Congruence or coherence? Emotional and physiological responses to colours in synaesthesia

Lexical–chromatic synaesthesia is a condition in which letters and/or words elicit percepts of synaesthetic colours, termed photisms. Anecdotal data suggest that synaesthetes are particularly sensitive to inconsistencies between their synaesthetic percepts and the real world, e.g., it can be annoying and unpleasant for them to see a letter printed in a colour different than the respective photism colour. For R, a synaesthete subject who participated in the present study, the photisms possess specific emotional values (a red photism is pleasing and attractive, green is repulsive and unpleasant, etc.). In contrast to the anecdotal data, R does not always find the colour–photism incongruence to be disturbing. More importantly, he states that it is the emotional coherence between the stimulus and the corresponding photism that matters. In a series of experiments, we studied this new concept of emotional coherence on three levels—subjective (self-report), behavioural, and physiological, corroborating R's introspective statements. Besides the implications of the concept of coherence itself, the results presented here suggest that even highly subjective cognitive constructs can be approached and measured experimentally, uncovering the workings of the underlying psychophysiological mechanisms.     

被动性社交网站使用与初中生抑郁的关系：链式中介效应分析

为探讨被动性社交网站使用、冗思、核心自我评价与初中生抑郁的关系,本研究采用被动性社交网站使用问卷、冗思问卷、核心自我评价问卷以及流调中心用抑郁量表对673名初中生进行调查研究。结果显示：（1）被动性社交网站使用与冗思和抑郁均呈显著正相关,而与核心自我评价呈显著负相关;核心自我评价与冗思、抑郁呈显著负相关;冗思与抑郁呈显著正相关;（2）被动性社交网站使用不仅对初中生抑郁具有显著的直接预测作用,而且能够通过三种间接效应对抑郁产生影响,即核心自我评价的单独中介作用、冗思的单独中介作用以及二者的链式中介作用。     

Perfectionism Cognitions, Rumination, and Psychological Distress

The current study examined the extent to which dimensions of perfectionism are associated with a ruminative response orientation and the experience of cognitive intrusions in response to stressful events. Our main goal was to test the hypothesis that individuals characterized by frequent automatic thoughts involving perfectionistic themes would also be characterized by a ruminative response orientation when distressed and they would report intrusive thoughts and images following the experience of a stressful event. A sample of 65 students completed several measures, including the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Response Styles Questionnaire, the Impact of Events Scale, and indices of depression and anxiety. Correlational analyses confirmed that high scores on the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory were correlated with a ruminative response orientation and the reported experience of intrusive thoughts and images following the experience of a stressful event. High levels of perfectionism cognitions, socially prescribed perfectionism, and rumination were also correlated with measures of depression and anxiety representingthe tripartite model. The results support the view that there is a salient cognitive aspect to perfectionism and the experience of frequent perfectionistic cognitions and related forms of rumination contribute to levels of psychological distress.     

The distinctiveness and utility of a measure of trait emotional awareness

There has been a proliferation of new measures of individual differences in emotional processing, but too little research that evaluates the distinctiveness and utility of such measures. We critically evaluated the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), which is a measure of people's awareness of emotions in both the self and others. Across two studies, university students (N=124 and 107 for study 1 and 2, respectively) completed the LEAS, as well as a battery of personality measures and ability tests, and a mood-induction task. The LEAS was statistically distinct from a wide variety of personality measures, emotional intelligence tests, and self-report ability measures. In addition, both studies demonstrated that people high in emotional awareness were less likely than others to show mood congruent biases in their judgments (e.g. when bad moods lead to negative judgments and good moods to good judgments). The LEAS appears to be both distinctive and useful in understanding mood-relevant processes.     

Emotional intelligence,cognitive ability and information search in tactical decision-making

Emotional intelligence (EI) may promote more effective decision-making under stress. In the present study, 167 participants completed a situation judgment test for EI, and performed a decision-making task based on an Antarctic rescue scenario. Participants were assigned to either a negative or neutral feedback group. Negative feedback significantly increased distress and impaired decision-making. EI failed to moderate the impacts of negative feedback, but higher EI was associated with greater information-search activity irrespective of feedback condition. It is concluded that ability EI may have a motivational component that may support more exhaustive analysis of both social and non-social stimuli.     

Emotion regulation through listening to music in everyday situations

Music is a stimulus capable of triggering an array of basic and complex emotions. We investigated whether and how individuals employ music to induce specific emotional states in everyday situations for the purpose of emotion regulation. Furthermore, we wanted to examine whether specific emotion-regulation styles influence music selection in specific situations. Participants indicated how likely it would be that they would want to listen to various pieces of music (which are known to elicit specific emotions) in various emotional situations. Data analyses by means of non-metric multidimensional scaling revealed a clear preference for pieces of music that were emotionally congruent with an emotional situation. In addition, we found that specific emotion-regulation styles might influence the selection of pieces of music characterised by specific emotions. Our findings demonstrate emotion-congruent music selection and highlight the important role of specific emotion-regulation styles in the selection of music in everyday situations.     

Understanding attraction in formal mentoring relationships from an affective perspective

Despite the critical role affect can play in mentoring, a type of close relationships in the workplace, affect has not received much attention in existing mentoring research. Drawing upon Byrne's affect-centered model of attraction, we examined the relationships among mentors' moods during their interaction with protégés, mentors' liking of protégés, and mentoring support received by protégés. Moreover, we also examined the moderating effect of protégés' emotional intelligence (EI) on the relationship between mentors' moods and liking. Based on data collected from 237 ongoing formal mentoring dyads, we found that mentors' positive moods were positively related, and negative moods were negatively related, to mentoring support received through mentors' liking. Furthermore, protégés' EI only moderated the positive relationship between mentors' positive moods and liking such that the positive relationship was stronger for protégés low on EI. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Job characteristics and burnout: The moderating roles of emotional intelligence,motivation and pay among bank employees

This study investigated the prediction of burnout from job characteristics, emotional intelligence, motivation and pay among bank employees. It also examined the interactions of emotional intelligence, motivation, pay and job characteristics in the prediction of burnout. Data obtained from 230 (Males = 127, Females = 103) bank employees were analysed using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that theses variables jointly and separately negatively predicted burnout components. The results further indicated that emotional intelligence, motivation and pay separately interacted with some job characteristic components to negatively predict some burnout components. The findings imply that emotional intelligence, motivation and pay could be considered by counsellors when designing interventions to reduce burnout among bank employees.     

Examining the role of positive and negative metacognitive beliefs in depression

Many psychological models have been developed to explain the development and maintenance of depression. The most widely evaluated model is the cognitive model of depression, and it is against this model that emerging models should be compared. Accordingly, this cross‐sectional study examined whether metacognitive beliefs, as specified in the metacognitive model of depression, would explain additional variance in depressive symptoms over dysfunctional attitudes; the core feature of the cognitive model. Moreover, mediational relationships between metacognitive beliefs, rumination, and depressive symptoms, predicted by the metacognitive model were also explored, whilst controlling for dysfunctional attitudes. A sample of 715 students completed self‐report questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms, rumination, dysfunctional attitudes, and metacognitive beliefs. Regression analyses showed that metacognitive beliefs made a significant statistical contribution to depressive symptoms, after controlling for age, gender, rumination and dysfunctional attitudes. Furthermore, as predicted by the metacognitive model, the relationship between positive metacognitive beliefs and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by rumination, whilst the relationship between negative metacognitive beliefs about uncontrollability and danger and depressive symptoms was partially mediated by rumination. The results provide further empirical support for the metacognitive model of depression and indicate that positive and negative metacognitive beliefs play an integral role in the maintenance of depressive symptoms.     

Observing videos of a baby crying or smiling induces similar,but not identical,electroencephalographic responses in biological and adoptive mothers

It is well-known that adoptive mothers respond to cues from their babies in similar ways to biological mothers, and that cortical processing is critical for adequate motive–emotional maternal responses. This study used electroencephalographic activity (EEG) to characterize prefrontal, parietal and temporal functioning in biological mothers (BM), adoptive mothers (AM), and non-mothers (NM), while viewing videos of a baby smiling or crying. The BM presented higher absolute power (AP) in the delta and theta bands (associated with pleasant, positive emotional experiences) in the frontal and parietal areas under all conditions. In response to the smiling video, both types of mothers presented a lower AP in alpha1 in the three cortices (indicative of increased attention) and, mainly in temporal areas, a higher AP in the fast frequencies (beta and gamma, reflecting increased alertness to sensory stimuli and cognitive processing). This EEG pattern in the BM and AM could reflect the greater attention and, probably, the positive mood caused by the smiling video, showing that both are sensitive to these pleasant stimuli. When viewing the video of a baby crying, the AM had higher AP in the fast frequencies (temporal and parietal areas), indicating that they were more reactive to this unpleasant video, while the NM presented only a lower AP in alpha1 in all cortices, a finding that could be associated with the general activation induced by these unpleasant stimuli as a consequence of their lack of maternal experience. These findings should help improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in the processing of sensorial stimuli that establish affective-emotional links during motherhood.