Development of a telephone-based intervention for support persons to help smokers quit

This study represents the first step toward systematic behavioral treatment development and pilot testing of a novel approach to smoking cessation that utilizes adults interested in helping someone to stop smoking (i.e., support persons) as the agent of change. The counselor manual for a telephone-based intervention for support persons was developed based on a previous clinic-based intervention. Social cognitive theory served as the conceptual basis for the intervention. Ten adult non-smoking females completed the treatment protocol, consisting of six 20 - 30-min sessions and written materials. The support person was the sole recipient of the professional intervention. Feedback was obtained from 8 of the 10 participants and all 4 telephone counselors 1 week post-treatment (week 10). Results indicate that the telephone-based intervention was feasible and acceptable to participants. The intervention was refined based on participant and counselor feedback and will be subsequently tested in a randomized pilot trial.     

Former partners and new rivals as threats to a relationship: Infidelity type,gender, and commitment as factors related to distress and forgiveness

The overall aim of this study was to examine differences in responses to relationship infidelity when the infidelity involves a former romantic partner as opposed to a new rival. Participants indicated, for either sexual or emotional infidelity, whether they would be more upset if their partner were involved with a former partner or a new person, and whether they would be forgiving. Men and women saw the former partner as a greater threat when the infidelity was sexual. However, for emotional infidelity, only women selected the former partner more frequently. Ratings of the degree of distress and likelihood of forgiveness followed a similar pattern. For women, measures of relationship commitment were related to distress and forgiveness. For men, these measures were related to forgiveness only. The gender differences in distress may be related to differences between men and women in beliefs about the importance of commitment.     

Disagreement, Ambivalence, and Engagement: The Political Consequences of Heterogeneous Networks

Individuals with similar political orientations may find themselves in dissimilar social and political surroundings, with important consequences for the flow of political information among citizens. Analyses of data from the post-election survey of the 1900 National Election Study show that some individuals reside within extensive networks of political discussion and communication, whereas others are politically isolated. With respect to presidential candidate preference in 1900, some citizens in networks were surrounded by discussants who agreed with their preference, others by discussants who held ambiguous and undetermined preferences, and still others by discussants who held politically divergent preferences. These preference distributions have various implications for the formation of political opinion and for levels of political engagement and turnout.     

Neurocognitive assessment of emotional context sensitivity

Sensitivity to emotional context is an emerging construct for characterizing adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation, but few measurement approaches exist. The current study combined behavioral and neurocognitive measures to assess context sensitivity in relation to self-report measures of adaptive emotional flexibility and well-being. Sixty-six adults completed an emotional go/no-go task using happy, fearful, and neutral faces as go and no-go cues, while EEG was recorded to generate event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting attentional selection and discrimination (N170) and cognitive control (N2). Context sensitivity was measured as the degree of emotional facilitation or disruption in the go/no-go task and magnitude of ERP response to emotion cues. Participants self-reported on emotional flexibility, anxiety, and depression. Overall participants evidenced emotional context sensitivity, such that when happy faces were go stimuli, accuracy improved (greater behavioral facilitation), whereas when fearful faces were no-go stimuli, errors increased (disrupted behavioral inhibition). These indices predicted emotional flexibility and well-being: Greater behavioral facilitation following happy cues was associated with lower depression and anxiety, whereas greater disruption in behavioral inhibition following fearful cues was associated with lower flexibility. ERP indices of context sensitivity revealed additional associations: Greater N2 to fear go cues was associated with less anxiety and depression, and greater N2 and N170 to happy and fear no-go cues, respectively, were associated with greater emotional flexibility and well-being. Results suggest that pleasant and unpleasant emotions selectively enhance and disrupt components of context sensitivity, and that behavioral and ERP indices of context sensitivity predict flexibility and well-being.     

Effects of Emotional Valence and Arousal Manipulation on Eyeblink Classical Conditioning and Autonomic Measures

Using a classical eyeblink conditioning paradigm, we have previously shown that the rate of acquisition of a conditioned response may be manipulated by engaging subjects in background tasks of varying complexity concurrent to conditioning. To further examine the influence of the background environment on conditioning, a picture set designed to elicit emotional responses, the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), was presented to subjects during classical eyeblink conditioning. The results suggest that eyeblink conditioning does appear to be sensitive to contextual manipulations of arousal. Pictures rated as very arousing were found to engage subjects enough to enhance learning, although not to the point that autonomic functions were significantly altered between picture groups. We suggest that group differences in learning may be a result of either novelty of, or vigilance to, interesting pictures rather than as a direct result of physiological arousal.     

Threat facilitates subsequent executive control during anxious mood

Dual competition framework (DCF) posits that low-level threat may facilitate behavioral performance by influencing executive control functions. Anxiety is thought to strengthen this effect by enhancing threat's affective significance. To test these ideas directly, we examined the effects of low-level threat and experimentally induced anxiety on one executive control function, the efficiency of response inhibition. In Study 1, briefly presented stimuli that were mildly threatening (i.e., fearful faces) relative to nonthreatening (i.e., neutral faces) led to facilitated executive control efficiency during experimentally induced anxiety. No such effect was observed during an equally arousing, experimentally induced happy mood state. In Study 2, we assessed the effects of low-level threat, experimentally induced anxiety, and individual differences in trait anxiety on executive control efficiency. Consistent with Study 1, fearful relative to neutral faces led to facilitated executive control efficiency during experimentally induced anxiety. No such effect was observed during an experimentally induced neutral mood state. Moreover, individual differences in trait anxiety did not moderate the effects of threat and anxiety on executive control efficiency. The findings are partially consistent with the predictions of DCF in that low-level threat improved executive control, at least during a state of anxiety.     

Comparison of Motionlogger Watch and Actiwatch actigraphs to polysomnography for sleep/wake estimation in healthy young adults

Sleep/wake identification and sleep parameter estimates from Motionlogger Watch and Actiwatch-64 actigraphs were compared to polysomnography (PSG). Following one night of baseline sleep, 29 volunteers remained awake for 36 h, followed by 11 h of recovery sleep in the laboratory. Two sets of analyses were performed: (1) epoch-by-epoch agreement and discriminability index (d') calculations, and (2) sleep parameter concordance with repeated measures ANOVAs. Sensitivity (sleep identification), specificity (wake detection), and overall agreement with PSG, as well as d', were higher for the Motionlogger than for Actiwatch. Relative to PSG, the Actiwatch-estimated total sleep time and sleep efficiency were underestimated and the number of awakenings was overestimated for baseline and recovery; sleep latency was underestimated on the baseline night. On the other hand, the Motionlogger-estimated total sleep time and sleep efficiency estimates were underestimated, and the sleep latency was overestimated on recovery, versus PSG. Despite these misestimations, it was concluded that the Motionlogger provided nominally better agreement with PSG, and that actigraphy generally constitutes a reasonably reliable tool for producing objective measurements of sleep/wake, but that users should remain mindful of its limitations.     

Refinement of the tripartite influence model for men: dual body image pathways to body change behaviors

Although muscularity and body fat concerns are central to conceptualizing men's body image, they have not been examined together within existing structural models. This study refined the tripartite influence model (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999) by including dual body image pathways (muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction) to engagement in muscular enhancement and disordered eating behaviors, respectively, and added dating partners as a source of social influence. Latent variable structural equation modeling analyses supported this quadripartite model in 473 undergraduate men. Nonsignificant paths were trimmed and two unanticipated paths were added. Muscularity dissatisfaction and body fat dissatisfaction represented dual body image pathways to men's engagement in muscularity enhancement behaviors and disordered eating behaviors, respectively. Pressures to be mesomorphic from friends, family, media, and dating partners made unique contributions to the model. Internalization of the mesomorphic ideal, muscularity dissatisfaction, and body fat dissatisfaction played key meditational roles within the model.