Review of Polarities of experience: Relatedness and self-definition in personality development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process and Relatedness, self-definition and mental representation: Essays in honor of Sidney J. Blatt.

Reviews the books, Polarities of experience: Relatedness and self-definition in personality development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process by Sidney J. Blatt (see record 2008-01813-000) and Relatedness, self-definition and mental representation: Essays in honor of Sidney J. Blatt edited by John S. Auerbach, Kenneth N. Levy, and Carrie E. Schaffer (2005). These two volumes present a most impressive and fitting capstone to Sidney Blatt’s very productive lifetime of almost unmatched threefold integration of (a) clinical experience, beginning with his astute observation of the strikingly different thematic preoccupations of two otherwise very similarly depressed patients whom Blatt was analyzing during his psychoanalytic training; (b) the theoretic conceptualization stemming from these clinical observations, which became the basic fabric of his lifetime major addition to our psychological explanatory universe; and (c) the painstaking systematic empirical data gathering, together with the creation of necessary—and truly appropriate—measures and instruments that, in ensemble, provide such strong data-based support for Blatt’s clinically inspired theoretic harvesting. In the book Polarities of experience: Relatedness and self-definition in personality development, psychopathology, and the therapeutic process, Blatt draws upon a vast literature review of his own work with his collaborating authors—as well as a seemingly exhaustive list of contributors in all the linked and related areas. Blatt has organized his volume sequentially (after defining and describing his fundamental polarity of experience) into three logically following sections on personality development, personality organization and psychopathology, and lastly, the therapeutic process. Relatedness, self-definition and mental representation: Essays in honor of Sidney J. Blatt is put together by three of Blatt’s former students, and now collaborating partners, although published 3 years earlier (2005), is best read as a supplement to, and a complement of, Blatt’s own account. There are 18 chapters, about half of them by Blatt’s former students who became working colleagues, and they are all well represented in Blatt’s own volume as well as having ample references to papers by, and with, Blatt in their own chapters here (anywhere from a dozen references to their work together, and on up, per chapter). The other half are by eminent colleagues, at Yale University and elsewhere, contemporaries of Blatt, with shared or related interests, and some of their chapters are based on that shared interest, though usually approached from a differing perspective, and some are expositions of their own work, with only tangentially shared themes. This half is a set of most distinguished psychological colleagues, all joined in paying tribute to their admired colleague. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping styles and affect.

Most stress research has focused on testing the effects of coping strategies on negative outcomes such as distress, anxiety, and pathology. The present study focused on the effects of coping styles on the affective components of subjective well-being. Its main aim was to test differential associations between coping styles and positive and negative affect, using secondary analysis. The data were derived from 3 studies (n = 480) in which various samples—adolescents, university students, and a general population participants—completed trait version questionnaires of coping and affect. The main results, based on correlation and multiple regression analyses, showed that problem-focused coping was positively related to positive affect and negatively related to negative affect, whereas avoidance coping showed the opposite pattern of associations with positive and negative affect. Most important, problem-focused coping was found to be a moderator of avoidance coping effects on both positive and negative affective responses. The conclusions are that coping is an important factor in well-being during normal everyday life, and moreover, the interactive effects of coping styles merit further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting actual behavior from the explicit and implicit self-concept of personality.

The authors present a behavioral process model of personality that specifies explicit and implicit aspects of the self-concept of personality as predictors of actual behavior. An extensive behavioral study (N = 130) including a variety of relevant social situations was conducted. This approach allowed reliable measurement of more than 50 behavioral indicators. A priori assignment of indicators to the Big Five dimensions was conducted on the basis of theory and expert ratings. In line with the authors’ model, 3 main findings were revealed: First, direct measures (questionnaires) of personality predicted actual behavior for all Big Five dimensions. Second, indirect measures (implicit association tests) of neuroticism and extraversion also predicted actual behavior. Third, the predictive validity of these indirect measures was incremental. The authors were additionally able to show that controlling for valence did not affect any of these results. Implications and future prospects for the study of personality and actual behavior are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Borderline personality characteristics: A betrayal trauma approach.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has been associated with both trauma and insecure attachment styles. Betrayal Trauma Theory proposes survivors of interpersonal trauma may remain unaware of betrayal in order to maintain a necessary attachment. This preliminary study reports on the relations between self-reports of betrayal trauma experiences and borderline personality characteristics in a college sample. Using multiple regression, betrayal was significantly associated with BPD characteristics. High-betrayal trauma was the largest contributor to borderline traits and medium-betrayal trauma was also a significant predictor. However, traumas of low betrayal were not associated with BPD features. These results stand even after controlling for gender. These findings suggest betrayal may be a key, and yet heretofore unaddressed, feature of borderline personality disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hostility and smoking cessation treatment outcome in heavy social drinkers.

Hostility is a multifaceted construct encompassing affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects. There is preliminary evidence linking hostility to poorer outcomes in smoking cessation treatment; however, it is unclear which components of hostility are most important in cessation. In this study, the authors examined multiple aspects of trait hostility in 92 heavy social drinkers who were seeking smoking cessation treatment. Consistent with their hypothesis, the authors found that the cognitive component of hostility was most relevant to smoking cessation outcome. Specifically, those who expressed bitterness about their lives and tended to believe that they had poor luck and had gotten a raw deal out of life had poor smoking cessation outcomes. Cognitive measures of hostility also predicted greater nicotine withdrawal symptoms 1 week after quitting smoking. Other components of hostility including anger and both physical and verbal aggression did not significantly predict smoking outcome or nicotine withdrawal. Further examination of how a hostile worldview contributes to smoking cessation failure is warranted, as this facet of hostility may prove a valuable target for smoking cessation interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling emotion processes in borderline personality disorder: Physiological and self-reported assessment of biological vulnerability, baseline intensity, and reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli.

This study investigated M. Linehan’s (1993) theory that individuals meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) have high biological vulnerability to emotion dysregulation, including high baseline emotional intensity and high reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli. Twenty individuals with BPD, 20 age-matched individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (SAD), and 20 age-matched normal controls (NCs) participated in 2 separate emotion induction conditions, a standardized condition, and a personally relevant condition. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), skin conductance response (SCR), and self-report measures were collected throughout the experiment. BPD participants displayed heightened biological vulnerability compared with NCs as indicated by reduced basal RSA. BPD participants also exhibited high baseline emotional intensity, characterized by heightened SCR and heightened self-reported negative emotions at baseline. However, the BPD group did not display heightened reactivity, as their physiological and self-reported changes from baseline to the emotion inductions tasks were not greater than the other 2 groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality scale validities increase throughout medical school.

Admissions and personnel decisions rely on stable predictor–criterion relationships. The authors studied the validity of Big Five personality factors and their facets for predicting academic performance in medical school across multiple years, investigating whether criterion-related validities change over time. In this longitudinal investigation, an entire European country’s 1997 cohort of medical students was studied throughout their medical school career (Year 1, N = 627; Year 7, N = 306). Over time, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness factor and facet scale scores showed increases in operational validity for predicting grade point averages. Although there may not be any advantages to being open and extraverted for early academic performance, these traits gain importance for later academic performance when applied practice increasingly plays a part in the curriculum. Conscientiousness, perhaps more than any other personality trait, appears to be an increasing asset for medical students: Operational validities of conscientiousness increased from .18 to .45. In assessing the utility of personality measures, relying on early criteria might underestimate the predictive value of personality variables. Implications for personality measures to predict work performance are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religion, self-regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and implications.

Many of the links of religiousness with health, well-being, and social behavior may be due to religion's influences on self-control or self-regulation. Using Carver and Scheier's (1998) theory of self-regulation as a framework for organizing the empirical research, the authors review evidence relevant to 6 propositions: (a) that religion can promote self-control; (b) that religion influences how goals are selected, pursued, and organized; (c) that religion facilitates self-monitoring; (d) that religion fosters the development of self-regulatory strength; (e) that religion prescribes and fosters proficiency in a suite of self-regulatory behaviors; and (f) that some of religion's influences on health, well-being, and social behavior may result from religion's influences on self-control and self-regulation. The authors conclude with suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Solomon Diamond (1906–1998).

Presents an obituary for Solomon Diamond. Diamond was born in New York City in 1906, and his education and early career were in New York. His PhD was in social psychology. As a historian, he was deeply involved in the somewhat rarified world of very early scientific psychology, and prescientific psychology, and was also committed to counseling psychology (a field of application) and to personality (the empirical-theoretical basis for the application). At California State University, Los Angeles, he was active in university governance and the American Association of University Professors, activities that were part of a lifetime commitment to progressive causes. In 1965 he was a charter member of the APA Division of the History of Psychology (26) and a charter member of the board of advisors of the Archives of the History of American Psychology. The APA Division of the History of Psychology elected him president-elect in 1971-1972. Diamond passed away in 1998. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于情感计算的多机器人舞蹈系统设计

为使得机器人舞蹈与音乐更好地配合,并能够快速地进行舞蹈编排,以音乐的情感特征识别为基础,以多机器人舞蹈系统为应用对象,构建了能够自动识别音乐情感特征并根据不同曲目特点设计出体现音乐内涵的多机器人舞蹈表演程序的系统．通过一个机器人足球仿真平台对该系统的设计方案进行了检验．