The Capricious Nature of Theory of Mind: Does Mental State Understanding Depend on the Characteristics of the Target?

Using a between-groups design and random assignment, this study examined 214 Turkish children's (M = 11.66 years) mindreading and general reasoning about in-group members (Turks), similar out-group members (Syrians within Turkey) and dissimilar out-group members (Northern Europeans). Children heard four mindreading and four general reasoning stories with in-group or out-group members as targets. Whereas children's general reasoning about three groups was equivalent, accuracy of mental state inferences differed by target with more accurate mindreading of in-group targets compared to both sets of out-group targets. In this Turkish sample, mindreading of Syrian targets was the least accurate. Prejudice and perceived realistic threat predicted lower mindreading. These findings have important implications for understanding how similarity and intergroup processes play a role in children's mindreading.

The relationship between endometriosis-related pelvic pain and symptom frequency, and subjective wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: This exploratory study sought to establish the relationship between endometriosis-related pelvic pain, endometriosis symptom-frequency, and women's subjective wellbeing (SWB). METHODS: A purposive sample (N = 2061) of women with endometriosis aged between 18 and 62 years (M = 30.49 ± 7.45) completed an online questionnaire containing a measure of pelvic pain (Biberoglu & Behrman Scale; B&B), endometriosis symptom frequency, and an established measure of SWB (Personal Wellbeing Index: PWI). RESULTS: Mean SWB total scores (58.35 ± 17.90) were considerably lower than those of women in the general population (western normative range = 70-80; mean = 76). On average, women reported moderate levels of pelvic pain (B&B mean = 5.96 ± 1.84), with a mean of 10.87 (± 4.81) endometriosis-related symptoms across the sample. Significant relationships were found between pelvic pain and SWB dimension and total scores (r's = - 0.20 to - 0.43, all p's < .001), and significant small to medium associations between symptom frequency and all but one of the dimensions of SWB (r's = - 0.12 to - 0.23, all p's < .007). In multivariate regression models accounting for age and delay in diagnosis, higher levels of pelvic pain were significantly associated with lower SWB scores across all eight dimensions of the PWI and total score (all p's < .002). Greater symptom frequency was significantly associated with lower levels of SWB for the dimensions of health, future security, life as a whole, and total scores (all p's < .002). CONCLUSIONS: SWB was lower in women with endometriosis than SWB in women from the general population, and endometriosis related symptoms and pelvic pain explain significant proportions of the unique variance in women's SWB scores. Psychosocial support is needed for women dealing with endometriosis-related symptoms and pain in order to improve their wellbeing and quality of life.

Increasing resilience in adolescents: the importance of social connectedness in adventure education programmes.

OBJECTIVE: Mental health problems are a leading cause of health-related disability during adolescence. The objectives of the current study were to investigate whether participating in an adventure education programme (AEP) increased adolescents' resilience and elucidate how social connectedness contributes to any increase. METHOD: Adolescents who participated in the AEP had their resilience measured on the first (Time 1) and last day (Time 2) of a 10-day voyage. Perceived social support and sense of belonging were also measured at Time 2. A control group of adolescents, who did not take part in the voyage, also had their resilience assessed at two time points, 10 days apart. RESULT: Adolescents who participated in the AEP, but not those in the control group, displayed an increase in resilience from Time 1 to Time 2. Further, the increase in resilience was related to the adolescents' sense of belonging, and this effect held when controlling for perceived social support. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate the positive impact AEPs have on adolescents' resilience and a mechanism through which this occurs.

Toddlers' bias to look at average versus obese figures relates to maternal anti-fat prejudice.

Anti-fat prejudice (weight bias, obesity stigma) is strong, prevalent, and increasing in adults and is associated with negative outcomes for those with obesity. However, it is unknown how early in life this prejudice forms and the reasons for its development. We examined whether infants and toddlers might display an anti-fat bias and, if so, whether it was influenced by maternal anti-fat attitudes through a process of social learning. Mother-child dyads (N=70) split into four age groups participated in a preferential looking paradigm whereby children were presented with 10 pairs of average and obese human figures in random order, and their viewing times (preferential looking) for the figures were measured. Mothers' anti-fat prejudice and education were measured along with mothers' and fathers' body mass index (BMI) and children's television viewing time. We found that older infants (M=11months) had a bias for looking at the obese figures, whereas older toddlers (M=32months) instead preferred looking at the average-sized figures. Furthermore, older toddlers' preferential looking was correlated significantly with maternal anti-fat attitudes. Parental BMI, education, and children's television viewing time were unrelated to preferential looking. Looking times might signal a precursor to explicit fat prejudice socialized via maternal anti-fat attitudes.

Left-wing support of authoritarian submission to protect against societal threat.

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, adopted a "go hard, go early" approach to eliminate COVID-19. Although Ardern and her Labour party are considered left-leaning, the policies implemented during the pandemic (e.g., police roadblocks) have the hallmarks of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). RWA is characterized by three attitudinal clusters (authoritarian aggression, submission, and conventionalism). The uniqueness of the clusters, and whether they react to environmental change, has been debated. Here, in the context of the pandemic, we investigate the relationship between political orientation and RWA. Specifically, we measured political orientation, support for New Zealand's major political parties, and RWA among 1,430 adult community members. A multivariate Bayesian model demonstrated that, in the middle of a pandemic, both left-leaning and right-leaning individuals endorsed items tapping authoritarian submission. In contrast to authoritarian submission, and demonstrating the multidimensional nature of RWA, we observed the typical relationships between political orientation and authoritarian aggression and conventionalism was observed.

A Longitudinal Study of Mental Wellbeing in Students in Aotearoa New Zealand Who Transitioned Into PhD Study.

Journal editorials, career features, and the popular press commonly talk of a graduate student mental health crisis. To date, studies on graduate student mental health have employed cross-sectional designs, limiting any causal conclusions regarding the relationship between entry into graduate study and mental health. Here, we draw on data from a longitudinal study of undergraduate students in Aotearoa New Zealand, allowing us to compare participants who did, and did not, transition into PhD study following the completion of their undergraduate degree. Using multilevel Bayesian regression, we identified a difference in mental wellbeing between those who entered PhD study and those who did not. This difference, however, was largely due to those not entering PhD study displaying an increase in mental wellbeing. Participants that entered PhD study displayed a small decrease in mental wellbeing, with the posterior distribution of the simple effect heavily overlapping zero. This latter finding was orders of magnitude smaller than one might expect based on previous cross-sectional research and provides an important message; that a marked drop in mental health is not an inevitable consequence of entering graduate study.

The Effect of a Food Addiction Explanation Model for Weight Control and Obesity on Weight Stigma.

There is increasing scientific and public support for the notion that some foods may be addictive, and that poor weight control and obesity may, for some people, stem from having a food addiction. However, it remains unclear how a food addiction model (FAM) explanation for obesity and weight control will affect weight stigma. In two experiments (N = 530 and N = 690), we tested the effect of a food addiction explanation for obesity and weight control on weight stigma. In Experiment 1, participants who received a FAM explanation for weight control and obesity reported lower weight stigma scores (e.g., less dislike of 'fat people', and lower personal willpower blame) than those receiving an explanation emphasizing diet and exercise (F(4,525) = 7.675, p = 0.006; and F(4,525) = 5.393, p = 0.021, respectively). In Experiment 2, there was a significant group difference for the dislike of 'fat people' stigma measure (F(5,684) = 5.157, p = 0.006), but not for personal willpower weight stigma (F(5,684) = 0.217, p = 0.81). Participants receiving the diet and exercise explanation had greater dislike of 'fat people' than those in the FAM explanation and control group (p values < 0.05), with no difference between the FAM and control groups (p >0.05). The FAM explanation for weight control and obesity did not increase weight stigma and resulted in lower stigma than the diet and exercise explanation that attributes obesity to personal control. The results highlight the importance of health messaging about the causes of obesity and the need for communications that do not exacerbate weight stigma.

Promoting resilience in adolescents: A new social identity benefits those who need it most.

The Social Identity Approach to Health holds that groups provide us with a sense of meaning and belonging, and that these identity processes have a significant positive impact on our health and wellbeing. Typically, research drawing from the social identity approach with adolescents has focused on the benefits of existing group memberships. Here, using a sail-training intervention, we investigated the impact of providing adolescents with a new group (i.e., a new social identity) on psychological resilience. Across two studies, we demonstrate the benefits of a new social identity, in terms of increases in psychological resilience, flow predominantly to those adolescents who report the lowest levels of resilience at the start of the voyage. We discuss our findings in relation to the social identity approach and adolescent identity development more generally.

Local effects of TL01 phototherapy in psoriasis.

The mechanisms whereby narrowband ultraviolet B (UVB) (311-313 nm, TL01) phototherapy are effective in psoriasis may differ from those occurring in broadband UVB phototherapy. In the present study, changes in epidermal cells as a result of TL01 therapy were assessed in the skin of patients with psoriasis. The non-lesional skin of five subjects with plaque psoriasis was biopsied before and after a series of 12 whole-body TL01 treatments. Following appropriate staining of skin sections, the numbers of p53-positive keratinocytes, sunburn cells and Langerhans cells in the epidermis were counted. TL01 therapy induced a threefold increase in the number of p53-positive epidermal cells, a 12-fold increase in sunburn cells and a twofold decrease in Langerhans cells. The increase in epidermal p53 expression and apoptosis of keratinocytes together with the depletion of Langerhans cells in the non-lesional skin of psoriasis patients are likely to contribute to the effectiveness of TL01 phototherapy.

Flourishing and prosocial behaviors: A multilevel investigation of national corruption level as a moderator.

The current psychology literature defines flourishing as leading an authentic life that directs one towards the highest levels of both feeling good and functioning well. Numerous studies show that flourishing relates to a wide array of advantageous personal outcomes. However, the same literature says very little about the social outcomes of flourishing, even though an individual's pursuit of well-being does not happen in isolation of others. With the present research, we seek to address this void. Specifically, we argue that flourishing, in its psychological conceptualization, does not provide strong moral guidance. As such, flourishing is amoral when it comes to social outcomes such as prosocial behaviors. Drawing on social learning theory, we argue that flourishers' prosociality is at least somewhat contingent on the moral guidance of their society. To assess this, we tested society's corruption level as a moderator in the relation between flourishing and prosocial behavior. To that end, we conducted two studies using data from the European Social Survey (ESS), which were collected in 2006 (N1 = 50,504) from 23 countries and in 2012 (N2 = 56,835) from 29 countries. We generally find that corruption at the national level moderates the relation between flourishing and prosocial behaviors (i.e., helping close/distant others, charitable activities). Overall, our study suggests that moral guidance should factor into discussions about flourishing.

Lipid-Modifying Efficacy and Tolerability of Anacetrapib Added to Ongoing Statin Therapy in Patients with Hypercholesterolemia or Low High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol.

To assess the effects of anacetrapib added to statin ± other lipid-modifying therapies in patients with hypercholesterolemia and not at their low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) goal (as per National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III [NCEP ATP III] guidelines) and in those with low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Patients on a stable dose of moderate/high-intensity statin ± other lipid-modifying therapies with LDL-C ≥70, ≥100, ≥130, or ≥160 mg/dl for very high, high, moderate, and low coronary heart disease risk, respectively, or at LDL-C goal with HDL-C ≤40 mg/dl, were randomized 1:1:1, stratified by background therapy use, to anacetrapib 100 mg (n = 153), anacetrapib 25 mg (n = 152), or placebo (n = 154) for 24 weeks, followed by a 12-week off-drug reversal phase. The primary end points were percent change from baseline in LDL-C (beta-quantification method) and HDL-C, as well as the safety profile of anacetrapib. Both doses of anacetrapib reduced LDL-C, non-HDL-C, apolipoprotein (Apo) B, and lipoprotein a and increased HDL-C and Apo AI versus placebo (p <0.001 for all). There were no meaningful differences between the anacetrapib 25 mg, 100 mg, and placebo groups in the proportions of discontinuations due to drug-related adverse events (0.7%, 1.3% vs 1.3%) or in abnormalities in liver enzymes (0%, 0% vs 0.7%), creatine kinase elevations overall (0%, 0.7% vs 0%) or with muscle symptoms (none seen), blood pressure, electrolytes, or adjudicated cardiovascular events (0.7%, 0.7% vs 1.3%). In conclusion, treatment with anacetrapib resulted in substantial reductions in LDL-C and increases in HDL-C and was generally well tolerated.

Age differences in right-wing authoritarianism and their relation to emotion recognition.

This study examined the correlates of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in older adults. Participants were given tasks measuring emotion recognition, executive functions and fluid IQ and questionnaires measuring RWA, perceived threat and social dominance orientation. Study 1 established higher age-related RWA across the age span in more than 2,600 New Zealanders. Studies 2 to 4 found that threat, education, social dominance and age all predicted unique variance in older adults' RWA, but the most consistent predictor was emotion recognition, predicting unique variance in older adults' RWA independent of all other variables. We argue that older adults' worse emotion recognition is associated with a more general change in social judgment. Expression of extreme attitudes (right- or left-wing) has the potential to antagonize others, but worse emotion recognition means that subtle signals will not be perceived, making the expression of extreme attitudes more likely. Our findings are consistent with other studies showing that worsening emotion recognition underlies age-related declines in verbosity, understanding of social gaffes, and ability to detect lies. Such results indicate that emotion recognition is a core social insight linked to many aspects of social cognition.

Somewhere I belong: Long-term increases in adolescents' resilience are predicted by perceived belonging to the in-group.

This study sought to examine the role of belonging in the increases in resilience observed following an adventure education programme (AEP). First, we demonstrate that group belonging makes a significant contribution to the improvement in resilience participants' experienced over the course of the AEP. Second, we demonstrate that this increase in resilience is maintained 9 months following the AEP and that group belonging maintained a significant contribution when controlling for participants' initial resilience level and other psychosocial variables (i.e., centrality of identity and social support). Our findings accord well with recent research on the Social Cure or Social Identity Approach to Health and add to a growing body of work identifying the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon.

Threats to group value, domain-specific self-esteem and intergroup discrimination amongst minimal and national groups.

The research reported in this investigation sought to examine the self-esteem hypothesis (SEH) using measures of domain-specific and public collective self-esteem (CSE). Two studies were conducted. Each tested both propositions of the SEH. The first study revealed that minimal group members (a) experienced an increase in that domain of self-esteem judged to be relatively more important to the in-group, following the display of in-group favouritism and (b) that minimal group members with low public CSE (and who thus believed that the in-group was negatively evaluated by the out-group) showed enhanced levels of in-group favouritism. The second study, which utilized the members of real social categories (i.e. New Zealanders and Australians) and negative outcome allocations (i.e. white noise) revealed identical findings. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

A Transcriptional Signature of Fatigue Derived from Patients with Primary Sjögren's Syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Fatigue is a debilitating condition with a significant impact on patients' quality of life. Fatigue is frequently reported by patients suffering from primary Sjögren's Syndrome (pSS), a chronic autoimmune condition characterised by dryness of the eyes and the mouth. However, although fatigue is common in pSS, it does not manifest in all sufferers, providing an excellent model with which to explore the potential underpinning biological mechanisms. METHODS: Whole blood samples from 133 fully-phenotyped pSS patients stratified for the presence of fatigue, collected by the UK primary Sjögren's Syndrome Registry, were used for whole genome microarray. The resulting data were analysed both on a gene by gene basis and using pre-defined groups of genes. Finally, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used as a feature selection technique for input into a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Classification was assessed using area under curve (AUC) of receiver operator characteristic and standard error of Wilcoxon statistic, SE(W). RESULTS: Although no genes were individually found to be associated with fatigue, 19 metabolic pathways were enriched in the high fatigue patient group using GSEA. Analysis revealed that these enrichments arose from the presence of a subset of 55 genes. A radial kernel SVM classifier with this subset of genes as input displayed significantly improved performance over classifiers using all pathway genes as input. The classifiers had AUCs of 0.866 (SE(W) 0.002) and 0.525 (SE(W) 0.006), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Systematic analysis of gene expression data from pSS patients discordant for fatigue identified 55 genes which are predictive of fatigue level using SVM classification. This list represents the first step in understanding the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of fatigue in patients with pSS.

A pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug interaction study of acamprosate and naltrexone.

Acamprosate and naltrexone have each demonstrated safety and efficacy for alcohol dependence in placebo-controlled clinical trials. There is scientific and clinical interest in evaluating these drugs in combination, given their high tolerability, moderate effect sizes, different pharmacological profiles and potentially different effects on drinking outcomes. Thus, this is the first human pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic drug interaction study of acamprosate and naltrexone. Twenty-four normal, healthy adult volunteers participated in a double-blind, multiple dose, within subjects, randomized, 3-way crossover drug interaction study of the standard therapeutic dose of acamprosate (2 g/d) and the standard therapeutic dose of naltrexone (50 mg/d), given alone and in combination, with seven days per treatment condition and seven days washout between treatments. Blood samples were collected on a standardized schedule for pharmacokinetic analysis of naltrexone, 6-beta-naltrexol, and acamprosate. A computerized assessment system evaluated potential drug effects on cognitive functioning. Coadministration of acamprosate with naltrexone significantly increased the rate and extent of absorption of acamprosate, as indicated by an average 33% increase in acamprosate maximum plasma concentration, 33% reduction in time to maximum plasma concentration, and 25% increase in area under the plasma concentration-time curve. Acamprosate did not affect the pharmacokinetic parameters of naltrexone or 6-beta-naltrexol. A complete absence of negative interactions on measures of safety and cognitive function supports the absence of a contraindication to co-administration of acamprosate and naltrexone in clinical practice.

Social identity, self-evaluation and in-group bias: the relative importance of particular domains of self-esteem to the in-group.

This investigation sought to assess the link between in-group bias and domain-specific self-esteem. Two experiments were carried out. Experiment 1 revealed that social category members (i.e. Christians), manifested an increase in that domain of self-esteem judged to be relatively more important to the in-group (i.e. physical self-esteem), following the display of in-group bias. A second experiment which sought to examine an alternative explanation for these findings, in terms of enhanced social identity salience, produced identical findings. Domains of self-esteem relatively less important to the in-group (i.e. mathematical self-esteem) were unaffected in each experiment. Consistent with recent revisions to the second corollary of the self-esteem hypothesis, Experiment 2 further revealed that category members with low public collective self-esteem (who believed that Christians were evaluated negatively by Atheists) showed more pronounced in-group bias.

Strengthening community-based programming for juvenile sexual offenders: key concepts and paradigm shifts.

The past decade has been witness to a sharp increase in residential placement of adjudicated delinquent youth, including juvenile sexual offenders. It is argued that this trend has fiscal implications and may be clinically contraindicated for less characterologically disturbed and dangerous youth. The authors advocate greater investment of public funds in the development and refinement of community-based intervention programs. It is believed that clinically and legally integrated programming, using newer social-ecological methodologies and supports, offers promise of reducing the number of youth who require residential placement, shortening residential lengths of stay and improving the transition of residentially treated youth back into community settings. Key concepts relevant to bolstering community-based programming for juvenile sexual offenders are identified and discussed. Two programs are described, and program evaluation data reviewed, in support of the viability of innovative community-based approaches to the management of this population.