Positive mental health,positive affect and suicide ideation

Background/ObjectivePositive mental health (PMH) has been shown to confer resilience against suicide ideation. However, the mechanisms underlying the positive effect of PMH on suicide ideation/behavior are largely unknown. The current study aimed to determine whether positive affect mediates the association between PMH and suicide ideation.MethodA total of 150 adult outpatients (65.3%; female; age: M(SD)=37.79(13.50), range:18–77) completed measures on PMH, positive and negative affect, as well as suicide ideation. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires. Linear hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyze the data. Positive affect was considered to mediate the association between positive mental health and suicide ideation.ResultsWhile positive affect fully mediated the significant negative association between PMH and suicide ideation, negative affect did not reveal to be a significant mediator of this relationship.ConclusionsThe protective influence of PMH against suicide ideation is due to heightened positive affect: If positive mental health translates into positive affect, then suicide ideation becomes less likely.     

Self-regulation and selective exposure: the impact of depleted self-regulation resources on confirmatory information processing

In the present research, the authors investigated the impact of self-regulation resources on confirmatory information processing, that is, the tendency of individuals to systematically prefer standpoint-consistent information to standpoint-inconsistent information in information evaluation and search. In 4 studies with political and economic decision-making scenarios, it was consistently found that individuals with depleted self-regulation resources exhibited a stronger tendency for confirmatory information processing than did individuals with nondepleted self-regulation resources. Alternative explanations based on processes of ego threat, cognitive load, and mood were ruled out. Mediational analyses suggested that individuals with depleted self-regulation resources experienced increased levels of commitment to their own standpoint, which resulted in increased confirmatory information processing. In sum, the impact of ego depletion on confirmatory information search seems to be more motivational than cognitive in nature.     

What moderates implicit—explicit consistency?

Implicit and explicit indicators of attitudes or personality traits are positively, and variably, related. This review places the question of implicit ‐ explicit consistency into the tradition of attitude/trait ‐ behaviour consistency (e.g., Wicker, 1969). Drawing on dual-process models, such as the recent distinction between associative and propositional representations (Strack & Deutsch, 2004), we identify a working model of implicit ‐ explicit consistency that organises the empirical evidence on implicit ‐ explicit moderation into five factors: translation between implicit and explicit representations (e.g., representational strength, awareness), additional information integration for explicit representations (e.g., need for cognition), properties of explicit assessment (e.g., social desirability concerns), properties of implicit assessment (e.g., situational malleability), and research design factors (e.g., sampling bias, measurement correspondence).     

The Deductive-Nomological Account of Metaphysical Explanation

The paper explores a deductive-nomological account of metaphysical explanation: some truths metaphysically explain, or ground, another truth just in case the laws of metaphysics determine the latter truth on the basis of the former. I develop and motivate a specific conception of metaphysical laws, on which they are general rules that regulate the existence and features of derivative entities. I propose an analysis of the notion of ‘determination via the laws’, based on a restricted form of logical entailment. I argue that the DN-account of ground can be defended against the well-known objections to the DN-approach to scientific explanation. The goal of the paper is to show that the DN-account of metaphysical explanation is a well-motivated and defensible theory.     

Playing prosocial video games increases empathy and decreases schadenfreude

Past research provided abundant evidence that exposure to violent video games increases aggressive tendencies and decreases prosocial tendencies. In contrast, research on the effects of exposure to prosocial video games has been relatively sparse. The present research found support for the hypothesis that exposure to prosocial video games is positively related to prosocial affect and negatively related to antisocial affect. More specifically, two studies revealed that playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game increased interpersonal empathy and decreased reported pleasure at another's misfortune (i.e., schadenfreude). These results lend further credence to the predictive validity of the General Learning Model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006) for the effects of media exposure on social tendencies.     

Biased assimilation: the role of source position

Biased assimilation is the tendency to evaluate belief‐consistent information more positively than belief‐inconsistent information. Previous research has demonstrated that biased assimilation is due to an inconsistency between an argument and the recipient's position toward this argument. The present research revealed that an inconsistency between a source's position (independently of the argument) and the recipient's position is also responsible for biased assimilation. In two studies, participants evaluated arguments stated by a politician. Party affiliation of the politician was correctly labeled, incorrectly labeled, or not labeled. The politicians' arguments were evaluated more favorably by their respective voters when party affiliation was correctly labeled. This biased evaluation diminished when party affiliation was not labeled and even slightly reversed when party affiliation was incorrectly labeled. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antagonistic modulatory influences of negative affect on cognitive control: Reduced and enhanced interference resolution capability after the induction of fear and sadness

The present behavioral study investigated the influence of negative affect on the neural mechanisms of cognitive control. We expected to find evidence for an antagonistic modulation of cognition by threat-relevant and threat-irrelevant negative affect (i.e. fear and sadness) that should promote bottom-up monitoring and top-down selection, respectively. Subjects performed one of three conflict tasks (Stroop, Flanker, or Simon) that tap distinct control mechanisms of conflict resolution, comprising specific attentional and motor control processes. On each task trial, target stimuli were preceded by a face stimulus exhibiting a fearful, sad, or neutral expression, providing three affect conditions. Our data provides strong evidence for substantially increased selection (attentional and motor selection) after priming of threat-irrelevant negative affect (sadness). Deviating from the results of previous studies, our analysis did not consistently yield increased monitoring after fear priming. We discuss these findings with respect to the effectiveness of different experimental affect priming procedures (i.e. stimuli) and the role of the task context, among others.     

Suicide ideation as a predictor of treatment outcomes in cognitive-behavioral therapy for unipolar mood disorders

Background/Objective: Suicide ideation is common in depressed patients. However, no studies to date have examined whether pretreatment suicide ideation is associated with poorer outcomes after cognitive-behavioral therapy for adult depression. Method: 475 depressed outpatients (age: M = 39.9 years, SD = 11.71; 60.2% female) took part in a pre-treatment and a post-treatment assessment. Pre-treatment suicide ideation measured with the BDI suicide item was considered as a predictor of treatment outcomes – controlling for age, gender, number of attended therapy sessions, as well as pre-treatment depression severity. Results: Hierarchical regression revealed that age, gender, number of completed therapy sessions and depression severity at baseline could explain 25% of the variance in post-treatment BDI-scores. Adding suicide ideation significantly improved the amount of variance explained to 27%. Treatment outcomes were worse for patients with more severe depression, suicidal patients, patients receiving more therapy-sessions and older patients. Conclusions: Suicide ideation added only little incremental variance to the prospective prediction of post-treatment depression severity. Depressed patients with suicide ideation can attain almost as good treatment outcomes as patients without suicide ideation, which is a clinically encouraging result.