A qualitative analysis of the role of emotions in different patterns of long-term weight loss

Objective: To explore participant perspectives of the impact emotions have on weight loss.

Design: A qualitative design gathered data through semi-structured interviews with participants in a weight management programme. The interview addresses the following research questions: (1) how do individuals working to lose weight perceive the impact emotions have on their long-term success, and (2) what strategies do more or less successful participants use to regulate their emotions? Researchers conducted and transcribed the interviews then completed content analysis to create and organise themes.

Results: Two broad themes emerged through the interviews with 21 participants: emotional impact and emotional regulation. Further subthemes captured emotions blocking action toward goals, strategies for regulating emotions (e.g. exercise, food) and the need for new strategies to regulate emotions. Themes were also split in to three groups based on weight outcomes: regainer, moderate success (3–6% loss) and large success (>7% loss). More successful participants, compared to regainers, shared being aware of the impact of their emotions and made efforts to develop healthy regulation strategies.

Conclusions: Emotional awareness and regulation play an important role in participant’s weight management experience. Taking time to build emotional awareness and strategies to manage emotions is important to participants in weight management.     

Choosing goals that express the true self: A novel mechanism of the effect of self-control on goal attainment

Why is trait self-control associated with successful goal progress? Existing research has attempted to answer this question by focusing on individual differences in the process of goal pursuit. Herein, we propose and test a novel mechanism suggesting that self-control facilitates goal attainment not only by affecting the process of goal pursuit but also the type of goals people select in the first place. Three studies showed that high (vs. low) self-control individuals are more likely to report successful goal attainment and this association was mediated by their tendency to select the goals that reflect their true/authentic self. These results were obtained using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs and were robust against controlling for previously established mechanisms of the effect of trait self-control on goal attainment (habit strength, experiences of goal-conflicting desires). Overall, there findings contribute to the literatures on self-regulation, authenticity and goal management.     

Self-control: An integrative framework

Research on self-control has flourished within the last two decades, with many researchers trying to answer one of the most fundamental questions regarding human behaviour—how do we successfully regulate desires in the pursuit of long-term goals? While recent research has focused on different strategies to enhance self-control success, we still know very little about how strategies are implemented or where the need for self-control comes from in the first place. Drawing from parallel fields (e.g., emotion regulation, health) and other theories of self-regulation, we propose an integrative framework that describes self-control as a dynamic, multi-stage process that unfolds over time. In this review, we first provide an overview of this framework, which poses three stages of regulation: the identification of the need for self-control, the selection of strategies to regulate temptations, and the implementation of chosen strategies. These regulatory stages are then flexibly monitored over time. We then expand this framework by outlining a series of growth points to guide future research. By bridging across theories and disciplines, the present framework improves our understanding of how self-control unfolds in everyday life.     

N-of-1 study of weight loss maintenance assessing predictors of physical activity,adherence to weight loss plan and weight change

Objective: Behaviour change interventions are effective in supporting individuals to achieve clinically significant weight loss, but weight loss maintenance (WLM) is less often attained. This study examined predictive variables associated with WLM.

Design: N-of-1 study with daily ecological momentary assessment combined with objective measurement of weight and physical activity, collected with wireless devices (Fitbit?) for six months. Eight previously obese adults who had lost over 5% of their body weight in the past year took part. Data were analysed using time series methods.

Main outcomes measures: Predictor variables were based on five theoretical themes: maintenance motives, self-regulation, personal resources, habits, and environmental influences. Dependent variables were: objectively estimated step count and weight, and self-reported WLM plan adherence.

Results: For all participants, daily fluctuations in self-reported adherence to their WLM plan were significantly associated with most of the explanatory variables, including maintenance motivation and satisfaction with outcomes, self-regulation, habit, and stable environment. Personal resources were not a consistent predictor of plan adherence.

Conclusion: This is the first study to assess theoretical predictions of WLM within individuals. WLM is a dynamic process including the interplay of motivation, self-regulation, habit, resources, and perceptions of environmental context. Individuals maintaining their weight have unique psychological profiles which could be accounted for in interventions.     

I'll Start My Diet Tomorrow: A Solution-Focused Approach to Weight Loss

This article illustrates through a personal case example how Solution-Focused Brief Therapy concepts can help people lose weight and keep it off.     

Self‐control depletion impairs goal maintenance: A meta‐analysis

Initial exertion of self‐control has been suggested to impair subsequent self‐regulatory performance. The specific cognitive processes that underlie this ego depletion effect have rarely been examined. Drawing on the dual‐process theory of executive control (Engle & Kane, 2004 ; Kane & Engle, 2003 ), the current meta‐analysis revealed that initial self‐control exertion impairs participants’ capacities of maintaining the task goal but its effect on capacities of resolving response competition is in need of further investigation. Our results are more consistent with recent theoretical views that consider ego depletion as a switch cost and a result arising from reduced motivation to engage in further self‐control.     

Temperament as Risk and Protective Factors in Obesogenic Eating: Relations Among Parent Temperament,Child Temperament,and Child Food Preference and Eating

Children’s food preferences and eating behaviors have implications for their health and weight status, serving as risk or protective factors for obesity. Although parent and child factors influence children’s eating, few studies have examined parent and child temperament simultaneously in relation to child food preference and eating behaviors. The authors addressed this research gap. Participants were 115 ethnically diverse children between 4 and 6?years old and their parents. Measures included parental temperament traits, parental anxiety, child temperament traits, and child food preference and eating behaviors observed using a laboratory procedure. Results show that children preferred candies over grapes, and that aspects of both child and adult temperament were related to child eating behaviors. Child surgency was linked to eating more candies, while child effortful control was linked to eating more grapes. Parent effortful control was related to children’s preference toward grapes. No relations were found between child eating behaviors and child or parent negative affectivity and parental anxiety. Overall, findings suggest that highly impulsive and poorly self-regulated children may be at risk for obesogenic eating habits.     

The roles of autonomous motivation and self-control lapses in concurrent adherence to a gluten-free diet and a self-chosen weight loss plan in adults with coeliac disease

Objective: Examine the correspondence between autonomous motivation, self-control lapses, and adherence, to a gluten-free diet (GFD) and weight loss plan in adults with coeliac disease; and assess the impact of the interaction of motivation style and self-control lapses on adherence to both diets.

Design: Cross-sectional survey in 519 adults with coeliac disease, 238 of whom were also attempting weight loss.

Main outcome measures: Adherence, motivation style, frequency of temptation and self-control lapses (e.g. when tired, stressed, happy) for GFD and weight loss plan.

Results: Autonomous motivation was higher, and amotivation lower, for the GFD than weight loss; adherence to the two diets was unrelated. Similar circumstances led to temptation and self-control lapses across diets; both were less frequent for the GFD than weight loss. Motivation and self-control lapses explained 21% and 35% of the variance in adherence, respectively; the interaction between motivation and lapse frequency did not explain additional variance for either diet.

Conclusions: There are clear benefits to developing autonomous motivations and strategies to resist temptation for both the GFD and weight loss. Understanding how these processes differ and interact across diets may lead to the design of interventions to improve adherence and weight outcomes in coeliac disease.     

心理对照策略的内涵、功能及其相关研究

心理对照是指人们在思维过程中首先想象目标实现后的收获,然后思考现实中阻碍实现目标的因素,通过对比目标实现后的收获和现实中的障碍,使未来和现实同时通达,在未来和现实之间建立起心理联结,激活个体达成目标(成功)的期望。心理对照策略不仅能够改变人们的认知和动机,还能够改变个体对于消极反馈的反应。文章系统梳理了心理对照策略的内涵、功能及其应用研究,在此基础上,提出了4点未来的研究展望。     

影响说谎行为的情境因素——基于自我概念维持理论的视角

情境因素会影响人们的说谎行为。本文基于自我概念维持理论的视角,从个体内部状态（自我控制资源、宗教表征/道德观念启动）和外部因素（金钱奖励、人际因素）两方面介绍情境因素对说谎行为的影响,并指出未来研究应关注自我觉察水平这一情境因素以及情境因素影响说谎行为的心理机制和神经机制。     

Treatment of overweight children: The relationship between dependent measures and a clinically significant outcome

Behavioral treatments for overweight children have not fared well in achieving or maintaining clinically significant weight losses. The use of more appropriate dependent measures which also take height, sex, and age into consideration is suggested. A multiple-baseline analysis of the behavioral treatment of seven overweight children was conducted. Results support the contention that a more clinically significant outcome emerges when appropriate measures are used.     

Hope,goals, and pathways: Further validating the hope scale with observer ratings

ABSTRACT

Objective: For the past two decades, hope theory has been an important framework for conceptualizing goal pursuits. Surprisingly there has been little effort to test the underlying suppositions of hope theory or to further validate the Hope Scale.

Method: In Study 1, participants (N = 162, M_age = 19, 61% female) completed the Hope Scale and nominated goals they would like to accomplish in the next few months. Goals were coded on several dimensions. In Study 2, participants (N = 118, M_age = 19, 59% female) completed the Hope Scale, measures of optimism and self-efficacy, and generated workable pathways for achieving standardized goals.

Results: Hope scores predicted setting objectively important, prosocial, long-term, and challenging goals. Hope (but not optimism or self-efficacy) was associated with generating more pathways for standardized goals.

Conclusions: The results of these studies generally support the tenets of hope theory and provide further validation for the Hope Scale. As expected, people with higher hope were more likely than their lower-hope counterparts to engage in what has been considered successful goal-setting behavior. Hope is associated with important goal-relevant behaviors and efforts to increase hopeful thought may be important in helping individuals to move toward important life outcomes.     

Complicated grief following job loss: Risk factors for its development and maintenance

Increasing evidence shows that job loss can lead to symptoms of complicated grief (CG). However, little is known about which factors relate to the development and maintenance of CG symptoms following job loss. This study aimed to examine risk factors for the development and maintenance of job loss-related CG symptoms. For this study 485 Dutch workers who had lost their job were recruited (239 men and 246 women), with an average age of 50.2 years. A subsample of 128 participants also completed questionnaires at a six-month follow-up. We conducted correlational and multiple regression analyses (MRA) to examine the influence of the former work situation, coping strategies, and negative cognitions on job loss-related CG symptoms. MRA results showed that belief in an unjust world was related to job loss-related CG symptoms, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Further, there was a significant relationship between CG symptoms following job loss and a preference for maladaptive coping over adaptive coping styles and a low level of self-esteem. This effect remained stable over time. These findings can inform the development of interventions for and early detection of job loss-related CG symptoms.     

How effortful decisions get enacted: the motivating role of decision processes,desires, and anticipated emotions

Building on recent research examining the influence of decision making on subsequent goal striving and decision enactment, we consider and elaborate on the mechanisms through which effortful decisions are made, maintained, and enacted. Our proposed framework builds on the Dholakia and Bagozzi ( 2002 ) model, distinguishes between two important types of intentions and desires, and shows that the motivation‐mustering function of the decision process is mediated by goal and implementation desires. In addition to decision processes, the roles of goal feasibility, anticipated emotions, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are also elaborated on. Through a two‐wave field study tracking real decisions and their pursuit by participants, we find empirical support for our model of effortful decision making and enactment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-compassion at work: A self-regulation perspective on its beneficial effects for work performance and wellbeing

The work environment is fraught with complex demands, hardships, and challenges, highlighting the need to approach work with self-compassion each day. We propose that work self-compassion—a mindset of kindness, gentleness, and care toward oneself as an employee—may generate the resources and motivation needed for self-regulation at work. Drawing from integrated self-control theory (ISCT) and theory on self-compassion, we suggest that on days when employees hold a work self-compassionate mindset, they will exhibit greater work performance and wellbeing via enhanced resource capacity and motivation. In an experimental experience sampling study, we found that a work self-compassionate mindset reduced depletion and increased work self-esteem and thereby heightened daily work engagement and daily resilience. Consequently, employees made greater goal progress at work and experienced higher meaning in life. In a supplemental study, we show that state self-compassion at work is associated with unique variance in work outcomes beyond compassion received from coworkers. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for self-compassion in organizational contexts.     

Predicting 2-year weight loss through temporally specific earlier losses,relevant behaviors,and their psychological correlates: Implications for behavioral treatment architectures

Maintaining loss of weight beyond an initial 6–9 months remains problematic, with research indicating little recent progress. A poor understanding of how and when prior weight loss, behavioral changes, and psychosocial predictors are associated with long-term weight changes persists. To better-inform behavioral treatments for long-term success with weight loss, women with obesity (N = 86; M_age = 48.6 years) volunteered for research incorporating community-based weight-management treatments. They were assessed at months 6, 12, and 24 on theory-based psychosocial and behavioral factors, and over 24 months on weight. Considering the included times and temporal ranges, it was found that change in weight from month 6–24 was the strongest predictor of 24-month weight change, and physical activity and fruit/vegetable intake at month 24 best predicted that change in weight. Self-regulation, self-efficacy, and mood at month 24 best predicted both physical activity and fruit/vegetable intake at month 24, with body satisfaction also a significant predictor of physical activity. From these data, mediation analyses found that the predictions of long-term weight loss by scores of self-regulation, self-efficacy, body satisfaction, and mood at month 24 were significantly mediated by fruit/vegetable intake and physical activity in separate equations. Findings indicated both psychosocial and behavioral targets, and timing for those targets, most indicative of long-term success with weight loss.     

Action Phases and Goal Setting: Being Optimistic After Decision Making Without Getting into Trouble

According to Gollwitzer's mindset theory, people in postdecisional action phases, who are about to implement a chosen action or goal, are supposed to be more optimistic than people in predecisional action phases, who are deliberating on different actions or goals (P. M. Gollwitzer, 1990). The present experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that postdecisional people are optimistic in a way that does not set them up for failure and disappointment. In three experiments it is shown that people who are in an implemental mindset neither set more demanding goals than do deliberative people nor do they inflate their performance predictions. Instead, they are more confident in reaching their goals and more cautious when predicting future performance. This behavior is interpreted in terms of a strategy that allows people to hold optimistic beliefs without facing the danger of exaggerated goal setting or a disconfirmation of their beliefs.     

Family factors and adolescent substance use: models and mechanisms

This article considers the relation of family factors to adolescent substance use, with a focus on the specific pathways by which family factors have their effects. We review findings on four types of variables (family substance use, parental support and monitoring, parent-child conflict, and family life events) and discuss theoretical models of how family risk and protective factors are related to adolescents' outcomes. The evidence favors a transactional model in which family factors have largely mediated effects on adolescent substance use through relations to adolescents' self-control, life events, and peer affiliations; interactions between variables are also prominent. We discuss the implications of mediated effects for theoretical models of human development and consider how the transactional approach opens avenues for preventive intervention.     

An Open Trial Examining Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills and Behavioral Weight Loss for Adults With Emotional Eating and Overweight/Obesity

Third-wave cognitive behavioral interventions for weight loss have shown promise. However, sparse data exists on the use of dialectical behavior therapy for weight loss. Adapted dialectical behavior therapy skills programs may be especially well suited for adults who engage in emotional eating and are seeking weight loss. Dialectical behavior therapy is skills-based, shares theoretical links to emotional eating, and is effective in treating binge eating. The current study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of Live FREE: FReedom from Emotional Eating, a 16-session group-based intervention. A total of 87 individuals expressed interest in the program, and 39 adults with overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25) and elevated self-reported emotional eating were enrolled. Live FREE targeted emotional eating in the initial sessions 1–9, and sessions 10–16 focused primarily on behavioral weight loss skills while continuing to reinforce emotion regulation training. Assessments were administered at baseline, posttreatment, and 6-month follow up. Enrolled participants were primarily female (97.4%) and Caucasian (91.7%). Treatment retention was strong with participants attending an average of 14.3 sessions and 89.7% of participants completing the intervention. On average, participants lost 3.00 kg at posttreatment, which was maintained at follow-up. Intent-to-treat analyses showed improvements in key outcome variables (self-reported emotional eating, BMI, emotion regulation) over the course of the intervention. Combining dialectical behavior therapy skills with conventional behavioral weight loss techniques may be an effective intervention for adults with overweight/obesity who report elevated emotional eating.