Brenda O. Gilbert

Personality, psychopathology, and nicotine response as mediators of the genetics of smoking.

Individual differences in psychopathology, personality, and nicotine responsitivity and their biological bases are evaluated as mechanisms potentially mediating smoking heritability. Smokers are more likely to be high in neurotic traits (e.g., depression, anxiety, anger) and in social alienation (psychoticism, impulsivity, unsocialized sensation-seeking, low conscientiousness, low agreeableness) and low in achievement/socioeconomic status. Psychological and biological mechanisms putatively mediating these associations are reviewed. It is concluded that a number of relatively indirect and complex processes, as well as more direct (e.g., self-medication for psychopathology, nicotine sensitivity), mediate the inheritance of smoking behavior.

The Interpersonal and Psychological Functioning of Women Who Experienced Childhood Physical Abuse, Incest, and Parental Alcoholism.

Questionnaires assessing childhood physical abuse (CPA), childhood incest (CI), and parental alcoholism (ACOA) were completed by 253 college women from introductory psychology classes at a large midwestern university. The relationship between these variables and the level of depression, self-esteem and involvement with physically abusive, sexually assaultive, sexually coercive, and chemically dependent partners was assessed. Support was found for an additive model of trauma that predicted a relationship between number of childhood traumas and adult outcomes. Limited support was found for a specificity model of trauma that predicted that specific childhood trauma would be predictive of parallel negative adult outcomes.

Withdrawal symptoms: individual differences and similarities across addictive behaviors

Abstract The present study examined withdrawal symptoms and their intensities across a range of traditional and non-traditional addictive substances/losses (i.e., alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, food, and social/love relationship). Study one administered the Withdrawal Symptom Survey to Alcoholics Anonymous members and college students. Seven symptoms (irritability, restlessness, impatience, anxiousness, trouble concentrating, depression, and anger) were rated in the top 10 of symptom intensity by all experimental groups and six addictive substance/loss categories. Irritability had the highest rank orders and means across the addictions. Similarity of withdrawal response patterns across substances/losses was further demonstrated by high correlations between mean symptom pattern profiles across the addictive substances/losses. In addition, an individuals response to withdrawal from one substance was moderately predictive of the individuals withdrawal responses to other substances/losses. Study two compared responses/symptoms associated with feelings during an enjoyable evening with those associated with a broken relationship or food deprivation. The symptom patterns for relationship breakup and food deprivation replicated those of Study one and were independent of those associated with a positive situation. Findings support the conclusion that a high degree of similarity in withdrawal symptom patterns exists across addictive categories and relationship loss and that individual differences in symptom intensity operate across addiction/loss categories.

Physiological and nonverbal correlates of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism during active and passive coping

Abstract Correlations of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism with state anxiety, physiological arousal, and facial expressivity were assessed in 45 adolescents during a passive task (venipuncture) and an active coping task (speech). Task was a major determiner of the relationship between these variables. During venipuncture heart-rate increase was positively correlated with state anxiety, neuroticism, and anxiety expression and negatively correlated with extraversion. However, during the speech, HR change was negatively correlated with state anxiety and nonverbal indices of anxiety, but was positively correlated with extraversion and positive nonverbal expression. Skin conductance change findings were weaker but, when occurring, were in the same direction as the HR findings. Extraversion was highly associated with all nonverbal expressivity measures: inversely correlating with venipuncture and speech anxiety expression and positively correlating with venipuncture and speech positive expression. Neuroticism was positively correlated with nonverbal expression of anxiety during venipuncture but not speech. Psychoticism correlated positively with nonverbal positive expression during both venipuncture and speech.

Event-related potential correlates of IQ

Abstract The cortical event-related potential (ERP) waveform path length (string measure) previously found by Hendrickson ( A model for intelligence , Springer, New York 1982) to correlate very highly with psychometrically assessed intelligence, was found in the present study to correlate significantly positively with intelligence test scores. However, the size of the observed correlation was smaller than that observed by Hendrickson.

The Relationship Between Perceptions of Response to Disclosure of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Later Outcomes

This study assessed whether perceptions of others’ reactions to disclosure are related to psychological and physical outcomes among individuals with a history of child sexual abuse. Eighty-six female undergraduates completed a series of questionnaires assessing child sexual abuse, nonsexual trauma, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, somatic symptoms, disclosure, and social reactions to disclosure. Those who reported child sexual abuse endorsed higher levels of psychological and physical symptoms than those who reported a nonsexual traumatic event. Child sexual abuse survivors who reported more hurtful responses to disclosure had higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and physical symptoms than nonsexual trauma survivors. These findings suggest that many survivors of CSA may need psychological services, and an important focus of treatment may be assessing and strengthening social support.

Gendered sexuality: a new model and measure of attraction and intimacy.

Currently, the literature related to sexual orientation is ambiguous with regard to the relationship of sexual orientation, sexual identity, attraction, and intimacy. In order to explore the relationships of self-identified categorical sexual identity (which is the most popular method of sexual orientation assessment) with attraction and intimacy, it is imperative that researchers have access to a reliable and valid measure of the latter. The present study proposes a model for conceptualizing attraction and intimacy, termed gendered sexuality, and examines the factor structure of a measure designed to assess the construct. Results suggest that four factors adequately accounted for the variance in gendered sexuality in a large sample of young adults. These factors assess attraction to females, attraction to males, intimacy with females, and intimacy with males. Exploratory analyses provided preliminary evidence of potential construct validity and suggested that discrepancies between desired and available behavior predict dissatisfaction in interpersonal role as measured by the Outcome Questionnaire 45.2.

Predicting Alcohol Consumption: The Influences of Perceived Opposite-Sex Peer Expectancies and Drinking Behavior

ABSTRACT This study describes the relationship between personal and perceived opposite-sex peer expectations and drinking behavior. As compared to themselves, participants believed that their opposite-sex best friend had greater expectations for the effects of alcohol. Females reported that their male friend drank more often (p < .01) and more per occasion (p < .01) than they did; there was no significant difference regarding the maximum quantity consumed. Males believed that their female friend drank less per typical (p < .01) and maximum (p < .01) occasion than they did; no differences were found for drinking frequency. Perceived peer drinking behavior added to the prediction of self-reported drinking beyond that which is predicted by personal alcohol expectancies. Perceived peer expectancies added to the prediction of personal drinking for females but not males. Gender differences and clinical implications are highlighted.

Development and Maintenance of Aggressive Behavioral Patterns

In its examination of persistent aggressive behavior patterns and the factors maintaining aggressivity, this chapter places special emphasis on individual, social-skill, and social-system variables. For our purposes, aggression is viewed as the utilization of aversive and negative behaviors that threaten or inflict psychological or physical damage on people or property.

Personality, Social Skills, and Disturbed Behavior Patterns

The question of how psychopathology is related to social skills and to personality and temperament is important for a number of practical and theoretical reasons. Different clinical interventions make different assumptions concerning the causal relationships among personality, social skills, and psychopathology. Dissatisfaction among behaviorally oriented clinicians and researchers with personality-trait-based and nonempirically based (predominantly psychodynamic) conceptualizations of psychopathology and social behavior contributed to the rapid development and extensive use of social skills assessment and training (Phillips, 1985). During the last quarter of this century many social-skill-oriented writers (e.g., Gottman, 1979; Wine, 1981) and social systems theorists (e.g., Watzlawick, 1977; Watzlawick & Beavin, 1977) have criticized psychodynamic and other trait models that assume defects in development, biology, or personality cause psychopathology and interpersonal distress. Such criticism, in part, may be based on the misperception that for the social skills and learning orientations to be useful, productive, and valid, conceptualizations from trait and biological models of behavior must be useless, unproductive, and invalid.