Emotional and motivational reactions to failure: the role of illusions of control and explicitness of feedback

Previous research has found that illusions of control (IOC) can buffer against the emotional consequences of failure and may increase persistence in the face of failure. Theoretical analyses suggest that IOC are most closely related to a better mood and higher motivation if failure feedback is open to reinterpretation. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that explicitness (vs. ambiguousness) of failure feedback moderates the consequences of IOC following a failure experience. In accord with predictions, it was found that IOC were subsequently related to a better mood (Study 1) and higher persistence (Study 2) if individuals received ambiguous task-inherent failure feedback. In contrast, explicit failure feedback seemed to neutralize the beneficial effects of IOC. These results are discussed with respect to the adaptiveness of IOC.

Interactions between emotion regulation strategies and affective style: Implications for trait anxiety versus depressed mood

Affective style reflecting approach and inhibition is thought to be associated in distinct ways with anxious versus depressed mood; relatively few studies, however, consider how the interaction between affective style and the strategies individuals use to regulate mood and emotion might influence these associations. Sixty-seven non-disordered adults self-reported on their use of two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression), behavioral approach (BAS) and behavioral inhibition sensitivity (BIS) dimensions of affective style, and anxious and depressed mood (trait anxiety and symptoms of depression). Trait anxiety versus depressed mood was associated with unique interactive patterns of emotion regulation and affective style: enhanced use of reappraisal was linked to less depressed mood in those reporting low BAS, whereas high suppression was linked to greater trait anxiety in those reporting low BIS. The implications of findings for typical emotional processes and for clinical disorders and interventions are discussed.     

有偿献血HIV感染者的情绪障碍

考察有偿献血HIV感染者的情绪状况,探讨他们面临的艾滋病压力和对感染HIV的认知评价对其情绪的影响。方法：采用Beck抑郁量表、焦虑自评量表、艾滋病压力量表、认知评价量表作为测查工具,测查了185名有偿献血HIV感染者,并收集了人口学资料、症状资料和其它信息。结果：（1）92%的有偿献血HIV感染者有中、重度抑郁障碍,他们的焦虑程度高于神经衰弱者和焦虑症者;（2）艾滋病压力不仅通过认知评价而且会直接对情绪障碍产生影响;（3）认知评价在艾滋病压力和情绪障碍之间起部分中介作用。结论：有偿献血HIV感染者抑郁、焦虑情绪障碍严重,艾滋病压力和认知评价对情绪障碍的产生都有直接或间接的影响     

情绪的ERP相关成分与心境障碍的ERP变化

技术是研究情绪问题的有力手段。实验对象包括正常被试以及心境障碍的病人。可从视觉或/和听觉通道给予情绪刺激材料,观测N2、P3和N400等成分的变化。研究发现,情绪可增强被试对情绪事件的注意强度,尤其是新异的情绪内容较易得到识别。在正常被试中,情绪词相较中性词能引起较大的新旧效应,抑郁症患者的新旧效应与正常人有所不同,但其再认成绩也能被情绪内容提高。在研究情绪对决策行为的影响时,观测到内侧额叶负波（MFN）。ERP研究表明,情绪活动也存在大脑功能偏侧化问题。     

Postpartum mood disorders: Results of an online survey

Purpose: Postpartum mood disorders (PMDs), the distressing mental and emotional symptoms experienced by women after childbirth, are just now receiving the attention they warrant. Given the serious and sometimes life‐threatening nature of PMDs, we used a qualitative research design to examine more closely the nature of symptoms experienced and the effective strategies women used to cope with PMD. Participants: The respondents were 252 members of PMD and breast‐feeding (La Leche League) support groups throughout the United States. Method: Participants responded anonymously to open‐ended questions in an online survey. The data were reviewed by the research team to determine common themes and prevailing issues. Results: Participants reported myriad different symptoms and used a host of various strategies to alleviate problematic thoughts, feelings, and behaviours following childbirth. Postpartum symptoms affected participants’ plans to have future children. For some women, symptoms became more intense during subsequent births. Despite the problematic nature of PMD, more than half of the participants reported receiving little or no information from healthcare providers about PMDs. Implications for counsellors and other healthcare providers are discussed in detail.     

庄子情欲本质及其调节的心理思想管窥

情欲是中国古代心理学思想研究的重要范畴,是关系密切但又各有所指的两个范畴。庄子指出情欲对人的身心健康具负面影响,提出许多关于情欲本质及其调节的心理思想。本文分析和总结了庄子的情欲本质观和调节观,这些思想对今天人们实施情欲心理调节仍有重要借鉴价值。     

On Being Happy and Mistaken on a Good Day: Revisiting Forgas’s (1998) Mood-Bias Result

Forgas (1998) reported “on being happy and mistaken,” finding that a happy mood increased the fundamental attribution error (FAE) compared to a sad mood. However, the standard attitude-attribution paradigm used by Forgas might contain demand characteristics, to which happy people might be especially susceptible. In addition, Goldenberg and Forgas (2012) showed that a happy mood decreased a form of the FAE. Using the questioner-contestant paradigm, we replicated Forgas’s result, but only when participants were already having a “good day.”     

Reporting spiritual needs of older adults living in Bavarian residential and nursing homes

We intended to study unaddressed psychosocial and spiritual needs among older people (of at least 65 years of age) living in nine residential/nursing homes in Bavaria in Southern Germany. We conducted an anonymous cross-sectional study with standardised questionnaires (i.e., Spiritual Needs Questionnaire, Brief Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Scale, Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation, etc.). Religious needs were predicted best by residents’ religious trust. Existential needs and inner peace needs correlated moderately with grief, and were predicted best by family/social support needs. All members of an interdisciplinary team should be trained in the specific competence of recognising older people's unmet spiritual needs. When these needs are recognised, caregivers and relatives have the chance to react.     

The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales: Reference data from a large psychiatric outpatient sample

The published norms for the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) give results for clinical populations that largely fall in the severe to very severe categories. As a result, within this population, the ability to compare the comparative contributions of the underlying emotional components is reduced. The present study presents results from a large general psychiatric outpatient population and provides percentile norms with confidence intervals for both the original DASS and the shorter 21‐item form. It is noted that both forms have high validity but that the correlations between scales are higher than those reported in non‐clinical populations. There was little variation between sexes but some variation of results with age with both younger and older cohorts having lower scores except for the Stress scale where there were higher scores in the older group. There is some evidence of a ceiling effect in the Depression and Stress scales. It was noted that nearly a quarter of patient scores fell within the originally defined normal range suggesting that the DASS would not be a particularly sensitive instrument in its previously reported use as a screening instrument for psychiatric illness.     

Positive mood enhances divergent but not convergent thinking

A positive mood enhances creative performance. We examined which type of creativity, divergent or convergent thinking, was enhanced by a positive mood. Half of the participants listened to happy music and thought about happy events (positive group). The other half listened to the Japanese Constitution (neutral group). Participants' emotional valence and arousal were measured before and after mood induction. All participants then engaged in a creative activity involving the generation of new names for rice. The results indicated that the positive group produced more divergent ideas than did the neutral group. On the other hand, the two groups did not differ with respect to the number of convergent ideas that were generated. We suggest that being in a positive mood facilitates flexible thinking and consequently leads to production of unconventional and atypical ideas.