Mental and neurological disorders have an intertwined relationship with HIV, yet are often overlooked when AIDS interventions are planned and implemented. Cognitive disorders, substance abuse, and disorders of personality can influence behavior in ways that lead to greater risk of HIV infection. Conversely, HIV/AIDS itself can lead to psychological conditions due to circumstances surrounding the disease, and psychiatric conditions resulting from HIV-related neurological changes. Such disorders can adversely influence the progression of the disease, lead to noncompliance with prescribed medical treatment, and increase the likelihood that people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) will act in high-risk ways. Since the World Bank is the largest long-term investor in the prevention and mitigation of HIV/AIDS in developing countries, it has an important role to play in mental health interventions related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The main purpose of this document is to increase knowledge of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and mental health and highlight the need for psychosocial support for PLWHA. The document begins with a description of the global AIDS pandemic, addresses psychosocial risks for infection, then discusses the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS. This is followed by a description of the neuro-psychiatric and psychological disorders associated with HIV/AIDS and the social and economic implications of failing to address these disorders. Next, current World Bank AIDS initiatives are considered, and opportunities and challenges for including mental health and psychosocial interventions in AIDS programming are explored. The document concludes with recommendations for future initiatives aimed at meeting the mental health and psychosocial needs of PLWHA.

Positive trait information is typically better recalled than negative trait information when encoded in reference to the self, but not when encoded in reference to someone else or when processed for general meaning. This study examined whether this influence of affective meaning is modulated by retrieval conditions. Participants encoded positive and negative trait adjectives in reference to themselves or to a celebrity. They were then presented with either a free-recall task (Experiment 1) or a recognition memory task (Experiment 2). Positive adjectives were better recalled than negative adjectives, but only when they were encoded in reference to the self. In contrast, encoding condition and valence did not interact in the recognition memory task. Taken together, these findings suggest that the difference in memory between positive and negative self-referent information is due, at least in part, to a control exerted on memory retrieval.

The authors investigated age-related differences in phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories for positive, negative, and neutral events. Younger and older participants were asked to recall two specific memories of each type and then to rate their memories on several sensorial (e.g., visual, taste) and contextual (e.g., location, time) characteristics. The authors found that emotional (both positive and negative) memories contained more sensorial and contextual details than neutral memories in both age groups, whereas positive and negative memories did not differ on most dimensions. In addition, negative memories were associated with a higher intensity of positive feelings and a reduced complexity of storyline in older as compared to younger adults. These results suggest that the effect of emotion on phenomenal characteristics of autobiographical memories is similar in younger and older adults, but that older adults tend to reappraise negative events in a more positive light than younger adults.

This study investigated age-related differences in recognition memory for emotional and neutral pictures. Younger and older participants were asked to rate pictures according to their emotional valence, arousal, and visual complexity. Two weeks later they had to recognise these pictures and the states of awareness associated with memory were assessed with the "remember/know/guess" paradigm. We found that, although the influence of emotion on recognition accuracy (as assessed by d') was similar in both age groups, the tendency for positive and negative pictures to create a rich recollective experience was weaker in older adults. In addition., "remember" responses were more often based on a recollection of emotional reactions in older than in younger participants. We suggest that the elderly tend to focus on their feelings when confronted with emotional pictures, which could have impaired their memory for the contextual information associated with these stimuli.

We investigated memory qualities for positive, negative, and neutral autobiographical events. Participants recalled two personal experiences of each type and then rated their memories on several characteristics (e.g. sensorial and contextual details). They also reported whether they ‘see’ the events in their memories from their own perspective (‘field’ memories) or whether they ‘see’ the self engaged in the event as an observer would (‘observer’ memories). Positive memories contained more sensorial (visual, smell, taste) and contextual (location, time) details than both negative and neutral events, whereas negative and neutral memories did not differ on most dimensions. Positive and negative events were more often recollected with a field perspective than neutral events. Finally, participants were classified in four groups according to the repressive coping style framework. Emotional memories of repressors were not less detailed than those of the other groups. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

We investigated the influence of happy and angry expressions on memory for new faces. Participants were presented with happy and angry faces in an intentional or incidental learning condition and were later asked to recognise the same faces displaying a neutral expression. They also had to remember what the initial expressions of the faces had been. Remember/know/guess judgements were made both for identity and expression memory. Results showed that faces were better recognised when presented with a happy rather than an angry expression, but only when learning was intentional. This was mainly due to an increase of the "remember" responses for happy faces when encoding was intentional rather than incidental. In contrast, memory for emotional expressions was not different for happy and angry faces whatever the encoding conditions. We interpret these findings according to the social meaning of emotional expressions for the self.

We examined the influence of social anxiety on memory for both identity and emotional expressions of unfamiliar faces. Participants high and low in social anxiety were presented with happy and angry faces and were later asked to recognise the same faces displaying a neutral expression. They also had to remember what the initial expressions of the faces had been. Remember/know/guess judgements were asked both for identity and expression memory. For participants low in social anxiety, both identity and expression memory were more often associated with "remember" responses when the faces were previously seen with a happy rather than an angry expression. In contrast, the initial expression of the faces did not affect either identity or expression memory for participants high in social anxiety. We interpreted these findings by arguing that most people tend to preferentially elaborate positive rather than negative social stimuli that are important to the self and that this tendency may be reduced in high socially anxious individuals because of the negative meaning they tend to ascribe to positive social information.

Recent work indicates that trying not to think in stereotypical terms increases the accessibility of stereotypical information, which paradoxically results in more stereotypical judgments. The present study translated the colour-blindness ideology in general and stereotype suppression research in particular into an hypothesis testing setting. Participants who were asked to suppress their stereotypes when selecting a set of questions were indeed less guided by ambient stereotypes than control participants, thereby showing a reduction of the classical confirmation orientation in question preferences. Still, compared to control participants, suppressors also later reported more polarized impressions such that consistent targets were seen as more stereotypical and inconsistent ones as more counter-stereotypical. Moreover group evaluations were more stereotypical for suppressors than for controls indicating that suppression had led to stronger activation of the stereotypical representation. Results are discussed in light of the prevailing belief regarding the benefits of political correctness and colour-blindness. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Une revue de la litterature permet de mettre en evidence des liens tres etroits entre difficulte de reconnaissance des expressions faciales, manque d'empathie et trouble du comportement. L'objectif principal de cette etude etait d'evaluer si, comme le suggere la litterature, les enfants avec un trouble oppositionnel avec provocation manifestait un deficit d'empathie pouvant les mener a faire preuve d'agressivite. Quarante enfants de 8 a 12 ans (15 enfants sains et 15 enfants avec le trouble) ont ete soumis au test « Empathy Response Task » de Ricard et Kamberk-Kilicci (1995). Les resultats montrent que, de maniere conforme a nos attentes, les enfants oppositionnels sont significativement moins empathiques que les enfants sains. La colere est souvent attribuee aux protagonistes, meme lorsqu'elle est absente. Ceci peut s'interpreter a la lueur du biais d'attribution hostile selon lequel les enfants avec un trouble du comportement ont tendance a attribuer des intentions hostiles aux autres (Milich et Dodge, 1984). Le travail sur l'empathie doit etre integre dans la therapie des enfants presentant un trouble du comportement.