FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN MOTHERS OF INFANT

This study explored the association between interpersonal factors and depressive symptoms in first-time mothers over the first two years of parenthood. An interpersonal style characterized by dependency, recollections of rejection in childhood, and current relationship characteristics was assessed in a nonclinical sample of 133 women. The final model explained 52% of the variance in depressive symptoms at 24 months. Controlling for initial symptom levels, interpersonal variables explained 24% of the outcome variance. The findings suggest that two interpersonal attributes, peer rejection in childhood and a dependent interpersonal style, are particularly important to our understanding of depressive symptomatology.     

An electronic audio switch

This article describes an electronic switch that allows presentation of sine wave stimuli without the often undesirable transient thump, thud, or click usually caused by ordinary electromechanical switches.     

Towards Transparency by Design for Artificial Intelligence

Science and Engineering Ethics - In this article, we develop the concept of Transparency by Design that serves as practical guidance in helping promote the beneficial functions of transparency...     

Positive and negative symptoms of schizotypy and the Five-factor model: a domain and facet level analysis

In this study, we investigated the Five-factor model in the concurrent prediction of positive symptom schizotypy as measured by the Magical Ideation (Eckblad & Chapman, 1983) and Perceptual Aberration (Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1978) scales and negative symptom schizotypy as measured by the Physical Anhedonia (Chapman, Chapman, & Raulin, 1976) and Revised Social Anhedonia (Eckblad, Chapman, Chapman, & Mishlove, 1982; Mishlove & Chapman, 1985) scales. Previous studies suggest that these measures reflect the core symptoms found in schizotypal and schizoid personality disorder (Bailey, West, Widiger, & Freiman, 1993). Negative symptoms were significantly predicted by Neuroticism (+), Extraversion (-), Openness (-), and Agreeableness (-) domains of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992). Additionally, positive symptoms were significantly predicted by Neuroticism (+), Openness (+), and Agreeableness (-). In addition, we examined the validity of lower order traits in de- scribing these symptoms of character pathology. These findings lend further support for the use of domain and facet scales of the NEO-PI-R in the identification of personality pathology.     

An examination of the value of the generation effect for learning new material

The generation effect involves an improvement in memory when learners must complete or modify materials. Several researchers have suggested that this effect involves enhanced access to learners' existing memory representations; therefore, the effect should be less effective with meaningless, low meaningful, or unfamiliar material. In the present study, the authors conducted 4 experiments in which legal nonwords were used, and they found no generation effect. In another 2 experiments in which familiar clichés were contrasted with new sentences and with unfamiliar sentences from textbooks, the results showed a greatly reduced generation effect for the new, unfamiliar material. Those findings suggest that memory strategies that depend on the generation effect will have limited effectiveness when they are applied to new or unfamiliar material.     

Cognitive complexity and the validity of clinicians' judgments

Efforts to explain why some neuropsychologists are more accurate than others have been unsuccessful. In the present study, the relation between the cognitive complexity of clinicians and the validity of their judgments was investigated. Forty-two neuropsychologists completed a measure of cognitive complexity. The hypothesis that neuropsychologists who are high in cognitive complexity will be more accurate than those who are low in cognitive complexity was not supported. It is not clear why cognitive complexity was not significantly related to the validity of diagnostic ratings: One explanation is that the measure of cognitive complexity used in this study was inadequate but another possibility is that neuropsychologists who are low in cognitive complexity may still be able to achieve high levels of accuracy if they attend to normative data when they interpret test results.     

Construct validity of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 in clinical samples

Using two clinical samples of patients, the presented studies examined the construct validity of the recently revised Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3). Confirmatory factor analyses established a clear three-factor structure that corresponds to the postulated subdivision of the construct into correlated somatic, social, and cognitive components. Participants with different primary clinical diagnoses differed from each other on the ASI-3 subscales in theoretically meaningful ways. Specifically, the ASI-3 successfully discriminated patients with anxiety disorders from patients with nonanxiety disorders. Moreover, patients with panic disorder or agoraphobia manifested more somatic concerns than patients with other anxiety disorders and patients with nonanxiety disorders. Finally, correlations of the ASI-3 scales with other measures of clinical symptoms and negative affect substantiated convergent and discriminant validity. Substantial positive correlations were found between the ASI-3 Somatic Concerns and body vigilance, between Social Concerns and fear of negative evaluation and socially inhibited behavior, and between Cognitive Concerns and depression symptoms, anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, and subjective complaints. Moreover, Social Concerns correlated negatively with dominant and intrusive behavior. Results are discussed with respect to the contribution of the ASI-3 to the assessment of anxiety-related disorders.     

Lean back and relax: Reclined seating position buffers the effect of frustration on anger and aggression

Frustration is a powerful instigator of anger‐based aggression. We hypothesized that the impact of a frustration on anger and aggressive behavior is reduced in a state of feeling relaxed, which is considered incompatible with the experience of anger. Seventy‐nine participants received frustrating feedback either when sitting upright or sitting in a reclined position and were then given a chance to act aggressively toward the frustrator. Feelings of anger and relaxation were assessed before and after the frustration. Participants in the reclined position felt more relaxed than those sitting upright, which indirectly predicted less aggressive behavior via lower anger. The results are consistent with theories of incompatible states and embodiment and have implications for using body‐related cues to mitigate anger‐based aggression.