Dyadic Flexibility in Early Parent–Child Interactions: Relations with Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Child Negativity and Behaviour Problems

Lower levels of parent–child affective flexibility indicate risk for children's problem outcomes. This short‐term longitudinal study examined whether maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower levels of dyadic affective flexibility and positive affective content in mother–child problem‐solving interactions at age 3.5 years (N = 100) and whether these maternal and dyadic factors predicted child emotional negativity and behaviour problems at a 4‐month follow‐up. Dyadic flexibility and positive affect were measured using dynamic systems‐based modelling of second‐by‐second affective patterns during a mother–child problem‐solving task. Results showed that higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms were related to lower levels of dyadic affective flexibility, which predicted children's higher levels of negativity and behaviour problems as rated by teachers. Mothers' ratings of child negativity and behaviour problems were predicted by their own depressive symptoms and individual child factors, but not by dyadic flexibility. There were no effects of dyadic positive affect. Findings highlight the importance of studying patterns in real‐time dyadic parent–child interactions as potential mechanisms of risk in developmental psychopathology. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Affective forecasting and self-rated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hypomania: evidence for a dysphoric forecasting bias

Emerging research has examined individual differences in affective forecasting; however, we are aware of no published study to date linking psychopathology symptoms to affective forecasting problems. Pitting cognitive theory against depressive realism theory, we examined whether dysphoria was associated with negatively biased affective forecasts or greater accuracy. Participants (n=325) supplied predicted and actual emotional reactions for three days surrounding an emotionally evocative relational event, Valentine's Day. Predictions were made a month prior to the holiday. Consistent with cognitive theory, we found evidence for a dysphoric forecasting bias-the tendency of individuals in dysphoric states to overpredict negative emotional reactions to future events. The dysphoric forecasting bias was robust across ratings of positive and negative affect, forecasts for pleasant and unpleasant scenarios, continuous and categorical operationalisations of dysphoria, and three time points of observation. Similar biases were not observed in analyses examining the independent effects of anxiety and hypomania. Findings provide empirical evidence for the long-assumed influence of depressive symptoms on future expectations. The present investigation has implications for affective forecasting studies examining information-processing constructs, decision making, and broader domains of psychopathology.     

Mental Health Diagnostic Considerations in Racial/Ethnic Minority Youth

Misdiagnoses of racial/ethnic minority youth’s mental health problems can potentially contribute to inappropriate mental health care. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review that focuses on current theory and empirical research in an attempt to answer the following two questions: (1) What evidence exists that supports or contradicts the idea that racial/ethnic minority youth’s mental health problems are misdiagnosed? (2) What are the sources of misdiagnoses? Articles were reviewed from 1967 to 2014 using PsychINFO, PubMed, and GoogleScholar. Search terms included “race”, “ethnicity”, “minority”, “culture”, “children”, “youth”, “adolescents”, “mental health”, “psychopathology”, “diagnosis”, “misdiagnosis”, “miscategorization”, “underdiagnosis”, and “overdiagnosis”. Seventy-two articles and book chapters met criteria and were included in this review. Overall, evidence was found that supports the possibility of misdiagnosis of ethnic minority youth’s emotional and behavioral problems. However, the evidence is limited such that it cannot be determined whether racial/ethnic differences are due to differences in psychopathology, mental health biases, and/or inaccurate diagnoses. Cultural and contextual factors that may influence misdiagnosis as well as recommendations for research and practice are discussed.     

Affective forecasting and self-rated symptoms of depression,anxiety, and hypomania: Evidence for a dysphoric forecasting bias

Emerging research has examined individual differences in affective forecasting; however, we are aware of no published study to date linking psychopathology symptoms to affective forecasting problems. Pitting cognitive theory against depressive realism theory, we examined whether dysphoria was associated with negatively biased affective forecasts or greater accuracy. Participants (n=325) supplied predicted and actual emotional reactions for three days surrounding an emotionally evocative relational event, Valentine's Day. Predictions were made a month prior to the holiday. Consistent with cognitive theory, we found evidence for a dysphoric forecasting bias—the tendency of individuals in dysphoric states to overpredict negative emotional reactions to future events. The dysphoric forecasting bias was robust across ratings of positive and negative affect, forecasts for pleasant and unpleasant scenarios, continuous and categorical operationalisations of dysphoria, and three time points of observation. Similar biases were not observed in analyses examining the independent effects of anxiety and hypomania. Findings provide empirical evidence for the long-assumed influence of depressive symptoms on future expectations. The present investigation has implications for affective forecasting studies examining information-processing constructs, decision making, and broader domains of psychopathology.     

Affect as a foundational psychological process for spirituality and empathy

There is growing interest in understanding the manner by which spiritual experiences, religious beliefs and behaviours, and prosocial traits (e.g., empathy, altruism) are related. Research has recently focused on determining those psychological constructs (e.g., affective, behavioural, cognitive) that are common to these related constructs, although the specific relationships remain unclear. The current study evaluated relationships among spiritual experiences and affective and cognitive dimensions of empathy in 98 participants with heterogeneous health conditions. Results indicate that spirituality is significantly related to affective empathy, but not cognitive empathy. These findings suggest that individuals’ propensity to be both spiritual and empathetic is primarily related to a greater disposition towards emotional connection with others (i.e., whether with the divine or other people). Research and practical implications are discussed.     

Getting stuck in depression: The roles of rumination and emotional inertia

Like many other mental disorders, depression is characterised by psychological inflexibility. Two instances of such inflexibility are rumination: repetitive cognitions focusing on the causes and consequences of depressive symptoms; and emotional inertia: the tendency for affective states to be resistant to change. In two studies, we tested the predictions that: (1) rumination and emotional inertia are related; and (2) both independently contribute to depressive symptoms. We examined emotional inertia of subjective affective experiences in daily life among a sample of non-clinical undergraduates (Study 1), and of affective behaviours during a family interaction task in a sample of clinically depressed and non-depressed adolescents (Study 2), and related it to self-reported rumination and depression severity. In both studies, rumination (particularly the brooding facet) and emotional inertia (particularly of sad/dysphoric affect) were positively associated, and both independently predicted depression severity. These findings demonstrate the importance of studying both cognitive and affective inflexibility in depression.     

Individual differences in hedonic capacity,depressed mood,and affective states predict emotional reactivity

Identifying factors that contribute to inter-individual differences in emotional reactivity is central to understanding the basic mechanisms that give rise to adaptive emotion reactivity and to disruptions that may occur in psychopathology. The current study related emotional reactivity in an unselected young adult sample (N?=?101) to individual difference factors relevant to emotional functioning and mood pathology, specifically anhedonia, depressed mood, and current affective state. To assess emotional reactivity, participants rated their emotional responses to 100 pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Increased self-reported anhedonia (i.e. reduced hedonic capacity) predicted blunted emotional reactivity to both positive and negative images, relative to neutral images, while elevated depressed mood predicted potentiated emotional reactivity to negative vs. neutral images. Anhedonia also accounted for far greater variance in emotional reactivity than depressed mood. Further, more positive affective state predicted potentiated reactivity to positive versus neutral images while more negative affective state predicted potentiated reactivity to negative versus neutral images beyond effects of anhedonia and depressed mood. The current study identified separable effects of anhedonia, depressed mood, and current affect on emotional reactivity.     

Affective regulation in trichotillomania: Evidence from a large-scale internet survey

Trichotillomania (TTM), a repetitive hair-pulling disorder, is underrepresented in the clinical literature. The current project explores the relationship between affective regulation and disordered hair-pulling. Previous research suggests that cycles of emotional states are correlated with the disorder and may induce, reinforce, or otherwise contribute to hair-pulling behavior. We use anonymous internet survey responses from 1162 self-identified hair-pullers to address four questions about affective regulation in people with TTM: (1) Do hair-pullers experience greater difficulty “snapping out” of affective states than non-pullers? (2) Does difficulty with emotional control correlate with TTM severity? (3) Are subtypes identifiable based on the emotions that trigger hair-pulling behavior? (4) Does difficulty “snapping out” of an emotion predict whether that emotion triggers pulling behavior? The results showed a small-to-moderate relationship between affective regulation and problematic hair-pulling. In addition, individual patterns of emotion regulation were systematically related to emotional cues for hair-pulling as well as overall hair-pulling severity. These findings contribute to an understanding of the phenomenology of TTM and provide empirical support for treatments focused on affect regulation.     

Understanding youth antisocial behavior using neuroscience through a developmental psychopathology lens: Review,integration, and directions for research

Youth antisocial behavior (AB) is an important public health concern impacting perpetrators, victims, and society. Functional neuroimaging is becoming a more common and useful modality for understanding neural correlates of youth AB. Although there has been a recent increase in neuroimaging studies of youth AB and corresponding theoretical articles on the neurobiology of AB, there has been little work critically examining the strengths and weaknesses of individual studies and using this knowledge to inform the design of future studies. Additionally, research on neuroimaging and youth AB has not been integrated within the broader framework of developmental psychopathology. Thus, this paper provides an in-depth review of the youth AB functional neuroimaging literature with the following goals: (1) to evaluate how this literature has informed our understanding of youth AB, (2) to evaluate current neuroimaging studies of youth AB from a developmental psychopathology perspective with a focus on integrating research from neuroscience and developmental psychopathology, as well as placing this research in the context of other related areas (e.g., psychopathy, molecular genetics), and (3) to examine strengths and weaknesses of neuroimaging and behavioral studies of youth AB to suggest how future studies can develop a more informed and integrated understanding of youth AB.     

Analyzing the Dynamics of Affective Dyadic Interactions Using Patterns of Intra- and Interindividual Variability

There are many compelling accounts of the ways in which the emotions of 1 member of a romantic relationship should influence and be influenced by the partner. However, there are relatively few methodological tools available for representing the alleged complexity of dyad level emotional experiences. In this article, we present an algorithm for examining such affective dynamics based on patterns of variability. The algorithm identifies periods of stability based on length of time and amplitude of emotional fluctuations. The patterns of variability and stability are quantified at the individual and dyadic level, and the approach is illustrated using data of the daily emotional experiences of individuals in romantic couples. With this technique, we examine the fluctuations of the emotions for each person and inspect the overlap fluctuations between both individuals in the dyad. The individual and dyadic indices of variability are then used to predict the status of the dyads (i.e., together, apart) 1 year later.     

情绪即社会信息模型的理论及应用

情绪即社会信息(EmotionsasSocialInformationmodel,EASI)模型旨在阐释他人情绪如何通过情感反应和推断加工机制影响观察者的决策,以及认知动机和合适性判断在其中的调节作用。文章将EASI模型与相关理论进行了辨析,并基于对63项使用该理论的实证研究的分析,梳理归纳了EASI模型在领导力、团队、顾客服务、谈判及说服领域展开的应用,以及影响EASI模型的边界条件——信息加工程度和合适性判断的具体因素。未来研究需加强系统化验证、深化与其它理论的整合、拓展应用情境和优化测量方法。     

Affective Functioning Among Early Adolescents at High and Low Familial Risk for Depression and Their Mothers: A Focus on Individual and Transactional Processes across Contexts

This study aimed to characterize affective functioning in families of youth at high familial risk for depression, with particular attention to features of affective functioning that appear to be critical to adaptive functioning but have been underrepresented in prior research including: positive and negative affect across multiple contexts, individual and transactional processes, and affective flexibility. Interactions among early adolescents (ages 9–14) and their mothers were coded for affective behaviors across both positive and negative contexts. Primary analyses compared never-depressed youth at high (n = 44) and low (n = 57) familial risk for depression. The high risk group showed a relatively consistent pattern for low positive affect across negative and positive contexts at both the individual and transactional level. In contrast to prior studies focusing on negative contexts that did not support disruptions in negative affect among high risk youth, the data from this study suggest variability by context (i.e. increased negativity in a positive, but not negative, context), and individual vs. transactional processes (e.g., negative escalation). Findings are discussed in concert with attention to affect flexibility, contextual and transactional factors.     

社会网络视角的团队情绪智力

据估计, 60%的团队都没有达到它们的目标, 这给学术界提出了重要且具有挑战性的研究课题。情绪智力(emotional intelligence)是在人际关系基础上发展起来的重要概念。研究发现, 基于微观个体或宏观整体的团队情绪智力在团队成功达到目标过程中起到重要作用。然而, 当前尚无研究探讨基于团队局部成员间情绪智力行为交换而产生的团队情绪智力对团队的影响。为此, 本课题从配对层次(一对一关系中两个人, 即actor-target)这一新角度探讨团队情绪智力, 通过把它看做团队过程中一种产生的状态(emergent state), 在整合团队成员交换理论和社会网络方法基础上对它进行研究。具体围绕团队内配对单元存在的交换关系(指目标者感受到行动者对其实施的情绪智力行为)在团队中形成的网络所代表的团队情绪智力开展实证研究, 以期从理论上揭示团队内情绪智力行为交换的特征, 情绪智力自下而上(bottom-up)由个体发展到团队的过程, 以及配对基础的团队情绪智力的影响效应, 从而为团队管理实践提供具体的改善建议。     

Influence of Reinforcement Contingencies and Cognitive Styles on Affective Responses: An Examination of Rolls' Theory of Emotion in the Context of Consumer Choice

This paper examines Rolls' (2005 ) propositions that emotional responses can be systematically related to environmental contingencies and that individual differences are related to emotional responses. In addition, consumer situations, defined functionally in terms of the reinforcement pattern they uniquely portray, as proposed by the behavioral perspective model (BPM) of consumer choice are predictably associated with patterns of self‐reported pleasure, arousal, and dominance ( Mehrabian & Russell, 1974 ). Rolls' argument that individual differences influence conditionality and emotionality is examined via hypotheses from the theory of adaptive–innovative cognitive style ( Kirton, 1976, 2003 ). The results confirm that affective response to consumer environments is consistently predicted by the modeled pattern of operant contingencies, but not the expected relationship between cognitive styles and affective responses.     

Rural adolescent aggression and parental emotional support

Preliminary research findings suggest important distinctions between rural and urban adolescent aggression risk and protective factors. Despite these potentially important differences, most of the existing research on adolescent aggression has utilized urban samples. The current study examines the direct association between parental emotional support and rural adolescent aggression, and whether adolescent psychopathology and substance abuse mediate this association. Multi-method measurement (self-report, parent report, and behavioral observations) were employed in measuring aggression and emotional support variables with rural, nonadjudicated adolescents (N=62) and their mothers or stepmothers. Results indicated that parental emotional support has an indirect influence on adolescent aggression. Adolescent substance abuse was completely mediated by adolescent grade-point average, indicating no significant direct impact on aggression. Adolescent psychopathology significantly mediated the relationship between parental emotional support and adolescent aggression. Particular items contributed substantially to this mediating association, making certain characteristics, rather than a specific diagnosis, relevant to psychopathology's mediating impact. These characteristics include cognitive perception of others as critical or hostile, emotional anxiousness in social situations, and behavioral persistence in social interactions despite these perceptions.     

Parental Patterns of Affective Style and the Development of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

Measures of parental affective style of communication, based on direct family discussions, were obtained for a sample of 52 families of disturbed but nonpsychotic adolescents. When the variations of both parents on the measure for two different measurement contexts were combined, an accurate prediction of subsequent psychiatric status at follow-up occurred. Adolescents with at least one parent who consistently displayed a pathological affective style of communication in both a dyadic and triadic discussion developed schizophrenia-spectrum disorders as young adults. Conversely, adolescents with at least one parent who was consistently benign in affective style had healthier outcomes. Finally, more serious young adult psychopathology was noted where both parents were inconsistent in their affective style from dyadic to triadic interaction. Methodological implications for family interaction research are discussed.     

A Meta‐Analytic Structural Model of Dispositonal Affectivity and Emotional Labor

The exponential growth of the service economy has increased the attention that organizational researchers have paid to the concept of emotional labor. Although much progress has been made in the field, few studies have provided an integrated picture of how individual dispositions, perceived display rules, and emotional labor behaviors shape employee outcomes. To clarify and compare results across this growing body of literature, a quantitative review was developed, along with a theoretically derived path diagram of key emotional labor constructs. Evidence from our structural meta‐analytic model based on 116 primary studies demonstrates that examining affective dispositions and emotional labor constructs and the pattern of positive and negative results helps to clarify and add specificity to the literature. Results were consistent with the perspective that surface acting emotion regulation strategies have a pattern of negative relationships with work outcomes of job satisfaction and stress/exhaustion (but not with job performance), whereas deep acting emotion regulation strategies have a pattern of positive relationships with all of these work outcomes.     

Prior Trauma Exposure for Youth in Treatment Foster Care

Very little research has focused on rates of trauma exposure for youth in treatment foster care (TFC). Available research has utilized record review for assessing exposure, which presents limitations for the range of trauma types examined, as records are predominantly focused on abuse and neglect. The current study examines exposure rates and association with emotional and behavioral outcomes for 229 youth in 46 TFC agencies. The youth in this study had exceptionally high rates of trauma exposure by foster parent report, similar to youth in traditional foster care, with nearly half of the sample exposed to four or more types of traumatic events. A composite child abuse and neglect exposure variable was associated with child and adolescent emotional and behavioral outcomes. Implications for services provided as part of TFC are discussed.     

Father-Child and Mother-Child Interactions with Children with Anxiety Disorders: Emotional Expressivity and Flexibility of Dyads

This observational study examined whether emotional expressivity and emotional flexibility differed between parent-child dyads with and without children with an anxiety disorder (AD). Effects of parents’ own AD on emotional expressivity and flexibility of dyads was also studied. The sample consisted of 128 referred children (59.4% girls) with an AD (8–18-year-olds) and both of their parents, and 44 matched non-AD children (63.6% girls) and both of their parents. Father-child and mother-child dyads were videotaped while discussing a conflict. Measures of dyadic emotional expressivity (positive and negative affect) and dyadic emotional flexibility (transitions, dispersion, average duration) were derived from these interactions using state space grid analysis. No differences existed in emotional expressivity of parent-child dyads with or without AD children, however both father-child and mother-child dyads with a child with an AD displayed less emotional flexibility during interactions than healthy controls. Mother-child dyads where both mother and child had AD showed more emotional expressivity and less emotional flexibility compared to mother-child dyads with only AD children and to dyads without AD. In particular, the inability to flexibly move in and out of different emotions distinguishes healthy dyads from non-healthy dyads. Targeting emotional flexibility of dyads with children with an AD, and also emotional expressivity of dyads when mother has an AD, might be a valuable goal for family-based intervention.     

Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Middle School: Opportunities, Constraints, and Key Processes

Late childhood and early adolescence represent a critical transition in the developmental and academic trajectory of youth, a time in which there is an upsurge in academic disengagement and psychopathology. PAR projects that can promote youth's sense of meaningful engagement in school and a sense of efficacy and mattering can be particularly powerful given the challenges of this developmental stage. In the present study, we draw on data from our own collaborative implementation of PAR projects in secondary schools to consider two central questions: (1) How do features of middle school settings and the developmental characteristics of the youth promote or inhibit the processes, outcomes, and sustainability of the PAR endeavor? and (2) How can the broad principles and concepts of PAR be effectively translated into specific intervention activities in schools, both within and outside of the classroom? In particular, we discuss a participatory research project conducted with 6th and 7th graders at an urban middle school as a means of highlighting the opportunities, constraints, and lessons learned in our efforts to contribute to the high‐quality implementation and evaluation of PAR in diverse urban public schools.