Age and physiological, perceptual, and affective responses during walking at a self-selected pace

The aim of this study was to examine physiological, perceptual, and affective responses during self-paced walking for three age groups. 66 adult women were assigned into three groups by age: 20-25 yr. (n=22), 30-35 yr. (n=22), and 40-45 yr. (n=22). Each participant completed a maximal exercise test and a 20-min. bout of walking at a self-selected pace. The preferred walking speed was similar for all age groups, whereas physiological responses relative to maximal and ventilatory threshold values were greater in the 40-45 yr. group than the other two groups. Nevertheless, perceptual and affective responses were similar for all age groups. These findings suggest that physiological responses, but not perceptual and affective responses, of sedentary women are associated with age during walking at a self-selected pace.     

Linguistic Basicness and Colour Information Processing

Berlin and Kay's notion of basicness was defined by a combination of linguistic and psychological criteria, but they suggested that the psychological criteria might be extended. The experiments reported here were designed to explore a possible extension by searching for perceptual effects of basicness. Russian speakers who have two basic terms for the blue region of colour space were compared with English speakers who have only one basic term for the same region on two perceptual tasks. The first two experiments sought for greater Stroop interference for the Russians than for the English for the critical “blue” stimuli, and the third experiment sought greater perceptual differentiation for the Russians in the blue region. All experiments clearly replicated standard findings, but all singularly failed to find the predicted differences between the two groups. It is argued that whilst the results are consistent with there being no psychological effect of basicness, it is necessary to search for possible effects in other domains, such as recognition memory, before accepting this conclusion.     

Cold and lonely: does social exclusion literally feel cold?

Metaphors such as icy stare depict social exclusion using cold-related concepts; they are not to be taken literally and certainly do not imply reduced temperature. Two experiments, however, revealed that social exclusion literally feels cold. Experiment 1 found that participants who recalled a social exclusion experience gave lower estimates of room temperature than did participants who recalled an inclusion experience. In Experiment 2, social exclusion was directly induced through an on-line virtual interaction, and participants who were excluded reported greater desire for warm food and drink than did participants who were included. These findings are consistent with the embodied view of cognition and support the notion that social perception involves physical and perceptual content. The psychological experience of coldness not only aids understanding of social interaction, but also is an integral part of the experience of social exclusion.     

A sex difference in location-based inhibition-of-return

The hunter–gatherer theory of spatial sex differences provides an organizing framework for why men (i.e., hunters) are generally superior on spatial tasks related to orienting in space (e.g., map reading, throwing accuracy) while women (i.e., gatherers) are superior on spatial tasks related to objects and their locations. Location-based inhibition-of-return (IOR) has been thought to facilitate foraging by orienting attention towards novel locations compared to recently inspected ones. From the evolutionary perspective of the hunter–gatherer theory, if IOR facilitates successful foraging then women might be expected to exhibit greater location-based IOR than men. Two experiments tested this hypothesis by measuring location-based IOR using 1 cpd and 12 cpd Gabor targets appearing either left/right (Exp. 1) or above/below (Exp. 2) fixation. Both experiments found evidence of greater IOR for women than men and greater IOR to the higher compared to the lower spatial frequency target. The results are discussed in terms of the hunter–gatherer theory, location- and object-based attention, and recent evidence of magnocellular and parvocellular influences on location-based IOR (Brown & Guenther, 2012).     

The Relationship Between Enjoyment and Affective Responses to Exercise

Exercise-related affective changes are well documented across a variety of settings and populations. In addition to the stimulus properties of exercise itself, social environmental factors are thought to influence affective responses. One factor that may be associated with psychological responses to exercise is enjoyment. Individuals who enjoy exercise may exhibit more positive affective responses compared to those who enjoy exercise less. The purpose of this study was to examine whether exercise enjoyment was related to affective changes associated with an acute bout of exercise in a naturalistic setting. Study 1 used a categorical approach to assess affect and sampled college-aged female group fitness participants. Study 2 was based on a dimensional affect conceptualization and sampled corporate fitness participants. Across both studies, results revealed a significant decrease in negative affect and increase in positive affect following exercise. Enjoyment was positively related to increases in positive affect but unrelated to changes in negative affect.     

Momentary affective response to bouts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity predicts changes in physical activity and sedentary behavior during behavioral weight loss

BackgroundAffective responses are posited to be key predictors of the uptake and maintenance of health behaviors. However, few studies have examined how individuals’ affective response to physical activity, as well as the degree to which their affect response changes, may predict changes in physical activity and sedentary time during behavioral weight loss treatment.PurposeThe current study examined how baseline momentary affective response (i.e., stress and anxiety) to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and the degree of pre--post intervention change in this response predicted change in daily sedentary, light, and MVPA time during a three-month internet-based weight loss program.MethodsWomen with overweight/obesity (final N = 37) completed 14-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocols with objective measurement of physical activity (i.e., bout-related MVPA time) before and after the intervention.ResultsWomen who had more reinforcing responses to MVPA (i.e., greater reductions in anxiety and stress response following MVPA bouts) at baseline had greater increases in overall MVPA at the end of the intervention. Those who had greater anxiety reductions after MVPA bouts at baseline also evidenced less sedentary time at the end of the intervention. Changes in affective responses across the intervention were not related to changes in physical activity levels.ConclusionsFindings suggest initial levels of affective reinforcement from MVPA bouts predict future change in MVPA and sedentary time during behavioral weight loss. Future work is needed to examine the utility of more precisely targeting affective responses to physical activity to optimize intervention approaches.     

Depression and social anxiety mediate the relationship between parenting styles and risk of eating disorders: A study among Arab adolescents

In multicultural Israel, the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs), a common chronic disorder among Western adolescents (especially females), has risen for Arab adolescents, who belong to an Eastern collectivist society. The study examines family and psychological factors that may increase the risk of EDs among Muslim Arab adolescents. We expected social anxiety and depressive symptoms to mediate the association between parenting styles and risk of EDs, with possible gender differences in the mediation model. Participants were 613 Muslim adolescents (394 females and 219 males); mean age = 15.4 ± 1.6; range = 12–19. The analyses revealed that the severity of depressive symptoms and especially social anxiety mediate the relationship between authoritarian parenting style and risk of EDs. Females reported higher levels of risk of EDs, social anxiety, depression and authoritative parenting style than males; no differences appeared for authoritarian or permissive parenting styles. The research sheds new light on risk factors for EDs and the likelihood of authoritarian parenting style and social anxiety being involved in the aetiology of EDs among Arab adolescents. The outcomes meaningfully add to understanding of specific psychological processes that may be associated with the risk of EDs in this population.     

Interactive effects of life experience and situational cues on aggression: The weapons priming effect in hunters and nonhunters

Recent research (Anderson, Benjamin, & Bartholow, 1998) indicates that the presence of guns increases the accessibility of aggressive thoughts via automatic priming. Our research examined whether this “weapons priming effect” differs depending on the structure of an individual's knowledge about guns, and if so, whether that difference results in corresponding differences in aggressive behavior. Experiment 1 revealed that individuals with prior gun experience (hunters) have more detailed and specific information about guns than do individuals with no direct gun experience (nonhunters), and that hunting experience interacts with gun type (hunting versus assault) in predicting affective and cognitive reactions to guns. Experiment 2 revealed that pictures of hunting guns were more likely to prime aggressive thoughts among nonhunters, whereas pictures of assault guns were more likely to prime aggressive thoughts among hunters. Experiment 3 showed differences in aggressive behavior following gun primes that correspond to differences in affective and cognitive responses to gun cues. Our findings are discussed in light of the General Aggression Model.     

Early abuse, psychiatric diagnoses and irritable bowel syndrome

In a population of 71 (57 female, 14 male) IBS patients seeking psychological treatment, we found expected levels of childhood sexual and physical abuse (57.7%) and expected levels of current Axis I psychiatric disorders (54.9%). Moreover, we found those who had been victims of early abuse had higher current Beck Depression Inventory scores. However, contrary to expectations, there were no significant associations between early abuse and current psychiatric disorder in this population, suggesting that those individuals with psychological distress are not exactly the same group with a history of abuse.     

The Effects of Social Influence on Perceptual and Affective Reactions to Scenes of Sexual Violence1

In 2 experiments, we examined the effect of social influence (discussion and modeling) on men's and women's perceptual and affective reactions to a sexually violent film scene depicting gang rape. In Experiment 1, women who discussed the film rated the perpetrators as more responsible compared to participants in all other conditions. Men who did not discuss the film reported higher levels of positive affect compared to participants in all other conditions. In Experiment 2, men and women were affected by the social influence manipulation similarly. As predicted, participants differed in their attributions of responsibility depending on a confederate's response to the film scene. Participants who heard a confederate say that the men in the film were responsible for the rape rated these men as relatively more responsible than did participants in a neutral confederate condition or in a condition in which the confederate said that the woman in the film was responsible for the rape.     

A transdisciplinary model integrating genetic, physiological, and psychological correlates of voluntary exercise.

OBJECTIVE: Physical inactivity contributes to as many as 250,000 premature deaths per year (R. R. Pate et al., 1995). The authors' objective was to test a transdisciplinary model of the ways in which genetic variants, physiological factors, and psychological factors are thought to influence exercise with 64 healthy, regular exercisers. DESIGN: In a within-subjects design, psychological and physiological responses to exercise were compared with responses to a sedentary activity. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The authors measured affective state, perceived exertion, heart rate, and temperature change in response to moderate exercise versus sedentary activity. They also quantified genotypes on a single nucleotide polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The data show a relation between increases in positive affective states and acute exercise behavior, as opposed to a sedentary control. The BDNF gene moderated the effect of exercise on mood, heart rate, and perceived exertion. Physiological factors were, in turn, related to mood response, and mood response was a significant correlate of motivation to exercise in the future and of current exercise behavior. The model has potential as a framework for the basic study of the genetic, physiological, and psychological processes involved with voluntary exercise and as a tool for the applied examination of tailored exercise interventions and their efficacy for different subsets of individuals.     

Effects of personality, perceptual difficulty and pacing of a task on productivity, job satisfaction, and physiological stress

The relative psychological, physiological, and performance advantages and disadvantages of utilizing machine-paced and self-paced work were examined by having 12 subjects perform a marking-stapling task at 2 levels of perceptual difficulty and under 2 pacing conditions for 30 min. each. (a) 3 subjects who on the personality tests were identified as introverted, reserved, and trusting preferred to work in the machine-paced condition, while 9 subjects who were identified as extroverted, outgoing and suspicious preferred the self-paced condition, (b) the performance errors in machine-paced operation were 372% higher than for self-paced work, and (c) there were no differences between machine-paced and self-paced work on physiological variables, except for sinus arrhythmia for the task with high perceptual load, and quantity of production.     

Schizotypal and hypomanic traits,creativity, and psychological health

There are both theoretical and empirical linkages between the functioning of creative and eminent individuals and a variety of forms of psychopa‐thology, in particular schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder. Thought disorder is conceptually and empirically related to creative Divergent Thinking; schizophrenics and their relatives sometimes show evidence of highly creative adaptations; and psychiatric symptoms, notably manic and impulsive behaviors, are observed in creative and eminent individuals. Recent work has studied both psychopathological and creative functioning as continua rather than as categories or classes. The present study is unique in its use of a population that is both nonclinical and noneminent and examines the relationship between pencil and paper measures of psychotic‐like experiences, creativity, and psychological health. Results indicate that unusual perceptual experiences and beliefs, Hypomanic traits, and Impulsive Nonconformity are associated with creative attitudes and activities. Deficits in experiencing pleasure are negatively correlated with creativity scores. These findings point to the importance of affective, motivational, and behavioral factors in creative functioning especially hypomania and impulsiv‐ity. Subclinical “positive”; symptoms are associated with higher levels of measured creativity; deficit symptoms are associated with lower levels. This research suggests that creativity tests should be included in the assessment of psychological health and personal resourcefulness.     

Screen-based and non-screen-based sedentary behaviors are differentially associated with affective states in older adults

Excessive sedentary behavior (SB) contributes to poor affective and physical feeling states, which is particularly concerning for older adults who are the most sedentary sector of the population. Specific types of SB have been shown to differentially impact health in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, with screen-based SB more negatively impacting aspects of mental health. This study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), a real-time, intensive longitudinal data capture methodology, to examine the differential impact of screen-based behaviors on momentary affective responses during SB in naturalistic settings. A diverse sample of older adults (pooled across 2 studies) completed an EMA protocol for 8–10 days with six randomly delivered, smartphone assessments per day. At each EMA prompt, participants reported their current activity, whether they were sitting while doing that activity, and affective states. Multilevel models assessed whether screen-based (vs. non-screen-based) behavior moderated affective response during SB.At the within-person level, older adults experienced less positive affect during SB when engaged in a screen-based behavior compared to a non-screen-based SB (B = −0.10, p < 0.01). At the between-person level, positive associations between SB and negative affect (B = 0.79, p = 0.03) were stronger if participants reported engaging in screen-based behaviors for a greater proportion of prompts. Among older adults, screen-based SB may lead to poorer affective states compared to non-screen-based SB. Interventions aiming to reduce SB in this population should consider targeting reductions in screen-based SB as means to improve affective states.     

Two Cultures Revisited: New Widening Gaps

Aristotle continues to be a highly cited author in cultural sciences (human and social sciences) and humanities. In the last two decades, his work attracted up to a hundred times more attention than the work of Konrad Lorenz or Edward O. Wilson, who have attempted to synthesize new knowledge on behavior and society and proposed alternatives to traditional, intuitively appealing, explanations. Aristotle's interpretations of the world, which appear to be intuitive to the human mind, were abandoned in natural sciences upon introduction of the experimental method. Human intuition may have been appropriate in conditions under which it was originally selected: for life of small non-anonymous groups of hunters and gatherers in the savannah. Intuition confines human understanding to a simple reality circumscribed by a boundary that can be called Aristotle's barrier. The barrier may only be crossed by experimentation, which is largely missing in cultural sciences. Snow's concept of two cultures may be revisited to characterize a splitting of natural sciences versus cultural sciences. It may also be applied to a widening gulf between science and technoscience. Diverging of the two cultures may have far-reaching consequences for prospects of humankind's survival.     

The effects of exposure to political and domestic violence on preschool children and their mothers

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of exposure to political violence on preschool children and their mothers. We explored whether these dyads are different from dyads with no known history of exposure to violence and from mother–child dyads with known exposure to domestic violence. Specifically, we explored differences in mothers' psychological status (depression and anxiety), dyadic emotional availability (EA), children's social information processing, and children's social behaviour, in a sample of 216 dyads divided into three groups (exposure to political violence, no exposure to violence, and exposure to domestic violence). We found evidence to support our hypotheses that children exposed to domestic violence exhibit the highest levels of social maladjustment with smaller but still significant differences between children exposed to political violence and children in the comparison group. As expected, the lowest EA scores were found in the exposure to domestic violence group, followed by dyads in the exposure to political violence group. Dyads belonging to the comparison group (no exposure) exhibited the highest levels of EA. These findings contribute to our understanding of the meaning of exposure to political violence, as well as sharpen the difference between exposure to political and domestic violence.     

The metabolic mind: A role for leptin and ghrelin in affect and social cognition

Leptin and ghrelin are metabolic hormones central to energy regulation in the body. Theories of allostasis suggest that metabolism could matter for more than just food intake and weight regulation but also ultimately for psychological processes, such as affect and social cognition. Allostasis is the process by which the brain monitors ongoing physiological states and, in turn, regulates physiology based on expectations about how a given situation will impact the self. Motivated by this allostatic perspective, we argue that leptin and ghrelin may be influenced by and even contribute to psychological processes such as affect and social cognition. Specifically, we review literature suggesting that leptin and ghrelin may be sensitive to social affective signals and related contexts (e.g., social status, and social threat vs. support), given that these signals and contexts may represent access to tangible physical and psychological resources that support allostasis and metabolic needs. We then review literature showing that leptin, ghrelin, and associated metabolic states may feed into the construction of social affective states and behaviors (e.g., emotion and risk taking), in order to motivate behaviors in line with allostatic needs. We close by offering guidelines for researchers interested in contributing to this emerging field and highlight opportunities for future research. We believe that leptin and ghrelin offer exciting new directions for social and affective scientists interested in linking the mind, brain, and body.     

Impact of artificial fissioning and social networks on levels of aggression and affiliation in primates

Levels of aggression may be affected by stability of social relationships or by population density. A number of studies of nonhuman primates have indicated that spatial density influences agonistic activity levels less than does social density. Artificial fissioning of a captive troop of rhesus macaques was undertaken and the resultant differences in patterns of aggression and affiliation were examined. If population density has a major effect on levels of aggression, then fissioning will result in a decrease in aggression; if social stability has a major effect on levels of aggression, then fissioning is likely to be accompanied by an increase in aggression. An increase in rates of both aggressive and affiliative behavior resulted from artificial troop fissioning. These findings concur with other studies that have concluded that social stability is a more important determinant of primate aggression than is population density. Nonhuman primates use affiliative mechanisms to adjust their behavior when population density increases such that potentially adverse consequences of crowding are avoided.     

The regulatory benefits of high levels of affect perception accuracy: A process analysis of reactions to stressors in daily life

Individuals attuned to affective signals from the environment may possess an advantage in the emotion-regulation realm. In two studies (total n = 151), individual differences in affective perception accuracy were assessed in an objective, performance-based manner. Subsequently, the same individuals completed daily diary protocols in which daily stressor levels were reported as well as problematic states shown to be stress-reactive in previous studies. In both studies, individual differences in affect perception accuracy interacted with daily stressor levels to predict the problematic outcomes. Daily stressors precipitated problematic reactions-whether depressive feelings (Study 1) or somatic symptoms (Study 2)-at low levels of affect perception accuracy, but did not do so at high levels of affect perception accuracy. The findings support a regulatory view of such perceptual abilities. Implications for understanding emotion regulation processes, emotional intelligence, and individual differences in reactivity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Individual differences in emotion regulation moderate the associations between empathy and affective distress

Individual differences in empathy can have positive and negative psychological outcomes. Yet, individual differences in the processing and regulation of empathy-induced emotion have not been fully explored within this dynamic. This study was designed to explore whether individual differences in emotion regulation strategies moderated the effects of empathy on common forms of affective distress. Eight hundred and forty four participants completed survey measures of trait empathy, emotion regulation strategies, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Affective empathy typically predicted greater affective distress, but the effects on depression and anxiety were offset when people were effective at reappraising their emotions. Cognitive empathy predicted lower distress on average, but this beneficial effect on anxiety and stress was absent in those who typically suppressed their emotions. Finally, suppression unexpectedly reduced the depression and stress reported for people high in affective empathy. Individual differences in emotion regulation are an important moderator between empathy and psychological health, and thus a useful target for intervention.