Death and annihilation anxieties in anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and self-mutilation.

Self-starvation, bulimic behavior, and self-mutilation comprise a triad of associated self-harm syndromes that are potentially life threatening, with anorexia nervosa having the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. They are associated with trauma and are extremely resistant to treatment. These patients present a disturbing lack of anxiety about their own life-threatening behavior, yet are preoccupied with death and anxiety about annihilation. Because dissociation compartmentalizes and separates psychological and somatic aspects of traumatic experience (psychological and somatoform dissociation), it enables these patients to disavow the life-threatening nature of their behavior, which makes the dissociative processes the most destructive factor in this psychopathology. The self-harm symptoms are a presymbolic form of communication that must be decoded and confronted in treatment to make recovery possible. For many patients who starve, purge, or mutilate themselves, the body is speaking of death. They require a treatment that protects their safety, determines their personal construct of death, treats the dissociative pathology and sadomasochism, and builds signal anxiety and other ego functions, especially affect regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ego identity, social anxiety, social support, and self-concealment in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

This study examined a model in which the relationship between social anxiety and two dimensions of ego identity (commitment and exploration) was expected to be mediated by social support and self-concealment for a sample of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals (N=347). Statistically significant paths were found from social anxiety to social support and self-concealment. Statistically significant paths were also found from social support to commitment, exploration, and self-concealment. There were no significant paths from social anxiety to commitment or exploration. Structural equation analyses and bootstrap procedures revealed support for the potential mediational role of social support in the association between social anxiety and the two dimensions of ego identity as well as in the link between social anxiety and self-concealment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of defeat and entrapment in depression, anxiety, and suicide.

Defeat and entrapment are psychological constructs that have played a central role in evolutionary accounts of depression. These concepts have since been implicated in theoretical accounts of anxiety disorders and suicidality. The current article reports on a systematic review of the existing research investigating the links among defeat, entrapment, and psychopathology in the domains of depression, suicidality, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other anxiety syndromes. Fifty-one original research articles were identified and critically reviewed. There was strong convergent evidence for a link with depressive symptoms, across a variety of clinical and nonclinical samples. Preliminary support for an association with suicidality was also observed, with effects not readily explainable in terms of comorbid depression. There was strong evidence for an association between defeat and PTSD, although this may have been partly accounted for by comorbid depression. The findings for other anxiety disorders were less consistent. There was, however, evidence that social anxiety in individuals with psychosis may be related to perceptions of entrapment. Overall, there was evidence that perceptions of defeat and entrapment were closely associated with various forms of human psychopathology. These effects were often in the moderate to large range and superseded the impact of other environmental and psychological stressors on psychopathology. We provide a unified theoretical model of how defeat and entrapment may contribute to these different psychopathological conditions. Clinical implications and avenues for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Higher cortical functions and the ego: Explorations of the boundary between behavioral neurology, neuropsychology, and psychoanalysis.

This article explores current thinking about brain organization and the potential bridging of various neuropsychological and psychoanalytic ideas. The focus is on the potentially vital, direct, and generally unappreciated connection of basic neuropsychological ideas to equally basic psychoanalytic constructs, particularly around concepts of drive, affect, and ego, and in terms of the corticolimbic, frontal-posterior, and lateral axes of brain organization. In terms of the corticolimbic axis, I suggest that Freud's basic model of the mind, in which the ego mediates between an internal drive milieu and perceptions of external reality, bears a remarkable resemblance to recent notions in behavioral neurology about the hierarchical organization of the cortex and the limbic system. In terms of the left-right lateral axis of organization, the affective (as opposed to more strictly cognitive) aspects of lateralization are linked to concepts suggesting right hemisphere cognitive processing in transference phenomena. Transference, although clinically complex, has consistent common denominators linking it with right hemisphere functions; it may be universal because it is neuropsychologically elemental. Empirical findings of right hemisphere involvement in affect may be due to the... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships between hope of success and fear of failure, anxiety, and need for achievement.

2 previous investigations (Clark, et al, 1956, and Atkinson, 1958) found contradictory results in using degree of aspiration to predict S's response to McClelland's TAT of need for achievement (N Achiev). Clark, et al concluded that degree of aspiration would be negatively related to development of anxiety; that those who hoped for success (HS) and those who feared failure (FF) were genotypically different with regard to anxiety over goal attainment but phenotypically similar in regard to N Achiev. Atkinson concluded the reverse. To settle the dispute, Taylor MA scale was administered along with selected TAT cards to college Ss. No relationship was found between the HS-FF continuum and TAT scores, suggesting that the position of Clark, et al, was more correct. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HJ65R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Manifest" anxiety, neurotic anxiety, and the rate of conditioning.

"The validity of the Taylor Scale of Manifest Anxiety was examined with a view to reconciling the contradictory results of the studies of the relation between anxiety and the rate of conditioning… . The results indicated that different scores on the scale do not represent different degrees of manifest anxiety, though the scores within a limited range (19 to 33) are more likely to be associated with a clinical diagnosis of "anxious" than are scores above and below this range." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and fear reactivity to bodily sensations to coping and conformity marijuana use motives among young adult marijuana users.

The present investigation examines anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and fear reactivity to bodily sensations in relation to Coping and Conformity marijuana use motives among a sample of young adult marijuana users (n = 135; 46.7% women; Mage = 20.45, SD = 5.0). After controlling for current marijuana use frequency (past 30 days), daily cigarette smoking rate, average volume of alcohol used over the past year, negative affectivity, and other marijuana use motives, anxiety sensitivity was significantly and uniquely associated with Coping and Conformity motives for marijuana use. Distress tolerance evidenced significant and unique incremental relations to Coping motives, whereas fear reactivity to bodily sensations was unrelated to any marijuana use motive. These results provide novel information related to the role of emotional sensitivity and tolerance factors as they pertain to specific types of motives for marijuana use among young adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Men, family-role quality, job-role quality, and physical health": Correction to Barnett and Marshall.

Reports an error in "Men, family-role quality, job-role quality, and physical health" by Rosalind C. Barnett and Nancy L. Marshall (Health Psychology, 1993[Jan], Vol 12[1], 48-55). In this article the title for Table 1 (p. 50) should be "Correlations Between Rewards and Concerns in the Job, Marital, and Parent Roles." Also, the last item in the first column of the table should read "6. Parent-role concerns." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1993-21527-001.) The relationship between the quality of family roles, as spouse and as parent, and the quality of men's job role, on the one hand, and their reports of physical symptoms, on the other, was examined in men drawn from a random sample of 300 dual-earner couples. The main effect of marital-role quality (i.e., rewards and concerns) on physical health was estimated, as was the Marital-Role Quality × Job-Role Quality interaction effect. With respect to the present role, the effect of both parent-role occupancy and parent-role quality was estimated. After controlling for job-role quality, it was found that parent-role occupancy had neither main nor interactive effects. However, among the men who occupied all 3 roles (n = 180), only parent-role concerns were a significant predictor of physical health reports. Thus, concerns in the parent role are a major unmeasured source of variance in studies of the stress-illness relationship in men. [An erratum concerning this article appears in Health Psychology, 1993(Mar), Vol 12(2), 92. Table 1 is corrected.] (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disturbed dreaming, posttraumatic stress disorder, and affect distress: A review and neurocognitive model.

Nightmares are common, occurring weekly in 4%-10% of the population, and are associated with female gender, younger age, increased stress, psychopathology, and dispositional traits. Nightmare pathogenesis remains unexplained, as do differences between nontraumatic and posttraumatic nightmares (for those with or without posttraumatic stress disorder) and relations with waking functioning. No models adequately explain nightmares nor have they been reconciled with recent developments in cognitive neuroscience, fear acquisition, and emotional memory. The authors review the recent literature and propose a conceptual framework for understanding a spectrum of dysphoric dreaming. Central to this is the notion that variations in nightmare prevalence, frequency, severity, and psychopathological comorbidity reflect the influence of both affect load, a consequence of daily variations in emotional pressure, and affect distress, a disposition to experience events with distressing, highly reactive emotions. In a cross-state, multilevel model of dream function and nightmare production, the authors integrate findings on emotional memory structures and the brain correlates of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-regulatory processes defend against the threat of death: Effects of self-control depletion and trait self-control on thoughts and fears of dying.

Nine studies (N = 979) demonstrated that managing the threat of death requires self-regulation. Both trait and state self-control ability moderated the degree to which people experienced death-related thought and anxiety. Participants high (vs. low) in self-control generated fewer death-related thoughts after being primed with death, reported less death anxiety, were less likely to perceive death-related themes in ambiguous scenes, and reacted with less worldview defense when mortality was made salient. Further, coping with thoughts of death led to self-regulatory fatigue. After writing about death versus a control topic, participants performed worse on several measures of self-regulation that were irrelevant to death. These results suggest that self-regulation is a key intrapsychic mechanism for alleviating troublesome thoughts and feelings about mortality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the hierarchical structure of mood and anxiety disorders: Confirmatory evidence and elaboration of a model of temperament markers.

The authors examined D. Watson's (2005) proposed reconceptualization of the diagnostic categories for mood and anxiety disorders for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--Fifth Edition (DSM-V) and tested an elaboration of the 2-factor (positive and negative activation) model of underlying temperament markers that incorporates A. Tellegen, D. Watson, & L. A. Clark's (1999a, 1999b) higher-order dimension of happiness-unhappiness (or demoralization; see A. Tellegen et al., 2003). In Study 1, 502 undergraduate students completed several symptom measures of mood and anxiety disorders and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (J. N. Butcher et al., 2001). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors replicated Watson's distress and fear disorder model. Path analyses showed that demoralization was a primary marker of distress disorders, whereas dysfunctional negative emotions was a primary marker of fear disorders. Low positive emotions was a specific marker of depression and social phobia. This 3-factor path model was associated with better fit than was a 2-factor model excluding demoralization. In Study 2, the authors replicated the findings of Study 1 using data from an archival clinical sample of 636 Veterans Affairs hospital outpatients. The authors' findings provide evidence on the important role of demoralization in mood and anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Acculturative stress, depression, and anxiety in migrant farmwork college students of Mexican heritage.

Migrant status (migrant, nonmigrant) and sex (female, male) differences were examined in a sample of 168 college students of Mexican heritage on measures of college stress, acculturative stress, depression, anxiety, and academic achievement. Migrant farmwork students reported higher levels of acculturative stress than nonmigrants, and men reported higher levels of acculturative stress than women. When language preference was held constant, there were no differences in depression and anxiety. However, migrant students reported higher levels of depression and anxiety than nonmigrants when language preference was not held constant. The overall sample reported high levels of depression: 55% versus the expected 20% of the general population shown in other research. Depression and anxiety were highly correlated, and women reported a higher grade point average than male students. Implications include the importance of integrating cultural factors in stress research with this population and accounting for acculturative stress, depression, and anxiety in clinical treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and anxiety as separable emotions: An investigation of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality.

The Gray and McNaughton (2000) theory draws on a wide range of animal data to hypothesize that the emotions of fear and anxiety are separable. The authors tested their hypothesis in two studies. The first study examined associations between scores on questionnaire measures of fear, anxiety, and neuroticism; correlational analysis revealed that fear and anxiety are not interchangeable constructs. The second study examined associations between scores on questionnaire measures of fear/anxiety and performance in a military training setting; regression analysis revealed that fear captured significant variance in performance that was not shared with anxiety. These results imply that hypotheses derived from nonhuman animal data may hold important implications for understanding human emotion and motivation, especially in relation to fear and anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Male gender role conflict, depression, and anxiety: Clarification and generalizability to women.

The purpose of this study was (a) to determine whether the relationship between male gender role conflict variables and mental health generalizes to women and (b) to investigate other aspects of social gender roles and mental health. An adaptation of the Gender Role Conflict Scale (I. M. O'Neil, B. J. Helms, R. K. Gable. L. David, & L. S. Wrightsman, 1986) and measures of depression and anxiety were administered to male and female college students. Men showed more restricted emotionality. more restricted affection, greater appropriate and inappropriate success, and more restricted affection, particularly for other men; there were no gender differences related to the conflict between work and family. However, for the most part these variables were related to depression and anxiety in similar ways in men and women. The major predictor of depression and anxiety for men and women was conflict between work and family. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A proposal for a dimensional classification system based on the shared features of the DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders: Implications for assessment and treatment.

A wealth of evidence attests to the extensive current and lifetime diagnostic comorbidity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., DSM–IV) anxiety and mood disorders. Research has shown that the considerable cross-sectional covariation of DSM–IV emotional disorders is accounted for by common higher order dimensions such as neuroticism/behavioral inhibition (N/BI) and low positive affect/behavioral activation. Longitudinal studies indicate that the temporal covariation of these disorders can be explained by changes in N/BI and, in some cases, initial levels of N/BI are predictive of the temporal course of emotional disorders. The marked phenotypal overlap of the DSM–IV anxiety and mood disorders is a frequent source of diagnostic unreliability (e.g., temporal overlap in the shared features of generalized anxiety disorder and mood disorders, situation specificity of panic attacks in panic disorder and specific phobia). Although extant dimensional proposals may address some drawbacks associated with the DSM nosology (e.g., inadequate assessment of individual differences in disorder severity), these proposals do not reconcile key problems in current classification, such as modest reliability and high comorbidity. This article considers an alternative approach that emphasizes empirically supported common dimensions of emotional disorders over disorder-specific criteria sets. Selection and assessment of these dimensions are discussed along with how these methods could be implemented to promote more reliable and valid diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment planning. For instance, the advantages of this system are discussed in context of transdiagnostic treatment protocols that are efficaciously applied to a variety of disorders by targeting their shared features. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social constraints, cognitive processing, and adjustment to breast cancer.

This cross-sectional study of 70 breast cancer survivors examined relationships among social constraints, behavioral and self-report indicators of cognitive processing, depression, and well-being. On the basis of a social-cognitive processing (SCP) model, it was predicted that social constraints would inhibit cognitive processing of the cancer experience, leading to poorer adjustment. Constraints were positively associated with intrusions, avoidance, and linguistic uncertainty in cancer narratives. Greater uncertainty, intrusions, and avoidance, as well as less talking about cancer were associated with greater depression and less well-being. Intrusions partially mediated the positive constraints-depression relationship. Talking about cancer partially mediated the inverse avoidance-well-being relationship. Findings support the SCP model and the importance of using behavioral indicators of cognitive processing to predict positive and negative psychosocial outcomes of cancer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vengefully ever after: Destiny beliefs, state attachment anxiety, and forgiveness.

Two studies examined how destiny beliefs (that potential relationships are or are not "meant to be") interact with state attachment anxiety to predict forgiveness tendencies. In Study 1, participants experienced an experimental manipulation of attachment anxiety (vs. security) before indicating the degree to which they would forgive a series of hypothetical partner offenses. In Study 2, participants reported every 2 weeks for 6 months (14 waves in total) on offenses enacted by their partner and indicated the degree to which they forgave the partner, both concurrently and 2 weeks later. Consistent with predictions, results revealed Destiny Beliefs × State Attachment Anxiety interaction effects: Strong (relative to weak) destiny beliefs predicted reduced forgiveness tendencies for individuals experiencing state attachment anxiety, but such beliefs were not associated with forgiveness for individuals experiencing state attachment security. Results from Study 2 suggest that this interaction effect was significantly mediated through trust in the partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Effect of previously assigned goals on self-set goals and performance": Correction to Locke, Frederick, Buckner, and Bobko.

Reports an error in "Effect of previously assigned goals on self-set goals and performance" by Edwin A. Locke, Elizabeth Frederick, Elizabeth Buckner and Philip Bobko (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1984[Nov], Vol 69[4], 694-699). The third line was left out on p. 696, top right column. The entire section should read as follows: "Figure 1 compares the goals on T-1 with the mean goals chosen on T-2 by the same groups of subjects (i.e., grouped according to T-1 goals). On T-2 the mean goal levels of the seven original groups ranged from 4.8 to 12.9, in contrast with the T-1 range of 2 to 26." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1985-08583-001.) 231 undergraduates were asked to list from 2–26 uses for common objects depending on the level of difficulty of the section (1 of 7) to which they were assigned. Ss were given a 1-min practice trial after task explanations and were then administered 2 experimental trials. Ss were told they were free to change their goals to a higher or lower level for the 2nd trial if they did not like the goal they had been assigned. Results show that Ss chose more difficult goals, if the assigned goals had been easy, and easier goals, if the assigned goals had been difficult. Ss were heavily influenced in their self-set goals by their previously assigned goals. The performance of Ss with impossible goals did not drop on the 2nd trial. A goal–expectancy interaction was found on the 2nd trial that was due to expectancy being positively related to performance at the higher but not the lower goal levels. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Anger, Mood, and Vulnerability to Substance Use Among Inpatient Substance-Dependent Clients.

Anger and related emotions have been identified as triggers in substance use. Forgiveness therapy (FT) targets anger, anxiety, and depression as foci of treatment. Fourteen patients with substance dependence from a local residential treatment facility were randomly assigned to and completed either 12 approximately twice-weekly sessions of individual FT or 12 approximately twice-weekly sessions of an alternative individual treatment based on routine drug and alcohol therapy topics. Participants who completed FT had significantly more improvement in total and trait anger, depression, total and trait anxiety, self-esteem, forgiveness, and vulnerability to drug use than did the alternative treatment group. Most benefits of FT remained significant at 4-month follow-up. These results support FT as an efficacious newly developed model for residential drug rehabilitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)