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Early Environment (early + environment)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	27%
Humanities and Social Sciences	18%

Selected Abstracts

Artificial rearing alters the response of rats to natural and drug-mediated rewards

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2006
Anna M. Lomanowska
Abstract Artificial rearing (AR) of infant rats permits precise control over key features of the early environment without maternal influence. The present study examined the behavioral response of AR rats towards natural and drug-mediated rewards, as well as their exploratory and affective behaviors. Adolescent AR rats showed increased preference for sucrose consumption relative to chow and demonstrated greater activity in the open field and in the elevated plus-maze compared to maternally reared (MR) rats. With respect to measures of emotionality, AR rats showed enhanced avoidance of the open arms of the plus-maze, indicating increased anxiety, but they did not differ from MR rats in exploring the center of the open field. Adult AR rats displayed a stronger conditioned response to morphine in a place preference test. These findings support the potential of the AR model to contribute to understanding the role of early experience in the development of behavioral motivation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psyshobiol 48: 301,314, 2006. [source]

Women in special hospitals: understanding the presenting behaviour of women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 4 2001
T. M. Wilkins RMNH Ad.Dip MA
This paper critically examines the development of the concept of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in terms of the assumed centrality of abnormal early environments and abusive relationships. It is suggested that if BPD is conceptualized as an expression of past experiences in adult life, information regarding early histories can assist in ,making sense' of later behaviour. The aim of this review therefore is to explore how histories of women diagnosed as BPD, within a High Secure Psychiatric Hospital, may facilitate an interpretation of the ,adaptive' nature of presenting ,symptomology'. Case note material is utilized to gain insight into specific aspects of childhood experiences that have been documented, and are thus deemed significant. These findings support the perception that the role of the early environment and associated relationships are significant within written accounts of women diagnosed as having BPD. By exploring the links between trauma and BPD, this article suggests that an understanding of the effects of trauma and the importance of relationships can offer a way forward for self-reflection and future care. [source]

Reproductive development and parental investment during pregnancy: Moderating influence of mother's early environment

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
David A. Coall
The association between a woman's age at menarche and the birth weight of her children is highly variable across human populations. Life history theory proposes that a woman's early environment may moderate this association and thus account for some of the variation between populations. According to one life history theory model, for individuals who develop in a childhood environment of high local mortality rates (experienced subjectively as psychosocial stress), it can be adaptive to mature earlier, have more offspring during their reproductive lifetime, and reduce investment in each offspring. In an environment of low psychosocial stress, however, it may be adaptive to mature later, have fewer offspring, and invest more in each. In this study, birth weight and proportionate birth weight (neonate's birth weight as a percentage of its mother's prepregnancy weight) were used as measures of parental investment during pregnancy. In a sample of 580 first-time mothers, we tested the hypothesis that the psychosocial stress experienced as a child would moderate the association between age at menarche and investment during pregnancy. We found that earlier menarche in those women who experienced stressful life events before 15 years of age was associated with a lower birth weight and proportionate birth weight. Conversely, in those who reported no childhood stressors, earlier menarche was associated with increased birth weight and proportionate birth weight. Our data suggest that the moderating influence of the childhood psychosocial environment on the association between age at menarche and parental investment throughout gestation operates in a dose-dependent manner. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Sex hormone-binding globulin and androgen levels in immigrant and British-born premenopausal British Pakistani women: Evidence of early life influences?

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
Tessa M. Pollard
In women, raised insulin levels are associated with low sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and high androgen levels, which are in turn linked to infertility. Since insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia are major health problems for South Asians living in Western countries, we predicted that British Pakistani women would have low SHBG and raised androgen levels compared to European women. Given low birth weights in Pakistan, and known links between low birth weight and insulin resistance in later life, we also predicted that immigrant women born in Pakistan would have lower levels of SHBG and higher levels of androgens than British-born British Pakistani women. We assessed SHBG, testosterone, and the free androgen index (FAI) from a single serum sample taken on days 9,11 of the menstrual cycle from 20,40-year-old women living in the UK: 30 immigrants from Pakistan, 30 British-born British Pakistani women, and 25 British-born women of European origin. Age-adjusted analyses showed no significant differences in SHBG, testosterone, or FAI between British-born Pakistani and European-origin women. However, immigrant British Pakistani women had a significantly higher FAI than British-born British Pakistani women. Adjustment for body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and smoking status did not affect these results, but further adjustment for height, a marker of early environment, reduced the P -value for the difference in FAI between immigrant and British-born British Pakistani women to below significance. It is possible that the poorer early environment of immigrant British Pakistani women was at least partially responsible for their relatively high levels of free androgens. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 18:741,747, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Practitioner Review: Early adversity and developmental disorders

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 5 2005
Eric Taylor
Background:, Knowledge of genetic influences, on developmental disorders such as autism spectrum, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disabilities, has increased the opportunities for understanding the influences of the early environment. Methods:, This paper provides a selective, narrative review for clinicians of the effects of factors such as exposure to toxins and stresses in utero and in postnatal life; brain injuries and perinatal compromise; neglect, malnutrition and selective food deficiencies. It also considers what is known about the mechanisms through which early adversities operate. Results:, Gaps in the research are identified and suggestions made about clinical investigations. Several types of environmental adversity have associations with later disorders that suggest a causal role. The effects are often on a broad range of psychological processes, and are not always quickly reversible. Several adversities often coexist, calling for skilled judgement about priorities in treatment. Conclusions:, Individuals vary considerably in their exposure to adversity and their vulnerability to its effects, and genetic inheritance can influence both. [source]

Psychological Well-being: Evidence Regarding its Causes and Consequences,

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: HEALTH AND WELL-BEING, Issue 2 2009
Felicia A Huppert
This review focuses on positive aspects of well-being, or flourishing. It examines evidence for the causes of positive well-being and also its consequences, including beneficial effects for many aspects of cognitive functioning, health, and social relationships. The neurobiological basis of psychological well-being is examined, and recent data on brain activation and neurochemical pathways are presented. Individuals vary widely in their habitual level of psychological well-being, and there is evidence for a seminal role of social factors and the early environment in this process. It is often assumed that the drivers of well-being are the same as (but in the opposite direction to) the drivers of ill-being, but while this is true for some drivers, others have more selective effects. Future developments in the science of well-being and its application require a fresh approach,beyond targeting the alleviation of disorder to a focus on personal and interpersonal flourishing. A universal intervention approach is outlined which may both increase population flourishing and reduce common mental health problems. [source]

Women in special hospitals: understanding the presenting behaviour of women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

PARIS CIRCUS NEW YORK JUNK: JEAN DUBUFFET AND CLAES OLDENBURG, 1959,1962

ART HISTORY, Issue 1 2006
SOPHIE BERREBI
This article explores the artistic relation between Jean Dubuffet and Claes Oldenburg, attentive to the shifts in the critical reception of Dubuffet in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The essay focuses on Oldenburg's two major early environments, The Street and The Store, arguing that Oldenburg anticipated his critical reception by claiming the influence of Dubuffet over his work and turning this into a creative tool. In the process, Oldenburg transposed and ultimately rewrote Dubuffet's postwar vision of the ,common man' in the context of early pop art. Dubuffet's Paris Circus paintings from 1961,62 are briefly discussed in order to underscore a concept of influence as productive anachronism. [source]

Danger,early maladaptive schemas at work!: the role of early maladaptive schemas in career choice and the development of occupational stress in health workers

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY (AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THEORY & PRACTICE), Issue 2 2008
Martin Bamber
The schema-focused model of occupational stress and work dysfunctions (Bamber & Price, 2006; Bamber, 2006) hypothesizes that individuals with EMS (unconsciously) gravitate toward occupations with similar dynamics and structures to the toxic early environments and relationships that created them. They subsequently re-enact these EMS and their associated maladaptive coping styles in the workplace. For most individuals, this results in ,schema healing', but for some individuals with more rigid and severe EMS, schema healing is not achieved and the structures and relationships of the workplace, together with the utilization of maladaptive coping styles, serve to perpetuate their EMS. The model hypothesizes that it is these individuals who are most vulnerable to developing occupational stress syndromes To date, this model has been subjected to very little empirical investigation, so the main aim of this study was to address this gap in the literature by testing out some of its main assumptions and to provide empirical data, which would either support or reject the model using a population of health workers. Specifically, it was hypothesized that ,occupation-specific' EMS would be found in health workers from a range of different healthcare professions. It was also hypothesized that the presence of higher levels of EMS would be predictive of raised levels of occupational stress, psychiatric caseness and increased sickness absence in those individuals. A cross-sectional study design was employed and a total of 249 staff working within a NHS Trust, belonging to one of five occupational groups (medical doctors, nurses, clinical psychologists, IT staff and managers), participated in the study. All participants completed the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (Young, 1998); the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Form (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), and the General Health Questionnaire-28-item version (Goldberg, 1978). A demographic questionnaire and sickness absence data was also collected. The results of a between groups analysis of variance and further post hoc statistical analyses identified a number of occupation specific EMS. Also, the results of a series of multiple linear regression analyses indicated the presence of some EMS to be predictive of higher levels of burnout, psychiatric caseness and sickness absence in health workers. In conclusion, the findings of this study provide empirical support for the schema-focused model of occupational stress and work dysfunctions (Bamber & Price, 2006; Bamber, 2006), and it appears that the existence of underlying EMS may constitute a predisposing vulnerability factor to developing occupational stress.,Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]