Non-response to sad mood induction: implications for emotion research

Experimental induction of sad mood states is a mainstay of laboratory research on affect and cognition, mood regulation, and mood disorders. Typically, the success of such mood manipulations is reported as a statistically significant pre- to post-induction change in the self-rated intensity of the target affect. The present commentary was motivated by an unexpected finding in one of our studies concerning the response rate to a well-validated sad mood induction. Using the customary statistical approach, we found a significant mean increase in self-rated sadness intensity with a moderate effect size, verifying the “success” of the mood induction. However, that “success” masked that, between one-fifth and about one-third of our samples (adolescents who had histories of childhood-onset major depressive disorder and healthy controls) reported absolutely no sadness in response to the mood induction procedure. We consider implications of our experience for emotion research by (1) commenting upon the typically overlooked phenomenon of nonresponse, (2) suggesting changes in reporting practices regarding mood induction success, and (3) outlining future directions to help scientists determine why some subjects do not respond to experimental mood induction.     

Four Questions of Iterated Grounding

The Question of Iterated Grounding (QIG) asks what grounds the grounding facts. Although the question received a lot of attention in the past few years, it is usually discussed independently of another important issue: the connection between metaphysical explanation and the relation or relations that supposedly “back” it. I will show that once we get clear on the distinction between metaphysical explanation and the relation(s) backing it, we can distinguish no fewer than four questions lumped under QIG. I will also argue that given some plausible assumptions about what it would take for a relation to back metaphysical explanation, many salient views about grounding allow us to give “easy” answers to these questions—easy in the sense that we can straightforwardly derive them from the respective conception of grounding without getting into the sorts of complexities that typically inform answers to QIG. The paper's main upshot is that we cannot expect to make much progress on QIG without first addressing the difficult issue of how exactly grounding is related to metaphysical explanation.     

Metaphysically explanatory unification

Philosophical Studies - This paper develops and motivates a unification theory of metaphysical explanation, or as I will call it, Metaphysical Unificationism. The theory’s main inspiration is...     

The leap (der Sprung) for Being in Heidegger''sBeitr?ge zur Philosophie (Vom Ereignis)

All translations in this study, unless indicated otherwise, are mine     

Socialization of Emotion and Offspring Internalizing Symptoms in Mothers with Childhood-Onset Depression

This study examines how mothers with and without a history of childhood-onset depression respond to their 3-9 year-old children's emotions. Mother-child dyads included 55 offspring of mothers with a history of childhood-onset depressive disorders and 57 offspring of never-depressed mothers. Mothers with a history of childhood depression were less likely than control mothers to respond in supportive ways to their children's negative emotions and were more likely to magnify, punish, or neglect their children's negative emotions. Magnification, neglect, and punishment of children's negative emotions were concurrently associated with children's internalizing symptoms, and neglect and punishment were associated with internalizing over a one year follow-up. Maternal neglect of children's negative emotion was positively associated with later internalizing symptoms for children who already had higher internalizing symptoms at the initial assessment. Findings suggest that atypical socialization of emotion may be one mechanism in the development of internalizing disorders.     

The learning of 90° continuous relative phase with and without Lissajous feedback: external and internally generated bimanual coordination

Results from recent experiments (e.g., Kovacs, Buchanan, & Shea, 2009a–b, 2010a,b) suggest that when salient visual information is presented using Lissajous plots bimanual coordination patterns typically thought to be very difficult to perform without extensive practice can be performed with remarkably low relative phase error and variability with 5 min or less of practice. However, when this feedback is removed, performance deteriorates. The purpose of the present experiment was to determine if reducing the frequency of feedback presentation will decrease the participant's reliance on the feedback and will facilitate the development of an internal representation capable of sustaining performance when the Lissajous feedback is withdrawn. The results demonstrated that reduced frequency Lissajous feedback results in very effective bimanual coordination performance on tests with Lissajous feedback available and when feedback is withdrawn. Taken together the present experiments add to the growing literature that supports the notion that salient perceptual information can override some aspects of the system's intrinsic dynamics typically linked to motor output control. Additionally, the present results suggest that the learning of both externally and internally driven bimanual coordination is facilitated by providing reduced frequency Lissajous feedback.     

How do psychosocial challenges associated with living with congenital heart disease translate into treatment interests and preferences? A qualitative approach

Objectives: There is an increasing amount of research being conducted regarding the psychosocial challenges associated with living with congenital heart disease (CHD), however little is known about how these challenges influence the type of psychosocial services patients want. This study investigated (1) the type of services patients want; (2) how they want to access these services; and (3) why they want these services. Methods: Three focus groups with adults with CHD (total of 14 participants aged 19-67) were conducted and thematic analysis was used to identify emerging themes. Results: Participants described wanting to access specific psychosocial services in three broad categories (counselling, connecting with other adults with CHD and psycho-education) and in three main formats (individual/group therapy, mentorship programmes and patient conferences). Reasons for wanting these services were grouped under two overarching themes, namely intrapersonal factors and interpersonal challenges. Conclusions: Psychosocial challenges are part of the everyday lives of adults with CHD, yet they are rarely addressed as part of routine medical care. Patients themselves have clear opinions regarding the psychological services most appropriate to target their experiences of living with CHD.     

Hopelessness

ABSTRACT: In a sample of 87 hospitalized suicide attempters, a hopelessness scale was found to be significantly better than a depression inventory as an indicator of suicidal risk. Hopelessness also correlated better than depression with self-ratings of the attenuation of the desire to go on living.