Distress,wellbeing, and growth amidst COVID-19: Considering the dynamic interplay between positive and negative anticipatory emotions

Although negative anticipatory emotions are typically seen as risk factors for poorer psychological outcomes over COVID-19, emotion theorists suggest that this risk may be attenuated if balanced by the experience of positive emotion. Thus, the current study examined whether interactions between positive and negative anticipatory emotions were concurrently associated with psychological distress and greater personal wellbeing/posttraumatic growth (PTG) at three distinct periods (i.e., pre-lockdown, during lockdown, post-lockdown), and whether associations varied by these three COVID-19 time periods. The study utilizes two large longitudinal Australian samples, surveyed in 2020 prior to, during, and after a strict 4-month lockdown that occurred in Australia. Overall, positive emotions attenuated the adverse psychological outcomes arising from higher levels of negative emotion (i.e., higher psychological distress and lower personal wellbeing). Observed effects varied according to COVID-19 threat exposure. Specifically, the interaction was significantly associated with psychological distress prior to the lockdown for Sample 2, and during the lockdown for both samples. The interaction was significantly associated with wellbeing (Sample 2) prior to, and during, the lockdown but only marginally associated post-lockdown. The interaction, however, was not significantly associated with PTG (Sample 1). The results suggest that it is valuable for future research to consider greater emotional complexity (i.e., mixed emotions) over COVID-19, and other stressors more generally, to encompass a more nuanced understanding of resilience.     

Pain in the eye of the beholder: Variations in pain visual representations as a function of face ethnicity and culture

Pain experienced by Black individuals is systematically underestimated, and recent studies have shown that part of this bias is rooted in perceptual factors. We used Reverse Correlation to estimate visual representations of the pain expression in Black and White faces, in participants originating from both Western and African countries. Groups of raters were then asked to evaluate the presence of pain and other emotions in these representations. A second group of White raters then evaluated those same representations placed over a neutral background face (50% White; 50% Black). Image-based analyses show significant effects of culture and face ethnicity, but no interaction between the two factors. Western representations were more likely to be judged as expressing pain than African representations. For both cultural groups, raters also perceived more pain in White face representations than in Black face representations. However, when changing the background stimulus to the neutral background face, this effect of face ethnic profile disappeared. Overall, these results suggest that individuals have different expectations of how pain is expressed by Black and White individuals, and that cultural factors may explain a part of this phenomenon     

Choice behavior and the accessibility of the reinforcer

In Experiment 1, matching of relative response rates to relative rates of reinforcement was obtained in concurrent variable-interval schedules when the absolute values of the two concurrent variable-interval schedules varied from 6 sec and 12 sec to 600 sec and 1200 sec. Increases in the duration of the changeover delay, however, produced decreases in the relative response rates and, consequently, some deviation from matching. In Experiment 2, matching of relative response rates to the relative duration of the reinforcer failed to occur when the equal variable-interval schedules arranging access to the two different reinforcer durations (1.5 and 6 sec) were varied in size from concurrent variable-interval 10-sec schedules to concurrent variable-interval 600-sec schedules.     

Etcetera

Publishers interested in having their materials reviewed here are requested to send two copies to Dr. Daniel Sinick, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20006. Items reviewed in this column are not available from APGA.     

Differential-psychologische Untersuchungen zum Vigilanzverhalten

Zusammenfassung Mit Hilfe von Korrelationsmethoden wurden inter-individuelle Leistungsunterschiede in einer ein- und einer mehrflächigen Vigilanzaufgabe untersucht. In beiden Aufgaben korrelieren bestimmte Vigilanzscores mit Interferenzindikatoren im Stroop-Versuch. In der mehrflächigen Anordnung zeigte sich eine negative Korrelation zwischen der Entdeckungswahrscheinlichkeit und der Rate der falschen Alarme. Hinsichtlich der zeitlichen Merkmale der Vigilanzleistung ergab sich, daß die Vpn den geringsten Abfall der Entdeckungswahrscheinlichkeit erkennen lassen, die zu Beginn der Vigilanzaufgabe die Rate der falschen Alarme am stärksten reduzieren konnten. Die Ergebnisse wurden im Rahmen des detection-Modells interpretiert.

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Experiments in individual differences of vigilance behavior

Summary This paper is concerned with individual differences of vigilance performance in a simple and a complex vigilance task. In both tasks certain aspects of vigilance behavior were correlated with interference in the Color Word Test by Stroop. In the complex vigilance task there was a negative correlation between the probabilities of signal detections and false alarms rates. With regard to the temporal characteristics of vigilance behavior it was found out that subjects with the least decrease of detection rate showed the greatest reduction of their false alarms rate to the beginning of the vigilance task. The results were discussed in the context of the detection model.

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Teil II der Dissertation, die im Januar 1969 der Philosophischen Fakultät der Freien Universität Berlin vorgelegt wurde.     

Etcetera

Publishers interested in having their materials reviewed here are requested to send two copies to Dr. Daniel Sinick, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. 20006. Items reviewed in this column are not available from APGA.