Recognition and Interpretation of Facial Expressions in Dysphoric Women

Two studies are presented that evaluate emotion recognition accuracy and interpretative processing of facial expressions in relation to depressive symptoms in women. Dysphoric women more often attributed themselves as the cause of negative expressions, more often made negative interpretations of others’ thoughts, and had more negative thoughts about themselves when viewing facial expressions. However, dysphoric women were not less accurate or rapid in recognizing facial expressions. An integrative model, the “levels of self-processing view,” is discussed as a synthesis of the results across studies. Limitations of the current studies and future research directions are discussed.     

Exploring adolescent social media and internet gaming addiction: The role of emotion regulation

Behavioral addictions such as social media addiction and internet gaming disorder are prevalent among adolescent populations. Although studies have investigated predictors of these addictive behaviors with international samples of adolescents, less is known about American adolescents. In this study, we investigated the predictive nature of emotion regulation after controlling for age, gender, and race with regard to social media addiction and internet gaming disorder severity. Results indicate that gender and emotion regulation significantly predicted both forms of behavioral addictions with small to moderate effects. Specifically, female gender and lower emotion regulation significantly predicted social media addiction and male gender and lower emotion regulation significantly predicted internet gaming disorder severity. Implications for mental health professionals are discussed.     

Hearing about a story character's negative emotional reaction to having been dishonest causes young children to cheat less

There is extensive research on the development of cheating in early childhood but research on how to reduce it is rare. The present preregistered study examined whether telling young children about a story character's emotional reactions towards cheating could significantly reduce their tendency to cheat (N = 400; 199 boys; Age: 3–6 years). Results showed that telling older kindergarten children about the story character's negative emotional reaction towards rule violation significantly reduced cheating, but telling them about the positive emotional reaction towards rule adherence did not. These results show that children as young as age 5 are able to use information about another child's emotional reaction to guide their own moral behavior. In particular, highlighting another child's negative emotional reaction towards a moral transgression may be an effective way to reduce cheating in early childhood. This finding, along with earlier cheating reduction findings, suggests that although cheating is common in early childhood, simple methods can reduce its occurrence.     

Evidence for a developmental shift in the motivation underlying helping in early childhood

We investigated children's positive emotions as an indicator of their underlying prosocial motivation. In Study 1, 2-, and 5-year-old children (N = 64) could either help an individual or watch as another person provided help. Following the helping event and using depth sensor imaging, we measured children's positive emotions through changes in postural elevation. For 2-year-olds, helping the individual and watching another person help was equally rewarding; 5-year-olds showed greater postural elevation after actively helping. In Study 2, 5-year-olds’ (N = 59) positive emotions following helping were greater when an audience was watching. Together, these results suggest that 2-year-old children have an intrinsic concern that individuals be helped whereas 5-year-old children have an additional, strategic motivation to improve their reputation by helping.     

The Children's Dual Emotion Regulation Strategy scale: An integrated perspective of Western and East Asian cultures

The literature on emotion regulation in general lacks cultural and contextual sensitivity and is mainly focused on adult participants. Therefore, we developed the Children's Dual Emotion Regulation Strategy (CDERS) scale as a scenario-based measurement that integrates Western and East Asian cultural perspectives. In Study 1 (N = 1120), six interpersonal conflict scenarios were generated, and each scenario consisted of four emotion regulation strategies (i.e., expression, forbearance, impulsiveness, and suppression), thereby including 24 items in total. A confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four-factor structure. Concurrent validity revealed that the four strategies in the CDERS accounted for 18%–20% of the variance in predicting positive self-concept and life adjustment. In Study 2 (N = 319), predictive validity revealed that CDERS accounted for 12%–16% of the variance in predicting six outcomes. Incremental validity showed that the CDERS significantly accounted for an additional 3%–11% of the variance in predicting all outcomes above and beyond the existing Western and East Asian emotion regulation measures. The CDERS subscales showed acceptable internal and test–retest reliability. In summary, these studies suggest that the CDERS is a reliable and valid measure. The implications of the results point out suggestions for culturally sensitive practices.     

Yoga-integrated psychotherapy for emotion dysregulation: A pilot study

Aims & Objectives

Yoga has been evidenced as beneficial for physical and mental health. This study sought to pilot the acceptability and feasibility of a yoga-integrated psychotherapy (YiP) intervention, aimed at alleviating difficulties in emotion regulation. A further aim was to explore the perceived effectiveness of YiP in alleviating depression, anxiety and improving well-being.

Methods

Seven participants who scored significantly on the Difficulties in Emotion Dysregulation Scale (DERS) took part in a psychological assessment session followed by six weekly one hr therapy sessions. Participants completed self-report measures in each session to quantify the effects of each YiP session on emotion regulation, well-being, depression and anxiety. Following seven sessions, five participants completed qualitative follow-up interviews to explore subjective experiences of YiP and any perceived impacts.

Findings

An ANOVA that contained data from seven participants who completed all six sessions revealed that DERS scores were significantly lower, and well-being scores were significantly higher, at both mid and end-points than at baseline. Thematic analysis of qualitative interviews identified five themes: “YiP assists the client's psychological and emotional processing,” “YiP improves insight and focus,” “YiP is culturally sensitive,” “the body facilitates regulation and resilience” and “YiP is acceptable & impactful.”

Conclusion

The study presents promising findings for the integration of yoga into psychotherapeutic practice and indicates that YiP may have beneficial effects on emotion regulation and psychological well-being. Future research should use randomised controlled methodologies to examine the ability of YiP to alleviate a wide range of affective symptoms using a larger sample of participants.     

Expression and interpretation of emotions in multilingual psychotherapy: A literature review

This review aimed at presenting the findings of 19 original studies that were published in the period from 2000 to 2022 in order to outline the current state of the art in the field of emotion communication (i.e., expressing and interpreting emotions) in multilingual psychotherapy. This analysis involves in particular the studies that investigate multilingual phenomena (e.g., code-switching and language-mixing) that occur during psychotherapeutic sessions when client and therapist can speak more than one language, as well as the articles that research emotion communication in this multilingual setting. With this in mind, the articles selected for this review are divided into two main categories: linguistic phenomena in multilingual psychotherapy and emotion communication in multilingual psychotherapy. Results of the studies in the current analysis reveal that code-switching remains one of the main linguistic phenomena that arises in the area of multilingual psychotherapy. Switching languages in therapy tends to be considered as beneficial for both client and therapist. Besides, findings suggest a connection between speaking L1/LX and one's identity (e.g., feeling different depending on the language). Additionally, studies that investigate emotion communication in multilingual psychotherapy show that an individual's first language (L1) is predominantly viewed as more emotionally charged than their language(s) learned later in life (LX). However, some studies also demonstrate that the relationship between L1 and LX is more fluid and context-dependent than it has traditionally been regarded. Propositions are given for future research in the field of emotion communication in multilingual psychotherapy.     

Who gets mad,sad, scared or happy at discipline? Emotion attributions explain child externalizing behaviour

Few studies have linked parental discipline with children's emotional experiences, and not much data explore children's emotional attributions to discipline linked to externalizing behaviour. With a sample from Brazil, this study examines which emotions children most aptly attribute to a protagonist facing spanking, time-out or inductive discipline for norm violations. We hypothesized that anger, sadness, and fear would have higher attribution rates at spanking or time-out, relative to inductive discipline and that happiness would have higher attribution rates at induction relative to the other discipline modalities. We expected these findings to be more pronounced in older children. Based on emotional functions, we also tested the role of neutrality and happiness attributions to discipline in children's externalizing behaviour. A two-way MANOVA, with discipline and child age as explanatory variables, showed that children attributed more anger at time-out or spanking than at induction, and more happiness and neutrality at induction than at either time-out or spanking. Older children attributed significantly more sadness and less fear or neutrality. Hierarchical regressions showed that child externalizing behaviour was negatively related to happy attributions in discipline independently of child emotion situation knowledge or demographics. The results are interpreted in light of a functional view of emotions.     

Behavior change after context disruption: Opportunities and pitfalls

Many behaviors are performed automatically in response to contextual cues rather than conscious intentions, which can make behavior change challenging. The combined discontinuity and self-activation hypotheses predict that disruption to a context that cues behaviors can provide opportunity for behavior change guided by intentions rather than contextual cues. In this study, we asked an online sample of participants (N = 452) to report on desired change in the frequency of new, unwanted, or potentially habitual behaviors following a contextual disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We find a distinction between new ‘start’ behaviors and unwanted ‘stop’ behaviors where new behaviors appear more personally meaningful (i.e. higher in autonomous motivation and positive affective attitude) than unwanted or potentially habitual behaviors. Our results suggest that behavior change theory and interventions that acknowledge differential processes between starting new behaviors and stopping old unwanted behaviors would provide greater insights for behavior science.     

Books received

Analytical Psychology
Hinshaw, Robert (ed.) The Rock Rabbit and The Rainbow
Serrano, Miguel. C. G. Jung and Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships.
Kennedy, Roger. The Elusive Human Subject: A Psychoanalytic Theory of Subject Relations.
Molino, Anthony (ed.) Freely Associated: Encounters in Psychoanalysis with Christopher Bollas, Joyce McDougall, Michael Eigen, Adam Phillips, Nina Coltart
Sandler, J., Holder, A., Dare, C. & Dreher, A. U. Freud's Models of the Mind: An Introduction
Hunt, Celia & Sampson, Fiona (eds.) The Self on the Page: Theory and Practice of Creative Writing in Personal Development.
Evans, John. Active Analytic Group Therapy for Adolescents.
Furer, Manuel, Nersessian, Edward & Perri, Carmela (eds.) Controversies in Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Lectures from the Faculty of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.
Harwood, Irene & Pines, Malcolm (eds.) Self Experiences in Group: Intersubjective and Self Psychological Pathways to Human Understanding.
Marrone, Mario. Attachment and Interaction.
Rothstein, Arnold. Psychoanalytic Technique and the Creation of Analytic Patients.
Srole, Leo, Millman, Ernest Joel. Personal History and Health: The Midtown Longitudinal Study, 1954–1974.
Ulanov, Ann & Barry. Cinderella and Her Sisters: The Envied and the Envying.