Implicit attitude toward caregiving: The moderating role of adult attachment styles

Attachment and caregiving are separate motivational systems that share the common evolutionary purpose of favoring child security. In the goal of studying the processes underlying the transmission of attachment styles, this study focused on the role of adult attachment styles in shaping preferences toward particular styles of caregiving. We hypothesized a correspondence between attachment and caregiving styles: we expect an individual to show a preference for a caregiving behavior coherent with his/her own attachment style, in order to increase the chance of passing it on to offspring. We activated different representations of specific caregiving modalities in females, by using three videos in which mothers with different Adult Attachment states of mind played with their infants. Participants' facial expressions while watching were recorded and analyzed with FaceReader software. After each video, participants' attitudes toward the category "mother" were measured, both explicitly (semantic differential) and implicitly (single target-implicit association task, ST-IAT). Participants' adult attachment styles (experiences in close relationships revised) predicted attitudes scores, but only when measured implicitly. Participants scored higher on the ST-IAT after watching a video coherent with their attachment style. No effect was found on the facial expressions of disgust. These findings suggest a role of adult attachment styles in shaping implicit attitudes related to the caregiving system

The Self and Autobiographical Memory: Correspondence and Coherence

Introduces a modified version of Conway and Pleydell-Pearce\u27s Self Memory System (SMS) account of autobiographical memory and the self. Discussion of a fundamental tension between adaptive correspondence and self-coherence; Examination of tension; Application of SMS to personality and clinical psychology

Like grandparents, like parents: Empirical evidence and psychoanalytic thinking on the transmission of parenting styles

The authors discuss the issue of intergenerational transmission of parenting from an empirical and psychoanalytic perspective. After presenting a framework to explain their conception of parenting, they describe intergenerational transmission of parenting as a key to interpreting and eventually changing parenting behaviors. Then they present (1) the empirical approach aimed at determining if there is actually a stability across generations that contributes to harsh parenting and eventually maltreatment and (2) the psyphoanalytic thinking that seeks to explain the continuity in terms of representations and clinical phenomena. The authors also discuss the relationship between the attachment and the caregiving systems and hypothesize a common base for the two systems in childhood experience. Finally, they propose the psychoanalytic perspective as a fruitful theoretical framework to integrate the evidence for the neurophysiological mediators and moderators of intergenerational transmission. Psychoanalytically informed research can provide clinically relevant insights and hypotheses to be tested

Draft Genome Sequence of a Cardiobacterium hominis Strain Isolated from Blood Cultures of a Patient with Infective Endocarditis.

Cardiobacterium hominis is a well-known commensal bacterium of the oral cavity and an agent of infective endocarditis in humans. Here, we provide a draft genome sequence of a pathogenic strain isolated from blood cultures of a patient with infectious endocarditis

Maternal depression and attachment: the evaluation of mother–child interactions during feeding practice

Internal working models (IWMs) of attachment can moderate the effect of maternal depression on mother-child interactions and child development. Clinical depression pre-dating birthgiving has been found to predict incoherent and less sensitive caregiving. Dysfunctional patterns observed, included interactive modes linked to feeding behaviors which may interfere with hunger-satiation, biological rhythms, and the establishment of children's autonomy and individuation. Feeding interactions between depressed mothers and their children seem to be characterized by repetitive interactive failures: children refuse food through oppositional behavior or negativity. The aim of this study was to investigate parenting skills in the context of feeding in mothers with major depression from the point of view of attachment theory. This perspective emphasizes parents' emotion, relational and affective history and personal resources. The sample consisted of 60 mother-child dyads. Mothers were divided into two groups: 30 with Major Depression and 30 without disorders. Children's age ranged between 12 and 36 months The measures employed were the Adult Attachment Interview and the Scale for the Evaluation of Alimentary Interactions between Mothers and Children. Insecure attachment prevailed in mothers with major depression, with differences on the Subjective Experience and State of Mind Scales. Groups also differed in maternal sensitivity, degrees of interactive conflicts and negative affective states, all of which can hinder the development of adequate interactive patterns during feeding. The results suggest that IWMs can constitute an indicator for the evaluation of the relational quality of the dyad and that evaluations of dyadic interactions should be considered when programming interventions

Adult attachment and phenomenological characteristics of autobiographical memory

The aim of the studies undertaken for this thesis was to explore relations between adult attachment and autobiographical memory. Study One investigated how a self-report measure of adult attachment style related to young adults' (N = 211) recall of their earliest memories. Dismissing individuals reported fewer negatively valenced memories than their counterparts in the secure and preoccupied groups. No attachment-related differences were found in the total number of memories (positive, neutral, negative) recalled, or individuals' ratings of the phenomenological properties of the memories. All three groups tended to rate negative memories more highly than neutral/positive memories on the phenomenological characteristics, although preoccupied individuals tended to show least differentiation on the basis of emotional valence. Study Two investigated how attachment state of mind as assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985) related to autobiographical memory in a separate sample (N = 65) of young adults. Autobiographical memory was assessed in terms of recall (a) of one's earliest memory, and (b) of childhood memories in response to attachment-related and non- attachment cues, and this study also controlled for concurrent depressive symptoms and previous experience of trauma. As in Study One, the earliest memory and the cued memories were rated for their phenomenological properties, but data were also collected on latency of recall. No relation was found between A.A.I, classification and any characteristic of the earliest memory. For the cued recall of attachment-related memories, A.A.I, classification independently predicted vividness, emotional intensity at encoding and emotional intensity at recall, with dismissing individuals scoring lowest and preoccupied highest. A.A.I, classification also predicted certain aspects of recall for non-attachment material. In particular, dismissing individuals rated non- attachment memories as less specific and less vivid than did individuals in the secure and preoccupied groups. A.A.I, classification has little impact on individuals’ responses to the attachment-related and non-attachment memories. The only effect of A.A.I, classification was seen on ratings of specificity; somewhat surprisingly, dismissing individuals rated attachment memories as more specific than non- attachment memories, whereas secure and preoccupied individuals did not differ in their ratings of the two types of memory. Study Three investigated how A.A.I, classification related to imagined future events in response to attachment-related and non-attachment cues in the same sample of participants who had taken part in Study Two. Controlling for gender, depressive symptoms and previous trauma (as in Study Two), the results of Study Three showed that A.A.I, classification predicted the reported vividness and self-relevance of attachment-related imagined future events. Compared with secure and preoccupied individuals, those in the dismissing group reported that future attachment-related events were less vivid. There was also a marginally significant trend for dismissing individuals to rate attachment-related future events as less self-relevant. Comparing recall of previous past events with future imagined events, individuals across all A.A.I, categories were slowing at recounting future events than at recalling past events, and rated past events as more vivid and emotionally intense. However, it was future events that were rated as more self-relevant than past events. Study Three also found that there was greater concordance between ratings of past and future events with respect to specific phenomenological properties for insecure individuals than for secure individuals

Predicting Spatial Distributions of Demersal Fishes off Central California

Seafloor maps are often used in species distribution modeling (SDM), where maps are paired with fish observations to create models predicting habitat suitability, species density, or species biomass. Problems with the current use of SDM include limited understanding of species relationships with benthic morphology, lack of practical model testing, and deficiency of information on the effects of map resolution on population estimates. A drop camera was used to gather observations of fishes along Central California and paired with remotely sensed bathymetry to create predictive models and maps of species density and biomass. I found that relationships with remotely sensed habitat variables are strong enough to create robust models. However, predictive maps at 10m resolution only gave a broad-scale picture of density distributions. Predictive maps consistently overpredicted species density, but often underpredicted peaks in density. Map resolution had a large effect on biomass predictions, where total predicted biomass was found to increase with increasing resolution. In conclusion, predictive maps seem to capture general patterns of species distributions; however, often peaks or hot spots in density are not captured. Predictive maps are very useful for understanding general patterns of species distributions, but one should be cautious when using them to obtain density of biomass estimates, especially when using estimates to inform management

Stroop Colour and Word Test

The Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) is a neuropsychological test extensively used to assess the ability to inhibit cognitive interference that occurs when the processing of a specific stimulus feature impedes the simultaneous processing of a second stimulus attribute, well-known as the Stroop Effect. The aim of the present work is to verify the theoretical adequacy of the various scoring methods used to measure the Stroop effect. We present a systematic review of studies that have provided normative data for the SCWT. We referred to both electronic databases (i.e., PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar) and citations. Our findings show that while several scoring methods have been reported in literature, none of the reviewed methods enables us to fully assess the Stroop effect. Furthermore, we discuss several normative scoring methods from the Italian panorama as reported in literature. We claim for an alternative scoring method which takes into consideration both speed and accuracy of the response. Finally, we underline the importance of assessing the performance in all Stroop Test conditions (word reading, color naming, named color-word)