Explicating narrow and broad conceptualizations of environmental influences on personality

BACKGROUND

A surge of studies aims to identify environmental factors that explain individual differences, personality stability, and personality development. This special issue builds on this large interest and solicited articles on broad and narrow environmental factors of personality.

OBJECTIVE

We provide an overview of the motivations behind the special issue, review each of the articles, and present data on researchers' perceptions of environmental factors contributing to personality expression and development.

METHOD

We review 16 special issue articles, thematically grouped into seven topics-culture and race, genes and environment, geography and habitat, major/minor life events, social relationships, socioeconomic status and economic inequality, and work. We also present data on researchers' (N = 223) responses and ratings of environmental influences on personality expression and development.

RESULTS

In the open-ended responses, the most important environmental influences were family, culture, peers, relationships, and trauma. Among the least important were weather, birth order, geography, climate, and shared environment. Nearly all the environmental influences featured in this special issue were considered at least somewhat important; however, there was considerable heterogeneity in how important researchers found each topic.

CONCLUSIONS

There is no perfect consensus among researchers as to which environmental factors contribute most to personality expression and development. We hope that there is a larger surge of studies on personality constructs beyond traits, that contextualize concepts within a cultural and historical framework and develop more stringent theories to hypothesize about the environmental influences on personality.

The Perks of Pet Ownership? The Effects of Pet Ownership on Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pet ownership has often been lauded as a protective factor for well-being, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We expanded this question to consider how pet (i.e., species, number) and owner (i.e., pet relationship quality, personality, attachment orientations) characteristics affected the association between pet ownership and well-being in a pre-registered mixed method analysis of 767 people assessed three times in May 2020. In our qualitative analyses, pet owners listed both benefits and costs of pet ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our quantitative analyses, we found that pet ownership was not reliably associated with well-being. Furthermore, this association largely did not depend on the number of pets owned, the species of pet(s) owned, the quality of the human-pet relationship, or the owner's psychological characteristics. Our findings are consistent with a large body of research showing null associations of pet ownership on well-being (quantitatively) but positive reports of pet ownership (qualitatively).

Trait and facet personality similarity and relationship and life satisfaction in romantic couples

Previous research has shown that personality similarity plays a negligible role in explaining the life and relationship satisfaction of couples. However, similarity in more proximally measured personality (i.e., facets) might explain additional variance in partners' well-being. The current study examined if in a sample of 1294 female-male romantic couples individual and partner personality traits and facets were associated with life and relationship satisfaction in expected ways. Similarity in personality traits and facets was not robustly associated with either life or relationship satisfaction of partners. The results are discussed in the context of the predictive validity of personality facets.

Age and gender differences in narcissism: A comprehensive study across eight measures and over 250,000 participants

Age and gender differences in narcissism have been studied often. However, considering the rich history of narcissism research accompanied by its diverging conceptualizations, little is known about age and gender differences across various narcissism measures. The present study investigated age and gender differences and their interactions across eight widely used narcissism instruments (i.e., Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Hypersensitive Narcissism Scale, Dirty Dozen, Psychological Entitlement Scale, Narcissistic Personality Disorder Symptoms from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Version IV, Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire-Short Form, Single-Item Narcissism Scale, and brief version of the Pathological Narcissism Inventory). The findings of Study 1 (N = 5,736) revealed heterogeneity in how strongly the measures are correlated. Some instruments loaded clearly on one of the three factors proposed by previous research (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, Antagonism), while others cross-loaded across factors and in distinct ways. Cross-sectional analyses using each measure and meta-analytic results across all measures (Study 2) with a total sample of 270,029 participants suggest consistent linear age effects (random effects meta-analytic effect of r = -.104), with narcissism being highest in young adulthood. Consistent gender differences also emerged (random effects meta-analytic effect was -.079), such that men scored higher in narcissism than women. Quadratic age effects and Age × Gender effects were generally very small and inconsistent. We conclude that despite the various conceptualizations of narcissism, age and gender differences are generalizable across the eight measures used in the present study. However, their size varied based on the instrument used. We discuss the sources of this heterogeneity and the potential mechanisms for age and gender differences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A MULTIPRONGED APPROACH TO MODELING DYADIC SIMILARITY AMONG MIDDLE-AGED AND OLDER ADULTS

One surprising finding in the field of dyadic influence is the minimal influence that couple personality similarity has for life and relational well-being. Most research has focused on pairing of symmetric psychological characteristics on a broad, trait level (i.e., one person’s extraversion with their partner’s extraversion) across romantic partners. However, many more cross-trait combinations are possible, and facet-level traits may provide additional information that is traditionally lost. Among 1,366 middle-age and older couples, we examined similarity effects of personality facets on health, life, and relational well-being using difference scores, response surface analyses, and machine learning approaches. Across analytic and operational approaches, partner and similarity effects were relatively small in magnitude, although additional variance was explained for some outcomes (e.g., relationship satisfaction) than others (e.g., memory, chronic illnesses). Our findings constitute one of the more comprehensive examinations to date and suggest even the modest effects of personality similarity may be overstated.

LINKS BETWEEN DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS AND SELF-RATED AND COGNITIVE HEALTH IN OLDER COUPLES AROUND THE WORLD

Mental and physical health are important concerns in late adulthood. To gain a deeper understanding of the associations between depressive symptoms and self-rated and cognitive health as they occur contextualized within romantic relationships and across different cultures, we examined these links in older romantic couples of 36 nations. To that end, we used data from North and South America, Europe, and Asia with a total sample of 47,396 romantic couples. Between-partner correlations of depressive symptoms, self-rated health, and cognitive health demonstrated substantial variations across cultures. Further, we found that the depressive symptoms in one partner were linked to worse self-rated health and worse cognitive performance in both partners. Age, education, and functional difficulties partly accounted for these associations. These findings were also characterized by cross-cultural variation. Hence, depressive symptoms represent a potential risk factor for health in couples.

Bidirectional associations between self-esteem and relational aggression from 5th to 11th grade

A widely held belief among laypeople and psychologists suggests that self-esteem and relational aggression (i.e., perpetration and victimization) are associated over time. The present study examines the bidirectional associations between self-esteem and relational aggression across 6 years, using two types of longitudinal models (latent cross-lagged panel models and latent random intercepts cross-lagged panel models) to separate between- and within-person effects. Six hundred and seventy-four Mexican-origin youth reported their global and domain-specific self-esteem and relational aggression (perpetration and victimization) in the fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades. Our findings suggest that: (a) being a perpetrator is prospectively associated with later lower opposite-sex relationships self-esteem at the between-person level, (b) lower self-esteem in the domain of honesty-trustworthiness is prospectively associated with becoming a perpetrator and a victim at the within- and between-person level, (c) lower global self-esteem is prospectively associated with higher victimization at the between-person level, and (d) being victimized is not prospectively associated with later global or domain-specific self-esteem, at neither the within- nor the between-person level. The present study provides little evidence for the widely held belief about the bidirectional associations between self-esteem and relational aggression across time but demonstrates the complexity of these associations on the between- and within-person level.

A test of the investment model among asexual individuals: The moderating role of attachment orientation

Many asexual individuals are in long-term satisfying romantic relationships. However, the contributors to relational commitment among asexual individuals have received little attention. How do investment model characteristics and attachment orientations predict relationship commitment among asexual individuals? Our study looked at a sample of 485 self-identified asexual individuals currently in a romantic relationship (M_age = 25.61, SD = 6.24; M_{RelationshipLength} = 4.42 years, SD = 4.74). Individuals reported on Investment Model characteristics (i.e., their relationship satisfaction, investment, alternatives, and commitment) and their attachment orientations. Satisfaction, investment, and fewer alternatives were associated with greater commitment. Attachment orientations only occasionally moderated the results: for people low in anxiety, satisfaction and investment were more strongly related to commitment compared to people high in anxiety. The current study provided an extension of the Investment Model to describe romantic relationships among asexual individuals.

In good times and in bad: A longitudinal analysis of the impact of bereavement on self-esteem and life satisfaction in couples

This study examines the impact of bereavement on self-esteem and life satisfaction in both partners of a romantic couple. We investigate the moderating effects of the type of the lost relationship (close family, close friends/others) and romantic relationship characteristics (daily social support, responsiveness-closeness, self-disclosure). We examined 1238 individuals in 619 male–female couples from the ages 18 to 81 ( M [ SD] = 31.97 years [13.26]). Both partners completed questionnaires at two assessments that were 20 months ( SD = 2.02 months) apart, in between which n = 216 individuals were bereaved. Actor–partner interdependence models showed that bereavement did not predict later self-esteem or life satisfaction in either of the partners. The relationship characteristics and the type of lost relationship did not moderate the effects. The subjective meaning and distress of the loss predicted later self-esteem and life satisfaction. The self-esteem increase was larger for bereaved with a positive/neutral than for bereaved with a negative meaning of the bereavement. We found a partner effect on self-esteem for the group of bereaved who reported a negative meaning of the bereavement. The findings demonstrate that bereavement can impact romantic partners' self-esteem and that the subjective experience of bereavement helps understand individual differences in the effect of bereavement on self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Romantic Attachment, Stress, and Cognitive Functioning in a Large Sample of Middle-Aged and Older Couples

Romantic relationships are a key factor contributing to health across the lifespan. Within this research line, attachment theory has been a useful framework to understand how relationships impact health. One primary health concern in late adulthood is reduced cognitive functioning: Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders become increasingly prevalent with age affecting millions of people. Even though much research has identified various sociodemographic, medical, and behavioral risk factors, little knowledge exists on romantic attachment’s psychosocial role for cognitive decline. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between insecure attachment, stress, and cognitive functioning in a large sample of middle-aged and older couples. In particular, we wanted to investigate how insecure attachment is linked to both partners’ cognitive functioning and whether stress mediates these associations. To that aim, we used data of 1,043 romantic couples (Mage = 64.7 years; 38.5% same-sex couples) who reported on their attachment anxiety and avoidance, their stress levels, their cognitive decline, and their and their partners’ dementia symptoms. Couple members also participated in a memory performance task. The results suggest that anxiety is linked to participants’ cognitive decline, while avoidance was linked to partners’ cognitive decline and poorer memory performance. We also detected significant mediational effects for stress in the association between insecure attachment and cognitive functioning. We conclude that potentially malleable psychosocial factors, such as insecure attachment and stress, are important research objects when understanding cognitive functioning in middle and late adulthood.

Within-Couple Associations Between Communication and Relationship Satisfaction Over Time

Relationship science contends that the quality of couples’ communication predicts relationship satisfaction over time. Most studies testing these links have examined between-person associations, yet couple dynamics are also theorized at the within-person level: For a given couple, worsened communication is presumed to predict deteriorations in future relationship satisfaction. We examined within-couple associations between satisfaction and communication in three longitudinal studies. Across studies, there were some lagged within-person links between deviations in negative communication to future changes in satisfaction (and vice versa). But the most robust finding was for concurrent within-person associations between negative communication and satisfaction: At times when couples experienced less negative communication than usual, they were also more satisfied with their relationship than was typical. Positive communication was rarely associated with relationship satisfaction at the within-person level. These findings indicate that within-person changes in negative communication primarily covary with, rather than predict, relationship satisfaction.

The mirror's curse: Weight perceptions mediate the link between physical activity and life satisfaction among 727,865 teens in 44 countries

PURPOSE

The present study aimed to examine the link between physical activity (PA) and life satisfaction in a large international study of adolescents. We also aimed to test whether overweight and underweight perceptions act as mediators and whether age and sex acted as moderators.

METHODS

For this purpose, we analyzed data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study, which comprises 727,865 observations from 44 nations at 4 measurement occasions.

RESULTS

Multilevel analyses revealed a positive link between PA and life satisfaction. In addition, underweight and overweight perceptions mediated the effect of PA on life satisfaction. We further found that age and sex acted as moderators. In older adolescents, stronger effects were found in the links between PA and life satisfaction, PA and overweight perception, and both weight perceptions and life satisfaction. In addition, in female adolescents, the link between overweight perception and life satisfaction was stronger. Conversely, the links between PA and both weight perceptions were stronger for boys.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that weight perception explains part of the relationship between PA and life satisfaction in adolescents and that these effects vary as a function of age and sex.

The actor, agent, and author across the life span: interrelations between personality traits, life goals, and life narratives in an age-heterogeneous sample

According to the integrative framework for studying people, personality manifests and develops along three separate, but related, levels: the actor (e.g. traits), agent (e.g. goals), and author (i.e. narratives). Although these levels are thought to be conceptually interrelated, few studies have empirically examined such interrelations. To address this gap, the present study tested how traits, goals, and narratives are longitudinally related to each other and whether master motives (getting along and getting ahead) serve as helpful tools to structure these interrelations. Applying a developmental approach, we further explored these interrelations against the background of age-related effects. A sample of 141 participants (14–68 years, M = 35.40 years) completed self-reports on traits and goals at the beginning and end of a 2-year study. In between these measurements, participants took part in a life story interview that assessed narratives. We applied multilevel analyses and found that traits, goals, and narratives were meaningfully related to each other. Interactions with age occurred in less than 20% of the cases, emerged among the majority of variables (except for agreeableness and openness), were most pronounced for narratives and were mainly found among young and middle-aged participants. The findings are discussed in view of master motives.

Loneliness is associated with the subjective evaluation of but not daily dynamics in partner relationships

Loneliness describes a perceived deficiency in quantitative or qualitative aspects of individuals’ social relationships. Whereas the health-related consequences of loneliness are well-documented, surprisingly little is known about its interpersonal features and its consequences for relationship outcomes. In the present study, we investigated the association between loneliness and relationship experiences in partner relationships with a sample of 937 individuals from 480 mixed-sex couples. By employing actor-partner interdependence models and dyadic cross-lagged moderated multilevel models, we found higher loneliness to be robustly related to (a) lower relationship satisfaction for both oneself and the partner, (b) more self-reported, but not partner-reported conflicts, (c) lower average levels of one’s own, but not the partner’s closeness, and (d) less own self-disclosure. In contrast, loneliness was not associated with (a) sexual contact frequency, (b) average levels of physical affection, or (c) the daily dynamics between closeness and self-disclosure/physical affection. Thus, the results of the present study indicated that loneliness is primarily associated with the perception of the partner relationship but not its rather objective features or daily dynamics.

Interdependence of Approach and Avoidance Goals in Romantic Couples Over Days and Months

OBJECTIVES

Despite the centrality of people's approach goals (i.e., approach toward positive outcomes) and avoidance goals (i.e., avoidance of negative outcomes) in romantic relationships, little is known about the interdependence of approach and avoidance relationship goals between partners. Assuming that short-term, state-level goals accumulate into general goal tendencies, the present research tested whether partners' daily (i.e., state level) and aggregated daily (i.e., trait level) approach and avoidance goals are mutually predictive in the short term (after one day) and the long term (after 10-12 months). In addition, we explored whether goal interdependence unfolds differently across adulthood and in relationships of different duration.

METHOD

Approach and avoidance goals were assessed daily on two 14-day measurement-burst occasions that were conducted 10-12 months apart. The sample consisted of N = 456 female-male couples (age: M = 33.6, SD = 13.8 years; relationship duration: M = 9.6, SD = 10.7 years).

RESULTS

We observed significant short- and long-term partner effects in the prediction of couple members' approach and avoidance goals. These partner effects were restricted to trait level and they did not emerge at the state level. Almost all effects were independent of age and relationship duration.

DISCUSSION

The present research underscores the importance of disentangling state- and trait-level goal tendencies when investigating the interdependence of approach and avoidance goals within romantic relationships.

Daily Responsiveness, Expectations, and Self–disclosure: How the Average Levels and Within–person Variability of Three Relationship Components Mediate Personality–Relationship Transactions in Romantic Couples

The associations between couple members’ personality and their relationship satisfaction can be conceptualized as reciprocal transactions. To better understand these transactions, we focused on both partners’ interpersonal vulnerabilities (i.e. neuroticism, low self–esteem, and insecure attachment); daily emotional, cognitive, and behavioural relationship components (i.e. perceived responsiveness, positive expectations, and self–disclosure); and relationship satisfaction. Specifically, we examined whether the average levels and within–person variability of the relationship components mediated the transactions between interpersonal vulnerabilities and relationship satisfaction. Data came from 689 female–male couples aged 18 to 81 years who participated in three measurement occasions across 12 months, including a 14–day diary phase. We used mediated dyadic bivariate latent change score models to test the level–change and change–change transactions and mediations. The findings partly supported our hypotheses: Couple members with interpersonal vulnerabilities had lower average levels (but not higher within–person variability) of the relationship components, and less satisfied couple members had lower average levels and higher within–person variability of these components. The lower average levels but not the variability mediated between a lower level of relationship satisfaction and an increase in avoidant attachment. No other mediations were observed. We discuss the importance of studying daily relationship components for better understanding reciprocal transactions in couples. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology

Until death do us part: The codevelopment of life satisfaction in couples preceding the death of one partner

This work aims to integrate previous research perspectives on terminal well-being decline and partner bereavement by investigating the codevelopment of life satisfaction in the years preceding the death of one partner. We analyzed longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (N = 1,450 couples) and applied dyadic multilevel models to estimate both partners' trajectories of life satisfaction and to reveal the pathways of well-being transmission in couple members approaching [partner] death. Findings were compared with a propensity-score-matched control sample of couples in which neither partner died during the study. We found that to-be-deceased and to-be-bereaved partners experienced increasing disparities in their trajectories of life satisfaction in the years before [partner] death: Although both partners exhibited significant and accelerated declines in life satisfaction, these declines were more pronounced in to-be-deceased individuals. In the control sample, we also identified significant and accelerated declines in life satisfaction but these declines were less intense and they did not differ between partners. Regarding between-partner correlations, we observed that couples approaching [partner] death experienced weaker interdependencies in their declines of life satisfaction. Finally, and concerning the pathways of well-being transmission, we found that life satisfaction was significantly transmitted between partners and the strength of this effect did not differ between the samples. These findings suggest that the years before [partner] death are characterized by distinctive patterns of change and interdependence in life satisfaction. Future studies may explore the sources of increasing between-partner disparities in life satisfaction in an end-of-life relationship context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Closer Look at Life Goals across Adulthood: Applying A Developmental Perspective to Content, Dynamics, and Outcomes of Goal Importance and Goal Attainability

It is well established that goals energize and direct behaviour across the lifespan. To better understand how goals are embedded in people's lives across adulthood, the present research examined life goals’ content (health, personal growth, prosocial engagement, social relations, status, work), dynamics (interplay between goal importance and goal attainability), and outcomes (subjective well–being) from a developmental perspective. We argue that people rate those goals as important and attainable that enable them to master developmental tasks, that they adapt their goals to personal capacities, and that goals predict subjective well–being after 2 and 4 years. The sample included 973 individuals (18–92 years old, M = 43.00 years) of whom 637 participated 2 years later and 573 participated 4 years later. Goal importance and well–being were assessed at all occasions and goal attainability at the first two occasions. Results indicated that age was negatively associated with importance and attainability of personal–growth, status, and work goals but positively associated with importance and attainability of prosocial–engagement goals. The association between goal importance and attainability was largely bidirectional over time; and goal attainability, rather than goal importance, was positively linked to later well–being. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of adult lifespan development. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology

Assessing the ability of the Drug-Associated Risk Tool (DART) questionnaire to stratify hospitalised older patients according to their risk of drug-related problems: a cross-sectional validation study

OBJECTIVES

The Drug-Associated Risk Tool (DART) has been developed as a self-administered questionnaire for patients with the aim of stratifying patients according to their risk of drug-related problems (DRPs). We aimed to validate the ability of the questionnaire to distinguish between hospitalised patients showing lower and higher numbers of DRPs.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study assessing the questionnaire's concurrent criterion validity.

SETTING

Five geriatric and the associated physical and neurological rehabilitation wards of a Swiss regional secondary care hospital with 617 beds.

PARTICIPANTS

We recruited 110 patients from a total of 437 admissions. Exclusion criteria were insufficient knowledge in spoken or written German, medical conditions preventing meaningful conversations and already receiving pharmacy services.

INTERVENTIONS

Comprehensive pharmacist-led clinical medication reviews were performed, including patient interviews, to identify potential and manifest DRPs. A cluster analysis was conducted to assess the discriminatory potential of the DART to group patients according to number (low and high) of identified DRPs. A subsequent discriminatory function analysis was performed to reduce the number of items. We determined which DART items may be used to trigger what type of medication review.

RESULTS

Recruited patients had a median age of 79 years and were prescribed a median of 11 drugs. Patients with a median DART score of 10 and a median of 3 DRPs represented one cluster, whereas patients with a median DART score of 15 and a median of 8 DRPs represented another cluster. Discriminatory function analysis reduced the questionnaire to five items with a moderate to strong correlation with the number of DRPs per patient (Spearman's rank correlation ρ=0.44). Additional items were associated with patients benefiting from interviews.

CONCLUSIONS

As a self-administered questionnaire for patients, the DART may be used to stratify hospitalised non-acute older patients in groups of having low and high likelihood of DRPs. The analyses showed that a short form of the DART can be used instead of the full tool to identify older inpatients at risk for DRPs. Additional eight items from the DART may be used to initiate additional clinical pharmacy services. The linkage between certain DART questions and type of medication review enables pharmacist resource allocation.

The Interdependence of Personality and Satisfaction in Couples

Abstract. Personality has been found to play an important role in predicting satisfaction in couples. This review presents dyadic research on the association between Big Five traits and both life and relationship satisfaction in couples focusing on self-reported personality, partner-perceived personality (how the partner rates one’s own personality), and personality similarity. Furthermore, special attention is given to possible gender effects. The findings indicate the importance of self-reported as well as partner-perceived reported personality for the satisfaction of both partners. Specifically, the majority of studies found intrapersonal and interpersonal effects for neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness on life or relationship satisfaction. For the partner-perceived personality, intrapersonal and interpersonal effects were present for all Big Five traits. Partners’ similarity in personality traits seems not to be related with their satisfaction when controlling for partners’ personality.

Testing Relations of Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence and the Incremental Predictive Validity of Conscientiousness and Its Facets on Career Success in a Small Sample of German and Swiss Workers

This study examined the relation of fluid and crystallized intelligence with extrinsic (occupational skill level, income) and intrinsic (job satisfaction) career success as well as the incremental predictive validity of conscientiousness and its facets. Participants (N = 121) completed the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS), the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), and reported their occupational skill level, income, and job satisfaction. Results revealed that crystallized intelligence was positively related to occupational skill level, but not to income. The association of crystallized intelligence and job satisfaction was negative and stronger for the lowest occupational skill level, whereas it was non-significant for higher levels. Fluid intelligence showed no association with career success. Beyond intelligence, conscientiousness and its facet self-discipline were associated with income, whereas conscientiousness and its facets competence and achievement striving were associated with job satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment process as well as for future research to adequately predict career success.

[Longitudinal study on quality of life after gastrectomy for gastric cancer and starting points for intensified care]

This prospective longitudinal study on gastric carcinoma patients with gastrectomy was designed to answer the question about changes in several determinants of the quality of life (QL) at various times before and after surgery and to obtain evidence for specific approaches of therapeutic intervention.

METHODS AND PATIENTS

36 patients were given a questionnaire structured according to Eypasch et al. (self- assessment) before surgery, at discharge from the hospital, and after 3 and 6 months. The dual structure of the questions makes it possible to determine whether a single item is present at all (prevalence) and to what extent it impairs the quality of life (no impairment/some/moderate/strong impairment--corresponding to 0-3). The data were evaluated per domain of QL as well as item-related.

RESULTS

Postoperatively, 14 patients had to be excluded from the study because of non-radical surgery, complications, recurrences, etc. After 6 months the items of all QL-determinants showed the lowest prevalence with the exception, however, of the somatic determinants, the items of which showed a prevalence of 27 % preoperatively, 64 % at discharge from the hospital, 58 % after 3 months, and 46 % after 6 months. The average degree of QL-impairment increased continuously from 1.17 preoperatively to 1.61 after 6 months. Preoperatively the psychic domain was predominantly impaired, postoperatively the somatic domain.

CONCLUSION

Analysis of the subjective quality of life can reveal care deficits. Gastrectomy-associated symptoms seem to influence the quality of life considerably in the first 6 months after surgery. More attention has to be paid to the sequelae of surgery. The high pre- and postoperative frequency of psychic impairment makes it desirable to provide special psychooncological offers of care.

Blockade of FG 7142 kindling by anticonvulsants acting at sites distant from the benzodiazepine receptor

Repeated administration of the beta-carboline FG 7142 results in sensitisation to its convulsant effects (chemical kindling); acutely FG 7142 is not convulsant, but following several treatments full seizures develop. It has been suggested that the increased sensitivity results from changes in benzodiazepine (BZ)/GABA receptor function. The present experiments studied the ability of BZ receptor ligands and anticonvulsant drugs with diverse mechanisms of action to block the expression and development of kindling to once daily injection of FG 7142 (40 mg/kg, i.p.) in mice. In fully kindled mice, the BZ receptor agonists clonazepam, ZK 93,423 and CL 218,872, and the antagonists flumazenil and ZK 93,426 prevented FG 7142 convulsions, as did 2 anticonvulsants, sodium valproate, possibly acting by influencing GABAergic transmission, and ethosuximide. A further two substances, MK 801 and 2-chloradenosine which act respectively via glutamatergic and purinergic mechanisms were also effective. When administered concomitantly with repeated FG 7142, all of these substances prevented or strongly reduced the development of kindling. Phenytoin and carbamazepine were ineffective in protecting against FG 7142 convulsions in kindled mice, and in preventing the development of kindling when administered repeatedly together with FG 7142. Since MK 801 and 2-chloradenosine prevented kindling, these results suggest that an interaction of FG 7142 with BZ receptors is not sufficient to induce kindling, which may instead result from secondary changes in sites distant from BZ/GABA receptors.

Does the excitatory amino acid receptor antagonist 2-APH exhibit anxiolytic activity?

The activity of 2-amino-7-phosphonoheptanoic acid (2-APH), an antagonist of the NMDA subtype of glutamate receptor, was tested in several animal models of anxiolytic activity in rats and mice and compared with the activity of the standard benzodiazepine anxiolytic, diazepam. 2-APH was effective, but about 100 times less potent than diazepam in antagonising the suppressive effects of punishment on locomotor activity in the four-plate test in mice. 2-APH was also effective in enhancing exploration of the open, exposed arms of a plus maze, without altering exploration of the enclosed arms. Again 2-APH was about 100 times less effective than diazepam. In contrast to diazepam, 2-APH was ineffective in antagonising the pro-punishment properties of the anxiogenic beta-carboline DMCM in a modified four-plate test, and in antagonising the discriminative stimulus provided by pentylenetetrazol. These results are discussed in the context of the equivalence of the antagonism of excitatory mechanisms and the enhancement of inhibitory systems as anxiolytic treatments.

Reversal learning in senescent rats

The ability of old (24 months) and young (3 months) male rats to reverse a previously acquired discrimination was compared in 5 experiments. The old rats did not need more trials to learn a position habit in a T-maze to obtain water reward, but required more trials to reverse the position habit. The old rats showed a similar deficit in a second, but not in subsequent reversals of the position habit. In a second experiment, old rats were slower in learning to operate one of two levers in an operant chamber to obtain food reward on a CRF schedule, but by the session prior to reaching criterion for acquisition they showed response rates similar to the young animals. When the rats were required to operate the alternative lever to obtain reward, the young rats emitted 70% of their responses during the first reversal session on the newly-correct lever, but the old rats only 35%. Nevertheless, the groups were similar in the number of sessions required to reach a criterion of 95% of responses on the correct lever. In 3 subsequent reversals, old and young rats did not differ nor were there differences in the number of responses in 4 extinction sessions in the rats which had received reversal training. In experiment 3 with old and young rats which had received only acquisition training, old rats emitted fewer responses than young animals during extinction. From these experiments it was hypothesized that the apparent difficulty of old rats in learning a reversal task was due to the low probability of their emitting spontaneously a novel or previously unrewarded response, and not to a difficulty in forming a new association. This hypothesis was tested in two further experiments in which rats were required to learn a brightness discrimination in a T-maze. Old and young rats which had learned and reversed position habits in the T-maze in experiment 1, did not differ in either acquisition or reversal of the brightness discrimination, suggesting that old rats do not differ from young animals in reversal tasks when the motor response requirements for the task are already within the animals' behavioural repertoire. Consistent with this hypothesis, naive old rats were slower than young rats in acquiring a similar brightness discrimination but did not differ in the reversal task.

[Hysterectomy in young women]

It is reported upon 1345 hysterectomies on patients up to 35 years of age between 1966 and 1981. Proportionately these young women were 16% of all hysterectomies. 69.4% of the patients were between 31 and 35 years of age. 77.4% were operated vaginally. The preoperative morbidity was 46.3%, adipositas was the most frequent one of these with 15.6%. The most frequent indication to operate was uterus myomatosus (33%) followed up by premalignant and malignant change of the uterus (13.8%). The rate of intraoperative complications was 4.2% and the postoperative one was 21.2%. The mortality was 0.37%.