Current Directions in Psychological Science

April 2007 Current Directions in Psychological ScienceOctober 2008 (Volume 17, Issue 5, In Press )

 

Original Articles

Insomnia, Psychiatric Disorders, and the Transdiagnostic Perspective
Allison G. Harvey (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Insomnia commonly occurs along with other psychiatric disorders. I aim to address two issues that arise from this observation. First, insomnia is commonly assumed to be epiphenomenonal to the so-called "primary" psychiatric disorder. On the basis of new evidence, I argue instead that insomnia may be an important but under-recognized mechanism in the multifactorial cause and maintenance of psychiatric disorders. Second, insomnia may be a transdiagnostic process—a process that is common across psychiatric disorders. The move to identify and study transdiagnostic processes contrasts with the standard “disorder focused” approach in which classification systems and research programs specialize in a single disorder. The latter approach can neglect the intriguing and potentially important similarities across disorders. If it were feasible to develop transdiagnostic treatments, the public health implications would be startling. Research on the role of sleep in psychiatric disorders and tests of the validity and utility of a transdiagnostic approach provide rich opportunities for improving our understanding of, and the treatment of, psychiatric disorders.

Nostalgia: Past, Present, and Future
Constantine Sedikides, Tim Wildschut, Jamie Arndt, and Clay Routledge (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Traditionally, nostalgia has been conceptualized as a medical disease and a psychiatric disorder. Instead, we argue that nostalgia is a predominantly positive, self-relevant, and social emotion serving key psychological functions. Nostalgic narratives reflect more positive than negative affect, feature the self as the protagonist, and are embedded in social context. Nostalgia is triggered by dysphoric states such as negative mood and loneliness. Finally, nostalgia generates positive affect, increases self-esteem, fosters social connectedness, and alleviates existential threat.

The Roots of the Early Vocabulary in Infants’ Learning From Speech
Daniel Swingley (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Psychologists have known for over 20 years that infants begin learning the speech-sound categories of their language during the first 12 months of life. This fact has dominated researchers’ thinking about how language acquisition begins, although the relevance of this learning to the child’s progress in language acquisition has never been clear. Recently, views of the role of infancy in language acquisition have begun to change, with a new focus on the development of the vocabulary. Infants’ learning of speech-sound categories and infants’ abilities to extract regularities in the speech stream allow learning of the auditory forms of many words. These word forms then become the foundation of the early vocabulary, support children’s learning of the language’s phonological system, and contribute to the discovery of grammar.

Actions, Words, and Numbers: A Motor Contribution to Semantic Processing?
Michael Andres, Etienne Olivier, Arnaud Badets (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Recent findings in neuroscience challenge the view that the motor system is exclusively dedicated to the control of actions, and it has been suggested that it may contribute critically to conceptual processes such as those involved in language and number representation. The aim of this review is to address this issue by illustrating some interactions between the motor system and the processing of words and numbers. First, we detail functional brain imaging studies suggesting that motor circuits may be recruited to represent the meaning of action-related words. Second, we summarize a series of experiments demonstrating some interference between the size of grip used to grasp objects and the magnitude processing of words or numbers. Third, we report data suggestive of a common representation of numbers and finger movements in the adult brain, a possible trace of the finger-counting strategies used in childhood. Altogether, these studies indicate that the motor system interacts with several aspects of word and number representations. Future research should determine whether these findings reflect a causal role of the motor system in the organisation of semantic knowledge.

Terrorism, Violence, and Hope for Peace: A Terror Management Perspective
Tom Pyszczynski, Zachary Rothschild, and Abdolhossein Abdollahi (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Terror management theory (TMT) is used to explore psychological forces that act to promote or discourage support for terrorism and violent counterterrorist policies. According to TMT, domination, humiliation, and perceived injustice threaten the self-esteem and cultural worldviews that protect people from death-related anxiety; the result may be hostility and violence directed against the threatening out-group as a way of defusing this threat. We review research documenting the role of terror management processes in promoting and discouraging support for terrorism and violent counterterrorist policies and discuss the implications of this research. The studies we review suggest that the same psychological forces that promote support for terrorist violence also promote support for aggressive counterterrorist policies and that these forces can be redirected to encourage support for more peaceful solutions on both sides of the current conflict between Islamic radical groups and Western nations.

From Genes to Brain to Antisocial Behavior
Adrian Raine (View AbstractClose Abstract)

This review summarizes recent brain-imaging and molecular-genetic findings on antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior. A "genes to brain to antisocial behavior" model hypothesizes that specific genes result in structural and functional brain alterations that, in turn, predispose to antisocial behavior. For instance, a common polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene has been associated with both antisocial behavior and also reductions in the volume of the amygdala and orbitofrontal (ventral prefrontal) cortex—brain structures that are found to be compromised in antisocial individuals. Here I highlight key brain regions implicated in antisocial behavior, with an emphasis on the prefrontal cortex, along with ways these areas give expression to risk factors for antisocial behavior. Environmental influences may alter gene expression to trigger the cascade of events that translate genes into antisocial behavior. Neuroethical considerations include how responsibility and punishment should be determined given the hypothesis that neural circuits underlying morality are compromised in antisocial individuals.

Musical Disorders: From Behavior to Genes
Isabelle Peretz (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Research over the last decade has provided compelling evidence that the ability to engage with music is a fundamental human trait, yet the biological basis of music remains largely unknown. Recent findings indicate that a small number of individuals have severe musical problems that have neurogenetic underpinnings. Such deficiencies are termed congenital amusia, an umbrella term for lifelong musical disabilities that cannot be attributed to mental retardation, deafness, lack of exposure to music, or brain damage after birth. Congenital amusia constitutes a natural experiment, giving us a rare chance to examine the biological basis of music by tracing causal links among genes, environment, brain, and behavior.

Within-Family Differences in Parent–Child Relations Across the Life Course
J. Jill Suitor, Jori Sechrist, Mari Plikuhn, Seth T. Pardo, and Karl Pillemer (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Despite a powerful social norm that parents should treat offspring equally, beginning in early childhood and continuing through adulthood, parents often differentiate among their children in such domains as closeness, support, and control. We review research on how parent–child relationships differ within families, focusing on issues of parental favoritism and differential treatment of children. We begin by examining within-family differences in childhood and adolescence and then explore differentiation by older parents among adult children. Overall, we find considerable similarities across the life course in the prevalence, predictors, and consequences of parents' differentiation among their offspring.

Math Performance in Stressful Situations
Sian L. Beilock (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Whether because individuals are made aware of negative stereotypes about how they should perform or are in a high-stakes testing situation, a stressful environment can adversely affect the success people have in solving math problems. I review work examining how unwanted failure in math occurs and individual differences in those most likely to fail. This work suggests that a high-stress situation creates worries about the situation and its consequences that compete for the working memory (WM) normally available for performance. Consequently, the performance of individuals who rely most heavily on WM for successful execution (i.e., higher-WM individuals) is most likely to decline when the pressure is on.

Children's Critical Thinking When Learning From Others
Gail D. Heyman (View AbstractClose Abstract)

A key component of critical thinking is the ability to evaluate the statements of other people. Because information that is obtained from others is not always accurate, it is important that children learn to reason about it critically. By as early as age 3, children understand that people sometimes communicate inaccurate information and that some individuals are more reliable sources than others. However, in many contexts, even older children fail to evaluate sources critically. Recent research points to the role of social experience in explaining why children often fail to engage in critical reasoning.

Physiological Stress Response, Estrogen, and the Male–Female Mortality Gap
Eero Kajantie(View AbstractClose Abstract)

Whether one is male or female is one of the most important predictors of how long one is likely to live and what diseases one is likely to encounter. Researchers have long been puzzled by the mechanisms that could underlie such profound sex differences. Recent findings suggest a key role is played by physiological stress responses—how men and women respond differently to psychosocial stressors in everyday life. This review focuses on two important physiological stress systems: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (which regulates the stress hormone cortisol) and the autonomic nervous system. The general pattern is that between puberty and menopause, the responses of these systems to experimental psychosocial stress are lower in females, and their changes with menopause, estrogen administration, and pregnancy have suggested that estrogen plays a key role in regulating stress responsiveness. This review presents a hypothesis that mechanisms that regulate these sex differences have been driven by evolutionary pressures to transform information about prevailing environmental conditions to the fetus, through maternal stress, to adjust its development to circumstances it will encounter in extrauterine life.

Recognition Memory, Familiarity, and Deja vu Experiences
Anne M. Cleary (View AbstractClose Abstract)

Deja vu occurs when one feels as though a situation is familiar, despite evidence that the situation could not have been experienced before. Until recently, the topic of deja vu remained largely outside of the realm of mainstream scientific investigation. However, interest in investigating the nature of deja vu is growing among researchers of cognitive processes. In some cases, deja vu may be understood within the context of research on human recognition memory. Specifically, deja vu may sometimes result from familiarity-based recognition, or recognition that is based on feelings of familiarity that occur without identification of their source.

Index