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The present study examined unique and interactive effects of effortful control (self-report vs. task-based) on the relationship between negative affect and dimensions of psychopathology in a group of children from the ABCD Study® aged 9–11 (n = 5,432). Results demonstrate that the reactive temperament factor of negative affect showed strong and positive significant associations with both dimensions of psychopathology, while the regulative factor of effortful control showed a significant negative association with both dimensions of psychopathology via Flanker, and a significant positive association with both dimensions of psychopathology via the EATQ-R. These findings raise the possibility that early assessment of effortful control may aid in the identification of early risk profiles for psychopathology and that interventions aimed at maximizing flexible deployment of effort control could help to reduce children’s risk of developing psychopathological symptoms.

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd-edition (ADOS-2) Toddler Module is the current gold-standard measure of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental condition more frequently diagnosed in toddler boys than girls. Some evidence suggests that behaviors assessed by the Toddler Module may capture an ASD phenotype that is more common among boys than girls. Focus on these behaviors may contribute to sex differences in ASD diagnoses. Particularly, the ADOS-2 may equivalently weight social communication behaviors on which boys and girls are expected to look similar and behaviors that which girls may, due to early socialization, perform differently than boys. As a consequence, the Toddler Module may fail to identify ASD in girls who should qualify for the diagnosis. The current study examined the possibility that some ADOS-2 items may function differently for boys and girls by testing the degree to which eight items equivalently related to a social communication latent factor across sexes in toddlers with suspected ASD. Inconsistent with hypotheses, tests of differential item functioning revealed no evidence of sex differences, suggesting that the Toddler Module assesses these eight items similarly for boys and girls. Examination of factor loadings point to Creativity/Imagination as an area of interest for future research. Lay abstract When toddlers are suspected of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the gold-standard assessment technique is with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2) Toddler Module, a behavioral observation system. ASD is a neurodevelopmental condition more frequently diagnosed in toddler boys than in toddler girls. There is some evidence that the ADOS-2 assesses behaviors that are more characteristic of boys with ASD than girls. Thus, it is possible that focusing on these behaviors contributes at least in part to why more boys are diagnosed than girls. Specifically, girls may show more social skills than boys during the ADOS-2 assessment due to their socialization histories, which may lead to missed diagnoses of ASD in toddler girls. The current study examined eight social behaviors assessed by the ADOS-2 in a sample of toddlers with suspected ASD to see if they contributed differently to the total score of those items. Examination of those items suggested that those social communication behaviors work the same for boys and girls with suspected ASD, which was inconsistent with hypotheses. However, examination of particular items raises the possibility of examining creative/imaginative play as an area for future research.

Background and objectives: Although research supports the premise that depressed and socially anxious individuals direct attention preferentially toward negative emotional cues, little is known abo...

Findings regarding relationships between social anxiety and subtypes of empathy have been mixed, and one study suggested that this may be due to moderation by biological sex. The present study examined whether accounting for general anxiety and biological sex clarifies these relationships. Undergraduates ( N = 701, 76% female) completed online self-report measures of cognitive and affective empathy, social and general anxiety severity, and a behavioral measure of cognitive empathy (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task; MIE). Path analysis examined relationships among social and general anxiety severity and affective and cognitive empathy. Model modification indices showed a significant influence of sex on the path from social anxiety severity to MIE accuracy. When the model was re-estimated with this path freed, more socially anxious women, but not men, showed greater MIE accuracy. Across both sexes, general anxiety severity related negatively to self-reported and behavioral (MIE) cognitive empathy. Affective empathy did not relate to either type of anxiety. The use of path analysis to simultaneously account for overlapping variance among measures of anxiety and empathy helps clarify earlier mixed findings on relationships between social anxiety and empathy subtypes.

People differ in their self-reported propensities to experience positive affect (PA). Even those prone to internalizing symptoms show varied proclivities to PA; social anxiety (SA), for instance, unlike other types of anxiety, shows a strong negative association with PA that cannot be explained by diminished reward sensitivity. Heightened reliance on suppression of emotional displays (expressive suppression; ES) may be an alternate contributor to attenuated PA among people with elevated SA, relative to people with other types of anxiety. A first step toward testing this hypothesis is clarifying the ES-PA association and examining whether it varies as a function of anxiety type (social anxiety vs. other types of anxiety). This meta-analysis (k = 41; n = 11,010) revealed a significant, negative association between ES and PA (r = −0.158); however, this relationship was not significant for individuals with social or other anxiety disorders. Moreover, two moderators (sample culture—Western: r = −0.16; Eastern: r = 0.003; type of emotion suppressed—Negative: r = 0.18; Positive: r = −0.12) accounted for significant heterogeneity in effect sizes. This review synthesizes the literature on ES and PA in healthy and anxious samples; findings suggest moderating variables merit closer attention in future studies.

Police officers are a community resource tasked with keeping citizens safe. Some individuals, however, particularly those from groups that have historically experienced mistreatment at the hands of police officers, are disproportionately likely to perceive interactions with police, even those that are ostensibly benign or helpful, as threatening. We know little about whether psychological characteristics, such as fear of negative evaluation (FNE), which is also associated with heightened perception of threats from others, may amplify or attenuate perceptions of safety in the presence of the police. We used linear multiple regression to test the hypothesis that perceptions of safety in the presence of same- and different- race police officers would be lower among members of a group with heightened perceptions of police mistreatment (African Americans), particularly those who also endorse high levels of FNE, than among European Americans, regardless of their levels of FNE. Our findings indicate that the interaction between participant race and FNE significantly predicted safety feelings in the presence of police officers, particularly those from a racial outgroup. How one views interactions with police may influence whether or how often a citizen seeks police protection as well as the nature of those interactions.

An influential evolutionary model proposed that social anxiety biases people to treat social interactions as competitive struggles with the primary goal of avoiding status loss. Among subordinate nonhuman primates in highly hierarchical social groups, this goal leads to adaptive submissive behavior; for humans, however, affiliative responses may be more effective. We tested three predictions about social anxiety and social cognitions, emotions, and behavior that Trower and Gilbert advanced. College students ( N = 122) whose self-reported social anxiety ranged from minimal to extremely high played the Prisoner’s Dilemma game three times. Consistent with two model-based predictions, social anxiety was positively associated with self-reported competitive goals and with nervousness during game play. Unexpectedly, however, social anxiety was associated with a tendency to engage with coplayers in an ostensibly hostile, rather than appeasing, manner. We discuss implications of these findings for updated models of socially anxious behavior.

BackgroundSchizotypal traits are considered a phenotypic-indicator of schizotypy, a latent personality organization reflecting a putative liability for psychosis. To date, no previous study has examined the comparability of factorial structures across samples originating from different countries and cultures. The main goal was to evaluate the factorial structure and reliability of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) scores by amalgamating data from studies conducted in 12 countries and across 21 sites.MethodThe overall sample consisted of 27 001 participants (37.5% males,n= 4251 drawn from the general population). The mean age was 22.12 years (s.d.= 6.28, range 16–55 years). The SPQ was used. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Multilevel CFA (ML-CFA) were used to evaluate the factor structure underlying the SPQ scores.ResultsAt the SPQ item level, the nine factor and second-order factor models showed adequate goodness-of-fit. At the SPQ subscale level, three- and four-factor models displayed better goodness-of-fit indices than other CFA models. ML-CFA showed that the intraclass correlation coefficients values were lower than 0.106. The three-factor model showed adequate goodness of fit indices in multilevel analysis. The ordinalαcoefficients were high, ranging from 0.73 to 0.94 across individual samples, and from 0.84 to 0.91 for the combined sample.ConclusionsThe results are consistent with the conceptual notion that schizotypal personality is a multifaceted construct and support the validity and utility of SPQ in cross-cultural research. We discuss theoretical and clinical implications of our results for diagnostic systems, psychosis models and cross-national mental health strategies.

Exposure-based treatment for threat-avoidance in anxiety disorders often results in fear renewal. However, little is known about renewal of avoidance. This multimodal laboratory-based treatment study used an ABA renewal design and an approach-avoidance (AP-AV) task to examine renewal of fear/threat and avoidance in twenty adults. In Context A, nine visual cues paired with increases in probabilistic money loss (escalating threats) elicited increases in ratings of feeling threatened and loss expectancies and skin-conductance responses (SCR). During the AP-AV task, a monetary reinforcer was available concurrently with threats. Approach produced the reinforcer or probabilistic loss, while avoidance prevented loss and forfeited reinforcement. Escalating threat produced increasing avoidance and ratings. In Context B with Pavlovian extinction, threats signaled no money loss and SCR declined. During the AP-AV task, avoidance and ratings also declined. In a return to Context A with Pavlovian threat extinction in effect during the AP-AV task, renewal was observed. Escalating threat was associated with increasing ratings and avoidance in most participants. SCR did not show renewal. These are the first translational findings to highlight renewal of avoidance in humans. Further research should identify individual difference variables and altered neural mechanisms that may confer increased risk of avoidance renewal.

To function during social interactions, we must be able to consider and coordinate our actions with other people’s perspectives. This process unfolds from decision-making, to anticipation of that decision’s consequences, to feedback about those consequences, in what can be described as a “cascade” of three phases. The iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma (iPD) task, an economic-exchange game used to illustrate how people achieve stable cooperation over repeated interactions, provides a framework for examining this “social decision cascade”. In the present study, we examined neural activity associated with the three phases of the cascade, which can be isolated during iPD game rounds. While undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 31 adult participants made a) decisions about whether to cooperate with a co-player for a monetary reward, b) anticipated the co-player’s decision, and then c) learned the co-player’s decision. Across all three phases, participants recruited the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), regions implicated in numerous facets of social reasoning such as perspective-taking and the judgement of intentions. Additionally, a common distributed neural network underlies both decision-making and feedback appraisal; however, differences were identified in the magnitude of recruitment between both phases. Furthermore, there was limited evidence that anticipation following the decision to defect evoked a neural signature that is distinct from the signature of anticipation following the decision to cooperate. This study is the first to delineate the neural substrates of the entire social decision cascade in the context of the iPD game.

The capacity to engage with one’s child in a reciprocally responsive way is an important element of successful and rewarding parent–child conversations, which are common contexts for emotion socialization. The degree to which a parent–child dyad shows a mutually responsive orientation presumably depends on both individuals’ socio-emotional skills. For example, one or both members of a dyad needs to be able to accurately interpret and respond to the other’s nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions, to facilitate mutually responsive interactions. Little research, however, has examined whether and how mother and/or child facial expression decoding skill relates to dyads’ emotional mutuality during conversations. We thus examined associations between both mother and child facial expression decoding skill and observed emotional mutuality during parent-preschooler conversations about happy child memories. Results lend support to our hypotheses by suggesting that both mother and child capacities to read others’ emotional cues make distinct contributions to parent–child emotional mutuality in the context of reminiscing conversations. Specifically, mothers’ accurate decoding of child facial expressions predicted maternal displays of positive affect and interest, while children’s accurate decoding of adult facial expressions predicted dyadic displays of mutual enjoyment. Contrary to our hypotheses, however, parent/child facial expression decoding skills did not interact to predict observed mutual responsiveness. These findings underscore the importance of attending to both parent and child contributions to successful dyadic interactions that facilitate effective emotion socialization.

Maladaptive patterns of attention to emotional stimuli are a common feature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with growing evidence supporting sustained attention to threatening stimuli across trauma samples. However, it remains unclear how different PTSD symptom clusters are associated with attentional bias patterns, particularly in urban civilian settings with high rates of trauma exposure and PTSD. The present study examined associations among these variables in 70 traumatized primarily African American women. PTSD was measured using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale, and eye tracking was used to measure patterns of attention as participants engaged in an attention bias (dot probe) task to emotional faces; average initial fixation (1 s) and dwell duration (overall time spent looking at emotional face versus neutral face across the 5 s task) were used to assess attention bias patterns toward emotional faces. Women with PTSD showed significantly longer dwell duration toward angry faces than women without PTSD (Los patrones desaptativos de atención a estímulos emocionales son una característica común del trastorno de estrés postraumático (TEPT), con evidencias crecientes que respaldan el rol de la atención sostenida hacia estímulos amenazadores a través de muestras de traumas. Sin embargo, aún permanece poco claro cómo diferentes conglomerados de síntomas de TEPT se asocian con los patrones de sesgo atencional, especialmente en entornos civiles urbanos con altas tasas de exposición al trauma y TEPT. El presente estudio examinó las asociaciones entre estas variables en 70 mujeres traumatizadas principalmente afroamericanas. El TEPT se midió utilizando la Escala de TEPT Administrada por el Medico, y el seguimiento ocular se usó para medir los patrones de atención cuando los participantes se involucraron en una tarea de sesgo atencional (sonda de puntos) a las caras emocionales; la fijación inicial promedio (1 segundo) y la duración de permanencia (tiempo total dedicado a mirar la cara emocional en contraste a la cara neutral en la tarea de 5 segundos) se utilizaron para evaluar los patrones de sesgo de atención hacia las caras emocionales. Las mujeres con TEPT mostraron una duración de permanencia de la mirada significativamente más prolongada hacia las caras enojadas que las mujeres sin TEPT (F = 5.16, p.05). Los análisis de correlación bivariada con los conglomerados de síntomas de TEPT mostraron una asociación significativa entre la fijación inicial promedio hacia las caras enojadas y los niveles más altos de síntomas de evitación (r = 0.29, p.05), así como la atención sostenida a las caras enojadas y niveles más altos los síntomas de re-experimentación (r = 0.24, p.05). Usando modelos de regresión lineal separados basados en correlaciones significativas iniciales, encontramos que los síntomas de evitación de TEPT se relacionaron significativamente con la fijación inicial promedio hacia caras de enojo (R2∆=0.09, p0.05) y los síntomas de re-experimentación de TEPT se relacionaron significativamente con la duración de permanencia hacia caras enojadas (R2∆=0.06, p0.05). Estos hallazgos contribuyen a la evidencia de que el TEPT está relacionado con la vigilancia inicial y la atención sostenida a la amenaza y que ciertos conglomerados de síntomas pueden impulsar o verse más afectados por los sesgos atencionales, destacando los beneficios de abordar los sesgos atencionales dentro del tratamiento.情绪刺激的注意的适应不良模式是创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的共同特征，越来越多的证据支持创伤样本对威胁刺激的持续注意。然而，目前尚不清楚不同PTSD症状簇与注意偏向模式的关系，特别是在创伤暴露率和PTSD发生率高的城市居民环境中。本研究调查了70名创伤暴露（主要为）非裔美国女性中的这些变量之间的关联。使用《临床医师使用的PTSD量表》测量PTSD，被试对情绪面孔进行注意力偏向（点探测）任务时，使用眼睛跟踪来测量注意模式；平均初始固定（1秒）和停留持续时间（在5秒任务中观察情绪面部相对中性面部所花费的总时间）被用于评估对情绪面孔的注意偏差模式。患有创伤后应激障碍的女性对生气面孔的停留时间显著长于没有创伤后应激障碍的女性（F = 5.16，p.05）。与创伤后应激障碍症状簇的双变量相关分析显示,对愤怒面孔平均初始固定眼动与较高水平的回避症状（r = 0.29，p.05）显著相关，并且持续关注愤怒面孔和更高水平的再体验症状（r = 0.24，p.05）。基于初步显著相关性的单独线性回归模型，我们发现PTSD回避症状与对愤怒面部的平均初始固定显著相关（R2Δ= 0.09，p0.05）并且PTSD再体验症状与对愤怒面孔眼动持续停留时间显著相关（R2Δ= 0.06，p0.05）。这些发现有助于证明创伤后应激障碍与初始警惕和对威胁的持续关注有关，并且某些症状簇可能会引起注意偏向或者受到注意偏差的影响更多，这突出了解决治疗中注意偏差的好处。.

The present study examined and compared the effects of 2 analogues of cognitive treatments-cognitive defusion and cognitive reappraisal-on symbolically generalized avoidance established using a basic behavioral laboratory paradigm. This back-translation design contributes to the development and validation of principle-based definitions of the applied constructs of defusion and reappraisal. Eighty-eight participants first underwent basic laboratory procedures designed to establish symbolically generalized avoidance in response to an arbitrary stimulus (a nonsense word). Participants were then randomized to defusion, reappraisal, or control conditions. The response variables were (a) equivalence responding-indicative of the trained relational network and analogous to the cognitive content responsible for symbolic generalization-and (b) avoidance-the behavioral impact of symbolic generalization. A between-groups analysis revealed that defusion and reappraisal significantly increased the odds of nonavoidance responding. Discrete-time survival mediation analyses provided preliminary support for the classification of defusion as a functional context intervention and reappraisal as a relational context intervention.

Cognitive factors, such as beliefs that anxiety is harmful, may lead parents to engage excessively in over-controlling parenting practices, such as “rescuing” children from distress. The present study examined whether parental rescue behavior, or the speed at which parents intervened to rescue an increasingly distressed child during an audio paradigm, was associated with beliefs about child anxiety. We also evaluated the impact of psychoeducation on rescue behavior during the audio paradigm. A nonclinical sample of 310 parents was recruited from an online crowdsourcing platform. Findings support the hypothesis that parents’ stronger beliefs that anxiety is harmful relate to parents’ faster speed of rescue. Additionally, participants who received psychoeducation delayed their rescue responses more than did participants who received benign information. Findings add to the growing body of evidence that cognitive factors contribute to countertherapeutic parent behavior and indicate that psychoeducation can be an important component of family-based child anxiety treatment.

Reductions in judgmental biases concerning the cost and probability of negative social events are presumed to be mechanisms of treatment for SAD. Methodological limitations of extant studies, however, leave open the possibility that, instead of causing symptom relief, reductions in judgmental biases are correlates or consequences of it. The present study evaluated changes in judgmental biases as mechanisms explaining the efficacy of CBT for SAD. Participants were 86 individuals who met DSM-IV-TR criteria for a primary diagnosis of SAD, participated in one of two treatment outcome studies of CBT for SAD, and completed measures of judgmental (i.e., cost and probability) biases and social anxiety at pre-, mid-, and posttreatment. Treated participants had significantly greater reductions in judgmental biases than not-treated participants; pre-to-post changes in cost and probability biases statistically mediated treatment outcome; and probability bias at midtreatment was a significant predictor of treatment outcome, even when modeled with a plausible rival mediator, working alliance. Contrary to hypotheses, cost bias at midtreatment was not a significant predictor of treatment outcome. Results suggest that reduction in probability bias is a mechanism by which CBT for SAD exerts its effects.

Introduction Physical activity (PA) has been shown to benefit mental health. While research on non-human animal species indicates that PA may confer protective effects on mental health by increasing resilience to stress via regulation of the stress response, the human literature offers inconsistent evidence regarding this idea. To help reconcile these inconsistencies, the present study of human adults tested the hypothesis that PA's protective effects, as indexed by self-perceived resilience, vary according to individual differences in trait anxiety, which has been linked to a dysregulated stress response and risk for developing mental health problems. Specifically, we predicted that individuals reporting high trait anxiety (and thus presumably more stress response dysregulation) would show a stronger association between PA and self-perceived resilience, than would peers with lower reported trait anxiety. Methods Undergraduate students (n = 222) completed online self-report measures regarding their PA level, trait anxiety, and self-perceived resilience. Results Hierarchical linear regression analyses yielded evidence of a significant interaction between trait anxiety level and PA, such that PA and self-perceived resilience were significantly and positively associated among individuals with high trait anxiety, but not among individuals with low and moderate trait anxiety. Discussion In conclusion, individuals with high trait anxiety, which may be a risk factor for developing clinically significant mental health problems, may preferentially show psychological, as well as physiological, benefits from PA.

The amygdala factors prominently in neurobiological models of social anxiety (SA), yet amygdala volume findings regarding SA have been inconsistent and largely focused on case-control characterization. One source of discrepant findings could be variability in volumetric techniques. Therefore, we compared amygdala volumes derived via an automated technique (Freesurfer) against a manually corrected approach, also involving Freesurfer. Additionally, we tested whether the relationship between volume and SA symptom severity would differ across volumetric techniques. We pooled participants (n = 76) from archival studies. SA severity was assessed with the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale; scores ranged from non-clinical to clinical levels. Freesurfer produced significantly larger amygdalar volumes for participants with poor image quality. Even after excluding such participants, paired sample t-tests showed Freesurfer's boundaries produced significantly larger amygdalar volumes than manually corrected ones, bilaterally. Yet, intra-class correlation coefficients between the two methods were high, which suggests that Freesurfer's over-estimation of amygdala volume was systemic. Regardless of segmentation technique, volumes were not associated with SA symptom severity. Potentially, amygdala sub-regions may yield clearer patterns regarding SA symptoms. Further, our study underscores the importance of image quality for segmentation of the amygdala, and image quality may be particularly valuable when examining anatomical data for subtle inter-individual differences.

Introduction Impaired inhibition of fear in the presence of safety cues and a deficiency in the extinction of fear cues are increasingly thought to be important biological markers of Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Other studies have suggested that there may be altered neural activation during behavioral inhibition tasks in subjects with PTSD. The current study aimed to see whether neural activation during inhibition was reduced in a highly traumatized civilian population, and whether atypical activation was associated with impaired fear inhibition. Methods The participants were 41 traumatized women (20 PTSD+, 21 PTSD−) recruited from Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. We used a Go/NoGo procedure with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a high-resolution 3T scanner. Participants were instructed to press a button whenever an “X” or “O” appeared on the screen, but not if a red square appeared behind the letter. Participants were assessed for trauma history and PTSD diagnosis, and completed a fear-potentiated startle and extinction paradigm. Results We found stronger activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in traumatized subjects without PTSD compared to those with PTSD in the NoGo greater than Go contrast condition. Activation in the vmPFC was negatively correlated with fear-potentiated startle responses during safety signal learning (p = .02) and fear extinction (p = .0002). Conclusions These results contribute to understanding of how the neural circuitry involved in inhibitory processes may be deficient in PTSD. Furthermore, the same circuits involved in behavioral inhibition appear to be involved in fear inhibition processes during differential fear conditioning and extinction.

Social relationships constitute a highly rewarding context for most people, providing a source of support and nurturance, as well as protection against loneliness, depression, and even death (Cacioppo, Hawkley, & Thisted, 2010; Cohen, 2004; Steptoe, Shankar, Demakakos, & Wardle, 2013). Interpersonal relationships can also, however, be stressful. They are marked by periodic conflict with others and entail inherent risks of negative evaluation or criticism (Bertera, 2005; Rook, 1984). Further, social strains contribute to psychological and physical health problems (Seeman, Gruenewald, Cohen, Williams, & Matthews, 2014; Yang, Schorpp, & Harris, 2014). It is thus not surprising that interpersonal difficulties constitute one of the most common reasons that people seek psychological treatment (Bankoff, 1994; Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton, & Benton, 2003; Pledge, Lapan, Heppner, Kivlighan, & Roehlke, 1998). One particularly common manifestation of such difficulties is social anxiety (SA), defined as an excessive fear of negative evaluation that can lead people to avoid social engagement. Its associated behavior patterns may result, in the most severe cases, in a clinical diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD, formerly called social phobia; APA, 2013). Indeed, this disorder is common. Approximately 7–8% of adults meet the criteria for SAD in a given year (Kessler, Chiu, Demler, & Walters, 2005), and an additional 10–11% have at least some impairing symptoms (Fehm, Beesdo, Jacobi, & Fiedler, 2008).

Objective The present investigation examined (a) whether a clinical sample of individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) comprises two distinct groups based on attention bias for social threat (vigilant, avoidant), (b) the relation between attention bias and cognitive bias, specifically estimates of the probability that negative social events will occur (probability bias), and (c) specific changes in attention bias following cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety. Method Participants were 24 individuals (nfemale = 7, nmale = 17; mage = 41) who met diagnostic criteria for SAD and sought treatment for fear of public speaking. Hypotheses were tested using t tests, linear regression analyses, and a mixed design analysis of variance. Results Results yielded evidence of 2 pretreatment groups (vigilant and avoidant). There was a significant positive correlation between vigilance for (but not avoidance of) threat and probability bias (R = .561, p < .05). After 8 weeks of treatment, the direction of change in attention bias differed between groups, such that the vigilant group became less vigilant and the avoidant group became less avoidant, with the avoidant group showing a significant change in attention bias from pretreatment to posttreatment. Conclusions These findings provide very preliminary support for the idea that individuals with SAD may differ according to type attention bias, avoidant or vigilant, as these biases changed in different ways following cognitive-behavioral therapy for SAD. Further research is needed to replicate and extend these findings in order to evaluate whether SAD comprises subgroups of attentional biases. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Clin. Psychol. 68:745-754, 2012

Attentional biases have been proposed to contribute to symptom maintenance in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although the neural correlates of these processes have not been well defined; this was the goal of the present study. We administered an attention bias task, the dot probe, to a sample of 37 (19 control, 18 PTSD+) traumatized African-American adults during fMRI. Compared to controls, PTSD+ participants demonstrated increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in response to threat cue trials. In addition, attentional avoidance of threat corresponded with increased ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activation in the PTSD group, a pattern that was not observed in controls. These data provide evidence to suggest that relative increases in dlPFC, dACC and vlPFC activation represent neural markers of attentional bias for threat in individuals with PTSD, reflecting selective disruptions in attentional control and emotion processing networks in this disorder.

The present study investigated whether mindfulness and different forms of maladaptive eating-related cognitions (i.e., fear of gaining weight, belief that social approval is contingent on weight/appearance, and self-worth from feeling in control of eating) separately and independently accounted for unique variance in psychological distress among adult females with elevated eating pathology. Ethnically diverse nonclinical college females (N = 738) completed a web-based survey; data from 91 of these participants who endorsed elevated eating pathology were selected for analyses. Mindfulness and fear of gaining weight, but not self-worth or perceived importance of appearance for gaining social approval, accounted for unique variance in psychological distress after controlling for age, ethnicity and body mass index (BMI). The present study suggests that not all forms of disordered eating cognitions are uniquely associated with psychological distress among females with elevated eating pathology and that mindfulness is a useful concept for understanding psychological distress in this group.

BackgroundPost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops in a minority of traumatized individuals. Attention biases to threat and abnormalities in fear learning and extinction are processes likely to play a critical role in the creation and/or maintenance of PTSD symptomatology. However, the relationship between these processes has not been established, particularly in highly traumatized populations; understanding their interaction can help inform neural network models and treatments for PTSD.MethodAttention biases were measured using a dot probe task modified for use with our population; task stimuli included photographs of angry facial expressions, which are emotionally salient threat signals. A fear-potentiated startle paradigm was employed to measure atypical physiological response during acquisition and extinction phases of fear learning. These measures were administered to a sample of 64 minority (largely African American), highly traumatized individuals with and without PTSD.ResultsParticipants with PTSD demonstrated attention biases toward threat; this attentional style was associated with exaggerated startle response during fear learning and early and middle phases of extinction, even after accounting for the effects of trauma exposure.ConclusionsOur findings indicate that an attentional bias toward threat is associated with abnormalities in ‘fear load’ in PTSD, providing seminal evidence for an interaction between these two processes. Future research combining these behavioral and psychophysiological techniques with neuroimaging will be useful toward addressing how one process may modulate the other and understanding whether these phenomena are manifestations of dysfunction within a shared neural network. Ultimately, this may serve to inform PTSD treatments specifically designed to correct these atypical processes.

Virtual reality exposure (VRE) has been shown to be effective for treating a variety of anxiety disorders, including social phobia. Presence, or the level of connection an individual feels with the virtual environment, is widely discussed as a critical construct both for the experience of anxiety within a virtual environment and for a successful response to VRE. Two published studies show that whereas generalized presence relates to fear ratings during VRE, it does not relate to treatment response. However, presence has been conceptualized as multidimensional, with three primary factors (spatial presence, involvement, and realness). These factors can be linked to other research on the facilitation of fear during exposure, inhibitors of treatment response (e.g., distraction), and more recent theoretical discussions of the mechanisms of exposure therapy, such as Bouton’s description of expectancy violation. As such, one or more of these components of presence may be more strongly associated with the experience of fear during VRE and treatment response than the overarching construct. The current study (N = 41) evaluated relations between three theorized components of presence, fear ratings during VRE, and treatment response for VRE for social phobia. Results suggest that total presence and realness subscale scores were related to in-session peak fear ratings. However, only scores on the involvement subscale significantly predicted treatment response. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Recent evidence suggests that normal-range paranoid ideation may be particularly likely to develop in individuals disposed to both social anxiety and perceptual anomalies. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that among college students in an unselected sample, social anxiety and experience of perceptual anomalies would not only each independently predict the experience of self-reported paranoid ideation, but would also interact to predict paranoid patterns of thought. A diverse sample of 644 students completed a large battery of self-report measures, as well as the five-factor Paranoia/Suspiciousness Questionnaire (PSQ). We conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses predicting scores on each PSQ factor from responses on measures of social anxiety, perceptual aberration, and the interaction between the two constructs. Current general negative affect was covaried in all analyses. We found that both social anxiety and perceptual aberrations, along with negative affect, predicted multiple dimensions of paranoia as measured by the PSQ; the two constructs did not, however, interact significantly to predict any dimensions. Our findings suggest that perceptual aberration and anxiety may contribute to normal-range paranoid ideation in an additive rather than an interactive manner.

BackgroundDepression is a disabling disorder that significantly impacts on the interpersonal functioning of individuals. However, little is known about the neural substrates of such difficulties. In the last few years neuroeconomics, which combines imaging with multiplayer behavioural economic paradigms, has been used to study the neural substrates of normal and abnormal interpersonal interactions.MethodThis study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate neural activity in unmedicated depressed participants (n = 25) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). During scanning, participants played a behavioural economic game, the Prisoner's Dilemma. In this game, the participant and a co-player independently choose either to cooperate or not cooperate with each other.ResultsDepressed participants reported higher levels of negative feelings (betrayal, guilt) during the game than did controls. Neural activation was compared between ‘imbalanced’ events [when one of the players cooperated and the other defected (‘CD’ and ‘DC’)] and ‘draw’ events [when both players either cooperated or defected (‘CC’ and ‘DD’)]. Participants preferentially activated the anterior insula and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region implicated in cognitive control and regulation of emotions. Importantly, compared to controls depressed participants showed reduced activation in the left DLPFC, with the extent of signal reduction correlating with increased self-report feelings of guilt associated with DC outcomes.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that depression is associated with reduced activation of the DLPFC during social events that involve unreciprocated cooperation. This abnormality may underlie anomalies in cognitive control and top-down regulation of emotions during challenging social exchanges.

Emotional and behavioral problems are common among adultswhoweremaltreated as children (1).Thesemaladaptive outcomes appear, at least in part, to reflect enduring changes in brain structure and function that emerge in the wake of severe stressors, such as childhood physical abuse (2). Research that clarifies the extent to which such changes stem from the experience of abuse itself as opposed to the psychiatric conditions that maltreated children often develop, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive disorders, is important. Indeed, a specific understanding of the path from maltreatment to adverse outcomes could inform maltreatmentrelated policy and practice, enabling us to implement both more effectively and efficiently. It could, for instance, help us determine where we should target scarce resources in order to best decreasemaltreatment and its negative consequences. Do we invest in across-the-board services for all maltreated youths, or do we focus some resources more heavily on individuals who show abuse-related psychopathology? It could also guide our selection of interventions or preventive approaches that aremost likely to benefit particular people. If a patient presents with a history of maltreatment but only subthreshold psychiatric symptoms, might one intervention approach be more efficient and effective than another? Research thathelpsus to answer suchquestionsdecisively could have a striking impact on public health. Why, then, are there so few studies that yield clear evidence about maltreatment and whether it leads directly to changes in brain activity patterns or engenders such changes indirectly, by provoking symptoms that in turn alter the brain? One reason is that research that supports confident inferences about whether neural changes stem from life experiences, fromsymptoms, or fromboth ishard to conduct. Recruitment alone is unusually challenging, because participants should ideally be distributed across multiple otherwise-matched groups (non-maltreated/psychiatric disorder, maltreated/psychiatric disorder, non-maltreated/disorderfree, and maltreated/disorder-free). However, although the fourth group (maltreated/disorder-free) is theoretically possible, it is rare to find people with maltreatment histories who are entirely resilient to psychopathology. Thus, including such a group is both impractical andunlikely to yield data that are relevant to more than a few individuals. In addition, researchers must carefully exclude participants with experiences (e.g., drug abuse, brain injury) and characteristics (e.g., neurological anomalies) that could muddy results or introduce irrelevant but potentially influential differences between group members’ brains. The process of selecting cognitive tasks that facilitate meaningful behavioral and neural comparisons among group members introduces further challenges. Optimal tasks tap discrete cognitive processes that are vulnerable to disruption byearly-lifemaltreatmentandalsoelicit robust, reliableneural responsepatterns.Furthermore, ideal tasksadapt interactively to each participant’s ability level, becoming harder when a person performs well and easier when a person performs poorly. This feature ensures that no participants experience the same task as particularly difficult or easy. These are just a few of the issues that complicate studies of neural function andmaltreatment; this work is not for the faint of heart. It is thus exciting to see studies that address these issues head-on come to publication. Lim and colleagues, who describe just such a study in this issueof theJournal (3), are tobecommended forwhat they have achieved. Lim et al. used functional neuroimaging to examine neural activity, indexed as the ratio of deoxygenated to oxygenated blood, throughout the brain while adolescents executed or withheld motor responses in response to rapidly presented cues on a computer screen. Importantly, the task was designed to adjust stimulus presentation rates so that each participant succeeded on only half of the trials when they were cued to withhold a response. The unsuccessful, or “failed inhibition,” trials were of particular interest, because maltreated participants were expected, given their histories of persistent, harsh punishment early in life, to show a distinctive neural hypersensitivity to their own errors. To test the hypothesis that maltreated youths’ brains would respond more sensitively to behavioral errors than would the brains of non-maltreated youths, the authors compared neuroimaging data obtained during this stop-signal task in three demographically matched, unmedicated/drugfree groups of adolescents—one with documented histories of A specific understanding of the path from maltreatment to adverse outcomes could inform maltreatmentrelated policy and practice, enabling us to implement both more effectively and efficiently.

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) is commonly used to assess difficulties recognizing and managing negative affect. Scores on the scale are strongly correlated with measures of psychopathology and are inversely correlated with measures of psychological well-being. Evidence supports the use of the DERS with adolescents and adults; to date, however, few studies have investigated the extent to which the psychometric properties of the DERS are consistent across demographic groups. The overarching goal of the present study was to examine the extent to which the factor structure of the DERS and the reliability and validity of DERS scores are consistent across gender and race in a diverse sample of adults. A total of 1,050 students from a medium-sized, urban university were included in the present study. Participants included 75.6% women and 24.4% men; 42.5% of participants identified as Caucasian, 40.4% as African American, and 17.1% as Asian American. Results showed that the DERS exhibits similar psychometric properties across men and women and all 3 racial groups that were included in this study. As such, the overall scale, as well as the original 6-factor solution of the DERS, can be reliably applied to individuals from the demographic groups investigated in the current study, and results can be interpreted in accordance with those from the preliminary DERS validation sample.

The main goal of this study was to examine the cross-cultural invariance of the factor structure of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) (Raine, 1991) in two large samples of Spanish and American young adults. The final sample was made up of 2313 college students (508 men, 22%). Their mean age was 20.5 years (S.D.=3.2). The results indicated that the Stefanis et al. (2004) four-factor model yielded the best goodness-of-fit indices compared to alternative models. Moreover, the results support configural, metric, and partial measurement invariance of the covariances of the SPQ across the two samples. The finding of measurement equivalence across cultures provides essential evidence of construct validity for the schizotypy dimensions and of the cross-cultural validity of SPQ scores. The finding of comparable dimensional structures in cross-cultural samples lends further support to the continuum model of schizotypy and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Future studies should continue to examine the validity of scores on the SPQ and other schizotypy measures and their variation or consistency across cultures.

Learning to respond to others' distress with well-regulated empathy is an important developmental task linked to positive health outcomes and moral achievements. However, this important interpersonal skill set may also confer risk for depression and anxiety when present at extreme levels and in combination with certain individual characteristics or within particular contexts. The purpose of this review is to describe an empirically grounded theoretical rationale for the hypothesis that empathic tendencies can be “risky strengths.” We propose a model in which typical development of affective and cognitive empathy can be influenced by complex interplay among intraindividual and interindividual moderators that increase risk for empathic personal distress and excessive interpersonal guilt. These intermediate states in turn precipitate internalizing problems that map onto empirically derived fear/arousal and anhedonia/misery subfactors of internalizing disorders. The intraindividual moderators include a genetically influenced propensity toward physiological hyperarousal, which is proposed to interact with genetic propensity to empathic sensitivity to contribute to neurobiological processes that underlie personal distress responses to others' pain or unhappiness. This empathic personal distress then increases risk for internalizing problems, particularly fear/arousal symptoms. In a similar fashion, interactions between genetic propensities toward negative thinking processes and empathic sensitivity are hypothesized to contribute to excess interpersonal guilt in response to others' distress. This interpersonal guilt then increases the risk for internalizing problems, especially anhedonia/misery symptoms. Interindividual moderators, such as maladaptive parenting or chronic exposure to parents' negative affect, further interact with these genetic liabilities to amplify risk for personal distress and interpersonal guilt as well as for consequent internalizing problems. Age-related increases in the heritability of depression, anxiety, and empathy-related constructs are consistent with developmental shifts toward greater influence of intraindividual moderators throughout childhood and adolescence, with interindividual moderators exerting their greatest influence during early childhood. Efforts to modulate neurobiological and behavioral expressions of genetic dysregulation liabilities and to promote adaptive empathic skills must thus begin early in development.

Prominent theoretical models and existing data implicate interpersonal factors in the development and maintenance of suicidal behavior and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). However, no known study has yet used computerized behavioral tasks to objectively assess responses to interpersonal conflict/collaboration among teens engaged in NSSI or having made a suicide attempt. The current study, therefore, compared interpersonal functioning indexed by the Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) task among three mutually exclusive groups, adolescents (ages 13-17): engaged in NSSI only without history of a suicide attempt (n=26); who made a suicide attempt without history of NSSI (n=26); and typically developing controls (n=26). Participants also completed the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure to assess their general sensitivity to/awareness of others' behaviors and feelings. No significant between-group differences were found in PD task performance; however, compared to typically developing control participants and those who had made a suicide attempt, the NSSI group reported significantly more stress during the task. Additionally, NSSI participants rated themselves as more interpersonally sensitive compared to both attempters and typically developing controls. Given the lack of knowledge about whether these groups either differentially activate the same circuitry during stressful interpersonal interactions or instead rely on alternative, compensatory circuits, future work using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging is warranted.

This article represents an effort to extend our understanding of paranoia or suspicion and its development by integrating findings across clinical, developmental, and neuroscience literatures. We first define “paranoia” or paranoid thought and examine its prevalence across typically and atypically developing individuals and theoretical perspectives regarding its development and maintenance. We then briefly summarize current ideas regarding the neural correlates of adaptive, appropriately trusting interpersonal perception, social cognition, and behavior across development. Our focus shifts subsequently to examining in normative and atypical developmental contexts the neural correlates of several component cognitive processes thought to contribute to paranoid thinking: (a) attention bias for threat, (b) jumping to conclusions biases, and (c) hostile intent attribution biases. Where possible, we also present data regarding independent links between these cognitive processes and aggressive behavior. By examining data regarding the behavioral and neural correlates of varied cognitive processes that are likely components of a paranoid thinking style, we hope to advance both theoretical and empirical research in this domain.

In a prospective longitudinal study the authors examined the associations between parent locus of control of reinforcement (LOCR), measured before the birth of a child, and behavioral–emotional outcomes in that child at age 7 years. A total of 307 couples completed questionnaires regarding their emotional status and LOCR at their first prenatal care appointment. When their children turned 7 years old, teachers completed questionnaires regarding each participating child's behavior. Findings indicate significant associations between fathers’ prenatal LOCR and child outcomes, particularly hyperactivity in sons. Hyperactivity and behavioral–emotional problems in girls, in contrast, were better predicted by maternal prenatal emotional distress. Results provide evidence that paternal and maternal characteristics that predate the birth of a child relate to later behavioral outcomes in that child. Implications for prevention of child psychopathology are discussed.

Attention bias for socially threatening information, an empirically supported phenomenon, figures prominently in models of social phobia. However, all published studies examining this topic to date have relied on group means to describe attention bias patterns; research has yet to examine potential subgroups of attention bias among individuals with social phobia (e.g., vigilant or avoidant). Furthermore, almost no research has examined how attention biases in either direction may predict change in symptoms as a result of treatment.This study (N = 24) compared responses to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for social phobia between individuals with avoidant and vigilant biases for threatening faces at pretreatment.Participants with avoidant biases reported significantly and clinically higher symptom levels at posttreatment than did those with vigilant biases.These findings suggest that an avoidant attention bias may be associated with reduced response to CBT for social phobia.

Learning to respond to others’ distress with well-regulated empathy is an important developmental task linked to positive health outcomes and moral achievements. However, this important interpersonal skill set may also, paradoxically, confer risk for depression and anxiety when present at extreme levels and in combination with certain individual characteristics or within particular contexts. The purpose of this review is to describe an empirically-grounded theoretical rationale for the hypothesis that empathic tendencies can be “risky strengths”. We propose a model in which typical development of affective and cognitive empathy can be influenced by complex interplay among intraindividual and interindividual moderators that increase risk for empathic personal distress and excessive interpersonal guilt. These intermediate states, in turn, precipitate internalizing problems that map onto empirically-derived fear/arousal and anhedonia/misery subfactors of internalizing disorders. The intraindividual moderators include a genetically-influenced propensity toward physiological hyperarousal, which is proposed to interact with genetic propensity to empathic sensitivity to contribute to neurobiological processes that underlie personal distress responses others’ pain or unhappiness. This empathic personal distress then increases risk for internalizing problems, particularly fear/arousal symptoms. Similarly, interactions between genetic propensities toward negative thinking processes and empathic sensitivity are hypothesized to contribute to excess interpersonal guilt in response to others’ distress. In turn, this interpersonal guilt increases risk for internalizing problems, especially anhedonia/misery symptoms. Interindividual moderators, such as maladaptive parenting or chronic exposure to parents’ negative affect, further interact with these genetic liabilities to amplify risk for personal distress and interpersonal guilt, as well as for consequent internalizing problems. Age-related increases in the heritability of depression, anxiety, and empathy-related constructs are consistent with developmental shifts toward greater influence of intraindividual moderators throughout childhood and adolescence, with interindividual moderators exerting their greatest influence during early childhood. Efforts to modulate neurobiological and behavioral expressions of genetic dysregulation liabilities and to promote adaptive empathic skills must thus begin early in development.

The FKBP5 gene product regulates glucocorticoid receptor (GR) sensitivity and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning and has been associated with many stress-related psychiatric disorders. The study of intermediate phenotypes, such as emotion-processing biases and their neural substrates, provides a way to clarify the mechanisms by which FKBP5 dysregulation mediates risk for psychiatric disorders.To examine whether allelic variations for a putatively functional single-nucleotide polymorphism associated with FKBP5 gene regulation (rs1360780) would relate differentially to attention bias for threat. this was measured through behavioral response on a dot probe task and hippocampal activation during task performance. Morphologic substrates of differential hippocampal response were also measured.Cross-sectional study conducted from 2010 to 2012 examining associations between genotype, behavioral response, and neural response (using functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI]) on the dot probe; voxel-based morphometry and global and local shape analyses were used to measure structural differences in hippocampi between genotype groups.Participants were recruited from primary care clinics of a publicly funded hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.An African American cohort of adults (N = 103) was separated into 2 groups by genotype: one genotype group included carriers of the rs1360780 T allele, which has been associated with increased risk for posttraumatic stress disorder and affective disorders; the other group did not carry this allele. Behavioral data included both sexes (N = 103); the MRI cohort (n = 36) included only women.Behavioral and fMRI (blood oxygen level-dependent) response, voxel-based morphometry, and shape analyses.Carriers of the rs1360780 T allele showed an attention bias toward threat compared with individuals without this allele (F1,90 = 5.19, P = .02). Carriers of this allele demonstrated corresponding increases in hippocampal activation and differences in morphology; global and local shape analyses revealed alterations in hippocampal shape for TT/TC compared with CC genotype groups.Genetic variants of FKBP5 may be associated with risk for stress-related psychiatric disorders via differential effects on hippocampal structure and function, resulting in altered attention response to perceived threat.