By John M Grohol PsyD

You know things have gotten bad when prosecutors start prosecuting teens — some on felony charges that could result in significant jail time — because of bullying. Yes, bullying.

Most of us have experienced bullying at one point in our lives, or know someone who has been bullied. Of course for most, the bullying didn’t result in lifelong scars. Part of that is because the extremes of bullying were not really known 20 or 30 years ago. You couldn’t bully someone 24/7 through Facebook, Twitter, email and forums devoted entirely to making other people’s lives miserable (yes, such online communities exist).

So nowadays sometimes bullying is taken to an extreme. Not by one or two teens or kids, but by a whole gang of them.

In central Massachusetts, it led Phoebe Prince — a 15-year old Irish immigrant — to hang herself. And now 9 teens have been indicted on charges related to her humiliation and threats. Threats that ultimately led to her death.

The details of the case are disturbing… Not just for the behavior of the teenagers involved, but also in the negligence of school officials and teachers who failed to do anything about it:

It was particularly alarming, the district attorney said, that some teachers, administrators and other staff members at the school were aware of the harassment but did not stop it. “The actions or inactions of some adults at the school were troublesome,” she said, but would not lead to criminal charges.

Ms. Prince had recently moved to the United States from Ireland when she started at South Hadley High School as a freshman last fall. The taunting started when she had a brief relationship with a senior boy; some students reportedly called her an “Irish slut,” knocked books out of her hands and sent her threatening text messages.

On the day of her death, the investigation found, students abused her in the school library, in the lunchroom and the hallways and threw a canned drink at her as she walked home.

So while I believe the response — although perhaps extreme — is the right one, it also doesn’t address the school’s negligence in stopping this inappropriate behavior from occurring over and over again in a single day.

There may not be a single “right” response to such bullying. But hopefully what this indictment shows is that if you want to bully someone as a teen, and then they go and do something extreme, you may find yourself being held accountable. And not just to juvenile crimes (which typically have lesser and less severe sentences), but to adult crimes as well.

It’s a hard way to learn that life is unfair. But you make what you want for yourself and out of your life. And if you want to feel the power associated with bullying, be prepared to enjoy the prison time that comes along with it. Crimes are crimes and driving a person to death by relentless threats and harassment is nothing to be proud of.

Read the full article: 9 Teenagers Are Accused of Bullying That Led to Suicide

Related Posts

• Bullying & Adult Mental Health
• 37% of Americans report being bullied on the job
• Psychological distress tied to bullying
• Bullying and Behavioral Problems
• The Megan Meier Foundation

 

Source:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/03/29/teenage-bullying-leads-to-9-indictments/

Bullies’ Behavior Driven By Pursuit Of Status And Affection

Article Date: 27 Mar 2010 – 0:00 PDT

Bullying is common in classrooms around the world: About 15 percent of children are victimized, leading to depression, anxiety, loneliness, and other negative outcomes. What’s driving bullies to behave the way they do? According to a new large-scale Dutch study, most bullies are motivated by the pursuit of status and affection.

Source:
Sarah Hutcheon
Society for Research in Child Development  

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183661.php

 

Antonia Senior

Not just flash but stupid too. Financial traders created a system too complex to control — but a few foresaw catastrophe

On October 31, 2007, a hitherto obscure analyst called Meredith Whitney caused panic on the financial markets. Citigroup, one of Wall Street’s giant banks, would have to slash its dividend or it could slide into bankruptcy, she warned. In the ensuing panic $380 billion was wiped off the value of US shares as an already jittery market realised that the sub-prime mortgage crisis could be evolving into a catastrophe.

It is with Whitney’s explosive report that Michael Lewis begins his eagerly anticipated take on the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The author of Liar’s Poker, the chronicle of the excesses of 1980s Wall Street, has entered the fray of writers seeking to explain the extraordinary meltdown in the world’s financial system. The result is a triumph.

Of all the places to start his tale, Lewis picks Whitney because she was saying something new: that the titans of Wall Street were not simply the corrupt, flash bankers he chronicled in Liar’s Poker, but something far, far worse. They were stupid. They had unwittingly created a monster that they did not understand and could not control. All the platitudes trotted out by bankers and politicians since the first inklings of something going awry — the collapse of Bear Stearns’ two sub-prime hedge funds in July 2007 — were fatuous. The horror had only just begun.

As events unfolded, various commentators crawled on to the media insisting that they had foreseen the disaster. But Lewis, spurred on by a conversation with Whitney, went looking for the money men who really had seen it coming, the short-sellers on the other side of the sub-prime bet. He found a handful of colourful pessimists and visionaries who had one thing in common: the strength of personality to insist that the Emperor was not only naked, but bankrupt too.

In The Big Short, we meet Michael Burry, the one-eyed doctor with Asperger’s syndrome and a talent for finding value in markets. Then there’s Steve Eisman, the equities guy with a missing tact gene who is apoplectic about the fraud he believes is being perpetrated against poor Americans and the stupidity of the perpetrators. Greg Lippmann is a Deutsche Bank trader who would make a rotten used-car salesman, but who calls the market better than his employers. We follow the adventures of a trio of recent graduates, running millions of dollars out of a garage, who find it difficult to trust the evidence piling up in their research. How can we newbies be right, they agonise, if that means that everyone else in the entire world is wrong?

Read More …  http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article7074601.ece

 

Source: Government Of Australia
Published Tuesday, 30 March, 2010 – 11:05

Young children with autism spectrum disorders can now access specialist early childhood services vital for them to reach their full potential at a new, autism-specific early learning and care centre in Brisbane.

The Rudd Government is providing more than $4 million over three years to AEIOU for Children with Autism to establish the centre at Griffith University’s Nathan Campus, including $2.3 million in capital funding to build the new centre.

The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, Bill Shorten, and the Member for Moreton, Graham Perrett today officially opened the new centre.

The centre is one of six autism specific centres, which are part of the Rudd Government’s $190 million Helping Children with Autism Package.

The centre employs seven specialist staff, including two speech pathologists, two specialist early childhood teachers, an occupational therapist, a psychologist and a research fellow who all work alongside 10 trained child care workers.

“As many as one in 160 Australian children have an autism spectrum disorder,” Ms Macklin said.

“Early intervention and ongoing family support can make a huge difference to these children’s quality of life, making it easier for them to attend school and participate in everyday activities.

“Children with autism at the new centre will also benefit from highly-structured interaction with other children, to help them grow in confidence and experience playing and learning in groups.”

The Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare, Kate Ellis, said the centre draws on international best practice.

“The early years are an important time for all children, but it is especially important for helping children with autism to reach their full potential and become receptive learners,” Ms Ellis said.

“The work done in this centre will build on the existing evidence base about autism spectrum disorders and promote best practice through the involvement of Griffith University.”

The Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, Bill Shorten, said the Brisbane centre would offer crucial support and information to parents.

“Having a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder can be an isolating and difficult experience for parents. This centre will be a place where children can learn and interact with others, while getting professional support tailored to their needs,” Mr Shorten said.

The Member for Moreton, Graham Perrett welcomed the new centre which will provide support to both children and their parents.

“This new centre will help local families affected by autism, by providing a supportive environment for the children to learn and grow, as well as helping parents with their caring responsibilities,” Mr Perrett said.

Source:  http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/35069

Nominee to Disability Council Is Lightning Rod for Dispute on Views of Autism

By AMY HARMON  Published: March 27, 2010

When President Obama nominated Ari Ne’eman to the National Council on Disability, many families touched by autism took it as a positive sign. Mr. Ne’eman would be the first person with the disorder to serve on the council.

Ari Ne’eman (Photo: Kent Adams)

Ari Ne’eman would be the first person with autism on the National Council on Disability.

But he has since become the focus of criticism from other advocates who disagree with his view that society ought to concentrate on accepting autistic people, not curing them.

A hold has been placed on Mr. Ne’eman’s nomination, which requires Senate confirmation. Whether the hold is related to the criticism of Mr. Ne’eman (pronounced NAY-men) and what it might take to lift it is unclear.

But Mr. Ne’eman, the 22-year-old founder of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, seems to be a lightning rod for a struggle over how autism will be perceived at a time when an estimated 1 in 100 American children and teenagers are given such a diagnosis.

Mr. Ne’eman is at the forefront of a growing movement that describes autism as a form of “neurodiversity” that should be embraced and accommodated, just as physical disabilities have led to the construction of ramps and stalls in public restrooms for people with disabilities. Autism, he and others say, is a part of their identity.

Read in Full:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/health/policy/28autism.html

White House Remains Steadfast In Support Of Disability Council Nominee

By Michelle Diament

An anonymous Senate hold hampering the first-ever nomination of a person with autism to the National Council on Disability is highlighting rifts within the autism community. But despite the political hitch, President Barack Obama remains solidly behind his nominee.

Obama nominated Ari Ne’eman, the 22-year-old founder of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, and seven others to the council in December 2009.

Now, The New York Times reports that under a highly secretive parliamentary move in the Senate, a hold was placed on Ne’eman’s nomination anonymously by one or more members of the body. Meanwhile, the other seven nominees were confirmed.

Read in Full:  http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2010/03/29/neeman-nomination/7473/

Clinical Review

Long term treatment of depression with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and newer antidepressants

Published 26 March 2010

BMJ 2010;340:c1468

Steven Reid, consultant psychiatrist¹, Corrado Barbui, lecturer in psychiatry²

¹ Department of Liaison Psychiatry, St Mary’s Hospital, London W2 1PF, ² Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy

Correspondence to: S Reid steve.reid@nhs.net

The rise in the prescribing of antidepressants is largely accounted for by an increase in long term treatment.

Half of people with a diagnosis of major depression will go on to have a further episode, and risk of recurrence increases with each episode.

Evidence for the benefits of long term prescribing of antidepressants comes almost exclusively from secondary care settings.

Continuing antidepressant treatment roughly halves the absolute risk of relapse.

The increased risk of suicidal behavior associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is restricted to people aged under 25.

People with risk factors for relapse of depression should be advised to continue with SSRIs for at least 12 months and consider long term treatment.

The introduction of fluoxetine in 1987 marked the arrival of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for the treatment for depression.  In the United States antidepressant prescriptions accounted for 2.6% of primary care visits in … [Full text of this article]

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Top 10 Signs of Depression

 

By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

Depression is a real, but often misunderstood, mental disorder that can be readily treated with both medications and psychotherapy.

Not everyone who is depressed experiences every symptom. Some people experience a few symptoms, some many. The severity of symptoms varies with individuals and also varies over time.

1. 1.  Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood
2. 2.  Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
3. 3.  Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
4. 4.  Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex
5. 5.  Decreased energy, fatigue, or feeling “slowed down”
6. 6.  Difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions
7. 7.  Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
8. 8.  Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain
9. 9.  Thoughts of death or suicide or actual suicide attempts
10. 10.  Restlessness or irritability

 

Some people may also experience certain persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain.

A person who suffers from a major depressive disorder (sometimes also referred to as clinical depression or major depression) must either have a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities consistently for at least a 2 week period. This mood must represent a change from the person’s normal mood.

Learn more about depression here.

Source:  http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/top-10-signs-of-depression/

Anesthesia Drugs, A Possible Cure For Depression?

Article Date: 28 Mar 2010 – 0:00 PDT

A small study has indicated that anesthesia may relieve depression in some patients. This is one of many trends that Kalorama Information is noticing in the dynamic $4.1 billion market for anesthesia drugs. The healthcare market research publisher’s new report, “The World Anesthesia Drug Market,” notes that although a rather mature market, growth is being driven by more surgeries as a result of an aging population, with the general anesthesia segment expected to enjoy the highest annual growth at 4.8% through 2014. According to the report’s analysis, new therapeutic applications may drive additional sales long-term.

Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health discovered that administering a single low dose of an anesthesia drug produced almost immediate relief from depression in a small study group of patients that did not respond to any other type of depression therapy. The positive effects lasted several weeks for many participants. This is one of the first studies to look at the effect of Ketamine on depression in humans, though earlier animal studies did show some promising results.

This is a potentially exciting area of research for anesthesia products because currently available antidepressants can take weeks to work. Ketamine is novel not only for the speed at which it takes effect, but also because it targets a different system in the brain. All currently available antidepressants work on monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. But Ketamine involves the main excitory neurotransmitter in the brain called glutamate. Ketamine functions by blocking glutamate’s action on the N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor.

However, due to possible severe side effects, including psychosis, Ketamine is unlikely to be approved for use in the treatment of depression. Nevertheless, the study did reveal a potentially promising method for combating depression and opens up an important new area for future research.

“With millions of people suffering from chronic and debilitating depression and not responding to existing treatment options, the possibility of finding a different, more effective avenue towards relief is very appealing,” said Melissa Elder, analyst for Kalorama Information and author of the report. “If low doses of Ketamine, or another form of anesthesia, can be achieved with minimal side effects, it would open up a vast new market opportunity for anesthesia producers.”

Ongoing research is focusing on reducing the side effects of Ketamine as well as on the use of other anesthesia products.

“The World Anesthesia Drug Market” analyzes this market, and provides key information including market data and forecasts, product reviews, trends and issues, and detailed company profiles. The report is available here.

Source Kalorama Information

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/183677.php

Teen Blogging: A Good Thing!

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 25, 2010

A new pilot study is supportive of teenage blogging, as the vast majority of study subjects used the blogs to nurture relationships with their peers and build a sense of community.

In the investigation, Ohio State University researchers studied 100 teen bloggers from around the United States.

The finding that the blogs were used in a positive manner, rather than to admit misbehavior, was a welcome discovery.

This preliminary study suggests that blogging could be used therapeutically to help troubled teens express themselves in positive ways, said Dawn Anderson-Butcher, associate professor of social work at Ohio State.

She and her students examined blog posts from the public Web site Xanga (pronounced “Zanga”) for an entire month, to find out whether teens blogged about risky behaviors, such as skipping school, doing drugs, or having sex.

In the current issue of the Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, they report the contrary: Most teens in the study blogged about positive behaviors, such as studying, participating in school activities, spending time with family, and going to church.

“We looked at every quote, and the kids wrote about very few problem behaviors,” Anderson-Butcher said.

“They showed a lot of creative expression through poetry, lyrics and song. It was very exciting — and for me, positive — to see the typical developmental activities that they were writing about in their blogs.”

The blog data in this study came from 2007. Xanga is less popular with teens now, as the majority are “micro-blogging” their activities on Facebook.

Anderson-Butcher said she can’t replicate this study on Facebook, however, because unlike Xanga, it offers safety measures to keep strangers from reading kids’ profiles.

“That’s a good thing in relation to privacy,” she said.

“It just means we aren’t able to access the data as freely.”

While the researchers couldn’t know whether parents were supervising the Xanga blogs used in this study, the teens were clearly writing blog entries as messages to their peers.

Quotes from typical blog postings:

1. *“OK! Now my 4th quarter is startin’ and I am sooo scared b/c I didn’t start it off very well in honors Geometry and Biology and I’m scared that I’m not gonna get a good grade (A) by end of the year. Plus finals so I’m soooo dead. Pray 4 me guyz!”
2. *“I’m getting my wisdom teeth out Friday, wanna come over and be my nurse? We can play monopoly and listen to music. It’ll be great!!”
3. *“Wuts up every1? Just got back from church. Yeah it was oh so exciting. I have to go to church at 5 instead of 7 every Wednesday since I play keyboard in the band.”
4. *“Hey, hey, I’m grounded so I’m not gonna be able to post for about a month. Sorry!!!! I’ll explain later.”

Most of the postings were simply conversations with friends, the researchers found.

“They use blogging the same way my generation used the telephone when we were kids. They’re just talking, only now they can talk to each other any time, anywhere,” Anderson-Butcher said.

Researchers went through the blog postings and counted how many times the teens mentioned any good or bad behaviors.

Among the most common positive activities the teens described were playing video games (65 percent); watching television (45 percent); doing homework (40 percent); going to lessons, such as music, dance, or martial arts (38 percent); browsing the Internet (29 percent); and participating in faith-based activities (22 percent).

These are traditional youth development activities kids engage in during their out-of-school time, Anderson-Butcher said.

Even the teens’ most common complaint — boredom (65 percent) — isn’t such a bad thing if they are blogging about it instead of engaging in risky behaviors, she added.

“Think about the other things they could be doing. We know that when kids are bored, mostly between the hours of 3:00-6:00 p.m., that’s when they’re most at risk for using alcohol or having sex, for example. It’s the time when their parents are working and they are often unsupervised. But instead these youth sought out social expression via Xanga,” she said.

“So that’s definitely a positive. They’re filling their time with this social networking.”

Some teens posted to Xanga every day, while others only posted once or twice during the month used in the study.

Teens did describe some negative feelings, such as feeling blue (30 percent); feeling angry (28 percent); and feeling like they don’t fit in (22 percent). They complained that they didn’t want to do their homework (16 percent), and worried about getting bad grades (11 percent).

Very few mentioned cutting class (8 percent); using drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes (6 percent); or having sex (1 percent).

Anderson-Butcher stressed that parents should supervise their kids’ blogs, perhaps by making such supervision a condition of blogging. That way, parents can notice problems when they come up in the blog.

Her advice: parents can keep an eye on kids’ Facebook micro-blogs by being part of their circle of Facebook “friends,” or by enlisting the help of another trusted adult who is “friends” with them.

She also sees a potential for social workers to suggest blogging as a tool to support further relationship-building with teens on their caseloads, and maybe even texting as a way for teens to stay in touch with mentors, coaches, youth workers and therapists.

“I wonder if we have an opportunity for mentoring via the Internet in general. With appropriate boundaries, an adult could text message a kid to offer support between in-person appointments.”

Source: Ohio State University

 

Friday, 26 March 2010

Internet use is growing at a phenomenal rate and much ink has been spilled by commentators forecasting the psychological consequences of all this extra web-time. A lot of that comment is mere conjecture whilst many of the studies in the area are cross-sectional, with small samples, producing conflicting results. The latest research contribution comes from Irena Stepanikova and her colleagues and involves a massive sample, some of whom were followed over time. The results suggest that more time on the internet is associated with increased loneliness and reduced life satisfaction. However, it’s a complicated picture because the researchers’ different outcome measures produced mixed results.

Perhaps the most important message to come out of this research is that the results varied with the measure of internet use that was used – future researchers should note this. The other message is that more time browsing and communicating online appears to be linked with more loneliness, the two even increase together over time. However, it is important to appreciate that we don’t know the direction of causation. Increased loneliness may well encourage people to spend more time online, rather than web time causing loneliness. Or some other factor could be causing both to rise in tandem. It’s worth adding too that the web/loneliness link held even after controlling for time spent with friends and family. So if more web use were causing loneliness, it wasn’t doing it by reducing time spent socialising face-to-face.

‘We are hopeful that our study will stimulate future research … ,’ the researchers said, ‘but at this point any claims suggesting that as Internet use continues to grow in the future, more people will experience loneliness and low life-satisfaction would be premature.’

Stepanikova, I., Nie, N., & He, X. (2010). Time on the Internet at home, loneliness, and life satisfaction: Evidence from panel time-diary data Computers in Human Behavior, 26 (3), 329-338 DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2009.11.002 

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2010/03/large-longitudinal-study-finds.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BpsResearchDigest+%28BPS+Research+Digest%29

ScienceDaily (Mar. 25, 2010) — A study from Rhode Island Hospital has shown that a widely-used screening tool for bipolar disorder may incorrectly indicate borderline personality disorder rather than bipolar disorder. In the article that appears online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the researchers question the effectiveness of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ).

The MDQ is the most widely-used and studied screening tool for bipolar disorder. It is a brief questionnaire that assesses whether a patient displays some of the characteristic behaviors of bipolar disorder. It can be administered by clinicians or taken by patients on their own to determine if they screen positively for bipolar disorder. For the purposes of this study, the MDQ was scored by researchers.

Bipolar and borderline personality disorders share some clinical features, including fluctuations in mood and impulsive actions. The treatments, however, will vary depending on the individual and the diagnosis. Principal investigator Mark Zimmerman, MD, director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital, conducted a study to test the accuracy of the MDQ.

The research team interviewed nearly 500 patients using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) and the Structured Interview for DSM-IV for personality disorders. The patients were also asked to complete the MDQ. The research team then scored the questionnaires and found that patients with a positive indication for bipolar disorder using the MDQ were as likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as bipolar disorder when using the structured clinical interview. Further, their findings indicate that borderline personality disorder was four times more frequently diagnosed in the group who screened positive on the MDQ.

Zimmerman says that these findings raise caution for using the MDQ in clinical practice because of how differently the disorders are treated. “An incorrect diagnosis of bipolar disorder will usually lead to a treatment involving medications. If a patient truly has bipolar disorder, that treatment may work. However, at this time there are no approved medications to treat borderline personality disorder.

“Without an accurate diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, we may have many people in treatment who are taking medications that will not work to alleviate the characteristics of the condition from which they really suffer.” Zimmerman, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, continues, “In addition, patients with unrecognized borderline personality disorder will not be treated with one of the effective psychotherapies for this condition. It is therefore vital that we develop or identify a more accurate method to distinguish between these two conditions, and adopt it into clinical practice.”

Source:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100325131600.htm

Dear Readers,

 BT are currently working on repairs to a faulty internet connection (which may take a further week). 

Will return to regular posting as soon as posible.

Thanks,

Julie

Does Playing Hard to Get Work?

“Easy things nobody wants, but what is forbidden is tempting.” ~ Ovid

Back in the 60s and 70s, before the sexual revolution had really taken hold, the standard dating advice for women was play hard to get. In some quarters it still is.

Like the Roman poet Ovid 2,000 years earlier, social scientists in the 1960s accepted the cultural lore that women could increase their desirability by being coy. When interviewed, men seemed to agree: they said that hard to get women were probably more popular, beautiful and had better personalities.

Unfortunately every time psychologists used an experiment to test the idea that playing hard to get is a good dating strategy, their results didn’t make any sense. At least not until 1973 when Elaine Walster and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin finally hit upon a method that teased out the subtleties (Walster et al., 1973).

Here’s what they did.

Easy for you to get

Single young men were given a folder containing details of five fictitious single women with quite similar descriptions. They were told the computer had matched them and that three of the women had already seen and rated their own details and those of four other rival suitors.

This was all a ruse, however, to set up a series of experimental conditions related to how hard to get each of the women appeared to be. Each woman fell into one of the following categories:

• *Easy to get: had apparently given high ratings to all five men, including the participant.
• *Selectively hard to get: liked the participant but not the other four men.
• *Always hard to get: didn’t like any of the men, including the participant.
• *No information: there was no information provided about two of the women.

Each man saw the women’s ratings, including of themselves, then chose one to date.  One woman was far and away more popular than the others, and it had nothing to do with the small variations in their descriptions:

• *Easy to get: 5
• *Selectively hard to get: 42
• *Always hard to get: 6
• *No information: 11 and 7 for the two women for which no information was provided.

The woman who was apparently selectively hard to get, i.e. easy for you but hard for everyone else was the runaway winner for the men. Not only that but men thought the selectively hard to get woman would have all the advantages of the easy to get woman with none of the drawbacks of the hard to get woman. They thought she would be popular, warm and easygoing, but not demanding and difficult.

Forbidden fruit

We have to be careful what conclusions we draw from this experiment: crucially it didn’t involve anyone meeting face to face, or address what happens when men play hard to get, plus it only looked at heterosexual matches. But a subsequent study on speed-dating has also found that showing selective interest is the best strategy (Eastwick et al., 2007).

Despite these drawbacks, once you’ve heard the results it’s difficult to imagine how it could have turned out any other way—after all, everyone wants to feel special.

So this experiment suggests that playing hard to get only works in the sense that it signals selectivity. But for the person you are after, you should be easy to get because otherwise they’ll assume you’re hard work.

In the light of this experiment we can remix Ovid’s quote to:

“Easy things are tempting, but only if they are forbidden to others.”

There’s a maxim to live by.

Source: http://www.spring.org.uk/2010/03/does-playing-hard-to-get-work.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PsychologyBlog+%28PsyBlog%29

• How Other People’s Unspoken Expectations Control Us
• How Poor Gifts Affect Relationships
• Romantic Thoughts Increase Male Chivalry
• Why Men Prefer Direct Pick-Up Lines
• Internet Dating 2.0: Why Version 1.0 is Unsatisfying and Aversive
• Women’s Makeup Draws 33% More Men

Some couples want their sexual freedom, but don’t want their relationship freighted with the lies, secrets and ongoing deceptions that affairs require. In some cases, a contract for an open marriage is negotiated and agreed upon.

For example, one couple I saw in therapy had a “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy. They promised each other that they would only have sex one time with outside parties to avoid emotional entanglements–a promise that struck me as easy to break, given the agreed-upon silence surrounding their encounters and the fact that the emotional consequences of sex are impossible to anticipate. Plus, even otherwise honest people lie about sex.

Another couple had a “Tell all” policy with no holds barred. Another brought new sexual partners into the marital bed.

Last week, a sexually adventuresome woman who was finding herself strongly attracted to other people, asked her partner of eight years to consider having an open marriage. How did I see the risks, she wanted to know.

Here’s what I told her:

The biggest risk is that she may lose her marriage. Sex is deep and complicated. Restraining from sex outside marriage is the glue that keeps couples emotionally connected and truly present with each other. This is true even for couples that rarely or never have sex.

If she proceeds with her experiment, she or her partner (in this case, a woman) may start to feel threatened, jealous, angry, anxious, or even a little crazy. Alternatively, they may avoid the whole range of such painful feelings, but find that they have drifted into an entrenched distance and disconnection. She and her partner may end up feeling like cordial roommates in a climate of emotional flatness.

If a negative outcome occurs, will stopping the experiment allow them to restore the bond they now shares? That’s the big question. The answer is anybody’s guess.

I don’t mean to sound like a big prude or a sex cop making rules for others. I’ve worked with several couples who experimented with open marriages, quickly terminated the experiment when one or both partners started feeling badly, and moved forward from there. I have actually met one (only one) couple in my four decades of professional experience who claim to thrive over the years–as parents and partners–with an open marriage.

They are by far the very rare exception, not the rule. Usually, at least one person becomes an emotional casualty.

For those chomping at the bit to try open marriage, remember that you can’t know the outcome of an “open marriage” in advance. What’s certain is that the experiment cannot not affect your marriage. (Ditto for affairs) And your marriage is a big thing to put at risk.

Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-dance-connection/201003/the-truth-about-open-marriage

Confidence Is Key To Gauging Impressions We Make

Article Date: 12 Mar 2010 – 0:00 PST

The gift of “seeing ourselves as others see us” is particularly beneficial when we judge how we’ve made a first impression – in a job interview, during a sales pitch or on a first date..

Yet, many come away from these situations with at best a vague notion of how that first impression was perceived or at worst no clue at all.

Now, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis and Wake Forest University have tested people in first impression settings in the laboratory and have found that confidence makes all the difference in knowing whether you’ve hit a homerun or struck out.

Erika N. Carlson, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences; her advisor Simine Vazire, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology; and Wake Forest University’s R. Michael Furr, Ph.D., engaged some 280 students in opposite-sex pairings from both universities in five-minute conversation after which impressions (your rating of your partner’s personality traits) and metaperceptions (your rating of how you think your partner rated your personality traits) were recorded on 60 personality items (such as nice, funny, outgoing), which were rated on a scale from 1 to 7.

There was a twist to their study. The researchers asked a confidence question: How confident are you in your estimation of how your partner sees your personality?

“In the past, researchers hadn’t asked whether you know when you’re accurate in first impressions, nor your degree of confidence,” Carlson says.

“We found that people who were poor at making good meta-impressions were less confident than people who made accurate ones. So, after making a first impression, if you’re confident in your judgment, you’re likely to be right.”

The research was recently published in Social Psychological and Personality Science.

At the crux of knowing you’ve made a good impression is something called calibration, or “being confident when you’re right and uncertain when you’re wrong,” says Vazire. “Not well-calibrated people are confident when they’re wrong and uncertain when they’re right.

The confidence and accuracy questions in our study shed light on participants’ calibration.”

She likens accurate calibration to a sort of internal gauge.

“You think, ‘This is the impression I think I made.’ And the internal gauge tells you to go ahead with that impression, you’re probably right,” she says. “Or, gather more information, you might be wrong. So, well-calibrated people have a good internal gauge.”

The goal of their research is to enable people to trust the confidence of their first impressions and pursue the next step, Carlson says.

When you have misjudged the way others see you, the result is often a bad decision, says Carlson. “You might have thought that the date you went on went well and she liked you, but it went wrong in the date’s eyes and she doesn’t like you. Your next move could be embarrassing and painful,” she says.

We’re sometimes wrong about the impressions we’ve made, Vazire says.

“We might think that obviously the other person could tell that I hated them, or that I obviously liked them, or obviously my brilliance came across, but we’ve all been wrong, so it’s important in any number of social settings when to actually doubt how you’ve come across,” she says.

Future metaperception research will explore videotaped first impression interactions from calibration studies to determine which factors affect calibration, like verbal or non-verbal clues, which might reveal who formed accurate metaperceptions and who didn’t, who was wellcalibrated and who wasn’t, and perhaps more importantly, why people understood the impressions they made. Such clues could be in overt behaviors like talking rates, smiles, how close the participants sat to each other, or more subjective things like the intimacy of the conversation.

Carlson says there is some preliminary evidence that when one person is more accurate in metaperceptions, their partner also is, suggesting that there might be something unique to relationships that influences whether we can pick up on the impression we’ve made.

With the exception of someone like Michael Scott (the totally clueless boss in the TV sitcom “The Office”), people have a surprising level of self-knowledge in judging their first impressions, says Carlson.

“For the most part, people understand when they’re right and when they’re wrong,” she says. “If you want to know if you’ve made the right impression, trust your gut.”

Source:
Gerry Everding
Washington University in St. Louis

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/181988.php

Grandparenting: a positive face of in-law relationships

“My daughter-in-law is gatekeeper to my grandchildren.”

Published on March 5, 2010

The basis of family connection is no longer attributed to “blood” but to the emotional bonds that evolve in the context of humans’ needs for care, companionship and continuity with close relatives. Some evolutionary psychologists argue that grandmothers played a key role in the development of early human societies. In ancient societies, there is evidence for a “grandmother effect” whereby mothers who had a mother still living, were more likely to see their own children survive to adulthood. When grandmothers lived long enough to care for their children’s children, they provided an extra pair of hands for child care and food gathering, and passed on their accumulated parenting experience.

In modern times, the grandmother effect translates into continued emotional and practical support. Grandmothers now are a staple in the portfolio of child-care provision across all classes, across all ethnic groups. Grandparents Association reports that in the United Kingdom, 60 percent of child-care provision is provided by grandparents, and one in every hundred children is living with a grandparent. School records throughout Britain show that a grandparent is, in a majority of cases, the person listed as the back-up contact if the parents are not available. This suggests that parents recognize and depend upon grandparents as a reliable source of care.

From children’s perspective, too, grandparents are common sources of support; children often say they find it easy to confide in grandparents, and identify them as key members of their family. The emotional closeness and stability grandparents provide, particularly during times of family stress (such as divorce), has been shown to facilitate children’s emotional adjustment. The increase in divorce rate over the past sixty years is often seen as evidence that the family as a whole is in decline, but the bonds between grandparent, parent and child remain strong, and endure as a key social and emotional structure.

These important connections between grandparent and grandchild, however, often depend on good relationships between the parents and grandparents. Mothers remain the gatekeeper to their children, and maternal grandparents are far more likely to have close and regular contact with their grandchildren than paternal grandparents. For paternal grandparents, key to continuing closeness to a grandchild is a good relationship with a daughter-in-law. Yet, according to my study of in-law relationships, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships are often described as “uncomfortable”, “tense”, “uneasy”, and each is likely to describe the other as “difficult”, “unwelcoming” or “hostile”. In my study of 49 couples and their in-laws, 60% of the mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law said that they experienced disappointment or frustration with one another. In our culture, this tension is the subject of distasteful jokes, but the subject matter is deadly serious, and impacts on all members of the family.

In-law tension is common across cultures, and may be universal. Steven Pinker wryly notes that from an evolutionary point of view, it comes as no surprise that in-laws rate among the three major causes of marital strife – infidelity and stepchildren being the second and third sources. Someone who is close to you, with influence over your genetic offspring but not themselves genetically linked to you, will be carefully, suspiciously observed.

Marriage in some form is a feature of all known societies, and involves the paradox that marriage is both necessary to the continuation of the family, and threatens family solidarity by introducing strangers into its midst. From parents’ point of view, a child’s marriage displaces them as next of kin, with primary influence over a child’s well being. From the perspective of a new spouse, marriage marks the start of her own family, and her aim is usually to limit others’ influence. Daughter-in-law and mother-in-law tend to monitor their status and influence relative to one another far more carefully than the men. Domestic matters, such as housework, mealtimes and menus, retain symbolic meaning to women in the family: even women who are proud to have too much to do to maintain a perfectly tidy and dust-free house, may feel profoundly criticised by a mother-in-law’s quizzical appraisal of untended laundry and a muddy floor.

When children are born to the couple, the question may arise as to whose experience and values provide the final authority. Different attiudes towards child-care can lead to new battles about status and control. In-law conflict is likely to spread into marital conflict, as a wife says to her husband, “Why aren’t you supporting me?” In-law conflict can breach mother/son relations as a husband says to his mother, “Why aren’t you respecting my wife’s maternal authority?”

Some conflicts signal generational shifts in child-raising norms, particularly those involving a woman’s balance between child care and career. How can a grandmother stand respectfully aside when she thinks the mother of her grandchildren is not the best possible parent? “The best thing for my grandchildren is for their mother to stay at home with them,” says Chloe, Denise’s mother-in-law. “I know that’s not fashionable. I know that’s not Denise. But that’s what I want.” Denise’s mother, Alicia, is also concerned at her daughter’s workload. Alicia shares many of Chloe’s views about child care and family stress; but nonetheless, for Alicia, her daughter comes first, and she gives priority to Denise needs, while Chloe’s priority is with her own blood family.

Negotiating the trips and switches of overlapping families so that parents and grandparents alike can maintain those precious bonds is an essential skill, because so much is at stake. The balance between a grandmother’s emotional involvement and the modern assumption that a mother has primary control is difficult to achieve, but the cost of failure is high. I observed a gamut of unnecessary suffering-from the daughter-in-law who says, “My mother-in-law has made my life a misery. She tries to control everything I do because I’m the mother of her grandson,” to the mother-in-law who asks, “What have I done to deserve this ban against seeing my grandchildren. Look at me! Do you see the evil woman my daughter-in-law sees? The one who isn’t fit to have contact with the boys who matter more to her than anything in the world? How can she break my heart like this?” Such suffering lays waste to the possible benefits to children of contact with grandparents, and the emotional and practical contributions that grandparents might make to the entire family.

When we acknowledge and understand common patterns of in-law conflict, we shall be better placed to negotiate these complex alliances and make good use of the invaluable bonds of the extended family.

Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/domestic-intelligence/201003/grandparenting-positive-face-in-law-relationships

After You’ve Divided Up The Stuff, What About The Friends?

The final thing divvied up will be your mutual friends.

Published on March 4, 2010

When a couple breaks up, there may be a division of property and money, and if there are children (or pets), there will be a custody arrangement as well. The final thing to be divvied up will be your mutual friends. This process can be unsettling for everyone involved.

Most of the time, true friends try to remain neutral, and make no mistake, being in this position is tough and it can be burdensome on the friendship. The good ones won’t want to take sides, and they can find it hard to listen to the breaking-up friend vent. It’s simply uncomfortable to hear that kind of negativity about somebody you like.

Look, when we go through something as painful as a breakup, we need to rally our forces around us. It is natural and it makes sense. Problems occur when a person tries to hijack mutual friendships and turn them against the other partner. If you have ever been close to someone who’s done this, you know how difficult it can be. Choosing between two people you love is really hard. I believe that it’s emotional blackmail to tell someone that the only way he or she can still be your friend is to dislike your ex.

What some people don’t realize is that after things calm down and everyone starts to (hopefully) get along again, the divisiveness can come back to bite you. Friends who did not want to choose may have moved on, and those who did so may find it uncomfortable being around your ex because you’ve convinced them not to like him or her.

Breakups are at best a difficult thing, and most of the time both people feel hurt on various levels. Sometimes that pain comes out as anger and a need to win (or make the other person lose). When your friends become pawns in this game, they can actually end up getting hurt as well, so it is wise to be considerate of their feelings too.

As gut wrenching as a divorce or breakup can be, it will help if you do your best to avoid creating any additional drama. Because anger and sadness are part of the process, make sure to check in with yourself before you attempt to enlist your mutual friends to go to war with you. Truth be told, couples who can end their relationship like adults usually have an easier time moving on, co-parenting, and having appropriate relationships with the people who care for them.

Rather than trying to suck the life out of each other, put the effort into working together and separating with as little animosity as possible. The more thoughtful you can be during this very difficult time, the better you will feel about yourself and the less damage you will do to those who are close to you. That fact will help you live a full life once again.

Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/emotional-fitness/201003/after-youve-divided-the-stuff-what-about-the-friends

Men Enjoy Sex More Than Women As They Age

By Psych Central News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 10, 2010

A new survey suggests that men enjoy sexual activity long into their senior life, while women report much less satisfaction at similar ages.

At age 55, men can expect another 15 years of sexual activity, while women only can expect another 11 years.

Men in good or excellent health at 55 can add 5 to 7 years to that number. Equally healthy women gain slightly less, 3 to 6 years.

One consolation for women is that many of them seem not to miss it.

Men tend to marry younger women, die sooner and care more about sex, the study confirmed. Although 72 percent of men aged 75 to 85 have partners, fewer than 40 percent of women that age do. Only half of women 75-85 who remained sexually active rated their sex lives as “good,” and only 11 percent of all women that age report regularly thinking about or being interested in sex. Among those age 57 to 85 not living with a partner, 57 percent of men were interested in sex, compared to only 11 percent of women.

“Interest in sex, participation in sex and even the quality of sexual activity were higher for men than women, and this gender gap widened with age,” said lead author Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Chicago.

Lindau and co-author Natalia Gavrilova focused on two large surveys, the National Survey of Midlife Development, involving about 3,000 adults aged 25 to 74 and completed in 1996, and the National Social Life Health and Aging Project, involving another 3,000 adults aged 57 to 85, completed in 2006. Participants provided information about their relationship status and rated the quality of their sex lives and how often they had sex. They also rated the level of their general health as poor, fair, good, very good or excellent.

The results showed that men are more likely to be sexually active, report a good sex life and be interested in sex than women. This difference was most stark among the 75 to 85-year-old group, where almost 40 percent of men, compared to 17 percent of women, were sexually active.

The study also introduced a new health measure, “Sexually Active Life Expectancy,” or SALE, the average remaining years of sexually active life. For men, SALE was about ten years lower than total life expectance; for women it was 20 years lower.

Men at the age of 30, for example, have a sexually active life expectancy of nearly 35 years, but they can, on average, expect to remain alive for 45 years, including a sexless final decade. For 30-year-old women, SALE is almost 31 years but total life expectancy is more than 50. So men that age can anticipate remaining sexually active for 78 percent of their remaining lifespan, while women at 30 can expect to remain sexually active for only 61 percent of the remaining years.

The authors conclude that “sexually active life expectancy estimation is a new life expectancy tool than can be used for projecting public health and patient needs in the arena of sexual health,” and that “projecting the population patterns of later life sexual activity is useful for anticipating need for public health resources, expertise and medical services.”

In an accompanying editorial, Professor Patricia Goodson from Texas University says Lindau and Gavrilova’s research is both refreshing and hopeful. She says, “The study bears good news in the form of hope… The news that adults in the US can enjoy many years of sexual activity beyond age 55 is promising.”

Goodson adds that many unanswered questions remain in the field of older people and sexuality, such as problems with measurement and silence regarding the sexual health of ageing homosexual, bisexual or intersexed people. “They stand as dim reminders of the limitations inherent in applying science to the study of complex human realities, and the cultural values shaping the topics we choose to study,” she concludes.

The study is published online in the March 10 edition of the British Medical Journal.

Source: University of Chicago Medical Center

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/03/10/men-enjoy-sex-more-than-women-as-they-age/12022.html

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Is Sexual Anoerxia the Flip Side of Sex Addiction?

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

March 11, 2010, 9:01 am

A panel of experts joined the Consults blog recently to answer readers’ questions about sex addiction. Here, Dr. Drew Pinsky responds to one reader who wonders why too little sex isn’t given the same attention as too much.

Is Too Little Sex as Much of a Problem as Too Much Sex?

Mobocracy from Minneapolis asks:

Why do we not treat “too little” sex as a disease or give it the same prominence as sexual addiction? It strikes me that having little or no sex, denial of eroticism, placing life-curbing restrictions on sex or sex partners should be considered just as much of a problem as too much sex. And it’s not a Viagra issue, which treats a physical dysfunction, not a behavior.

Dr. Drew Pinsky responds:

Categorically, professionals do take this problem very seriously. It is often referred to as sexual anorexia, and it is treated with the same rigor as sexual addiction.

Many times patients with sexual addictions and compulsions will have a “bipolar,” so to speak, swing to their sexual desire, in which they may move between periods of intense sexual activity followed by periods of sexual anorexia. Treatment usually is a slower process and does not require the sort of immediate interventions like an inpatient rehab that would be directed toward behaviors that can become threatening to livelihood, legal status and even one’s very life.

Nor is sexual anorexia a topic that grabs headlines, so you are not going to hear about this on the tabloids. Fundamentally, sexual anorexia is yet another manifestation of intimacy disorders, among which sexual addiction is one of the more common manifestations today.

People with intimacy disorders cannot tolerate closeness. Interestingly, the anorexia commonly kicks in when a patient gets involved with someone who might be genuinely available for true intimate connection.

It is a complex topic. I would caution anyone contemplating whether he or she or someone they love might have this disorder to first be certain that there is not a biological or medical explanation for the symptoms, particularly if they manifest as a sudden change in sexual desire. Certain medications, the recent delivery of a child, breast-feeding and perimenopause or menopause are terribly common culprits and have medical treatments.

Drew Pinsky, M.D., known as “Dr. Drew,” is board certified in internal and addiction medicine; his TV shows include “Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew.” drdrew.com

Source:  http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/is-sexual-anorexia-the-flip-side-of-sex-addiction/?ref=health

Disarming the Jealousy Complex

How could I trust someone who would love me?

Published on March 9, 2010

The recent post Mad about You distinguished two different kinds of jealousy. The simple variety occurs in all relationships. Absent chronic resentment, this minor form of jealousy motivates the partners to reconnect. The current post describes how to regulate complex jealousy, before it destroys your relationships and drives you crazy.

Simple Jealousy Can Get Complicated
Relationship dynamics can complicate even simple jealousy, especially when the parties are insensitive to each other’s different personality traits and temperamental qualities. For instance, an introverted partner is likely to disagree with an extroverted partner’s interpretation of “appropriate” interactions with the opposite sex. What is honest “friendliness” for one can seem “flirtatious” to the other. What sincerely feels like “consideration” to one: “You should show me respect,” honestly feels like “control” or even “oppression” to the other – “You don’t want me to be friendly! You don’t want me to be who I am! You’re trying to keep me down!”

This is still simple jealousy, without the paranoid or obsessional nuances of its darker cousin. The introverted partner is neither accusing the other of infidelity nor obsessing about the friendliness of the more sociable partner. It is really a classic temperamental error that occurs in most relationships: judging your partner by how you would react, even though your partner has a different temperament, different experiences, and different developmental and emotional history. Though we’re all tempted to do this, it’s really a form of narcissism – the way I would react is the standard for all decent people; so you have to conform to what I think is appropriate.

Reconciling disputes born of temperamental differences is the subject of another post. In short, it requires binocular vision – the ability to see your partner’s perspective alongside your own, indeed, to see the world through his/her eyes at the same time you see it through your own. Binocular vision, perhaps the most important of relationship skills, makes the world seem richer and more dynamic. Failure of binocular vision creates a reactive narcissism (you’re incapable of seeing your loved one apart from how you feel about him/her) and, of course, more jealousy.

Disarming Complex Jealousy

1. Don’t trust obsessions. They greatly distort reality. If you can’t stop thinking about your partner flirting with someone else, you must distrust the thought process. The longer obsessive thinking goes on, the more certain you become and the more likely you are wrong.

2. Regulate core hurts. The primary component of complex jealousy is self-diminishment – you feel unlovable and inadequate as an intimate partner. These “core hurts” give rise to the obsessions. If, in my heart, I don’t believe that I am worthy of love, how can I believe someone who says she loves me? I will assume that she doesn’t know the real me, or she wants something else (my money, house, car, or socks), or she wants someone else. Because I cannot possibly be enough for her, I will look for “clues” that she is seeking fulfillment somewhere else. Many studies show that whatever the brain looks for, it will find.

When attacked by the painful feeling of unworthiness, before it stimulates a cycle of obsessions and revenge motives, ask yourself out loud:

“What can I do to feel more lovable and adequate?”

Just uttering the words will make it clear that devaluing, belittling, hassling, or punishing your loved one is unlikely to make you feel like a lovable and adequate partner.

To feel worthy of love and adequate as an attachment figure, begin by trying as hard as you can to see the world through your partner’s eyes and to feel what it’s like in his/her shoes. Appreciate that he/she probably feels unlovable and inadequate as well. Think of what you can do to help the both of you feel more worthy of love.

3. Focus on compassion, not trust. If you have suffered from complex jealousy, you don’t have the confidence to trust. Focus instead on compassion for yourself and your loved one. Compassion, an important component of your core values, is sympathy for core hurts, with a motivation to heal, improve, appreciate, connect, or protect. Trust will eventually return, after a long period of self-compassion and compassion for loved one.

4. Follow the self-correcting motivation of simple jealousy. Be more compassionate, supportive, cooperative, and loving. Be mindful of the assets your partner brings to the relationship. Think of what you can do at this moment to make your relationship stronger.

Over time, this determined effort to strengthen your relationship will alleviate much of complex jealousy. But if it has become a habit, i.e., a conditioned response to feeling inadequate or unlovable, you may need a course in core value and emotional reconditioning (CompassionPower ) or focused psychotherapy to make significant changes.

Source:  http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201003/disarming-the-jealousy-comple

Brain Predicts Partner’s Emotional Resiliency

By Psych Central News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 10, 2010

Laboratory tests have long suggested a connection between a specific area in our brains and how we regulate our emotions. But a new study conducted at Harvard University now finds evidence in a real-world setting to support this connection.The new study suggests that brain activity — specifically in the region called the lateral prefrontal cortex — is a far better indicator of how someone will feel in the days following a fight with his or her partner.

Individuals who show more neural activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex are less likely to be upset the day after fighting with partners.

The findings point to the lateral prefrontal cortex’s role in emotion regulation, and suggest that improved function within this region may also improve day-to-day mood.

“What we found, as you might expect, was that everybody felt badly on the day of the conflict with their partners,” says lead author Christine Hooker, assistant professor of psychology in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

“But the day after, people who had high lateral prefrontal cortex activity felt better and the people who had low lateral prefrontal cortex activity continued to feel badly.”

Research has previously shown that the lateral prefrontal cortex is associated with emotion regulation in laboratory tests, but the effect has never been proven to be connected to experiences in day-to-day life.

This study involved healthy couples in a relationship for longer than three months. While in an fMRI scanner, participants viewed pictures of their partners with positive, negative, or neutral facial expressions and their neural activity was recorded while reacting to the images. While in the lab, participants were also tested for their broader cognitive control skills, such as their ability to control impulses and the shift and focus of attention.

For three weeks, the couples also recorded in an online diary their daily emotional state and whether they had had a fight with their partners.

Hooker found that participants who displayed greater activity in their lateral prefrontal cortex while viewing their partners’ negative facial expressions in the scanner were less likely to report a negative mood the day after a fight with their partners, indicating that they were better able to emotionally “bounce back” after the conflict.

She also found that those who had more activity in the lateral prefrontal cortex and greater emotional regulation after a fight displayed more cognitive control in laboratory tests, indicating a link between emotion regulation and broader cognitive control skills.

“The key factor is that the brain activity in the scanner predicted their experience in life,” says Hooker. “Scientists believe that what we are looking at in the scanner has relevance to daily life, but obviously we don’t live our lives in a scanner. If we can connect what we see in the scanner to somebody’s day-to-day emotion-regulation capacity, it could help psychologists predict how well people will respond to stressful events in their lives.”

While Hooker acknowledges that more work must be done to develop clinical applications for the research, it may be that lateral prefrontal cortex function provides information about a person’s vulnerability to develop mood problems after a stressful event. This raises the question as to whether increasing lateral prefrontal cortex function will improve emotion regulation capacity.

The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal, Biological Psychiatry.

Source: Harvard University

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/03/10/brain-predicts-partners-emotional-resiliency/12014.html

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