Individuals with Fear of Blushing Explicitly and Automatically Associate Blushing with Social Costs

To explain fear of blushing, it has been proposed that individuals with fear of blushing overestimate the social costs of their blushing. Current information-processing models emphasize the relevance of differentiating between more automatic and more explicit cognitions, as both types of cognitions may independently influence behavior. The present study tested whether individuals with fear of blushing expect blushing to have more negative social consequences than controls, both on an explicit level and on a more automatic level. Automatic associations between blushing and social costs were assessed in a treatment-seeking sample of individuals with fear of blushing who met DSM-IV criteria for social anxiety disorder (n = 49) and a non-anxious control group (n = 27) using a single-target Implicit Association Test (stIAT). In addition, participants’ explicit expectations about the social costs of their blushing were assessed. Individuals with fear of blushing showed stronger associations between blushing and negative outcomes, as indicated by both stIAT and self-report. The findings support the view that automatic and explicit associations between blushing and social costs may both help to enhance our understanding of the cognitive processes that underlie fear of blushing

Does neurocognitive training have the potential to improve dietary self-care in type 2 diabetes? Study protocol of a double blind randomised controlled trial

Dietary self-care is a key element of self-management in type 2 diabetes. It is also the most difficult aspect of diabetes self-management. Adhering to long-term dietary goals and resisting immediate food desires requires top-down inhibitory control over subcortical impulsive and emotional responses to food. Practising simple neurocognitive tasks can improve inhibitory control and health behaviours that depend on inhibitory control, such as resisting alcohol consumption. It is yet to be investigated, however, whether neurocognitive training can improve dietary self-care in people with type 2 diabetes. The aim of this randomised controlled trial is to investigate whether web-based neurocognitive training can improve the ability of people with type 2 diabetes to resist tempting foods and better adhere to a healthy dietary regime

Do automatic self-associations relate to suicidal ideation?

Dysfunctional self-schemas are assumed to play an important role in suicidal ideation. According to recent information-processing models, it is important to differentiate between 'explicit' beliefs and automatic associations. Explicit beliefs stem from the weighting of propositions and their corresponding 'truth' values, while automatic associations reflect more simple associations in memory. Both types of associations are assumed to have different functional properties and both may be involved in suicidal ideation. Thus far, studies into self-schemas and suicidal ideation focused on the more explicit, consciously accessible traces of self-schemas and predominantly relied on self-report questionnaires or interviews. To complement these 'explicit' findings and more directly tap into self-schemas, this study investigated automatic self-associations in a large scale community sample that was part of the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA). The results showed that automatic self-associations of depression and anxiety were indeed significantly related to suicidal ideation and past suicide attempt. Moreover, the interactions between automatic self-depressive (anxious) associations and explicit self-depressive (anxious) beliefs explained additional variance over and above explicit self-beliefs. Together these results provide an initial insight into one explanation of why suicidal patients might report difficulties in preventing and managing suicidal thoughts. © 2009 The Author(s)

Een dubbele kijk op minder drinken. De invloed van expliciete en impliciete alcoholgerelateerde processen en vroege interventie bij jongeren

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Explicit and implicit alcohol-related cognitions and the prediction of future drinking in adolescents

Contains fulltext : 55053.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Both implicit and explicit alcohol-related cognitions might play a role in the early development of addictive behaviors. In this study, the association between both current and prospective alcohol use and implicit and explicit alcohol-related cognitions were measured in two different adolescent age groups (N = 100; 51 twelve year olds, 49 fifteen year olds). Alcohol-related cognitions were measured on two dimensions (valence and arousal). A new measure, the unipolar Single Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT), was used as the implicit measure. A unipolar expectancy questionnaire was used as the explicit measure. Current alcohol use and alcohol use after one year were measured with an alcohol use questionnaire. Abstainers and drinkers differed in both their explicit and implicit alcohol-related cognitions moderated by age and gender. Additionally, a hierarchical regression analysis showed that implicit associations with alcohol added significantly to the prediction of prospective binge drinking, when controlling for grade, gender and explicit alcohol expectancies These results indicate the importance of taking implicit alcohol-related cognitions into account when intervention methods are developed

Lessen achteraf of "I knew it all along"

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