The Growth and Significance of Daily Variations in Infant Behavior

The authors asked 55 second-generation Chinese American adolescents (M age = 16.8 years) and 58 European American adolescents (M age = 17.0 years) to complete self-report measures of stress levels, use of coping strategies, psychological outcomes, and grades. Chinese American adolescents reported higher levels of everyday life event stress (e.g., stress from schoolwork), more depression, and higher grade point averages. Problem-focused and avoidance-coping behaviors moderated the effect of stress on negative adjustment for Chinese American youth but not for European American youth. Path analysis showed that avoidance coping behavior partially mediated the stress-to-negative adjustment relationship for Chinese American youth but not for European American youth. Stress was associated with lower grades in Chinese American youth, but the authors found no association for European American youth.     

Childhood Adverse Experience: Yes or No? Mothers' Decision-Making Process When Responding to Survey Questions

The aim of this pilot study was to assess how difficult it is for mothers to answer questions regarding adversities their children might have experienced, and to investigate their considerations in the decision-making process. A nonrepresentative community sample of 628 mothers of 6- to 8-year-old children responded to an online survey. The mothers answered questions regarding adversities, rated the acceptability of these questions, and reported on any difficulties they had in responding. Based on the mothers' reports, qualitative analyses were conducted to identify metacategories of arguments. The study highlights the need for increased awareness of the complexity involved in soliciting information about adverse experiences in research and clinical settings, and for caution in interpreting epidemiological results in this field.     

Emotional Abuse and Psychosis: A Recent Review of the Literature

This article evaluates the published empirical findings on childhood emotional abuse and its proposed relationship with psychotic symptoms. Research and governmental policy indicates that emotional abuse is present in all forms of abuse and neglect, suggesting it is the form of abuse most frequently linked to mental health problems. Literature searches were conducted in 3 peer-reviewed electronic databases and relevant papers were reviewed. Results suggest childhood emotional abuse is statistically related to psychosis in adulthood. This adds tentative support to the hypothesis that emotional abuse is related to psychotic experiences; in particular to hallucinations and persecutory delusions. A number of studies also provide tentative support to the dose–response effect proposed between cumulative trauma and a greater risk of positive psychotic symptoms.     

Is God's call more than audible? A preliminary exploration using a two‐dimensional model of theistic/spiritual beliefs and experiences

Among spiritual individuals, auditory hallucinations (AHs) are often accompanied by positive affectivity (PA) suggesting that such coincidental affective valence might gainfully demark spiritual from comparable non‐spiritual aberrant perceptions. Yet nearly all of the relevant past religiosity/spirituality research has been limited to AHs and/or known groups (Evangelicals, epilepsy patients, etc.). Using a community sample (N = 485), this article explores whether unusual perceptual experiences (UEs) more generally (not simply AHs) together with PA predict participants' self‐reported spirituality. Specifically, a dual marker hypothesis developed from affect attribution theory—in which UE, PA, and their interaction predict spirituality in a non‐additive positive fashion—is proposed and confirmed (even after controlling for socio‐demographics). The estimators reveal that spirituality is disproportionately elevated for high scorers on both predictors. These results are consistent with previous known‐group studies and support recent speculation that the affective–cognitive interpretation of perceptual aberrations might be a key feature of spirituality and one that potentially demarks it from psychosis. Moreover, the correlation between spirituality and PA varies depending upon one's UE level; a result not anticipated by the incumbent positive psychological theory of spirituality.     

The Sense of Incompleteness as a Motivator of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms: An Empirical Analysis of Concepts and Correlates

Contemporary models of obsessive-compulsive disorder emphasize the importance of harm avoidance (HA) and related dysfunctional beliefs as motivators of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in Janet’s (1908) concept of incompleteness (INC) as another potentially important motivator. Contemporary investigators define INC as the sense that one’s actions, intentions, or experiences have not been properly achieved. Janet defined INC more broadly to include alexithymia, depersonalization, derealization, and impaired psychological mindedness. We conducted two studies to address four issues: (a) the clinical correlates of INC; (b) whether INC and HA are distinguishable constructs; (c) whether INC predicts OC symptoms after controlling for HA; and (d) the relative merits of broad versus narrow conceptualizations of INC. Study 1 was a meta-analysis of the clinical correlates of narrowly defined INC (16 studies, N = 5,940). INC was correlated with all types of OC symptoms, and was more strongly correlated with OC symptoms than with general distress. Study 2 (N = 534 nonclinical participants) showed that (a) INC and HA were strongly correlated but factor analytically distinguishable; (b) INC statistically predicted all types of OC symptoms even after controlling for HA; and (c) narrow INC was most strongly correlated with OC symptoms whereas broad INC was most strongly correlated with general distress. Although the findings are limited by being correlational in nature, they support the hypothesis that INC, especially in its narrow form, is a motivator of OC symptoms.     

Visual,Tactile, and Auditory “Not Just Right” Experiences: Associations With Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Perfectionism

“Not just right” experiences (NJREs), or uncomfortable sensations associated with the immediate environment not feeling “right,” are thought to contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptomatology. The literature suggests that NJREs are experienced across sensory modalities; however, existing in vivo measures have been restricted to visual inductions (e.g., viewing and/or rearranging a cluttered table). The present study used a large undergraduate sample (N = 284) to examine 4 in vivo tasks designed to elicit and assess NJREs across separate sensory modalities (i.e., visual, tactile, and auditory). Task ratings (discomfort evoked, and urge to counteract task-specific stimuli) were uniquely associated with self-report measures of NJREs, OC symptoms (ordering/arranging, checking, and washing), and certain maladaptive domains of perfectionism (doubts about actions, and organization). Findings have implications for experimental research and clinical work targeting NJREs specific to particular senses.     

Job demands–resources model in the context of recovery: Testing recovery experiences as mediators

The aim of the present study was to extend the original Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model by taking into account recovery as an important mediation mechanism between work characteristics and well-being/ill-health. Specifically, we examined whether recovery experiences—strategies promoting recovery—might have a mediating role in the JD-R model among 527 employees from a variety of different jobs. The results showed that psychological detachment fully mediated the effects of job demands on fatigue at work and mastery partially mediated the effects of job resources on work engagement. Altogether, the results suggest that recovery merits consideration as a mediating mechanism in the JD-R model.     

Religiosity and social desirability: A response to Eysenck (1999)

Recent studies have shown that delusion-like experiences (DLEs) are common among general populations. This study investigates whether the prevalence of these experiences are linked to the embracing of New Age thought. Logistic regression analyses were performed using data derived from a large community sample of young adults (N = 3777). Belief in a spiritual or higher power other than God was found to be significantly associated with endorsement of 16 of 19 items from Peters et al. (1999b Peters, ER, Joseph, SA and Garety, PA. 1999b. Measurement of delusional ideation in the normal population: Introducing the PDI (Peters et al. Delusions Inventory). Schizophrenia Bulletin, 25(3): 553–576. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Delusional Inventory following adjustment for a range of potential confounders, while belief in God was associated with endorsement of four items. A New Age conception of the divine appears to be strongly associated with a wide range of DLEs. Further research is needed to determine a causal link between New Age philosophy and DLEs (e.g. thought disturbance, suspiciousness, and delusions of grandeur).