Lynne M. Harris

Attentional bias for words and faces in social anxiety

Conflicting findings concerning the nature and presence of attentional bias in social anxiety and social phobia have been reported in the literature. This paper reports the findings of two studies comparing people with high and low social anxiety on dot probe tasks using words, faces photographed in front view, and faces photographed in profile as stimuli. In Study 1 those with high social anxiety displayed an attentional bias towards negative faces. The low social anxiety group showed an attentional bias towards positive faces. No significant effects were observed on the dot probe using words as stimuli. Study 2 used pairs of faces presented in profile as though looking at each other. One of the faces displayed either a positive, negative or neutral expression. The second face always had a neutral expression, and in half of the trials it was the subjects own face. The findings of this more ecologically valid procedure replicated those of Study 1. Facilitated attention to dots following emotional faces was specific to threatening facial stimuli. From these studies it appears that the facial dot probe task is a more sensitive index of attentional bias than the word task in a non-clinical sample with social anxiety.

Responsiveness of measures of attentional bias to clinical change in social phobia

This study examined responsiveness of the dot probe measure of attentional bias to standard cognitive-behaviour group therapy (CBGT) for social phobia. People who met criteria for social phobia were randomly allocated to either an immediate treatment condition or a waiting list control (WLC). All participants completed self-report measures of social anxiety, depression, and anxiety sensitivity, a verbal dot probe and a facial dot-probe task before and after eight weeks of standard CBGT was undertaken by the treatment group. On the first measurement occasion the two groups had similar scores on all measures. On the second measurement occasion the self-report scores for the CBGT group were lower than those of the WLC group. Performance on the dot-probe tasks for the CBGT group had also changed. The treatment group appeared to direct their attention away from social threat words and threatening faces after CBGT.

University Education and the Physiotherapy Professional

Summary The growth and development of physiotherapy is influenced significantly by the professional abilities and potential of its new graduates. Physiotherapy graduates need to have skills and attributes relevant to their day-to-day practice to enable them to be confident and competent. They also need skills and attributes that will enable them to adapt to changes and develop professionally. It could be assumed that physiotherapists are well equipped for their future role, because, as well as gaining discipline-specific technical competence, as university graduates they are expected to have generic skills and attributes in such areas as communication, thinking, learning, teamwork, research, evaluation and problem solving. However, possession of these generic university-education skills does not, alone, provide a guarantee of competence in the workplace. The education process must equip graduate physiotherapists for professional survival in a health care environment in which the funding and organisation of health care are changing. This paper examines the need for the profession and its educators to review current teaching in physiotherapy. It explores curriculum and teaching strategies that could be implemented to foster required skills and attributes in its newest graduates to ensure that they meet the needs of the community, thereby facilitating the ongoing development of the profession.

The relationship between cognitive function and clinical and functional outcomes in major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND Although cognitive variables have been shown to be useful in predicting outcomes in late-life depression, there has not yet been a comprehensive study in younger persons with depression. METHOD The clinical symptoms and cognitive performance of participants were evaluated at admission to one of two university teaching hospitals and again at 3 months after remission and discharge. A total of 52 participants with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depressive disorder, aged between 20 and 60 years and with a Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score 17 > or = entered the study. The sample for this paper comprises the 48 subjects (mean age 37.9 years, s.d.=10.7) who received admission and follow-up assessments; an attrition rate of 7.7%. RESULTS More perseverative errors on the shortened Wisconsin Card Sorting Test at admission predicted a worse clinical outcome at follow-up. Poor event-based prospective memory and more perseverative errors on the shortened Wisconsin Card Sorting Test at admission predicted worse social and occupational outcome at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that a brief cognitive screen at hospital admission, focusing on executive function, would have a useful prognostic value in depression. Determining early predictors of individuals at risk of poorer outcomes is important for identifying those who may need altered or additional treatment approaches.

An Examination of the Relationship Between Anxiety and Performance on Prospective and Retrospective Memory Tasks

The present study investigated the association between self-reported state anxiety, trait anxiety and performance on losely matched prospective and retrospective memory tasks and on a working memory (reading span) task. Eysenck and alvos (1992) processing efficiency theory suggests that the deleterious effects of anxiety on cognitive task erformance are mediated by worry occupying working memory. They suggest that the adverse effects of anxiety would be ost marked when people are experiencing acute anxiety states on tasks that place high demands on working memory apacity and are treated as secondary tasks, conditions that typically occur for prospective remembering. Sixty-three ndergraduate students were allocated to high, medium and low anxiety conditions using tertile splits of ranked state nd trait anxiety scores. It was found that people with elevated levels of state anxiety performed more poorly on a rospective memory test than people with lower levels of state anxiety. No difference between these g...

A longitudinal study of cognitive function in melancholic and non-melancholic subtypes of Major Depressive Disorder

BACKGROUND Research concerning cognition in depression has often yielded inconsistent findings. The presence of mixed melancholic and non-melancholic subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD) in most previous research may explain some of the contradictory results (Hickie, 1996). METHODS This longitudinal study compared the cognitive performance of people with melancholic (n=17) and non-melancholic (n=17) MDD admitted to one of two university hospitals. Participants received an extensive clinical and cognitive assessment at admission and again 3 months after recovery and discharge. RESULTS Overall, participants with melancholia had selective memory deficits with broader impairment of executive control skills. Specifically, after correcting for depression severity, they performed more poorly on tests requiring memory acquisition, mental flexibility, set-shifting, selective attention, concept-formation and multi-tasking compared to those with non-melancholic depression. These deficits were present at both assessments suggesting that the increased initial severity of cognitive deficits for those with melancholia mean that they require a longer time to recovery. LIMITATIONS The clinical homogeneity of the study sample may underestimate the extent of cognitive impairment for those presenting with comorbid illness and/or significant drug/alcohol histories. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicate that the depressed group with melancholia have a distinctly different and more impaired cognitive profile to those without melancholic features and suggest that these clinical subtypes should be considered separately in future research concerning MDD. Furthermore, the melancholic group appears to require longer periods for cognitive recovery and this has implications for return to work and daily functioning following clinical discharge.

Occupational Therapists' Perceptions of Their Undergraduate Preparation for the Workplace:

The health care environment is undergoing rapid change. This has major implications for health science education programmes. The extent to which university education prepares graduates for the requirements of the workplace has become an important issue in the health science literature. The present study investigated the perceptions of 144 graduate occupational therapists regarding the adequacy of their undergraduate education at the University of Sydney in equipping them for the workplace. The findings indicated that occupational therapy graduates perceived significant gaps between the knowledge and skills gained during their undergraduate course and those required in the workplace, particularly in the areas of communication with other health professionals and the general public, knowledge of the health industry and workplace management. This paper considers the implications of workplace requirements and expectations for the occupational therapy course curricula.

Evidence for fear of restriction and fear of suffocation as components of claustrophobia

Recent investigations of the aetiology and treatment of specific phobias have focused on clarifying the concerns underlying phobic anxiety. It has been proposed that claustrophobic fear is comprised of separable confinement and suffocation components. This paper presents data from 78 general medical outpatients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in two major teaching hospitals. The findings support the two factor structure of claustrophobia, in that exposure to confinement reduced confinement subscale scores, but did not influence suffocation scores.

Changing attentional bias : Can it effect self-reported anxiety ?

Abstract Studies conducted over the last decade have demonstrated the occurrence of attentional biases towards anxiety-relevant verbal information in people with anxiety disorders and those with high trait anxiety. Studies investigating the existence and significance of attentional bias in anxiety disorders have shown attentional bias to be a reliable correlate of anxiety that diminishes when anxiety is successfully treated (e.g., Lavy et al. 1993). However, despite speculation that attentional bias may predispose the development of anxiety, or contribute to maintaining anxiety, only one empirical study has demonstrated that it is possible to alter attentional bias, and that this has an impact on subsequent state anxiety (MacLeod, 1995). Such demonstrations are crucial in determining the causal status of attentional bias in anxiety disorders. The present study reports a methodology for investigating the causal status of attentional bias in anxiety. Forty-four non-clinical volunteers were randomly allocate...

The Sporting Body: Body Image and Eating Disorder Symptomatology Among Female Athletes from Leanness Focused and Nonleanness Focused Sports

ABSTRACT Female athletes experience pressure to conform to social and sporting norms concerning body weight. This study compared general and sporting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating symptomatology among 320 elite, recreational, and noncompetitive female athletes aged 17 to 30 years competing in leanness focused sports and nonleanness focused sports. Participants completed an online questionnaire including demographic questions, the Eating Attitudes Test, and the Figure Rating Scale. Athletes from leanness focused sports reported higher levels of body dissatisfaction and greater disordered eating symptomatology regardless of participation level. Elite athletes reported higher levels of body dissatisfaction and greater disordered eating symptomatology regardless of sport type, and differences between recreational and noncompetitive athletes were not found. More than 60% of elite athletes from leanness focused and nonleanness focused sports reported pressure from coaches concerning body shape. The findings have important implications for identifying risk factors for eating disorders among female athletes, where athletes who compete at elite level and those who compete in leanness focused sports at any level may be at higher risk for developing eating disorders.