Using temporal distancing to regulate emotion in adolescence: modulation by reactive aggression

Adopting a temporally distant perspective on stressors reduces distress in adults. Here we investigate whether the extent to which individuals project themselves into the future influences distancing efficacy. We also examined modulating effects of age across adolescence and reactive aggression: factors associated with reduced future-thinking and poor emotion regulation. Participants (N?=?83, aged 12–22) read scenarios and rated negative affect when adopting a distant-future perspective, near-future perspective, or when reacting naturally. Self-report data revealed significant downregulation of negative affect during the distant-future condition, with a similar though non-significant skin conductance pattern. Importantly, participants who projected further ahead showed the greatest distress reductions. While temporal distancing efficacy did not vary with age, participants reporting greater reactive aggression showed reduced distancing efficacy, and projected themselves less far into the future. Findings demonstrate the importance of temporal extent in effective temporal distancing; shedding light on a potential mechanism for poor emotional control associated with reactive aggression.     

Moments That Matter? On the Complexity of Using Triggers Based on Skin Conductance to Sample Arousing Events Within an Experience Sampling Framework

To sample situations that are psychologically arousing in daily life, we implemented an experience sampling strategy in which 82 Dutch young adults (M_age = 20.73) were triggered based on random time intervals and based on physiological skin conductance scores across a period of 5 days. When triggered, participants had to fill in short surveys on affect, situational characteristics and event characteristics on their smartphone. We found theoretically expected relationships between the skin conductance signal on the one hand and self-reported arousal and positive energy (e.g. energetic and enthusiastic) on the other hand, although effect sizes were small. Unexpectedly, none of the negative affective scales (i.e. irritation, anxiety, and negative valence) were predicted by skin conductance levels. Despite the (partial) validity of the signal, a simple algorithm that triggered the survey based on relative increases of skin conductance levels produced counterintuitive results due to a dependence between level and slope. Additional exploratory analyses highlighted other skin conductance signal characteristics (i.e. autocorrelation, number of peaks, and change points) that might be worth examining when designing future algorithms to sample arousing moments. Overall, our experiences highlight not only the promise but also the complexity of real-time measurement of physiological processes in daily life. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

‘It’s bit of an eye opener’ – A qualitative study of women’s attitudes towards tanning,sun protection and a facial morphing intervention

Objective: Skin cancer is to a large degree behaviourally preventable, meaning that evidence-based interventions have scope to make a difference. Previous research indicates that appearance-based interventions such as facial morphing may be more effective than health-based interventions, and that it can personalise the issue of skin cancer.

Method: This study examined attitudes to UV exposure, as well as reactions to a facial morphing intervention, through interviews with 25 women aged 35 years and older.

Results: Thematic analysis revealed four themes; two regarding attitudes to UV exposure (confusion and contradiction, and change and continuity), and two relating to the facial morphing intervention (negative reactions to UV-exposed photo and positive outcomes of the intervention). Women experienced a number of barriers to adopting safer behaviour in the sun; their current attitudes to UV exposure had been shaped by available information sources throughout their ageing. They expressed negative evaluations of the UV photo, which fed directly into motivation to reduce UV exposure.

Conclusions: These results can be interpreted along the lines of goal-directed behaviour. This type of intervention has the potential to reduce UV exposure among this participant group, something that needs to be further investigated with randomised control trials.     

Rethinking the Role of Worry in Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Evidence Supporting a Model of Emotional Contrast Avoidance

The Contrast Avoidance model (Newman & Llera, 2011) proposes that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are hypersensitive to sharp upward shifts in negative emotion that typically accompany negative events, and use worry to maintain sustained intrapersonal negativity in an attempt to avoid these shifts. Although research shows that worry increases negative emotionality and mutes further emotional reactivity to a stressor when compared to the worry period (e.g., Llera & Newman, 2010), no study has tracked changes in negative emotionality from baseline to worry inductions followed by a range of emotional exposures. Further, no study has yet assessed participants’ subjective appraisals of prior worry on helping to cope with such exposures. The present study tested the main tenets of the Contrast Avoidance model by randomly assigning participants with GAD (n = 48) and nonanxious controls (n = 47) to experience worry, relaxation, and neutral inductions prior to sequential exposure to fearful, sad, and humorous film clips. Both physiological (nonspecific skin conductance responses [NS-SCRs]) and self-reported emotional changes were observed. Results indicated that worry boosted negative emotionality from baseline, which was sustained across negative exposures, whereas low negative emotionality during relaxation and neutral inductions allowed for sharp increases in response to exposures. Furthermore, GAD participants found worry to be more helpful than other conditions in coping with exposures, whereas control participants reported the opposite pattern. Results provide preliminary support for the Contrast Avoidance model. This suggests that treatment should focus on underlying avoidance patterns before attempting to reduce worry behavior.