Measuring the validity and psychometric properties of a short form of the Hypomanic Personality Scale

The Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) is used to investigate hypomanic traits and risk for bipolar spectrum disorders; however, the length of the HPS (48 items) may be prohibitive for clinical research and screening purposes. Meads and Bentall (2008) developed a promising 20-item version of the HPS; however, the psychometric properties and validity of the short form have not been thoroughly examined. The present study investigated the construct validity and psychometric properties of the short HPS. A sample of 2713 non-clinically ascertained young adults was used to assess psychometric properties of the short form relative to the original scale. Two non-overlapping subsamples (n = 522; n = 145) were used to investigate the validity of the short HPS using personality and temperament questionnaires and clinical interviews of bipolar psychopathology and diagnoses. The short and original HPS generally had comparable correlations with measures of temperament, personality, impulsivity, borderline personality, grandiosity, psychosocial functioning, and alcohol use, and comparably predicted DSM bipolar and bipolar spectrum diagnoses. Overall, the short HPS was found to be both reliable and valid. However, the short HPS tended to be more strongly correlated with pathological components of hypomanic personality and less strongly correlated with exuberant and potentially adaptive aspects of the construct.     

The felt presence of other minds: Predictive processing,counterfactual predictions,and mentalising in autism

The mental states of other people are components of the external world that modulate the activity of our sensory epithelia. Recent probabilistic frameworks that cast perception as unconscious inference on the external causes of sensory input can thus be expanded to enfold the brain’s representation of others’ mental states. This paper examines this subject in the context of the debate concerning the extent to which we have perceptual awareness of other minds. In particular, we suggest that the notion of perceptual presence helps to refine this debate: are others’ mental states experienced as veridical qualities of the perceptual world around us? This experiential aspect of social cognition may be central to conditions such as autism spectrum disorder, where representations of others’ mental states seem to be selectively compromised. Importantly, recent work ties perceptual presence to the counterfactual predictions of hierarchical generative models that are suggested to perform unconscious inference in the brain. This enables a characterisation of mental state representations in terms of their associated counterfactual predictions, allowing a distinction between spontaneous and explicit forms of mentalising within the framework of predictive processing. This leads to a hypothesis that social cognition in autism spectrum disorder is characterised by a diminished set of counterfactual predictions and the reduced perceptual presence of others’ mental states.     

孤独症谱系障碍者的情绪韵律识别

情绪韵律识别是从声学线索变化中提取情绪信息,进而推断他人情绪状态的过程。情绪韵律识别缺陷是孤独症谱系障碍者的一种常见表现,此缺陷会受到情绪韵律强度、字面语义、情景语境、心理声学能力和共患疾病的影响。目前,该人群情绪韵律识别缺陷的原因探析集中于心智化能力不足、社会动机缺失和经验匮乏假说等。孤独症谱系障碍者情绪韵律识别的神经机制研究主要集中于与健康人群的比较,相关发现包括情绪韵律识别的右半球优势效应、局部脑区激活增多、大脑网络连接不足和早期注意模式异常。未来,应该进一步提高实验范式的生态效度,注重孤独症个体差异因素,整合相关理论解释,并开发有效的测评工具和干预策略。     

孤独症谱系障碍者的视觉-空间工作记忆缺陷及脑机制

孤独症谱系障碍(ASD)个体存在视觉-空间工作记忆加工缺陷,主要表现在4个方面,即随认知负荷增大而缺陷加重、工作记忆容量不足、工作记忆加工过程中的注意功能失调和对刺激进行整体组织的能力缺乏。神经机制研究显示,ASD个体存在明显的额-顶工作记忆网络激活异常,以及相关脑区的脑结构、白质连接异常。另外,作为基础性的认知加工过程,ASD个体的视觉-空间工作记忆各加工环节与言语工作记忆、执行功能、社会认知等因素均存在交互影响。纵观目前研究成果,未来研究可从研究手段、机制探究和干预训练三方面入手,着眼于研究方法的生态化和多元化,揭示客体和空间工作记忆的机制分离,并着力开发更具针对性的干预训练模式。     

Peer and Teacher-Selected Peer Buddies for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Role of Social,Emotional, and Mentalizing Abilities

This study examined mentalizing abilities, social behavior, and social impact of adolescents who expressed the willingness to become peer buddies for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and adolescents selected by their teachers and peers. Twenty-seven teachers and 395 adolescents from public high schools completed mentalizing abilities, social status, behavioral, and peer buddy nomination measures. Findings suggest that social status and preference play a significant role in the selection of peer buddies by both teachers and classmates. Furthermore, more advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities and the engagement in prosocial behaviors differentiated peers selected as buddies from other classmates. When compared with nonparticipating students, adolescents who expressed willingness to participate were more often girls, and were more prosocial. Agreement between teacher and peer nominations of best peer was moderate.     

Teaching social play skills to adults and children with autism as an approach to building rapport

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and no intellectual disabilities were taught to increase the social play skills of children with ASD as part of a vocational training program. Participants included 3 adults, aged 21 to 27 years, and 6 children with ASD. Probes conducted throughout the study evaluated whether play skills training affected a measure of rapport between the adult and child. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of behavioral skills training for teaching the adult participants the appropriate play skills. In addition, the children's social engagement increased. Finally, rapport probes showed that play skills training increased levels of proximity, our measure of rapport, between the adults and children.     

Emotion processing deficits in the different dimensions of psychometric schizotypy

Schizotypy refers to a personality structure indicating “proneness” to schizophrenia. Around 10% of the general population has increased schizotypal traits, they also share other core features with schizophrenia and are thus at heightened risk for developing schizophrenia and spectrum disorders. A key aspect in schizophrenia‐spectrum pathology is the impairment observed in emotion‐related processes. This review summarizes findings on impairments related to central aspects of emotional processes, such as emotional disposition, alexithymia, facial affect recognition and speech prosody, in high schizotypal individuals in the general population. Although the studies in the field are not numerous, the current findings indicate that all these aspects of emotional processing are deficient in psychometric schizotypy, in accordance to the schizophrenia‐spectrum literature. A disturbed frontotemporal neural network seems to be the critical link between these impairments, schizotypy and schizophrenia. The limitations of the current studies and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Leading the Way on Diversity: Community Psychology's Evolution from Invisible to Individual to Contextual

To take up the AJCP editor's call to think forward in this article, I offer up three challenges that revolve around further contextualizing our understandings of diversity, i.e., reconsidering the notion of “difference” between discrete categories; more fully emphasizing diversity as socially situated; and further delving into local, setting‐specific practices that shape the meanings of diversity. Enhanced attention to these three challenges can transform theory, research, and action about diversity as we move into community psychology's next 50 years.     

The role of executive functions in social impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by socio-communicative impairments. Executive dysfunction may explain some key characteristics of ASD, both social and nonsocial hallmarks. Limited research exists exploring the relations between executive function and social impairment in ASD and few studies have used a comparison control group. Thus, the objective of the present study was to investigate the relations between executive functioning using the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF), social impairment as measured by the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and overall autistic symptomology as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) in children and adolescents with and without ASD. Seventy children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD and 71 typically developing controls were included in this study. Findings showed that behavioral regulation executive processes (i.e., inhibition, shifting, and emotional control) predicted social function in all children. However, metacognitive executive processes (i.e., initiation, working memory, planning, organization, and monitoring) predicted social function only in children with ASD and not in typically developing children. Our findings suggest a distinct metacognitive executive function-social symptom link in ASD that is not present in the typical population. Understanding components of executive functioning that contribute to the autistic symptomology, particularly in the socio-communicative domain, is crucial for developing effective interventions that target key executive processes as well as underlying behavioral symptoms.     

Experiences of father carers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An exploratory study

This study aimed to explore the carer experiences of fathers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A total of eight South African fathers between the ages of 38 and 45 years were the interview informants. They cared for at least one child with ASD each and their children with ASD were within the age range of five to nine years (n=9, males=7, females=2, Low functioning=4, Moderately functioning=4, High functioning=1).The father carers completed a semi-structured interview. The data were analysed thematically. Four primary themes emerged from the analysis pertaining to aspects of rescoping their futures to include the care of a child with ASD, relationship issues, access to and management of resources, information and support, and carer compassion and satisfaction. The fathers shared a view that caring for their children with ASD was both stimulating and enriching, and that with time, they were able to adapt, and better respond, to the specific needs of their child.