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Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was initially introduced in the revised third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) as a diagnosis to help characterize chronic and excessive worry. Today, GAD is one of the most common anxiety disorders in the general population and practice. Although GAD is an increasingly popular area of research, it remains in a premature state. This is evident by a lack of empirically supported assessment measures, intervention strategies, and treatment options. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review current empirically based assessment and treatment interventions for GAD commonly used in child, adolescent, and adult populations.

The current study investigates the relationship between insecure attachment and pathological personality trait domains in a sample of psychiatric outpatients. Participants (N = 150) completed measures for attachment and personality. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses investigated the extent to which insecure attachment and personality pathology were associated. Insecure attachment positively correlated with overall personality pathology, with attachment anxiety having a stronger correlation than attachment avoidance. Distinct relationships emerged between attachment anxiety and negative affectivity and attachment avoidance and detachment. Insecure attachment and male sex predicted overall personality pathology, but only attachment anxiety predicted all five trait domains. Insecure attachment might be a risk factor for pathological personality traits. Assessing attachment in clinical contexts and offering attachment-based interventions could benefit interpersonal outcomes.

If you were to contemplate what it meant to be loved or what exactly makes you love another individual, the brunt of your conceptualization may very well stem back to Harry Harlow’s famous 1958 study, “The Nature of Love.” At a time that approached love as a child’s need to reduce primary drives via his/her mother, Harlow aimed to identify other variables that could explain the underlying affection of an infant-mother bond – such as contact comfort. To do this, Harlow conducted a series of investigations as part of a novel experimental design that used infant rhesus monkeys and a set of inanimate surrogate mothers. Not only did he propose a new social paradigm for family life, the role of mothers and fathers, and what it meant to be a loving parent in the process, Harlow distinguished himself as one of the most controversial experimental researchers in the history of psychology. The present paper explores the context of Harlow’s academic career and the zeitgeists that marked his time while also providing an in-depth analysis of his landmark 1958 study, how his work has been interpreted for over a half-century, and factors contributing to his overall legacy.