Randomized controlled trial of an intervention to change cardiac misconceptions in myocardial infarction patients

There is converging evidence that changing beliefs about an illness leads to positive recovery outcomes. However, cardiac misconceptions interventions have been investigated mainly in Angina or Coronary Heart Disease patients, and less in patients following Myocardial Infarction (MI). In these patients, cardiac misconceptions may play a role in the adjustment or lifestyle changes. This article reports a randomized controlled trial of an intervention designed to reduce the strength of misconceptions in patients after a first MI. The primary outcome was the degree of change in misconceptions and the secondary outcomes were: exercise, smoking status, return to work and mood (anxiety and depression). Patients in the intervention condition (n = 60) were compared with a control group (n = 67) receiving usual care. Both groups were evaluated at baseline and 4, 8 and 12 months after hospital discharge. There was a significant time-by-group interaction for the total score of cardiac misconceptions. Patients in the intervention group significantly decreased their total score of cardiac misconceptions at 4 months compared with the control group and this difference was sustained over time. Patients in the intervention group were also more likely to exercise at the follow-up period after MI than the control group. This intervention was effective in reducing the strength of cardiac misconceptions in MI patients and had a positive impact on health behaviour outcomes. These results support the importance of misconceptions in health behaviours and the utility of belief change interventions in promoting health in patients with Myocardial Infarction.     

Forecasting the influence of customer-related micro-events on employees’ emotional,attitudinal and physiological responses

The affective events theory proposes that daily events elicit affective reactions on workers that, over time, influence affective and judgement-driven behaviours. It also suggests that this relation is moderated by dispositions and appraisals. On the other hand, the social interaction model argues that the impact of emotions is moderated by how individuals regulate them. This study aimed to: (1) investigate what customer-related events elicit affect; (2) test the moderating role of workers’ susceptibility for emotional contagion on the relation events-affect; and (3) explore whether affective states influence cardiovascular efficiency and turnover intentions. We conducted a longitudinal study in an inbound call centre by following 48 workers during 10 working days, gathering 267 events and 1,232 affective reactions. We combined diaries, questionnaires and physiological data. Data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. We extracted 13 event categories and, using artificial neural networks (ANN), found support for the moderating role of emotional contagion. At daily level, fear was the stronger predictor of cardiovascular efficiency, whereas anger was the stronger predictor of turnover. ANN models showed satisfactory predictive values (R²_Turnover = .51, p < .01; R²_{Cardiovascular efficiency} = .32, p < .01). The importance of results for theory and practice is discussed.     

A preliminary look at loneliness as a moderator of the link between perfectionism and depressive and anxious symptoms in college students: does being lonely make perfectionistic strivings more distressing?

An integrative model involving perfectionism [Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470] and loneliness as predictors of depressive and anxious symptoms was proposed and tested in 383 college students. Beyond the expected additive influences of the two predictors in the prediction of symptoms, loneliness was also hypothesized to moderate the link between perfectionism and symptoms. Results indicated that other-oriented perfectionism predicted anxious symptoms, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted both depressive and anxious symptoms. Loneliness was found to add incremental validity to these predictions. Moreover, the Perfectionism x Loneliness interaction was found to further augment the prediction of depressive and anxious symptoms. These findings are taken to offer support for a more contextual model of perfectionism. Some implications of the present findings are discussed.     

Parents' Feelings Towards Their Adoptive and Non-Adoptive Children

In the current study, we examined parent gender differences in feelings (negativity and positivity) and perceptions of child behavioural and emotional problems in adoptive and biological parent-child dyads. In a sample of 85 families, we used a novel within-family adoption design in which one child was adopted and one child was a biological child of the couple, and tested whether the links between parent feelings and child maladjustment included effects of passive gene-environment correlation. Parents reported more negativity and less positivity as well as higher levels of externalizing behaviour for the adopted child compared to the non-adopted child, although effect sizes were small and no longer statistically significant after correcting for multiple comparisons. Fathers and mothers did not differ significantly in their reports of positive and negative feelings towards their children or in regard to child externalizing and internalizing behaviours. The correlations between parental negativity and positivity and child externalizing and internalizing were similar for fathers and mothers, and for adopted and non-adopted children. The findings suggest similar parent-child relationship processes for fathers and mothers, and that genetic transmission of behaviour from parent to child does not account for the association between parental warmth and hostility and child-adjustment problems.     

The Minds of God(s) and Humans: Differences in Mind Perception in Fiji and North America

Previous research suggests that how people conceive of minds depends on the culture in which they live, both in determining how they interact with other human minds and how they infer the unseen minds of gods. We use exploratory factor analysis to compare how people from different societies with distinct models of human minds and different religious traditions perceive the minds of humans and gods. In two North American samples (American adults, N = 186; Canadian students, N = 202), we replicated a previously found two‐factor agency/experience structure for both human and divine minds, but in Fijian samples (Indigenous iTaukei Fijians, N = 77; Fijians of Indian descent, N = 214; total N = 679) we found a three‐factor structure, with the additional containing items related to social relationships. Further, Fijians’ responses revealed a different three‐factor structure for human minds and gods’ minds. We used these factors as dimensions in the conception of minds to predict (a) expectations about human and divine tendencies towards punishment and reward; and (b) conception of gods as more embodied (an extension of experience) or more able to know people's thoughts (an extension of agency). We found variation in how these factors predict conceptions of agents across groups, indicating further theory is needed to explain how culturally generated concepts of mind lead to other sorts of social inferences. We conclude that mind perception is shaped by culturally defined social expectations and recommend further work in different cultural contexts to examine the interplay between culture and social cognition.