Experiencing positive affect and negative affect during stress: relationships to cardiac reactivity and to facial expressions

We examined the relationship between experienced positive/negative affect and cardiac reactivity and facial muscle movements during laboratory tasks with different demands. Heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period, and facial electromyography were measured during startle, mental arithmetic, reaction time task, and speech task. The results revealed that individuals experiencing high levels of positive affect exhibited more pronounced parasympathetic, heart rate, and orbicularis oculi reactivity than others. Individuals who experienced high levels of negative affects during the tasks showed higher corrugator supercilii responses. Men and women showed slightly different response patterns. To conclude, cardiac reactivity may be associated with positive involvement and enthusiasm in some situations and all reactivity should not automatically be considered as potentially pathological.     

Egocentrism in sub-clinical depression

Depression is marked by rigid thinking and the inability to generate different and more positive views on the self. The current study conceptualises this a perspective-taking deficit, which is defined as a deficit in the ability to overcome one’s egocentrism. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with depression are impaired in Theory of Mind reasoning and empathy – two social cognitions that involve cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Here, it was investigated whether these deficits generalise to visuo-spatial perspective-taking. To test this, a convenience sample (N?=?268; n?=?62 high depressive symptoms; n?=?206 healthy control participants) completed a test-battery including measures of cognitive and visuo-spatial perspective-taking and closely matched cognitive and visuo-spatial control tasks. The results showed that individuals exhibiting high levels of depressive symptoms were specifically impaired on both perspective-taking tasks but performed equally well on the control tasks. Interventions to combat rigid thinking in depression are discussed.     

Are expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal associated with stress-related symptoms?

Emotion dysregulation is thought to be critical to the development of negative psychological outcomes. Gross (1998b) conceptualized the timing of regulation strategies as key to this relationship, with response-focused strategies, such as expressive suppression, as less effective and more detrimental compared to antecedent-focused ones, such as cognitive reappraisal. In the current study, we examined the relationship between reappraisal and expressive suppression and measures of psychopathology, particularly for stress-related reactions, in both undergraduate and trauma-exposed community samples of women. Generally, expressive suppression was associated with higher, and reappraisal with lower, self-reported stress-related symptoms. In particular, expressive suppression was associated with PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms in the trauma-exposed community sample, with rumination partially mediating this association. Finally, based on factor analysis, expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal appear to be independent constructs. Overall, expressive suppression, much more so than cognitive reappraisal, may play an important role in the experience of stress-related symptoms. Further, given their independence, there are potentially relevant clinical implications, as interventions that shift one of these emotion regulation strategies may not lead to changes in the other.     

Individual differences in susceptibility to the effects of speech on reading comprehension

Individuals with high working memory capacity (WMC) are less distracted by task‐irrelevant speech than others. The mechanism behind this relationship, however, is not well understood, and it has only been found in a few paradigms. We used a Number updating task to measure WMC and two suppression mechanisms (immediate and delayed), and tested how they were associated with individual differences in susceptibility to the effects of speech on reading comprehension. The results revealed a negative relationship between WMC and susceptibility to speech distraction. Of the two suppression mechanisms, only immediate suppression was associated with speech distraction, suggesting that susceptibility to distraction is determined by the ability to immediately suppress the irrelevant speech. Furthermore, the relationship between WMC and speech distraction was mediated by the immediate suppression mechanism. The implications of these results and possible explanations of similar results found in other paradigms are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceptions of the Targets and Sources of COVID-19 Threat are Structured by Group Memberships and Responses are Influenced by Identification with Humankind

The purpose of this study was to investigate which social groups are perceived as a threat target and which are perceived as a threat source during the COVID-19 outbreak. In a German sample (N = 1454) we examined perceptions of social groups ranging from those that are psychologically close and smaller (family, friends, neighbors) to those that are more distal and larger (people living in Germany, humankind). We hypothesized that psychologically closer groups would be perceived as less affected by COVID-19 as well as less threatening than more psychologically distal groups. Based on social identity theorizing, we also hypothesized that stronger identification with humankind would change these patterns. Furthermore, we explored how these threat perceptions relate to adherence to COVID-19 health guidelines. In line with our hypotheses, latent random-slope modelling revealed that psychologically distal and larger groups were perceived as more affected by COVID-19 and as more threatening than psychologically closer and smaller groups. Including identification with humankind as a predictor into the threat target model resulted in a steeper increase in threat target perception patterns, whereas identification with humankind did not predict differences in threat source perceptions. Additionally, an increase in threat source perceptions across social groups was associated with more adherence to health guidelines, whereas an increase in threat target perceptions was not. We fully replicated these findings in a subgroup from the original sample (N = 989) four weeks later. We argue that societal recovery from this and other crises will be supported by an inclusive approach informed by a sense of our common identity as human beings.     

Possessed for Success: Prosperity Buddhism and the Cult of the Guardians of the Treasure Trove in Upper Burma

Following the global spread of capitalism from the early 1990s, individualistic, non-institutionalised prosperity religion and ‘occult economies’ have emerged throughout the world, including South-East Asia, but have seemingly not yet been investigated with respect to Burma/Myanmar. This article focuses on the cult of the guardians of the treasure trove – a form of ‘prosperity Buddhism’ – in Upper Burma, wherein predominantly business women of lower middle classes perform possession dances to become successful in business. It has partly evolved from the lower status ‘traditional’ possession cult of the 37 Lords. The aim of this article is threefold. Firstly, it examines novel kinds of ‘Buddhicised’ possession rituals of higher status that discard religious specialists. These practices represent a democratisation of public spirit-mediumship and provide a route for success in business, agency and empowerment. Secondly, it is demonstrated that these cults seek to preserve Buddhism in the face of the current rapid changes in Burma. Thirdly, this article shows how these novel cults emerged in dynamic interplay with recent economic, social and political changes in Burma, as well as an increasing impact of globalisation.     

Impulsivity as a predictor of newly diagnosed depression

Depression is a severe mental disorder, whose onset has been related to environmental, genetic and personality factors. This study examined the association between impulsivity and incidence of depression. Logistic regression models were related to prospective data from two surveys (2-year time lag) conducted in a large cohort of hospital employees (N= 4,505). Only respondents with no history of depression at baseline were included. Impulsivity was predictive of the onset of depression (OR = 1.95, CI 95%= 1.28-2.97) after adjustment for age, sex and education. This association remained statistically significant after additional adjustment for a variety of baseline characteristics, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and size of social network. A measure of mental distress (GHQ-12 responses), which may serve as a proxy measure for undiagnosed depression, was also associated with impulsivity. Impulsivity appears to be a distinct personality factor that may contribute to the onset of depressive illness in adults.     

Relationships between hostility, affective ratings of pictures, and state affects during task-induced stress

The authors examined the relationship of hostility with (a) affective ratings of pictures and (b) state affects evoked by task-induced stress in 95 healthy men and women 22-37 years of age. Pictures were from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; P. J. Lang, M. M. Bradley, & B. N. Cuthbert, 1999). Stressors included a startle task, mental arithmetic task, and choice-deadline reaction time task. The circumplex model of affect was used to structure the self-reported state affects. The authors found that hostility was associated with displeasure, high arousal, and low dominance ratings of IAPS pictures. Hostility was related to unpleasant affect and unactivated unpleasant affect during the experiment, and subscale paranoia was related to activated unpleasant affect. Findings suggest that participants scoring high on hostility are prone to negative emotional reactions.     

Oscillatory brain responses evoked by video game events: the case of super monkey ball 2.

Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while the subjects played a video game where the player had to steer a monkey into a goal while collecting bananas for extra points and had to avoid falling off the edge of the game board. Each of these three studied events evoked differential EEG oscillatory changes. Picking up bananas evoked decreased theta activation on central electrodes, decreased high alpha activation on frontal electrodes, and increased beta activation on frontal electrodes. Falling off the game board evoked decreased central theta activation and increased fronto-central beta activation. Reaching the goal evoked increased theta activation on parietal electrodes, increased low alpha activation on frontal electrodes, increased high alpha activation on frontal, central, and parietal electrodes, and increased beta activation on frontal and central electrodes. It is suggested that the EEG oscillations evoked by picking up bananas reflect increased cortical activation and arousal; the oscillations evoked by falling off the edge of the game board reflect motor functions; and the oscillations evoked by reaching the goal reflect a relaxed state. Thus, EEG may turn out to be a valuable tool when examining psychological responses to video game events.