The bottle is half empty and that’s bad, but not tragic: Differential effects of negative functional reappraisal

Reappraisal has typically been viewed as a unitary construct, without looking at the specific ways in which it can be realized. Our main objective was to test a more ecological form of reappraisal, informed by cognitive behavioral therapy strategies of change. We compared two types of emotional regulation strategies (positive reappraisal and negative functional reappraisal), with each other and with a control condition. The primary outcome was negative emotion expression, but we also took into account other outcomes such as positive emotion generation and irrational and rational beliefs. Ninety undergraduate students took part in the study. Their task was to watch a distressful video, and subsequently practice one of the reappraisal or control instructions. Our results indicate negative functional reappraisal to be the most efficient strategy in fostering reductions in negative emotions, as well as in irrational beliefs. Also its efficiency appears mediated by changes in irrational beliefs.     

Difficulties in Interpersonal Emotion Regulation: Initial Development and Validation of a Self-Report Measure

Recent attention has focused on the role of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) in the development and maintenance of a range of forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, depression, and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Despite the relevance of IER in psychopathology, few measures exist to characterize patterns of maladaptive IER. Our aim was to (1) develop a measure of maladaptive IER, (2) begin to explore the factor structure of this new measure, the difficulties in interpersonal regulation of emotions (DIRE), and (3) examine its association with symptoms of psychopathology. In Study 1, 853 Mechanical Turk workers completed the DIRE and measures of psychopathology symptoms. We identified two factors each in the IER and intrapersonal emotion regulation scales. In Study 2, 142 undergraduate students completed the DIRE and daily measures of emotion regulation and coping for 14 days. Preliminary findings suggest that the DIRE has adequate internal consistency and construct and predictive validity. This measure has the potential to supplement future efforts in assessing IER in psychopathology.     

Depression socialization within friendship groups at the transition to adolescence: the roles of gender and group centrality as moderators of peer influence

Tests of interpersonal theories of depression have established that elevated depression levels among peers portend increases in individuals' own depressive symptoms, a phenomenon known as depression socialization. Susceptibility to this socialization effect may be enhanced during the transition to adolescence as the strength of peer influence rises dramatically. Socialization of depressive symptoms among members of child and adolescent friendship groups was examined over a 1-year period among 648 youth in grades six through eight. Sociometric methods were utilized to identify friendship groups and ascertain the prospective effect of group-level depressive symptoms on youths' own depressive symptoms. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed a significant socialization effect and indicated that this effect was most potent for (a) girls and (b) individuals on the periphery of friendship groups. Future studies would benefit from incorporating child and adolescent peer groups as a developmentally salient context for interpersonal models of depression.     

Confidence and aspirations: Self-esteem and self-concepts as predictors of students' life goals

Research was conducted to assess sex differences in college students' self-esteem and self-concepts, and the extent to which students' self-perceptions predict their life goals Questionnaires that included the Rosenberg Scale, Texas Social Behavior Inventory, self-concepts, life goals, and demographic and family backgrounds were completed by 804 women from seven colleges and 127 men from two colleges Men and women did not differ significantly in their self-esteem and interpersonal self-confidence, but the men rated themselves higher on math/science ability, leadership/public speaking ability, and coping/self-sufficiency Women's global self-esteem scores and interpersonal self-confidence did not predict their life goals, but women's greater self-confidence in masculine spheres predicted higher educational goals and their ranking of future careers as a more important priority in their lives Men's interpersonal self-confidence predicted their ranking time for future spouses as a high priority and time for themselves as a lower priority Men's global self-esteem and leadership/public speaking ability self-concept predicted preferences for full-time career involvement when their future children are very young Different demographic variables also predicted men's and women's goals Implications of these sex differences and predictive relationships are discussed     

Twice Hurt: How Newspaper Coverage May Reduce Empathy and Engender Blame for Female Victims of Crime

In a content analysis of 148 newspaper articles we examined whether victims of violent crime (excluding sex crimes) are treated differently according to their gender. Articles taken from 4 newspapers showed that accounts of violent crime personalize male victims more than female victims: more personal information was included about male victims, and males were significantly more likely to be referred to by name rather than by a noun (“the victi”) or pronoun. In a second study we investigated whether such treatment could affect both empathy for the victim and victim blame. Participants read an account of a murder that manipulated victim gender, degree of personal information, and the manner in which the victim was described. Empathy for the victim was increased across victim gender by both inclusion of personal information and referring to the victim by name. Victim blame was also reduced by the inclusion of personal information. Implications of how the news media may subtly reduce empathy and engender blame for female victims are discussed.     

Daily emotional dynamics in depressed youth: a cell phone ecological momentary assessment study

This study used a new cell phone ecological momentary assessment approach to investigate daily emotional dynamics in 47 youths with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 32 no-psychopathology controls (CON) (ages 7-17 years). Information about emotional experience in the natural environment was obtained using answer-only cell phones, while MDD youths received an 8-week course of cognitive behavioral therapy and/or psychopharmacological treatment. Compared with CON youths, MDD youths reported more intense and labile global negative affect; greater sadness, anger, and nervousness; and a lower ratio of positive to negative affect. These differences increased with pubertal maturation. MDD youths spent more time alone and less time with their families than CON youths. Although differences in emotional experiences were found across social contexts, MDD youths were more negative than CON youths in all contexts examined. As the MDD participants progressed through treatment, diagnostic group differences in the intensity and lability of negative affect decreased, but there were no changes in the ratio of positive to negative affect or in measures of social context. We discuss methodological innovations and advantages of this approach, including improved ecological validity and access to information about variability in emotions, change in emotions over time, the balance of positive and negative emotions, and the social context of emotional experience.     

THE SILENCING THE SELF SCALE: Schemas of Intimacy Associated With Depression in Women

The Silencing the Self Scale (STSS), derived from a longitudinal study of clinically depressed women, measures specific schemas about how to make and maintain intimacy hypothesized to be associated with depression in women. To assess its psychometric properties, the STSS was administered with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to three samples of women: college students ( n = 63), residents in battered women's shelters ( n = 1401, and mothers ( n = 270) (of 4-month-old infants) who abused cocaine during pregnancy. The STSS had a high degree of internal consistency and test-retest reliability and was significantly correlated with the BDI in all three samples.     

Rapid adaptation to a prismatic distortion

Among several shape distortions caused by a wedge prism is one where a pattern of evenly spaced lines that are parallel to the prism base reaches the eye with distances seen through the base region contracted and distances seen through the apex region expanded. Rapid partial adaptation to this distortion was obtained by having subjects who wore the prism in vertical orientation move the head up and down during the exposure period. The head movements caused the distortion to shift up and down through the line pattern. When, with subjects’ heads stationary, the distortion was made to shift up and down by artificial means, rapid adaptation failed to develop. It is proposed that head movements are here needed for adaptation to develop, because the covariance between them and the shifting of the distortion serves as a signal that the distortions are not objective facts and causes the initiation of the adaptation process.