The moderating effect of humor style on the relationship between interpersonal predictors of suicide and suicidal ideation

This study investigated how positive and negative humor styles relate to suicidal ideation, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness. Analyses indicated that affiliative and self-defeating humor style moderated the relationships between thwarted belongingness and suicidal ideation as well as perceived burdensomeness and suicidal ideation when controlling for depression. The clinical importance of assessing and tracking humor styles as potential coping mechanisms against suicidal thinking is discussed.     

Relationships among Facial,Prosodic, and Lexical Channels of Emotional Perceptual Processing

This study was designed to address the issue of whether there is a general processor for the perception of emotion or whether there are separate processors. We examined the relationships among three channels of emotional communication in 100 healthy right-handed adult males and females. The channels were facial, prosodic/intonational, and lexical/verbal; both identification and discrimination tasks of emotional perception were utilised. Statistical analyses controlled for nonemotional perceptual factors and subject characteristics (i.e. demographic and general cognitive). For identification, multiple significant correlations were found among the channels. For discrimination, fewer correlations were significant. Overall, these results provide support for the notion of a general processor for emotional perceptual identification in normal adult subjects.     

What you see is what will change: Evaluative conditioning effects depend on a focus on valence

This study investigated whether evaluative conditioning (EC) effects depend on an evaluative focus during the learning phase. An EC effect is a valence change of an originally neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus or CS) that is due to the former pairing with a positive or negative stimulus (unconditioned stimulus or US). In three experiments, the task focus during the conditioning phase was manipulated. Participants judged CS–US pairings either with respect to their valence or with respect to another stimulus dimension. EC effects on explicit and implicit measures were found when valence was task relevant but not when the non-valent stimulus dimension was task relevant. Two accounts for the valence focus effect are proposed: (1) An additional direct learning of the relation of CS and evaluative responses in the valence focus condition, or (2) a stronger activation of US valence in the valence focus condition compared to the non-valent focus condition.     

Strength of affective reaction as a signal to think carefully

Analytic processes reduce biases, but it is not known how or when these processes will be deployed. Based on an affective signal hypothesis, relatively strong affective reactions were expected to result in increased analytic processing and reduced bias in judgement. The valence and strength of affective reactions were manipulated through varying outcomes in a game or evaluative conditioning of a stimulus. Relatively strong positive or negative affective reactions resulted in less desirability bias. Bias reduction only occurred if participants had time to deploy analytic processes and indicators of the degree of analytic processing (in the form of attentional control) predicted less bias. Affective processes have long been acknowledged as a source of bias, but these findings suggest affective processes are also integral to bias reduction.     

Implicit emotion regulation under demanding conditions: The moderating role of action versus state orientation

Action orientation is a volitional mode that promotes flexible self-regulation of emotional and motivational states; state orientation represents the conceptually opposite volitional mode that promotes fixation on (particularly negative) emotional and motivational states (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994a). The present research investigated the link between action versus state orientation and implicit emotion regulation under demanding conditions. After inducing a demanding context, action-oriented participants displayed reduced affective priming effects of negative primes relative to state-oriented individuals (Studies 1–3). Action versus state orientation did not moderate affective priming effects of positive prime words (Studies 1–3). Effects of action versus state orientation emerged only for a limited number of trials (Study 2) and were reversed under low-demanding conditions (Study 3). These findings support the notion that implicit emotion regulation is closely linked to volitional action control.     

Enhancing attributional style as a resiliency factor in depressogenic stress generation

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests depression and cognitive vulnerabilities to depression may lead individuals to generate stressful events. However, there has been no study to date that has directly examined factors that may lead individuals to be less likely to generate stressful events. The present study examines whether an enhancing attributional style, the tendency to make global and stable inferences following occurrence of a positive event, functions as a resiliency factor in stress generation. One hundred and sixty-seven female students completed measures of depression symptoms and attributional style at baseline and occurrence of life events since baseline at a four-week follow-up. Results indicated that an enhancing attributional style predicted decreased levels of stressful events over the following four weeks, even when controlling for depression symptoms. The findings of this study suggest that there may be resiliency factors that can help protect individuals from the generation of stressful events.     

The relationship of supervisor and trainee gender match and gender attitude match to supervisory style and the supervisory working alliance

Background: Gender‐related events have the potential to impact the supervisory relationship. Gender events might be related to the match between supervisors and supervisees on variables such as gender or gender attitudes. Method: In this study, we sought to determine whether gender match and gender attitude match were related to supervisory style and the supervisory working alliance in 94 supervisory dyads using four instruments: the Gender Attitude Inventory; Operationalisation of Gender Match; Supervisory Styles Inventory; and the Working Alliance Inventory/Supervision. Results: Progressive dyads (in which supervisors have more liberal attitudes about societal issues and culturally defined roles for women than their supervisees) were perceived by supervisors as more task‐oriented than parallel‐high dyads (in which supervisors and supervisees both had liberal attitudes). Implications for counselling supervision are discussed.     

Qualitative elicitation of affective beliefs related to physical activity

ObjectivesBased on previous research that has identified affective attitude as a distinct predictor of physical activity (PA) behavior, the purpose of this pilot study was to elicit affective beliefs toward physical activity using qualitative data generated through specific open-ended questions.MethodsA sample of 126 undergraduate students participated in this study. Four open-ended questions based on the theory of planned behavior were posed to elicit affective beliefs. A content analysis was used to categorize and code data by theme based on common responses that emerged in the elicitation. A frequency count of the responses falling into each category was then conducted to establish which affective beliefs were the most common. The themes were established by two researchers and reviewed for internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity by a third party.ResultsThe results highlight key beliefs related to affective attitude. In descending rank order; Social Involvement, Pleasant Body States, Esteem, Improved Psychological Outcome, and General Enjoyment were the most common affective beliefs for PA involvement. Feelings arising from Time Issues/Conflict, Physical Unpleasantness, PA Environment, and Necessity/Obligation were the most common negative affective beliefs.ConclusionsThe results suggest that promoting enjoyment rather than necessity of PA and encouraging variety in PA may be effective. Addressing the importance of aesthetically pleasing environments and highlighting social interaction as a strategy rather than merely a norm or a form of support in behavioral research may be important.     

Relationship of Recalled Parenting Style to Self-Perception in Korean American College Students

The authors examined the relationship of authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles and the number of years in the United States with self-perception (academic competence, morality, and self-reliance) as recalled by Korean American college students (N = 144). Authoritative parenting behaviors were most common in Korean American families, followed by authoritarian behaviors, with permissive behaviors a distant 3rd. Authoritative parenting styles and the number of years lived in the United States were predictive of higher academic competence. Authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were predictive of lower self-reliance, whereas number of years lived in the United States was related to higher self-reliance. Those findings provide partial support for generalizing D. Baumrind's (1971) model of parenting styles to Korean American families, and the findings demonstrate the importance of considering acculturation issues in parenting studies.     

Turner's Syndrome: A Behavioral and Cytogenetic Study

This study focused on the behavioral and cytogenetic aspects of Turner's syndrome. We evaluated the behavioral scores by ESPQ, HSPQ, and TAMAI tests. In the cytogenetic study, six different variables were defined by a chromosome image analysis computer system (Applied Imagine) that assessed changes in band organization and the measurement of mean optical density (MOD) in six G-bands (Xp21, Xq12, Xq21, Xq23, Xq25, Xq27). We studied 33 females with Turner's syndrome and compared them with 30 females individually matched for normal karyotype, short stature, age, and education. Significant differences were found between the two groups.