The current study sought to prospectively explore the potential main effects and interactive relations among drive for thinness, life event stress, and harm avoidance in the prediction of disordered eating in an ethnically diverse sample of women (N = 58). During the initial and follow-up assessments, standardized questionnaires were utilized to assess drive for thinness, life event stress, and a harm avoidant temperament. Additionally, semi-structured diagnostic interviews were administered to assess disordered eating. Results revealed a significant interaction between drive for thinness and life event stress in the prediction of eating pathology. Neither the two-way life event stress x harm avoidance interaction nor the three-way drive for thinness x life event stress x harm avoidance interaction were significant predictors of eating pathology. These findings suggest that the previously suggested relation between drive for thinness and pathological eating is dependent upon the degree of life event stress experienced.

The current study sought to prospectively explore the potential main effects and interactive relations among drive for thinness, life event stress, and harm avoidance in the prediction of disordered eating in an ethnically diverse sample of women (N = 58). During the initial and follow-up assessments, standardized questionnaires were utilized to assess drive for thinness, life event stress, and a harm avoidant temperament. Additionally, semi-structured diagnostic interviews were administered to assess disordered eating. Results revealed a significant interaction between drive for thinness and life event stress in the prediction of eating pathology. Neither the two-way life event stress x harm avoidance interaction nor the three-way drive for thinness x life event stress x harm avoidance interaction were significant predictors of eating pathology. These findings suggest that the previously suggested relation between drive for thinness and pathological eating is dependent upon the degree of life event stress experienced.

Anxiety is the most reported negative emotion in the academic setting. One of the specific forms of anxiety that children can experience is reading anxiety (RA). Children who experience RA are often at risk for reading failure; likewise, children who experience reading failure are likely to experience RA. Children who excel at reading can also experience anxiety, often in the form of harm avoidance. Bibliotherapy has been shown to help to mitigate the effects of specific types of anxiety in children. The purpose of this study was to understand the anxiety of children who excel at reading and children at risk for reading failure, particularly during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighty-five first-, second-, and third-grade students in a rural school district in a western state with a range of reading achievement levels participated in the study. The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children Second Edition (MASC 2) and Reading Anxiety Scale (RAS) were used to measure students' levels of specific forms of anxiety and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) was used to measure their reading achievement. When comparing the specific anxiety levels of different reading achievement groups, there was no significant difference between the levels or types of anxiety experience by the groups. Instead, there was an increase in all forms of anxiety regardless of reading achievement level when compared to what prior research would suggest. This rise in all levels of anxiety is correlated with the COVID-19 pandemic timeline. Future research should investigate the impact of bibliotherapy on anxiety levels across reading achievement levels.

The purpose of this study is to explore the differences within specific temperament traits on emotional processing bias. Participants with extremes in temperament traits Harm Avoidance and Novelty Seeking were categorised and their performance on a computerised neuropsychological test battery was investigated. First year psychology students at a residential university in South Africa were invited to participate in the original study. Processing of the data yielded a realised sample of 431 participants who completed the Emotions battery, which comprised of four tasks. The results show that processing of affective valence varies according to individual differences within specific temperament traits. The findings suggest a negative emotion processing bias in the High HA group in comparison to the low HA group. Furthermore, the impulsive and extroverted High NS group show an increased ability to process emotional faces in comparison to the low NS group. The implications of these findings are discussed in the context of putative risk factors for psychopathological disorders. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted