The Moderating Effect of Depression Symptoms on the Concordance between the Experience and Verbal Disclosure of Emotion

Within-person studies of emotional disclosure have found evidence of a disclosure-discordance effect of depression, whereby the positive association between the intensity of one’s emotional experience and verbal disclosure of that experience weakens with increasing depression symptoms. Because these previous studies have exclusively been naturalistic ones, we examined the disclosure-discordance effect of depression in the lab. Participants (N?=?115) completed a measure of depression symptoms and viewed a series of emotionally evocative photographs. Emotion-expressive behavior while viewing each photograph was rated by judges, subjective emotional experience was assessed via self-report, and emotional disclosure just after the photograph was viewed was rated by different judges. Multilevel analyses indicated that depression symptoms moderated the association between the behavioral (i.e., facial) expression of emotion intensity and disclosure of emotion. Moderation was not supported in analyses with self-reported emotional intensity as a predictor. These findings partly supported the disclosure-discordance effect, and they inform methods of empirically examining the effect of depression symptoms on the verbal disclosure of emotion.

     

Mortality Salience Decreases Social Exploration When People Experience Metacognitive Ease Generating Examples of Cultural Value Adherence

In the present research, we integrated terror management theory with work on metacognitive fluency to examine how mortality concerns affect social exploration motives. We hypothesized that mortality salience would decrease desire to explore novel social interactions only when the feeling of being valued by culturally relevant others was secure. Participants (N = 328) reflected on death or physical pain, then generated 3 (metacognitive-ease) or 12 (metacognitive-difficulty) examples of past behaviors that their peers valued (vs. neutral behaviors). Metacognitive fluency was expected to enhance feelings that existing social bonds were secure. Finally, we assessed participants’ desire to explore novel social interactions. Death thoughts decreased participants’ desire to explore novel social interactions when they experienced “ease” generating examples of culturally valued behavior.     

Fountain of youth: The impact of nostalgia on youthfulness and implications for health

The present research explored the impact of nostalgia on feelings of youthfulness, as well as the health benefits of nostalgia-induced youthfulness. Previous research indicates that feeling younger than one’s current age has positive implications for health. We predicted that, relative to ordinary autobiographical memories, nostalgic memories would make people feel more youthful. Further, we predicted that feelings of youthfulness would in turn lead to more positive attitudes about health and physical ability. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that, as people get older, nostalgic reverie relative to a control makes them feel more youthful. In Study 3, adults 40 and older who recalled a nostalgic memory from high school reported feeling more youthful than those who recalled an ordinary high school memory. Nostalgia-induced youthfulness in turn predicted the extent to which participants felt healthy, confident about their physical abilities, and optimistic about their future health. These findings suggest that nostalgia promotes a younger view of the self that may be beneficial for health.     

When is an error not a prediction error? An electrophysiological investigation

A recent theory holds that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) uses reinforcement learning signals conveyed by the midbrain dopamine system to facilitate flexible action selection. According to this position, the impact of reward prediction error signals on ACC modulates the amplitude of a component of the event-related brain potential called the error-related negativity (ERN). The theory predicts that ERN amplitude is monotonically related to the expectedness of the event: It is larger for unexpected outcomes than for expected outcomes. However, a recent failure to confirm this prediction has called the theory into question. In the present article, we investigated this discrepancy in three trial-and-error learning experiments. All three experiments provided support for the theory, but the effect sizes were largest when an optimal response strategy could actually be learned. This observation suggests that ACC utilizes dopamine reward prediction error signals for adaptive decision making when the optimal behavior is, in fact, learnable.     

Follow-up of children identified with and treated for a motor delay of nonspecifiable etiology

Forty-eight 7- to 8-year-old children who had been diagnosed prior to 48 months of age as being developmentally motor delayed and had received therapy for their delay were followed up and assessed for motor, intellectual, and psychological development as well as for self-perceived competence and school achievement. These children were found to be significantly inferior on all of these variables, except for self-competence, when compared with matched nondelayed controls. Those delayed children who had begun treatment prior to 24 months of age demonstrated significantly greater gains in motor function at follow-up, had significantly higher IQs, performed better at school, and participated in more peer-related activities than did the delayed children who began treatment after 24 months. This study supports the hypotheses that (1) young children diagnosed as being developmentally motor delayed demonstrate subsequent intellectual and psychological problems when in the primary grades and (2) that the age at onset of intervention therapy for the delay is significantly related to outcome (benefit of therapy).     

Manipulating parameters of reinforcement to reduce problem behavior without extinction

Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) most often includes extinction as a treatment component. However, extinction is not always feasible and it can be counter‐therapeutic if implemented without optimal treatment integrity. Researchers have successfully implemented DRA without extinction by manipulating various parameters of reinforcement such that alternative behavior is favored. We extended previous research by assessing three participants' sensitivities to quality, magnitude, and immediacy using arbitrary responses and reinforcers that maintain problem behavior. The results were used to implement an intervention for problem behavior using DRA without extinction. Our findings indicate that arbitrary responses can be used to identify individual and relative sensitivity to parameters of reinforcement for reinforcers that maintain problem behavior. Treatment was effective for all participants when we manipulated parameters of reinforcement to which they were most sensitive, and, for two participants, the treatment was less effective when we manipulated parameters to which they were least sensitive.     

Disclosing Fathers’ HIV Infection to their Sons in Togo

This study examined the views of parents living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and healthcare providers in Togo, on the appropriateness of HIV-infected fathers disclosing their serostatus to their sons. In early 2016, 177 PLWHA (95 mothers and 82 fathers) and 123 healthcare providers (20 physicians, 24 nurses, 41 nurse’s aides, 13 health counsellors, and 25 psychologists) judged the appropriateness of disclosure in 48 scenarios. These scenarios were composed by systematically varying the levels of four factors derived from previous studies on disclosure of bad news: the visibility of symptoms, the son’s level of psychological robustness, the son’s age, and whether the mother was involved in the decision. Seven qualitatively different positions were found: Depends on Son’s Maturity (20%), Depends on Mother’s Involvement in the Decision and Son’s Maturity (19%), Always Quite Appropriate (16%), Depends on Visibility of Symptoms and Son’s Maturity (15%), Depends on Mother’s Involvement in the Decision (14%), Depends on Son’s Age (9%), and Don’t Tell to Adult Son (7%). Healthcare providers (59% of nurses and 25% of physicians) were more likely than PLWHA (10%) to endorse the view that disclosure is Always Quite Appropriate. These findings suggest that interventions to encourage and support parental HIV disclosure in Togo, and possibly in other sub-Saharan African countries, must not be “one size fits all”, but must be tailored in design and implementation to address parents’ differing views, fears, and needs.     

Metaphor and Change in Counseling

Increased general interest among counselors in the way language, narratives, and stories influence clients' personal and social realities has drawn particular attention to metaphorical language and its facilitative role in counseling. In this article, the authors suggest that metaphors and metaphorical knowing may play a significant role in facilitating at least 5 developmental change processes in counseling: relationship building, accessing and symbolizing client emotions, uncovering and challenging clients' tacit assumptions, working with client resistance, and introducing new frames of reference.