Behavioural,affective, and physiological effects of negative and positive emotional exaggeration

Emotion regulation is essential for the production of socially appropriate affect and successful interpersonal functioning. The relative inability to modulate affect, known as "emotional dysregulation", is associated with many common mood disorders (such as major depressive disorder or bipolar spectrum disorders). Thus, understanding the physiological processes underlying emotional regulation is extremely important. This experiment was designed to explore the affective, behavioural, and physiological responses associated with a rarely studied emotion regulation technique--exaggeration. A total of 52 undergraduate participants watched a 2 minute video designed to elicit either feelings of amusement (positive affect) or disgust (negative affect). Physiological recordings--including skin conductance, interbeat interval (IBI), high frequency (HF) power spectrum of heart rate variability (HRV), and sympathovagal balance (LF/HF)--were recorded for the 2 minutes prior to, during, and after mood induction. As expected, persons asked to exaggerate their responses were rated as behaviourally showing increased arousal relative to individuals in the natural-watch condition. With regard to IBI, those in the exaggerate condition experienced significantly greater IBI reductions (increased heart rate) during reactivity and IBI increases during recovery relative to those in the natural-watch condition (who showed the opposite pattern of response). Moreover, persons in the exaggerate condition evidenced increased sympathovagal balance in response to the emotional videos relative to those in the natural-watch condition. Results generally support and extend previous research findings designed to assess the impact of response-focused affect modulation strategies. Suggestions for future research are presented.     

Depressive implicit associations and adults' reports of childhood abuse

Theory and research suggest that negative events in childhood (e.g., childhood abuse) may contribute to the development of a cognitive vulnerability to depression. A limitation of past research, however, is that the majority has focused on explicit cognitions (e.g., attributional style) and it remains unclear whether similar relations would be observed for more implicit measures of depressive cognitions. This study investigated the relation between young adults' reports of childhood abuse and their implicit depressive cognitions, as measured by the Implicit Association Test. As hypothesised, young adults reporting a history of childhood abuse exhibited stronger implicit associations for depression-relevant stimuli than did individuals with no abuse history. These results were maintained even after statistically controlling for the influence of current depressive symptom levels.     

Long-term memory for the emotional gist and the emotional essence of an experience

We investigated accuracy in recalling past emotional behaviours and emotionality. Male couples discussed the history of their relationship, and coders rated the extent to which each partner engaged in behaviours such as complimenting or criticising. These ratings were combined into dimensions representing the deeper, emotional essence of that partner's discussion (expressions of We-ness, Fondness, Negativity, and Disappointment). Four years later, participants accurately recalled some of their own and some of their partner's emotional gist-level behaviours, but their answers indicated that they also remembered the emotional essence of the conversation. We conclude that individuals can retain the emotional essence of an experience for a long time, and that they may use this memory to infer, in part, gist-level details of the experience.     

Perception of Maximum Reaching Height When the Means of Reaching Are No Longer in View

Previous research has shown that perception of maximum reaching height is relative to reaching ability even when the means of performing this behavior would bring about (future) changes in reaching ability. Two experiments investigate whether this continues to be the case even when the means of reaching are no longer in view. The results show perception of maximum reaching height reflects impending changes to reaching ability both when the means of performing the reaching task (and changing reaching ability) are present and when they are no longer in view. The results are discussed in the context of prospectivity, retrospectivity, and flexibility—3 fundamental hallmarks of goal-directed behavior.     

“Money Helps”: People who inject drugs and their perceptions of financial compensation and its ethical implications

This study documents how people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Puerto Rico perceive payments for participating in HIV epidemiological studies. In-depth interviews were conducted among a subset (n = 40) of active PWID older than 18 years of age who had been previously enrolled in a much larger study (N = 360). Findings suggest that financial compensation was the main motivation for initially enrolling in the parent study. Then, as trust in the researchers developed, participants came to perceive compensation as part of a reciprocal exchange in which they assisted researchers by providing a trustful account of their experiences and researchers reciprocated with financial support.     

Honesty: One Effect of Primed Religious Representations

Most demonstrations of the automatic activation of mental representations and resulting behavioral effects have been conducted in the context of specific stereotypes. The main purpose of these studies was to test whether primed religious representations can have automatic influences on relevant (prosocial) behavior (Study 1) regardless of prior religious belief (Study 2). Study 1 found that participants primed with religious representations (religious words) cheated significantly less on a subsequent task. Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1 with subliminal presentations of religious words and further found that participant's intrinsic religiosity had no influence on rates of cheating with the prime received. These results provide the first known demonstration of religious representations automatically influencing behavior. Implications for the psychology of religion are discussed.     

Career Counselling in the 21st Century: A Reaction Article

This article reviews the articles on career counselling in the special edition of the Journal of Psychology in Africa. A thematic analysis to the content of the articles was conducted and common themes extrapolated. The main themes were (a) the shift toward postmodern career counselling, (b) the importance of cultural sensitivity in career counselling practice and (c) adolescents career development. This is followed by a reaction comment.     

Two arguments against the punishment-forbearance account of forgiveness

One account of forgiveness claims that to forgive is to forbear punishment. Call this the Punishment-Forbearance Account of forgiveness. In this paper I argue that forbearing punishment is neither necessary nor sufficient for forgiveness.     

Testing Deterrence Theory with Offenders: The Empirical Validity of Stafford and Warr's Model

Stafford and Warr (1993) reconceptualized general and specific deterrence into a single theory in which individuals' propensities to engage in crime are based on a combination of personal and vicarious experiences with being punished and avoiding punishment. The current study extends prior tests of this conceptualization of deterrence by expanding the definition of vicarious experience, analyzing extralegal as well as legal consequences, examining multiple types of offending behavior, and drawing its data from a sample of work release facility inmates. The results fail to support legal deterrence as an explanation of offending for this sample but suggest the importance of extralegal consequences.     

From Resistance to Buy-In: Experiences of Clinicians in Training Using Feedback-Informed Treatment

In this qualitative research study, the authors use grounded theory analysis to examine the experiences of clinicians in training and use client feedback to inform treatment. Twenty-six marriage and family therapy graduate students in their first or second semester of clinical practicum participated in this study. Participants were trained in eliciting and responding to client feedback at the end of every therapy session. At the end of the semester, participants reflected on their learning experience. Participant experiences reflected a developmental learning process beginning with significant challenges followed by positive clinical changes and positive clinician changes, culminating in overall buy-in regarding the importance of client feedback for nearly all clinicians. The results support the literature that client feedback directly informs the therapeutic process while suggesting important recommendations for training new clinicians in learning to use client feedback.