The indirect effect of contextual factors on the emotional distress of infertile couples

Few studies were dedicated to study the role of contextual factors, such as the socioeconomic status and urban or rural residence in emotional distress of infertile couples. This study aimed to explore the impact of contextual factors on emotional distress, either directly or by affecting the importance of parenthood in one's life, which in turn affects emotional distress. In this cross-sectional study, 70 couples recruited during hormonal stimulation phase prior to in vitro fertilisation completed clinical and sociodemographic forms and self-report questionnaires assessing representations about the importance of parenthood and emotional distress. Path analysis using structural equation modelling was used to examine direct and indirect effects among variables. Results indicated that socioeconomic status and place of residence had an impact in emotional distress by affecting the representations about the importance of parenthood in one's life. Gender differences were found regarding model paths, suggesting that the social context may have a stronger influence on women's emotional distress than on their partners’ distress. When delineating psychological interventions, health care providers should consider that cultural values about children and parenthood contribute to shape the infertility experience.     

Emotional Stability and Affective Self‐regulatory Efficacy Beliefs: Proofs of Integration between Trait Theory and Social Cognitive Theory

The present study aimed to investigate the development and interplay of emotional stability and affective self‐regulatory efficacy beliefs through adolescence to young adulthood. A latent growth curve approach was used to investigate level and stability of emotional stability and self‐efficacy in managing negative emotions and in expressing positive emotions. We found that initial levels of emotional stability and self‐efficacy beliefs are highly correlated. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, the growth rate of perceived self‐efficacy in managing negative emotions predicted the growth rate of emotional stability, whereas the opposite path was not significant. The growth rates of perceived self‐efficacy in expressing positive emotions and emotional stability were not related to each other. Taken together, these findings point to self‐efficacy beliefs as instrumental to the change of traits. Practical implications of results are discussed, highlighting the role of social cognitive theory in supplying the proper strategies to design effective interventions to enable people to make the best use of their potentials. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From exclusion to inclusion; supporting Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators to keep children in mainstream education: a qualitative psychoanalytic research project

This paper draws on my doctoral research study based on consulting work with three primary school Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCos) that took place in 2008. The study examined the interactions that arose in the consultations with the SENCos and their staff. The findings that emerged from the application of Grounded Theory research methodology showed that the consultant, the SENCos and the children for whom they were responsible all felt on the edge of school life. SENCos and their staff were subject on a daily basis to powerful projections from children who were unable to tolerate difficult feelings and they were at risk of becoming identified with these feelings. The consultant in turn was the recipient of powerful projections from the SENCos. These complex dynamics of projective identification are examined in the study. The question of how SENCos and staff can better support children on the edge of exclusion with these unregulated feeling states is discussed. It is proposed that senior management teams and policy makers are essential in putting the SENCo role more at the centre of schools, both physically and in terms of how it is perceived. The need for access to a consultant who can help SENCos to understand and process extreme feelings is recommended as a way forward.     

Thalamic fear

This paper suggests that some neuroscience concepts particularly concerned with brain pathways in trauma and fear, as well as the neurobiology of emotion, provide an additional vertex to the psychoanalytic understanding of patients' material. The role of the body has been neglected in psychoanalytic thought and formulations in favour of purely ‘mental’ experience. The paper attempts to show how neuro-psychoanalytic understanding, which is conveyed to patients through interpretation, can increase their depth of understanding. Different types of memory are delineated and the paper describes a simplified schema of emotional processing, drawing on Damasio's distinction between emotion as an instinctual body based experience and its mental representation as feeling. Clinical examples are used to illustrate the usefulness of the distinction. The concept of emotional regulation is discussed as well as showing how its failure is associated with the appearance of persecutory superego structures.     

Neural Efficiency in Expert Cognitive-Motor Performers During Affective Challenge

Skilled individuals demonstrate a spatially localized or relatively lower response in brain activity characterized as neural efficiency when performing within their domain of expertise. Elite athletes are experts in their chosen sport and thus must be not only adept in the motor domain but must be resilient to performing under the stress of high-level competition. Such stability of performance suggests this population processes emotion and mental stress in an adaptive and efficient manner. This study sought to determine if athletes with a history of successful performance under circumstances of mental stress demonstrate neural efficiency during affective challenges compared to age-matched controls. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the blood-oxygen level–dependent response was recorded during emotional challenge induced by sport-specific and general unpleasant images. The athletes demonstrated neural efficiency in brain regions critical to emotion regulation (prefrontal cortex) and affect (insula) independently of their domain of expertise, suggesting adaptive processing of negative events and less emotional reactivity to unpleasant stimuli.     

Information processing bias against emotional facial expressions in social anxiety

The present study examined whether information processing bias against emotional facial expressions is present among individuals with social anxiety. College students with high (high social anxiety group; n  = 26) and low social anxiety (low social anxiety group; n  = 26) performed three different types of working memory tasks: (a) ordering positive and negative facial expressions according to the intensity of emotion; (b) ordering pictures of faces according to age; and (c) ordering geometric shapes according to size. The high social anxiety group performed significantly more poorly than the low social anxiety group on the facial expression task, but not on the other two tasks with the nonemotional stimuli. These results suggest that high social anxiety interferes with processing of emotionally charged facial expressions.     

Theory of mind and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions: A preliminary study

Ribeiro, L. A. & Fearon, P. (2010). Theory of mind and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions: A preliminary study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Theory of mind ability has been associated with performance in interpersonal interactions and has been found to influence aspects such as emotion recognition, social competence, and social anxiety. Being able to attribute mental states to others requires attention to subtle communication cues such as facial emotional expressions. Decoding and interpreting emotions expressed by the face, especially those with negative valence, are essential skills to successful social interaction. The current study explored the association between theory of mind skills and attentional bias to facial emotional expressions. According to the study hypothesis, individuals with poor theory of mind skills showed preferential attention to negative faces over both non‐negative faces and neutral objects. Tentative explanations for the findings are offered emphasizing the potential adaptive role of vigilance for threat as a way of allocating a limited capacity to interpret others’ mental states to obtain as much information as possible about potential danger in the social environment.     

Lesson of emotions in the family: The role of emotional intelligence in the relation between filial piety and life satisfaction among Taiwanese college students

This study investigated the relationships between reciprocal filial piety beliefs, emotional intelligence, and life satisfaction among Taiwanese young adults. A total of 481 college students from Taiwan were recruited for the study. Structural equation modelling was employed to analyze the data. The analysis produced the following results. First, reciprocal filial piety was positively related to all of the four types of emotional intelligence: self‐emotional appraisal (SEA), others' emotional appraisal (OEA), regulation of emotion (ROE), and use of emotion (UOE). Second, both ROE and UOE had a positive association with life satisfaction whereas SEA and OEA had a nonsignificant association with life satisfaction. Third, the two types of emotional intelligence, ROE and UOE, mediated the relation between reciprocal filial piety and young adults' life satisfaction. The findings suggest that reciprocal filial piety, representing high‐quality interaction between children and parents, can facilitate individuals' ability to control and use their emotions, which in turn improves their life satisfaction.     

The mediating role of work locus of control on the relationship among emotional intelligence,organisational citizenship behaviours,and mental health among nurses

Using a cross‐sectional design to evaluate the perceptions of 242 nurses working in a Malaysian hospital, this study investigates the mediating role of work locus of control (WLOC) on the relationship among emotional intelligence (EI), organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs), and mental health among nurses. Additionally, the role of EI is examined. Findings indicate that EI correlates positively with OCBs and negatively with mental health and that WLOC mediates the relationship between EI and OCBs. However, WLOC does not mediate the relationship between EI and mental health. An in‐depth understanding of nurses' EI provides insights into health institution management to increase organisational outcomes. Results of this study are interpreted to indicate that EI should be part of nurse training and that OCBs are associated with performance and productivity. It is suggested that EI could also be included in selection processes to encourage growth and development of a health institution.