Improved knowledge of the underpinnings of these dysfunctions could help identify important treatment targets and lead to the development of stratified, focused interventions, the potential for which ...has been previously demonstrated (Baskin-Sommers et al., 2015). ...even studies of clinical psychopathy which use the PCL-R choose different cut-off points. ...disentangling the relative contributions of deficits in cognitive and affective components of empathy by using consistent and reliable task designs may be crucial in developing treatments for specific deficits. ...a lack of effort due to poor motivation could lead to significantly poorer performance on common outcome measures such as accuracy and reaction times than would be expected in real-life scenarios.
Previous research shows that the propensity to endorse conspiracy theories is associated with disrupted forms of epistemic trust, i.e., the appropriate openness towards interpersonally communicated ...information. There are associations, first, with an increased mistrust in several actors and institutions responsible for the communication of information in society, and second, with a pronounced credulity in unreliable sources and implausible phenomena (e.g., superstition, astrology). This study aims to investigate whether these phenomena are associated with specific personality-related disruptions of epistemic trust. Based on selfreported data of 417 individuals (mean = 33.28; standard deviation = 11.11) from a UK population sampled online, the potential relationships between disruptions in epistemic trust and the endorsement of a conspiracy mentality are explored. The epistemic stances characterized by mistrust and credulity (independent variables) are measured with the epistemic trust, mistrust, and credulity questionnaire (ETMCQ), and conspiracy mentality (dependent variable) is measured with the conspiracy mentality questionnaire. In a multiple linear regression model, mistrust is associated with the endorsement of a conspiracy mentality, even when accounting for other contributing factors (e.g., individual narcissism, attachment avoidance and anxiety, authoritarianism, loneliness). In a bootstrapped mediation model controlling for other relevant predictors, the association between credulity and conspiracy mentality is fully mediated by mistrust. In future research, the impact of disrupted epistemic trust on conspiracy beliefs should be investigated in terms of the specific epistemic stances of mistrust and credulity. In this respect, the ETMCQ represents a highly promising instrument to assess individual differences in factors underpinning aspects of conspiracy endorsement.
Current research on personality disorders strives to identify key behavioural and cognitive facets of patient functioning, to unravel the underlying root causes and maintenance mechanisms. This ...process often involves the application of social paradigms — however, these often only include momentary affective depictions rather than unfolding interactions. This constitutes a limitation in our capacity to probe core symptoms, and leaves potential findings uncovered which could help those who are in close relationships with affected individuals. Here, we deployed a novel task in which subjects interact with four unknown virtual partners in a turn-taking paradigm akin to a dance, and report on their experience with each. The virtual partners embody four combinations of low/high expressivity of positive/negative mood. Higher scores on our symptomatic measures of attachment anxiety, avoidance, and borderline personality disorder (BPD) were all linked to a general negative appraisal of all the interpersonal experiences. Moreover, the negative appraisal of the partner who displayed a high negative/low positive mood was tied with attachment anxiety and BPD symptoms. The extent to which subjects felt responsible for causing partners’ distress was most strongly linked to attachment anxiety. Finally, we provide a fully-fledged exploration of move-by-move action latencies and click distances from partners. This analysis underscored slower movement initiation from anxiously attached individuals throughout all virtual interactions. In summary, we describe a novel paradigm for second-person neuroscience, which allowed both the replication of established results and the capture of new behavioural signatures associated with attachment anxiety, and discuss its limitations.
Many studies have linked global distress including higher psychological symptom severity and high levels of stress with low levels of well-being among teachers, indicating a need to identify and ...empirically evaluate protective factors. Mentalizing—the capacity to understand behavior in terms of intentional mental states—may be a candidate protective factor to mediate this association, enhancing well-being in the face of high levels of global distress. The present study examines whether the capacity to mentalize can buffer subjectively experienced stress and psychological symptom severity in a sample of teachers. 215 teachers completed questionnaires measuring self-rated experiences of stress, psychological symptoms, mentalizing capacities and well-being in a cross-sectional design. Structural equation modeling was used to test mediation effects. Our findings show that mentalizing was positively associated with well-being. In addition, mentalizing counteracted the negative influence of stress and psychological symptom severity. However, a structural equation model assessing the mediating effect of global distress on well-being via mentalizing was not significant. Therefore, the data indicate that teachers’ capacity to mentalize, regardless of psychological symptom load and subjective experience of stress, has a positive impact on their well-being. The study highlights the protective function of mentalizing and forms a framework for psychological interventions to increase teachers’ well-being.
Men with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) with or without psychopathy (+/-P) are responsible for most violent crime in society. Development of effective treatments is hindered by poor ...understanding of the neurochemical underpinnings of the condition. Men with ASPD with and without psychopathy demonstrate impulsive decision-making, associated with striatal abnormalities in functional neuroimaging studies. However, to date, no study has directly examined the potential neurochemical underpinnings of such abnormalities. We therefore investigated striatal glutamate: GABA ratio using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in 30 violent offenders (16 ASPD-P, 14 ASPD + P) and 21 healthy non-offenders. Men with ASPD +/- P had a significant reduction in striatal glutamate : GABA ratio compared to non-offenders. We report, for the first time, striatal Glutamate/GABA dysregulation in ASPD +/- P, and discuss how this may be related to core behavioral abnormalities in the disorders.
Interpersonal problems are a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD). In particular, patients with BPD exhibit a heightened sensitivity to cues of acceptance or rejection in their ...relationships. The current study investigated the psychological processes underpinning this heightened responsiveness. In a between-subjects design, we implemented a reactivity induction designed to trigger either acceptance or rejection of a partner in two separate groups, and measured the effects which this manipulation had upon 49 patients with BPD, as well as 52 control participants. The experimental paradigm required participants to repeatedly choose whether to coordinate with their partner on a decision-making task. When both players coordinate on the same option, both are rewarded. The experiment probed participants’ commitment to their partners: participants were sometimes presented with tempting opportunities to unilaterally defect from the coordination. The results show that participants in the BPD group were less committed than participants in the control group when exposed to the rejection manipulation.
Our aim was to compare neuropsychological and psychiatric outcomes across three encephalitis aetiological groups: Herpes simplex virus (HSV), other infections or autoimmune causes (Other), and ...encephalitis of unknown cause (Unknown).
Patients recruited from NHS hospitals underwent neuropsychological and psychiatric assessment in the short-term (4 months post-discharge), medium-term (9-12 months after the first assessment), and long-term (>1-year). Healthy control subjects were recruited from the general population and completed the same assessments.
Patients with HSV were most severely impaired on anterograde and retrograde memory tasks. In the short-term, they also showed executive, IQ, and naming deficits, which resolved in the long-term. Patients with Other or Unknown causes of encephalitis showed moderate memory impairments, but no significant impairment on executive tests. Memory impairment was associated with hippocampal/medial temporal damage on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and naming impairment with left temporal and left frontal abnormalities. Patients reported more subjective cognitive complaints than healthy controls, with tiredness a significant problem, and there were high rates of depression and anxiety in the HSV and the Other encephalitis groups. These subjective, self-reported complaints, depression, and anxiety persisted even after objectively measured neuropsychological performance had improved.
Neuropsychological and psychiatric outcomes after encephalitis vary according to aetiology. Memory and naming are severely affected in HSV, and less so in other forms. Neuropsychological functioning improves over time, particularly in those with more severe short-term impairments, but subjective cognitive complaints, depression, and anxiety persist, and should be addressed in rehabilitation programmes.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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