Affect

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Psychology

Kinds of Affect

  • adverse affect
  • depressed affect
  • greater negative affect
  • negative affect
  • only affect
  • positive affect

  • Terms modified by Affect

  • affect dysregulation
  • affect growth
  • affect level
  • affect quality
  • affect regulation
  • affect reproduction

  • Selected Abstracts


    The Role of Interest in Fostering Sixth Grade Students' Identities As Competent Learners

    CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2000
    Jean C. Mcphail
    The combined works of John Dewey and Jerome Bruner provide a framework spanning a century of educational thought which can inform curriculum decisions concerning students' educational development, especially for middle school students whose waning of motivation toward school has been well documented by researchers and has long concerned parents and teachers. This framework, combined with recent contributions of motivation and interest researchers, can create broad understandings of how to collaboratively construct effective educational contexts. As early as 1913, Dewey specifically looked at the pivotal role of students' genuine interests in Interest and Effort in Education. Our current research focus on how students' interest can inform curricular contexts marks the recent shift showing an increased use of interest in education research since 1990. In this article, we discuss our study of a team-taught double classroom of sixth grade students whose interests were determined through a series of brainstorming sessions, and individual and focus group interviews. Students' interests fell into six categories centering around subject areas such as Drama, Science, and Animal Studies. Learning contexts were constructed around four of these subject areas. Students participated in their first or second choice of subject area group. We found significantly higher scores on measures of Affect and Activation if students participated in their first choice group. We found intra-group unities of preferred and dispreferred ways of learning which distinguished each group from the class as a whole. Finally, our findings indicated that students reliably described their genuine interests over time. Students' interests were found to be effective tools for informing curriculum decisions in the creation of sixth grade learning contexts. [source]


    Agitation and despair in relation to parents: activating emotional suffering in transference

    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2007
    Inga Reznik
    Abstract Affect and motivation are known to arise in the social-cognitive process transference, which occurs when a new person minimally resembles a significant other, implicitly activating the mental representation of this significant other (Andersen, Reznik, & Manzella, 1996) and indirectly, the relational self (i.e. Andersen & Chen, 2002). Triggering the significant-other representation should also indirectly activate any self-discrepancy held from this other's perspective, resulting in shifts in discrete affect and self-regulation. Participants (n,=,110; 34 men, 76 women) with an actual-ideal or actual-ought self-discrepancy from their parent's perspective (Higgins, 1987) learned about a new person who did or did not minimally resemble this parent. As predicted, this evoked positive evaluation of the new person, that is, a positive transference, and yet, as a function of self-discrepancy, also increased discrete negative mood with ideal-discrepant individuals becoming more dejected and ought-discrepant individuals more hostile and less calm. Self-regulatory focus shifted as well in terms of motivation to avoid emotional closeness. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    The test of self-conscious affect: internal structure, differential scales and relationships with long-term affects

    EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2001
    Johnny R. J. Fontaine
    Item analyses and confirmatory factor analyses on the Test of Self-Conscious Affect (TOSCA), in a student (N,=,723) and an adult (N,=,891) sample, supported the theorized four factor structure of proneness to reparation, negative self-evaluation, externalizing blame and unconcern. However, two-fifth of the items did not empirically differentiate between two or more factors. Differential TOSCA scales, including only differentiating TOSCA items, were constructed and related to measures of long-term affect, depression, anxiety, and anger. Both the pattern and size of correlations of the original and the differential TOSCA scales were almost identical. Results of this study support the interpretation of TOSCA guilt as a measure of a tendency to reparation associated with guilt and TOSCA shame as a measure of a tendency to global negative self-evaluation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Family Caregivers' Patterns of Positive and Negative Affect,

    FAMILY RELATIONS, Issue 1 2007
    Suzanne M. Robertson
    Abstract: Stressful and positive family caregiving experiences were examined as predictors of caregivers' patterns of positive and negative affect in a sample of families providing care for a relative with dementia (N= 234). Four affect pattern groups were identified: (a) Well Adjusted (i.e., high positive affect, low negative affect); (b) Ambiguous (i.e., low on both positive and negative affect); (c) Intense (i.e., high on both positive and negative affect); and (d) Distressed (i.e., high negative affect, low positive affect). A multivariate model that included demographic characteristics and indicators of stressful and positive experiences of caregiving yielded 2 significant discriminant functions that served to classify caregivers correctly into their known affect groups. Implications for improving intervention efforts targeting family caregivers are discussed. [source]


    Measuring consumer perception of product creativity: Impact on satisfaction and purchasability

    HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 3 2009
    Diana Horn
    In the current value-based economy, product creativity is a potential resource for organizations to compete, thus emphasizing the need for product creativity measurement. Two studies were performed to refine and validate a previously tested model and measurement of consumer perception of product creativity: one with web-based evaluations (N = 208) of chairs and lamps and one with paper-based evaluations (N = 105) of individually selected products. Results of exploratory factor analyses indicated three main product creativity factors: Affect, Importance, and Novelty, which explained 72% of the common variance. Results of stepwise regressions indicated that the Affect factor significantly predicts (65% of the explained variance) willingness to purchase creative consumer products. One major contribution of this research is the finding that affect is as equally (R2 = .28) important as novelty (R2 = .25) in consumer perception of product creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for the Affect, Importance, and Novelty product creativity factors, and general creativity guidelines are provided for consumer product design. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


    Infant Affect During Parent,Infant Interaction at 3 and 6 Months: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers and Influence of Parent History of Depression

    INFANCY, Issue 1 2004
    Erika E. Forbes
    Fifty families participated in mother-infant and father-infant still-face interaction at infant ages 3 and 6 months as part of a study of affect in early parent-infant relationships. Infants' positive and negative affect and parents' positive affect and physical play were coded from videotapes. Consistent with previous research, during the normal condition, mothers displayed more positive affect than did fathers, and fathers were more likely than mothers to display physical play. Infants were more positive with mothers than with fathers. Parents' positive affect but not parent gender predicted infants' positive affect at 6 months. During the still-face condition, infants of parents with a lifetime history of depression were more likely to display negative affect and less likely to display positive affect than infants with no such parent history. Infants' affect was unrelated to parents' current level of depressive symptoms, which indicates the value of considering family history of psychopathology when examining individual differences in infants' affect. [source]


    Individual differences in preschool children: temperament or personality?

    INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2010
    Cathy L. Grist
    Abstract Individual differences among adults have generally been conceptualized in terms of personality theory and traits. In contrast, individual differences among very young children (birth to kindergarten) have generally been conceptualized in terms of temperament theory and traits. The present study compares and contrasts measures of temperament and personality in a sample of preschool children. Temperament traits were assessed with a well-established measure (the Rothbart CBQ), and a new preschool rating instrument was used to assess personality traits from the five-factor framework (M5-PS). Indeed, a key purpose of this study was to further the development of the M5-PS. Data were gathered on 122 preschool children who were rated by their teachers. Significant correlations were found between the temperament trait Surgency and the personality trait Extraversion, between the temperament trait Negative Affect and the personality trait Neuroticism, and between the temperament trait Effortful Control and the personality trait Conscientiousness. The overall pattern of correlational data suggests that individual differences in preschool children can be adequately described using the five-factor theory, and that this framework may effectively subsume traditional theories of temperament. Preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the M5-PS is offered. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Affect modulates appetite-related brain activity to images of food

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EATING DISORDERS, Issue 5 2006
    William D.S. Killgore PhD
    Abstract Objective: We examined whether affect ratings predicted regional cerebral responses to high and low-calorie foods. Method: Thirteen normal-weight adult women viewed photographs of high and low-calorie foods while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Regression analysis was used to predict regional activation from positive and negative affect scores. Results: Positive and negative affect had different effects on several important appetite-related regions depending on the calorie content of the food images. When viewing high-calorie foods, positive affect was associated with increased activity in satiety-related regions of the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, but when viewing low-calorie foods, positive affect was associated with increased activity in hunger-related regions including the medial orbitofrontal and insular cortex. The opposite pattern of activity was observed for negative affect. Conclusion: These findings suggest a neurobiologic substrate that may be involved in the commonly reported increase in cravings for calorie-dense foods during heightened negative emotions. © 2006 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 2006 [source]


    Two Dimensions of Attachment to God and Their Relation to Affect, Religiosity, and Personality Constructs

    JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 4 2002
    Wade Rowatt
    In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research on attachment theory and religion by (1) developing a dimensional attachment to God scale, and (2) demonstrating that dimensions of attachment to God are predictive of measures of affect and personality after controlling for social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity. Questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by a sample of university students and community adults (total n= 374). Consistent with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment to God were identified: avoidance and anxiety. After statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness, doctrinal orthodoxy, and loving God image, anxious attachment to God remained a significant predictor of neuroticism, negative affect, and (inversely) positive affect; avoidant attachment to God remained a significant inverse predictor of religious symbolic immortality and agreeableness. These findings are evidence that correlations between attachment to God and measures of personality and affect are not merely byproducts of confounding effects of socially desirable responding or other dimensions of religiosity. [source]


    Affective Match in Leadership: Leader Emotional Displays, Follower Positive Affect, and Follower Performance,

    JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2008
    Frederic Damen
    Leader emotions may play an important role in leadership effectiveness. Extending earlier research on leader emotional displays and leadership effectiveness, we propose that the affective match between follower positive affect (PA) and leaders' emotional displays moderates the effectiveness of leader emotional displays. Leader display of emotions has more positive effects on follower behavior if the match between the valence of leader emotion and follower PA is strong rather than weak. Support for this hypothesis was found in 2 experiments. Congruency between leader emotional displays and follower PA determined follower task performance and extra-role compliance. Results from the second experiment indicated that this effect is a due to affective aspects of leader behavior and not to the valence of message content. [source]


    Disclosure to therapists: What is and is not discussed in psychotherapy

    JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2002
    Barry A. Farber
    This study used the 80-item Disclosure to Therapist Inventory,R to investigate the nature of patient disclosure within therapy. Participants (45 men, 102 women) were all currently in therapy. A Principal Components Analyses with varimax rotation yielded nine meaningful factors; mean disclosure scores were lowest for the factors of Sexuality and Procreation and highest for the factors of Negative Affect and Intimacy. Specific items most extensively discussed included characteristics of parents that are disliked, and aspects of one's personality that are disliked or worrisome. No significant differences were found in overall degree of disclosure as a function of patient gender or shame-proneness; disclosure was, however, found to be positively correlated with strength of the therapeutic alliance. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 58: 359,370, 2002. [source]


    Consumer sophistication and the role of emotion on satisfaction judgments within credence services

    JOURNAL OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR, Issue 6 2007
    Tony Garry
    Evidence which demonstrates a link between the affective dimension and satisfaction in a tangible product based context is well documented. However, when placed in a credence service context the role of Affect becomes more complex. Previous research in this field has assumed consumer homogeneity when there is increasing evidence of consumer heterogeneity. This research attempts to address this by examining affective reactions to service encounters between two groups of respondents, one with the ability to make performance assessments about the service and one without. Findings suggest consumers of differing sophistication will vary in the way they form expectation and performance assessments about the technical, functional and affective components of credence services and that consumer sophistication may have a moderating influence on affective reactions evoked. This in turn has implications for the design and delivery of service offerings within such contexts. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Assessing Human Impact of Organizational Crises: Reliability and Validity of the Triage Assessment Scale for Organizations (TAS:O)

    JOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2007
    Christian Conte
    The present study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Triage Assessment Survey: Organizations (TAS:O), a 27-item, 5-point, Likert summated rating scale. One hundred and seventeen participants responded to the TAS:O after reading mild, moderate, marked and severe organizational crisis scenarios. The overall Cronbach's alpha and split-half reliability were both .93. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three factors, supporting the hypothesis that the TAS:O is comprised of three distinct factors (i.e., Affect, Behavior, and Cognition). An analysis of variance provided evidence that the TAS:O has the capacity to distinguish among mild, moderate, marked, and severe crises. Because this research is the first to evaluate the TAS:O, further studies are needed to strengthen confidence in the psychometric properties of this scale. [source]


    Hydrocolloid-Lipid Coating Affect on Weight Loss, Pectin Content, and Textural Quality of Green Bell Peppers

    JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE, Issue 4 2002
    F.D. Conforti
    ABSTRACT Three coatings containing a hydrocolloid-lipid blend combination were developed and applied to green bell peppers. Peppers were refrigerated and monitored over a 5-week period to determine pectin content and textural quality. Pectin content decrease was significantly (p < 0.05) greater in the uncoated peppers during the storage period. Weight loss also occurred in the uncoated peppers at a significantly greater rate, while respiration rates and puncture score differences were insignificant among all groups. The results indicate that the coatings were effective in maintaining quality during storage. A better procedure is recommended for puncture analysis. [source]


    Chronic Pain, Stress, and the Dynamics of Affective Differentiation

    JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2004
    Mary C. Davis
    This Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA) proposes that under conditions that promote maximal information processing, positive and negative affective systems function relatively independently. In contrast, under conditions characterized by uncertainty, including pain and stress, the affects become strongly inversely related. Included in our consideration are potential individual differences in the ability to sustain affective differentiation during pain and other stressors and the implications of this model for perceptions of social relations and for interventions to improve well-being among the chronically ill. [source]


    The Need for Affect: Individual Differences in the Motivation to Approach or Avoid Emotions

    JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 4 2001
    Gregory R. Maio
    The present research developed and tested a new individual-difference measure of the need for affect, which is the motivation to approach or avoid emotion-inducing situations. The first phase of the research developed the need for affect scale. The second phase revealed that the need for affect is related to a number of individual differences in cognitive processes (e.g., need for cognition, need for closure), emotional processes (e.g., affect intensity, repression-sensitization), behavioral inhibition and activation (e.g., sensation seeking), and aspects of personality (Big Five dimensions) in the expected directions, while not being redundant with them. The third phase of the research indicated that, compared to people low in the need for affect, people high in the need for affect are more likely to (a) possess extreme attitudes across a variety of issues, (b) choose to view emotional movies, and (c) become involved in an emotion-inducing event (the death of Princess Diana). Overall, the results indicate that the need for affect is an important construct in understanding emotion-related processes. [source]


    Motive-Related Memories: Content, Structure, and Affect

    JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2001
    Barbara Woike
    Two studies tested hypotheses on the content and structure of autobiographical memories and the affect linked to them. In Study 1, agentic and communal-motivated individuals recorded their most memorable experiences and completed the PANAS each day for 6 weeks. Memories were coded for content and structure. Agentics and communals reported more motive congruent memories, and their congruent memories were structured using more differentiation and integration, respectively. In addition, agentics had slightly higher PA and lower NA scores. In Study 2, agentics and communals recalled an event pertaining to either social separation or connection and then completed an affect measure of agentic and communal items. Agentics recalled more agentic memories in the separation condition and communals recalled more communal memories in the connection condition. Complexity analyses showed that agentics and communals used differentiation and integration respectively to recall their motive- congruent memories. The affect data showed a modest predicted pattern. Results suggest that implicit motives have an impact on autobiographical memory but are not as clearly related to self-report affect measures, possibly due to method variance. [source]


    A Three-Factor Model of Trait Anger: Dimensions of Affect, Behavior, and Cognition

    JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 5 2000
    René Martin
    The structure of trait anger was tested in a study of 24 self-report scales. Exploratory factor analyses in an undergraduate sample (N= 457) yielded a two-factor model (comprising cynicism and aggression) and a three-factor model (representing angry emotions, aggressive behaviors, and cynicism). Subsequent evaluations, including confirmatory factor analyses, indicated that the three-factor model provided the best characterization of the trait anger domain. The three-factor solution was consistent with an ,ABC' conceptualization of trait anger, consisting of the dimensions of affect, behavior, and cognition. The three factors showed strikingly different associations with the Big Five personality traits. Angry Affect was most strongly related to Neuroticism, whereas Behavioral Aggression was associated with low Agreeableness. Cynical Cognition represented a blend of neurotic and disagreeable characteristics. Modest mean-level differences were observed between the genders for each factor. [source]


    Serotonin Transporter Promoter Polymorphism Genotype Is Associated With Behavioral Disinhibition and Negative Affect in Children of Alcoholics

    ALCOHOLISM, Issue 7 2001
    Geoffrey R. Twitchell
    Background : Serotonergic (5-HT) dysfunction has been implicated in the etiology of both behavioral disinhibition (BD) and negative affect (NA). This work extends our previous finding of relationships between whole blood 5-HT and both BD and NA in pubescent, but not prepubescent, children of alcoholics and continues examination of a hypothesized role of 5-HT dysfunction in alcoholism risk. The long and short (L and S) variants of the 5-HT transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) are responsible for differing transcriptional efficiencies in 5-HT uptake. Although associations have been found between the SS 5-HTTLPR genotype and severe alcoholism and neuroticism, recent reports describe relationships between the LL genotype and both low level of response to alcohol and alcoholism diagnosis and a predominance of the LL genotype in early-onset alcoholics. Methods: This report is from an ongoing prospective study of the development of risk for alcoholism and other problematic outcomes in a sample of families classified by father's alcoholism subtype. This study examines relationships between 5-HTTLPR genotype and both child BD (Child Behavior Checklist Aggressive Behavior) and NA (Child Behavior Checklist Anxious/Depressed) in offspring from 47 families. Results: Results showed significantly higher levels of BD and NA in the 16 children with the LL genotype than the 46 SS or SL children. Conclusions: Behaviors of undercontrol, which occur at increased rates in children of alcoholics, may be genetically influenced through the regulation of the 5-HT transporter. Due to the small sample size and the preliminary nature of our findings, replication is necessary. [source]


    Calcium and Exercise Affect the Growing Skeleton

    NUTRITION REVIEWS, Issue 11 2005
    Jo M. Welch PhD
    Adequate dietary calcium and bone-stimulating exercise during growth are known to affect skeletal development, but the combined effects of dietary calcium and osteogenic exercise have received scant attention. Animal research has showed a compensatory effect of impact loading on calcium-deprived bones, while various human studies have suggested compensatory, additive, or possibly synergistic effects in certain skeletal locations. Current evidence suggests that the best strategy for strong bones by the end of childhood may be either high-impact exercise with a moderate or greater calcium intake or a combination of moderate-impact exercise and adequate calcium during growth. [source]


    Art and Negative Affect

    PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009
    Aaron Smuts
    Why do people seemingly want to be scared by movies and feel pity for fictional characters when they avoid situations in real life that arouse these same negative emotions? Although the domain of relevant artworks encompasses far more than just tragedy, the general problem is typically called the paradox of tragedy. The paradox boils down to a simple question: If people avoid pain then why do people want to experience art that is painful? I discuss six popular solutions to the paradox: conversion, control, compensatory, meta-response, catharsis, and rich experience theories. [source]


    Affect and Cognition in Party Identification

    POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2005
    Barry C. Burden
    Despite the centrality of party identification in understandings of political behavior in the United States, there is an unacknowledged disparity between our theories and measurement of the phenomenon. The traditional method of measuring party identification relies on supplying cognitive cues by explicitly asking respondents to "think" about their partisanship. The Michigan theory of party identification, in contrast, assumes that partisanship is primarily affective. Using a survey experiment, we explore the effects of asking respondents to feel rather than think about their party identification. The new questions reveal that the electorate is more Republican than previously thought. Response timers show that respondents take longer to answer the new items, suggesting that they are surveying a wider and deeper array of considerations. These results serve to revive many of our traditional conceptions of how party identity works while also opening the door for new research questions. [source]


    Knowing Versus Caring: The Role of Affect and Cognition in Political Perceptions

    POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2001
    Kathleen A. Dolan
    This paper examines the importance of political knowledge in shaping accurate perceptions of the political world,specifically, how levels of general political knowledge influence the accuracy of specific political judgments, how those judgments might also be shaped by "wishful thinking," and how political knowledge attenuates the impact of wishful thinking on political judgments. Predictions of who would win the U.S. presidential election in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996, as surveyed in the National Election Studies conducted in those years, were used as a measure of the accuracy of political perceptions. Analysis of these data reveals that both political knowledge and wishful thinking are important determinants of the accuracy of people's perceptions; in addition, the impact of wishful thinking on perceptions is attenuated by political knowledge. [source]


    Using Affective Attitudes to Identify Christian Fundamentalism: The Ten Commandments Judge and Alabama Politics

    POLITICS & POLICY, Issue 5 2010
    THOMAS SHAW
    This article develops a new and useful indicator to aid in identifying Christian fundamentalism. "Affect" measures individuals' affective attitudes toward the role of Christian fundamentalists in Alabama politics. We demonstrate the analytic utility of this indicator by quantitatively comparing it to other more traditional and direct measures of fundamentalism, such as belief in the Bible as the literal word of God, self-identification as a fundamentalist, and whether one considers oneself to be "born again." We then compare the utility of these different measures of Christian fundamentalism in explaining electoral support for the archetype Christian fundamentalist political candidate, the "Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore, former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. We find that our affect indicator compares well to other measures of fundamentalism and actually outperforms all of the more traditional measures in explaining support for Moore. Data used in the analysis come from a public opinion poll conducted by the USA Polling Group in April 2006. Este artículo desarrolla un nuevo y útil indicador para ayudar a identificar el fundamentalismo cristiano. "Afecto" mide las actitudes afectivas de los individuos hacia el rol de los cristianos fundamentalistas en la política de Alabama. Demostramos la utilidad analítica de este indicador al compararlo cuantitativamente con otras medidas más tradicionales y directas del fundamentalismo, tales como la creencia de la Biblia como la palabra literal de Dios, auto-identificación como fundamentalista, y si uno se considera a uno mismo "nacido de nuevo." Después comparamos la utilidad de estas diferentes medidas del fundamentalismo cristiano para explicar el apoyo electoral al candidato político cristiano fundamentalista arquetípico: Roy Moore, "Juez de los Diez Mandamientos," ex-presidente del tribunal de la Corte Suprema de Alabama. Encontramos que nuestro indicador Afecto se equipara con otras medidas del fundamentalismo y en realidad supera a todas las más tradicionales mediciones que explican el apoyo a Moore. La información utilizada en el análisis proviene de una encuesta de opinión pública realizada por el USA Polling Group en Abril del 2006. [source]


    Intra-episode hypomanic symptoms during major depression and their correlates

    PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCES, Issue 3 2004
    FRANCO BENAZZI md
    Abstract Recent studies have shown that 40,50% of major depressive disorders (MDD) may become bipolar with time. Intra-episode hypomanic symptoms in MDD may be a first step in this shift. The purpose of the present study was to find factors associated with intra-episode hypomanic symptoms in MDD. Two hundred and forty-three consecutive MDD outpatients were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th edn; DSM-IV), Clinician Version (SCID-CV), as modified by Benazzi and Akiskal (J. Affect. Disord. 2003; 73: 33,38). History of hypomania and presence of hypomanic symptoms during major depressive episode (MDE) were systematically assessed. Intra-episode hypomanic symptoms were defined as an MDE combined with three or more hypomanic symptoms, following Akiskal and Benazzi (J. Affect. Disord. 2003; 73: 113,122). Major depressive disorder with intra-episode hypomanic symptoms (MDD + H) was compared to MDD without hypomanic symptoms on classic bipolar validators. It was found that MDD + H (usually irritability, distractibility, racing thoughts, psychomotor agitation, and more talkativeness) was present in 32.5% of patients. Patients with MDD + H versus MDD had significantly lower age at onset, more atypical depressions, and more bipolar family history. Recurrences were not significantly different. Multivariate logistic regression found that bipolar family history and atypical depression were significantly and independently associated with MDD + H. Findings suggest that MDD + H may be associated with a bipolar vulnerability. Duration of illness and recurrences do not seem to be important for the onset of MDD + H. Bipolar genetic vulnerability seems to be required for onset of intra-episode hypomanic symptoms in MDD. Intra-episode hypomanic symptoms might be the first step of a process leading to the switch of MDD to bipolar disorders. Predicting the switch might have important treatment implications, because antidepressants used alone may worsen the course of bipolar disorders. Prospective studies are required to support these findings and hypotheses. [source]


    Connectedness: Developing a Shared Construction of Affect and Cognition in Children with Autism

    BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, Issue 1 2004
    Dave Sherratt
    Dave Sherratt and Gill Donald teach children with autism at Mowbray School, North Yorkshire. Dave Sherratt also teaches at the University of Birmingham and is honorary research fellow at the University College of York St John. Gill Donald is also a specialist speech and language therapist for Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust. In this article, Dave Sherratt and Gill Donald outline an approach to teaching children who are on the autistic spectrum. They describe the social construction of understanding in normally developing children and suggest ways in which this differs in children with autism. These children may have difficulties in attributing relevance to the aspects of experience that are regarded as significant by most learners. The authors suggest that this may account for the poverty in social engagement or connectedness commonly observed in children with autism. Illustrating their propositions with vivid examples from practice, Dave Sherratt and Gill Donald go on to describe ten teaching structures promoting progress from early social engagement; through a shared understanding of objects and observable processes; to a shared understanding of symbolic representation in play, ideas and language. These structures, rooted in a fascinating evocation of theory, will help practitioners striving to develop a shared understanding of self, others and the environment in children with autistic spectrum disorders. [source]


    Maternal Socialization of Positive Affect: The Impact of Invalidation on Adolescent Emotion Regulation and Depressive Symptomatology

    CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2008
    Marie B. H. Yap
    This study examined the relations among maternal socialization of positive affect (PA), adolescent emotion regulation (ER), and adolescent depressive symptoms. Two hundred early adolescents, 11,13 years old, provided self-reports of ER strategies and depressive symptomatology; their mothers provided self-reports of socialization responses to adolescent PA. One hundred and sixty-three mother,adolescent dyads participated in 2 interaction tasks. Adolescents whose mothers responded in an invalidating or "dampening" manner toward their PA displayed more emotionally dysregulated behaviors and reported using maladaptive ER strategies more frequently. Adolescents whose mothers dampened their PA more frequently during mother,adolescent interactions, and girls whose mothers reported invalidating their PA, reported more depressive symptoms. Adolescent use of maladaptive ER strategies mediated the association between maternal invalidation of PA and early adolescents' concurrent depressive symptoms. [source]


    Quantification of Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 on Plants Affected by Contaminated Irrigation Water,

    ENGINEERING IN LIFE SCIENCES (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2006
    A. M. Ibekwe
    Abstract Enterohemorrhagic E. coli O157: H7 (EHEC) is a major foodborne pathogen capable of causing diarrhea and vomiting, with further complications such as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). The aim of this study was to use the real-time PCR method to quantify the survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7/pGFP in phyllosphere (leaf surface), rhizosphere (volume of soil tightly held by plant roots), and non-rhizosphere soils (sand and clay) irrigated with contaminated water and compare the results obtained between real-time PCR method and conventional plate counts. The real-time PCR probe was designed to hybridize with the (eae) gene of E. coli O157:H7. The probe was incorporated into real-time PCR containing DNA extracted from the phyllosphere, rhizosphere, and non-rhizosphere soils irrigated with water artificially contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The detection limit for E. coli O157:H7 quantification by real-time PCR was 2.3 × 103 in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere samples. E. coli O157:H7 survived longer in rhizosphere soil than the non-rhizosphere soil. The concentration of E. coli O157:H7/pGFP in rhizosphere soils was , 104 CFU/g in both soils at day 12 based on both plate count and real time PCR, with the clay soil significantly (P = 0.05) higher than the sandy soil. This data showed that E. coli O157H:7 can persist in the environment for more than 50 d, and this may pose some risk for both animal and human infection and provides a very significant pathway for pathogen recontamination in the environment. [source]


    Listening to the views of people affected by cancer about cancer research: an example of participatory research in setting the cancer research agenda

    HEALTH EXPECTATIONS, Issue 1 2006
    David Wright PhD
    Abstract Aim, The study ,Listening to the Views of People Affected by Cancer About Cancer Research' is currently exploring the views people affected by cancer have about cancer research and identifying their research priorities. Integral to this is the broader aim of ensuring an effective, collaborative participation of patients and carers in the design and conduct of the study. On the basis of experiences with the study to date, the latter is explored in this paper. Design, The study adopts a ,participatory research' approach entailing the formation of a ,reference group' and a subsequent patient and carer co-researcher group. Patient and carer members of these groups were identified through the patient forums of UK cancer networks and by approaching ,hard to reach' representatives directly through community groups and participating study sites. Findings, Experiences from this study illustrate that a ,participatory research' approach is appropriate in engaging patients and carers in the research process. Establishing a group of people affected by cancer in the study was found to be particularly effective in enhancing the design and conduct of the research. Conclusions, ,Participatory research' offers an effective means of involving patients and carers throughout the research process, thus strengthening the relevance and appropriateness of research findings and methods. [source]


    Affording Support in the Response to the Welfare Needs of Children Affected by AIDS

    IDS BULLETIN, Issue 5 2008
    Chris Desmond
    First page of article [source]