Journal of Abnormal Psychology

How things fall apart: Understanding the nature of internalizing through its relationship with impairment.
The literature suggests that internalizing psychopathology relates to impairment incrementally and gradually. However, the form of this relationship has not been characterized. This form is critical to understanding internalizing psychopathology, as it is possible that internalizing may accelerate in effect at some level of severity, defining a natural boundary of abnormality. Here, a novel method—semiparametric structural equation modeling—was used to model the relationship between internalizing and impairment in a sample of 8,580 individuals from the 2000 British Office for National Statistics Survey of Psychiatric Morbidity, a large, population-representative study of psychopathology. This method allows one to model relationships between latent internalizing and impairment without assuming any particular form a priori and to compare models in which the relationship is constant and linear. Results suggest that the relationship between internalizing and impairment is in fact linear and constant across the entire range of internalizing variation and that it is impossible to nonarbitrarily define a specific level of internalizing beyond which consequences suddenly become catastrophic in nature. Results demonstrate the phenomenological continuity of internalizing psychopathology, highlight the importance of impairment as well as symptoms, and have clear implications for defining mental disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The early course of depression: A longitudinal investigation of prodromal symptoms and their relation to the symptomatic course of depressive episodes.
The present study explored longitudinal evidence for prodromal symptoms of depression episodes. A model based on previous findings of the relations between prodromal and residual symptoms was described and used to generate hypotheses tested in this study. Data were analyzed from 160 participants from the Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) project (L. Alloy & L. Abramson, 1999) who experienced an episode of depression during the prospective follow-up period and 60 CVD participants who did not. Congruent with the hypothesis, individuals who subsequently developed an episode of depression experienced significantly greater numbers of depression symptoms in the period of time leading up to the acute episode compared with those who did not develop a depressive episode. Seven depression symptoms were particularly likely to appear before the onset of an acute episode. Furthermore, all 3 predictions from the model were supported: the durations of prodromal and residual phases were correlated, the prodromal and residual symptom profiles were quite similar, and the order of symptom onset was significantly and highly negatively correlated with the order of symptom remission. Additionally, residual symptom profiles were similar to subsequent prodromal symptom profiles in individuals who experienced more than 1 depressive episode. These findings are discussed in terms of the importance of understanding the earliest prodromal symptoms to appear and their relation to the symptomatic course of depression episodes. Implications for early intervention are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Temperamental emotionality in preschool-aged children and depressive disorders in parents: Associations in a large community sample.
Researchers and clinicians have long hypothesized that there are temperamental vulnerabilities to depressive disorders. Despite the fact that individual differences in temperament should be evident in early childhood, most studies have focused on older youth and adults. We hypothesized that if early childhood temperament is a risk factor for depressive disorders, it should be associated with better established risk markers, such parental depression. Hence, we examined the associations of laboratory-assessed positive emotionality (PE), negative emotionality (NE), and behavioral inhibition (BI) with semistructured interview-based diagnoses of parental depressive disorders in a community sample of 536 3-year old children. Children with higher levels of NE and BI had higher probabilities of having a depressed parent. However, both main effects were qualified by interactions with child PE. At high and moderate (but not low) levels of child PE, greater NE and BI were associated with higher rates of parental depression. Conversely, at low (but not high and moderate) levels of child NE, low PE was associated with higher rates of parental depression. Child temperament was not associated with parental anxiety and substance use disorders. These findings indicate that laboratory-assessed temperament in young children is associated with parental depressive disorders; however, the relations are complex, and it is important to consider interactions between temperament dimensions rather than focusing exclusively on main effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
When distress does not become depression: Emotion context sensitivity and adjustment to bereavement.
Recent evidence suggests that the sensitivity of emotion responses to changing context may be a key element of psychological adjustment and psychopathology (Bonanno et al., 2007; Rottenberg, Kasch, Gross, & Gotlib, 2002). However, there have been no previous investigations to examine emotion context sensitivity and adjustment following stressful life events. This investigation addressed this deficit in a sample of middle-aged bereaved adults (N = 48) whose emotion responses were measured as they described loss and non-loss-related events during a laboratory interview 4 months after the death of their spouse or child. Symptoms of depression were assessed using structured clinical interviews at 4 and 18 months postloss. Although positive emotions were beneficial regardless of context, context sensitivity for negative emotions at 4 months predicted fewer depression symptoms at 18 months. These findings suggest that the capacity to shift negative emotion responses according to changing context may differentiate those individuals who will show improvements in depression symptoms over time from those who will show chronic impairments. Implications for future research and clinical intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Selective attention to affective stimuli and clinical depression among youths: Role of anxiety and specificity of emotion.
Cognitive models of psychopathology posit that the content or focus of information-processing biases (e.g., attentional biases) is disorder specific: Depression is hypothesized to be characterized by attentional biases specifically for depression-relevant stimuli (e.g., sad facial expressions), whereas anxiety should relate particularly to attentional biases to threat-relevant stimuli (e.g., angry faces). However, little research has investigated this specificity hypothesis and none with a sample of youths. The present study examined attentional biases to emotional faces (sad, angry, and happy compared with neutral) in groups of pure depressed, pure anxious, comorbid depressed and anxious, and control youths (ages 9–17 years; N = 161). Consistent with cognitive models, pure depressed and pure anxious youths exhibited attentional biases specifically to sad and angry faces, respectively, whereas comorbid youths exhibited attentional biases to both facial expressions. In addition, control youths exhibited attentional avoidance of sad faces, and comorbid boys avoided happy faces. Overall, findings suggest that cognitive biases and processing of particular emotional information are specific to pure clinical depression and anxiety, and results inform etiological models of potentially specific processes that are associated with internalizing disorders among youths. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Resting frontal EEG asymmetry as an endophenotype for depression risk: Sex-specific patterns of frontal brain asymmetry.
Resting frontal electroencephalographic (EEG) asymmetry has been hypothesized as a marker of risk for major depressive disorder (MDD), but the extant literature is based predominately on female samples. Resting frontal asymmetry was assessed on 4 occasions within a 2-week period in 306 individuals aged 18–34 (31% male) with (n = 143) and without (n = 163) lifetime MDD as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Lifetime MDD was linked to relatively less left frontal activity for both sexes using a current source density (CSD) reference, findings that were not accounted for solely by current MDD status or current depression severity, suggesting that CSD-referenced EEG asymmetry is a possible endophenotype for depression. In contrast, results for average and linked mastoid references were less consistent but demonstrated a link between less left frontal activity and current depression severity in women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Refining the tobacco dependence phenotype using the Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives: II. Evidence from a laboratory self-administration assay.
Prior analyses of the Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (Piper et al., 2004) implicated 4 subscales as primary dependence motives (PDM) indexing the core features of tobacco dependence, with the remaining subscales reflecting secondary dependence motives (SDM; Piper et al., 2008). The current study extended this work by examining the correlates of PDM, SDM, their subscales, and other indicators of dependence in an operant self-administration paradigm. Smokers (N = 58) worked for cigarette puffs under differing fixed ratio schedules. Analyses focused on predicting self-administration under conditions of minimal constraint on tobacco access and on withdrawal and craving under conditions of severe constraint. Results support a 2-factor model of dependence, with the PDM factor showing relatively stronger relations with tobacco self-administration and the SDM factor showing relatively stronger relations with withdrawal symptomatology and distress-related craving. The PDM appears to index core features of tobacco dependence, but susceptibility to deprivation-contingent distress and craving may be better indexed by SDM. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of expectancies and coping on pain-induced motivation to smoke.
The prevalence of tobacco smoking among persons with recurrent pain is approximately twice that observed in the general population. Smoking has been associated with the development and exacerbation of several chronically painful conditions. Conversely, there is both experimental and cross-sectional evidence that pain is a potent motivator of smoking. A recent study provided the first evidence that laboratory-induced pain could elicit increased craving and produce shorter latencies to smoke (Ditre & Brandon, 2008). To further elucidate interrelations between pain and smoking, and to identify potential targets for intervention, in the current study, we tested whether several constructs derived from social–cognitive theory influence the causal pathway between pain and increased motivation to smoke. Smokers (N = 132) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions in this 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design. Results indicated that manipulations designed to (a) challenge smoking-related outcome expectancies for pain reduction and (b) enhance pain-related coping produced decreased urge ratings and increased latencies to smoke, relative to controls. An unexpected interaction effect revealed that although each manipulation was sufficient to reduce smoking urges, the combination was neither additive nor synergistic. These findings were integrated with those of the extant literature to conceptualize and depict a causal pathway between pain and motivation to smoke as moderated by smoking-related outcome expectancies and mediated by the use of pain coping behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
The role of contextual risk, impulsivity, and parental knowledge in the development of adolescent antisocial behavior.
The present study (a) tests main and moderational effects of neighborhood and family risk, and adolescent impulsivity on the development of male and female antisocial behavior (ASB) and (b) examines the extent to which these effects work indirectly through parental knowledge. Adolescents (N = 4,597; 51% male) reported on informal social control in their neighborhoods, their family types, and impulsivity at age 12, and on parental monitoring and ASB at ages 13 and 15 years. Neighborhoods were further defined as risk and nonrisk in economic deprivation by census-level data. Main effects of neighborhood risk, single parenthood, and impulsivity on ASB were found for male and female adolescents. For female adolescents, impulsivity interacted with neighborhood economic deprivation and with family type in the prediction of parental knowledge. Impulsivity and contextual risk factors in part increased adolescent ASB through decreasing parental knowledge. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Morphological alterations in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in unsuccessful psychopaths.
Although deficits in several cortical and subcortical structures have been found in psychopaths, it remains unclear whether the neuropathology differs between subgroups of psychopaths (i.e., unsuccessful and successful). Using both traditional and novel image analyses methods, this study aims to reveal gross and subtle morphological changes in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in unsuccessful and successful psychopaths. Volumetric segmentation, cortical pattern matching, and surface-based mesh modeling methods were used to examine prefrontal and amygdala structures in 16 unsuccessful psychopaths, 10 successful psychopaths, and 27 controls. Significant reduced gray matter volume and cortical thickness/surface shape in the middle frontal, orbitofrontal cortex and the amygdala were found in unsuccessful psychopaths but not successful psychopaths, compared with controls. This study provides the first evidence of greater prefrontal and amygdala structural deficits in unsuccessful psychopaths, which may predispose them to poor behavioral control and impaired decision-making, thus making them more prone to convictions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
An actor–partner interdependence model of spousal criticism and depression.
Although perceived criticism is relational, most theory and research concerns only relatives' criticism toward patients and not the converse. With a sample of 33 depressed patients and their spouses, we take a fully relational approach to criticism by testing an actor–partner interdependence model (Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006). Patient intended criticism was especially strongly associated with depressive symptoms for wives, whereas patient perceived criticism was especially negatively related to depressive symptoms for husbands. Nondepressed partner intended criticism was positively related to patient depressive symptoms, but nondepressed wife perceived criticism was negatively related to husband depressive symptoms. The importance of including patient intended and partner perceived criticism as well as examining sex differences in models of criticism and depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Subtypes of partner violence perpetrators among male and female psychiatric patients.
The goal of this naturalistic study was to examine heterogeneity among female and male civil psychiatric patients with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Participants were 567 patients drawn from the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study (J. Monahan et al., 2001). The authors examined subtype composition among 138 women and 93 men with positive histories of IPV and compared these groups with 111 women and 225 men with no histories of IPV. Findings for men and women were consistent with reports from studies of male perpetrators in forensic and community settings in that generally violent/antisocial, borderline/dysphoric, and family only/low-psychopathology subtypes of perpetrators were identified in both men and women. This study provides preliminary evidence for the generalizability of typologies derived from nonpsychiatric partner violence perpetrators to psychiatric populations and suggests that typologies derived from studies of male IPV perpetrators may provide useful guidance for the investigation of female IPV perpetration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
A body-related dot-probe task reveals distinct attentional patterns for bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa.
We investigated body-related attentional biases in eating disorders by testing whether individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN, n = 19) and bulimia nervosa (BN, n = 18) differ from healthy controls (HC, n = 21) in their bias for attending to a photo of their own body (self-photo) relative to a photo of a matched control participant's body (other photo). In a modified dot-probe task, self- and other photos served as cues on the left and the right of the screen. After 1 of 2 time intervals, 1 of the photos was singled out by a surrounding frame, and participants had to saccade toward it. Saccade latency was used as an index of covert attention to the cue photos. In the AN group, saccades were faster when the self-photo was the target than when the other photo was the target. In the BN group, there was a numerically opposite but nonsignificant pattern. Cues did not affect saccade latencies in healthy controls. The bias for self-photos correlated with body dissatisfaction in the AN group. This is the first evidence of an attentional bias for self-photos over other photos in the AN group and for fundamental attentional differences between AN and BN. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
When doors of perception open: Visual contrast sensitivity in never-medicated, first-episode schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is characterized by impaired visual contrast sensitivity and anomalous perceptual experiences. The aim of this study was to investigate these phenomena in unmedicated patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Visual contrast sensitivity was measured with pulsed-pedestal and steady-pedestal tests, which bias information processing toward the parvocellular and magnocellular pathways, respectively. Anomalous perceptual experiences were investigated with the Structured Interview for Assessing Perceptual Anomalies (SIAPA). Results revealed that patients with schizophrenia (n = 20) exhibited increased contrast sensitivity values on the magnocellular test relative to the control participants (n = 20). In the parvocellular condition, there was no significant difference between the two groups. The higher magnocellular contrast sensitivity values were associated with increased visual SIAPA scores, especially at the two lowest spatial frequencies (0.25 and 0.5 cycles/degree). These results indicate the heightened sensitivity of magnocellular pathways in unmedicated first-episode schizophrenia, which may contribute to anomalous perceptual experiences and sensory overloading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Early attentional deficits in an attention-to-prepulse paradigm in ADHD adults.
Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were examined for early and late attentional processes as a function of controlled attention. The test paradigm was the attentional modulation of prepulse inhibition (PPI; early controlled attentional processing) and prepulse facilitation (PPF; late controlled attentional processing). In 49 patients and 49 controls, the authors measured acoustic startle responses to 96-dB startle pulses preceded 120, 240 (for PPI), 2,000, and 4,500 (for PPF) ms by a 68-dB prepulse noise. Geometric figures signaled that prepulses were to be ignored or attended to (automatic vs. controlled attention). ADHD patients exhibited deficits in prepulse modulation, but these reflected an interaction of controlled attention and time of information processing. Normal PPI and PPF occurred under all conditions except for controlled attentional modulation of PPI. Attention deficits in ADHD patients may reflect not general derangements in information processing or ability to attend but, rather, selective disturbances of controlled attention during early information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Serotonin transporter gene associations with psychopathic traits in youth vary as a function of socioeconomic resources.
Although prior research has examined the genetic correlates of antisocial behavior, molecular genetics influences on psychopathic traits remain largely unknown. Consequently, we investigated the influence of polymorphic variation at the serotonin transporter protein gene (SLC6A4) and socioeconomic resources (SES) on psychopathic traits in youth across two distinct samples in two separate studies. In Study 1, a main effect of serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) genotype was associated with the impulsivity dimension of psychopathy. That is, individuals homozygous for the short allele evidenced more impulsivity than did those homozygous for the long allele. In contrast, a gene–environment interaction was associated with the callous-unemotional and narcissistic features of psychopathy. Callous-unemotional and narcissistic traits increased as SES decreased only among youths with the homozygous-long (l/l) genotype, a novel finding replicated and extended in Study 2. These studies provide preliminary results that the l/l genotype confers risk for the emotional deficits and predatory interpersonal traits associated with psychopathy among youths raised in disadvantaged environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Increased rates of events that activate or deactivate the behavioral approach system, but not events related to goal attainment, in bipolar spectrum disorders.
Research indicates that life events involving goal attainment and goal striving trigger hypomania/mania and that negative life events trigger bipolar depression. These findings are consistent with the behavioral approach system (BAS) dysregulation model of bipolar disorders, which suggests that individuals with bipolar disorders are hypersensitive to cues signaling opportunity for reward and cues signaling failure and loss of rewards. However, no studies to date have investigated whether individuals with bipolar spectrum disorders experience increased rates of these BAS-relevant life events, which would place them at double risk for developing bipolar episodes. The present study found that individuals with bipolar II disorder and cyclothymia experience increased rates of BAS-activating and BAS-deactivating, but not goal-attainment, life events. Finally, for bipolar spectrum individuals only, BAS-activating events predicted BAS-deactivating events' rates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Attentional bias toward suicide-related stimuli predicts suicidal behavior.
A long-standing challenge for scientific and clinical work on suicidal behavior is that people often are motivated to deny or conceal suicidal thoughts. The authors proposed that people considering suicide would possess an objectively measurable attentional bias toward suicide-related stimuli and that this bias would predict future suicidal behavior. Participants were 124 adults presenting to a psychiatric emergency department who were administered a modified emotional Stroop task and followed for 6 months. Suicide attempters showed an attentional bias toward suicide-related words relative to neutral words, and this bias was strongest among those who had made a more recent attempt. Importantly, this suicide-specific attentional bias predicted which people made a suicide attempt over the next 6 months, above and beyond other clinical predictors. Attentional bias toward more general negatively valenced words did not predict any suicide-related outcomes, supporting the specificity of the observed effect. These results suggest that suicide-specific attentional bias can serve as a behavioral marker for suicidal risk, and ultimately improve scientific and clinical work on suicide-related outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Co-occurrence of avoidant personality disorder and child sexual abuse predicts poor outcome in long-standing eating disorder.
Few consistent predictive factors for eating disorder have been identified across studies. In the current 5-year prospective study, the objective was to examine whether (a) personality disorder and child sexual abuse predict the course of severity of eating disorder symptoms after inpatient treatment and (b) how the predictors interact. A total of 74 patients with long-standing eating disorder and mean age of 30 years were assessed at the beginning and end of inpatient therapy and at 1-, 2-, and 5-year follow-up. A mixed model was used to examine the predictors. Avoidant personality disorder and child sexual abuse interacted in predicting high levels of eating disorder over a long-term course. These results suggest that eating disorder, avoidant personality disorder, and sequelae after child sexual abuse are potential targets for treatment that need further investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Correction to Harlé et al. (2010).
Reports an error in "The impact of depression on social economic decision making" by Katia M. Harlé, John J. B. Allen and Alan G. Sanfey (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 2010[May], Vol 119[2], 440-446). In the article, the last revision received date printed on the final page of the article was incorrect due to an error in the production process. The correct publication dates are as follows: Received April 14, 2009; Revision received November 6, 2009; Accepted November 9, 2009. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2010-08841-020.) Although the role of emotion in social economic decision making has been increasingly recognized, the impact of mood disorders, such as depression, on such decisions has been surprisingly neglected. To address this gap, 15 depressed and 23 nondepressed individuals completed a well-known economic task, in which they had to accept or reject monetary offers from other players. Although depressed individuals reported a more negative emotional reaction to unfair offers, they accepted significantly more of these offers than did controls. A positive relationship was observed in the depressed group, but not in controls, between acceptance rates of unfair offers and resting cardiac vagal control, a physiological index of emotion regulation capacity. The discrepancy between depressed individuals' increased emotional reactions to unfair offers and their decisions to accept more of these offers contrasts with recent findings that negative mood in nondepressed individuals can lead to lower acceptance rates. This suggests distinct biasing processes in depression, which may be related to higher reliance on regulating negative emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Vol 119, Iss 3