Is emotion regulation associated with cancer-related psychological symptoms?

Objectives: This study examined the cross-sectional and prospective relationships between subjective (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression and experiential avoidance) and objective (high-frequency heart rate variability [HF-HRV]) measures of emotion regulation (ER) and a set of psychological symptoms (anxiety, depression, fear of cancer recurrence [FCR], insomnia, fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairments) among women receiving radiation therapy for non-metastatic breast cancer.

Design: Eighty-one participants completed a battery of self-report scales within 10 days before the start of radiotherapy (T1) and within 10 days after its end (T2; approximately 6 weeks after T1). HF-HRV at rest was measured at T1.

Results: Canonical correlation analyses revealed that higher levels of experiential avoidance and expressive suppression were cross-sectionally associated with higher levels of all symptoms, except pain, at T1 and at T2 (both p’s?<?0.0001). Higher levels of suppression and reappraisal at T1 were marginally associated with reduced FCR and with increased depression and fatigue between T1 and T2 (p?=?0.07). HF-HRV was not associated with symptoms cross-sectionally or prospectively.

Conclusions: Although preliminary, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that maladaptive ER strategies, assessed subjectively, may cross-sectionally act as a transdiagnostic mechanism underlying several cancer-related psychological symptoms.     

What if Wittgenstein could speak Japanese?

ABSTRACT

Wittgenstein’s criticism of the notion of ‘private language’ is related to the putative centrality of “being“ and the ‘subject-predicate’ distinction . However, his efforts would prove to be more fruitful if he could use data from Japanese language. There is a list of Japanese terms to translate ‘being’: sonzai, de-aru, ga-aru, and iru. Among all of their variants, the only subject-predicate-form-related expression is the combination of the ‘Y ga Z aru’-part of ‘X wa Y ga Z aru.’ Hence, Japanese subject-predicate-form-related expressions are not as fundamental as their western counterparts. Insofar as ‘pain’ is concerned, in Japanese, there are two series of expressions on pain: in the first one, the notion of pain is deobjectied and hence immune to subject-predicate logic, while in the second one, it is barely objectified in a limited sense. Hence, a Japanese speaker could avoid the fallacy of attributing subjective sensations to a particular person.     

Children's racial bias in perceptions of others' pain

Previous research indicates that American adults, both Black and White, assume a priori that Black people feel less pain than do White people (Trawalter, Hoffman, & Waytz, 2012, PLoS One, 7 [11], 1–8). The present work investigates when in development this bias emerges. Five‐, 7‐, and 10‐year‐olds first rated the amount of pain they themselves would feel in 10 situations such as biting their tongue or hitting their head. They then rated the amount of pain they believed two other children – a Black child and a White child, matched to the child's gender – would feel in response to the same events. We found that by age 7, children show a weak racial bias and that by age 10, they show a strong and reliable racial bias. Consistent with research on adults, this bias was not moderated by race‐related attitudes or interracial contact. This finding is important because knowing the age of emergence can inform the timing of interventions to prevent this bias.     

成人婚恋依恋研究回顾与展望

婚恋关系是成人依恋的主要形式。自上世纪80年代末，国外兴起了对成人婚恋依恋（Adult Romantic Attachment）的研究。该文介绍了成人婚恋依恋的理论背景、依恋型、内部工作模型研究及当前对婚恋依恋与成人社会功能发展的研究进展。文章最后讨论了当前研究存在的一些问题及未来研究的基本走向。     

Are babies sensitive to the context of acute pain episodes? Infant distress and maternal soothing during immunization routines at 3 and 5 months of age

Ninety‐three healthy full‐term Italian infants were observed longitudinally at 3 and 5 months during routine vaccinations. Mothers' behaviour was also observed. Participants were divided into two cohorts depending on procedure of inoculation (the first cohort, n=44, showed more distress; the second cohort, n=49, showed less distress). Results indicate that babies' different levels of behavioural distress correspond to mothers' different soothing strategies. Maternal proximal soothing at 3 months predicts faster infant quieting at 5 months, but concurrent and predictive effects of maternal proximity are apparent only when level of baby distress is not too high. The study confirms the view that young babies are sensitive to the overall context of acute pain episodes, including medical procedure and maternal soothing. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Participants and researchers searching for meaning: Conceptual developments for interpretative phenomenological analysis

ABSTRACT

In this article I offer a theoretical account of interpretative phenomenological analysis’s (IPA’s) position in relation to meaning-making by participant and researcher. In doing this, I draw on a range of theoretical writing on meaning. I then apply these ideas to a series of empirical studies on pain which I have been involved in. The intention, therefore, is for the article to contribute a theoretically informed and empirically grounded extension to the literature on IPA.     

Trauma symptoms,temperament traits,social support and the intensity of pain in a Polish sample of patients suffering from chronic pain

The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between the intensity of pain, treated as the explained variable, and the level of trauma symptoms, as appear in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), temperament traits postulated by the Regulative Theory of Temperament and aspects of social support among patients suffering from chronic pain (arthritis and low-back pain). To assess the intensity of pain among participants we used the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS-11). The level of trauma symptoms was assessed with the PTSD Factorial Version inventory (PTSD-F). Temperament was measured with the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour – Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI). Social support was tested with the Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS). The results of our study suggest that significant predictors of pain intensity among chronic pain sufferers were trauma symptoms. We also noticed that some temperament traits (i.e., emotional reactivity) increased the level of global trauma symptoms, which, in turn, intensified the level of pain. In addition, we showed that global trauma symptoms decreased the support participants actually received.