Meaning gained versus meaning lost: The effects of meaning salience on anxiety and depression during the coronavirus pandemic

People who have meaningful lives generally experience less anxiety and depression. Meaning salience, or the awareness of the meaning in one's life, is believed to partially explain this relationship. However, in times of isolation, what might be most salient to people are the meaningful aspects of their lives that have disappeared. This study seeks to understand how making gained versus lost meaning salient affects anxiety and depression. Participants either wrote for 5 minutes about how their life gained meaning (n = 29) or lost meaning (n = 30) due to the coronavirus restrictions, or about music (i.e., the control condition; n = 32). Those who wrote about gained meaning experienced less momentary anxiety than those who wrote about lost meaning. In addition, meaning salience moderated the relationship between meaning and both anxiety and depression. Those who wrote about gained meaning appeared to exhibit a positive relationship between meaning in life (MIL) and both anxiety and depression, while those who wrote about lost meaning exhibited negative relationships. In all, this suggests that meaning salience is not always positive and that researchers and practitioners should consider how making positive meaning salient may be more beneficial than a general focus on MIL.     

Women's disclosure of sexual abuse

Abstract

In this qualitative study of women who have experienced nonconsensual sexual activity, participants were asked to write accounts of their experiences focusing on what motivated them to confide in someone, to whom they confided, what the outcome was, and how it effected them. Participants had to be female and 18 years of age or older, and they had to have been sexually abused at some point in their lives. A total of 10 women participated. Nine of the women wrote about an abusive experience that happened to them as a child, and one wrote about an experience that occurred in adulthood. The participants wrote that they were able to disclose their past sexually abusive experience because they felt safe with the person to whom they confided, they felt they needed help, and the opportunity presented itself. They were more likely to disclose to non-family members than family members, and the majority of the people they disclosed to had a positive reaction. Consequently, most of the women in this study were positively affected by their disclosure. Findings of this study are similar to those of other studies on disclosure and sexual abuse.     

A randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of writing as a self-help intervention for traumatic injury patients at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder

The study investigated the effects of writing and self-help information on severity of psychological symptoms in traumatic injury patients at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Patients attending Accident and Emergency (A & E), were screened for Acute Stress Disorder and randomised to an information control group (n = 36) or a writing and information group (n = 31). Participants in both groups received an information booklet one-month post-injury. Participants in the writing group also wrote about emotional aspects of their trauma during three 20-min sessions, five to six weeks post-injury. Psychological assessments were completed within one month and at three and six months post-injury. There were significant improvements on measures of anxiety, depression and PTSD over time. Differences between groups on these measures were not statistically significant. However, subjective ratings of the usefulness of writing were high. In conclusion, the results do not currently support the use of writing as a targeted early intervention technique for traumatic injury patients at risk of developing PTSD.     

Two Types of Conditioned Reflex and a Pseudo Type

Although it is widely known that memory is enhanced when encoding and retrieval occur in the same state, the impact of elevated stress/arousal is less understood. This study explores mood-dependent memory's effects on visual recognition and recall of material memorized either in a neutral mood or under higher stress/arousal levels. Participants’ (N = 60) recognition and recall were assessed while they experienced either the same or a mismatched mood at retrieval. The results suggested that both visual recognition and recall memory were higher when participants experienced the same mood at encoding and retrieval compared with those who experienced a mismatch in mood context between encoding and retrieval. These findings offer support for a mood dependency effect on both the recognition and recall of visual information.     

The Effect of Holy Qur’an Recitation on Depressive Symptoms in Hemodialysis Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Patients with advanced renal failure often face considerable sociopsychological stress as a result of lifestyle changes due to the disease and its treatment. The aim of the present study is to examine the effect of the Holy Qur’an recitation on depressive symptoms in hemodialysis patients. In this clinical trial, 54 hemodialysis patients were randomized to either an experimental (n = 27) or a control (n = 27) group. Patients completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) at baseline and at 1 month after the intervention. Participants in the experimental group listened to recitation of the Holy Qur’an, while those in the control group received no intervention. The mean BDI-II score at baseline was 33.6 (±6.7) for the experimental group and 29.3 (±9.0) for the control group; at the end of treatment, BDI-II scores in the experimental and control groups were 14.5 (±4.8) and 31.6 (±9.2), respectively. Results from the repeated-measures general linear model controlling for baseline differences indicated a significant treatment effect (F = 9.30, p = 0.004, Cohen’s d = 0.85). Holy Qur’an recitation has a significant effect on lowering depressive symptoms in hemodialysis patients. Holy Qur’an recitation is an easy-to-implement and cost-effective strategy that may be used to supplement the treatment of depression in this setting in Iran.

     

Can the positive effects of inspiration be extended to different domains?

It is presently unknown whether inspiration extends across different domains: can a salesperson, for example, be inspired by a successful athlete? The present study investigated whether inspirational content must be relevant to a subsequent task to improve performance. Participants (N = 70) wrote about a time they felt inspired in a sporting context (domain‐relevant), creative context (domain‐irrelevant); or amused (positive control). Participants then held a handgrip, with the option of giving up or continuing to exhaustion. Regardless of the relevance of the inspirational content to the performance task, inspired participants were less likely to give up than controls. This is the first research to show that the benefits of inspiration reach beyond the domain defined by the inspiring event.     

Gratitude predicts hope and happiness: A two-study assessment of traits and states

Abstract

Gratitude is the appreciation of a gift received; happiness is the enjoyment of a present good; and hope is the desire for a valued future. Two studies investigated gratitude as a predictor of hope and happiness. In Study 1, hierarchical regressions (N = 181) revealed that trait gratitude exceeded other constructs (forgivingness, patience, self-control) in predicting trait hope and happiness. In Study 2, we experimentally tested the impact of a gratitude-related writing intervention on state hope and happiness. Participants (N = 153) first wrote about a current, meaningful, hoped-for outcome and completed state hope and happiness measures. Participants were randomly assigned to either (a) gratefully remember a past hope that had been fulfilled or (b) a control condition. The grateful remembering condition (vs. control) prompted significant increases in state hope and happiness, commending grateful remembering as a practice that can bolster present happiness and hope for the future.     

Self-controlled practice: Autonomy protects perceptions of competence and enhances motor learning

ObjectiveIn previous self-controlled feedback studies, it was observed that participants who could control their own feedback schedules usually use a strategy of choosing feedback after successful trials, and present superior motor learning when compared with participants who were not allowed to choose. Yoked participants of these studies, however, were thwarted not only regarding autonomy but also, presumably, regarding perceived competence, as their feedback schedules were provided randomly, regarding good or bad trials. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether self-controlled feedback schedules would have differential effects on learning if yoked participants are provided with feedback after good trials at the same rate as their self-controlled counterparts.DesignExperimental study with two groups. Timing accuracy was assessed in two different experimental phases, supplemented by questionnaire data.MethodParticipants practiced a coincident-anticipation timing task with a self-controlled or yoked feedback schedule during practice. Participants of the self-controlled group were able to ask for feedback for two trials, after each of five 6-trial practice blocks. Yoked participants received a feedback schedule matching the self-control group schedule, according to accuracy.ResultsParticipants asked for (self-controlled group) and received (yoked group) feedback, mainly after relatively good trials. However, participants of the self-controlled group reported greater self-efficacy at the end of practice, and performed with greater accuracy one day later, on the retention test, than the yoked group.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that the autonomy provided by self-controlled feedback protocols can raise learners' perceptions of competence, with positive consequences on motor learning.     

Can Emotional Disclosure Promote Sport Injury-Related Growth?

This study makes an original and rigorous contribution to the psychology of sport injury literature by examining the efficacy of emotional disclosure to promote sport-injury-related growth (SIRG). Participants (N = 45) were assigned to one of three groups (i.e., written disclosure [WD], verbal disclosure [VD], or control), 30 of whom took part in social validation interviews (>45 hr) and member reflections to evidence methodological rigor. The VD group experienced SIRG. There was no significant difference between the WD and control groups. Practical implications are considered at intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. Future research on emotional disclosure should proceed with caution and diversify.     

Increasing Positive Affect in College Students

Previous research has shown that self-focused writing interventions produce increases in positive affect. This paper examines whether writing about someone else will produce similar increases in positive affect in college students. In Experiment 1, participants wrote about their ideal future, the ideal future of a loved one, or their daily activities. In Experiment 2, participants wrote about three good things or three neutral things that happened either to themselves or to others. In both experiments, participants who wrote about positive outcomes reported increases in positive affect greater than the control group regardless of whether they wrote about themselves or wrote about others. In Experiment1, the increase in positive affect was greater for those who wrote about themselves than those who wrote about others. No such difference was found in Experiment 2. Negative affect change scores did not differ across the groups in either experiment. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Young children's knowledge about the influence of thoughts on emotions in rule situations

Four‐year‐olds, 5‐year‐olds, and adults (N = 48) listened to stories featuring characters that experienced one of four types of thoughts after deciding to transgress or comply with a rule: thoughts about desires, rules, future negative outcomes, or future punishment. Participants predicted and explained the characters’ emotions. Results showed that young children, as with adults, predicted positive emotions for willpower and negative emotions for transgression at low rates for the think‐desire trials, and at high rates for the think‐rule and think‐future trials. They also modified their emotion explanations in line with the focus of characters’ thoughts. These data provide unprecedented evidence that young children can reason flexibly about emotions in rule situations when provided explicit, salient information about people's thoughts.     

The health benefits of writing about positive experiences: The role of broadened cognition

This study tested the potential to elicit a broadened attentional focus through writing about a positive life experience and to derive health benefits from such writing. Participants (n = 38) wrote for 20 min each day for 3 consecutive days about either a positive life experience or a control topic. Writing about positive experiences led to improved physical health (measured 4–6 weeks after writing) compared to control and higher levels of global cognitive focus after writing mediated this effect. Notably, while the positive writing condition was more broadened than control, positive affect was not responsible for this difference. Implications for disclosive writing and the broaden and build model are discussed.     

Examining explanatory mechanisms of positive and expressive writing: Towards a resource-oriented perspective

This study tested the hypothesis that benefits of positive and expressive writing accrue when the intervention matches or activates the participant’s personal resources. Students were randomly assigned to keep a newly developed resource diary (RD, n = 114), which asked the participants to write about positive experiences and personal resources, or an expressive writing diary (ED, n = 114), which asked the participants to engage with negative emotional experiences, at home on three consecutive days per week for four weeks. Participants keeping the RD perceived significantly more social support and reported a significantly better mood at post-test than participants keeping the ED. Compared to a control group (n = 81) treatment effects of both writing interventions were higher for participants with lower pre-test values of well-being and brooding as well as for participants who wrote in an ‘atmosphere of activated resources.’ It is suggested that research should move away from testing deficit-compensating hypotheses towards a stronger resource orientation.     

The futility of explicit knowledge of a sequence of tasks

In an experiment that combined the task-shifting methodology with a serial reaction-time task, three groups of participants had to shift among a set of four tasks that were arranged in regular sequences of length eight. Two groups of participants were given explicit knowledge about the sequence of tasks. To ensure that the knowledge of the sequence was referred to in each trial, one group was asked to verbalise the forthcoming task (verbalisation group), whereas the other group had to detect trials that deviated from the learned sequence (detection group). Participants of a control group were given no information about the sequence of tasks. In addition, for all experimental groups in half of the blocks of trials external precues were presented which indicated the forthcoming task. The control group exhibited substantial task-shifting costs that were greatly reduced by the presentation of precues. Participants of the explicit-knowledge groups showed no indication that explicit knowledge resulted in advance preparation of the forthcoming task. In addition, the effect of the precues depended on the secondary task that had to be performed on the basis of explicit knowledge. Whereas for the detection group precues reduced shift costs to the same degree as for the control group, the verbalisation group showed no precueing benefits at all.     

The effects of safety behaviors on health anxiety: an experimental investigation

The present study examined the extent to which safety behaviors exacerbate symptoms of hypochondriasis (severe health anxiety). Participants were randomized into a safety behavior (n = 30) or control condition (n = 30). After a baseline period, participants in the safety behavior condition spent one week actively engaging in a clinically representative array of health-related safety behaviors on a daily basis, followed by a second week-long baseline period. Participants in the control condition monitored their normal use of safety behaviors. Compared to control participants, those in the safety behavior condition reported significantly greater increases in health anxiety, hypochondriacal beliefs, contamination fear, and avoidant responses to health-related behavioral tasks after the safety behavior manipulation. In contrast, general anxiety symptoms did not significantly differ between the two groups as a function of the manipulation. Mediational analyses were consistent with the hypothesis that changes in the frequency of health-related thoughts mediated the effects of the experimental manipulation on health anxiety. These findings suggest that safety behaviors are associated with increases in health anxiety, perhaps by fostering catastrophic thoughts about health. The implications of these findings for the conceptualization of hypochondriasis as an anxiety disorder are discussed.     

Randomised controlled pilot trial of mindfulness training for stress reduction during pregnancy

This randomised controlled pilot trial tested a six-week mindfulness-based intervention in a sample of pregnant women experiencing high levels of perceived stress and pregnancy anxiety. Forty-seven women enrolled between 10 and 25 weeks gestation were randomly assigned to either a series of weekly Mindful Awareness Practices classes (n = 24) with home practice or to a reading control condition (n = 23). Hierarchical linear models of between-group differences in change over time demonstrated that participants in the mindfulness intervention experienced larger decreases from pre-to post-intervention in pregnancy-specific anxiety and pregnancy-related anxiety (PRA) than participants in the reading control condition. However, these effects were not sustained through follow-up at six weeks post-intervention. Participants in both groups experienced increased mindfulness, as well as decreased perceived stress and state anxiety over the course of the intervention and follow-up periods. This study is one of the first randomised controlled pilot trials of a mindfulness meditation intervention during pregnancy and provides some evidence that mindfulness training during pregnancy may effectively reduce PRA and worry. We discuss some of the dilemmas in pursuing this translational strategy and offer suggestions for researchers interested in conducting mind-body interventions during pregnancy.     

Conversation on mental states at nursery: Promoting social cognition in early childhood

Despite growing evidence that conversation on inner states fosters gains in children’s social cognition, this mechanism has yet to be tested with toddlers. To address this gap, we examined whether an intervention based on conversing about mental states with small groups of 2-year-old children at nursery had a significant effect on toddlers’ theory of mind (ToM) and emotion understanding (EU). Participants were 68 children (M_age at pre-test: 29.9 months) who were assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. Measures of verbal ability, ToM and EU were administered at pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. Over a one-month intervention, all children were read a series of brief illustrated stories. After listening to the stories, the experimental group (n = 34) was involved in conversations on mental states, whereas the control group (n = 34) was engaged in conversation regarding the material entities and actions featured in the storybook. The experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on measures of both ToM and EU, independently of gains in verbal ability. Furthermore, these positive effects remained stable over time. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Convince Me: The Effects of Persuasive Writing on Event Centrality

Recent research has demonstrated that event centrality, the degree to which an event has become part of one's identity, predicts post‐event distress. However, little research has examined factors or situations which may increase centrality. The aim of the current study was to examine how the instructions in a writing task may impact event centrality. Participants identified their ‘worst’ event and then either wrote persuasively about the impact of the event or wrote a factual account of the event and completed self‐report measures pre‐writing and post‐writing. We found no group differences when examining all participants; however, we did find significantly higher centrality in the persuasive group for those participants who had experienced a traumatic event as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. Our results demonstrate that event centrality is amenable to change in response to written interventions, and these results may have significant implications for situations in which individuals are required to convincingly describe their traumatic experiences. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of disclosure of traumatic events on illness behavior among psychiatric prison inmates

To assess the health effects of writing about traumatic events in a clinical population, 98 psychiatric prison inmates were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions in which they were asked to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings surrounding upsetting experiences (trauma writing condition), write about trivial topics (trivial writing control), or go about their daily routine without writing (no-writing control). Both writing groups wrote for 20 min per day for 3 consecutive days. Participants in the trauma condition reported experiencing more physical symptoms subsequent to the intervention relative to those in the other conditions. Despite this, controlling for prewriting infirmary visits, sex offenders in the trauma writing condition decreased their postwriting infirmary visits. These results are congruent with predictions based on stigmatization and inhibition.