Intrapersonal curiosity: Inquisitiveness about the inner self

Intrapersonal Curiosity (InC) involves inquisitively introspecting to better understand one’s inner self. A pool of 39 face-valid InC items was administered to 1005 participants, along with other curiosity, personality, self-awareness, self-regulation, and psychological well-being scales. Three InC factors with good model fit were identified, from which four-item (α ≥ .89) subscales were developed: “Understanding one’s Emotions and Motives,” “Reflecting On one’s Past,” and “Exploring one’s Identity and Purpose.” InC correlated positively with other measures of curiosity, evidencing convergence; weak correlations to conceptually unrelated constructs demonstrated divergence. Higher InC scores corresponded to perceptions of having less available self-knowledge, heightened sensitivity to others’ expressions, a greater tendency to privately introspect, increased distress, and more concern about how to best cope with worry over self-relevant threats.     

Why so curious? Validation and cross‐cultural investigation of the Hindi Epistemic Curiosity Scale

Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the motive and need to seek knowledge. The present work entails validation of the English EC Scale translated into the Hindi language. Study 1 comprised confirmatory factor analysis of the Hindi scale using a sample of 223 bilingual Indians (143 females). The 10‐item two‐factor structure with Interest and Deprivation subscales was validated for the Hindi EC Scale. Convergent and discriminant validity was established, and model fits were assessed separately for males and females, along with measurement invariance testing. In Study 2, linguistic invariance testing and cross‐cultural comparisons were undertaken for a sample of 151 Indians (93 females) and 219 Americans (179 females) for the EC scales, to assess similarities in the underlying factor structure. Indians did not differ from Americans in their responses to the English EC Scale, but slight differences were observed for the Hindi EC Scale, suggesting an interplay of language and culture. Further, independent t tests compared the two samples on measures of curiosity, gossip, personality, and affect. Americans had a higher tendency toward interpersonal curiosity and agreeableness whereas Indians scored higher on intellect. Cross‐cultural and linguistic differences as well as future work are presented. In sum, the Hindi EC Scale is a valid and reliable instrument that can facilitate further translations into other Indian languages.     

Coping strategies: A prospective study of patterns,stability, and relationships with psychological distress

The aims of this article are: (1) to explore patterns (clusters) of coping strategies; (2) to examine the stability of individual coping strategies and patterns of coping over time; and (3) to establish long term associations between coping and psychological distress. Coping strategies were assessed with the Brief Cope questionnaire, whereas psychological distress was measured with the ten‐item version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist, in a two‐year prospective sample comprising 3,738 employees. Based on TwoStep cluster analysis of the Brief Cope, three different coping patterns were identified: low coping, engagement coping, and disengagement coping. Analyses of long‐term stability indicated malleable properties for the individual coping strategies as well as the three clusters. Disengagement coping strategies in the form of self‐blame and self‐distraction were most strongly associated with distress at follow‐up, whereas baseline distress was related to increased use of these strategies two years later. Coping patterns at baseline had no main effects on later levels of distress, but levels of distress at baseline predicted subsequent use of engagement and disengagement coping patterns. The finding that specific coping strategies are malleable suggests that it is possible to modify and develop dysfunctional strategies. The associations between disengagement coping strategies and distress indicate that this kind of coping is especially problematic with regard to mental health problems. A main contribution of this study is that it establishes cluster analytic techniques as beneficial in the assessment of coping.     

The measurement of curiosity as a feeling of deprivation

Curiosity as a feeling of deprivation (CFD) reflects feelings of uncertainty and tension that motivate information-seeking and problem-solving behavior. Twenty-seven CFD items were administered to 321 participants (248 women, 73 men) along with other measures of curiosity and other personality traits such as anxiety, anger, and depression. Factor analyses of the CFD items identified 3 factors from which 5-item subscales were developed: (a) a need to feel competent, (b) intolerance experienced when information is inaccessible or inadequate, and (c) a sense of urgency to solve problems. Moderately high correlations of the CFD scales with other measures of curiosity provided evidence of convergent validity, whereas divergent validity was demonstrated by minimal correlations of the CFD scales with the other personality traits.     

Prediction of symptoms of emotional distress by mood regulation expectancies and affective traits

Three studies examined negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE) and affective traits as independent predictors of self‐reported symptoms of emotional distress. NMRE represent individuals' beliefs that they can alleviate unpleasant emotional states. Stronger NMRE are associated with more adaptive coping, more positive cognition during negative moods, more effective responses under stress and less emotional distress. Affective traits represent long‐term tendencies toward particular affective experiences; they confer risk for specific symptoms of emotional distress. In Study 1, NMRE, trait negative affect (TNA) and trait positive affect (TPA) were all independently associated with depression among students and staff of a German university. In Study 2, in prospective analyses among U.S. college students traits exhibited hypothesised relationships with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and NMRE uniquely predicted anhedonic depression. Study 3 revealed independent prediction of change in symptoms over time by NMRE among U.S. college students, whereas traits were not associated with change in distress, anxiety and depression symptoms. Results suggest independent roles for NMRE and traits in the development of depression and anxiety symptoms and highlight the importance of NMRE as a potential target of therapeutic intervention in the process of symptom change.     

Regulatory Focus and Political Decision Making: When People Favor Reform Over the Status Quo

Two studies examined the impact of self‐reported use of promotion‐related (i.e., eagerness) and prevention‐related (i.e., vigilance) strategies when making “risky” or “conservative” decisions about economic reform under good, average, or poor economic conditions. Consistent with regulatory focus theory ( Higgins, 1997, 1998, 2000 ), in both studies strategic vigilance was associated with making a conservative choice, whereas strategic eagerness was associated with making a risky choice. In addition, along with perceptions of economic conditions, chronic strength of prevention focus (Study 1) or situationally induced prevention focus (Study 2) was associated with using strategic vigilance, whereas chronic strength of promotion focus (Study 1) or situationally induced promotion focus (Study 2) was associated with using strategic eagerness. Finally, regulatory focus and economic perceptions indirectly predicted economic reform decisions through their impact on strategy use. Our studies are the first to demonstrate that vigilant or eager strategy use is associated with “conservative” or “risky” political decisions.     

Gender responses to psychological distress among Palestinians: Risk and protective factors

This study investigated the extent to which differences in the presence of trauma, political and normative stressors, resources, coping, and hardiness could account for variation in gender responses to psychological distress among Palestinians. Participants were 624 males and females aged 27–56 years. Questionnaires were administered in an interview format with participants at home. Results indicated that female gender has been associated with psychological distress. The females in this study reported feeling distressed by intrafamily strains, whereas males reported feeling distressed by work and family strains as well as losses. Political stressors were more predictive of psychological distress than was the presence of trauma or normative stressors. The sociodemographics had different patterns of relations with psychological distress. Females' education was negatively related to psychological distress, whereas the family income was negatively related to psychological distress in males. No significant differences between males and females were found in their coping responses. However, cognitive and behavioural strategies Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scales (F‐COPES) seem to combine and had an impact on psychological distress of females only. Also, family hardiness was evidenced to have an influence on perceived psychological distress in both genders. The clinical and policy implications of these conclusions were discussed.     

Rethinking the Role of Worry in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Evidence Supporting a Model of Emotional Contrast Avoidance

The Contrast Avoidance model (Newman & Llera, 2011) proposes that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are hypersensitive to sharp upward shifts in negative emotion that typically accompany negative events, and use worry to maintain sustained intrapersonal negativity in an attempt to avoid these shifts. Although research shows that worry increases negative emotionality and mutes further emotional reactivity to a stressor when compared to the worry period (e.g., Llera & Newman, 2010), no study has tracked changes in negative emotionality from baseline to worry inductions followed by a range of emotional exposures. Further, no study has yet assessed participants’ subjective appraisals of prior worry on helping to cope with such exposures. The present study tested the main tenets of the Contrast Avoidance model by randomly assigning participants with GAD (n = 48) and nonanxious controls (n = 47) to experience worry, relaxation, and neutral inductions prior to sequential exposure to fearful, sad, and humorous film clips. Both physiological (nonspecific skin conductance responses [NS-SCRs]) and self-reported emotional changes were observed. Results indicated that worry boosted negative emotionality from baseline, which was sustained across negative exposures, whereas low negative emotionality during relaxation and neutral inductions allowed for sharp increases in response to exposures. Furthermore, GAD participants found worry to be more helpful than other conditions in coping with exposures, whereas control participants reported the opposite pattern. Results provide preliminary support for the Contrast Avoidance model. This suggests that treatment should focus on underlying avoidance patterns before attempting to reduce worry behavior.     

The surprising upsides of worry

Worry is an aversive emotional experience that arises alongside repetitive unpleasant thoughts about the future. In this paper, we argue that although extreme levels of worry are associated with depressed mood, poor physical health, and even mental illness, worry has an upside. We focus on two empirically supported benefits of worry: its motivational benefits and its benefit as an emotional buffer. Regarding motivation, worry illuminates the importance of taking action to prevent an undesirable outcome and keeps the situation at the front of one's mind to ensure that appropriate action is taken. It also triggers efforts to mitigate the consequences of bad news, motivates productive behavior that in turn reduces worry, and enhances the effectiveness of goal‐directed action by prompting people to focus on obstacles that might derail best‐laid plans. Worry can also serve as an emotional buffer by providing a desirable contrast to subsequent affective reactions, particularly for people who are prone to high levels of worry.     

Shifts in attention biases in response to acute pain induction: examination of a model of "conversion" among repressors

Unlike most people, those who are characterized by a repressive coping style report high levels of physical (sensory) pain but low levels of emotional distress (affective pain), which is a discrepancy that may suggest a "conversion" process. In two studies, we tested an attention allocation model, proposing that repressors direct attention away from threatening negative affective information and toward nonthreatening physical pain information during emotionally arousing (painful) situations. In Study 1, 84 participants underwent a cold pressor and then recovered. Repressors reported greater pain during recovery than low- and high-anxious participants, but they reported lower distress than high-anxious participants. Repressors reported significant and large discrepancies between high pain and low distress, whereas these differences were less pronounced for other groups. In Study 2, 77 participants underwent an ischemic pain task while performing a modified dot-probe task with sensory and negative affective pain words as stimuli. Repressors showed increasing biases away from affective pain words and toward sensory pain words as the pain task continued, whereas low- and high-anxious participants did not show these shifts in attention. The results support the notion that conversion among repressors may involve a process by which attention is directed away from emotional distress during noxious stimulation and is focused instead on sensory information from pain.     

Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach

We developed a multidimensional coping inventory to assess the different ways in which people respond to stress. Five scales (of four items each) measure conceptually distinct aspects of problem-focused coping (active coping, planning, suppression of competing activities, restraint coping, seeking of instrumental social support); five scales measure aspects of what might be viewed as emotional-focused coping (seeking of emotional social support, positive reinterpretation, acceptance, denial, turning to religion); and three scales measure coping responses that arguably are less useful (focus on and venting of emotions, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement). Study 1 reports the development of scale items. Study 2 reports correlations between the various coping scales and several theoretically relevant personality measures in an effort to provide preliminary information about the inventory's convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 uses the inventory to assess coping responses among a group of undergraduates who were attempting to cope with a specific stressful episode. This study also allowed an initial examination of associations between dispositional and situational coping tendencies.     

Emotional Awareness in Daily Life: Exploring Its Potential Role in Repetitive Thinking and Healthy Coping

Cross-sectional research has found that emotional awareness, which is composed of one’s emotional clarity and attention to emotions, is associated with psychopathology, emotion regulation, and coping. Not surprisingly then, emotional awareness is often a target of cognitive and behavioral therapies. However, little is known about what emotional awareness is related to in daily life, which would inform how and for whom emotional awareness training should be conducted in therapeutic settings. The goal of the current studies was to examine associations among facets of emotional awareness and repetitive thinking (i.e., rumination, worry, and reflection), emotion regulation, and coping in daily life. We conducted two 7-day daily diary studies (n = 172 in Study 1, n = 211 in Study 2) measuring daily experiences of repetitive negative thinking, emotion regulation efforts, and coping. Multilevel models showed that trait levels of emotional clarity were negatively associated, at the between-person level, with daily levels of repetitive negative thinking and positively associated with active coping. Additionally, daily levels of emotional clarity were associated, at the within-person level, with worrying and active coping, whereas daily levels of attention to emotions were associated, at the within-person level, with reflection. Theoretical and clinical implications for emotional awareness, particularly emotional clarity, are discussed.     

Perceived threat: exploring its association with worry and its hypothesized antecedents

Two studies with college student participants (n's=262, 239) examined the relation between perceptions of threat (i.e., perceptions of the probabilities and costs of future undesirable outcomes) and: (a) worry; and (b) hypothesized antecedents of perceived threat. In both studies, higher levels of worrying were associated with higher perceived probability and cost. In Study 2, the association between perceived threat and worrying remained even when taking into account maladaptive worry beliefs and the desire for predictability; in fact, the relation between worrying and worry beliefs and desire for predictability were moderated by perceptions of threat. Higher levels of perceived probability were associated with perceiving oneself and others less favorably, whereas higher levels of perceived cost were associated with higher standards.     

Protecting Against Misleading Post‐event Information with a Self‐Administered Interview

Two studies investigated whether an early recall opportunity, in the form of a self‐administered interview (SAI), reduced forgetting and protected against the negative consequences of post‐event misinformation. In both studies, participants viewed a simulated crime on DVD after which half immediately recorded their statement by using the SAI, whereas control participants did not have an immediate recall opportunity. Following a delay, participants were presented with misinformation encountered either in a misleading news report (Study 1) or in the form of misleading cued‐recall questions (Study 2). Results showed that participants who had completed a SAI after witnessing an event were significantly less prone to forgetting and significantly more resistant to the negative consequences of misinformation. The SAI was able to protect both the quantity and quality of information about a previously witnessed event. Applied implications are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Are Women Perceived as Engaging in More Maladaptive Worry Than Men? A Status Interpretation

Studies 1 and 2 addressed people's perceptions of women's and men's overall maladaptive worry. In Study 1, participants rated how they perceive women's and men's worry in general. In Study 2, participants rated the worry of either a woman or a man whom they know well. As expected in both studies, participants perceived women as experiencing more maladaptive worry than men. A second objective was to compare people's perceptions of women's and men's worry to their perceptions of low- and high-status individuals' worry to determine if a status model can account for the perception that women worry more than men. In Study 3, participants were presented a minimal instantiation of status (Conway, Pizzamiglio, & Mount, 1996). As expected, participants perceived low-status individuals as experiencing more maladaptive worry than high-status individuals. Findings are discussed in terms of gender stereotypes and theoretical models of gender.     

Personalization versus Customization: The Importance of Agency,Privacy, and Power Usage

What makes customization so appealing? Is it because the content is tailored or because the user feels greater agency? Study 1 tested these propositions with a news‐aggregator Website that was either personalized (system‐tailored), customized (user‐tailored), or neither. Power users rated content quality higher when it had a customizable interface, whereas nonpower users preferred personalized content. In Study 2, half the participants were told that their browsing information may be used for providing requested services while the other half was told that it would not be used. The interaction found in Study 1 was observed only under conditions of low privacy, with the pattern being reversed under high privacy. Significant three‐way interactions were found for sense of control and perceived convenience.     

Psychological distress and well-being in advanced cancer: The effects of optimism and coping

This study examined the relations among optimism, coping, functional status, and psychological adjustment in 75 adults diagnosed with cancer. Both the positive and the negative aspects of psychological adjustment were assessed. All participants had been diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer (i.e., Stages II, III, and IV). Participants completed three assessments across a 4-month time period. Both optimism and coping were associated with psychological adjustment, even after controlling for functional status and prior adjustment. Additionally, optimism and coping were differentially related to distress and well-being. Optimism was strongly and positively associated with well-being and inversely related to distress. Escape-Avoidance coping was positively associated with distress and Accepting Responsibility coping was negatively associated with well-being. Comparisons between the current and prior studies indicated that individuals who are diagnosed with more advanced stages of cancer or who have survived bone marrow transplantation exhibit higher levels of optimism than do healthy individuals and individuals with early-stage disease.     

Worry and rumination: differential associations with anxious and depressive symptoms and coping behavior

Worry and rumination are closely allied cognitive processes that impact on the experience of anxious and depressive symptoms. Using a prospective design, this study examined overlapping and distinct features of worry and rumination in relation to symptoms and coping behavior in a nonclinical sample of Singaporean college students. Worry and rumination were highly correlated, but they retained distinct components that predicted anxious and depressive symptoms differentially within and across time. Specifically, worry was uniquely associated with anxious and depressive symptoms whereas rumination was uniquely related to depression. In comparison to rumination, worry emerged as the dominant cognitive vulnerability factor that predicted increments in symptoms over time. With regards to coping behavior, low perceived coping effectiveness partially mediated the relation between worry and increases in anxiety and depression. Conversely, rumination uniquely predicted higher disengagement from problems, which resulted in further exacerbation of depressive mood. These results demonstrated not only the distinct features of worry and rumination on coping behavior, but also the different coping pathways by which they differentially impact on subsequent symptoms.