The unidirectional relationship of nightmares on self-harmful thoughts and behaviors

Understanding the direction of the predictive relationship between nightmares and suicidal behaviors is important to model its underlying mechanisms. We examine the direction of this relationship and the mediating role of negative affect. A fixed interval diary study obtained pre-sleep and post-sleep measures of affect, nightmares, and self-harmful thoughts and behaviors (SHTBs) from 72 university students (88.9% female). The results show predictive utility of nightmares on SHTBs - indicating a fourfold increased risk of SHTBs. Additionally, results support the suggestion of a unidirectional predictive influence (of nightmares on likelihood of SHTBs but not vice versa). Moreover, postsleep negative affect partially mediated the relationship between nightmares and postsleep SHTBs. This empirically validates assumptions of directionality for future models

The behavioral effects of frequent nightmares on objective stress tolerance.

Frequent nightmares have been linked to daily distress using self-report measures. The present study investigated the impact of frequent nightmares on a stressful cognitive test requiring participants to perform additions of 2 previously displayed single digit numbers from a number series, where display latency between digits becomes increasingly short—the Paced Visual Serial Addition Task-Computerized (PVSAT-C). Participants experiencing frequent nightmares (n = 43) and controls (n = 42) were compared on PVSAT-C performance. A significant main effect of nightmare frequency was observed with participants in the frequent nightmare group enduring the task for a shorter duration than controls (a behavioral measure of stress tolerance). Results suggest that individuals experiencing frequent nightmares have a reduced tolerance for stressors, leading to increased daily vulnerability to stressful stimuli. This study confirms previous findings linking nightmares and daily distress and extends the literature by providing objective evidence for the link between nightmares and reduced stress tolerance through behavioral testing. These findings highlight nightmares as a salient target for clinical intervention

Perceptions around adult and child sex offenders and their rehabilitation as a function of education in forensic psychology independent of traditionalism and perpetrator sex

Literature pertaining to individuals with sexual convictions typically reports punitive views about their crimes, sentences, and overall effectiveness of rehabilitation, with such perceptions partially driven by offence demographics such as victim age and perpetrator sex. This manuscript extends this literature through the exploration of perceiver characteristics of self-reported traditionalism and education in forensic psychology as mechanisms of perceptions and awareness. Participants (N = 101; 60% forensic psychology students; 40% general public) read online vignettes related to sexual offences (manipulating perpetrator sex and victim age), and completed measures of perceptions of sex offenders, perceived rehabilitation efficacy and traditionalism. Members of the general population (without a background of education in forensic psychology) reported harsher views towards individuals with sexual convictions and their rehabilitation, relative to students of forensic psychology, independent of their greater traditionalism. There was no main effect of or interaction with perpetrator sex. Whilst participants endorsed more negative perceptions towards sex offenders of child than adult victims, this did not extent to differences in perceptions regarding their rehabilitation. Findings reported here indicate a need for greater understanding as to the factors that might moderate perceptions towards individuals with sexual convictions and have implications for the promotion of sex offender rehabilitation programmes. Understanding the root of such public attitudes is a key step for creating and improving associated policies

The Development and Validation of the Successful Psychopathy Scale

The personality construct known as ‘Successful Psychopathy’ has attracted the interests of researchers and clinicians alike. The concept suggests an individual who demonstrates the core traits associated with psychopathy but is able to adapt and function within society to prototypical or superior standards. There has yet to be a sound theoretical model of this construct by which to base a psychometric measure. This protocol presents the ethical procedure that will endeavour to create such a measure and validate it within general population samples

International affect, personality, and embodied brain (APE) network

This special issue comprises a selection of representative studies from the Affect, Personality and Embodied Brain conferences. The included studies span behavioral and brain studies of nonclinical and clinical populations

Effects of system- and media-driven immersive capabilities on presence and affective experience

Virtual reality (VR) is receiving widespread attention as a delivery tool for exposure therapies. The advantage offered by VR over traditional technology is a greater sense of presence and immersion, which magnifies user effects and enhances the effectiveness of exposure-based interventions. The current study systematically examined the basic factors involved in generating presence in VR as compared to standard technology, namely (1) system-driven factors that are exclusive to VR devices while controlling general factors such as field of view and image quality; (2) media-driven factors of the virtual environment eliciting motivational salience through different levels of arousal and valence (relaxing, exciting and fear evoking stimuli); and (3) the effects of presence on magnifying affective response. Participants (N = 14) watched 3 different emotionally salient videos (1 × fear evoking, 1 × relaxing and 1 × exciting) in both viewing modes (VR and Projector). Subjective scores of user experience were collected as well as objective EEG markers of presence (frontal alpha power, theta/beta ratio). Subjective and objective presence was significantly greater in the VR condition. There was no difference in subjective or objective presence for stimulus type, suggesting presence is not moderated by arousal, but may be reliant on activation of motivational systems. Finally, presence did not magnify feelings of relaxation or excitement, but did significantly magnify users’ experience of fear when viewing fear evoking stimuli. This is in line with previous literature showing strong links between presence and generation of fear, which is vital in the efficacy of exposure therapies

The Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended in 2007) reform – how proposed changes potentially impact personality disorder services

At the beginning of this year, the UK government released a White Paper on Reforms of the 1983 Mental Health Act (MHA) aiming to achieve higher quality, accessible mental health care, as well as empowering people detained under MHA during the process and continuation of detention. In this piece, we focus on the potential impact of the proposal around appropriate care, management and detention of people with Personality Disorder (PD) within the criminal justice system (CJS), psychiatric service provision and community routes. We briefly review the historical context of reforms of PD services in the UK and discuss the proposed changes and issues in relation to the criteria of least restriction, detention and therapeutic benefit. We highlight the complexity around referral routes and logistics barriers for secure PD services that might hamper speeded referral routes and raise concerns around responsibility for authorisation of transfers in the context of risk of serious harm to the public. We emphasise the complex treatment needs of individuals with PDs and how these are potentially not met. We also discuss the shift of focus from reactive care to preventative measures and early intervention in the community for individuals with mild-to-moderate levels of PD. We highlight the need for appropriate integrative services in the community to facilitate assessment across services, identification of complex needs and support options including earlier routine screening and potential digital interventions to optimise specialised care for PD

The neural correlates of reinforcement sensitivity theory: a systematic review of the (f)MRI literature

Objectives: Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) is a theory of motivation, emotion and learning, that has been translated into an account of personality. RST proposes neural structures that form the basis of systems responsible for reward (BAS), punishment (FFFS) and conflict processing (BIS). This systematic review collated studies examining psychometric measures of RST alongside structural and function MRI data to (i) examine how psychometric RST is associated with the proposed neural topologies of RST, (ii) identify any common associations between psychometric RST and other brain regions, and (iii) provide recommendations for advancing the current literature base. Methods: Initial search terms identified 10952 papers. After processing, 39 papers that investigated the association between RST scales and neural functioning in healthy adult samples were included in this review. Results: There was general support for associations between the BAS and the structure/activity of the pre-frontal cortex and ventral striatum with some additional findings for the ventral pallidum and ventral tegmental area. There was also some support for associations between BIS/FFFS and structure/activity of frontal regions, cingulate cortices and the amygdala. Conclusions: Overall, psychometric correlates of RST were associated with activity in proposed neural circuitry, with the most consistent support being found for the BAS; however, psychometric and experimental limitations still hamper the differentiation of the BIS and FFFS systems in their activation of deeper brain networks. Future studies need to include revised RST scales that separate the BIS and FFFS and implement more rigorous tasks that allow for the examination of each system both independently and codependently

Investigating psychometric properties of the self-compassion scale using Rasch methodology

Objectives: The 26-item Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) and its short 12-item version (SCS-SF) were reported to have acceptable psychometric properties, and both scales are widely used to assess self-compassion in individuals. However, recent investigations were inconsistent regarding factor structure of the SCS, and psychometric properties of the scale were not tested for consistency with principles of fundamental measurement using appropriate methodology such as Rasch analysis. Methods: A partial credit Rasch model was used to evaluate psychometric properties of the SCS and SCS-SF with the sample of 743 respondents randomly divided into two equal subsamples (A and B) to replicate the results for the purpose of robustness. Results: Initially, there were no misfitting items but the local dependency between various items affected Rasch model fit. This issue was resolved by combining locally dependent items into four super-items resulting in the best fit to the Rasch model of both SCS and SCS-SF, with evidence of unidimensionality and an excellent sample targeting. Although both scale versions had strong reliability satisfactory for individual and group assessment, the original SCS demonstrated superior psychometric properties reflected by higher reliability indicated by Person Separation Index (PSI) of 0.90 compared to the SCS-SF (PSI = 0.85). These analyses were replicated with the sample B for both scale versions, resulting in equally good fit. This permitted generating ordinal-to-interval conversion tables based on Rasch model estimates. Conclusions: The current study supported the reliability and internal validity of both the SCS and SCS-SF. Accuracy of these assessment instruments can be further improved by using the ordinal-to-interval conversion tables published here