An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study Investigating the Function of Hoarding

This study examined the function of hoarding behaviors and the relations between hoarding and a series of cognitive and affective processes in the moment using ecological momentary assessment. A matched-groups design was used to compare college students with higher hoarding symptoms (n = 31) and matched controls (n = 29). The two groups did not differ in what function they reported acquiring served, and positive automatic reinforcement was the most commonly reported function in both groups. Engaging in hoarding-relevant behaviors did not predict change in positive or negative affect when controlling for previous affect. Emotional reactivity and experiential avoidance in the moment were both elevated in the higher hoarding group compared to controls, while momentary mindfulness and negative affect differentiation were lower. Overall, these findings support the importance of emotion regulation processes in hoarding. They also suggest individuals may not be successfully regulating affect in the moment with hoarding behaviors, despite efforts to do so. It may be useful to evaluate processes such as striving for positive affect in hoarding disorder in the future.     

Impulsivity and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury: Examining the Role of Affect Manipulation

The assessment of impulsivity is complicated by the construct’s multi-faceted nature and poor correspondence between self-report and behavioral measures. These complications extend to populations anecdotally described as impulsive, including individuals who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Research suggests that self-injurers report impulsivity, primarily negative urgency. Thus, negative affect may be an important prerequisite for increased impulsive behaviors. The present laboratory study examined self-report impulsivity differences between individuals with and without a history of NSSI and if self-injurers demonstrated behavioral impulsivity when experiencing negative affect. Undergraduates with (N?=?54) and without (N?=?61) a history of NSSI participated in a two-part laboratory-based study that investigated the role of affect manipulation in impulsivity and NSSI. Participants were randomly assigned to either a negative or a neutral-relaxing mood induction. Participants completed self-report measures of impulsivity, NSSI, and negative affect. A behavioral measure of impulsivity was administered during Session 1 (prior to a mood induction task) and again during Session 2 (following a mood induction task) to determine whether affect had an effect on behavioral impulsivity task performance. Self-injurers reported higher negative urgency and lack of perseverance but did not display impulsivity on the behavioral task, even under conditions of negative affect.     

Development and Validation of a Measure of Self-Efficacy to Resist Nonsuicidal Self-Injury

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Research into nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has primarily focussed on the experience and regulation of emotion. Recently, NSSI-specific...     

Mixture Modeling of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Binge Eating: Behaviors and Motives

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and binge eating frequently co-occur. These behaviors are often used to alleviate distress. Previous studies examining this co-occurrence have used a variable-centered approach. The current study used a person-centered approach (mixture modeling) to examine how individuals cluster in groups based on their past-month NSSI, past-month objective and subjective binge episodes (OBEs and SBEs, respectively), and endorsement of coping motives for NSSI and eating in two large samples of emerging adults. Validators included self-report measures of emotion regulation, impulsivity, and negative affect. In Study 1, additional validators included lifetime history of mental health treatment and suicide attempts. In Study 2, additional validators included child abuse history. In both Study 1 and Study 2, a three-class solution provided the most interpretable fit with classes characterized as (a) low psychopathology; (b) the presence of OBEs and NSSI, and endorsement of NSSI coping motives; and (c) the presence of SBEs and NSSI, and endorsement of high levels of NSSI coping motives. In both studies, eating motives were equivalent in Classes 2 and 3, but NSSI motives were most strongly endorsed by Class 3. In Study 1, Class 2 endorsed higher rates of lifetime suicide attempts than Class 3. In Study 2, both Class 2 and Class 3 endorsed higher rates of child abuse than Class 1, although they did not differ from each other. The class structure and validator analysis were consistent across samples and measures. Results suggest that binge eating and NSSI tend to cluster together in otherwise healthy emerging adults.     

The Effects of Appearance-Based Comments and Non-Appearance-Based Evaluations on Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating Urges: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate whether appearance-based comments, social and performance-based evaluations affected levels of body dissatisfaction (BD) and urges to engage in disordered eating behaviors (DE) throughout daily life. A total of 620 participants completed a baseline questionnaire assessing sociodemographic variables. Participants then downloaded a mobile app which alerted them to complete short surveys assessing their levels of BD, DE urges, and experiences of receiving comments and evaluations six times per day for 7 days. Negative appearance-based comments predicted greater levels of state BD, while positive appearance comments predicted lower levels of state BD. Negative social and performance-based evaluations predicted an increase in state BD, while positive evaluations predicted a decrease in this outcome variable. No significant predictor was found for the DE urge outcomes. The present findings suggest that receiving negative and positive feedback in various domains of one’s life may predict opposite outcomes for body image. However, these effects do not necessarily associate with urges to engage in DE in a nonclinical population.     

Composite Trauma and Mental Health Diagnosis as Predictors of Lifetime Nonsuicidal Self-Injury History in an Adult Online Sample

Some research indicates that trauma history might be related to nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), but the exact nature of this relationship is unknown. Therefore, we created and tested a structural equation model for the relationships between composite trauma, NSSI, mental health diagnosis, and gender in a community sample of 296 U.S. adults recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Composite trauma and mental health diagnosis were significantly predictive of an NSSI history. The pathway between NSSI and gender was not significant. It is important to consider multiple domains of trauma, in the form of composite lifetime trauma, as risk factors for NSSI.     

应对方式的生态瞬时评估法及其他测量方法简介

生态瞬时评估法（EMA）是当前对应对方式进行测量的一种较为先进的方法。它也广泛适用于其它社会科学和行为科学领域,因此在西方发达国家得到了较为广泛的应用。文章重点介绍了EMA的特点、使用方法、使用情况、适用条件和优缺点等。由于EMA特别适合于研究过程性的问题,因此用它来研究应对是非常恰当的。另外,文章还简单介绍并评价了其它的应对方式测量方法,并指出将来对应对方式进行测量的趋势。     

Estimating the Reliability of Aggregated and Within-Person Centered Scores in Ecological Momentary Assessment

Consider two independent groups with K measures for each subject. For the j^th group and k^th measure, let μ^tjk be the population trimmed mean, j = 1, 2; k = 1, ..., K. This article compares several methods for testing H 0 : u1k = t2k such that the probability of at least one Type I error is, and simultaneous probability coverage is 1 - α when computing confidence intervals for μ^t1k - μ^t2k . The emphasis is on K = 4 and α = .05. For zero trimming the problem reduces to comparing means, but it is well known that when comparing means, arbitrarily small departures from normality can result in extremely low power relative to using say 20% trimming. Moreover, when skewed distributions are being compared, conventional methods for comparing means can be biased for reasons reviewed in the article. A consequence is that in some realistic situations, the probability of rejecting can be higher when the null hypothesis is true versus a situation where the means differ by a half standard deviation. Switching to robust measures of location is known to reduce this problem, and combining robust measures of location with some type of bootstrap method reduces the problem even more. Published articles suggest that for the problem at hand, the percentile t bootstrap, combined with a 20% trimmed mean, will perform relatively well, but there are known situations where it does not eliminate all problems. In this article we consider an extension of the percentile bootstrap approach that is found to give better results.     

Differential Prediction of Resilience Among Individuals With and Without a History of Abuse

The authors evaluated the differential relationship between mutuality, hope, and spirituality for predicting resilience among 253 young adult participants (47 men, 206 women; M = 22, SD = 5.7) with a history of abuse (n = 64) and without (n = 189). Backward stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed statistically significant models in populations with a history of abuse (p < .01, R ² = .43) and those without (p < .01, R ² = .36), with no statistical difference in the variance between models (z = 0.51, p = .30). Implications for counselors are provided.     

Exploring the Reciprocal Relations between Nonsuicidal Self-Injury, Negative Emotions and Relationship Problems in Chinese Adolescents: A Longitudinal Cross-Lag Study

The present study explored the reciprocal relations between nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), negative emotions and relationship problems in a community sample of 2,435 (57.6% females) Chinese adolescents. Participants completed measures assessing 12 NSSI behaviors, three negative emotions (depression, anxiety and tension), and relationship problems at two time points over a 6-month period. A longitudinal cross-lag analysis was used to test the reciprocal relations among the studied variables. Results showed that after controlling for their initial associations, NSSI significantly predicted negative emotions over time but not vice versa, and relationship problems significantly predicted NSSI over time but not vice versa. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings were discussed.     

Latent Variable Mixture Modeling of Ecological Momentary Assessment Data: Implications for Screening and Adolescent Mood Profiles

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies typically rely on arbitrary decision rules for identifying and excluding invalid responses from the data. In addition, most studies treat independent variables as separate from each other even if their combinations might have importance above the independent contribution of each. Our study aimed to conduct an exploratory latent profile analysis of EMA data to demonstrate an empirical method of identifying invalid responses, and to provide a preliminary investigation of mood profiles. We recruited 20 adolescents between the ages of 13–18 to complete 4 surveys about their internal states each day for 20 days. Participants provided responses on study smartphones using an Android app developed by the study team. Our profile analysis revealed 9 independent profiles. We determined that 3 of these profiles consisted of invalid responses because the integers provided by the participant were nearly invariant. The invalid responses comprised 24.9% of the sample. We also identified 6 valid profiles that were labeled: fatigued (8.7%), good mood/energetic (19.9%), angry/depressed (2.3%), good mood (37.1%), angry (5.7%), and depressed (1.4%). One important implication of the current study is that researchers and clinicians should screen electronic diary data, especially for invariant responding. In addition, it is important for clinicians to note that more than one internal state may drive the mood of an adolescent patient.     

The Accuracy of Causal Learning Over Long Timeframes: An Ecological Momentary Experiment Approach

The ability to learn cause–effect relations from experience is critical for humans to behave adaptively — to choose causes that bring about desired effects. However, traditional experiments on experience-based learning involve events that are artificially compressed in time so that all learning occurs over the course of minutes. These paradigms therefore exclusively rely upon working memory. In contrast, in real-world situations we need to be able to learn cause–effect relations over days and weeks, which necessitates long-term memory. 413 participants completed a smartphone study, which compared learning a cause–effect relation one trial per day for 24 days versus the traditional paradigm of 24 trials back- to- back. Surprisingly, we found few differences between the short versus long timeframes. Subjects were able to accurately detect generative and preventive causal relations, and they exhibited illusory correlations in both the short and long timeframe tasks. These results provide initial evidence that experience-based learning over long timeframes exhibits similar strengths and weaknesses as in short timeframes. However, learning over long timeframes may become more impaired with more complex tasks.     

Coping and Positive Affect in Adolescents of Mothers With and Without a History of Depression

The adolescent children of depressed mothers are at increased risk for depression, but little is known about protective factors for these children. Maintenance of positive affect in a stressful context may be an important marker of resilience. Mothers with (n = 34) and without (n = 38) a history of depression and their adolescent children completed questionnaires regarding adolescents’ coping and depressive symptoms and engaged in a 15 min videotaped interaction about family stress. Adolescents’ observed behaviors were coded using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. No significant differences emerged in observed behavior between adolescents of mothers with and without a history of depression. Higher levels of primary and secondary control coping and lower levels of disengagement coping were related to higher levels of observed positive mood and fewer depressive symptoms in adolescents. Observed positive mood was related to fewer depressive symptoms in adolescents, even after accounting for maternal history of depression and current maternal depressive symptoms. Results suggest the importance of considering positive affect in the context of family stress as a marker of resilience in adolescents at risk for depression. The current study provides evidence for coping as a protective factor, related to higher levels of positive affect and fewer depressive symptoms, in adolescents exposed to maternal depressive symptoms.     

黑格尔与福柯:迈向不见人影之历史

20世纪历史哲学在上半叶由黑格尔式的思辨历史哲学转向历史认识论研究。之后 ,自 1 970年开始 ,它又经历了语言学转折。后者的表现便是叙述主义历史哲学的兴起。它注重分析历史文本的语言风格这类形式要素中表现的本质内涵 ,也在认识论的层面彻底消解了传统实在论意义上的历史客观性。人们对历史叙述过程诸要素有了越来越多的了解之后 ,对某一历史主题确立的目的和效果也就有了更有效的解析方法 ,进而为当代历史哲学重新深入历史本体 ,探讨宏大历史叙事与叙述权力创造了条件。当代历史哲学正以 2 0世纪历史认识论的成就为依据 ,在推进历史 /史学观念分析之时 ,也表现出一种重新步入思辨历史哲学领地的倾向。此时 ,具有前瞻性的世界史家也像当代历史哲学家那样 ,注意到了世界历史观念的现实意义。本栏选取的 4篇文章 (另外两篇将以后刊出 )便分别涉及到构成上述倾向的某些特定层面。     

当代历史哲学——黑格尔与福柯：迈向不见人影之历史

20世纪历史哲学在上半叶由黑格尔式的思辨历史哲学转向历史认识论研究。之后。自1970年开始,它又经历了语言学转折。后者的表现便是叙述主义历史哲学的兴起。它注重分析历史文本的语言风格这类形式要素中表现的本质内涵。也在认识论的层面彻底消解了传统实在论意义上的历史客观性。人们对历史叙述过程诸要素有了越来越多的了解之后,对某一历史主题确立的目的和效果也就有了更有效的解析方法。进而为当代历史哲学重新深入历史本体,探讨宏大历史叙事与叙述权力创造了条件。当代历史哲学正以20世纪历史认识论的成就为依据,在推进历史／史学观念分析之时,也表现出一种重新步入思辨历史哲学领地的倾向。此时。具有前瞻性的世界史家也像当代历史哲学家那样,注意到了世界历史观念的现实意义。本栏选取的4篇文章(另外两篇将以后刊出)便分别涉及到构成上述倾向的某些特定层面。     

Conceptualizing and Estimating Process Speed in Studies Employing Ecological Momentary Assessment Designs: A Multilevel Variance Decomposition Approach

Researchers have been making use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and other study designs that sample feelings and behaviors in real time and in naturalistic settings to study temporal dynamics and contextual factors of a wide variety of psychological, physiological, and behavioral processes. As EMA designs become more widespread, questions are arising about the frequency of data sampling, with direct implications for participants' burden and researchers' ability to capture and study dynamic processes. Traditionally, spectral analytic techniques are used for time series data to identify process speed. However, the nature of EMA data, often collected with fewer than 100 measurements per person, sampled at randomly spaced intervals, and replete with planned and unplanned missingness, precludes application of traditional spectral analytic techniques. Building on principles of variance partitioning used in the generalizability theory of measurement and spectral analysis, we illustrate the utility of multilevel variance decompositions for isolating process speed in EMA-type data. Simulation and empirical data from a smoking-cessation study are used to demonstrate the method and to evaluate the process speed of smoking urges and quitting self-efficacy. Results of the multilevel variance decomposition approach can inform process-oriented theory and future EMA study designs.