When past meets present: the relationship between website‐induced nostalgia and well‐being

The present research examined whether social media websites increase feelings of nostalgia, and whether this nostalgic reverie promotes psychological and social health. Specifically, in comparison to control conditions, participants exposed to the websites Dear Old Love and Dear Photograph reported greater feelings of nostalgia (Studies 1–3), positive affect (Studies 1 and 3), life satisfaction (Study 1), and relationship need satisfaction (Study 2). Further, mediational analyses revealed that increased thoughts of nostalgia heightened subjective well‐being and social connectedness. Study 3 showed that the relationship between nostalgia and positive affect was specific to the Dear Photograph website and did not generalize to any website focused on close relationships. The implications of this research for nostalgia, internet use, and well‐being are further discussed.     

Easier Said Than Done? Task Difficulty's Influence on Temporal Alignment,Semantic Similarity,and Complexity Matching Between Gestures and Speech

Gestures and speech are clearly synchronized in many ways. However, previous studies have shown that the semantic similarity between gestures and speech breaks down as people approach transitions in understanding. Explanations for these gesture–speech mismatches, which focus on gestures and speech expressing different cognitive strategies, have been criticized for disregarding gestures’ and speech's integration and synchronization. In the current study, we applied three different perspectives to investigate gesture–speech synchronization in an easy and a difficult task: temporal alignment, semantic similarity, and complexity matching. Participants engaged in a simple cognitive task and were assigned to either an easy or a difficult condition. We automatically measured pointing gestures, and we coded participant's speech, to determine the temporal alignment and semantic similarity between gestures and speech. Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis was used to determine the extent of complexity matching between gestures and speech. We found that task difficulty indeed influenced gesture–speech synchronization in all three domains. We thereby extended the phenomenon of gesture–speech mismatches to difficult tasks in general. Furthermore, we investigated how temporal alignment, semantic similarity, and complexity matching were related in each condition, and how they predicted participants’ task performance. Our study illustrates how combining multiple perspectives, originating from different research areas (i.e., coordination dynamics, complexity science, cognitive psychology), provides novel understanding about cognitive concepts in general and about gesture–speech synchronization and task difficulty in particular.     

Eveningness Predicts Negative Affect Following Sleep Restriction

Although considerable research has shown that sleep loss results in decreased positive affect, findings regarding change in negative affect are inconsistent. Such inconsistency may be due in part to variability in individual difference factors, such as chronotype, which is associated with both sleep and affective outcomes. Chronotype represents the tendency to be a morning- or evening-type person and is underpinned by the timing of circadian processes linked to sleep and mental health. The present study examined the predictive effect of chronotype above and beyond that of depression on affective response to sleep restriction in a sample of healthy sleeping adults (n = 73). Participants completed measures of chronotype and depression at baseline and measures of positive and negative affect before and after one night of sleep restriction (4 hours between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m.). Results indicate a large, significant decrease in positive affect following sleep restriction, but no statistically significant change in negative affect. Subsequent analyses showed that chronotype predicted affective response to sleep restriction, such that eveningness predicted a medium, significant increase in negative affect following sleep restriction, controlling for depression—however, there was no association between chronotype and change in positive affect in response to sleep restriction. These findings highlight a differential effect of sleep loss on positive and negative affect and suggest that evening chronotype may confer a distinct vulnerability for increased negative affect following sleep loss.     

Prospective Associations Between Sleep Disturbance and Repetitive Negative Thinking: The Mediating Roles of Focusing and Shifting Attentional Control

Although considerable evidence has linked sleep disturbance to symptoms of psychopathology, including repetitive negative thinking, few studies have examined how sleep disturbance may predict repetitive negative thinking over time. Further, no study to date has examined specific mechanisms that may account for this relationship. The present study sought to address these gaps in the literature by testing focusing and shifting attentional control as two potential mediators of the relationship between sleep disturbance and repetitive negative thinking over a 6-month period. A final sample of 445 unselected community participants completed measures of sleep disturbance and repetitive negative thinking at Time 1, measures of focusing and shifting attentional control 3 months later, and measures of repetitive negative thinking again 6 months later. Results revealed that focusing, but not shifting, attentional control mediated the relationship between sleep disturbance and repetitive negative thinking, specifically, worry, rumination, and obsessions. These findings provide preliminary evidence for focusing attentional control as a candidate mechanism that may explain the causal role of sleep disturbance in the development of repetitive negative thinking observed in various disorders.     

Comparing instructor-led,video-model,and no-instruction control tutorials for creating single-subject graphs in Microsoft Excel: A systematic replication and extension

Visual inspection of single-subject data is the primary method for behavior analysts to interpret the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable; however, there is no consensus on the most suitable method for teaching graph construction for single-subject designs. We systematically replicated and extended Tyner and Fienup (2015) using a repeated-measures between-subjects design to compare the effects of instructor-led, video-model, and no-instruction control tutorials on the graphing performance of 81 master's students with some reported Microsoft Excel experience. Our mixed-design analysis revealed a statistically significant main effect of pretest, tutorial, and posttest submissions for each tutorial group and a nonsignificant main effect of tutorial group. Tutorial group significantly interacted with submissions, suggesting that both instructor-led and video-model tutorials may be superior to providing graduate students with a written list of graphing conventions (i.e., control condition). Finally, training influenced performance on an untrained graph type (multielement) for all tutorial groups.     

Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention

We developed a multi-faceted prejudice habit-breaking intervention to produce long-term reductions in implicit race bias. The intervention is based on the premise that implicit bias is like a habit that can be broken through a combination of awareness of implicit bias, concern about the effects of that bias, and the application of strategies to reduce bias. In a 12-week longitudinal study, people who received the intervention showed dramatic reductions in implicit race bias. People who were concerned about discrimination or who reported using the strategies showed the greatest reductions. The intervention also led to increases in concern about discrimination and personal awareness of bias over the duration of the study. People in the control group showed none of the above effects. Our results raise the hope of reducing persistent and unintentional forms of discrimination that arise from implicit bias.     

Examining the prevalence, role and impact of evidence regarding Antisocial Personality, sociopathy and psychopathy in capital cases: a survey of defense team members

Although anecdotal case accounts suggest that evidence concerning Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), sociopathy and psychopathy is frequently introduced by the prosecution in capital murder trials, to date there has been no systematic research to determine the actual prevalence, role, or perceived impact of such evidence in these cases. Survey data collected from attendees at a national capital mitigation conference (n=41) indicated that prosecution evidence concerning APD was quite prevalent, with "sociopath" and "psychopath" labels being introduced less frequently. Evidence concerning these disorders, which were assessed primarily via DSM criteria and self-report personality inventories, was most often introduced by the prosecution in the sentencing phase to address a defendant's ostensible risk of future dangerousness and/or to rebut mitigating evidence-although it was also introduced frequently in the guilt/innocence phase of these trials to rebut mental health evidence offered by the defense. Survey respondents believed that evidence concerning APD, sociopathy, and psychopathy had a considerable impact on trial outcomes. Also, although defense objections were common, such evidence was rarely ruled to be inadmissible in these cases.     

Post-Admission Cognitive Therapy: A Brief Intervention for Psychiatric Inpatients Admitted After a Suicide Attempt

To date, no empirically based inpatient intervention for individuals who have attempted suicide exists. We present an overview of a novel psychotherapeutic approach, Post-Admission Cognitive Therapy (PACT), currently under development and empirical testing for inpatients who have been admitted for a recent suicide attempt. PACT is adapted from an efficacious and brief outpatient cognitive therapy protocol (Brown, Henriques, Ratto, & Beck, 2002; Brown et al., 2005) for inpatient delivery to individuals with recent suicide attempts. Within a cognitive framework, attempting suicide is conceptualized as a maladaptive coping strategy that deserves immediate targeted clinical attention regardless of the patient's diagnosis. The primary aims of PACT are to reduce the likelihood of suicide attempt recurrence as well as decrease the severity of established psychological risk factors for suicide. The three phases of PACT involve (1) building a therapeutic alliance and developing a cognitive conceptualization based on the recent suicide attempt; (2) instilling hope, practicing effective coping strategies, and addressing problem-solving deficits; and (3) preventing relapse, constructing a safety plan, and promoting timely linkage with outpatient aftercare services. The efficacy of PACT as a targeted inpatient treatment package remains to be established. The cognitive behavioral components of PACT, as described here, are based on evidence-informed practices aimed at improving the quality of care provided to inpatients following a suicide attempt.     

Happiness and Unhappiness in the Developing World: Life Satisfaction Among Sex Workers, Dump-Dwellers, Urban Poor, and Rural Peasants in Nicaragua

Little in-depth research exists on subjective well-being (SWB) in the developing world, especially among the poor and extremely poor. Biswas-Diener and Diener (Soc Indic Res 55:329–352, 2001) employed a study design in the slums of Calcutta, India to address this gap in SWB research. They found slightly negative global SWB but slightly positive domain specific satisfaction in their sample. The current study employs the same paradigm and investigates the SWB of female sex workers, city dump dwellers, and urban and rural poor in Nicaragua, Central America. The current study was able to replicate the Biswas-Diener and Diener (Soc Indic Res 55:329–352, 2001) finding of slightly negative SWB for marginalized urban groups. In addition, an overall model for predicting SWB was constructed using personality dispositions, objective income, social support, and social rootedness as predictors. Social support and objective income were the only significant predictors in the model but more zero order relations existed. Additionally, this study contrasted urban poor versus rural poor and found no significant SWB differences.     

The relative roles of physical education teachers and parents in adolescents’ leisure-time physical activity motivation and behavior

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to explore the relative contributions of perceived parent and physical education teacher autonomy support, involvement, and modeling to adolescent leisure-time physical activity motivation and behavior within the framework of self-determination theory.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Method

161 Middle school students completed a paper survey which assessed the study variables.

Results

Three sets of models were tested that examined the relationships of autonomy support, involvement, and modeling from mothers, fathers, and physical education teachers to adolescent leisure-time physical activity self-determined motivation and behavior. In the models, each social support variable had a significant, positive, direct relationship to motivation, and a significant, positive, indirect relationship to physical activity behavior mediated by motivation. Further, the relationships between social support from each significant other and motivation were of similar magnitude.

Conclusions

Mothers and fathers both play modest, yet significant roles in their adolescent’s leisure-time physical activity motivation. Additionally, physical education teachers, although not present in the leisure-time physical activity context, serve an equally important role in supporting adolescents’ leisure-time physical activity. Lastly, adolescent self-determined motivation for leisure-time physical activity is a strong determinant of self-reported leisure-time physical activity behavior.