The Mental Health Social Worker

New research helps explain link between social rejection and aggressive behavior

WASHINGTON—People who feel socially rejected are more likely to see others’ actions as hostile and are more likely to behave in hurtful ways toward people they have never even met, according to a new study.

The findings may help explain why social exclusion is often linked to aggression which sometimes boils over dramatically, as in the case of school shootings, for example.

“Prior case studies show the majority of school shooters have experienced chronic peer rejection,” said the study’s lead author, C. Nathan DeWall, Ph.D., from the University of Kentucky. “And while not everyone who feels rejected reacts violently, we found they tend to act out aggressively in other ways. We wanted to help explain psychologically why this happens.” A full report of the study appears in the January issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

DeWall conducted four separate experiments with 190 participants, all college students. In one experiment, 30 participants completed a personality test and were given bogus feedback about the results. A third of the participants, the excluded group, were told their personalities would mean they would probably end up alone later in life. The rest of the participants, the control group, were either told they would have many lasting and meaningful relationships or were given no feedback at all.

All participants were then instructed to read a personal essay supposedly written by another participant, whom they did not know. The essay was about an event in which the author’s actions could be perceived as either assertive or hostile and the participants rated their impression of the author’s actions. They were also told that the author was up for a research assistant position and were asked whether they thought the author would be a good candidate, based on what they had read.

Participants who were told they were going to have a lonely life perceived the author’s actions as significantly more hostile and gave a much more negative evaluation than those in the control groups. The authors also note that the participants’ moods did not seem to differ among the different groups, which led them to conclude that the participants’ emotional response to their personality results did not play a role in how they performed in the experiments.

In another experiment, 32 students underwent the same bogus personality evaluation and rated the same essay from the previous experiment. Again, some were told they would lead a lonely life while others were assigned to the control groups. This time, participants were led to believe they were playing a reaction-time computer game with another person in the lab whom they could not see and had never met. During the game, the loser of each trial was forced to listen to a blast of white noise through headphones. The participants could set the noise’s intensity level and duration.

Those who were told they were going to have a lonely life blasted a higher level of the painful noise than those in the control groups. “Across all experiments, the participants who experienced some form of social rejection acted in similar ways,” said DeWall. “This suggests these people feel betrayed by others. In turn, they see otherwise neutral actions as hostile and behave badly towards others.”

Prior research has examined whether emotions play a role in this type of aggression, but this study’s researchers say their findings do not support this idea. “Excluded people see the world through blood-colored glasses and it is our hope that this research can lead to a better understanding of why rejection causes aggression and what we can do to prevent such unwanted and harmful behavior,” said DeWall.

Article: “It’s the Thought That Counts: The Role of Hostile Cognition in Shaping Aggressive Responses to Social Exclusion,” C. Nathan DeWall, PhD, University of Kentucky; Jean M. Twenge, PhD, San Diego State University; Seth A. Gitter, PhD, and Roy F. Baumeister, PhD, Florida State University; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 96, No. 1.

(Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/psp96145.pdf)

Contact C. Nathan Dewall by email; his phone number is 859-257-8105.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial, and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

A court has ruled that a woman from Malmo, Sweden, who is addicted to Coca-Cola, will be allowed to seek inpatient treatment for her problem, The Local newspaper of Sweden reported.

The woman, who has been deaf since childhood, has consumed large quantities of the beverage, as well as other sugary foods for many years, according to the report.

The woman’s name is being withheld for privacy reasons, but her unhealthy consumption habits have given her a wide range of health problems, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

The woman claims she turned to Coca-Cola because of her handicap, and recently began fighting with public authorities for access to treatment facilities in order to cure her addiction.

Local health authorities and an Administrative Court agreed that the woman has a problem, but said she does not need inpatient care to cure it.

However, an Administrative Court of Appeals ruled the woman’s lifestyle is a threat to her health, and is allowing her to check into a clinic for the deaf, where she will receive treatment for her addiction.

Click here to read more on this story from The Local.

Research suggests people who drink more than seven cups of instant coffee a day have an increased tendency to hallucinate.

High caffeine users may even think they sense non-existent people, according to researchers from the University of Durham.

They studied 200 students who were asked about their typical intake of caffeine products.

Those who had a high caffeine intake were three times more likely to have the heard voice of someone non-existent than “low” users who consumed less than one cup of instant coffee or its equivalent.

Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices and sensing the presence of dead people were among the experiences reported. Researchers also found that people drinking as few as three cups of brewed coffee each day may experience mild hallucinations, such as hearing voices that aren’t there.

Researchers believe the hallucinations stem from the caffeine, rather than the coffee. Besides coffee, caffeine can be obtained from sources such as tea, chocolate, “pep” pills and energy drinks.

Dr. Charles Fernyhough, the co-author of the study, pointed out that the research only showed an association between caffeine intake and hallucination proneness, not a causal link.

Click here to read more on this story from Sky News.

For Immediate Release
January 14, 2009

Contact:
Gail Woods Waller
202-336-8236 gwaller@naswdc.org

James Finley
202-336-8315 
jfinley@naswdc.org

Nation’s Social Workers Urge Congress to Act in Economic Recovery Plan

Washington –The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) urges Congress to include provisions in the economic recovery bill that encourage the development of a national interoperable health information infrastructure (HIT), provided it includes comprehensive statutory protections for the privacy and security of consumer health records.  NASW supports privacy and security for personal health records as an essential element of HIT legislation, now being prepared for passage.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is the largest professional social work organization in the world with nearly 150,000 members. NASW promotes, develops, and protects the provision of effective social work services to diverse client populations, most of whom expect confidentiality to be an important component of clinical services.   

NASW supports the development of a national interoperable HIT network because it offers the possibility of improved care for clients and patients.  However, such a network also entails a major risk to consumers, where personal records in a standardized system will be vulnerable to intentional or negligent disclosure on a massive scale.  The possible loss of privacy and related problems is of grave concern.

NASW asks Congress to take a truly patient-centered approach to health IT by addressing use of a national electronic health information system in the core concept of a health professional’s ethics. Informed consent must be obtained for the disclosure of every individual’s identifiable health information. Continue reading ‘NASW Seeks Privacy Protections for Personal Health Records’

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NEW YORK – Newer anti-psychotic drugs are no safer than older ones forthe risk of suddenly dying from a heart problem, says a study that finds they roughly double that hazard.The older drugs had already been linked to an increased chance of sudden cardiac death, in which the heart loses its normal rhythm and can’t pump blood normally. (more…)

Press-citizen.com

A University of Iowa survey of 1,071 nursing homes shows that only half of nursing home social workers have a degree in social work while 20 percent do not have a four-year degree.

Despite their desire to learn, two-thirds of nursing home social workers report they do not belong to a professional organization that helps to keep them up to date on nursing home social work issues, and only 38 percent are licensed in social work, according to the survey. For-profit nursing homes are 31 percent less likely to hire a degreed social worker, it said.

The numbers are concerning, given the important responsibilities nursing home social workers have, said Mercedes Bern-Klug, an assistant professor of social work in UI’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences who led the study.

The analysis of laws on nursing home social worker qualifications was published in the fall issue of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work. Results of the national survey will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of American Medical Directors Association.

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Studyshows proactive approach identifies issues that may otherwise be missed.

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Study says that the chance of developing anxiety, depression up to 68 percent higher

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Read more about this report on foxnews.com

Sheryl Ubelacker, Health Reporter, THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO – Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are typically seen as afflicting the elderly, but new data suggest an increasing number of baby boomers are also being struck by the brain-destroying diseases.
Of the half-million Canadians affected by various forms of dementia, about 71,000 – or almost 15 per cent – are under age 65, says a study by the Alzheimer Society of Canada. Of those, about 50,000 are 59 or younger. (more…)

A consortium of research programs funded by NIMH to conduct post-disaster mental health research mobilized this year following hurricane Ike to study the factors that influence resilience after disasters. (more…)

Autism is a complex brain disorder involving communication and social difficulties as well as repetitive behavior or limited interests. Autism is often grouped with similar disorders, such as Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder, all of which may be referred to collectively as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The underlying causes of ASD are unclear. Currently, there is no cure for the disorders and treatments are limited.

NIMH is committed to reducing the burden of autism and related disorders through research that can lead to methods of prevention, recovery, and cure. To accomplish this goal, the Institute recently funded nine research projects that focus on ASD: (more…)