Biomedical subjects

Alan R Lang

Publications and source records attributed to Alan R Lang.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Relations between psychopathy facets and externalizing in a criminal offender sample.

The construct of psychopathy is viewed as comprising distinctive but correlated affective-interpersonal and social deviance facets. Here, we examined these facets of Hare's Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in terms of their associations with the externalizing dimension of adult psychopathology, defined as the common factor underlying symptoms of conduct disorder, adult antisocial behavior, alcohol use/abuse, and drug abuse, along with disinhibitory personality traits. Correlational analyses revealed a strong relationship between this externalizing dimension and the social deviance facet of psychopathy (r = .84), and a lesser relationship with the emotional-interpersonal component (r = .44). Structural models controlling for the moderate overlap between the PCL-R factors revealed that externalizing was substantially related to the unique variance in the social deviance features of psychopathy, but unrelated to the unique variance of the emotional and interpersonal features whether modeled together or as separate factors. These results indicate that the social deviance factor of the PCL-R reflects the externalizing dimension of psychopathology, whereas the emotional-interpersonal component taps something distinct aside from externalizing. In addition, based on our finding of an association between PCL-R social deviance and externalizing, we were able to predict new relations between this facet of psychopathy and criterion variables, including nicotine use and gambling, that have previously been linked to externalizing. Implications for future research on the causes and correlates of psychopathy are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Assessment of substance cue reactivity: advances in reliability, specificity, and validity.

An arousal-control and cross-over design was used to evaluate the reliability, specificity, and validity of the Normative Appetitive Picture System (NAPS), a cue exposure protocol with sets of visual alcohol, cigarette, and control cues. The authors also examined the utility of conceptualizing cue reactivity as a multidimensional phenomenon involving independent approach and avoidance dimensions. University student participants (n=369) rated multiple cue images in terms of arousing properties and capacity to elicit separate approach and avoidance inclinations. They also completed a battery of substance-related individual-difference measures. Results indicated that NAPS protocol reactivity profiles had good reliability and high specificity across cue types and individuals with different substance use histories. Avoidance reactivity independently predicted self-reports of substance-related behaviors, after controlling for approach reactivity.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Comparison of three models of alcohol craving in young adults: a cross-validation.

AIMS: The aim of study 1 was to develop a three-factor Approach and Avoidance of Alcohol Questionnaire (AAAQ), designed to assess mild and intense inclinations to drink, as well as inclinations to avoid drinking. The aims of study 2 were to cross-validate the AAAQ with an independent sample and to test the goodness-of-fit of three models of craving for alcohol: (a) the traditional unidimensional model; (b) a two-dimensional, approach-avoidance ambivalence model; and (c) an expanded two-dimensional neuroanatomical model that retains avoidance, while positing a threshold that partitions approach into two distinct levels and relates all three factors involved in craving to brain pathways associated with inhibitory processes, reward and obsessive-compulsive behaviour, respectively. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The survey was administered to 589 Australian university students (69% women) in study 1 and to 523 American university students (64% women) in study 2. MEASUREMENTS: Inclinations to drink and to not drink (AAAQ), drinking behaviour (quantity and frequency), drinking problems (Young Adult Alcohol Problems Screening Test; YAAPST) and readiness for change (Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale; SOCRATES). FINDINGS: The expanded two-dimensional neuroanatomical model provided the best fit to the data. The AAAQ explained a substantial proportion of the variance in drinking frequency (41-53%), drinking quantity (49-60%) and drinking problems (43%). AAAQ profiles differed as a function of drinking-related risk, and the three AAAQ scales differentially predicted readiness for change. CONCLUSIONS: Approach and avoidance inclinations toward alcohol are separable constructs, and their activation may not be invariably reciprocal. Craving can be defined as the relative activation of substance-related response inclinations along these two primary dimensions. There may be a threshold of intensity that separates mild from intense approach inclinations.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Emotional modulation of the post-auricular reflex.

A large literature now exists on emotional modulation of the startle blink reflex. The current study examined affective modulation of the post-auricular reflex, which can be measured in relation to the same noise probe used to evoke the startle reflex. We recorded the post-auricular reflex during viewing of pictures that varied systematically in emotional valence, content, and intensity. A significant linear valence modulation effect was found, with pleasant pictures potentiating and aversive pictures inhibiting the post-auricular reflex in comparison with neutral pictures. This modulatory effect did not vary as a function of picture content, but it was most robust for highly intense emotional pictures. Implications for the assessment of basic emotional action tendencies are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Depression and anxiety in parents of children with ADHD and varying levels of oppositional defiant behaviors: modeling relationships with family functioning.

This study investigated the relation between parental anxiety and family functioning. Parental anxiety and depression, child attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms were all included as predictors of 3 measures of family functioning to examine the independent contributions of each. Using a self-report battery completed by 45 mother-father pairs, 3 family functioning factors were derived: Parental Warmth and Positive Involvement, Intrusiveness and Negative Discipline, and Social Distress. Multilevel modeling simultaneously estimated the unique contributions of parental and child symptoms on family functioning. Results indicated that parental anxiety was negatively associated with Parental Warmth and Positive Involvement, Intrusiveness and Negative Discipline, and Social Distress; parental depression was only negatively associated with Social Distress. Child ODD symptoms had independent associations with all outcomes; no relations were found with ADHD. Sex moderated the effects of parental anxiety on Parental Warmth and Positive Involvement such that only for mothers did greater anxiety lead to less Parental Warmth and Positive Involvement.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Deleterious effects of alcohol intoxication: diminished cognitive control and its behavioral consequences.

The authors tested the hypothesis that impaired behavioral performance during intoxication results partly from alcohol's deleterious effects on cognitive control. The impact of alcohol on perseverative behavior was examined with an n-back working memory task that included manipulations of task complexity and prepotency of inclinations to respond or withhold responding. Thirty-two social drinkers (16 men) participated in either an alcohol (.075g/100ml) or a no-alcohol condition. Alcohol increased perseveration of prepotent, task-inappropriate response patterns only under cognitively demanding (heavy memory load) conditions. This effect was evident for both commission errors (response persistence despite contingencies altered to require restraint) and omission errors (failure to respond when contingencies were revised to encourage action). Findings suggested that alcohol-induced perseveration arises from impairments in cognitive control.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

A direct assessment of the role of state and trait negative emotion in aggressive behavior.

Affective priming of aggression was examined in groups low and high in trait negative emotionality (NEM) using a Buss aggression paradigm. Negative affect was induced by exposure to aversive air blasts during some intervals (threat) and not others (safe). Phasic negative affect was assessed using startle reflex potentiation, and tonic distress was indexed by startle sensitization. Participants delivered shocks faster during threat versus safe intervals, indicating that phasic distress primed aggression. Following initial exposure to air blasts, high NEM participants showed enhanced tonic distress and delivered persistently more intense shocks than low NEM participants. These findings indicate that sustained negative affect biases high stress-reactive individuals toward more intense acts of aggression, with phasic distress affecting the rapidity of aggressive response.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

An evaluation of relations among antisocial behavior, psychopathic traits, and alcohol problems in incarcerated men.

BACKGROUND: The association between antisocial behavior and alcohol problems is well established, but the role that psychopathic traits and other factors such as drinking patterns and motives and family history play in this relationship has not been subjected to much empirical scrutiny. METHODS: A large sample (n=329) of male Federal Correctional Institution inmates participated in structured interviews designed to permit diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and to assess facets of psychopathic personality as defined by the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. Prisoners also completed self-report questionnaires that addressed alcohol use, drinking problems, motives for drinking, and paternal alcoholism history. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that the relation between antisocial behavior and alcohol problems was moderated by scores on the emotional detachment component of psychopathy, and that self-descriptions of drinking for the purpose of coping with negative emotions mediated the positive relation between antisociality and self-reported alcohol problems. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight complexities in the link between antisociality and drinking problems and encourage consideration of distinct facets of psychopathy to enhance understanding of it. They further suggest possible mechanisms (e.g., paternal alcoholism history, coping motives) that may contribute to the development and maintenance of alcohol problems in criminal populations.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Alcohol use and other psychiatric disorders in the formerly homeless and never homeless: prevalence, age of onset, comorbidity, temporal sequencing, and service utilization.

Interview survey data were collected on a large (n = 4730) general population sample of adults subsequently classified as "never homeless" (NH) or "formerly homeless" (FH), with the latter group consisting of persons who had past experience of at least a one-month period with no regular place to live. The objective was to analyze differences, as a function of this classification, in the prevalence, age of onset, comorbidity, temporal sequencing, and service utilization pertinent to alcohol-use and other psychiatric disorders. Almost half of the FH group were found to have a one-year DSM diagnosis, nearly twice the rate seen in the NH group. Moreover, at 15.1%, the prevalence of alcohol-use disorder (AUD) comorbid with one or more other psychiatric disorders was five times that reported by NH participants. Subsequent analyses addressed differences betweenthe FH (n = 167) and NH (n = 1031) groups within the subset who met criteria for one or more psychiatric diagnoses. Focusing on drinking behavior, we found that among the FH, dual-diagnosis was associated with elevated rates of alcohol-use problem symptoms and with greater alcohol consumption than were evident in the FH with AUD alone. Also, among the FH with comorbid AUD, as well as among those with two or more psychiatric disorders unrelated to alcohol, there was an earlier onset of psychiatric disorders than in the NH. This earlier onset may have placed these individuals at greater risk for later homelessness and AUD, and may also be indicative of a more severe course of illness. Differences between the FH and the NH suggest the importance of devoting special attention to this unique sample.

Adult↗