Self-representation in social anxiety disorder: linguistic analysis of autobiographical narratives

Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) posit aberrant beliefs about the social self as a key psychological mechanism that maintains fear of negative evaluation in social and performance situations. Consequently, a distorted self-view should be evident when recalling painful autobiographical social memories, as reflected in linguistic expression, negative self-beliefs, and emotion and avoidance. To test this hypothesis, 42 adults diagnosed with SAD and 27 non-psychiatric healthy controls (HC) composed autobiographical narratives of distinct social anxiety related situations, generated negative self-beliefs (NSB), and provided emotion and avoidance ratings. Although narratives were matched for initial emotional intensity and present vividness, linguistic analyses demonstrated that, compared to HC, SAD employed more self-referential, anxiety, and sensory words, and made fewer references to other people. There were no differences in the number of self-referential NSB identified by SAD and HC. Social anxiety symptom severity, however, was associated with greater self-referential NSB in SAD only. SAD reported greater current self-conscious emotions when recalling autobiographical social situations, and greater active avoidance of similar situations than did HC. These findings support cognitive models of SAD, and suggest that autobiographical memory of social situations in SAD may influence current and future thinking, emotion, and behavioral avoidance.     

Crying threshold and intensity in major depressive disorder

Clinical lore suggests that depression is associated with frequent and intense crying. To test these postulations empirically, a standardized cry-evoking stimulus was presented to depressed and nondepressed participants, and their likelihood of crying and the magnitude of crying-related changes in their emotion experience, behavior, and autonomic physiology were compared. Unexpectedly, crying was no more likely in depressed than in nondepressed participants. Within the nondepressed group, participants who cried exhibited increases in the report and display of sadness and had greater cardiac and electrodermal activation than did participants who did not cry. There was less evidence of this crying-related emotional activation within the depressed group. The lack of emotional activation among clinically depressed participants who cried provides a tantalizing clue concerning how emotions are dysregulated in this disorder.     

The tie that binds? Coherence among emotion experience, behavior, and physiology

Emotion theories commonly postulate that emotions impose coherence across multiple response systems. However, empirical support for this coherence postulate is surprisingly limited. In the present study, the authors (a) examined the within-individual associations among experiential, facial behavioral, and peripheral physiological responses during emotional responding and (b) assessed whether emotion intensity moderates these associations. Experiential, behavioral, and physiological responses were measured second-by-second during a film that induced amusement and sadness. Results indicate that experience and behavior were highly associated but that physiological responses were only modestly associated with experience and behavior. Intensity of amusement experience was associated with greater coherence between behavior and physiological responding; intensity of sadness experience was not. These findings provide new evidence about response system coherence in emotions.     

Emotion regulation goals: An individual difference perspective

Goals are widely understood to be central to the initiation, maintenance, and cessation of emotion regulation (ER). Recent studies have shown that there are profound individual differences in the types of ER goals people pursue and the extent to which they pursue them. Here, we highlight the importance of taking an individual difference approach to studying ER goals. First, we use the extended process model of ER to provide conceptual clarity on what ER goals are and describe the crucial role of goals in each stage of ER. We then identify five promising directions for future research using an individual difference approach to ER goals.     

Decomposing the relationship between cognitive functioning and self-referent memory beliefs in older adulthood: what’s memory got to do with it?

With advancing age, episodic memory performance shows marked declines along with concurrent reports of lower subjective memory beliefs. Given that normative age-related declines in episodic memory co-occur with declines in other cognitive domains, we examined the relationship between memory beliefs and multiple domains of cognitive functioning. Confirmatory bi-factor structural equation models were used to parse the shared and independent variance among factors representing episodic memory, psychomotor speed, and executive reasoning in one large cohort study (Senior Odyssey, N = 462), and replicated using another large cohort of healthy older adults (ACTIVE, N = 2802). Accounting for a general fluid cognitive functioning factor (comprised of the shared variance among measures of episodic memory, speed, and reasoning) attenuated the relationship between objective memory performance and subjective memory beliefs in both samples. Moreover, the general cognitive functioning factor was the strongest predictor of memory beliefs in both samples. These findings are consistent with the notion that dispositional memory beliefs may reflect perceptions of cognition more broadly. This may be one reason why memory beliefs have broad predictive validity for interventions that target fluid cognitive ability.     

Postpartum Depression in Mothers and Fathers: The Role of Parenting Efficacy Expectations During the Transition to Parenthood

Research demonstrates that belief in one’s effectiveness as a parent (parenting efficacy) is linked to numerous positive outcomes for new parents. Conversely, the perceived inability to meet expectations is associated with negative mental health consequences for mothers and fathers. In the present paper we examine the impact of parenting efficacy expectations on the mental health statuses of new parents. Using three waves of data spanning from the prenatal period to the 4-months postpartum period from a sample of 150 first-time mothers and fathers in the Midwestern United States, we find that parenting efficacy is negatively associated with postpartum depression (PPD) for both mothers and fathers throughout the transition period. We also find that mothers and fathers whose parenting efficacy experiences were more negative than expected reported higher levels of PPD at 1-month postpartum. This effect dissipates for mothers, but not fathers, by 4-months postpartum, suggesting differences in the experiences of mothers and fathers during this transition. We conclude that research on the transition to parenthood should continue to include fathers in an effort to better understand the mental health consequences of becoming a parent for the first time, as well as enhance interventions designed to assist couples experiencing this important transition.     

Understanding Barriers to Initial Treatment Engagement among Underserved Families Seeking Mental Health Services

This mixed method study examined factors associated with parents not attending their child’s mental health treatment after initially seeking help for their 2–5 year old child. It was part of a larger study comparing two evidence-based treatments among low-income racial/ethnic minority families seeking child mental health services. Of 123 parents who initiated mental health treatment (71?% African American or multi-racial; 97.6?% low-income), 36 (29.3?%) never attended their child’s first treatment session. Socio-demographic characteristics, parenting stress, depression, severity of child behavior problems, and length of treatment delay from intake to first scheduled treatment session were compared for families who did and did not attend their first treatment session. Parents who never attended their child’s first treatment session were more likely to live with more than four adults and children (p?=?.007) and have more depressive symptoms (p?=?.003). Median length of treatment delay was 80 days (IQR?=?55) for those who attended and 85 days (IQR?=?67.5) for those who did not attend their child’s first treatment session (p?=?.142). Three themes emerged from caregiver interviews: (a) expectations about the treatment, (b) delays in getting help, and (c) ambivalence about research participation. Findings suggest the need to develop better strategies for addressing risk factors early in the treatment process and reducing the length of time families with adverse psychosocial circumstances must wait for child mental health treatment.