The desirability bias in personality-related syllogistic reasoning.

INTRODUCTION: The belief-bias effect is a tendency to evaluate syllogistic statements based on believability rather than on formal logic validity. Following this rationale, the study examines desirability bias as the tendency to evaluate syllogistic conclusions based on their desirability when reasoning is conducted on personality-relevant categorical syllogisms. METHODS: For this purpose, 60 syllogisms were constructed based on the items of the Big Five questionnaire. Syllogisms were subsequently categorized as desirable (e.g., "I empathize with others") and undesirable (e.g., "I am passive") based on their conclusion. In each task, the second premise and the conclusion were formulated in the first person to increase a respondent's identification with the content. A total of 300 university students (Mage = 20.08, SD = 2.02) participated in the study. RESULTS: A 2 (syllogism validity: valid, invalid) × 2 (syllogism desirability: desirable, undesirable) repeated measures ANOVA was employed. The analysis showed a greater tendency to accept desirable conclusions on valid syllogisms (valid desirable rather than valid undesirable) and reject undesirable conclusions on invalid syllogisms (invalid undesirable rather than invalid desirable). CONCLUSION: These findings have implications for socially desirable responding in cognitive tasks, which may be further developed as a source of self-relevant content as well as for further extension of belief bias in the form of desirability bias.

Comorbidity and Suicidality in Patients Diagnosed with Panic Disorder/Agoraphobia and Major Depression.

BACKGROUND: Comorbidity of anxiety and depression (both current and lifetime) is associated with greater chronicity and an increased risk of suicidality. We wished to ascertain which symptom clusters had the strongest association with suicidality. Our aims were (1) to examine the presence of current comorbidity and suicidality in patients diagnosed with panic disorder/agoraphobia (PD/A) and major depression (MD), and their relationship with duration of psychiatric treatment and frequency of hospital admission; and (2) to examine which coexisting symptoms were most strongly predictive of suicidality in sub-groups and the overall group. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The study sample comprised 100 patients with PD/A and MD. The following assessment instruments were applied: the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation, the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and the Whiteley Index of Hypochondriasis. RESULTS: High rates of current comorbidity were seen in both groups. Patients with MD had significantly higher suicidality scores, but were also older, with a longer duration of psychiatric treatment and more frequent hospitalizations. In the overall group, psychiatric comorbidity was correlated with duration of psychiatric treatment and frequency of hospitalizations (with the exception of hypochondriasis which was not correlated with frequency of hospitalization). In both sub-groups and the overall group, suicidality was correlated with scores for all examined comorbidity (with the exception of hypochondriasis in the PD/A group): however, after multiple regression only obsessive-compulsive symptomatology predicted suicidality in all sub-groups and the overall group, as well as depression in the overall group. Depression supposed as dependent variable and obsessive-compulsive symptomatology as a mediator explained around 37% of the variance in suicidal ideation. CONCLUSION: Patients with PD/A or MD show high rates of current comorbidity. The effect of depression on suicidality was significant, but a non-trivial impact was also mediated by obsessive-compulsive symptomatology.

[Gender differences in victims of war torture: types of torture and psychological consequences].

BACKGROUND/AIM: Torture for political reasons is an extreme violence in interpersonal relations resulting in not only acute psychiatric disorders but also very often in very severe and far reaching negative consequences for the overall psychosocial functioning of a victim. The aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in types of torture and psychological consequences in subjects who experienced war torture. METHODS: A sample (410 men and 76 women) included clients of "Centre for rehabilitation of torture victims--IAN, Belgrade" who experienced torture in prisons and concentration camps during civil wars in ex-Yugoslavia 1991-1995 and 1999. Types of Torture Questionnaire with 81 items was used for collecting data about forms of torture. Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) was used for assessing type and intensity of psychological symptoms, and Impact of Event Scale (IES) was used to estimate posttraumatic complaints. RESULTS: A gender difference was found for 33 types of torture: 28 more frequent in men, and 5 in women. Factor analysis of torture types revealed three factors explaining 29% of variance: "common torture", "sadistic torture", and "sexual torture". Discriminant analysis revealed significant gender difference concerning the factors. "Common torture" and "sadistic torture" were more prominent in men, and "sexual torture" was more present in women. Higher scores on depression, anxiety, somatization, interpersonal sensitivity and obsessive-compulsive dimensions on SCL-90-R were found in women. General score and scores of subscales (intrusion and avoidance) on IES were significantly higher in women. CONCLUSION: Women exposed to war torture experienced less torture techniques and shorter inprisonment than men, but had more frequent and severe symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychological symptoms. Gender differences in posttraumatic symptomatology can not be explained exclusively by gender differences in types of torture found in this study.

Do personality traits predict post-traumatic stress?: a prospective study in civilians experiencing air attacks.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have suggested an association between personality traits and post-traumatic stress. These studies either focused exclusively on military veterans or assessed personality traits after the traumatic event. This study investigates to what extent personality traits as assessed before the traumatic experience predict post-traumatic stress in civilians experiencing air attacks at the end of the exposure to stressful events and 1 year later. METHOD: The revised version of the NEO Personality Inventory was administered to 70 students in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. In 1999, 1 or 2 years after the assessment, all students were exposed to air attacks for 11 weeks. At the end of the attacks and 1 year later post-traumatic stress was measured on the Impact of Event Scale. RESULTS: Pre-trauma personality predicted 13% of the variance of intrusion scores 1 year after the attacks. There was no significant correlation between personality traits and subsequent avoidance scores at any point of time. CONCLUSIONS: Personality traits that are assessed before a traumatic event can, to a limited extent, predict intrusive symptoms in a non-clinical sample of civilians. Pre-trauma assessments of personality might be less strongly associated with post-traumatic stress than personality traits obtained after the traumatic event.