Article Synopses Flashcards
Do Suicidal Behaviors Increase the
Capability for Suicide? A Longitudinal
Pretest–Posttest Study of More Than
1,000 High-Risk Individuals (Ribeiro et al., 2020)
Tested the primary mechanism proposed to account for capability for suicide: habituation to painful and provocative events; Results failed to support the habituation process
Impulsivity and suicidality: The mediating role of painful and provocative experiences (Bender et al., 2011)
Tested Joiner’s hypothesis (explanation for high impulsivity linked to suicidal behavior; impulsive individuals have a greater tendency to experience painful and provocative events that habituate them to fear and pain, which leads to an acquired capability for engaging in suicidal behaviors); Results indicated that impulsivity has an indirect relationship with acquired capability for suicidal behavior, and that this relationship is mediated by painful and provocative events
Fear Conditioning and Clinical Implications: What Can We Learn From The Past (Eelen & Vervliet, 2006)
describe evolution of conditioning models & applicability to understanding anxiety; Understanding the background of the classical conditioning paradigm is central to etiology & treatment of anxiety disorders
The Practice of Exposure Therapy: Relevance of Cognitive-Behavioral Theory and Extinction Theory (Abramowitz, 2013)
This article argues that knowledge of the relevant theory is crucial to being able to implement exposure therapy in ways that optimize both short and long-term outcome. Specific ways in which theory is relevant to using exposure techniques are discussed.
Safety behaviours preserve threat beliefs: Protection from extinction of human
fear conditioning by an avoidance response (Lovibond et al., 2009)
Addresses within-situation safety behaviors and interference with beneficial effects of exposure therapy for anxiety; patients attribute the absence of the feared outcome to their safety behavior, and thus fail to update their threat beliefs; Results: The experimental group was given the opportunity to make the avoidance response during extinction whereas the control group was not. When the fear stimulus was tested without the response available, the control group showed normal extinction of both shock expectancy ratings and skin conductance responses, but the experimental group showed ‘‘protection from extinction’’: they continued to give high expectancy ratings and strong skin conductance responses. We interpret this effect as analogous to the role of within-situation safety behaviours in preserving threat beliefs during exposure therapy for anxiety disorders.
A Unique Safety Signal: Social-Support
Figures Enhance Rather Than Protect
From Fear Extinction (Hornstein et al., 2018)
we tested the effect of social-support-figure (vs. stranger) images on fear extinction outcomes; Results: for conditional fear stimuli paired with social-support-figure images during extinction, return of fear was inhibited both immediately after extinction and during a fear reinstatement test 24 hr later; however, return of fear occurred
for conditional stimuli paired with images of strangers. These findings suggest that social-support stimuli have unique safety-signaling properties that might enhance fear extinction and improve treatment outcomes for individuals with fear-related disorders
Use of a Brief Fear Memory Reactivation
Procedure for Enhancing Exposure
Therapy (Telch et al., 2017)
tested postretrieval extinction as an augmentation strategy for enhancing in vivo exposure therapy for naturally acquired pathological fear; The experimental group (RFM-EXP) completed a 10-s fear reactivation procedure 30 min prior to initiating exposure therapy; Results: RFM-EXP participants showed more rapid fear attenuation during exposure relative to controls. Results provide preliminary
support for further investigation of this exposure augmentation strategy across a wider range of anxiety-related disorders
Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach (Craske et al., 2014)
primary aim of this paper is to provide examples to clinicians for how to apply this model to optimize exposure therapy with anxious clients, in ways that distinguish it from a ‘fear habituation’ approach and ‘belief disconfirmation’ approach within standard cognitive-behavior therapy; Exposure optimization strategies include 1) expectancy violation, 2) deepened extinction, 3) occasional reinforced extinction, 4) removal of safety signals, 5) variability, 6) retrieval cues, 7) multiple contexts, and 8) affect labeling
A Neurobehavioral Approach to Addiction:
Implications for the Opioid Epidemic
and the Psychology of Addiction (Bechara et al., 2019)
review the theories of addiction that address
negative-reinforcement views of drug use (i.e., taking opioids to alleviate distress or withdrawal), positive-reinforcement views (i.e., taking drugs for euphoria), habit views (i.e., growth of automatic drug-use routines), incentive-sensitization views (i.e., growth of excessive “wanting” to take drugs as a result of dopamine-related sensitization), and cognitive dysfunction views (i.e., impaired prefrontal top-down control), including those involving competing neurobehavioral decision systems (CNDS), and the role of the insula in modulating addictive drug craving
Beyond Willpower: Strategies for
Reducing Failures of Self-Control (Duckworth et al., 2018)
In this review, we synthesize contemporary research on approaches to reducing failures of self-control. We distinguish between self-deployed and other-deployed strategies and, in addition, between situational and cognitive intervention targets.
Health on Impulse: When Low Self-Control Promotes Healthy Food Choices (Salmon et al., 2013)
In contrast to previous research aiming to foster healthy choices by promoting high self-control,
this study exploits situations of low self-control, by strategically using the tendency under these
conditions to rely on heuristics (simple decision rules) as quick guides to action; Results: In line with previous studies, people made fewer healthy food choices under low self-control. However, this negative effect of low self-control on food choice was reversed when the healthy option was associated with the social proof heuristic.
Examining weight concern and delay discounting in adolescent females (Thamotharan et al., 2016)
Pediatric obesity is a growing public health concern that contributes to high rates of negative long-term physical and mental health outcomes. Research focused on identifying risk for pediatric obesity has linked delay discounting, or an inclination for immediate rewards, as well as weight concern to individuals with greater Body Mass Index (BMI). The current study seeks to fill a void in the literature by examining how these two variables interact to promote higher BMI in female adolescents. Results: A mediation model examined whether delay discounting accounted for the relationship between weight concern and BMI. Results indicate that in the current study weight concern was negatively related to delay discounting and delay discounting was negatively related to BMI. The overall model revealed that a partial
mediation occurred
