Biomedical subjects

M Mikulincer

Publications and source records attributed to M Mikulincer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1998

Inter-judge agreement in evaluation of adult attachment style: the impact of acquaintanceship.

Inter-judge agreement in the evaluation of attachment style was examined across different levels of acquaintanceship. A self-rating scale on attachment style was administered to 242 students. Then, 72 participants--25 avoidant, 25 secure, and 22 ambivalent--were invited to the laboratory in unacquainted same-sex pairs, videotaped during a five-minute conversation, and asked to rate the attachment style of their conversion partner. In addition, each participant asked four friends to rate his/her attachment style and the videotaped interactions were shown to a separate sample of strangers who rated participants' attachment styles. The results showed high correlations between participants' self-reported attachment styles and the manner in which they were perceived by their friends and conversation partners. In contrast, correlations with ratings by strangers based on videotaped interactions were low. This pattern of findings was observed in both discrete and continuous measures of attachment. The findings suggest that attachment style can be considered an observable interpresonal trait.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1998

The contribution of adult attachment style to the adjustment to infertility.

This study examines the contribution of adult attachment style to the adjustment to infertility. Both husbands and wives of 80 infertile couples undergoing medical treatment completed the Attachment Style Scale, the Mental Health Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. One year later, data were collected on whether women became pregnant. Diagnosis of male infertility was significantly more distressing than diagnosis of female infertility. Significant differences were found among attachment groups: secure persons, either men or women, reported more well-being, less distress and more dyadic adjustment than avoidant and anxious-ambivalent persons. Partners of secure persons also reported significantly higher levels of well-being and dyadic adjustment and significantly lower levels of distress than partners of anxious-ambivalent persons. However, these effects of attachment style were significant mainly when male infertility was diagnosed. Husbands' secure attachment made a significant positive contribution to pregnancy likelihood and this effect was mediated by adjustment measures. Results are discussed in terms of attachment theory.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1997

Thresholds and tolerance of physical pain in suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents.

It was hypothesized that suicidal inpatient adolescents (n = 38) will exhibit a higher tolerance for physical pain than nonsuicidal inpatients (n = 29) and control participants (n = 34). Participants provided self-reports of hopelessness, dissociation, suicidal tendencies, depression, and anxiety and were administered a series of thermal pain stimuli by means of a Thermal Sensory Analyzer (TSA). The suicidal participants significantly differed from the 2 controls in pain thresholds and tolerance and in most self-report measures, even after controlling for motivation, medication, diagnosis, and length of hospitalization. Significant correlations were found between pain measures and self-report measures. The results were discussed in terms of the role that body experiences play in suicidal behavior.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Adult attachment style and information processing: individual differences in curiosity and cognitive closure.

Five studies examined the association between adult attachment style and information processing. Studies 1-2 focused on information search (curiosity-related beliefs and behaviors). Studies 3-5 focused on the integration of new information within cognitive structures; namely, the level of cognitive closure and its expressions in social judgements. Secure and anxious-ambivalent persons described themselves as more curious and held more positive attitudes toward curiosity than did avoidant persons. Time competition between information search and social interaction increased information search among avoidant persons, but decreased it among anxious-ambivalent persons. Finally, secure persons reported less preference for cognitive closure and were more likely to rely on new information in making social judgements than avoidant and anxious-ambivalent persons. The theoretical implications of the link between attachment and information processing are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1997

Fear of death and the judgment of social transgressions: a multidimensional test of terror management theory.

The purpose of the research was to integrate a multidimensional approach to fear of personal death with terror management theory. In Study 1, 190 students were divided according to the manipulation of death salience and the intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of fear of death and were asked to judge transgressions that have either intrapersonal or interpersonal consequences. Study 2 was a conceptual replication of Study 1, with the exception that the manipulation of mortality salience included conditions that made salient either intrapersonal or interpersonal aspects of death. Findings indicate that the effects of mortality salience depend on the aspect of death that is made salient, the aspect of death that individuals most fear, and the type of the judged transgression. More severe judgments of transgressions after death salience manipulation were found mainly when there was a fit between these 3 factors. Findings are discussed in light of terror management theory.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1996

Repressive coping style and the architecture of emotion-related memories: is their relationship that simple?

The present study re-examines the relationship between repressive coping style and the architecture of emotion-related memories by introducing methodological improvements in the elicitation of these memories. Participants were classified into four repressive coping groups according to the Taylor Manifest Anxiety scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale. They were then asked to recall personal experiences related to five core relational themes attempting to elicit positive and negative emotions and to rate how they felt in each situation. Results indicated that differences in the architecture of emotion-related memories among the four repressive coping groups depended on the type of the elicited memory. The discussion emphasizes the complexity of the relationship between repressive coping style and the architecture of emotion-related memories and suggests an expansion of the concept of repression.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Does hardiness contribute to mental health during a stressful real-life situation? The roles of appraisal and coping.

Israeli recruits (N = 276) completed questionnaires on hardiness, mental health, cognitive appraisal, and ways of coping at the beginning and end of a demanding, 4-month combat training period. Path analysis revealed that 2 components of hardiness--commitment and control measured at the beginning of the training--predicted mental health at the end of the training through the mediation of appraisal and coping variables. Commitment improved mental health by reducing the appraisal of threat and the use of emotion-focused strategies and by increasing secondary appraisal. Control improved mental health by reducing the appraisal of threat and by increasing secondary appraisal and the use of problem-solving and support-seeking strategies.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1995

Attachment styles and repressive defensiveness: the accessibility and architecture of affective memories.

One hundred and twenty Israeli students were classified into secure, avoidant, and anxious-ambivalent attachment groups. They completed scales that tap the construct of repressive defensiveness and recalled early personal experiences of anger, anxiety, sadness, and happiness. Secure people reported moderate defensiveness and low anxiety and had easy access to negative memories without being overwhelmed by the spreading of the dominant emotional tone to nondominant emotions. Anxious-ambivalent people were unable to repress negative affects, reported high anxiety, had easy access to negative memories, and could not inhibit emotional spreading. Avoidant people reported high levels of defensiveness and anxiety and showed low accessibility to negative memories. The discussion emphasizes the parallel between a person's interaction with the social world and the makeup of his or her inner world.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Effects of adult attachment style on the perception and search for social support.

Effects of adult attachment style on the perception of and search for social support were examined. One hundred and fifty undergraduate students completed self-report scales tapping their attachment styles, the extent to which they perceive the availability of emotional and instrumental support from significant figures (father, mother, same-sex friend, opposite-sex friend, romantic partner), and the extent to which they look for instrumental and emotional assistance in times of need. Findings showed that secure persons perceived higher levels of emotional and instrumental support from the assessed figures and reported seeking more emotional and instrumental support than avoidant and ambivalent persons did. Results are discussed in the context of an attachment perspective of social support.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

[Secondary traumatization among wives of soldiers with combat stress reaction].

While the long-term effects of war-related psychic trauma on veterans have been studied extensively, the impact of the results of the trauma on wives has received only minimal attention. The implications of combat-induced stress reaction and post-traumatic stress disorder were examined in a sample of 212 wives of Israeli veterans of the 1982 Lebanon War. Both types of reaction in husbands were found to be associated with increased psychiatric and somatic symptoms in their wives.

Combat Disorders↗

PubMed1993

Attachment styles, coping strategies, and posttraumatic psychological distress: the impact of the Gulf War in Israel.

This study examines the association between adult attachment style and the way people reacted to the Iraqi missile attack on Israel during the Gulf War. One hundred forty Israeli students were interviewed 2 weeks after the war and classified according to their attachment style (secure, avoidant, or ambivalent) and residence area (dangerous vs. less dangerous). Ambivalent people reported more distress than secure people. Avoidant persons reported higher levels of somatization, hostility, and trauma-related avoidance than secure persons. These results characterized Ss living in dangerous areas. In addition, secure people used relatively more support-seeking strategies in coping with the trauma, ambivalent people used more emotion-focused strategies, and avoidant people used more distancing strategies. Findings are discussed in terms of attachment working models.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1992

Selected problems of analysis and interpretation of the effects of sleep deprivation on temperature and performance rhythms.

One of the major methodological-analytic problems encountered by researchers in sleep deprivation involves the examination and analysis of the relationship between sleep loss and rhythmic influences on performance. The comparison of performance rhythms with physiological rhythms, e.g., body temperature, generated under the same conditions of sleep deprivation, has become an important means of testing for an endogenous source of the rhythmicity in the data and for clarifying the nature of the proposed oscillator system. Should the data sets be correlated before or after their separation into monotonic and rhythmic parts? Correlating the raw data without separating them into their components can yield negative results, while, in reality, some of the major underlying rhythms may be highly related. The example used in this chapter showed strong cross correlations of the circadian components of temperature and two performance tasks. Sleep deprivation is thus seen to interact with performance rhythms. This interaction is only revealed after the data are analyzed and broken into their component parts. This procedure leads to the conclusion that certain performance rhythms and temperature may share the same generating oscillators.

Body Temperature↗

PubMed1992

From front line to home front: a study of secondary traumatization.

While the long-term effects of combat trauma on veterans have been studied extensively, its impact on veterans' wives has yet to be investigated. This study examined the implications of combat-induced psychopathology--wartime combat stress reaction (CSR) and current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)--in a sample of 205 wives of Israeli combat veterans of the 1982 Lebanon war. Results show that both CSR and PTSD were associated with increased psychiatric symptoms in the wives. In addition, current PTSD was particularly found to contribute to impaired social relations among veterans' wives in a broad range of contexts, from inner feelings of loneliness, through impaired marital and family relations, and extending to the wider social network. Implications of these findings for treatment and further research are discussed.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1992

Aftermaths of combat stress reactions: a three-year study.

The current study provides an overview of a study assessing the psychological and somatic health adjustment of Lebanon War veterans one, two and three years after the war, comparing combat stress reactions (CSR) casualties with controls. Findings indicated that combat-related psychopathology was overwhelmingly more prevalent among CSR casualties than among their matched controls one, two and three years after war. In addition, the passage of time had no effect on the relative psychiatric symptomatology, social functioning, self-efficacy, and somatic complaints in either of the two study groups. This stable mental health status of the CSR casualty over the three years of the study contrasts with the observed decline in trauma-related distress in the third year. Results are discussed in terms of the emotional sequelae of war trauma.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1991

[Evaluating parachute-drop stress by measuring blood lipids].

An attempt to evaluate parachute-drop related stress by determining the blood lipid profile (cholesterol, LDL, HDL, apo-A, apo-B, and triglycerides) is reported. Measurements were made on starting the parachute course, just before the first jump, and just after the third jump. On these 3 occasions 38 combat troops answered psychological questionnaires and 30 of them gave blood samples. While there were significant fluctuations in level of all blood lipids and their apoproteins, they could not be correlated selectively with presumed levels of stress. The well-known difficulties in field studies in controlling crucial factors such as the exact timing of the measurements and food intake (specific diet or fasting) make questionable the use of biochemical markers in measuring stress under the conditions of our study. It is possible that the high rate of refusal to give blood samples biased the findings.

Apolipoproteins A↗

PubMed1991

Delayed and immediate onset posttraumatic stress disorder. I. Differential clinical characteristics.

Delayed PTSD has been the focus of numerous clinical reports. Systematic investigations of this phenomenon are practically nonexistent, however. Utilizing a unique psychiatric register developed by the Israel Defense Forces in the 1982 Lebanon War, this study compared the clinical picture of three groups of veterans: 1. PTSD casualties who sought help at least six months after their exposure to combat; 2. PTSD casualties who sought help during the Lebanon War; and 3. soldiers who emerged from the 1982 war without any diagnosable psychiatric disorder (controls). Significant differences were found in the clinical picture of the study groups. Both treated groups, the delayed and the immediate onset PTSD casualties, showed significantly more trauma-related intrusion and avoidance responses, more severe psychiatric symptomatology, more problems in social functioning, and lower perceived self efficacy in combat than non-PTSD controls. However, the psychological and social adjustment of the PTSD veterans whose treatment was delayed was found to be significantly better than that of the immediate onset PTSD veterans. Implications of these findings and recommendations for further research into the significance of time of onset are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Delayed and immediate onset posttraumatic stress disorder. II. The role of battle experiences and personal resources.

The current study examined the role battle experiences and personal resources play in the development of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For this purpose, battle experiences (battle stress, military unit environment) and personal resources (coping styles, causal attribution) were assessed two years after the 1982 Lebanon War in three groups of male Israeli frontline soldiers: 1. soldiers who sought treatment 6 months or more after the war (delayed PTSD); 2. soldiers who sought treatment during the war (immediate PTSD); and 3. control soldiers. Findings indicated that both immediate and delayed PTSD casualties reported similar and higher levels of battle stress than control subjects. In addition, delayed PTSD casualties evinced less personal resources than control subjects, and immediate PTSD casualties evinced still less personal resources than delayed PTSD casualties. The theoretical implications of the findings were discussed.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1991

Monotonic and rhythmic influences: a challenge for sleep deprivation research.

There are both monotonic and rhythmic factors in the patterns of change seen in physiological, psychological, and performance variables during sleep deprivation. These monotonic and rhythmic factors can be orthogonal, or they may interact with each other, with various task variables, or both. The importance of separating the rhythmic from the monotonic factors and of elucidating their interactions is discussed. Experimental methods and types of analysis appropriate to evaluating these factors are examined, with special emphasis on the complex demodulation time series analysis applied to group or individual subject data. The discussion is accompanied by data illustrations. It is suggested that sleep deprivation research should be designed so as to generate physiological and behavioral data that include information on both monotonic and rhythmic factors, the nature and extent of their interaction, and how they interrelate with systematically manipulated independent variables.

Arousal↗