Catastrophizing as a Cognitive Vulnerability Factor Related to Depression in Workers’ Compensation Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of catastrophizing as a mediator and moderator between life stress and depression in a sample of workers’ compensation patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Pain intensity, life stress (especially work and financial stress), and catastrophizing contributed significantly to depression. Catastrophizing was found to be partially mediating the relationship between life stress and depression and a moderator between social stress and depression. The results supported the role of catastrophizing as a cognitive vulnerability-stress factor related to depression in chronic pain patients. Screening for life stress and intervening early to prevent catastrophizing from occurring in the workers’ compensation rehabilitation process may reduce psychosocial distress and enhance the overall effectiveness of rehabilitation programming for workers’ compensation patients with chronic pain.     

Autism Overflows: Increasing Prevalence and Proliferating Theories

This selective review examines the lack of an explanation for the sharply increasing prevalence of autism, and the lack of any synthesis of the proliferating theories of autism. The most controversial and most widely disseminated notion for increasing prevalence is the measles–mumps–rubella/thimerosal vaccine theory. Less controversial causes that have been proposed include changes in autism diagnostic criteria, increasing services for autism, and growing awareness of the disorder. Regardless of its causes, the increasing prevalence of autism has put pressure on the field of autism research to generate productive and predictive theories of autism. However, the heterogeneity of brain deficits, impaired behaviors, and genetic variants in autism have challenged researchers and theorists, and despite 45 years of research, no standard causal synthesis has emerged. Research going forward should assume that autism is an aggregation of myriad independent disorders of impaired sociality, social cognition, communication, and motor and cognitive skills.     

The development of conceptual interests in young children

We conducted a longitudinal analysis of the relative intensity and duration of interests associated with conceptual domains between the ages of 4 and 6 years, respectively. Results indicated a significant portion of preschool children do sustain an interest in conceptual domains during some portion of their childhood. Expected gender differences were found, with boys more likely to express an interest in a conceptual domain than girls. A latent growth curve analysis revealed that the probability of exhibiting a conceptual interest declined as school began, though the rate of that decline was similar for both boys and girls. Potential explanations for the decrease in conceptual interests as school begins are considered.     

Elkind on egocentrism

The purpose of this paper is to respond to D. Elkind's (1985, Developmental Review, 5, 218–226) reply to D. Lapsley and M. Murphy's (1985, Developmental Review, 5, 201–217) critique of the adolescent egocentrism theory. After a reprise of the issues in contention, we address the problem of theoretical consistency and self-other differentiation in Dr. Elkind's (1967, Child Development, 38, 1025–1034) theory. The role of formal operations in the Lapsley and Murphy (1985) account of the imaginary audience and personal fable is revised, and the empirical support for Elkind's theory is reviewed. We conclude that there are good conceptual and empirical grounds for doubting the major assumptions of the adolescent egocentrism theory, and that the Lapsley and Murphy (1985) framework has promise in suggesting theoretical integration with other approaches to the self.     

人本视域下的和谐社会及其政治、伦理构建

来自于不同学科的对和谐社会的热烈探讨,成为近年来中国学界的一大理论景观.随着认识的深入,对和谐社会构建途径的探讨无疑是最具现实性与价值性的方面.作为一种社会状态而非社会形态,和谐社会本质上表现为以人为本的主体性和谐.依据社会主义和谐社会的特定内涵和特征,我们认为在和谐社会构建的众多可能途径中,不仅需要公民社会的政治建构和制度保障,更需要相应的现代意义上的公民伦理和公民道德建构.公民社会以制度化的形式确立民主法制、自由平等、公平正义等当代社会基本价值理念,并确保全体国民共享和受惠于这些理念,从而为建立真正的和谐社会提供制度保障;公民伦理、公民道德作为公民社会的观念形态、精神蕴涵、文化表征与价值确证,揭示公民社会的本质特征和本质要求,为公民社会的建构提供价值导引与方法论指导,从而为和谐社会的构建提供坚强的基石和后盾.     

The Development of Delinquency and Perceived Friendship Quality in Adolescent Best Friendship Dyads

The present study examines both the unique and the combined role of best friends' delinquency and perceived friendship quality in the development of adolescent delinquency. Questionnaire data were gathered from 435 Dutch adolescent best friends (mean age at first wave = 12.97) over a period of 5 years with annual assessments. Results showed that mean levels of delinquency and perceived friendship quality increased over time. Adolescent best friends were highly similar in both mean levels and changes in delinquency over time. For boys, similarity in mean level delinquency between best friends was higher than for girls. In addition, only for boys, friends' delinquency is associated with increases in adolescent delinquency over time, and adolescents' delinquency is associated with increases in friends' delinquency over time. No bidirectional longitudinal associations were found between perceived friendship quality and adolescent delinquency. No interaction effects between friendship quality and friends' delinquency on adolescent delinquency were found. Thus, findings were more in support of the differential association theory than of the social control theory.     

Cue type affects preparatory influences on task inhibition

The present study investigates the influence of preparation on inhibitory effects in cued task switching. In three experiments, we assessed n − 2 repetition costs as marker of inhibition of the just executed and now irrelevant task by comparing performance in task sequences such as ABA (i.e., n − 2 repetitions, with A, B and C standing for different tasks) to task sequences such as CBA (i.e., n − 2 switches). Specifically, we varied the cue–target interval (CTI) to examine cue-based preparation effects. In addition, we manipulated cue type (i.e., abstract, verbal, and direct cues) across the three experiments. We obtained significant reductions of n − 2 repetition costs with prolonged CTI when using abstract cues (i.e., coloured frames) and task names (i.e., digit), but not when using the task-specific stimulus–response mapping as cue for the upcoming task. These data suggest that cue-based preparation is not a uniform process but depends on the information provided by the cue.     

Gradual proportion congruent effects in the absence of sequential congruent effects

In perceptual filtering tasks, congruency effects vary as a function of proportion congruent (PC), with smaller congruency effects when congruent trials are rare than when they are frequent. This effect is typically larger with extreme differences between high and low proportion congruent conditions (e.g., 80% congruent–20% incongruent) than with intermediate differences (e.g., 60% congruent–40% incongruent; Logan & Zbofroff, 1979; Blais & Bunge, 2010). Some authors have claimed that both PC effects can be explained in terms of the same reactive cognitive control mechanism that is responsible for sequential congruency (SC) effects (e.g., Botvinick, Braver, Barch, Carter, & Cohen, 2001). In fact, in most previous studies there was a systematic confounding between proportion congruent and the proportion of transitions involving an incongruent trial followed by another incongruent trial. In the present study we eliminated this confound and tested directly whether PC effects can still be measured in the absence of SC effects. Once confirmed, we studied the properties of this pure form of PC effect, in particular whether it is conflict-type specific or general, and whether it decreases gradually as a function of changes in proportion congruency (80% vs. 70% vs. 60%). Our results showed significant PC effects in the absence of SC effects, which replicates our previous findings (Torres-Quesada, Milliken, Lupiáñez, & Funes, 2014), and PC effects that can be conflict-type general or specific, depending on the nature of conflict type where they were produced. Importantly, the congruency effect was modulated by the level of proportion congruent, decreasing systematically as the absolute percentage of incongruent trials decreases.