Knowing when to seek anger: Psychological health and context-sensitive emotional preferences

According to hedonic approaches to psychological health, healthy individuals should pursue pleasant and avoid unpleasant emotions. According to instrumental approaches, however, healthy individuals should pursue useful and avoid harmful emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant. We sought to reconcile these approaches by distinguishing between preferences for emotions that are aggregated across contexts and preferences for emotions within specific contexts. Across five days, we assessed daily confrontational and collaborative demands and daily preferences for anger and happiness. Somewhat consistent with hedonic approaches, when averaging across contexts, psychologically healthier individuals wanted to feel less anger, but not more happiness. Somewhat consistent with instrumental approaches, when examined within contexts, psychologically healthier individuals wanted to feel angrier in more confrontational contexts, and some wanted to feel happier in more collaborative contexts. Thus, although healthier individuals are motivated to avoid unpleasant emotions over time, they are more motivated to experience them when they are potentially useful.     

Coping and anxiety in college students after the September 11th terrorist attacks

This study investigated the presence of a stress response after the September 11^th terrorist attacks in a sample of indirectly affected college students living in Boston, Massachusetts. Anxiety was examined at two time intervals, approximately 2 and 4 months after the attacks. Methods of coping with the stress of the attacks (assessed using the COPE Inventory) and their impact on initial and longer-term anxiety were also examined. Results demonstrated that the majority of college students in the study were severely psychologically impacted initially by the terrorist attacks. However, this initial impact appears to decay over time for most people. Several potentially maladaptive coping strategies were found to be predictive of initial anxiety, including denial, behavioral disengagement, mental disengagement, and focus on and venting of emotions. However, only focus on and venting of emotions was found to be uniquely predictive of longer-term anxiety.     

Youth Mental Illness and the Family: Parents’ Loss and Grief

Parents and family members whose adult child or relative has a mental illness endure significant losses, to which they respond with grief. Such grief may negatively affect family members’ physical and psychological health and also the relationship with their relative. Yet, research in this field is sparse. Very few studies have examined parents’ loss and grief in the context of the patient being a child or teen. It is not clear the extent to which parents’ loss and grief in response to their child or adolescent’s mental illness is similar or different to the accounts of older parents and family members caring for an adult relative with major psychopathology (e.g., Schizophrenia, Bipolar disorder). Parental loss and grief is not often addressed in child and adolescent mental health services’ provision of care; alarmingly, little is known about how best to support parents who access these services. The present study aimed to bridge this knowledge gap and identify the therapeutic needs of this younger parent population. Comprehensive interviews were conducted with 14 parents and one custodial grandparent of a youth aged 18 years or younger who was currently attending a child and adolescent mental health service. An inductive thematic analysis identified six themes; parents’ narrative of finding out, profound and pervasive loss, complex grief, waning support, the challenges of caregiving and a call for assistance. It can be inferred from these results that youth mental illness can constitute a source of loss and grief for parents. Participants’ loss and grief was largely consistent with the experience of families caring for an adult relative with major psychopathology. Opportunities for mental health practitioners to support families’ loss and grief were identified. Further studies are needed to enhance understanding of this complex and, to a large extent, ignored familial experience. Results do underscore the importance of clinicians acknowledging parents’ loss and grief and working directly with this experience over the course of youths’ treatment, perhaps in conjunction with family psychoeducation approaches.     

Dialogical Masculinities: Diverse Youth Resisting Dominant Masculinity

The meaning of the construct “masculinity” differs culturally and changes over time. Although cultural constructions of the phenomenon change, at any given time hegemonic pressures promote participants’ compliance to masculinity norms. This hegemonic process often results in the underlying assumptions that masculinity is an essentialized unitary phenomenon and that conforming to cultural requisites is adaptive and healthy. In the field of psychology, past research investigating resistance to this hegemony and diverse constructions of masculinities categorized resistance as pathological and problematic. More recently, researchers have turned their attention to ways in which conforming to dominant hegemonic masculinity norms can be problematic and maladaptive, allowing for an understanding of the adaptive qualities that come with resisting and negotiating with hegemony. Specifically, there has been an interest in understanding diverse discourse constructions as sources of resistance to hegemonic masculinity. This project was focused on understanding the ways in which hegemonic-resistant masculinities were constructed with a group of young men who work on a youth team to prevent domestic violence. Using the constructivist framework of the dialogical self, we gleaned four distinct I-positions of masculinity that help to support a fluid and diverse process of negotiating a hegemonic-resistant and adaptive form of masculinity.     

How to stop binge drinking and speeding motorists: Effects of relational-interdependent self-construal and self-referencing on attitudes toward social marketing

How can marketers stop speeding motorists and binge drinking? Two experiments show that the beliefs consumers have about the degree to which they define themselves in terms of their close relationships (i.e., relational-interdependent self-construal (RISC)) offer useful insights into the effectiveness of communications for two key social marketing issues—road safety (Study 1, New Zealand sample) and alcohol consumption (Study 2, English sample). Further, self-referencing is a mechanism for these effects. Specifically, people who define themselves in terms of their close relationships (high-RISCs) respond most favorably to advertisements featuring a dyadic relationship (two people), and this favorable response is mediated by self-referencing. In contrast, people who do not include close relationships in their sense of self (low-RISCs) respond most favorably to self-reference advertisements featuring solitary models. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Holding it together: Coping with vicarious trauma in sport

ObjectivesVicarious trauma refers to the negative effects that may be experienced after witnessing trauma (such as actual or threatened injury) in others. This study aims to examine vicarious trauma in sports coaches by drawing on the experiences of two trampoline coaches who have witnessed a serious athletic injury. In particular, this study focuses on how these coaches have responded to and coped with this traumatic event.DesignThe study draws on data from thematic, semi-structured, life history interviews that focus on the occurrence of one particular sports accident witnessed by both coaches.MethodMultiple interviews were conducted in which participants were invited to recall the accident, their own responses to the accident, and the coping strategies employed. Interviews were analyzed using a holistic-content analysis in which thematic similarities and differences between the narratives emerged.ResultsThere were three main themes that emerged, these were the need to make meaning following trauma, re-experiencing trauma, and acceptance and avoidance coping. Participants demonstrated the individual nature of coping with trauma. While one participant avoided the trauma by minimizing the events, blocking her emotions and giving support to others; the second participant showed acceptance of the trauma, was highly emotional, and received support from others.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the difficulties that may be faced by coaches following vicarious trauma. Although each coach presents different experiences and coping strategies they provide some indications of the level and type of support that may be required after witnessing athletic injury.     

Tests of inferential reasoning by exclusion in Clark’s nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana)

We examined inferential reasoning by exclusion in the Clark’s nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana) using two-way object-choice procedures. While other social scatter-hoarding corvids appear capable of engaging in inferential reasoning, it remains unclear if the relatively less social nutcracker is able to do so. In an initial experiment, food was hidden in one of two opaque containers. All of the birds immediately selected the baited container when shown only the empty container during testing. We subsequently examined the nutcrackers in two follow-up experiments using a task that may have been less likely to be solved by associative processes. The birds were trained that two distinctive objects were always found hidden in opaque containers that were always positioned at the same two locations. During testing, one of the two objects was found in a transparent “trash bin” and was unavailable. The birds were required to infer that if one of the objects was in the “trash,” then the other object should still be available in its hidden location. Five out of six birds were unable to make this inference, suggesting that associative mechanisms likely accounted for our earlier results. However, one bird consistently chose the object that was not seen in the “trash,” demonstrating that nutcrackers may have the ability to use inferential reasoning by exclusion to solve inference tasks. The role of scatter hoarding and social organization is discussed as factors in the ability of corvid birds to reason.     

Targeting Self-Stigma in Returning Military Personnel and Veterans: A Review of Intervention Strategies

Research suggests that mental health-related stigma significantly decreases the use of mental health services by military personnel and veterans. The goal of this article is to review what is known about mental health stigma as it relates to military personnel and veterans, as well as to offer an interpretive review of self-stigma intervention strategies that have been applied within the field. Target areas for future work and the concerns and challenges faced by interventionists are discussed.     

Maximizing the efficacy of interoceptive exposure by optimizing inhibitory learning: A randomized controlled trial

Cognitive-behavioral treatments for panic disorder (PD) emphasize interoceptive exposure (IE) to target anxiety sensitivity (AS) but vary considerably in its manner of delivery. This randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the efficacy of the low-dose delivery of IE exercises often prescribed in treatment protocols to an intensive form of IE hypothesized to optimize inhibitory learning. Participants (N = 120) with elevated AS were randomly assigned to one of four single-session interventions: (a) low-dose IE as prescribed in Barlow and Craske's Panic Control Treatment, (b) low-dose IE without controlled breathing or a lengthy between-trial rest period, (c) intensive IE, or (d) expressive writing control. Compared to the other conditions, intensive IE produced significantly greater reductions in AS and fearful responding to a straw breathing task from pretreatment to posttreatment. Maintenance of gains during the follow-up period did not differ between conditions. Changes in fear toleration and negative outcome expectancies fully mediated the superior efficacy of intensive IE over low-dose IE. The two low intensity IE conditions produced particularly high rates of fear sensitization on between-trial and outcome variables. The findings suggest that the intensive delivery of IE exercises has the potential to improve the efficacy of exposure-based treatments for PD.     

Nonconscious goals can shape what people want to feel

Goals can determine what people want to feel (e.g., Tamir et al., 2008), but can they do so even when they are primed outside of conscious awareness? In two studies, participants wanted to feel significantly less angry after they were implicitly primed with a collaboration goal, compared to a neutral prime. These effects were found with different implicit priming manipulations, direct and indirect measures of emotional preferences, and when controlling for concurrent emotional experiences. The effects were obtained in social contexts in which the potential for collaboration was relatively higher (Study 1) and lower (Study 2). Also, similar effects were found when collaboration was activated nonconsciously (Studies 1–2) and consciously (Study 2). By showing that nonconscious goals can shape emotional preferences, we demonstrate that what people want to feel can be determined by factors they are unaware of.