The Accuracy of Retrospective Recall of Childhood ADHD: Results from a Longitudinal Study

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood-onset condition that may continue into adulthood. When assessing adult patients, clinicians usually rely on retrospective reports of childhood symptoms to evaluate the age-of-onset criterion. Since inaccurate symptom recall may impede the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, knowledge about the factors influencing retrospective reports is needed. This longitudinal study investigated (a) the accuracy of retrospective symptom ratings by adult participants with a childhood diagnosis of ADHD (self-ratings) and parents or significant others (proxy ratings), and (b) the influence of current ADHD symptom severity and ADHD-associated impairments on retrospective symptom ratings. Participants (N =?55) were members of the Cologne Adaptive Multimodal Treatment (CAMT) study who had been referred and treated for ADHD in childhood and were reassessed in adulthood (average age 27 years). Participants’ retrospective self-ratings were substantially lower than, and did not correlate with, parents’ ADHD symptom ratings provided at study entry, while retrospective symptom ratings provided by proxy respondents correlated moderately with parents’ childhood ratings. In addition, participants were more likely to underreport childhood symptoms (79%) and more frequently denied the presence of three or more childhood symptoms (17%) compared to proxy respondents (65% underreporting, 10% false-negative recall). Proxy respondents’ symptom recall was best predicted by childhood ADHD, while participants’ symptom recall was best predicted by current ADHD symptom severity. ADHD-associated impairments were not correlated with symptom recall after controlling for childhood ADHD. Together, these findings suggest a recall bias in adult patients and question the validity of retrospective reports, even in clinical samples.

     

Executive function in early childhood: longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental change

This study tested the longitudinal measurement invariance and developmental changes of a newly developed battery of executive function (EF) tasks for use in early childhood. The battery was administered in the Family Life Project-a prospective longitudinal study (N = 1,292) of families who were oversampled from low-income and African American families at the birth of a new child-at assessments conducted when the child was 3, 4, and 5 years old. All 6 individual EF tasks exhibited strong measurement invariance over time. The EF battery, which was derived from the 6 individual tasks, exhibited partial strong invariance over time. Second-order latent growth curve models revealed individual differences in the levels but not rates of change in latent EF ability. The functional form of change was nonlinear; 60% of the total change in EF ability that was observed between the 3- and 5-year assessments occurred between the Year 3 and Year 4 assessments. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of establishing scalable measures of EF ability prior to investigating experiences that predict or are predicted by changes in EF during early childhood.     

Black holes: Some notes on time,symbolization, and perversion in the psychodynamics of addiction

Abstract

The existence of man is distinguished by its split state: man stands in the middle of life yet still has an awareness of his own death. He has to compensate whatever is missing in him naturally at the societal level, created as culture, and at the individual level through creativity. Rank investigated the human ‘creative drive’, the anthropological aspiration to express oneself in creative works, and to overcome the fear of death with its help. Freud admired poets and artists, whose achievements he could not psychoanalytically access, but he considered science superior to the harmless and naïve arts. There are two anthropological radicals: premature birth and the consciousness of death. Freud's massive fear of death made it difficult for him to acknowledge the problem of death appropriately. In Rank's concept, the development of human creativity contributes towards the fear of death being alleviated so that the knowledge of death can be integrated into life; creativity belongs to the fundamental opportunities of man that may enable him to find a way through neurosis. Failure is as much a part of life as is creativity: those who do not experience and accept life in its tragic dimension are denied creativity. Only a creative person who accepts his partial failure finds the strength to continue to be creative without his imperfect work leading to the ritual repetition of the same thing again and again, that is, getting stuck in recidivism.     

When Pain Does Not Heal: The Common Antecedents and Consequences of Chronic Social and Physical Pain

Researchers find that social and physical pain overlap in acute episodes. In this article, we hypothesize that social and physical pain overlap in chronic conditions as well. To support this hypothesis, we reviewed the literature and introduced the Integrated Chronic Pain Model (ICPM), which posits that chronic social and physical pain overlap in their psychological antecedents and consequences. Specifically, the ICPM proposes several common factors that play a role in the onset and maintenance of both social and physical chronic pain and indicates that both forms of pain persistently impair self-regulatory resources and threaten the same basic psychological needs.     

Predictors of race time in male ironman triathletes: physical characteristics, training, or prerace experience?

The aim of the present study was to assess whether physical characteristics, training, or prerace experience were related to performance in recreational male Ironman triathletes using bi- and multivariate analysis. 83 male recreational triathletes who volunteered to participate in the study (M age 41.5 yr., SD = 8.9) had a mean body height of 1.80 m (SD = 0.06), mean body mass of 77.3 kg (SD = 8.9), and mean Body Mass Index of 23.7 kg/m2 (SD = 2.1) at the 2009 IRONMAN SWITZERLAND competition. Speed in running during training, personal best marathon time, and personal best time in an Olympic distance triathlon were related to the Ironman race time. These three variables explained 64% of the variance in Ironman race time. Personal best marathon time was significantly and positively related to the run split time in the Ironman race. Faster running while training and both a fast personal best time in a marathon and in an Olympic distance triathlon were associated with a fast Ironman race time.     

A cluster analysis of text message users based on their demand for text messaging: A behavioral economic approach

The goal of this study was to determine whether cluster analysis could be used to identify distinct subgroups of text message users based on behavioral economic indices of demand for text messaging. Cluster analysis is an analytic technique that attempts to categorize cases based on similarities across selected variables. Participants completed a questionnaire about mobile phone usage and a hypothetical texting demand task in which they indicated their likelihood of paying an extra charge to continue to send text messages. A hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted on behavioral economic indices, such as demand intensity, demand elasticity, breakpoint, and the maximum expenditure. With the cluster analysis, we identified 3 subgroups of text message users. The groups were characterized by (a) high intensity and low elasticity, (b) high intensity and medium elasticity, and (c) low intensity and high elasticity. In a demonstration of convergent validity, there were statistically significant and conceptually meaningful differences across the subgroups in various measures of mobile phone use and text messaging. Cluster analysis is a useful tool for identifying and profiling distinct, practically meaningful groups based on behavioral indices and could provide a framework for targeting interventions more efficiently.     

Effects of implicit power motivation on men's and women's implicit learning and testosterone changes after social victory or defeat

Two studies examined interactions of implicit power motivation and experimentally varied victory or defeat in a contest on implicit learning of a visuomotor sequence associated with the contest outcome and changes in testosterone and self-reported affect. In men and women, power motivation predicted enhanced learning (sequence-execution accuracy) after a victory and impaired learning after a defeat. In men, power motivation predicted testosterone increases among winners and decreases among losers, and testosterone decreases mediated the negative effect of power motivation on learning in losers. In women, power motivation predicted postcontest testosterone increases, particularly among losers. In both men and women, self-reported affective states were influenced only by contest outcome and were unrelated to participants' testosterone changes or implicit learning.     

Beyond Pleasure: Exploring the Eudaimonic Entertainment Experience

We examine the notion of eudaimonic entertainment during exposure to a sad but meaningful movie, using a new measure consisting of 5 dimensions derived from research on positive psychology. We, thereby, transfer the conception of eudaimonic well‐being to the conception of entertainment. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis show that the 5 dimensions can be further condensed into 2 second‐order factors. We applied these new measures in a study in which the ending of a movie was manipulated (sad vs. happy). The results provide both discriminant and convergent validity and show that hedonic entertainment measures were affected by the manipulation, but that eudaimonic entertainment measures were unaffected. A second study provided further evidence for the validity of the construct.     

A Process Model of the Formation of Spatial Presence Experiences

In order to bridge interdisciplinary differences in Presence research and to establish connections between Presence and “older” concepts of psychology and communication, a theoretical model of the formation of Spatial Presence is proposed. It is applicable to the exposure to different media and intended to unify the existing efforts to develop a theory of Presence. The model includes assumptions about attention allocation, mental models, and involvement, and considers the role of media factors and user characteristics as well, thus incorporating much previous work. It is argued that a commonly accepted model of Spatial Presence is the only solution to secure further progress within the international, interdisciplinary and multiple-paradigm community of Presence research.     

Composition and magnetic character of nanometre-size Cu precipitates in reactor pressure vessel steels: Implications for nuclear power plant lifetime extension

The sensitivity of positrons to nanometre-size Cu precipitates in Fe alloys has enabled us to apply a novel spin-polarized element-specific method to probe the composition and magnetic character of the precipitates responsible for reactor pressure vessel (RPV) steel embrittlement. The results clearly show that the precipitates are non-magnetic and place an upper limit of about 10at% on their Fe content. The practical implication of this result is that the Cu precipitate contribution to RPV steel embrittlement saturates is not expected to contribute further during lifetime extension. Our study demonstrates that polarized positrons can be used as a powerful probe of the magnetic character of nanoscale materials, even those embedded in a strongly magnetic host.