Sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation as transdiagnostic processes in a comorbid sample

Sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation have been identified as etiologic and maintaining factors for a range of psychopathology and separate literatures support their relationships to anxiety, depression, PTSD, and alcohol dependence (AD) symptom severity. Previous studies have examined these relationships in isolation, failing to account for the high rates of comorbidity among disorders. It is not yet known whether these processes uniquely predict symptom severity in each of these domains. Participants were 220 patients in residential substance abuse treatment, who had experienced a potentially traumatic event and exceeded screening cutoffs for probable PTSD and problematic alcohol use. Controlling for emotion dysregulation and the interrelationships among the outcome variables, insomnia was uniquely associated with anxiety (B = .27, p < .001), depression (B = .25, p < .001), PTSD (B = .22, p < .001), and AD (B = .17, p = .01) symptom severity. Similarly, controlling for insomnia, emotion dysregulation was uniquely associated with anxiety (B = .40, p < .001), depression (B = .47, p < .001), PTSD (B = .38, p < .001), and AD (B = .26, p < .001) symptom severity. Insomnia and emotion dysregulation appear to be transdiagnostic processes uniquely associated with symptom severity across a number of different domains and might be important treatment targets for individuals with PTSD and AD.     

The effect of anxiety on linguistic parameters of public speech: A verbal impairment model

This study presents a new research paradigm designed to explore the effect of anxiety on semantic information processing. It is based on the premise that the demonstrated effect of anxiety on cognitive performance and apparent inconsistencies reported in the literature might be better understood in terms of linguistic properties of inner speech which underlies analytic (vs. intuitive) thought processes. The study employed several parameters of functional linguistics in order to analyse properties of public speech by high- and low-anxious individuals. Results indicate that anxiety is associated with greater use of associative clauses that take the speaker further away from the original starting point before coming back and concluding (identified as reduced semantic efficiency). This is accompanied by a speech pattern that includes greater amounts of factual information unaccompanied by elaborate argumentation. While these results are considered tentative due to methodological and empirical shortcomings, they suggest the viability of this approach.     

‘The Ostrich Problem’: Motivated Avoidance or Rejection of Information About Goal Progress

Monitoring one's current standing with respect to goals can promote effective self‐regulation. However, the present review suggests that there is an ostrich problem such that, in many instances, people have a tendency to “bury their head in the sand” and intentionally avoid or reject information that would help them to monitor their goal progress. For example, people with diabetes avoid monitoring their blood glucose, and few people monitor their household energy consumption, check their bank balances, keep track of what they are eating and so on. While situational constraints can explain some problems with progress monitoring, we use a self‐motives framework to posit that the decision to avoid monitoring often represents the product of an interaction between different motives. For example, the desire to accurately assess progress may conflict with the desire to protect or enhance the self. The present review collates evidence pertaining to the ostrich problem, identifies different motives that underlie the decision to monitor versus not monitor goal progress, illustrates how the ostrich problem might be integrated into models of self‐regulation, and provides suggestions for future research. In so doing, the review advances our understanding of the nature and determinants of intentionally deficient monitoring.     

Modulation sensitivity in the perceptual organization of speech

In a spoken utterance, a talker expresses linguistic constituents in serial order. A listener resolves these linguistic properties in the rapidly fading auditory sample. Classic measures agree that auditory integration occurs at a fine temporal grain. In contrast, recent studies have proposed that sensory integration of speech occurs at a coarser grain, approximate to the syllable, on the basis of indirect and relatively insensitive perceptual measures. Evidence from cognitive neuroscience and behavioral primatology has also been adduced to support the claim of sensory integration at the pace of syllables. In the present investigation, we used direct performance measures of integration, applying an acoustic technique to isolate the contribution of short-term acoustic properties to the assay of modulation sensitivity. In corroborating the classic finding of a fine temporal grain of integration, these functional measures can inform theory and speculation in accounts of speech perception.     

THE SHIFT IN POWER WITH AGE Changes in Perception of the Power of Women and Men Over the Life Cycle

Previous research has described an apparent shift in perceived interpersonal power towards equality between men and women later in life. This study investigated (a) whether the "shift in power with age" would appear in the Israeli kibbutz, (b) the role of the "parental emergency" in the shift, and (c) whether changes in behaviors or attitudes best account for the shift. One hundred twenty younger and older Israeli women and men, half from the city and half from the kibbutz, wrote TAT stories, which were then rated for overall power of the female and male characters, their power strategies, and their motives. A shift in perceived power with age was found in both the city and the kibbutz. Parental status reduced the power of the woman and increased the power of the man only in the city, whereas the reverse was true in the kibbutz. These results counter the "parental emergency" explanation for the shift in power with age. Furthermore, older women used traditionally feminine power strategies, but their behavior was evaluated as more powerful than the same behavior in younger women. Thus, it is not the behaviors but rather people's evaluation of the behaviors that changes across the life span of the individual.     

NARCISSISM AND CONCERN: THE RELATIONSHIP OF SELF-OBJECT NEEDS AND NARCISSISTIC SYMPTOMS WITH HEALTHY AND PATHOLOGICAL CONCERN

While concern and narcissism seem to be contradictory in nature, clinical evidence and theoretical writings on pathological forms of concern—tracing their origin to deficiencies in early relationships with primary caretakers—suggest that the actual relationship between these two characteristics might be much more complicated. We respond to a study aimed to add empirical data to the clinical and theoretical knowledge examined the relationships between self-object functions, types of narcissism and pathological concern. The findings of the study showed that pathological concern was positively associated with self-object needs and that this association was mediated by covert narcissism. Our discussion focuses on the developmental and psychodynamic sources of pathological concern, as well as its significance in the intrapersonal and interpersonal domains.     

Longitudinal Pathways to Reading Achievement at Age 7 Years: Child and Environmental Influences

Using a bioecological perspective, this longitudinal study examined the contribution of child and environmental factors to the prediction of reading achievement at age 7. Participants were 99 boys and their parents. Child factors included 24-month temperament (reactivity and self-regulation), 36-month language level, and 7-year ADHD symptoms; environmental factors included quality of the home environment (54 months), maternal education, and learning disability (LD) in the family. There were direct and indirect pathways to reading achievement. Direct pathways included language skills, home environment, ADHD symptoms, and LD in the family. Unexpectedly, the direct pathway from self-regulation was negative. Indirect pathways included self-regulation, maternal education, and reactivity. Given the stability of the trajectory of reading skills and academic performance from first grade onward, the early identification of those children most at risk for reading difficulties has implications for the type of intervention most appropriate for individual children.     

From negative reactivity to empathic responding: Infants high in negative reactivity express more empathy later in development,with the help of regulation

Empathy has great effect on human well‐being, promoting healthy relationships and social competence. Although it is increasingly acknowledged that infants show empathy toward others, individual differences in infants’ empathy from the first year of life have rarely been investigated longitudinally. Here we examined how negative reactivity and regulation, two temperament traits that predict empathic responses in older children and adults, relate to infants’ empathy. Infants were studied at the ages of nine (N = 275) and 18 (N = 301) months (194 infants were studied at both ages). Empathic responses were assessed by infants’ observed reactions to an experimenter's simulated distress. Negative reactivity (fear, sadness, and distress to limitations) and regulation (soothability and effortful control) were assessed by parental reports. Negative reactivity was also examined by infants’ observed reactions to an adult stranger (fear) and during interaction with their mothers (displays of sadness/distress). When examined cross‐sectionally, infants’ fear and distress to limitations associated with self‐distress in response to others’ distress. In contrast, when examined longitudinally, early sadness and distress to limitations, but not fear, associated with later empathic concern and inquisitiveness. Moreover, this longitudinal relation was moderated by infants’ soothability and was evident only for children that had high soothability by the later time‐point. Our findings suggest that infants who at an earlier age show negative reactivity, react later in development with more empathy if they achieve sufficient regulation abilities. By that, the findings stress the developmental nature of temperament–empathy relations during infancy.     

Adolescent cognition and procedural justice: Broadening the impact of research findings on policy and practice

Research on adolescent social cognition has had an enormous impact on how the justice system conceptualizes adolescent legal responsibility and deals with adolescents who commit crimes. Such research also has broader implications for adolescent legal socialization, which have been largely underdeveloped. A renewed effort to connect psychological research with legal policy must expand beyond these beginnings to focus on all adolescents and their engagement in broader social institutions. Specifically, a consideration of the unique capacities for growth and development during the adolescent years should be leveraged toward fostering positive outcomes like community identity, academic and social achievement, and the development of an orientation toward law based upon legitimacy and trust. Studies suggest that a key component of positive socialization is dealing with authorities one experiences as procedurally just. Researchers focused on issues of juvenile justice should also expand their focus to consider how the social climate in institutions such as schools can be designed to take advantage of the unique capacities adolescents have for exploring identity and connecting with peers in developing their orientation to the law and legal authorities.