Perceived problems for self and others: self-protection by social downgrading throughout adulthood

In this study the authors investigated social downgrading as reflected in the difference between perceptions about the self and about "most people my age." A large cross-national probability sample of adults at different age levels throughout adulthood provided ratings of perceived problems expected for the self and for "most other people my age" with regard to 12 domains of life (e.g., health, marriage, and job). Results showed that with regard to all domains, younger, middle-aged, and older adults believed other people's problems to be more serious than their own problems in these domains. Social downgrading was particularly pronounced for those domains for which a given participant experienced problems himself or herself. This self-protection tendency under threat was particularly pronounced in the older adults. The function and adaptive values for social downgrading across adulthood and old age are discussed.     

Viral hepatitis throughout infancy to adulthood

Bacterial examinations of temporary pacing wires (P-wires), pulmonary arterial (P-A) catheters, and drainage tubes temporarily inserted during open-heart surgery were performed in 213 patients. Bacteria were detected in 19 (2.8%) of 672 specimens gathered from the subject patients, with coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CNS) being most frequently observed. P-wires accounted for 17 out of 19 of the culture-positive specimens, and 7 of the P-wires remained in place for more than two weeks. The frequency of infection with the P-wires was significantly higher than with the P-A catheters or drainage tubes. The period of time that the P-wire was left in place significantly longer than for P-A catheter or drainage tube. There was, however, no statistically significant difference between the culture-positive and negative groups in respect to age, detention periods, operation times, CPB times, or length of ICU stay. As a result of these findings, we have concluded that P-wires should be removed as soon as possible following surgery, and in any case, a meticulous care should be taken to prevent transcutaneous infection.     

Global and domain-specific changes in cognition throughout adulthood.

Normative adult age-related decrements are well documented for many diverse forms of effortful cognitive processing. However, it is currently unclear whether each of these decrements reflects a distinct and independent developmental phenomenon, or, in part, a more global phenomenon. A number of studies have recently been published that show moderate to large magnitudes of positive relations among individual differences in rates of changes in different cognitive variables during adulthood. This suggests that a small number of common dimensions or even a single common dimension may underlie substantial proportions of individual differences in aging-related cognitive declines. This possibility was directly examined using data from 1,281 adults 18–95 years of age who were followed longitudinally over up to 7 years on 12 different measures of effortful processing. Multivariate growth curve models were applied to examine the dimensionality of individual differences in longitudinal changes. Results supported a hierarchical structure of aging-related changes, with an average of 39% of individual differences in change in a given variable attributable to global (domain-general) developmental processes, 33% attributable to domain-specific developmental processes (abstract reasoning, spatial visualization, episodic memory, and processing speed), and 28% attributable to test-specific developmental processes. Although it is often assumed that systematic and pervasive sources of cognitive decline only emerge in later adulthood, domain-general influences on change were apparent for younger (18–49 years), middle aged (50–69 years), and older (70–95 years) adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Appraisal-emotion relationships in daily life.

Using a daily process design, the present study examined relationships between momentary appraisals and emotional experience based on Smith and Lazarus' (1993) theory of emotions (1993). Nine times a day for 2 weeks, participants (N = 33, 23 women) recorded their momentary experience of 2 positive emotions (joy, love) and 4 negative emotions (anger, guilt, fear, sadness) and the core relational theme appraisal contents Smith and Lazarus hypothesized as corresponding to these emotions. A series of multilevel modeling analyses found that the hypothesized relationships between appraisal contents and these emotions were stronger than relationships between contents and other emotions, although appraisals were related to other emotions in many cases. Moreover, there were some individual differences in the strength of these relationships. These results suggest that there are no one-to-one relationships between appraisal contents and specific emotional experiences, and that specific emotions are associated with different appraisal contents, and that specific appraisals are associated with different emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Continued inhibitory capacity throughout adulthood: conceptual negative priming in younger and older adults

Two negative priming experiments in older and younger adults are reported. Participants in Experiment 1, involving both positive and negative priming conditions, showed both types of priming. There were no significant differences between age groups. If anything, older participants showed more negative priming. In Experiment 2, involving only negative priming conditions, similar results were obtained. Our findings rule out possible effects of experimental conditions that episodic retrieval theorists have suggested might account for negative priming in older adults. Although our results may be consistent with an explanation of negative priming in older adults by an expansively specified theory of episodic retrieval, they are at least as consistent with the view that inhibitory processes are intact in older adults. In light of these findings, conflicting empirical results and alternative views of negative priming in older adults are examined.     

Psychopathy and recidivism from mid-adolescence to young adulthood: Cumulating legal problems and limiting life opportunities.

This study examined the ability of psychopathy as indexed by the following 4 scales: Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (A. E. Forth, D. S. Kosson, & R. D. Hare, 1996/2003), Antisocial Process Screening Device (P. J. Frick & R. D. Hare, 2001), Hare Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-II (R. D. Hare, 1991), and Personality Assessment Inventory-Antisocial Scale (L. C. Morey, 1991, 2007) to prospectively predict antisocial outcomes including general and violent recidivism across a 3- to 4-year time span. Results indicated that psychopathy was predictive of both general and violent recidivism from mid-adolescence to young adulthood even after accounting for 14 variables theoretically linked to offending. These findings add to the recent research showing stability in the psychopathy traits across time by also demonstrating that psychopathy in adolescents also has a real-world effect, including a cost to society with higher rates of offending in the community and a cost to youth with cumulating legal records that are likely to narrow their potential for prosocial growth in the community. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Variations in mothers' self-esteem in daily life.

Used the experience sampling method (ESM; Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 1987) to assess variations in self-esteem of mothers. Responding to random signals, 49 middle-class White working mothers reported present experience by answering a 1-page questionnaire 4 to 5 times a day for 2 wks. A measure of current, ongoing self-esteem was built from mothers' responses to the ESM and was compared with 3 standard self-esteem measures. Results support Fiske's (1971) ideas that although both types of procedures give a view of self-esteem, the views differ and cannot be considered interchangeable. Results showed that mothers' ongoing self-esteem fluctuated according to who mothers were with, was lower when they were with children than when with adults, and was related to aspects of their interpersonal situation. Results support viewing self-esteem as a complex phenomenon that is likely to require several types of measurement procedures to bring into clearer focus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life-threatening cardiac involvement throughout life in a case of Costello syndrome

A virus isolated from vaginal exudate of cows with vaginitis showed molecular weight around 92 to 143 x 10(3) KD, density between 1.168 and 1.203 g/ml and physical, chemical and morphological properties characteristic of virus belonging to the herpes group. This virus was not reagent with the fluorescent antibodies of Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) or Parainfluenza-3 (PI-3) viruses, frequently detected in cows with vaginitis.     

Differential diagnostic problems in primary volvulus of the small intestine in adulthood

Primary small bowel volvulus in the adult is a rare, life-threatening emergency. The preoperative diagnosis is difficult and in most of the cases incorrect. We present a case of primary small bowel volvulus in the adult. Preoperative diagnosis of intraabdominal bleeding following blunt abdominal trauma was erroneously made and the patient underwent laparotomy. Review of the literature is presented and discussed.     

The lay assessment of subclinical depression in daily life.

This study examined how laypersons assess subclinical depression in others on the basis of information about their daily lives. For 2 days, 96 participants were tracked with the Electronically Activated Recorder, a naturalistic observation method that samples ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments. Judges rated participants' levels of depression after listening to the sampled ambient sounds. Participants' depressive symptoms were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory. Overall, judges showed little accuracy at determining participants' levels of depressive symptoms from the ambient sounds. Exploratory analyses, however, revealed that judges were more accurate among moderately and severely depressed participants, presumably because the cues judges used to assess depression (e.g., spending time alone, not socializing, not laughing) discriminated successfully only at high levels of subclinical depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quality of life in migraine and chronic daily headache patients

Primary chronic headache can affect a patient's health-related quality of life (HQL). The Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36) questionnaire has been used to address this issue. We compare the impact of headache on the HQL of patients with migraine and chronic daily headache (CDH) using the SF-36 instrument. We analyzed a group of 115 consecutive patients; 62 migraine patients and 53 CDH patients completed the questionnaire. Patterns of disability were similar between the two groups, but CDH was marked by a lower level of health scales. Patients with CDH had a significantly worse pain score in physical functioning, role functioning (physical), bodily pain, general health perceptions, and mental health than patients with migraine headache. Our results in the migraine group were similar to findings in other publications, with the lowest scores in role functioning (physical) and bodily pain. There is no previous experience in CDH patients, but the present data suggest that the SF-36 questionnaire is valuable in determining the differences in functional status among headache types. These data suggest that the SF-36 is a reliable and valid measure of the HQL of patients with CDH, and may indeed prove to be valuable in studying the efficacy of therapeutic agents for this type of headache.     

Reactivity to daily stressors in adulthood: The importance of stressor type in characterizing risk factors.

This study examined daily stressors in adults ages 18 to 89 years (M = 49.6 years) over 30 days. We examined the role of individual factors (i.e., age, self-concept differentiation [SCD], perceived control) in physical and psychological reactivity to interpersonal, network, home, and health stressors. Findings were consistent with the perspective that adults were less reactive to stress on days during which they felt in control and that younger adults and adults with high SCD were more vulnerable to stress. Age, SCD, and daily perceived control, however, interacted with one another, and findings varied by stressor type. For example, age differences in reactivity were moderated by SCD whereby older adults with low SCD were particularly resilient to home stressors. In addition, whether perceived control buffered adults’ reactivity to daily stress varied by age and SCD. For example, only adults with high SCD were psychologically reactive to network stressors and this was the case only on days during which they reported experiencing low control. The findings emphasize the importance of considering the varying ways in which individual characteristics interact to influence stress reactivity to different types of stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Planning for the future: A life management strategy for increasing control and life satisfaction in adulthood.

The study examined the social, personality, and cognitive correlates of self-reported future planning and the relationship of future planning to perceived control and life satisfaction. Using 2 probability samples of adults ages 25–74 (n1?=?2,971, n2?=?300) findings suggest, for Study 1, that education, income, social support, predictability, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience were positively related to future planning, whereas Neuroticism and Agreeableness were negatively related. Men were more future oriented; as age increased, future planning decreased. Study 2 replicated the findings with the exception of age, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. For both studies, results supported a model in which the effects of future planning on life satisfaction were mediated by sense of control. A Planning?×?Age interaction for Study 1 indicated that although self-reported future planning decreased with age, the positive effects of future-oriented planning strategies on life satisfaction were most pronounced for the older adults, and this relationship was also mediated by control beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial development and life experiences in adulthood: a 22-year sequential study

This study of a frequently endorsed, but untested, model of outpatient treatment for persons with coexisting severe mental illness and substance use disorders assessed how the amount of treatment services delivered was related to an individual's global severity of illness, whether different modes of treatment were related to different aspects of illness, how noncompliance with treatment was related to the severity of illness and amount of services delivered, and how the diagnosis of schizophrenia/schizoaffective influenced these issues. Participants with high total severity of illness (TSI) received about twice the number of appointments (20.7 vs. 12.3) per month as those with low TSI scores. Higher TSI was also related to a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia/schizoaffective, being in a lower "phase" of treatment, representative payee benefit management, homelessness, and more hospitalizations. Participants with higher psychiatric symptom severity received significantly more case management and medication services, but not group therapy or day treatment. Severity of substance use condition was significantly related only to case management. This model of treatment was found to be successful in delivering higher levels of treatment services to those needing them.     

What is wrong with daily life in the Western world?

Examines 5 Western cultural practices that have eroded the contingencies of reinforcement under which humans have evolved by promoting pleasing effects of behavior consequences at the expense of strengthening effects. The cultural practices described are as follows: (a) alienating workers from the consequences of their work, (b) helping those who are capable of helping themselves, (c) guiding behavior with rules rather than supplying reinforcing consequences, (d) maintaining aversive sanctions of governments and religions with long-deferred benefits for the individual, and (e) reinforcing pleasures that are not contingent on the survival of the culture or species. It is suggested that these cultural practices have resulted in apathy and stagnation in Western culture. It is proposed that these effects can be reversed by restoring more strengthening contingencies of behavior through the application of principles derived from an experimental analysis of behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accumulation of problems in social functioning in young adulthood: A developmental approach.

Using longitudinal data from a sample of 369 Finnish adolescents, the authors examined whether problems in social functioning in young adulthood were interrelated and accumulated, and analyzed processes that may lead to cumulative problems. The log-linear modeling showed that an unstable career line of men at age 26 was related to poor social relations, a poor financial standing, drinking problems, and criminal arrests; for both sexes, drinking problems and criminal arrests were interrelated. At a personal level, the authors analyzed male patterns of problems in social functioning and pathways resulting in patterns of social functioning. The pathway leading to an unstable career, criminal arrests, and drinking problems among men included aggressiveness at age 8 and problems in school adjustment and in the family at age 14. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)