The possible association between depression and type I allergies (i.e. immunoglobulin E-mediated hay fever, asthma, eczema, hives) was examined in a nonclinical sample of 379 college students. Measures included self-reports of depression, tiredness, fearfulness, allergic disorders, and environmental allergens and irritants. Seventy-one percent of the subjects who had ever received a professional diagnosis of depression also indicated a history of allergy; those with greater self-rated current depression overall reported a significantly higher prevalence of asthma (p < 0.05). Type I allergic (43%) and nonallergic subjects did not differ in self-rated frequency of depression, fatigue, or anxiety. However, type I subjects reported significantly worse mood after the flu than did nonallergic subjects (p < 0.001). The data support the hypothesis that individuals prone to clinical depression have more allergies than nondepressives. Allergies may experience more postflu mood worsening but not current depression in comparison with nonallergics.

Previous studies suggest that social anxiety, allergies and distressed affect may be interrelated in some persons. For example, extremely introverted patients experience a poorer course and outcome of allergies as well as greater degrees of distressed affect such as depression and anxiety than do extraverts. Patients with affective disorders have a higher prevalence of atopic allergy than the general population; families of patients with panic disorder and major depression have the highest frequency of shy children. Preliminary investigation also indicate that behaviorally inhibited Caucasian children (initially shy and cautions in unfamiliar situations) and their families have more allergies, especially hay fever, than do uninhibited, socially outgoing children. The present survey evaluated the frequency of self-reported shyness. The most introverted subjects had significantly higher scores on self reports of depression, fearfulness, and fatigue, as well as a higher prevalence of hay fever. The data support the possibility of a distinct subgroup of shy individuals with concomitant vulnerability to specific allergies and affective disorders.

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether an extrinsic incentive would undermine intrinsic, altruistic motivation for helping. In Experiment 1 male undergraduates agreed to help an experimenter code data. Pavment for coding was not mentioned (no-payment), was mentioned prior to agreement to help (paynent-prior), or was mentioned after agreement to help (payment-after). As predicted from Nisbett and Valins' overly sufficient justification hypothesis, subjects in the payment-prior condition rated themselves as less altruistic relative to a comparison other who did not help (a confederate) than did subjects in the no-payment condition. Subjects in the payment-after condition and in the no-request control group responded similarly to those in the no-payment condition. Experiment 2 provided a conceptual replication in a field setting of the payment-prior and no-payment conditions of Experiment 1. Results again indicated that prior payment undermined intrinsic, altruistic motivation for helping.

Thirty undergraduates screened for high absorption ability were randomly assigned to three conditions. The first condition consisted of relaxation alone (progressive muscle relaxation and focused breathing). The second one combined this same relaxation training with mental imagery of the immune system. The third condition served as an alertness or mild arousal control; in a vigilance task subjects discriminated between tones presented in variable inter-trial intervals. Subjects reported trial levels of tension and daily stress. Before and after the protocols, which lasted about 1 hour, salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA), cortisol and catecholamines (saliva and plasma), mood states, and power motivation were assessed. Afterwards, subjects doing relaxation alone and with imagery had a higher level of SIgA than did the vigilance task control group, with a large effect size. When the influence of plasma cortisol was controlled, this immune effect size increased by half, mainly by doubling the SIgA level after relaxation alone. SIgA was significantly and negatively correlated with saliva norepinephrine. The saliva and plasma levels for the neuroendocrine variables appear to be independent. Yet some saliva measures (e.g., epinephrine) did correspond highly with other plasma measures (e.g., norepinephrine).

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