Psychological States Following Resistance Exercise of Different Workloads

This experiment was designed to examine the effect of resistance exercise of different workloads on subsequent psychological states. Participants, 54 undergraduate students (34 male, 20 female), were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (a) low workload resistance exercise (50% of 1 RM), (b) high workload resistance exercise (80% of 1RM), or (c) a no exercise control. Resistance exercise consisted of three sets of five repetitions for three free-weight exercises: the bench press, overhead press, and dumbbell row. Psychological state was indicated by the Exercise-Induced Feeling States Inventory (Gauvin & Rejeski, 1993) and was assessed prior to exercise and at 10, 25, and 40 min post exercise. Data were analyzed via a 3 (group) x 4 (time) ANOVA with repeated measures on the second factor. All exercise participants experienced an increased sense of revitalization, which persisted for a greater extent in low rather than high workload participants. None of the groups reported changes over time in positive engagement or tranquility. In addition, while exercise groups did report a reduction in physical exhaustion during recovery, this improvement did not differ from no exercise controls nor did it differ between exercise groups. Thus, weight lifting appears to result in a sense of revitalization, an effect whose duration may be impacted by exercise workload.     

Prospective Examination of Leisure-Time Exercise Behavior During Pregnancy

The negative and positive content of self-talk, the relationship of self-talk to performance, and persistence following positive and negative feedback were investigated across different cultural backgrounds (European Americans n = 54, East Asians n = 26). East Asians had a significantly larger proportion of negative to positive self-talk than European Americans, d = .62. The greater proportion of negative self-talk related to poorer performance for European Americans, but better performance for East Asians, r ² = .13. European Americans’ practice persistence increased after receiving positive versus negative feedback, d = .59. No differences occurred in persistence for East Asians, d = .06. Results suggest sport psychology consultants and coaches should consider an athlete's cultural background when employing cognitive interventions and providing feedback.     

Incongruent Feeling States in Psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT

Analysts occasionally find that we have dreamt of a patient or experienced feelings in sessions that appear to have nothing to do with the feelings or content presented by the patient. This can be disturbing or confusing, but is always fascinating. This article defines and illustrates these phenomena, grapples with their meanings, and attempts to understand how they came about.     

The Impact of the Testing Environment on Affective Changes Following Acute Resistance Exercise

Research has demonstrated the anxiolytic and affective changes following resistance exercise. However, several studies have allowed the participants to leave the testing facility and return at a later time to complete psychological assessments. This weakens internal validity, making it impossible to interpret findings as due to exercise per se. To address this issue, 23 male participants were randomly assigned to either a “stay” or “go” group. Within each group, all participants completed a non-exercise control session and a weight-training session based on 50% of their one repetition maximum for each of five exercises. All participants remained in the laboratory for 60 minutes following each session, at which time only those in the “go” group left the laboratory and returned at 90 and 120 minutes for their remaining affective assessments. The results indicate that despite transient disruptions in mood, an acute bout of resistance exercise results in positive psychological changes that occur within 60 minutes after completion of the exercise session and which persist up to 120 minutes post-exercise. Allowing participants to leave the laboratory or requiring them to remain in the testing environment was found to lead to different patterns of affective responses during the post-exercise assessment period. Future researchers must take into account such methodological issues when designing acute exercise studies requiring extended periods of post-exercise assessment.     

Moderators of the Exercise/Feeling-State Relationship: The Influence of Self-Efficacy, Baseline, and In-Task Feeling States at Moderate- and High-Intensity Exercise

The present study examined the moderating influence of self-efficacy, baseline feeling states, and in-task feeling states on exercise-related feeling-state changes at moderate- and high-intensity exercise. Physically active females ( N = 60) participated in 1 of 5 conditions: (a) attention control for 30 min, (b) exercise at 50% heart rate reserve (HRR) for 15 min, (c) exercise at 50% HRR for 30 min, (d) exercise at 85% HRR for 15 min, and (e) exercise at 85% HRR for 30 min. The Exercise-Induced Feeling Inventory (EFI; Gauvin & Rejeski, 1993) was completed pre-, during, and post-exercise, while self-efficacy was completed pre-exercise. Multilevel modeling (Bryk & Raudenbaush, 1992) revealed that pre-exercise self-efficacy and in-task tranquility moderated the change in tranquility for high-intensity exercise. Furthermore, baseline feeling states moderated the change in all 4 feeling states. It is recommended that baseline and in-task feeling states and self-efficacy be considered when examining high-intensity exercise.     

Drug Addiction During Pregnancy

ABSTRACT— Drug use during pregnancy is a significant risk factor for compromised child development. National statistics reveal that many pregnant women smoke tobacco (18%), drink alcohol (9.8%), and use illicit drugs (4%). Animal and clinical data show that prenatal alcohol and tobacco exposure have direct deleterious consequences on child development. Recent large multicenter studies have failed to show that prenatal cocaine or heroin exposure causes devastating child consequences when environmental variables are controlled. However, prenatal exposure to both licit and illicit drug use mostly occurs in the presence of environmental and contextual risk factors that together can impede healthy outcomes. Thus, treating these addiction disorders while addressing other lifestyle factors in a comprehensive way is critical.     

Integrative Therapy in Cases of Pregnancy Following Infertility

This article describes, through several case studies, the use of an integrative therapeutic approach with women who achieved pregnancy after long periods of infertility. Our therapeutic approach includes both verbal and no verbal interventions (relaxation, holding, etc.,) which draws upon the therapist's maternal skills. Our approach includes a focus on both the transference and the real relation with the therapist. The therapist needs to help the patient work though the extensive range of feelings toward the fetus (anger, fear, ambivalence, etc.) that the patient developed while struggling to become pregnant.     

Cognitive Alteration of Feeling States: Historical Background

Within the scientific community there is a growing awareness and acceptance of the notion that people do not exist only in a world of physical forces and events. A person's perception of the world in which they live in a world is also defined by their own perceptions, experiences, and biases. In other words, a person responds and reacts, not only to objective or experimenter-defined stimuli, but also to his or her apperceptions and subjectively defined stimuli.     

Changes in Neuroticism Following Trauma Exposure

Using longitudinal data, the present study examined change in midlife neuroticism following trauma exposure. Our primary analyses included 670 participants (M_age = 60.55; 65.22% male, 99.70% Caucasian) who completed the NEO Personality Inventory at ages 42 and 50 and reported their lifetime exposure to traumatic events approximately 10 years later. No differences in pre‐ and post‐trauma neuroticism scores were found among individuals who experienced all of their lifetime traumas in the interval between the personality assessments. Results were instead consistent with normative age‐related declines in neuroticism throughout adulthood. Furthermore, longitudinal changes in neuroticism scores did not differ between individuals with and without histories of midlife trauma exposure. Examination of change in neuroticism following life‐threatening traumas yielded a comparable pattern of results. Analysis of facet‐level scores largely replicated findings from the domain scores. Overall, our findings suggest that neuroticism does not reliably change following exposure to traumatic events in middle adulthood. Supplemental analyses indicated that individuals exposed to life‐threatening traumas in childhood or adolescence reported higher midlife neuroticism than individuals who experienced severe traumas in adulthood. Life‐threatening traumatic events encountered early in life may have a more pronounced impact on adulthood personality than recent traumatic events.     

Strength Recovery Patterns Following Isometric and Isotonic Exercise

In 3 experiments, the author tested the hypothesis that coordination dynamics is the content of a generalized motor program (GMP) for rhythmic interlimb coordination. In Experiment 1, learners (N = 14) practiced a ?90° movement with either identically timed or differently timed limbs. Both acquisition and transfer to novel (effector and pattern) timings were unaffected by the learning condition and were suggestive of the intrinsic dynamics for in-phase and antiphase. In Experiment 2, learners' (N = 13) acquisition of 2 different phase relations (?90° and ?45°) was qualitatively identical. Attractor reconstruction revealed an increase in the predictability of individual movement trajectories and a decrease in attractor dimensionality over learning. Transfer for both ?90° and ?45° was again suggestive of the intrinsic dynamics. In Experiment 3, learning altered participants' (N = 8) performance of in-phase and antiphase relations. Together, the results suggested a single continuum of phase relations, called an attractor landscape, that produces similar patterns of CE and VE for both previously stable and learned coordinations.     

Ethnicity and Social Support During Pregnancy

Data from two multi-ethnic prospective studies of African American, Latina, and non-Hispanic White pregnant women were used to examine the influence of contextual factors on social support processes during pregnancy. Multiple types of support (perceived support, received support, support satisfaction, network support) and sources of support (baby's father, family, friends) were assessed. The role of ethnicity in social support was examined after controlling for the contribution of related contextual factors (SES, marital status, age, parity, employment) to these processes. The impact of ethnicity and related contextual factors differed across sources of social support. Ethnic differences in support from family and friends, but not from the baby's father, emerged. However, marital status was a consistent predictor of support from the baby's father, and SES was a consistent predictor of support from friends. Overall, the findings of two studies suggest that although ethnicity is associated with support from friends and family, other contextual factors, such as marital status and SES, influence support processes during pregnancy.     

Systematic Changes in Families Following Prevention Trials

A selective prevention design was applied to 238 recently separated families. Of these, 153 mothers randomly assigned to the experimental (E) group participated in 14 group sessions focused on Parent Management Treatment (PMT). Prior analyses showed that, over time, the group of families in the untreated group deteriorated in both parenting practices and in child outcomes. In keeping with the classic prevention pattern, families in the E group showed modest improvements in parenting and in child outcomes. Improvements in parenting were associated with significant reductions in problem behavior. The data showed that those mothers who improved their parenting skills during the first 12 months also showed significant reductions in maternal depression during that same interval. A cross-lagged panel analysis showed that a reduction in maternal depression during the first year of the study was a significant predictor of maintenance or improvements over the next 18 months. The findings are consistent with the concept of the family as a system.     

Understanding Intentions to Exercise Following a Structured Exercise Program: An Attributional Perspective1

The present study examined the relationships among perceived outcome, causal attributions, affect, expected success, and intentions to exercise following a structured exercise program. Participants were 105 volunteers who had just completed a 12-week exercise program. Results indicated that perceived outcome over objective outcome (% attendance) was significantly more important for understanding the attribution process. Interesting interactions indicated that (a) individuals who made personally controllable attributions reported higher positive affect following perceived success, but lower positive affect following perceived failure than those who made personally uncontrollable attributions, and (b) individuals who made external attributions following perceived failure reported higher expected success than those who made internal attributions. Finally, both positive affect and expected success showed positive relationships with intention to exercise following the program. It was suggested that attribution theory may be beneficial to understanding continued exercise following structured exercise programs.     

Individual Differences in Affective States During Meditation

Previous research has shown the positive effects of meditation on physical and mental health, but little is known about what psychological processes occur during meditation. The current study investigated experience of affective states in Zen meditation during a 3-day meditation retreat using a single-case design. We used a novel push-button method to measure affective states and multilevel models to analyze the 6 single-case studies. As expected, we found that participants were more likely to have a no-self/spiritual or joy/elation experience toward the end of a meditation session than toward the beginning. Contrary to what we expected, there was no relationship between the meditation session variables and having an anguish/suffering experience. Individual differences had a non-negligible influence on the relationships for all 3 affective states, meaning that meditation did not produce the same results in the participants. We conclude by discussing how our method can be incorporated into future studies of meditation, or other religious variables.