Social intimacy: An important moderator of stressful life events

Two studies were conducted to explore the role of social intimacy in predicting the individual's response to stress. In the first study the experimenter reinforced the experimental subjects' verbalizations during an interview on a fixed schedule for the first 3 minutes, withdrawing reinforcement for the final 4 minutes. The control group received reinforcement on a fixed schedule for the total 7 minutes. Subjects scoring low on a measure of intimacy disclosed less personal material during the withdrawal period in the experimental condition than in the control condition in contrast to high scoring subjects who maintained their level of disclosure for both parts of the interview. In the second study, previously experienced life change events were assessed. Individuals lacking a current intimacy were found to be prone to higher levels of emotional disturbance especially when many previous negative or few positive life change events had occurred.     

Some adrenal correlates of aggression in isolated female mice

Forty-six female mice (CFW) were isolated for a period of 23 weeks. The effect of isolation on fighting behavior was tested weekly by introducing a naive brown female mouse into the subject's home cage. Total leucocyte counts were obtained at 8 and 14 weeks of isolation. The appearance of leucopenia was used as an index of elevated adrenocortical activity. After 23 weeks of isolation all animals were sacrificed by decapitation. Plasma was collected for corticosterone assay, and paired adrenals were used to assay catecholamine levels. On the basis of the frequency and/or the absence of fighting, the mice were segregated into fighters (n = 22) and non-fighters (n = 17). Analysis of the data by Pearson's product moment correlation and Student's t-test showed that elevated sympathetic-adrenal activity was positively correlated with aggression and that elevated adrenocortical activity was negatively correlated with aggression.     

Changes in Neuroticism Following Trauma Exposure

Using longitudinal data, the present study examined change in midlife neuroticism following trauma exposure. Our primary analyses included 670 participants (M_age = 60.55; 65.22% male, 99.70% Caucasian) who completed the NEO Personality Inventory at ages 42 and 50 and reported their lifetime exposure to traumatic events approximately 10 years later. No differences in pre‐ and post‐trauma neuroticism scores were found among individuals who experienced all of their lifetime traumas in the interval between the personality assessments. Results were instead consistent with normative age‐related declines in neuroticism throughout adulthood. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in neuroticism scores did not differ between individuals with and without histories of midlife trauma exposure. Examination of change in neuroticism following life‐threatening traumas yielded a comparable pattern of results. Analysis of facet‐level scores largely replicated findings from the domain scores. Overall, our findings suggest that neuroticism does not reliably change following exposure to traumatic events in middle adulthood. Supplemental analyses indicated that individuals exposed to life‐threatening traumas in childhood or adolescence reported higher midlife neuroticism than individuals who experienced severe traumas in adulthood. Life‐threatening traumatic events encountered early in life may have a more pronounced impact on adulthood personality than recent traumatic events.     

In memoriam: Remembering Rollo May: An interview with Irvin Yalom

We note first of all that the full title of Mary Shelley's book is Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. If we take this title as a cryptic introduction to its subject matter, we come to understand the novel as exploring the consequences of an Enlightenment project that sought to replace the classical Greek Prometheus, who was the founder of Greek religion, with a modern surrogate representing modern industrial techno-science. The ancient Greek Prometheus had sought to liberate his people by separating mortals from immortals and thereafter reuniting them by means of a festive, religious ritual. By contrast, the modern pseudo-Prometheus promised to liberate humanity by effacing the division between heaven and earth and by seeking to make the natural scientific universe the ultimate object of all cultural activity. Modern human science, including academic and scientific psychology, should be counted among the offspring of this modern and progressive Prometheus. Mary Shelley's masterpiece describes the dangers inherent in blindly following this modern techno-scientific Prometheus, thereby indirectly evoking the possibility of building a different psychology and human science that remains in close alliance with the antique Prometheus.