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Purpose: A pervasive and deeply entrenched stigma of personality disorders exists. For other mental disorders, a large body of research suggests that continuum beliefs (i.e., the endorsement of continuum perspectives on mental health and psychopathology) stimulate more favorable attitudes toward affected persons. Additionally, mental disorder classification systems increasingly incorporate continuous personality disorder models. Yet, it is unclear how continuum beliefs are related to personality disorder stigma. This study evaluated the link of continuum beliefs with personality disorder stigma based on correlational and experimental data. Methods: A large general population sample (N = 848) completed self-report measures of continuum beliefs regarding personality disorders, desired social distance, and prejudice toward persons with personality disorders. Additionally, participants were randomly presented with information supporting a continuous or a dichotomous view of personality disorders. Results: Continuum beliefs were associated with lower desired social distance (r = − 0.19) and prejudice (r = − 0.22). Additionally, the brief continuum intervention was associated with increased continuum beliefs (d = 0.99) and decreased desired social distance (d = − 0.14) and prejudice (d = − 0.17). Finally, the intervention effects on desired social distance and prejudice were mediated by continuum beliefs. Conclusion: This study suggests that highlighting continuum views on personality disorders in public communication and interventions might reduce personality disorder stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies suggest that sleep benefits event-based prospective memory, which involves carrying out intentions when particular events occur. Prospective memory has a prospective component (remembering that one has an intention), and a retrospective component (remembering when to carry it out). As effects of sleep on retrospective memory are well established, the effect of sleep on prospective memory may thus be due exclusively to an effect of sleep on its retrospective component. Therefore, the authors investigated whether nighttime sleep improves the prospective component of prospective memory, or a retrospective component, or both. In a first session, participants performed an event-based prospective-memory task (that was embedded in an ongoing task) 3 minutes after forming an intention and, in a second session, 12 hours after forming an intention. The sessions were separated by either nighttime sleep or daytime wakefulness. The authors disentangled prospective-memory performance into its retrospective and prospective components via multinomial processing tree modeling. There was no effect of sleep on the retrospective component, which may have been due to a time-of-day effect. The prospective component, which is the component unique to prospective memory, declined less strongly after a retention interval filled with sleep as compared with a retention interval filled with wakefulness. A hybrid interaction suggested that refreshed attention after sleep may account for this effect, but did not support the consolidation of the association between the intention and its appropriate context as a mechanism driving the effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personality traits act as a predisposing factor in the development of insomnia. In this context, neuroticism, low conscientiousness and perfectionism appear to be of particular interest. Prior research indicates that personality traits contribute to a poorer sleep quality via several underlying mechanisms and coping strategies. On a cognitive level, these mechanisms include rumination, worry and dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and on an emotional level, these mechanisms include emotion dysregulation. Empirical findings suggest that such processes may make patients vulnerable to arousal before going to bed. Besides, it remains unclear whether interindividual differences in personality traits impact the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Based on findings in this area, however, CBT‑I could be more individualized. With high neuroticism, the focus could be on reducing ruminating and worrying as well as improving emotion regulation. If patients are less conscientious, the focus may be more on sleep hygiene rules, such as adhering to regular sleep times. Perfectionist patients could be encouraged to question a possible pressure to achieve concerning their sleep quality. Further research is needed to empirically validate these hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) is known to be an important modulator of social cognition. It has been shown that lower OT plasma concentrations are linked to impairments in social cognition. Studies have also shown that intranasal OT may enhance social-cognitive abilities in healthy subjects. We hypothesize that, besides baseline OT concentrations, the reactivity of the OT system may have an important role in social-cognitive functioning of individuals. In the present study, we explored if an emotional challenge paradigm is suitable to elicit OT release into plasma to make the reactivity of the OT system measurable. Therefore, 20 healthy male volunteers watched an emotional film clip, showing another person in pain during a severe dentist's treatment, while blood draws were conducted pre and post challenge. OT concentrations in plasma were measured by ELISA after solid phase extraction from plasma. OT plasma concentrations at baseline were significantly negatively correlated to an empathetic rating of our film clip and to measures of emotional empathy for positive and negative emotions, whereas the difference between post-challenge value and baseline was significantly positively correlated with the latter measures. Our data thus show that a short emotional video can be successfully employed as a challenge paradigm for eliciting an increase of peripheral OT in healthy male subjects. Calculating the relative OT change post- vs. pre-challenge may give a measure of OT reactivity. The combination of low peripheral OT at baseline with high OT reactivity may be a psychoendocrine trait that is linked to higher emotional functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Childhood experiences are considered to be of crucial importance in the formation of maladaptive schemas, according to Young's concept. Although some schema questionnaires already exist for children, these instruments differ in their schema structures with between 8 and 12 identified factors. To obtain a deeper understanding of early maladaptive schemas in childhood an instrument based on Young's 18-schema model was constructed (Dusseldorf Illustrated Schema Questionnaire for Children (DISC)). Cartoons were designed which represented each schema, providing children with a visual impression of what was meant by the schema, and thus the questions that they had to answer. The items were phrased as self-report statements and children's approval of the statements was assessed using a 4-point rating scale. The resulting preliminary questionnaire (18 cartoons, 90 items) was presented in classrooms across different school types (N = 569, between 8 and 13 years). A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed on this data to confirm the factorial structure of the questionnaire and to reduce the number of items to two items per schema. The DISC in its final version included 36 items and showed a sufficiently high test-retest reliability and convergent validity when assessed in comparison to another schema questionnaire for children. In addition, the present test is of predictive value since the DISC sum score correlated with ratings on the children's behavioral problems. CFA showed a satisfactory goodness-of-fit based on the original 18-factor model, providing a compact instrument to assess schema representations and to evaluate the dynamics of maladaptation during child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sensitivity to negative affect is considered the central defining characteristic of neuroticism and has been found to be associated with poor sleep quality.Objectives: Following recent theories distinguishing between sensitivity to negative affect and the capacity to self-regulate affective states, this study aimed at demonstrating the potential impact of affect regulation on sleep quality.Materials and methods: A total of 178 participants varying in their sleep quality participated in an Internet-based questionnaire study assessing sleep quality, neuroticism, self-regulating coping style (action/state orientation), and a series of control variables.Results: In line with assumptions, individuals scoring high in neuroticism were only impaired in sleep quality if they were also characterized by a state-oriented coping style or—stated differently—the negative impact of neuroticism on sleep quality could be dampened by higher action orientation. The effect remained after controlling for depression, anxiety, and age.Conclusions: The results preliminarily highlight the importance of self-regulation, i. e., affect regulation, in the understanding of poor sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Psychotherapeut is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The neuropeptide cholecystokinin (CCK) is present in abundance in the central nervous system, where it is involved in the regulation of a wide range of functions. It also takes part in the modulation of memory processes, but its effect on human memory systems and processes is not yet well understood. The present experiment was conducted to examine the influence of CCK when present during encoding on later controlled and automatic recognition memory processes in humans. A version of the process dissociation procedure was used to separate the contributions of controlled and automatic memory processes to participants’ recognition memory performance. Data were analyzed within a multinomial modeling framework. Participants ( N = 64) received either 40 μg CCK-8S or placebo intranasally. The learning and test phases began 30 min after substance application. Behavioral, physiological, and self-report control variables were measured at three points of time during the experiment. Compared to placebo, CCK increased the automatic, familiarity-based recognition memory component, while the parameter representing controlled, retrieval-based processes did not differ between groups. Also, in the exclusion condition of the test phase, the guessing parameter was reduced by CCK. None of the control variables were affected by the peptide. This result—the enhancement of the automatic recognition memory component when CCK is applied before encoding (and thus present during encoding and retrieval)—complements earlier results indicating that CCK decreases controlled, recollection-based recognition memory when applied during consolidation. The possible neuronal systems and processes mediating these effects are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a new database of 2,654 German nouns rated by a sample of 3,907 subjects on three psycholinguistic attributes: concreteness, valence, and arousal. As a new means of data collection in the field of psycholinguistic research, all ratings were obtained via the Internet, using a tailored Web application. Analysis of the obtained word norms showed good agreement with two existing norm sets. A cluster analysis revealed a plausible set of four classes of nouns: abstract concepts, aversive events, pleasant activities, and physical objects. In an additional application example, we demonstrate the usefulness of the database for creating parallel word lists whose elements match as closely as possible. The complete database is available for free from ftp://ftp.uni-duesseldorf.de/ pub/psycho/lahl/WWN. Moreover, the Web application used for data collection is inherently capable of collecting word norms in any language and is going to be released for public use as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In certain areas of the behavioral sciences, such as cognitive and perceptual psychology, researchers may choose to have their experiments partially or completely driven by software programs, which instruct and guide subjects through the sequence of tasks. Despite distinct advantages of unattended trial execution, on frequent occasions, experimenters may desire to keep track of the progress or to be notified of certain events, such as when the subject has completed a task. The Tracer software library presented here is a lightweight Windows programming interface that provides experimenters the ability to trace events and status notifications on one or more remote computers and log files. With only a few lines of additional code or script code, researchers can monitor the real-time progress of one or more unattended experiments running on remote computers of the local area network or the Interact. This article describes the functionality and usage of the Tracer library. The Tracer binaries, include files, sample code, and documentation files may be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society Archive of Norms, Stimuli, and Data at www.psychonomic.org/archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diurnal effects on fatigue are well established. However, evidence exists that fatigue can be subdivided into physical and mental components. Diurnal effects on these subcomponents of fatigue are not known. The present study served to investigate diurnal influences on physical and mental signs of fatigue. A number of self-report measures of sleepiness, and physical and mental signs of fatigue were employed, including a specially developed questionnaire designed to assess current feelings of physical and mental fatigue. The responses from 40 subjects were assessed in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Sleepiness as well as physical and mental signs of fatigue decreased from morning to evening. Indicators of physical and mental fatigue only differed at noon, with higher ratings of mental compared to physical fatigue. Repeated-measuresanova of fatigue at each daytime session indicated an increase from the beginning to the end of each testing session. Since the diurnal courses of physical and mental fatigue differ, physical and mental fatigue are observed to diverge at noon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests a facilitative effect of sleep on the retention of relevant material. However, little is known about its impact on task-irrelevant material that was acquired incidentally. This study examined recall for task-irrelevant stimuli after 7 h of nocturnal sleep versus nocturnal and diurnal wakefulness. Subjects were instructed to memorize a series of pictures, each of which could appear in one of the four screen corners. Unexpectedly, the subsequent test prompted for the irrelevant picture locations. Recall was better after sleep than after nocturnal wakefulness, but no difference was obtained when sleep was compared to daytime wakefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Word lists are most commonly used in the investigation of human memory. To prevent transfer effects, repeated measures of memory for words require multiple lists of different words. Yet, the psycholinguistic properties of all word lists employed should match as closely as possible to avoid confounding with the independent variable(s) in question. Although comprehensive databases for word norms exist, to our knowledge no tool is available that automates the creation of such equivalent word lists. Instead, matching different lists is often accomplished prima facie. We have therefore developed a Windows program called EQUIWORD that completely automates the creation of word lists that are truly parallel with respect to a wide range of attributes. EQUIWORD takes psycholinguistic databases of different formats as input and computes several coefficients of distance for every possible word pairing. Program output consists of a list of all word pairs sorted according to their distance. On that basis, creating equivalent word lists is simply done by selecting the pairs with the lowest distance coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides its Ca-regulative effects, calcitonin is known to diminish sensitivity to painful stimuli. The present study aimed to clarify whether calcitonin has similar effects on stimulus processing in other modalities. Effects of calcitonin were assessed on brain potentials recorded from the human scalp which were evoked either by auditory clicks or visual checkerboard pattern-reversals. Twelve healthy men were tested in a double-blind intra-subject design receiving either 0.1 IU/kg salmon calcitonin (sCT) or 1.0 IU/kg sCT or saline solution during a 20 min IV infusion. sCT significantly increased latency of wave V of the brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP). Effects on BAEP wave V increased in magnitude with increasing dose of sCT and with decreasing intensity of the click stimulus. There was also a slight increase in latency of the N80 of the pattern-reversal visual evoked potential (PR-VEP). Additionally, subjects rated themselves as less activated following the high dose of sCT compared to placebo. The pattern of results is in accord with a slowing or inhibitory influence of calcitonin on auditory and visual sensory processing, thus paralleling findings concerning calcitonin effects on the perception of painful somatosensory stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been proposed that the systemic administration of the 4-10 fragment of ACTH in humans affects primarily attention. In the present study, influences of ACTH 4-10 on event-related potential (ERP) indicators of attention were evaluated in healthy men. The influences were compared with those of an analog of the ACTH 4-9 sequence (HOE 427) which was expected to have an increased potency. Following an adaptation session, each of 20 healthy men was tested on four occasions in a double-blind study designed according to a latin-square. On each occasion, subjects received (iv) one of the following treatments: placebo, ACTH 4-10 (1 mg), HOE 427 (60 μg) and HOE 427 (200 μg). Treatments were administered 40 min prior to recordings of ERPs. ERPs were recorded while the subjects performed on a dichotic listening task paradigm. The various tone pips presented in this task elicit ERPs providing measures of controlled stimulus processing (Nd reflecting selectivity of attention, and P3) and automatic processing of stimulus deviance (mismatch negativity). ACTH 4-10 as well as 200 μg HOE 427 reduced Nd and also P3 amplitudes following attended stimuli. Smaller (non-significant) changes in the same direction were observed following 60 μg HOE 427. The results suggest an impairing influence of ACTH 4-10 and of HOE 427 on signs of controlled stimulus processing, particularly on the Nd. The analog appeared to be more potent than the endogenous 4-10 fragment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and objective: Instruments for diagnosing attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in childhood are well validated and reliable, but diagnosis of ADHD in adults remains problematic. To date the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS) are the international standard for questionnaire assessment. The current study is the first to evaluate a German version of the CAARS. Methods: We recruited 850 healthy German subjects to fill out the CAARS and questions on socio-demographic variables. Explorative (EFA) and confirmative factor analyses (CFA) were conducted to obtain factor structure and to replicate the original American-model. Results: EFA of the German sample results in a six factor solution explaining 52% of the variance; CFA based on the original American-model showed a high model-fit. Analyses of normative data showed significant influences of age, gender, and education level on the emerging subscales. Discussion: EFA results in different factors for the German sample, but CFA shows such a high model fit that the use of each instrument in its cultural context is justified with comparable ratings of symptomatology. Conclusion: The German version of the CAARS is a cross-culturally valid instrument for the assessment of adult ADHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]