Obsessive-compulsive disorder with comorbid major depression: what is the role of cognitive factors?

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) commonly experience comorbid mood disturbances such as major depressive disorder (MDD). Previous studies that have compared OCD patients with and without MDD have revealed differences in demographic characteristics, clinical severity, and symptom presentation between these two patient groups. Previous studies have not, however, examined whether there are differences with respect to cognitive processes. The present study therefore aimed to address this gap in the literature. Eighty patients with OCD and no unipolar mood disorders were compared with 34 OCD patients with comorbid major depression on measures of OCD symptoms, cognitions, and insight, as well as on measures of depression and functional impairment. Whereas depressed OCD patients evidenced higher scores than non-depressed OCD patients on semi-idiographic measures of OCD symptoms and cognitions, this was not the case for nomothetic measures. Functional impairment and the tendency to misinterpret innocuous intrusive thoughts as significant emerged as unique predictors of depression within the entire sample of OCD patients. Results are discussed in terms of (a) the importance of semi-idiographic assessment of OCD, (b) possible explanations for the relationship between OCD symptoms, depression, and cognitive processes, and (c) the psychological treatment of comorbid OCD and MDD.     

Using Force: Australian Newspaper Depictions of Contacts Between the Police and Persons Experiencing Mental Illness

The media creates and sustains knowledge about socially relevant issues such as crime, mental illness, and policing. Past research suggests that while the media portrayal of the police is undoubtedly complex, their portrayal of people experiencing mental illness remains mainly negative. The depiction of their encounters in the mass media is of considerable interest because of the influential role the media has on public opinion and debate; however, there is a lack of current research in this area. This study aimed to examine media items in the major newspapers across Australia between January 2006 and December 2007 (n = 77) to investigate their portrayal of this interface. The dominant themes encountered in the initial analysis depicted people experiencing mental illness as dangerous and a threat to the public, where the mental health system has failed to manage them adequately. Further analyses found that people experiencing mental illness were stigmatised in a third of the media items reviewed and were represented significantly more negatively in these encounters than the police. Implications of these findings and some suggestions regarding possible strategies that could improve socially responsible media reporting and public discourse on mental illness are proposed.     

Mutual gaze duration as a function of length of conversation in male-female dyads

To assess the effects of familiarity on the duration of mutual gaze, and other measures of visual interaction, e.g., duration of unilateral gaze and discrepancy in duration between partners, 14 male-female dyads discussed unconditional positive regard for 8 min., after individually studying the topic for 10 min. Mutual gaze duration was significantly longer during the last 2 min. of the discussion than during the first 2 min. This suggests that, after some exposure at least, participants maintain longer durations of mutual gaze. Further, if the duration of mutual gaze is interpreted as a measure of intimacy, even a relatively short social interaction appears to increase the intimacy between two individuals of opposite sex. However, it is not clear whether these findings could be generalized to male-male and female-female dyads.     

Intraperson Consistency in Financial Risk Tolerance Assessment: Temporal Stability,Relationship to Total Score,and Effect on Criterion-related Validity

Purpose  

In assessing financial risk tolerance it is common practice to compute an overall score but not the intraperson variability across test items (because the latter is believed to be just error variance). We analyzed (1) the stability of intraperson variability, (2) its correlation to the total score, (3) its moderating effect on validity coefficients, and (4) its relation to internal consistency reliability and test–retest reliability.     

熟悉性对外群体同质性效应的影响

两个实验考查了年龄和性别群体中是否存在外群体同质性效应以及熟悉性对该种效应的影响。结果表明：1．年龄群体中存在明显的外群体同质性效应,这与青年群体和老年群体彼此不够熟悉有关;2．性别群体中不存在外群体同质性效应,这与青年男女群体彼此较为熟悉有关。