducted on survey data from a probability sample of 445 women initially sampled from shelters and low-income housing in Los Angeles County. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Frequency of unprotected sex in a typical month was derived as the product of 2 items: how often the woman had sex with her partner in a typical month and how often a male condom was used. RESULTS: For both sheltered and housed women, relationship commitment predicted more frequent engagement in unprotected sex with their partner, even after controlling for the type of relationship (primary vs. casual). However, this association could not be accounted for by perceived partner monogamy, ability to refuse unwanted sex, perceived HIV susceptibility, and condom use self-efficacy. Among housed women only, never asking the partner to use a condom partially accounted for more frequent engagement in unprotected sex among women with stronger relationship commitment. CONCLUSION: Results emphasize the importance of relationship commitment issues in HIV prevention interventions with impoverished women, and the need for a better understanding of relationship commitment and its influence on condom use in this population.     

Differentiating between memory and interpretation biases in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

Although individual cognitive biases toward threat in social anxiety are well established, few studies have examined the manner in which cognitive biases work in conjunction. In the present study, socially anxious ( n = 54 ) and nonanxious ( n = 58 ) individuals read 10 passages consisting of positive social or evaluative, negative social or evaluative, and neutral content and completed two cognitive tasks assessing memory of factual details and interpretation immediately and after 48 h. Socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their memory for details presented in the passages. However, they made less positive and more negative interpretations of details included in the passages, particularly in positive passages that were self-relevant and particularly in positive passages after the delay. After including depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety as covariates, biased interpretation of positive passages after the time delay remained significant, but biased interpretation of the self-relevant, positive passages did not. It is concluded that socially anxious individuals are characterized by accurate memory of threatening, factual material, but that they impose a biased interpretation upon that material, especially after some time has passed.     

Memory and interpretation of visual representations of threat in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

The present study was designed to replicate and extend results reported by Brendle and Wenzel (Behav. Res. Ther. 42 (2004) 155), who found that socially anxious individuals accurately recalled threat-relevant information but subsequently imposed a biased interpretation upon that same material, using more ecologically valid stimuli. Socially anxious (n=37) and nonanxious (n=47) individuals viewed two positive, two negative, and two neutral video vignettes and completed two cognitive tasks assessing memory and interpretation of factual details immediately and after 48 h. Similar to the results reported by Brendle and Wenzel (2004), socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their memory for details that had been presented in the vignettes. However, socially anxious individuals made more negative interpretations of details included in the vignettes than nonanxious individuals, although unlike Brendle and Wenzel (2004), they did not demonstrate the tendency to make less positive interpretations. It is concluded that socially anxious individuals are characterized by interpretation biases when presented with threat-relevant information, and there is no evidence to suggest that they are characterized by memory biases for threat-relevant information.     

A quantitative estimate of schema abnormality in socially anxious and non-anxious individuals

Although cognitive theories of anxiety suggest that anxious individuals are characterized by abnormal threat-relevant schemas, few empirical studies have estimated the nature of these cognitive structures using quantitative methods that lend themselves to inferential statistical analysis. In the present study, socially anxious (n = 55) and non-anxious (n = 62) participants completed 3 Q-Sort tasks to assess their knowledge of events that commonly occur in social or evaluative scenarios. Participants either sorted events according to how commonly they personally believe the events occur (i.e. "self" condition), or to how commonly they estimate that most people believe they occur (i.e. "other" condition). Participants' individual Q-Sorts were correlated with mean sorts obtained from a normative sample to obtain an estimate of schema abnormality, with lower correlations representing greater levels of abnormality. Relative to non-anxious participants, socially anxious participants' sorts were less strongly associated with sorts of the normative sample, particularly in the "self" condition, although secondary analyses suggest that some significant results might be explained, in part, by depression and experience with the scenarios. These results provide empirical support for the theoretical notion that threat-relevant self-schemas of anxious individuals are characterized by some degree of abnormality.     

Integrating multiple perspectives on schadenfreude: The role of deservingness and emotions

Schadenfreude, or pleasure in another person’s misfortune, has been linked to a cognitive appraisal that other deserves the misfortune. In the present study we develop a structural model that links schadenfreude to global self-esteem, pain of inferiority, hostile and benign envy, resentment, perceived deservingness, and sympathy. We also examine the effects of ingroup/outgroup membership on schadenfreude and test for the invariance of our structural model between these two conditions. Participants (n = 170) responded to a hypothetical scenario that manipulated ingroup/outgroup membership and perceived deservingness in relation to other’s initial success and subsequent failure. Results supported a structural model that showed invariance. They also showed that more schadenfreude was reported when the outgroup member failed and more sympathy and anger when the ingroup member failed. These results provide an integrated structural approach to the analysis of schadenfreude.     

Operant conditioning of goats

A procedure is described for establishing an operant response in goats. The operanda are two lucite panels which can be transilluminated. The goats press the panels with their muzzles and are reinforced with whole oats. All six subjects showed reliable and accurate performance in brightness discrimination, including cessation of responding during time-out periods.     

Differentiating cognitive content between depressed and anxious outpatients

Quantitative research suggests that depressed and anxious patients can be differentiated based on their cognitive content. This study used qualitative research methods to separate the specific components of open-ended depressive and anxious thought content in 79 psychiatric outpatients. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 36), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n = 10), and other psychiatric disorders (PC; n = 33) were instructed to (a) describe their most bothersome problem; (b) imagine the worst possible negative outcome followed by the best possible positive outcome; and (c) describe associated thoughts and emotions for each scenario. The content of patients' responses were coded to examine (a) the types and severity of problems; (b) the presence or absence of hopelessness, catastrophizing, hopefulness, and unrealistic positive expectations; and (c) the presence or absence of particular emotions associated with imagined worst and best outcomes. More GAD patients than MDD and PC patients indicated anticipated anxious emotions associated with imagined worst outcomes, and fewer MDD patients than GAD and PC patients indicated anticipated happiness associated with imagined best outcomes. No group differences emerged for the other variables considered. These findings suggest that depressed and anxious patients differ in their cognitive expectancies about future life events in terms of their own anticipated emotional reactions.