Does Exposure and Response Prevention Behaviorally Activate Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? A Preliminary Test

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) and behavioral activation (BA) are effective treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and depression, respectively. Patients with OCD often exhibit depression; furthermore, ERP for OCD is associated with reduced depressive symptoms. To our knowledge, no study has examined whether ERP itself functions to behaviorally activate patients with concurrent OCD and depressive symptoms. This prospective study was designed to test the hypotheses that (a) OCD exposure hierarchy completion, increased BA, and depressive symptom reduction would all be related, and (b) pre- to posttreatment changes in BA would mediate the direct effect of OCD hierarchy completion on posttreatment depressive symptoms, even after controlling for pretreatment depressive symptoms, pretreatment BA, pre- to posttreatment reductions in OCD symptoms, treatment duration, and antidepressant medication use. Patients (N = 90) with a primary diagnosis of OCD who received residential ERP for OCD completed a self-report battery at pre- and posttreatment. Exposure hierarchy completion, increases in BA, and decreases in depression were all significantly correlated (rs ranged .33 to .44). The effect of hierarchy completion on posttreatment depressive symptoms was fully mediated by pre- to posttreatment changes in BA. Findings highlight the potential for ERP to exert antidepressant effects by behaviorally activating patients. Limitations, clinical implications, and future directions are discussed.     

Sudden Gains: How Important Are They During Exposure and Response Prevention for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Symptom reduction over the course of cognitive-behavioral therapy is not always distributed evenly across sessions. Some individuals experience a sudden gain, defined as a large, rapid, and stable decrease in symptoms during treatment. Although research documents a link between sudden gains and treatment for depression and anxiety, findings in the context of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) treatment are mixed. The present study investigated the relationship between sudden gains and treatment outcome in 44 adults with OCD and addressed limitations of previous studies by measuring OCD symptoms dimensionally and comparing individuals who experience sudden gains to those who experience gradual gains of similar magnitude. Sudden gains were observed among 27% of participants, with highest rates among individuals with primary contamination symptoms. Participants who experienced a sudden gain had greater OCD symptom reductions at posttreatment (but not at follow-up), and this difference did not persist after controlling for gain magnitude. Thus, the importance of sudden gains during OCD treatment may be limited. Findings are discussed in light of inhibitory learning models of cognitive-behavioral therapy.     

Populism and religion: On the politics of fear

Our societies of fear go along with an increase of populist movements in politics. This article explains the basics of populism and shows how easily it joins highly likely political friend‐enemy patterns. Anthropologically, we have to deal with parochial altruism undergirded by a static type of religion. A further step deals with the relationship between politics and fear by referring to terror management theory and its insight into the relationship between mortality and fear. The concluding part addresses ways out of fear and in what way a dynamic type of religion helps to avoid scapegoating and political enmity.     

Violent video games exposure and aggression: The role of moral disengagement,anger, hostility,and disinhibition

Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), the current study investigated the interactive effect of personal factors (e.g., sensation-seeking) and situational factors (e.g., violent video games exposure [VVGE]) on the trait aggressive behavior, and the mediating role of individual difference trait (e.g., moral disengagement, anger, and hostility). We recruited 547 undergraduates (48.45% male) from five Chinese universities. The results showed that VVGE was positively associated with moral disengagement, disinhibition, and the four aggressive traits (physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility), which were positively associated with each other. Moral disengagement was positively associated with both the disinhibition and the four aggressive traits. Disinhibition was positively associated with the four aggressive traits as well. When controlled for gender, moral disengagement, anger, and hostility wholly mediated the relationship between VVGE and aggression, but the moderation effect of disinhibition was not significant. These findings support the framework of GAM and indicate that moral disengagement, anger, and hostility may be the factors that increase the risk of a higher level of aggression following repeated exposure to violent video games.     

Associations between prenatal substance exposure,prenatal violence victimization,unintended pregnancy,and trauma exposure in childhood in a clinical setting

Given the importance of early prevention and intervention strategies for children exposed to trauma, detection of early risk factors for exposure to traumatic events in childhood is critical. The present study examined associations between three known prenatal risk factors that characterize environmental instability in utero—prenatal substance exposure, prenatal violence victimization, and unintended pregnancy—and child exposure to interparental violence and other adverse experiences in a sample of 198 mother–child dyads (M child age = 44.48 months) referred to a hospital clinic for treatment following exposure to trauma. Prenatal substance and violence exposure were associated with child trauma exposure, and prenatal violence victimization was also associated with maternal severity ratings of traumatic exposures. Unintended pregnancy was not associated with child trauma exposure or severity. These findings expand our understanding of prenatal risk factors for trauma exposure in childhood and, specifically, highlight prenatal substance exposure and violence victimization as risk factors for subsequent exposure to trauma in early childhood. Results suggest that prenatal prevention and intervention programs should target reducing maternal substance use and in-utero exposure to violence.     

Children's recall and source monitoring of a repeated event using a timeline as an interview aid

Investigators sometimes use timelines (visual depictions of time) to help children identify temporal information from experienced events or details from a particular instance of a repeated event. However, little is actually known about the efficacy of this visual aid on children's memories. Six‐ to 9‐year‐olds participated in four occurrences of a repeated event and were later interviewed with or without the use of a timeline. Children in the timeline condition were less accurate and made more source‐monitoring errors than those in the control condition. For items that appeared consistently throughout the events, a suggestibility effect was more evident for older children who used the timeline than those who did not. Overall, there was no clear evidence in support of the visual aid. Despite its popularity, our findings suggest that timelines should be further examined to establish whether, and under what circumstances, they might be used in investigative contexts.     

暴力暴露对大学生网络攻击行为的影响:有调节的中介模型

为探讨暴力暴露、大学生网络攻击行为、负性自动思维及自我控制之间的关系,选取黑龙江大学、哈尔滨师范大学两所高校共600名大一至大四的大学生为被试,采用暴力暴露问卷、网络攻击行为量表、自动思维问卷及自我控制问卷进行测试。结果表明：（1）暴力暴露对大学生网络攻击行为有着显著的正向影响,并间接地通过负性自动思维对大学生网络攻击行为产生作用;（2）自我控制在暴力暴露对大学生网络攻击行为的影响中起显著的调节作用,具体而言,在低自我控制水平下,暴力暴露能显著的正向预测大学生网络攻击行为,而在高自我控制水平下,暴力暴露对大学生网络攻击行为的预测作用不显著。     

EVENT SEGMENTATION

ABSTRACT— One way to understand something is to break it up into parts. New research indicates that segmenting ongoing activity into meaningful events is a core component of perception and that this has consequences for memory and learning. Behavioral and neuroimaging data suggest that event segmentation is automatic and that people spontaneously segment activity into hierarchically organized parts and subparts. This segmentation depends on the bottom-up processing of sensory features such as movement and on the top-down processing of conceptual features such as actors' goals. How people segment activity affects what they remember later; as a result, those who identify appropriate event boundaries during perception tend to remember more and to learn more proficiently.     

Terror management among Chinese: Worldview defence and intergroup bias in resource allocation

Management of terror of death and its subsequent reactions has been held to be universal. However, with only a few exceptions empirical efforts have so far been focused on people from North American and European countries. Would Eastern philosophical traditions render differential management of the terror of death? The present research aimed at testing the generality of terror management in Hong Kong Chinese samples. Across four studies, we found robust and consistent mortality salience effects, which attest to the generality of terror management. As in previous studies, compared to control participants, mortality salient participants displayed a stronger ingroup bias in person evaluation (Studies 1, 3). Additionally, we found a robust mortality salience effect on intergroup bias in resource allocation (Studies 2A, 2B, 3), which has not been examined in previous terror management research.     

Violence Exposure and Psychopathology in Urban Youth: The Mediating Role of Posttraumatic Stress

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the development of violence exposure sequelae is essential to providing effective treatments for traumatized youth. This longitudinal study examined the mediating role of posttraumatic stress in the relationship between violence exposure and psychopathology, and compared the mediated models by gender. Urban adolescents (n=1,358) were surveyed using the Social and Health Assessment. The proposed relationships were examined using Structural Equation Modeling. Posttraumatic stress fully mediated the relationships between victimization and depression and anxiety in girls, and partially so in boys. In addition, posttraumatic stress partially mediated the relationships between violence exposure and commission of violence in boys. Current findings support the longitudinal effects of violence exposure on adolescent mental health. Posttraumatic stress represents a unique mechanism for the development of psychopathology in girls and is also related to negative outcomes in boys. These findings have direct implications for prevention and rehabilitation efforts among violence exposed youth.