Alexithymia is a problematic psychological characteristic that limits oneâs ability to identify and describe internal emotional states. Heightened levels of alexithymia are ubiquitous among many mental and physical health disorders, and yet, much is unknown about how it alters emotional processing and how to improve it. Experiment one presents a novel, laboratory-based paradigm that facilitates collection of a wide range of emotional processes, including subjective and implicit measures of emotion, as well as aspects of emotional complexity. Results highlight reduced subjective arousal, increased response time to questions about emotional experiences, and reduced emotional dialecticism and granularity as the most important predictors of alexithymia, each of which differentially predicts components of alexithymia. Experiment two considers the role of interoceptive awareness for predicting alexithymia and performance on the tasks developed in experiment one. Interoceptive awareness refers to awareness of internal bodily states; though interoception is critical to the generation of subjective feelings states and many suspect it is involved in alexithymia, little is known about the relationship between the two. The present results suggest interoception plays a critical role in all components of alexithymia, supporting theories it is key to alexithymia. Interestingly, two subtypes of heightened alexithymia emerged from this work: one characterized by low interoceptive awareness and another characterized by high. Both likely interfere with daily function via different pathways. Experiment two also examines whether atypical aspects of emotional processing identified in experiment one improve in response to brief a mindfulness meditation or relaxation script. Results suggest that simple interventions may be successful in improving certain deficits associated with alexithymia, including interoceptive accuracy, normative labeling of emotional experiences, negative dialecticism and positive granularity, particularly among individuals with low interoceptive awareness at baseline. Findings have implications for treatment design and clarifying diagnostic patterns within alexithymia. These are discussed and many avenues for future research proposed.

Recent research has linked sleep disturbance with anxiety-related symptoms and disorders. However, limited research has attempted to delineate specific mechanisms that may account for this relationship, and the extent to which this relationship is accounted for by depression remains unclear. To address these gaps in the literature, study one examined the links between sleep disturbance and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a nationally representative sample. Consistent with predictions, results revealed that sleep disturbance severity was associated with OCS severity, even when controlling for depression (and other anxiety-related disorders). Study two examined executive function as a potential mechanism that may account for the relationship between sleep disturbance and repetitive thought, including worry and rumination. Consistent with predictions, results of a structural equation model revealed that executive function significantly accounted for the relationship between sleep disturbance and repetitive thought above and beyond the effects of general distress. Take together, these findings offer preliminary evidence for a unique relationship between sleep disturbance and anxiety-related symptoms that is not accounted for by depression. Further, executive function may function as a mechanism in this relationship. The implications for anxiety-related disorders are discussed.

It is generally believed that there are two main mechanisms of auditory distraction: attention capture and interference-by-process. Attention capture is said to occur when sounds drag your attention away from what you are attempting to focus on and harm performance as a consequence. Interference-by-process, meanwhile, states that the processing of the sounds can conflict with the processing needed to complete the task of interest. Whether or not the two mechanisms can jointly lead to distraction is unclear at this time. The following dissertation examined the roles of both distraction mechanisms in a cross-modal variant of the Stroop task, in which one names the color of visual items (e.g. color squares) while ignoring auditory color words. I attempted to manipulate the two mechanisms of auditory distraction independently to determine whether 1) both can play a role in distraction simultaneously and 2) whether the mechanisms can be manipulated independently. Experiments 1 and 2 sought to examine the role of attention, while Experiment 3 examined interference-by-process. The results implied that attention, specifically attention capture, appears to have little or no role in the size of the cross-modal effect and that any attention involved is outside the realm of top-down control. Thus, as of this time, there is no clear evidence that both mechanisms of auditory distraction can jointly lead to detriments in performance; however, more work is needed.

This study examined concurrent maternal and child correlates of maternal coping socialization messages using a cross-informant, multi-method design. Maternal responsive/warm parenting behaviors were also examined as a moderator of the relation between maternal socialization behaviors and childrenâs coping. Questionnaires and direct observations were obtained from mothers with and without a history of depression (N = 100) and their children (9 to 15 years). The study tested a new observational paradigm and developed a novel coding system to measure maternal socialization of coping messages from a discussion-based task. Cross-sectional analyses revealed a number of significant correlations between observed maternal coping socialization messages and both mother and child coping responses. Using multiple linear regression analysis, evidence was mixed in regard to the role of maternal depressive symptoms and coping socialization messages for childrenâs coping strategies. There was partial support for responsive/warm parenting as moderator of the association between maternal coping socialization and child coping strategies. The present findings are discussed, limitations and strengths are noted, and implications for future research are outlined.

Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) are known to be at high risk for anxiety. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been used to treat anxiety in typically developing populations for decades with great success, but the literature on use of CBT in ID is limited and nonexistent with regards to WS specifically. The current study sought to assess the level of certain skills thought to be crucial for success in CBT in addition to whether these skills could be learned through a training intervention. Thirty adults with WS were assessed for level of core CBT skills at baseline. One group then received a brief training intervention adapted from previous research while the other group received a control intervention. Skill level was assessed again after the interventions were administered. As a whole, participants scored above chance on a measure distinguishing thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Qualitative analysis of a measure assessing cognitive mediation showed sophisticated understanding of this concept in some participants. There was no longitudinal effect of the intervention across groups, but a number of individuals showed improvement as a result of the CBT training intervention. This study indicates that at least some individuals with WS possess baseline abilities with regards to CBT skills that would allow them to participate and succeed in therapy. The null findings with regards to longitudinal learning do not necessarily indicate that individuals with WS are unable to learn or improve upon CBT skills, and may be a reflection of the brief nature of the intervention combined with the context in which it was administered.

Our understanding of emotion and coping is limited in that theorists and researchers have generally failed to observe the full adaptational process, from emotion elicitation to coping. Across three studies, I capitalized on the strengths of different research designs to investigate the relationships between appraisal, motivation, and coping among various negative and positive emotions. In Study 1, I conducted a retrospective survey of emotional experience and modeled the coherence between appraisal, motivation, and coping. By uncovering the patterns of appraisal, motivation, and coping for each emotion, I differentiated among 20 distinct emotions. In Study 2, I experimentally manipulated appraisals of problem-focused coping potential and observed the effects of this manipulation on coping during a difficult learning task. The appraisal of high problem-focused coping potential interacted with perceived competence to influence the use of various engagement-related coping strategies. Finally, in Study 3, I conducted a prospective survey of how undergraduate students experienced and coped with their emotions prior to, as well as after, taking two exams across a two-month period. Results supplement the findings from Studies 1 and 2, providing evidence of how prior appraisal and coping impact present emotional experience. Taken together, the three studies reveal the elegant coherence between appraisal, emotion, motivation, and coping.

Previous research on the development of infant tool use learning in the second year of life has provided contrary evidence as to how infants select among differentially effective tools following independent exploration, demonstration by an adult, or a combination of both. This experiment provided 20-month-old infants with the opportunity to explore a pegboard toy with a tool before witnessing a modelâs demonstration of another tool. Half of the infants explored with a highly effective hard tool, while the other half explored with a less effective soft tool. Following this exploration, infants observed an adult demonstrate the tool they had not used themselves. Finally, infants were tested on their ability to select between these tools and succeed in hammering pegs with their chosen tool. Results clarify the interactive roles of independent exploration and reliance on social-pedagogical cues for imitation in the development of tool use in human children.

When there is a gender effect, women perform better than men in face recognition tasks. Prior work has not documented a male advantage on a face recognition task, suggesting that face recognition is a unitary domain for which women may excel either due to evolutionary reasons or the influence of social roles. Here, we question the assumption that face recognition is a unitary domain and provide a proof of concept based on a face category for which men outperform women. We developed a test of face learning to measures individual differences with face categories for which men and women may differ in experience, using the faces of Barbie dolls and of Transformers. The results show a crossover interaction between subject gender and category, where men outperform women with Transformersâ faces. We demonstrate that men can outperform women with some categories of faces, suggesting that explanations for a general face recognition advantage for women are in fact not needed.

Reading is a basic life skill, and is paramount to students success in school. In fact, skilled readers tend to succeed in subject areas including mathematics, social studies, and science (Valleley & Shriver, 2003). Phonics is one of the cornerstones of learning to read. Without mastering phonics, students are more likely to experience persistent difficulties in reading (Elbro, 1996; Bus and Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, 1999; Rose, 2006). However, student motivation to read can impact the effectiveness of reading programs (Melekoglu, 2011). The current study examines the influence of motivation on the effectiveness of a phonics program with six first-graders who have struggled to learn to read. Students rates of learning to read were similar for phonics instruction programs utilizing combined constant time delay instruction and percentile shaping as they were for a phonics program utilizing constant time delay instruction alone.

Obesity rates in the United States (U.S.) continue to rise with approximately 34.9% of adults considered obese and an additional 34% that are overweight. With the increased prevalence of obesity, there has also been a rise in weight-based discrimination and weight bias in the U.S. The present study examined the association between body mass index (BMI) and psychological functioning, and whether internalized weight bias and weight-based stigmatizing experiences moderated this relationship. In addition, the present study examined if weight bias internalization mediated the relationship between weight-based stigmatizing experiences and psychological functioning. Non-treatment seeking overweight and obese participants (N = 112) completed several questionnaires including the Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS), Stigmatizing Situations Inventory (SSI), and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Contrary to expectations, results showed that body mass index (BMI) did not significantly predict participants overall psychological functioning; however, it did significantly predict the somatization subscale of the BSI. Consistent with predicted hypotheses, BMI, internalized weight bias, and weight-based stigmatizing experiences explained a significant amount of the variance in psychological functioning; however, inconsistent with predicted hypotheses, neither internalized weight bias nor weight-based stigmatizing experiences moderated the relationship between BMI and psychological functioning. As predicted, weight-based stigmatizing experiences was found to be a significant predictor of internalized weight bias, and weight-based stigmatizing experiences was a significant predictor of psychological functioning. Results indicated that the direct effect of weight-based stigmatizing experiences on psychological functioning was significant, indicating that weight-based stigmatizing experiences also affects psychological functioning in ways independent of internalization. Consistent with expectations, the indirect effect of weight-based stigmatizing experiences on psychological functioning was significantly greater than zero, indicating that individuals who have weight-based stigmatizing experiences were, on average, 0.040 units higher in their likelihood of experiencing psychological distress as a result of the effect of internalized weight bias. Results provide evidence for significant relationships between internalized weight bias and weight-based stigmatizing experiences and psychological functioning, as well as support the predicted hypothesis that weight bias internalization mediates the relationship between weight-based stigmatizing experiences and psychological functioning. Recommendations for future research based on these findings are discussed.