Cognitive processes in social anxiety: the effects of self-focus, rumination and anticipatory processing

We examined three cognitive processes hypothesized to contribute to biases in judgments about and memory for social events: self-focused attention, post-event rumination, and anticipatory processing. Socially anxious (N = 58) and nonanxious (N = 58) subjects participated in a social interaction and then completed measures of self-focused attention and anxiety-related physiological sensations and behavior. The next day, subjects completed measures that assessed frequency of post-event processing and recall of the interaction. The results indicated that selective attention to negative self-related information led to biases in social judgments and recollections and that post-event processing contributed to the recall of negative self-related information. No evidence was found for selective retrieval of negative self-related information prior to a second social interaction. The results reconcile inconsistent previous findings related to memory bias in social anxiety.     

Fantasy proneness, dissociation, and DSM-IV axis II symptomatology

Scores on the Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings (S. C. Wilson & T. X. Barber, 1981) identified fantasizers and controls who were administered the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality (SIDP-IV; B. Pfohl, N. Blum, & M. Zimmerman, 1994) and the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES; E. M. Bernstein & F. W. Putnam, 1986). Fantasizers had increased rates of Cluster A and B personality disorders but were equivalent to controls in Cluster C diagnoses. For both Clusters A and B, 55% of the fantasizers received clinical diagnoses. Fantasizers had significantly higher DES, DES-T (N. G. Waller, F. W. Putnam, & E. B. Carlson, 1996), and Normal Dissociative Index scores. Although nearly one half of the fantasizers' DES-T patterns were classified within the pathological dissociative taxon (N. G. Waller & C. A. Ross, 1997), none of the controls and only 10.03% of the original screening sample received this classification. Both Axis II pathology and pathological dissociation were associated with fantasy proneness.     

Effortful control in early childhood: continuity and change, antecedents, and implications for social development

The course, antecedents, and implications for social development of effortful control were examined in this comprehensive longitudinal study. Behavioral multitask batteries and parental ratings assessed effortful control at 22 and 33 months (N = 106). Effortful control functions encompassed delaying, slowing down motor activity, suppressing/initiating activity to signal, effortful attention, and lowering voice. Between 22 and 33 months, effortful control improved considerably, its coherence increased, it was stable, and it was higher for girls. Behavioral and parent-rated measures converged. Children's focused attention at 9 months, mothers' responsiveness at 22 months, and mothers' self-reported socialization level all predicted children's greater effortful control. Effortful control had implications for concurrent social development. Greater effortful control at 22 months was linked to more regulated anger, and at 33 months, to more regulated anger and joy and to stronger restraint.     

Family perception of interpersonal behavior as a predictor in eating disorders: a prospective, six-year followup study

This study assessed family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior in families with a daughter diagnosed with an eating disorder 6 years after treatment that used a prospective design. Family perception patterns of patients found to have a poor outcome at followup (n = 15) were compared with patients with a good outcome (n = 23), as well as a control group (n = 36). Using the system of multiple level observation of groups (SYMLOG), all 238 family members evaluated themselves and each other. The index patients with a poor outcome perceived themselves as friendlier and more positive than they were perceived by their families. In comparison to parents of daughters with a good outcome and the control group, parents of daughters in the poor outcome group perceived themselves to be less friendly than their partners perceived them to be. A rigid polarization of the perception of the index patient by family members and a discrepancy in this perception between the index patient and the rest of the family were found to be indicative of a poor prognosis. Implications for treatment based on family perception patterns of interpersonal behavior are discussed.     

Evaluating gene x psychological risk factor effects in the pathogenesis of anxiety: a new model approach

The present study evaluated the singular and interactive effects of a functional polymorphism (variation) in the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene and a psychological trait (anxiety sensitivity [AS], i.e., fear of arousal symptoms) in predicting subjective and physiological responses to a 35% carbon dioxide (CO2) challenge in a community sample (N = 72). Genotypes were divided into 2 groups in accord with prior research. Findings were partially supportive of the hypothesized risk model. These indicated that the Group L genotype (homozygous for the 1 allele), compared with the Group S genotype (homozygous for the s allele plus heterozygous individuals), predicted greater fearful response to the biological challenge. There was also an AS x Genotype interaction predicting heart rate variability (HRV) in response to the CO2, suggesting that high AS plus Group L status predicts decreased HRV.     

A longitudinal study of high scorers on the hypomanic personality scale

Former college students (n = 36) identified by high scores on the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HYP; Eckblad & Chapman, 1986) were compared with control participants (n = 31) at a 13-year follow-up assessment. As hypothesized, the HYP group reported more bipolar disorders and major depressive episodes than the control group. The HYP group also exceeded the control group on the severity of psychotic-like experiences, symptoms of borderline personality disorder, and rates of substance use disorders. HYP group members with elevated scores on the Impulsive-Nonconformity Scale (Chapman et al., 1984) experienced greater rates of bipolar mood disorders, poorer overall adjustment, and higher rates of arrest than the remaining HYP or control participants.     

Specification of movement amplitudes for the left and right hands: evidence for transient parametric coupling from overlapping-task performance

Bimanual coordination tasks suggest transient cross-talk between concurrent specification processes for movements of the left and right hand that vanishes as the time for specification increases. In 2 experiments with overlapping and successive unimanual tasks, the hypothesis of transient coupling was examined for a psychological-refractory-period paradigm. Time for specification was manipulated by varying the delay between first and second signal (Experiment 1) and by precuing the first response (Experiment 2). Participants performed rapid reversal movements of same or different amplitudes with the left and right hands. With different amplitudes, reaction times (RTs) of the second responses were longer than with same amplitudes at short delays, and this disappeared at longer delays in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, precuing also reduced the difference between RTs of second responses in same-amplitude and different-amplitude trials. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis of transient coupling during amplitude specification obtained with bimanual tasks.     

Lateralized word recognition: assessing the role of hemispheric specialization, modes of lexical access, and perceptual asymmetry

The processing advantage for words in the right visual field (RVF) has often been assigned to parallel orthographic analysis by the left hemisphere and sequential by the right. The authors investigated this notion using the Reicher-Wheeler task to suppress influences of guesswork and an eye-tracker to ensure central fixation. RVF advantages obtained for all serial positions and identical U-shaped serial-position curves obtained for both visual fields (Experiments 1-4). These findings were not influenced by lexical constraint (Experiment 2) and were obtained with masked and nonmasked displays (Experiment 3). Moreover, words and nonwords produced similar serial-position effects in each field, but only RVF stimuli produced a word-nonword effect (Experiment 4). These findings support the notion that left-hemisphere function underlies the RVF advantage but not the notion that each hemisphere uses a different mode of orthographic analysis.     

Visual perception of mean relative phase and phase variability

Perception of relative phase and phase variability may play a fundamental role in interlimb coordination. This study was designed to investigate the perception of relative phase and of phase variability and the stability of perception in each case. Observers judged the relative phasing of two circles rhythmically moving on a computer display. The circles moved from side to side, simulating movement in the frontoparallel plane, or increased and decreased in size, simulating movement in depth. Under each viewing condition, participants observed the same displays but were to judge either mean relative phase or phase variability. Phase variability interfered with the mean-relative-phase judgments, in particular when the mean relative phase was 0 degrees. Judgments of phase variability varied as a function of mean relative phase. Furthermore, the stability of the judgments followed an asymmetric inverted U-shaped relation with mean relative phase, as predicted by the Haken-Kelso-Bunz model.