Faruk Gençöz

The Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Impacts of the September 11 Attacks: Group Differences in Memory for the Reception Context and the Determinants of Flashbulb Memory

The authors examined group differences in memories for hearing the news of and reactions to the September 11 attacks in 2001. They measured memory for reception context (immediate memory for the circumstances in which people first heard the news) and 11 predictors of the consistency of memory for reception context over time (flashbulb memory). Shortly after 9/11, a questionnaire was distributed to 3,665 participants in 9 countries. U.S. vs. non-U.S. respondents showed large differences in self-rated importance of the news and in memory for event-related facts. The groups showed moderate differences in background knowledge and emotional-feeling states. Within non-U.S. groups, there were large differences for emotional-feeling states and moderate differences for personal rehearsal, background knowledge, and attitudes toward the United States. The authors discuss the implications of those findings for the study of group differences in memory and for the formation of flashbulb memories.

The Relative Specificity of Excessive Reassurance-Seeking to Depressive Symptoms and Diagnoses Among Clinical Samples of Adults and Youth

In addition to playing a role in the deterioration of depressed peoples interpersonal environment, excessive reassurance-seeking may be implicated as a vulnerability factor for depression. If so, excessive reassurance-seeking should display relative specificity to depression versus other forms of psychopathology. Two studies of psychiatric inpatients (Study 1 on adults and Study 2 on children) tested this possibility. In Study 1 a Depressed group obtained higher reassurance-seeking scores than an Other Disorders group did. Similar findings were obtained in Study 2, such that depressed youth reported higher reassurance-seeking than nondepressed youth. Hence, these two studies of psychiatric inpatients provided reasonable support for the specificity of excessive reassurance-seeking to depression as compared to other forms of psychopathology.

Suicidality, Problem-Solving Skills, Attachment Style, and Hopelessness in Turkish Students

Among 180 Turkish university students, the probability of suicide was strongly predicted by both hopelessness and deficiencies in problem solving. In addition, for women, unhealthy attachment styles (preoccupied and dismissing) also predicted suicidality. The clinical implications of these findings are that psychotherapists should focus on helping suicidal adolescents improve their problem solving skills and decreasing their hopelessness and, for women, assisting them to develop healthier relationship styles.

Specificity of information processing styles to depressive symptoms in youth psychiatric inpatients

Although information processing has been widely studied with depressed adults, little emphasis has been placed on the specificity of resultant findings to depression, as opposed to other psychological disorders. Analogously, even less effort has been directed toward examining the information processing styles of depressed children and adolescents. The present study investigated the specificity of information processing styles to depression and anxiety among 58 youth psychiatric inpatients. To assess information processing, we used a self-referent encoding task, in which participants were presented with positive and negative adjectives; participants were asked whether these adjectives described them or not, and were then tested on recall of the adjectives. After controlling for age and gender, lower rates of positive adjective endorsement and lower rates of positive adjective recall were found to be associated with depression, but not anxiety. Additionally, negative adjective endorsement was associated with anxiety symptoms. These results suggest specific cognitive features of depressive symptoms.

The effects of basketball training on the maladaptive behaviors of trainable mentally retarded children

The effects of basketball training on the maladaptive behaviors of 19 trainable mentally retarded children attending a special state school were investigated. Children in the experimental group took 7 weeks of basketball training (Special Olympics Inc.) designed for mentally retarded children, whereas the control group children engaged in free play activities with the ball. Both groups were assessed before the training and free play activity applications (preassessment), immediately after the applications (postassessment) and 30 days after the applications (follow-up assessment). All the children were observed (Classroom Behavior Checklist developed for this study) in their classroom during the academic tasks in which they were involved. Furthermore, their mothers were interviewed to get information about manifested maladaptive behaviors at home. To assess the childrens level of improvement in basketball skills, the Sports Skills Assessment was utilized. Children trained in basketball skills showed a reduction in their level of maladaptive behavior both at home and in the school. This reduction was maintained in the follow-up period. Thus, basketball training can be proposed as an effective and practical rehabilitation program for trainable mentally retarded children attending an institution.

Psychometric properties of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and other physician-rated psychiatric scales for the assessment of depression in ESRD patients undergoing hemodialysis in Turkey.

Abstract This study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of clinician-rated psychiatric scales for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) treatment in Turkey. For this, the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale, Clinical Global Impression (CGI) Scale, and Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) were administered to 45 ESRD outpatients undergoing HD treatment. Regarding the reliability of HDRS and HARS, internal consistency and split-half reliability analyses revealed acceptable coefficients. The test – retest reliability coefficients were also examined for all measures after a period of a month, and despite this relatively long time interval, test – retest reliability coefficients were above .60 for all measures. Concerning the validity studies, all these scales revealed suitable convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity outcomes. A cut-off point of 10 for HDRS is suggested for the identification of depression in this population. In general, the findings of this study indicate that HDRS, HARS, CGI, GAF, and MMSE are reliable and valid instruments that can be used among ESRD patients undergoing HD.

The Relation of Self-Hatred and Suicidality in People With Schizophrenia-Spectrum Symptoms

It is well known that depressive symptoms represent a risk for suicidality in general. It is less clear, however, that general depressive symptoms comprise a definite suicide risk factor for people with schizophrenia. Based on this, as well as on the early writings of E. Bleuler (1911/1987), it was hypothesized that there may be a particular aspect of depressive symptoms that combines with schizophrenia to encourage suicidality. Specifically, schizophrenia may impart to self-concept a quality of self-hatred that encourages suicidality in schizophrenic people. If so, then an index of self-hatred should be more correlated with suicidality among people with schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms than among people with fewer such symptoms. Two studies evaluated this possibility. In Study 1 on 243 suicidal outpatients affiliated with the military, self-hate and suicidality were more correlated among people with schizotypal symptoms than among other patients. In Study 2 on 113 VA psychiatric inpatients, self-hate and suicidality were more correlated among people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia than among patients with a diagnosis of major depression. Study limitations were noted, and it was suggested that self-hatred be a focus of suicide risk assessment in schizophrenic people.

Hopelessness and Suicidality in Turkish and American Respondents

In samples of both Turkish and American students, the correlates of suicidal ideation were found to be similar, with depression, hopelessness, and attitudes toward the ownership of life predicting the level of suicidal ideation in both samples. Results using a Western measure of religiosity, however, were different in the two cultures, indicating the need for measures of religiosity specifically tailored for Turkish culture.

Patterns of hemispheric perceptual asymmetries: left hemispatial biases predict changes in anxiety and positive affect in undergraduate women

Consistent with the tripartite model of anxiety and depression, hemispheric asymmetries may be differentially associated with depressive and anxious symptoms. Indeed, research has demonstrated that asymmetries do exist when examining hemispatial biases in both anxious and depressed individuals; however, the magnitude and direction of these asymmetries has been variable. The Chimeric Faces Task was used here to measure these asymmetries, along with measures for current and future levels of anxiety and depression. Results indicated that (a) increased left hemispatial biases at Time 1 predict increased anxiety (i.e., physiological hyperarousal) at Time 2 among female undergraduate students and (b) decreased left hemispatial biases at Time 1 predict decreased positive affectivity at Time 2 among the same participants. The possibility that hemispatial biases represent a vulnerability to future anxiety and depression is discussed.

Differential roles of depressive and anxious symptoms and gender in defensiveness.

Among a sample of Air Force cadets facing the prospect of basic training (N = 1,190; 1,005 men and 185 women), the influence of a defensive test-taking style on measures of depressive and anxious symptoms was examined. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck & Steer, 1987) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988), as well as the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) L scale. Results supported hypotheses that defensiveness would affect a self-report measure of depression but not a self-report measure of anxiety and would do so more among men than women. Applied implications of the results are discussed.