Emotional Information Processing and Disrupted Parental Bonding: Cognitive Specificity and Avoidance

Although studies have assessed the association between affective dysfunction and parental bonding, little research has assessed the information processing characteristics of individuals with disrupted parental bonding. The current study investigated differences in attentional processing between individuals with relatively poor versus secure parental bonding, and also assessed this processing in conjunction with a mood priming procedure that has been used in previous vulnerability research. Using a Stroop procedure, results indicated that poorly bonded individuals were less distracted by depressive information than were individuals reporting a secure bonding history. Results also suggested that avoidance of anxious information in the poorly bonded group was uniquely associated with maternal overprotection. These results suggest that poorly bonded individuals may cope with their increased vulnerability by avoiding some types of affectively linked information, and that some of this avoidance may be linked to perceptions of a mother who is overly intrusive.

Interpretation revealed in the blink of an eye: depressive bias in the resolution of ambiguity

Self-report measures of interpretation have been criticized on methodological grounds. An approach is introduced in this article that enables the assessment of interpretive bias with a greater degree of methodological rigor than previously has been the case. Psychophysiological researchers have established that the magnitude of the human blink reflex is augmented when elicited during negative rather than neutral imagery. The 1st experiment demonstrates that the blink reflex is sensitive to the emotional valence of imagery evoked by interpretations imposed on ambiguous stimuli. In the 2nd experiment, this measure is used to assess interpretations imposed on ambiguous stimuli by individuals who differ in depression levels. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that depression is associated with a negative interpretive bias.

Own versus Other Standpoints in Self-Regulation: Developmental Antecedents and Functional Consequences

An inner audience is an internal representation of others' values, goals, and standards for the self (other standpoint on self). It contrasts with an internal representation of one's own values, goals, and standards for the self (own standpoint on self). Using self-discrepancy theory ( E. T. Higgins, 1987) as a framework to integrate diverse psychological perspectives on this classic distinction, the authors consider the role of own versus other standpoints in self-regulation. They describe developmental shifts and socialization effects on the self-regulatory strength of own and other standpoints. Evidence that individual differences and sex differences in own versus other standpoints for self-regulation relate to different affective and interpersonal vulnerabilities is reviewed. The concepts of identification and introjection are empirically distinguished in a novel way, and therapeutic implications are discussed.