Does the Awareness of Mortality Shape People's Openness to Violence and Conflict? An Examination of Terror Management Theory

Terror management theory (TMT) proposes that evoking death‐related thoughts (mortality salience; MS) in individuals or groups can lead to stronger worldview defence and greater support for extremist violence. In three experiments, we tested whether an MS manipulation, and associated moderators, increased support for extremist violence. In Australian university students, Study 1 found no statistically significant main or moderated effects for MS on measures of extremist violence. However, participants exposed to the MS manipulation reported increases in conservative religiosity (belief in divine power). In Study 2, the MS manipulation had no significant effect on support for extremist violence for Australian university students primed with an antiviolent extremism norm. And in young Australian Jewish people (Study 3), the MS manipulation did not increase support for violence against migrants. However, there was an increase in support for policies that act to fight against violent extremism in Iraq and Syria in those exposed to the MS manipulation. Across three studies, we find little support for the hypothesis that MS results in increased support for violent extremism. Larger more methodological sound studies are needed to address inconsistencies in the evidence surrounding TMT and the MS hypothesis, at least in regards to violence and extremism.     

Emotion regulation and mood brightening in daily life vary with depressive symptom levels

Naturalistic studies of emotional reactivity in depression have repeatedly found larger decreases in negative affect (NA) among depressed individuals in response to daily positive events. This so-called mood-brightening (MB) effect represents a theoretical and empirical oddity. The current study is a secondary analysis investigating whether the MB effect is moderated by spontaneous use of emotion regulation strategies, which have been implicated in the maintenance and modulation of NA in prior work. Participants (N?=?95) representing a large spectrum of depressive symptom severity reported their experiences of NA and the occurrence of positive events in daily life over the course of seven days using the experience sampling method. Our findings replicate and build upon those of prior studies relating to the MB effect in the following ways: (1) we observed the MB effect for specific negative emotions of sadness, anger, anxiety; and (2) we found evidence that the MB effect is moderated by spontaneous use of rumination, distraction, and expressive suppression, which have been shown to enhance or dampen NA. The role of emotion regulation strategies in daily emotional reactivity to pleasant events is discussed.     

Emotion differentiation dissected: between-category,within-category,and integral emotion differentiation,and their relation to well-being

Emotion differentiation, the ability to describe and label our own emotions in a differentiated and specific manner, has been repeatedly associated with well-being. However, it is unclear exactly what type of differentiation is most strongly related to well-being: the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotions that are relatively closely related (e.g. anger and irritation), the ability to make larger distinctions between very distinct emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), or the combination of both. To determine which type of differentiation is most predictive of well-being, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis across six datasets. We examined the correlations between these three types of differentiation and several indicators of well-being (depression, emotional clarity, and self-esteem). Results showed that individuals differentiated most between very distinct emotions and least between more related emotions, and that an index computed across emotions from both the same and different emotion categories was most strongly associated with well-being indicators.     

Functional Neural Correlates of Anosognosia in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: a Systematic Review

Neuropsychology Review - Functional neuroimaging techniques (i.e. single photon emission computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging) have been used...     

How does discourse among like-minded individuals affect their thinking about a complex issue?

Is there reason to be concerned about what has been seen as an increasing trend for discourse on complex issues to be confined to an “echo chamber” of like-minded individuals? To investigate how thinking regarding an issue changes in form following concentrated discourse with like-minded peers, we undertook a qualitative examination of changes in the reasoning that 34 older adults used to justify their positions prior to and following such discourse. They showed a divergence of patterns. A minority abandoned mention of previously expressed ideas at odds with their own positions or otherwise narrowed the reasoning used to justify their positions. Consistent with findings from previous studies, only a minority showed increased certainty and/or extremity (polarisation) on quantitative scales. Countering this minority were a larger proportion whose thinking appeared to benefit from such engagement in several respects that we describe. A follow-up study compares results for a sample of young adults.     

Who gives and receives more? Older couples' personality and spousal support

This study examined the effects of the Big Five personality traits on support/strain exchange within older couples. Data of 1,775 older couples aged between 50 and 85 years in 2014 from the Health and Retirement Study were assessed, and actor–partner interdependent models were used. For the actor effects, all the five factors predicted their report on the spousal support/strain from the spouse; some differences between husbands and wives, as well as support and strain, were detected. For the partner effects, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism predicted the support/strain provision reported by the partner. The findings of this study illustrate that certain personality factors work as predictors of spousal support/strain in older couples. The possible mechanism with regard to older adults' personality and marital relationship was discussed.     

Using Multiple Contexts and Retrieval Cues in Exposure-Based Therapy to Prevent Relapse in Anxiety Disorders

The benefits of exposure-based interventions for anxiety disorders are substantial but not stable for everyone, given that these interventions are often followed by relapse of symptoms. A body of research provides a background on how to add certain strategies in exposure-based therapy to prevent relapse in anxiety disorders. This review summarizes some of these strategies and provides clear-cut clinical implications. Studies that provide support for two types of strategies to prevent relapse have been reviewed—the use of multiple contexts and the use of retrieval cues. The use of multiple contexts reduces context and stimulus specificity of extinction learning during exposure, while the use of retrieval cues enhances memory (re)consolidation and retrieval after exposure. The described strategies to enhance the accessibility and therefore the retrievability of exposure-based learning to prevent relapse in anxiety disorders can be summarized as advice to conduct exposure under variable conditions. This way, the generalizability of what is learned during exposure to the patients’ daily life after treatment improves. Therefore, adding these strategies in the course of exposure-based treatment of anxiety disorders seems beneficial. However, future replications and translational studies are needed to verify ecological validity.     

Rules? Role Model? Relationship? The Impact of Parents on Their Children’s Problematic Mobile Phone Involvement

Parents can influence their children’s problematic mobile phone involvement (PMPI) by engaging in parental mediation activities, such as restrictions or co-use, by being a role model, and by their general and domain-unspecific parenting style that facilitates more or less attachment security of the child. This study tested the associations between these different routes of influence—parental mediation of the mobile phone, parental PMPI, and secure child-parent attachment—with children’s PMPI. Data was acquired from a quota-sample survey with 500 children, between 8 and 14 years of age, and one of their parents. Results point to the importance of open and empathic parent-child-communication, as well as a positive relationship quality, and demonstrate the detrimental effects of parents’ own PMPI on children’s PMPI.