Anxiety as a Barrier to Information Processing in the Event of a Cyberattack

As postindustrial societies become more dependent on technology, they also become encumbered by greater risk. With the mounting news reports of cyberattacks, a common reaction to these technology‐based hazards is anxiety. Whether anxiety enhances or erodes information processing is a topic of debate in previous literature, and equally uncertain is whether mass anxiety facilitates or hobbles the public's ability to contemplate current events. In light of three theoretical models in the basic research of anxiety, we hypothesized that (1) anxious participants are less able to recall the information in a news report of cyberattack than their nonanxious counterparts, (2) they become increasingly inept at recalling the details as the storyline unfolds, and (3) this impairment is unique to anxiety. Participants in Study 1 (130 college students) and Study 2 (392 American adults) viewed a news story of a cyberattack and then reported their emotional states and their levels of understanding of the various parts of the report—except that the anxiety in Study 1 was naturalistic, and in Study 2, experimentally manipulated. Results from both studies showed that anxiety undermined recall performance. In addition, Study 1 found that the recall was worse towards the middle and the end of the news story and that other emotions were not significantly associated with memory deficit. Anxiety is discussed as a barrier for the public to stay informed about cyberattacks.     

Psychological and autonomic effects of art making in college-aged students

Background and objectives: Anxiety disorders comprise the most common category of mental illness among US young adults. Art making might be one method to help reduce anxiety, but the few studies investigating this have used only subjective measures of anxiety. Design: This study employed both subjective (self-reported state anxiety from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and objective (heart rate variability) measures to assess whether 30-minute periods of art making reduced anxiety in 47 first-year college students prior to their final examinations. Methods: Students participated in free-form painting, mandala coloring, clay modeling, and control sessions. Results: Repeated-measures ANOVA with post hoc analysis revealed significantly greater pre- to post-session reductions in anxiety for all three types of art-making sessions than for the control session, as measured objectively. Measured subjectively, only free-form painting yielded a significant decrease in anxiety compared to the control session. Conclusions: Given the health benefits of anxiety reduction, further study is warranted to determine the duration of art making's anxiety-reducing effect.     

Prevalence of depressive symptoms and its correlates among medical students in China: a national survey in 33 universities

We conducted a national survey among medical students in China to estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and explore associated risk factors based on an established questionnaire composed of demographic information, life events in the past four weeks before survey, and the validated Chinese version of the 21-item Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). The mean age of enrolled 9010 students was 20.7 (standard deviation: 1.6) years. BDI scores indicated that 19.9% had depressive symptoms based on the cut-off score of 14. Socioeconomic factors and student characteristics such as male sex, low monthly income per capita, father’s poor education background, and higher year of study were associated with higher prevalence of depressive symptoms among medical students. Students who studied in comprehensive universities were more likely to have depressive symptoms compared with those from medical universities. Habitual smoking and alcohol drinking, sleep deprivation, and hospitalization or medication for one week or more in the last four weeks also predisposed students to higher risk of depressive symptoms. Our results indicate that depressive symptoms are becoming a highly prevalent health problem among Chinese medical students. Primary and secondary prevention should be prioritized to tackle this issue based on potential risk factors.     

Measurement invariance across gender and ethnicity on the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0

This study investigated the measurement invariance of the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 across gender and ethnic groups in South Africa. The sample consisted of 1 144 working adults (female = 49.8%. black = 36.2%, white = 29.8%; other = 34%; age range = 18 to 74 years). Multiple group factor analysis was conducted to test for configural, metric, and scalar invariance. Results suggest that the assessment is largely invariant at configural and metric levels across gender and ethnic groups. At scalar level, full invariance was achieved for ten of the fifteen scales across gender and one scale across ethnicity. Partial scalar models were explored for all other scales. Overall, the evidence seems to suggest that the scores from the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 scales had similar meanings for different gender and ethnic groups. However, for a few scales across gender, and more so for ethnicity, it seems that participant responses might also be influenced by factors other than the underlying latent constructs. Thus, while the scales of the assessment appears to be largely invariant at the configural and metric levels, a more nuanced picture emerged at scalar level with partially invariant models, especially across ethnic groups.     

Addressing a Divide in the Conceptualization of the Gender-Crime Relationship: A Comparative Test of Gender and Sex Using General Strain Theory

While criminology has long recognized the impact of gender on crime, many criminological theories continue to measure sex rather than socially constructed gender identities. Research has also struggled to directly compare these measures within a theoretical context. This study examines the impact of sex and gender identity variables using the framework of General Strain Theory. A total of 1,457 college students were surveyed on measures of General Strain Theory, biological sex, gender identity, and a range of deviant behaviors. Findings indicate that gender identity produced a stronger predictive model of deviance than biological sex, and suggest a means for research to account for gender when studying deviance.     

The psychometric properties of the Greek version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory in cancer patients receiving palliative care

Objectives: To validate the Greek version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) in a sample of cancer patients. Design: The scale was administered twice, with a 3-day interval, to 99 eligible patients with cancer. Together with the Greek version of STAI scale, the patients also completed the anxiety subscale from the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD). Observations: Factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution, explaining 47.143% of the variance. Cronbach α for three scales was between 0.729 and 0.852. Inter-scale correlations were moderate-to-high and ranged from 0.282 to 0.563 (p < 0.0005, p < 0.005). The assessment of the relationships among the Greek STAI scales and HAD-Anxiety showed statistically significant correlations between them (r ranged between 0.428 and 0.596, p < 0.0005). The test/retest reliability of scale (Pearson's ‘r’), showed that the coefficient agreement ranged between 0.85 and 0.90 (p < 0.0005). Univariate analysis revealed significant correlations between female gender, metastasis, performance status, chemotherapy, mild opioids and low education level with increased anxiety. Conclusions: These results support that the Greek version of STAI is an instrument with satisfactory psychometric properties, and is a valid research tool for Greek cancer patients.     

Book Review

Performance-based measures and ratings of executive functions were examined in a sample of adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comparison controls. Performance-based measures of executive function included inhibition, working memory, set shifting, and planning, and ratings of these same executive functions were completed by parents and teachers. Adolescents with ADHD demonstrated lower executive function performance than controls and displayed elevated ratings on the executive function ratings by parents and teachers. Significant associations were obtained between the performance-based measures and the parent and teacher ratings, but each measure was not uniquely associated with its respective scale on the rating scales. When performance-based measures and ratings were examined as predictors of ADHD status, the parent and teacher ratings entered as significant predictors of ADHD status. Further commonality analyses indicated that performance-based measures accounted for little unique variance in predicting ADHD status and also displayed little overlap with the behavioral ratings. These findings highlight the diagnostic utility of behavioral ratings of executive function in predicting ADHD status; however, behavioral ratings should not be assumed to be a proxy for performance on measures of executive function in clinical practice.     

Slow and steady wins the race: Life history,mate value,and mate settling

Life history theory explains how individuals decide to invest their limited resources, which involves several trade-offs. Particularly relevant to the current work, individuals can choose to invest in current or delayed reproduction (a slow life history strategy), which implicates a trade-off between the quantity and the quality of one’s offspring. Choosing to delay reproduction allows for increased self-investment, and previous research has demonstrated that traits requiring self-investment are related to higher mate value. As such, the current study hypothesizes that slow life history strategy will predict high personal mate value and high levels of partner mate-value within heterosexual partnerships. Similarly, those with a slow life history strategy should display fewer tendencies toward mate-settling. The current work employs both subjective and objective measures of mate value within mateships to investigate these hypothesized relationships. As hypothesized, significant positive relationships among life history and mate value were detected, suggesting that a slower life history strategy corresponds to high ratings of mate value for both self and partner. Also, life history strategy is a significant predictor of subjective, objective, and Mate Value Inventory ratings of partner and self. Further implications and potential future works are discussed.     

Les soignants face au burnout : quelles attributions causales ?

The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of the explanations produced by nurses when they are questioned about professional situations related with professional exhaustion such as burnout (BO), independently of a real-life situation of BO. The analysis of the 30 nurses’ adherences to causal explanations scale constructed and validated for this purpose showed greater adherence to internal causal explanations, both controllable and non-controllable, as explanations under external causalities, whatever the professional situation mentioned. The discussion focuses on the relevance of a psychosocial approach of explanations of the BO situations and its implications in terms of primary prevention of psychosocial risks in occupational context.     

Types of self-reported anxiety in outpatients with DSM-III-R anxiety disorders1

To ascertain whether psychiatric outpatients can be classified into distinct types according to their self-reported symptoms of anxiety, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was administered to 655 outpatients diagnosed with DSM-III-R anxiety disorders. Cluster analysis identified three internally consistent subscales representing subjective, somatic, and panic symptoms. Further analysis revealed six types of outpatients reflecting below average, panic-subjective, low subjective, low somatic-panic, above average, and subjective-somatic anxiety. The types were differentiated with respect to age, primary diagnosis, clinically rated anxiety, and both self-reported and clinically rated depression.