Neuroticism and extraversion as mediators between positive/negative life events and resilience

Positive and negative life events have been demonstrated to play an important role regarding the development of resilience. However, it is less clear how life events interact with personality factors in forming individual resilience. Thus, the present study investigates the mediating effects of the two main complementary personality dimensions extraversion and neuroticism on the relationship between life events and resilience in adulthood. Traumatic Antecedent Questionnaire (TAQ), NEO-Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) were administered to 201 healthy subjects. Results from path analyses (AMOS) revealed that the personality factors neuroticism and extraversion (measured by NEO-FFI) fully mediated the association between positive life events and resilience. This is the first study to date using psychometric assessment to explore the possible pathways from positive/negative life experiences to resilience.     

Experiential avoidance as a generalized psychological vulnerability: comparisons with coping and emotion regulation strategies

Extending previous work, we conducted two studies concerning the toxic influences of experiential avoidance (EA) as a core mechanism in the development and maintenance of psychological distress, and disruption of pleasant, engaging, and spontaneous activity. Of particular interest was whether EA accounted for relationships between coping and emotion regulation strategies on anxiety-related pathology (Study 1) and psychological distress and hedonic functioning over the course of a 21-day monitoring period (Study 2). In Study 1, EA mediated the effects of maladaptive coping, emotional responses styles, and uncontrollability on anxiety-related distress (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, trait anxiety, suffocation fears, and body sensation fears). In Study 2, EA completely mediated the effects of two emotion regulation strategies (i.e., suppression and reappraisal) on daily negative and positive experiences and was associated with diminished daily positive affective experiences and healthy life appraisals, diminished frequency of positive events and more frequent negative life events, and greater negative affective experiences. The present data show that cognitive reappraisal, a primary process of traditional cognitive-behavior therapy, was much less predictive of the quality of psychological experiences and events in everyday life compared with EA. Further consideration of experiential avoidance as a generalized diathesis and toxic process will be useful in improving our understanding of the etiology, phenomenology, and treatment of anxiety conditions, general human suffering, and disruptions in hedonic capacity.     

Relationships Between Meaning in Life,Social and Achievement Events,and Positive and Negative Affect in Daily Life

Research on meaning in life has generally focused on global meaning judgments. This study examined how people's daily experiences, represented by events that occur in daily life, influence their perceived sense of meaning on a daily basis. One hundred sixty‐two college students completed daily reports for 2 weeks. We examined the relationships among daily social and achievement events, daily positive and negative affect, and daily meaning in life. In addition, we tested the possible moderating influence of depressive symptoms on these relationships. Positive daily social and achievement events were related to greater daily meaning, above and beyond the contributions of daily positive and negative affect. Negative social and achievement events were related to less daily meaning, and negative achievement events covaried with daily meaning above and beyond positive and negative affect. Depression moderated the relationships between positive events and meaning, such that people who reported more depressive symptoms had greater increases in daily meaning in response to positive social and achievement events than individuals who reported fewer symptoms. These findings suggest the important role that daily events may play in fluctuations in people's affective experiences and sense of meaning in life.     

Stress-buffering factors related to adolescent coping: a path analysis

To uncover those factors that buffer the impact of stressful negative experiences on adolescent adjustment, a theoretical model of adolescent stress and coping, with social support and social problem solving proposed as moderators, was investigated using path analysis. The study was conducted with 122 ninth-and tenth-grade nonreferred high school students. Using the LISREL statistical package (J?reskog & S?rbom, 1986), it was found that a recursive loop leading from stress outcomes back to negative stressors did not allow for a successful solution to the model. However, the effects of stressful events on adjustment were mediated by coping resources, which included a combination of problem-solving abilities and social support. Overall, the findings replicated previous investigations that have demonstrated direct relationships among stressful life events, social support, problem solving, and adolescent adjustment. While a successful fit to the theoretical model was not attained, it was concluded that a refined model may provide a more acceptable solution.     

Personal vulnerability, life events, and depressive symptoms: a test of a specific interactional model

We tested Beck's (1983) hypothesis that depressive symptoms occur when an individual experiences a negative life event that specifically matches the individual's personal motivational vulnerability. Ninety-eight undergraduates completed measures of depression level, recent life events, and sociotropic and autonomous achievement motivations. Consistent with the theory, sociotropy was associated with depression level and also served as a moderator of the relations between depression and frequency of recent negative social events. However, sociotropy also demonstrated nonpredicted interactive effects with negative events categorized a priori as autonomy related. Autonomy was unrelated to depression and showed no evidence of being a vulnerability to any type of life event. The findings generally support the value of examining the role in depression of interactions between personality characteristics and life events, although they do not support the specific matching predictions.     

Octogenarian Reports of Lifetime Spiritual Experiences: Types of Experience and Early Life Predictors

This study assessed lifetime histories of discrete spiritual experiences recalled by 144 octogenarian men studied since adolescence and 80 spouses. Women were more likely to report discrete spiritual experiences, as were those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and those judged more open to experience as young adults. Factor analysis revealed four types of experiences related to beauty/nature, negative life events, protection by a sacred other, and traditional religious settings. Men from better childhood environments more commonly reported spiritual experiences concerning negative life events. Those with serious childhood illnesses were less likely to report experiences of feeling protected by a sacred other.     

情感强度不同负性生活事件对个体情感反应和行为选择的影响

采用系列实验方法探讨不同情感强度负性生活事件对个体情感反应和行为选择的影响。结果发现：（1）复合生活事件（1高负性+1低负性）为异类时,个体对复合事件的负性感受比单独1高负性事件更低,选择经历前者,出现平均效应;（2）复合生活事件为同类时,其负性感受比单独1高负性事件更高,选择经历后者,出现累加效应;（3）复合事件有明显的时间特点时,其情感和行为选择受事件发生时间影响,符合峰-终定律。结论：人们对负性生活事件的加工受其特点的影响,加工方式不同。     

Marital satisfaction of Chinese under stress: Moderating effects of personal control and social support

Stressful life events, personal control, and social support were examined relative to marital satisfaction among 1749 participants in seven Chinese cities. Stressful life events were categorized as life crises and life transitions. Life crises, rather than transitions, negatively predicted the marital satisfaction of Chinese. The moderating effects of personal control were found among women, but not men, and occurred only in the relationship between marital satisfaction and life crises, not life transitions. Social support buffers the negative effects of life crises on marital satisfaction. The results extend family stress‐coping theory in specifying two coping resources for Chinese marriages under stress.     

Infant–mother attachment security and children's anxiety and aggression at first grade

With a large and diverse sample of children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the role of infant–mother attachment security as a protective factor against the development of children's anxious and aggressive behaviors at first grade was examined. When child's sex, family income, maternal sensitivity, and prior levels of anxiety and aggression were controlled for, attachment security at 15 months of age was found to moderate the effects of negative life events families experienced, thereby protecting children from experiencing symptoms of anxiety, but not aggression, at 4.5 years of age. Children classified as insecurely attached at 15 months of age who experienced many stressful life events exhibited more anxiety symptoms in first grade than children classified as securely attached who similarly experienced many negative life events. These findings are interpreted within attachment theory, which predicts that early attachment security has a unique role in children's anxiety experiences later in childhood.     

Detecting and constructing meaning in life events

Three studies examined the meaning ascribed to events varying in intensity and valence and how meaning detection and construction relate to the experience of meaning in life events. In Study 1, participants were more likely to expect meaning to emerge from major life events particularly if they are negative, while trivial events were expected to be meaningful if they were positive. Study 2 showed that constructed meaning was more likely to occur in response to negative events while detected meaning was more likely to be associated with positive events. Study 3 showed that this ‘match’ between valence and meaning strategy predicted enhanced experience of meaning in those events. These studies suggest that the more subtle experience of meaning detection may provide a way to understand the meaning that emerges from positive events and experiences.     

Cognitive resources, valence, and memory retrieval of emotional events in older adults

In 2 studies with older adults, the authors investigated the effect of executive attention resources on the retrieval of emotional public events. Participants completed a battery of working memory tasks, as a measure of executive attention, and a battery of tasks assessing memory, as well as subjective experiences associated with the retrieval of remote public events. Participants also rated the valence of each public event story. The group-rated valence of the public event stories predicted retrieval and the quality of experiences associated with them, such that emotionally arousing events elicited the highest memory rates and the richest experiences. Furthermore, positive public events elicited the highest memory rates. Executive attention moderated only the relationship between event valence and how participants' associated memories are experienced at retrieval, such that superior executive attention resources predicted richer experiences associated with positive relative to neutral and negative stories. The current results extend previous findings on the effects of aging on emotion regulation, suggesting that cognitive control resources modulate subjective experiences associated with retrieved memories for remote real life events, but not memory retrieval itself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Sleep Quality and the Subjective Experience of Autobiographical Memory: Differential Associations by Memory Valence and Temporality

The primary goal of the present research was to examine associations between sleep quality and the subjective experience of autobiographical events. In an online study, 141 university students reported on past events that varied by valence (positive or negative) and temporality (most significant or from the previous 2 weeks); they also completed measures of sleep quality and depression. Relative to participants with good sleep quality, participants with poor sleep quality thought more about their negative experiences, reported negative events that occurred more frequently, and used more negative emotion words when describing recent negative events. In some instances, depressive symptoms mediated the relation between sleep quality and elements of autobiographical reports. Future experimental work should examine the directionality of these effects, with the ultimate goal of improving sleep quality, mental health, and the manner in which individuals discuss and make meaning of their negative life events. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A test of the functional avoidance hypothesis in the development of overgeneral autobiographical memory

Overgeneral memory (OGM) refers to the failure to recall memories of specific personally experienced events, which occurs in various psychiatric disorders. One pathway through which OGM is theorized to develop is the avoidance of thinking of negative experiences, whereby cumulative avoidance may maladaptively generalize to autobiographical memory (AM) more broadly. We tested this, predicting that negative experiences would interact with avoidance to predict AM specificity. In Study 1 (N = 281), negative life events (over six months) and daily hassles (over one month) were not related to AM specificity, nor was avoidance, and no interaction was found. In Study 2 (N = 318), we revised our measurements and used an increased timeframe of 12 months for both negative life events and daily hassles. The results showed no interaction effect for negative life events, but they did show an interaction for daily hassles, whereby increased hassles and higher avoidance of thinking about them were associated with reduced AM specificity, independent of general cognitive avoidance and depressive symptoms. No evidence was found that cognitive avoidance or AM specificity moderated the effect of negative experiences on depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that life events over 6–12 months are not associated with AM specificity, but chronic daily hassles over 12 months predict reduced AM specificity when individuals avoid thinking about them. The findings provide evidence for the functional-avoidance hypothesis of OGM development and future directions for longitudinal studies.     

Negative Life Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Incarcerated Boys with Callous-Unemotional Traits

Historically, researchers have searched extensively for biological explanations regarding causes of psychopathy and its theorized developmental precursor, callous-unemotional (CU) traits (i.e., lack of empathy/guilt, shallow affect). In consequence, environmental factors such as exposure to negative life events and posttraumatic stress that often follows have been relatively overlooked. The present study tests whether exposure to negative life events and related symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with CU traits among a sample of 238 incarcerated boys. Additionally, youth high on CU traits were disaggregated into primary and secondary variants based on the presence of anxiety to examine differences in their experiences of negative life events and PTSD symptoms. Results suggest that CU traits are significantly positively associated with both the experience of negative life events as well as PTSD symptomatology. Additionally, high-anxious youth scoring high on CU traits (secondary variant) were significantly more likely to report a history of negative life events and PTSD symptoms than were lower anxious boys scoring high on CU traits (primary type) and non-psychopathic youth. Thus, study findings warrant further exploration of how trauma might impact or maintain the development of CU traits over time and indicate that issues of differential diagnosis must be considered in order to more effectively tailor treatment for trauma-exposed CU youth.     

Distortion in control attributions for real life events

A pool of life events was prerated as either positive or negative and likely or unlikely to recur. Undergraduate subjects then rated their control over their own life events and the average student's control over his/her life events. As predicted, subjects self-attributed more control over positive than negative events and self-attributed more control than they attributed control to others for positive events. However, self-attributions and attributions to others of control for negative events did not differ. Results thus provided support for self-enhancement but not for self-protection. It was also predicted that control motivation would lead subjects to (a) self-attribute more control for recurrent than nonrecurrent events, (b) self-attribute more control than they attribute to others over all events, and (c) self-attribute more control than they attribute to others for recurrent but not nonrecurrent events. The first and second of these predictions were confirmed, providing support for the operation of control motivation on real life events.     

Chance events in career development: Influence, control and multiplicity

This article reports three studies on the nature and impact of chance events. The first study investigated chance events in terms of the dimensions of influence and control. The second and third studies investigated the effects of multiplicity of chance events on career development are in terms of respondents’ own careers and then in terms of career scenarios. Results indicated that chance events can be characterized by the interactive influence of influence and control. High influence and low control chance events had the biggest impact on career development. When there is a connection between multiple chance events, the impact is greater than when unrelated chance events occur. The finding was confirmed regardless of whether individuals rated their own experiences or those presented in scenarios. However, it was also found that negative outcome chance events had the greatest impact regardless of whether such events were single or multiple influences on individuals’ careers. The results provide further support for the integration of chance events into the Chaos Theory of Careers.     

To Tell or Not to Tell: Disclosure and the Narrative Self

ABSTRACT Drawing from a narrative identity framework, we present the results of three studies examining the nature of what people do and do not disclose about their life experiences. Across three studies, our findings indicate that (1) the major difference in what people do and do not disclose concerns the emotionality of the events and whether or not the events are transgressions; (2) for everyday memorable events, increased negative emotion is associated with greater likelihood of disclosure; but (3) for more important and/or longer retained events, increased negative and decreased positive emotion were associated with lower likelihoods of disclosure. We also found that socioemotional consequences are an important reason for nondisclosure of important past experiences and are predictably related to the extent to which events induce positive and negative emotions. Findings are considered in terms of their implications for narrative identity.     

Locus of control and self-esteem as moderators of stressor-symptom relations in children and adolescents

Locus of control and self-esteem were examined as moderators of links between negative life events and psychological symptoms in 238 young people 8 to 16 years old. Results indicated that locus of control buffered the effects of stressors on psychological symptoms, and the pattern of buffering did not differ by age or gender. Self-esteem buffered the link between Stressors and symptoms, but only for girls. Further analyses with girls only revealed a conjunctive moderation effect of locus of control and self-esteem: When faced with many negative life events, girls who have both an external locus of control and low esteem show the highest psychological maladjustment.The writing of this article was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Training grant 5 T 32 MH18387-03 in Child Mental Health/Primary Prevention.     

Self-compassion and reactions to unpleasant self-relevant events: the implications of treating oneself kindly

Five studies investigated the cognitive and emotional processes by which self-compassionate people deal with unpleasant life events. In the various studies, participants reported on negative events in their daily lives, responded to hypothetical scenarios, reacted to interpersonal feedback, rated their or others' videotaped performances in an awkward situation, and reflected on negative personal experiences. Results from Study 1 showed that self-compassion predicted emotional and cognitive reactions to negative events in everyday life, and Study 2 found that self-compassion buffered people against negative self-feelings when imagining distressing social events. In Study 3, self-compassion moderated negative emotions after receiving ambivalent feedback, particularly for participants who were low in self-esteem. Study 4 found that low-self-compassionate people undervalued their videotaped performances relative to observers. Study 5 experimentally induced a self-compassionate perspective and found that self-compassion leads people to acknowledge their role in negative events without feeling overwhelmed with negative emotions. In general, these studies suggest that self-compassion attenuates people's reactions to negative events in ways that are distinct from and, in some cases, more beneficial than self-esteem.