Examines how low- and high-trust individuals (n=111) react to messages of intended behavior in a social dilemma situation. Subjects played a two-person prisoner's dilemma; the opponent was a reciprocal strategy programmed by the experimenter. During the game, subjects received a message status that the opponent planned to be cooperative or…

The authors examined the ways in which 40 women with chronic illnesses used religious beliefs as a means of coping with their illnesses. The majority reported that religious beliefs were important in living with chronic illness. In addition, more women who were identified as coping well reported strong religious beliefs. (Author)

Explores how parents' psychological functioning, social relationships, and demographic characteristics relate to family functioning with a sample of 197 participants. Significant associations between predictor variables and family functioning were found as rated by mothers, caseworkers, and coders of family interaction tasks. (JDM)

The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice features programs and practices that employ effective strategies to reduce youth anger and aggression. The five programs discussed in this article provide systematic, theoretically driven approaches for dealing with an angry child. (Author)

Applying a cognitive approach, this study expanded previous research on stress vulnerability models of depression and problem solving deficits, as it relates to suicide attempt. Results indicated a two path model of suicide attempt. The importance of addressing both depression/hopelessness, and problem solving deficits when working with suicide…

Parental divorce is thought to affect romantic relationships of young adults, especially with respect to certainty about relationships and perceptions of problems in relationships. This study examined these connections with a random sample of 464 coupled partners. Young adults who were casually dating showed the strongest effects of divorce,…

Based on two waves of a large, nationally representative panel, this study demonstrates that even before the disruption, both male and female adolescents from families that subsequently dissolve exhibit more academic, psychological, and behavioral problems than peers whose parents remain married. Analyses also indicate females are as likely to be…

Boredom is a common experience in healthy individuals and may be elevated in various neurological or psychiatric conditions. As yet, very little is known about the cognitive or neural bases of the subjective experience of boredom. We examined temporal perception and the temporal allocation of attention in healthy individuals reporting high- or…

Objective: To assess the potential efficacy, tolerability, and safety of citalopram in the treatment of functional pediatric recurrent abdominal pain and comorbid internalizing disorders. Method: Twenty-five clinically referred children and adolescents with recurrent abdominal pain aged 7 to 18 years, inclusive, participated in a 12-week,…

Objective: Previous work in adults and youths has suggested that juvenile onset bipolar disorder (BPD) is associated with an elevated risk of substance use disorders (SUD). Considering the public health importance of this issue, the authors now report on a controlled study of adolescents with and without BPD to evaluate the risk of SUD. Method:…

Subjective well-being (SWB) is an important indicator of quality of life. SWB can be conceptualized as a momentary state (e.g., mood) as well as a relatively stable trait (e.g., life satisfaction). The validity of self-reported trait aspects of SWB has been questioned by experimental studies showing that SWB judgments seem to be strongly context…

The present study shows that long-term, low-quality marriages have significant negative effects on overall well-being. We utilize a nationally representative longitudinal study with a multi-item marital quality scale that allows us to track unhappy marriages over a 12-year period and to assess marital happiness along many dimensions. Remaining…

Van Breukelen (this issue) provides an approach to using both response time (RT) and accuracy for (1) measuring latent abilities of participants even when they may trade speed for accuracy, and for (2) providing insight into the psychological processes underlying task performance. In this commentary, I focus on the second of these aims and assess…

Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays important roles in processes of reward and self-regulation. Lesions of OFC induce changes in personality and social conduct characterized by behavioral disinhibition, impulsivity, reduced autonomy, lack of concern with negative consequences, and mood lability. Many of these processes relate to aspects of education,…

The purpose of this study was to characterize the psychological processes of recovery from binge eating disorder (BED). A model was developed by asking the research question, "What is the experience of recovery for women with BED?" Unstructured interviews were conducted with six women who met the DSM-IV criteria for BED, and who were recovered…