Adolescent Depression: Stressful Interpersonal Contexts and Risk for Recurrence

ABSTRACT— High rates of diagnosable depression in adolescence, especially among young women, present challenging clinical and research issues. Depression not only portends current maladjustment but may also signal risk for recurrent or chronic depression and its associated impairment. Because depression is most often a response to stressful events and circumstances, it is important to understand the stress context itself. Individuals with depression histories are known to contribute to the occurrence of interpersonal and other stressors at a high rate, and for young women particularly, the occurrence of interpersonal stressors and conditions in turn predicts recurrences of depression, in a vicious cycle. Interpersonal dysfunction in early adolescence predicts the likelihood of continuing maladaptive functioning in peer, family, romantic, and parenting roles. The transmission of depression from one generation to the next involves not only heritable factors but also the likelihood that depressed youth become caught in life contexts of marital and parenting discord that portend dysfunction for their offspring and continuing depression for themselves.     

计算机适应性测验条件下认知设计项目预测参数的影响

自动化项目生成(Automatic Item Generation)中的项目参数是基于认知项目设计的刺激特征集预测的, 在不确定性来源上较之用经验数据标定的参数更为复杂。文章通过实证研究分析了在计算机适应性测验条件下基于认知设计系统法生成的抽象推理测验(ART)项目预测参数对能力参数估计的精确性。研究表明, 项目预测参数比相应标定参数分布更为趋中。这种回归效应既影响到能力参数估计误差大小, 也导致适应性测验过程中项目选择的差异。在控制了项目选择差异之后, 能力参数估计误差较之基于项目标定参数的能力估计误差大, 但差别并不明显。两者相应的能力估计值相关很高, 对应能力值之间的差异很小, 且几乎贯彻整个能力分布区间。     

Relative accessibility of domain knowledge and creativity: The effects of knowledge activation on the quantity and originality of generated ideas

In brainstorming research, quantity is assumed to breed quality. However, little is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying this relationship. A parsimonious explanation assumes a random process, in which every idea has an equal chance of being a high-quality (original and feasible) idea. In contrast, a ‘deep exploration’ approach suggests that the originality (but not the feasibility) of generated ideas is dependent on the degree to which people engage in deep exploration of their knowledge. We conducted two experiments to test the latter hypothesis. Prior to a brainstorming task, participants were primed with subcategories of the brainstorming topic. Priming caused a higher relative productivity and average originality within the primed subcategory, but did not affect global productivity and originality across categories. This effect was replicated in dyadic interactions. These results support the deep exploration hypothesis, and suggest that the relationship between quantity and quality is more complex than has previously been assumed.     

A prospective investigation of the impact of attachment style on stress generation among clinically depressed individuals

The present study sought to determine if attachment style contributed to the generation of stressful life events among clinically depressed individuals during the course of treatment. Participants (N=68) were interviewed about life stressors experienced during a 3-month treatment protocol using a contextual approach (Life Events and Difficulties Schedule; [Brown, G. W., & Harris, T. O. (1978). Social origins of depression: A study of psychiatric disorder in women. New York: Free Press]). Results suggested interactive effects between severity of depression and attachment style on stress associated with future sociotropic and dependent life events. Mildly depressed individuals who reported a dismissing attachment style (higher levels of avoidant attachment and lower levels of anxious attachment) or preoccupied style (lower levels of avoidant attachment and higher levels of anxious attachment) experienced higher levels of stress associated with sociotropic events. Likewise, a dismissing attachment style predicted stress associated with dependent events among mildly depressed individuals. These effects were not present among our more severely depressed participants.     

Absence of perceptual segmentation in image generation by normals

We used kanji characters (Chinese ideographic characters) and hiragana characters (Japanese phonographic characters) in the transfer‐appropriate processing paradigm to examine whether or not people without brain damage conduct perceptual segmentation while generating a visual mental image. Ninety‐six participants were divided into three study conditions: (a) seeing hiragana characters and generating a mental image of the corresponding kanji characters; (b) seeing the kanji characters; and (c) seeing the hiragana characters without generating the image of the kanji characters. Generating an image of a kanji character did not transfer at test to the decision as to whether the visually presented kanji character was vertically segmented or not, whereas it did transfer to a semantic decision as to whether the kanji character had a concrete or abstract meaning. Seeing a kanji character transferred to both decisions. Seeing hiragana characters without generating an image of the kanji characters transferred to neither decision. These results suggest that perceptual segmentation is not routinely conducted by normals in the process of image generation.     

现代社会伦理秩序的发生路径

“自发生成论”和“理性创设论”是传统道德哲学关于社会伦理秩序生成的两种理论模式。“自发生成论”认为,伦理道德不是纯粹人类理性设计的产物,而是人类行为实践的自然结果;“理性创设论”认为,伦理道德是人类自觉建构的结果,是人类理性创设的产物。这两种理论模式都以抽象的人性为其理论基础,无法合理解释个体与类之间的伦理关系。基于现实伦理实体的“创生拓展”应成为现代社会伦理秩序的发生路径。     

Why Does Frustration Predict Psychopathology? Multiple Prospective Pathways Over Adolescence: A TRAILS Study

Adolescents' temperamental frustration is a developmental precursor of adult neuroticism and psychopathology. Because the mechanisms that underlie the prospective association between adolescents' high frustration and psychopathology (internalizing/externalizing) have not been studied extensively, we quantified three pathways: stress generation [mediation via selection/evocation of stressful life events (SLEs)], cross‐sectional frustration‐psychopathology overlap (‘carry‐over’/common causes), and a direct (non‐mediated) vulnerability effect of frustration, including moderation of SLE impact. Frustration and psychopathology were assessed at age 16 with the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire and the Youth Self‐Report. No gender differences in frustration were observed. At age 19, psychopathology was reassessed by using the Adult Self‐Report, while occurrence of endogenous (self‐generated) and exogenous (not self‐generated) SLEs during the interval (ages 16–19) were ascertained with the Life Stress Interview, an investigator‐based contextual‐stressfulness rating procedure (N = 957). Half of the prospective effect of frustration on psychopathology was explained by baseline overlap, including effects of ‘carry‐over’ and common causes, about 5% reflected stress generation (a ‘vicious’ cycle with the environment adolescents navigate and shape), and 45% reflected unmediated association: a direct vulnerability effect including stress sensitivity or moderation of SLE impact. After adjustment for their overlap, frustration predicted the development of externalizing but not internalizing symptoms. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

A developmental perspective on decision making in young soccer players: The role of executive functions

Lately, interest in both domain-specific and domain-general cognitive processes has increased as a means to explain soccer player expertise. While the two types of processes have mostly been studied separately, we sought to connect these lines of research by investigating the role of executive functions in soccer players’ decision making from a developmental perspective. As these cognitive processes as well as their relation might differ between age groups, we took a developmental perspective to better understand this link in a sample of N = 128 soccer players (M_age = 10.69 years, SD = 1.44). Two age groups (younger vs. older players) performed a video-based option-generation and decision-making task that used temporal occlusion. Additionally, executive functions were assessed with standardized computer-based tests. Results show a link between executive functions and sport-specific decision making, most prominent for working memory. Further, older players generated better options and showed better inhibition and cognitive flexibility than younger players. We suggest there is a crucial turning point in cognitive development around the age of 11 years.     

Depression as a mediator of negative cognitive style and hopelessness in stress generation

Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable interest in the role of cognitive factors in the stress generation process. Generally, these studies find that depressed individuals, or individuals at cognitive risk for depression, are more likely to experience stressful life events that are in part influenced by their own characteristics and behaviours (i.e., negative dependent events). However, there is still much to be learnt about the mediators of these effects. For example, does the development of depression symptoms explain why individuals at cognitive risk for depression experience increased negative dependent events? Or, is it that increases in cognitive risk explain why depressed individuals experience increased negative dependent events? To explore these questions, a short‐term prospective study was conducted with 209 college students who were given measures of depression, depressogenic risk factors (i.e., negative cognitive style and hopelessness), and negative dependent events at two time points 6 weeks apart. Support was found for three models: (1) depression symptoms mediated the relationship between negative cognitive style and negative dependent events; (2) depression symptoms mediated the relationship between hopelessness and negative dependent events; and (3) first hopelessness and then depression symptoms mediated the relationship between negative cognitive style and negative dependent events in a multiple‐step model. In contrast, the reverse models were not confirmed, suggesting specificity in the direction of the mediational sequence.