Mood in chronic disease: Questioning the answers

The main research questions concerning mood and chronic disease are about the extent, sources, and consequences of emotional distress. Answers to these questions are informative both to psychological theory and to the design of interventions aimed at improving outcomes for patients. However, as a result of practical and ethical limitations in research designs, the answers obtained are rarely definitive and typically need to be interpreted carefully. This article illustrates some of the problems using studies of patients with cancer, myocardial infarction, stroke, and other disabling conditions. The first group of studies illustrates problems in the timing of mood measurement including both timing within an interview, and issues concerned with identifying equivalent timing in the stages of disease and its treatment. The remaining studies are used to illustrate the limits of non-experimental longitudinal, and of experimental designs. It is concluded that research in this area requires the use of more than one research paradigm to achieve dependable answers.     

Conformity: moods matter

This study examined the hypotheses that positive mood enhances conformity and that negative mood reduces it. Participants were induced to feel positive, neutral, or negative moods and then answered, in private, six mathematical questions. They observed that wrong answers were unanimously given by five bogus participants for three of the questions. Conformity was measured by whether they indicated the erroneous answers given by these bogus participants in these three questions. The results were supportive of the hypothesis. The current results are consistent with past findings about mood differences in heuristic versus elaborative processing. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the application of program evaluation designs: Sorting out their use and abuse

Increasingly complex methodological options, as well as growing sophistication of users, means that the formulation of a research design prior to conducting an evaluation study is likely to be more demanding and time-consucting than previously. In fact, one of the most difficult problems in the entire evaluation endeavor is the development of an appropriate design.. But the issue is not only one of complexity—it is also one of the appropriateness of the designs to the questions at hand. The concern of this article is with tightening the linkage between questions asked and answers given—making sure that the design organizes and directs the evaluation efforts to provide relevant information germane to the needs of the policymakers. By tightening this linkage, it is presumed that the findings from evaluation studies can gain increased legitimacy and use. Appropriate uses and abuses of seven program evaluation designs are analyzed, stressing designs that are most appropriate to the types of informational questions asked by policymakers. Ray C. Rist is director of operations in the general government division of the United States General Accounting Office. He was previously a professor at Cornell University and has authored or edited sixteen books and written nearly one hundred articles. He is chair of the Working Group on Policy Evaluation whose members prepared the articles for this special symposium.     

A daily process approach to coping. Linking theory, research, and practice

For decades, coping researchers have used between-person designs to address inherently within-person questions derived from theory and clinical practice. The authors describe recent developments in the use of within-person, process-oriented methods that examine individuals intensively over time. Ongoing studies of stress and alcohol consumption, the effects of depression on adaptational processes, and the temporal dynamics of coping with chronic pain demonstrate that by tracking rapidly fluctuating processes such as mood and coping close to their real-time occurrence, daily process designs offer unique insights into conceptually and clinically challenging questions. Such designs also provide new opportunities to examine the purported mechanisms of therapeutic interventions. Despite its demands on participants and investigators, daily process research offers fresh opportunities to link psychological theory, research, and practice.     

Two methods of reducing overconfidence

Prior research has suggested that most people are seriously overconfident in their answers to general knowledge questions. We attempted to reduce over-confidence in each of two separate experiments. In Experiment 1 half of the subjects answered five practice questions which appeared to be difficult. The remaining subjects answered practice problems which appeared to be easy but were actually just as difficult as the other group's practice questions. Within each of these two groups, half of the subjects received feedback on the accuracy of their answers to the practice questions, while the other half received no feedback. All four groups then answered 30 additional questions and indicated their confidence in these answers. The group which had received five apparently “easy” practice questions and then had been given feedback on the accuracy of their answers was underconfident on the final 30 questions. In Experiment 2 subjects who anticipated a group discussion of their answers to general knowledge questions took longer to answer the questions and expressed less overconfidence in their answers than did a control group.     

Mood and realism of confidence judgements of one''s own answers to general knowledge questions

This study examines the effect of a depressed mood on the realism of subjects' confidence judgements of the correctness of answers to general knowledge questions. Research conducted on how mood influences cognitive processes gives reason to expect that a depressed mood might increase the realism of individuals' confidence ratings. Sixty subjects were divided into three conditions, two of which were given mood induction, one condition into an elated-happy mood and one condition into a depressed-sad mood. As evidenced by subjects' responses to mood scales only the depressed condition was affected by the mood induction. All subjects answered 93 general knowledge questions and rated their confidence in the correctness of the answer given. Subjects were instructed to think aloud when answering the last 31 questions. The conditions did not differ with respect to the proportion of questions answered correctly, mean level of confidence, nor with respect to three measures of the realism in subjects' confidence ratings (calibration, over/underconfidence and resolution). The results were the same when questions answered with and without think aloud instructions were analysed separately.     

Why theories about developmental dyslexia require developmental designs

This article examines the importance of developmental designs in dyslexia research using a neuroconstructivist framework. According to neuroconstructivism, the lowest level of impairment should be identified as early as possible, and developmental effects on higher-level cognition examined longitudinally. A number of recent studies proposing candidate low-level impairments have not used such developmental designs. The role of normal variation in postulated causal factors on development is ignored, inadequate control groups are used, and the nature and timing of environmental inputs are not measured, even though reading is taught systematically and both reading acquisition and dyslexia vary with orthography. It is suggested here that only a phonological deficit arising from low-level auditory processing problems meets the criteria for a neuroconstructivist approach.     

Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs in Visitor Studies: A Critical Reflection on Three Projects

Identifying causal relationships is an important aspect of research and evaluation in visitor studies, such as making claims about the learning outcomes of a program or exhibit. Experimental and quasi-experimental approaches are powerful tools for addressing these causal questions. However, these designs are arguably underused in visitor studies. In this article, we offer examples of the use of experimental and quasi-experimental designs in science museums to aide investigators interested in expanding their methods toolkit and increasing their ability to make strong causal claims about programmatic experiences or relationships among variables. Using three designs from recent research (fully randomized experiment, posttest only quasi-experimental design with comparison condition, and posttest with independent pretest design), we discuss challenges and tradeoffs related to feasibility, participant experience, alignment with research questions, and internal and external validity. We end the article with broader reflections on the role of experimental and quasi-experimental designs in visitor studies.     

Attitudes About Internet Support Groups Among Adolescents and Young Adults with Neurofibromatosis Type 1 and their Parents

Youth with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) have multiple, complex symptoms associated with physical, social-emotional, and cognitive difficulties. In addition, caring for a child with NF1 can be extremely challenging for parents. Since research with other chronic illness populations suggests that social support, including internet support groups (ISGs), can be beneficial, this survey study aimed to determine the attitudes and preferences of adolescents and young adults with NF1 and parents of a child with NF1 regarding ISGs. Thirty patients and 30 caregivers completed a 24-item survey about ISGs. Many patients and parents are not aware of any ISGs for NF1, but are interested in using one in the future for a variety of reasons, including to get answers to their questions about NF1, to find out about research studies, and to discuss problems and concerns about NF1. Specific concerns of interest include physical, social-emotional, and cognitive aspects of NF1. ISGs have potential as a social support intervention within the NF1 community. ISGs for the NF1 population should include patients with NF1 (or parents of children with NF1) as well as a health professional, and both chat rooms and discussion boards likely would be well-received.     

Neural mechanisms of timing

A crucial step in timing research is to isolate clock components from other sources of temporal variability. Significant progress has been made both behaviorally and neurologically, using elaborate experimental designs that separate timing mechanisms from motoric sensory and mnemonic processes. Marked similarities between the temporal characteristics of the clock in perception and production tasks implicate a common timing system. Similar conclusions can be reached from clinical studies, indeed individuals with neocerebellar damage are impaired at discriminating and reproducing short intervals. However, other patient populations, especially those with disorders affecting the basal ganglia, also exhibit deficits in timing tasks. It therefore appears that temporal computation may be distributed throughout the brain with specific roles for different neural structures.     

Money enhances memory consolidation--but only for boring material

Money’s ability to enhance memory has received increased attention in recent research. However, previous studies have not directly addressed the time-dependent nature of monetary effects on memory, which are suggested to exist by research in cognitive neuroscience, and the possible detrimental effects of monetary rewards on learning interesting material, as indicated by studies in motivational psychology. By utilizing a trivia question paradigm, the current study incorporated these perspectives and examined the effect of monetary rewards on immediate and delayed memory performance for answers to uninteresting and interesting questions. Results showed that monetary rewards promote memory performance only after a delay. In addition, the memory enhancement effect of monetary rewards was only observed for uninteresting questions. These results are consistent with both the hippocampus-dependent memory consolidation model of reward learning and previous findings documenting the ineffectiveness of monetary rewards on tasks that have intrinsic value.     

Ecological Momentary Assessment Research in Behavioral medicine

Behavioral medicine research often seeks to examine relatively complex theoretical models and clinical processes. Traditional designs, based on retrospective self-report in the natural environment or laboratory-based studies, cannot assess complex and temporally dynamic psychological, behavioral, and physiological processes in the natural environment. An alternate research approach, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), provides a method to collect such data. This research approach and these data allow investigation of a number of research questions not amenable to other data collection methods. Examples of research questions uniquely suited for EMA data include, but are not limited to: (1) the comparison of retrospective data to momentary data; (2) evaluation of physiological and psychosocial processes in the natural environment; (3) the relation of symptoms and other disease processes to characteristics of the natural environment; and (4) examination of dynamic changes in psychosocial variables that may mediate improvement following treatment. Despite the strengths of EMA data, a number of challenges exist – including logistic, analytic, and interpretation problems – to the easy implementation of EMA approaches in behavioral medicine.     

Depressive moods and marital happiness: within-person synchrony, moderators, and meaning

Recent studies using within-persons designs conceptually replicate and substantively extend prior research that has shown marital distress to be a robust risk factor for depression. The present investigation further extends this within-persons research tradition by increasing the frequency of assessments and by adding new moderators and measures in a sample of both newlywed (n = 24) and maritally distressed (n = 31) wives. In both samples, the average within-persons association between 21 daily assessments of wives' depressed mood and marital happiness approximated previous estimates of analogous effects (overall r = -.54). Wives reported worse depressive mood symptoms on days they experienced lower marital happiness, even after accounting for time and between-person variation in marital happiness. Each participant's within-persons mood and marital happiness association was then treated as a dependent variable to be predicted from theoretically relevant individual differences. Multilevel modeling showed that the negative within-person association between daily depressed mood and daily marital happiness was especially strong for women who were relatively high in depressive symptoms, who had avoidant attachment styles, and who were relatively low in marital adjustment.     

Mood Swings and Creativity

ABSTRACT:

This article evaluates recent evidence for an association between creativity and bipolar mood disorders. Eminent creativity and everyday creativity are distinguished, with high rates of major mood disorders‐particularly bipolar disorders— appearing among eminent creators in the arts. However, among everyday persons, including the 4–5% of the population that may develop a bipolar “spectrum”; disorder and their relatives, it is those with relatively milder mood disorders and normalcy who may show the greatest creative advantage. These seemingly conflicting results are reconciled through comparison of research designs and the creativity and diagnostic variables studied. Evidence regarding mood states that enhance creativity is also considered, both for eminent and everyday creators, and some preliminary results from a study of patients are presented. Here, milder mood elevations were tied most closely to the experience of creativity, although other patterns can exist. Three patterns are examined in terms of 23 mood, cognitive, and behavioral features that Jamison (1989) studied in eminent creators.     

POSTFACE: D'UNE ETUDE PSYCHOLOGIQUE A UN PROGRAMME D'ACTION

The joint research program of the four countries is inserted in a more general research perspective: problems of changes in status and roles of women; psychological factors of changes; concepts of status and roles; social and individual gaps; present and future contributions of psychology toward women's conditions. It is pointed out how the research program could give (at least partially) answers to those questions. Some suggestions for subsequent research and action are proposed.     

Toward an Alliance Between the Issue-Processing Approach and Pragma-Dialectical Analysis

On the approach to discussions of policy choices that treats such discussions as instances of issue-processing, the joint use of the logic of questions and the logic of rules gives precise formulation to two sorts of issues. To one sort of issue belong issue-circumscribing questions; to another sort, issues-simplicter, which consist of disjunctions of policy proposals – so many proposed social rules – that are answers, in the case of each disjunction, to a given issue-circumscribing question. Work in pragma-dialectics can take over the issue-processing approach; and by doing so add to the pragma-dialectical repertory further dimensions in the analysis of issues and in protocol-narratives of discussion. The analysis and narratives would now include accounts of how issue-circumscribing questions generate initial standpoints and how discussions sometimes end with compromises between standpoints. Further research questions follow about transformations of issues and the comparison of successive rounds of discussion. A narrative of one period of discussion during `the War on Drugs' in the United States illustrates these points.     

Mood and memories of parental rearing styles: A comparison of mood effects on questionnaire-cued and free recall of autobiographical memories

The relationship between memories of childhood experiences (e.g., adverse parenting) and adult depression often found raises questions of interpretation. On the one hand, both laboratory studies and clinicians' experiences suggest that subjects in a depressed mood frequently show a negative bias in perceptions and memories. Negative childhood memories in depressed persons might, therefore, be interpreted as epiphenomena of depressed mood instead of etiological factors. On the other hand, memories of childhood experiences seem remarkably stable across changes in depressed mood, especially when memories are elicited by means of standardized questionnaires. In the mood and memory literature several explanations for this stability are offered. For one thing, highly structured cues to elicit memories (such as in questionnaires) are hypothesized to be less susceptible to mood bias than unstructured memory cues (such as in free recall procedures). On the other hand, resource allocation theorists suggest that childhood memories, being well established and rehearsed, are relatively impervious to mood bias no matter how they are elicited. In this study we examined whether different methods of eliciting childhood memories (i.e., free recall and questionnaire-cued) are differentially susceptible to mood bias. To this aim, we used a mood induction procedure to induce depressed, neutral, and elated mood and assessed childhood memories both before and after the mood induction using both questionnaires and free recall to elicit memories. Results suggested that memories elicited by means of free recall as well as by means of questionnaire-cued recall were susceptible to depressed and elated mood bias. The implications for research addressing the link between childhood experiences and depression are discussed.     

QUAID: A questionnaire evaluation aid for survey methodologists

QUAID (question-understanding aid) is a software tool that assists survey methodologists, social scientists, and designers of questionnaires in improving the wording, syntax, and semantics of questions. The tool identifies potential problems that respondents might have in comprehending the meaning of questions on questionnaires. These problems can be scrutinized by researchers when they revise questions to improve question comprehension and, thereby, enhance the reliability and validity of answers. QUAID was designed to identify nine classes of problems, but only five of these problems are addressed in this article: unfamiliar technical term, vague or imprecise relative term, vague or ambiguous noun phrase, complex syntax, and working memory overload. We compared the output of QUAID with ratings of language experts who evaluated a corpus of questions on the five classes of problems. The corpus consisted of 505 questions on 11 surveys developed by the U.S. Census Bureau. Analyses of hit rates, false alarm rates,d′ scores, recall scores, and precision scores revealed that QUAID was able to identify these five problems with questions, although improvements in QUAID’s performance are anticipated in future research and development.     

强调范围对句子重音知觉的影响及其声学表现的研究

通过韵律匹配度知觉实验和声学参数分析,探讨了句子层面上不同强调范围对句子重音知觉的影响。实验材料为精心设计的语料,两名发音人在问答匹配的实验范式下朗读,以自然的方式强调相应内容。20名被试对不同强调范围的问答句进行韵律匹配度知觉判断。结果发现,一些答句和问句之间的匹配可以替换,另一些答句只与对应的问句匹配。句子重音的实现符合节律栅规则。通过对不同语境下音节的时长和音高进行声学参数分析。结果表明,时长延长和音高升高都是重音的声学表现。时长增加涉及的范围没有因句子重音的强调范围不同而不同。     

Origines et développement des théories d’horloge interne du temps psychologique

The article describes the origins and development of internal clock theory. The history is traced via body temperature studies in the 1920s and 1930s, with input from 19th. century and early 20th. century psychophysics, through to the model of Treisman (1963). This model derived timed behaviour from an interaction of internal clock, memory store, and comparison processes. A successor to Treisman's model was the scalar expectancy theory (SET) of Gibbon and colleagues (1984). The origins of SET in animal Psychology are described, as is its application to human timing (in the early 1990s), in particular recent work on the operation of the internal clock itself. Finally, a discussion of some recent developmental studies of timing illustrates both how internal clock models have been applied, and how modern research may require a reconceptualization of the operation of classical internal clock models.