Cigarette smoking and personality change across adulthood: Findings from five longitudinal samples

Personality traits are related to cigarette smoking. However, little is known about the link between smoking and change in personality. Therefore, the present study examined whether current cigarette smoking and smoking cessation are associated with personality change across adulthood. Participants (n = 15,572) aged from 20 to 92 years were drawn from five longitudinal cohorts with follow-ups that ranged from 4 to 20 years. Compared to non-smokers, current smokers were more likely to increase on neuroticism and to decline on extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness over time. Compared to the persistent smokers, those who quit had a steeper decline in agreeableness. Cigarette smoking is related to detrimental personality changes across adulthood, and the pattern was not improved by smoking cessation.     

The relationship between religion and health-related behaviours in patients with borderline personality disorder

With addictive disorders frequently co-occurring among patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), exploring factors that may influence health-related behaviours, like religious involvement, is important. This study assesses whether religious involvement is associated with smoking and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in BPD subjects. This study used data from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), which used the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule–DSM-IV (AUDADIS-IV) as its assessment instrument. The AUDADIS-IV assessed personality disorders, tobacco usage, the presence of AUDs, and religious involvement. Attending a place of worship and weekly or more frequent worship attendance were significantly associated with reduced likelihood of current smoking and AUDs among BPD subjects. AUDs were also significantly less common in those reporting higher subjective religiousness. In conclusion, people with BPD who are religiously inclined are less likely to engage in addictive behaviours, specifically smoking and AUDs.     

Depression and resilience mediate the relationship between traumatic life events and ill physical health: results from a population study

We set out to investigate the mediating roles of depression, resilience, smoking, and alcohol use, in the relationship between potentially traumatic life events and objective and subjective, physical and mental health in a single study. A face-to-face, population-based survey was conducted in Hong Kong (N = 1147). Information on health conditions and traumatic life events was obtained, and participants completed measures of subjective physical and mental health, depression, and resilience. Smoking and drinking were not significant mediators of the relationship between life events and both objective and subjective health. Depressive symptomatology was found to mediate the relationship between life threatening illness and subjective physical health, the relationship between abuse (physical and sexual) and subjective mental health, and the relationship between the death of a parent/partner and subjective mental health. Resilience was found to mediate the relationships between multiple traumatic life events and subjective physical and mental health. Our results indicate that psychological factors rather than biological are important mediators of the relationship between life events exposure and health. Our findings provide evidence that depressive symptomatology has a mediating role only in the case of specific potentially traumatic life events and that resilience is only a critical factor in the face of exposure to multiple traumatic events, rather than single events. Our results also indicate that behavioural factors, such as smoking and drinking, are not significant mediators of the relationship between life events and health.     

A measure of perceived pain and tobacco smoking interrelations: pilot validation of the pain and smoking inventory

Mounting evidence indicates that pain can motivate cigarette smoking behavior, smokers have reliably endorsed the use of tobacco to cope with pain, and there is reason to suspect that pain may impede smoking cessation. Smoking-related outcome expectancies are among the best predictors of cigarette consumption and relapse, and the goal of this pilot study was to develop a standardized measure of how tobacco smokers perceive their pain and smoking behavior to be interrelated (i.e. pain as a motivator of smoking, expectancies for smoking as a means of coping with pain, and pain as a barrier to quitting). Participants (N = 75) completed an online survey that was designed to assess interrelations between pain and tobacco smoking. The nine-item Pain and Smoking Inventory (PSI) demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .95). As expected, PSI scores were higher among smokers with chronic pain (vs. no pain), and were positively associated with established indices of both pain and tobacco smoking dependence. These results corroborate the notion that smokers can effectively communicate perceptions of interrelations between their pain and smoking behavior. Future research is needed to establish reliability and validity of the PSI among larger, more diverse samples of smokers with varying levels of pain. Future work should also examine PSI scores as predictors of smoking cessation outcomes, and whether PSI data may usefully inform the development of tailored interventions for smokers in pain.     

Riddles in serial murder: A synthesis

This article blends the conclusions of four former law enforcement personnel who have investigated and apprehended serial killers, with pertinent principles derived primarily from the field of psychoanalysis. The four—John Douglas, Roy Hazelwood, Robert Keppel, and Robert Ressler—have written extensively about their investigations of serial killers. In their writings, they have answered many questions about the personality development of serial killers while leaving other questions only partially answered. This article expands the answers to three fundamental questions: What is the origin of the dynamics of serial killing? Why is the aggressive drive so singularly powerful and persistent in serial killers? Why is it that serial killers often reveal their identities to the police? In answering these three riddles, the contributions of four emotional pillars in the personality of killers are emphasized. The pillars include emotional hunger, anxiety and aggression, eroticism, and conscience structure. At times, these pillars merge and drive murderous behavior but the pillars lack the integration needed for healthy personality development. This synthesis offers a fuller understanding of the psychodynamics involved in serial killings.     

Interventions for Midlife Smoking Cessation: A Literature Review

Midlife smoking continues to be a problem in Australia, with substantial personal, social, and financial costs. Yet the specific characteristics and needs of this group have been largely overlooked. Here we review the literature for the purposes of (1) profiling the characteristics of midlife smokers and (2) assessing the effectiveness of interventions for this group. This review shows midlife smokers differ from younger smokers in important ways: they underestimate the costs of smoking and overestimate the benefits, and are less confident in their ability to quit. The few studies investigating age‐tailored interventions have shown these to be effective in reducing midlife smoking. Still, research in this area is limited, with only one study conducted during the past decade that investigated smoking interventions for those in midlife. Clearly there is a need for smoking cessation interventions for midlife smokers that are tailored to the specific beliefs and needs of this unique group. Future research should focus on establishing the best methods for interventions for those individuals who are resistant to earlier interventions and still continue smoking into midlife. Interventions may benefit from incorporating recent evidence about the less obvious costs associated with midlife smoking, including later‐life neurological disease.     

On neuropsychoanalytic metaphysics

Neuropsychoanalysis focuses on the neural counterparts of psychoanalytically interesting phenomena and has left the difference in the metaphysical presuppositions between neuroscience and psychoanalysis unexamined. The authors analyse the logical possibilities concerning the relation between the brain and the mental unconscious in terms of the serial, parallel, epiphenomenalist and Kantian conceptions, and conclude that none of them provides a satisfactory ground for neuropsychoanalysis. As far as psychoanalytic explanations refer to the mental unconscious, they cannot be verified with the help of neuroscience. Neither is it possible to form a picture of how a neuro-viewpoint might be of help for psychoanalytic theorizing. Neuropsychoanalysis has occasionally been seen as a reductionist affair, but the authors suggest that neuropsychoanalysts themselves lean on the hybrid conception, which combines neuroscientific and psychoanalytic viewpoints. The authors state arguments in favour of the interfield conception of neuropsychoanalysis that takes seriously the metaphysical tensions between neuroscience and psychoanalysis.     

The effects of a rectangular rapid-flashing beacon on vehicle speed

In 2008, nearly 31% of vehicle fatalities were related to failure to adhere to safe vehicle speeds (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA], 2009). The current study evaluated the effect of a rectangular rapid-flashing beacon (RRFB) triggered by excessive speed on vehicle speed using a combined alternating treatments and reversal design. The percentage of vehicles traveling above 41 mph (66 km per hour) decreased by 20%, and speed distributions showed a shift toward lower speeds during the RRFB condition.     

Preventing HIV infection in heterosexual women: What do we know? What must we learn?

Women are becoming infected with HIV via heterosexual activity at an accelerating rate, both in the United States and globally. Although a number of evaluations of behavioral risk-reduction interventions for women have been reported, many suffer from methodological problems that weaken confidence in their findings, and furthermore it is clear that many women are unable to respond to the interventions that have been tested. Most women infected through heterosexual activity are infected by their primary partner, yet achieving consistent condom use with this partner can be highly challenging for women. The present article presents recent work and innovative ideas for intervention strategies that may be more feasible, and thus more effective, for women at risk for HIV infection by their primary male partner.