Maintaining Life Satisfaction: The Role of Positive Cognitive Bias

Recent research into population standards of life satisfaction has revealed a remarkable level of uniformity, with the mean values for Western populations clustering at around three-quarters of the measurement scale maximum. While this seems to suggest the presence of a homeostatic mechanism for life satisfaction, the character of such a hypothetical device is uncertain. This paper proposes that well-being homeostasis is controlled by positive cognitive biases pertaining to the self. Most particular in this regard are the positive biases in relation to self-esteem, control and optimism. Past controversies in relation to this proposition are reviewed and resolved in favour of the proposed mechanism. The empirical data to support this hypothesis are discussed in the context of perceived well-being as an adaptive human attribute.     

焦虑障碍的认知偏向矫正：应用与争议

认知偏向是焦虑障碍患者的重要认知特征, 是指患者或高焦虑个体对负性或威胁性信息存在认知加工方面的偏向。目前该领域的研究聚焦于注意偏向和解释偏向。近年来, 研究者致力于将认知偏向的矫正应用于焦虑障碍患者的临床治疗, 得到了不一致的结果。本文总结了将认知偏向矫正应用于临床实践的不同方式, 并从主观报告的疗效证据、行为及生理指标的疗效证据, 以及未发现疗效证据的研究三方面回顾了近年来的研究成果。对于结果的高度不一致, 本文从期望效应、干预对象、因变量和其它参数等方面探讨了可能的原因, 并讨论了未来可能的研究方向。     

Emotions Know Best: The Advantage of Emotional versus Cognitive Responses to Failure

Making mistakes or failing at tasks is a common occurrence in human life. People can respond to and cope with failure in many ways. In this research, we examine potential advantages of relatively emotional (versus cognitive) responses to failure. In particular, we study how effort and time spent in subsequent tasks depend on whether people predominantly focus on their emotions or their cognitions as they respond to a failure. We demonstrate that, left to their own means, people's cognitions upon a failure are mainly justificatory in nature and thus do not automatically have the commonly believed reflective, self‐improving qualities. We further argue and demonstrate that a relative focus on cognitions following a failure can prevent improvement in subsequent episodes, but a focus on emotions can allow for learning and, therefore, increased effort. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

注意偏向训练对广泛性焦虑障碍负性情绪注意偏向的影响

采用改良的点探测任务,探讨了注意偏向训练能否改变GAD患者的负性情绪注意偏向并缓解其焦虑状态,及注意偏向训练的作用机制。结果发现,与控制组相比,训练组被试的负性注意偏向分数显著降低,具体表现为训练后训练组的负性注意解除能力显著高于控制组,两组被试的负性注意警觉在前后测均未有显著变化;注意偏向训练引起了GAD患者积极情绪的变化,缓解了状态焦虑。这证明了注意偏向训练对改变GAD患者负性情绪注意偏向及缓解其焦虑状态的有效性,并揭示这种改变主要是通过提升其对负性刺激的注意解除能力来实现的。     

Enhancing the Efficacy of Cognitive Bias Modification for Social Anxiety

Cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I) is a promising treatment modality for social anxiety disorder, but effect sizes are relatively small across investigations (Hallion & Ruscio, 2011). Additionally, the extent to which CBM-I impacts other cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes is unclear. This study investigated whether two empirically supported treatment components for anxiety disorders, imaginal exposure (IE) and relaxation, augment the effects of CBM-I and increase the extent to which the effects of CBM-I generalize to behavioral and affective outcomes. We randomly assigned 111 undergraduate students with social anxiety to undergo IE, relaxation, or neutral thinking prior to CBM-I, then measured their interpretation biases, as well as their speaking time, anxiety, and subjective evaluations of performance during a speech task. Results indicated that individuals who received IE prior to CBM-I evidenced more adaptive interpretation biases and less behavioral avoidance during the speech task than did individuals who engaged in relaxation or neutral thinking. However, they did not report differential anxiety, habituation, or evaluations of their performance on the speech task. These findings suggest that the combination of CBM-I with adjunct components that target behavioral, rather than cognitive, mechanisms can facilitate transfer of the effects of CBM-I to reducing behavioral avoidance.     

Critical Hopefulness: A Person-Centered Analysis of the Intersection of Cognitive and Emotional Empowerment

Leaders in struggles for social justice agree on the importance and the difficulty of maintaining hopefulness while developing critical awareness of social issues. Research has indicated that the analogous components of psychological empowerment (emotional and cognitive) often do not co-vary across populations. This study used a person-centered analytic approach, latent class analysis, to identify subpopulations of participants (n = 1,322) according to the cognitive and emotional components of psychological empowerment. Four distinct sub-groups emerged: those who were relatively (1) critical but alienated, (2) uncritical but hopeful, (3) uncritical and alienated, or (4) critical and hopeful. These clusters were then examined for demographic differences and relationships with a set of conceptually relevant variables including social capital, psychological sense of community, openness, organizational participation and mental wellbeing. Results shed light on the complexity of empowerment processes and yield implications for ongoing community research and action.     

Adverse Life Events and Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Adolescence: The Role of Non-verbal Cognitive Ability and Negative Cognitive Errors

The aim of this study was to test whether negative cognitive errors (overgeneralizing, catastrophizing, selective abstraction, and personalizing) mediate the moderator effect of non-verbal cognitive ability on the association between adverse life events (life stress) and emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence. The sample consisted of 430 children (aged 11–15 years) from three state secondary schools in disadvantaged areas in one county in the South East of England. Total difficulties (i.e., emotional symptoms, peer problems, hyperactivity, and conduct problems) were assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Adjustment was made for gender, age, ethnicity, special educational needs, exclusion history, family structure, and family socio-economic disadvantage. Adverse life events were measured with Tiet et al.’s (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 1191–1200, 1998) Adverse Life Events Scale. Non-verbal cognitive ability was measured with Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Plus. Non-verbal cognitive ability moderated the effect of adverse life events both on total difficulties and on emotional symptoms. Overgeneralizing mediated the moderator effect of non-verbal cognitive ability on the association between adverse life events and total difficulties. Adverse life events were related to a tendency to overgeneralize which was associated with emotional and behavioral problems, but particularly among those adolescents with lower non-verbal cognitive ability.     

初中生自尊的认知加工偏向效应研究

探讨了初中生自尊的认知加工偏向效应。结果发现：高自尊初中生对积极词具有显著的注意偏向效应,低自尊初中生对积极词和消极词均不存在注意偏向效应;当对比图片为高兴－生气或高兴－中性表情时,高自尊初中生对高兴表情均存在显著的注意偏向效应,当对比图片为高兴－生气时,低自尊初中生对生气表情产生明显的注意偏向效应;高自尊组与低自尊组初中生分别对与自我有关的正向、负向形容词存在显著的记忆偏向效应。     

感情经历、失恋角色对恋爱认知-情绪分辨能力的影响

为探究失恋后个体所出现的认知和情绪状况的原因,本研究考察了不同感情经历个体以及失恋个体中主动失恋和被动失恋者对"恋爱事件"的记忆和陈述方式的特征。方法:招募113名被试,根据感情经历和现状分为四组(失恋后单身45人,失恋后恋爱23人,从未失恋现恋爱11人,从未失恋现单身34人),失恋角色(主动36人、被动32人),使用多维尺度分析技术测量个体的认知-情绪分辨能力。结果 :四组中只有失恋后单身组且被动失恋的个体记忆方式中混淆了恋爱的认知和情绪成分,表现出较低的认知-情绪分辨能力。结论:(1)失恋后的再恋爱能够修复因失恋带来的混淆感;(2)失恋事件中的被动方往往比主动方体验到更多的混淆感。     

Combined Emotional Socialization Training and Family Accommodation Modification: Impact on Emotional Regulation and Anxiety Symptoms in Anxious Children

Past studies show that emotional socialization and family accommodation are involved in children's anxiety, but research has yet to investigate whether targeting emotional socialization training (EST), family accommodation modification (FAM), or EST and FAM in tandem can reduce anxiety in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a combination of EST and FAM on improving emotion regulation (ER) and reducing anxiety symptoms in anxious children. The sample consisted of 80 children with an anxiety disorder (M_age = 6.7, SD = 0.1) and their mothers. Mothers were randomly assigned to an EST (n = 17), FAM (n = 16), Combined (n = 17), or a waitlist control (WLC) (n = 16) groups. Mothers completed The Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) and Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) at pre-test, post-test, and at 6-month of follow-up. The results showed that the EST, FAM, and Combined groups were more effective than WLC in improving ER and reducing anxiety severity at post-test and follow-up. Among the intervention groups, children in the combined group showed greater reductions in the severity of anxiety symptoms and emotion dysregulation than the other two groups. Assisting parents to use strategies that encourage healthy emotion regulation and decrease family accommodation might help reduce the severity of children's anxiety symptoms.     

A Further Validation of the Cognitive Bias Modification Effect on Trust in Middle Childhood

Recent middle childhood research suggests that children’s trust in maternal support can be manipulated using Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) aimed at changing children’s interpretation of ambiguous maternal support-related behavior. The current study with 60 children (40 girls, M_age = 10.62, SD_age = 1.20) aimed to replicate previous research and to test whether the CBM effect is specific to trust or generalizes to other child evaluations of maternal behavior. More specifically, CBM effects on children’s evaluation of parenting behavior were tested. Trust and maternal parenting behaviors were assessed using children’s self-report. Results largely replicated previous findings, including the positive effect of CBM on children’s trust in maternal support. Suggesting that this effect was specific for trust, the CBM manipulation did not affect children’s appraisal of maternal parenting behavior. This finding supports the validity of CBM effects.     

Cognitive Vulnerability to Emotional Symptoms: Reconsidering the Role of Worry and Rumination

The present study explored the pathways whereby cognitive variables (worry, rumination) may explain the relation between neuroticism and emotional symptoms in a community sample of adults (N?=?499). All participants completed a battery of questionnaires including measures of neuroticism, worry, rumination, anxiety and depression. Multiple mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used. Worry was a common pathway explaining the effect of neuroticism on both anxiety and depressive symptoms. The brooding subtype of rumination significantly mediated the relation between neuroticism and anxiety symptoms, but the reflection subtype did not have a mediating effect. Although worry by itself mediated the association between neuroticism and anxiety symptoms, it required a certain level of brooding to exert its mediating effect on the relation between neuroticism and depressive symptoms. The results are discussed in light of previous research and recent developments in treatment. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.     

Cognitive Training for Young Children: Expanding the Counselor's Role

This study encourages an expansion of the counselor's role through an evaluation of the efficacy of certain cognitive training procedures in teaching young children skills for interpersonal problem solving. Twenty-seven students were blocked on school grades, balanced for sex, and randomly assigned to cognitive modeling and self-instructions (CM-SI), cognitive modeling alone (CM), or a control group. A two-week training program focused on generating alternative solutions and consequences. Results of a delayed posttest indicate that the CM-SI group generated a significantly greater number, variety, and proportion of relevant solutions than the control group. This article relates the findings to those in the literature and discusses interpretations. Highlighted are implications for practitioners concerned with preventive program development.     

Partisan Provocation: The Role of Partisan News Use and Emotional Responses in Political Information Sharing in Social Media

Citizens increasingly rely on social media to consume and disseminate news and information about politics, but the factors that drive political information sharing on these sites are not well understood. This study focused on how online partisan news use influences political information sharing in part because of the distinct negative emotions it arouses in its audience. Using panel survey data collected during the 2012 U.S. presidential election, we found that use of proattitudinal partisan news online is associated with increased anger, but not anxiety, directed at the opposing party's presidential candidate and that anger subsequently facilitated information sharing about the election on social media. The results suggest partisan media may drive online information sharing by generating anger in its audience.     

The Relations Between Traumatic Experiences,Activity, and Cognitive and Emotional Responses Among Palestinian Children

The relations between the level of traumatic experiences, degree of active participation in the Intifada, and cognitive and emotional responses were studied among 108 Palestinian children of 11–12 years of age in the Gaza Strip. The results showed that the more traumatic experiences the children had and the more they participated in the Intifada, the more concentration, attention, and memory problems they had. Traumatic experiences also increased neuroticism and risk-taking, and Intifada participation decreased self-esteem. Children's active participation in the Intifada could not protect children from developing emotional problems, as was originally assumed. The highest level of neuroticism was found among active boys who were exposed to many traumatic experiences.     

Cognitive Bias Modification for Behavior Change in Alcohol and Smoking Addiction: Bayesian Meta-Analysis of Individual Participant Data

Neuropsychology Review - Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM) refers to a family of interventions targeting substance-related cognitive biases, which have been found to play a role in the maintenance...     

Children's Cognitive and Emotional Responses to the Portrayal of Negative Emotions in Family-Formatted Situation Comedies

This experiment assesses children's cognitive and emotional responses to negative emotions in family-formatted situation comedies. Boys and girls from two grade levels (Grades K-2 vs. Grades 3–5) viewed a family sitcom that featured one of two negative emotions (anger, fear) and varied the inclusion of a positive, humorous subplot (no, yes). Results revealed that inclusion of the subplot reduced comprehension of the major story line for younger children as well as for boys. Among all children, the presence of the positive subplot also distorted perceptions of how negative and persistent the main character's emotions were, finally, children who perceived the family sitcom to be highly realistic were more concerned about similar negative emotional events in their own lives than were those whoperceived theprogram to be less realistic. The findings are discussed in terms of children's social learning from television and emotional development.