Normative Influences on Secondary Disturbance: The Role of Social Expectancies

A “new wave” within psychotherapy has introduced the concept of acceptance into people's emotional repertoires. Accepting unpleasant emotional states has been demonstrated as an important pathway towards reducing secondary disturbances and improving emotional and psychological functioning. What is often overlooked, however, is whether this move towards acceptance is reinforced within the social and cultural contexts in which people experience their emotional states. Our research has begun to explore the contribution that normative influences make to secondary disturbance, specifically the perception that feeling happy is a desired state, and that experiencing and expressing negative emotions is undesirable and unacceptable to others. We review evidence here that these perceived “social expectancies” are associated with increased negative emotionality and depression, and reduce well‐being. Furthermore, we highlight that the effects of social expectancies are more apparent in Australia than Japan, consistent with the view that a higher premium is placed on happiness within Australia. We also review experimental evidence that social messages that reinforce these social expectancies serve to increase secondary disturbances. The implications of taking a social perspective on emotion regulation and dysfunction, and specifically implications for promoting happiness and acceptance in the field, are discussed.     

Discriminative facility in the face of threat: Relationship to psychological distress

Abstract

This study explored whether discriminative facility in dealing with threatening situations is negatively associated with distress. Discriminative facility entails the ability to (1) “accurately” appraise the controllability of stressors and (2) use more problem-focused relative to emotion-focused coping with controllable stressors and at the same time more emotion-focused relative to problem-focused coping with uncontrollable stressors. We conducted a preliminary study to obtain “accurate” appraisals of the controllability of two stressors. In the main study, college students (N = 109) provided information regarding their appraisal of the controllability of the two stressors, how they coped with these two stressors, and their level of both stressor-specific distress and general distress. The relationship between coping strategy (problem- vs emotion-focused) and stressor-specific distress was found to be a function of the controllability of the stressor. Specifically, with controllable stressors, the high use of problem-focused coping was associated with less distress than the high use of emotion-focused coping. The opposite was found to be the case with uncontrollable stressors. More importantly, discriminative facility was negatively related to general distress. The results suggest that discriminative facility in the appraisal of and coping with stressors is an important mediator in the experience of psychological symptoms as a result of stress.     

Mothers' and fathers' coping with chronic childhood disease

Abstract

Mothers and fathers with a child with diabetes, asthma, cardiac conditions, epilepsy or leukaemia completed questionnaires to investigate their appraisal of disease-related difficulties and patterns of coping. There were differences both in appraised difficulties and coping patterns as a function of diagnostic group. In general, mothers who perceived more difficulties reported that it was helpful to cope by gaining disease-related knowledge. Fathers who perceived more difficulties reported it was more helpful to adopt strategies to enhance their own personal autonomy. Fathers who perceived more difficulties also reported that contact with medical staff was less helpful. Implications are discussed in terms of the differential implications of coping with chronic childhood diseases for mothers and fathers. Theoretical models need to take into account the differential demands of specific diseases in accounting for parents' stress appraisal and coping patterns.     

Staff support in medical oncology: A problem-solving approach

Abstract

At a time of low morale the multidisciplinary staff working on a medical oncology rated the severity and frequency of problems arising in their working environment and their personal levels of stress and job satisfaction. An anonymous paper and pencil exercise was used to identify problems at work and possible solutions which staff then discussed as a group. Within four months some changes were implemented resulting in a significant reduction in problems on the unit and a commensurate improvement in morale. Interdisciplinary communication particularly benefited. This problem solving approach was useful in overcoming initial resistance to seeking a cooperative solution to shared problems at work.     

The adaptive effect of personal control when facing breast cancer: Cognitive and behavioural mediators

This prospective study examines the cognitive and behavioural mediators of the relation between personal control and the initial response to a breast cancer diagnosis as well as subsequent psychological adjustment. A total of 143 patients participated immediately after diagnosis (T1), after surgery (T2) and 2 months after the end of treatment (T3), of whom 92 also completed a questionnaire pre-diagnosis (T0). The buffering effect of personal control on psychological distress shortly after diagnosis was mediated by cancer-specific cognitions, i.e. threat appraisal and coping self-efficacy. Moreover, a strong sense of personal control predicted lower levels of anxiety 2 months after the end of treatment, but was unrelated to distress at T3. The adaptive effect on anxiety was mediated by threat appraisal and active engagement in social life after surgery, but not by active patient participation or coping self-efficacy. These results confirm and explain the adaptive effect of control. Apparently, women with a low sense of control appraise cancer and their personal coping skills more negatively, which makes them vulnerable to distress in response to diagnosis. Furthermore, women with a strong sense of control might regulate anxiety by remaining engaged in social life.     

Coping with HIV as a chronic illness: A longitudinal analysis of illness appraisals

Illness appraisals are central to understanding how individuals cope with chronic illness. An interpretive phenomenological approach to the analysis of two years of bimonthly stressful event narratives in a sample of 57 HIV?+?gay men revealed five groups that differed on how they appraised HIV and one group of individuals who changed from one type of appraisal to another over the course of the 2-year study. The ways of appraising HIV revealed in this analysis have implications for interventions and for the study of coping with HIV as a chronic illness. The repeated assessment of specific HIV-associated stressful events and a qualitative analytic approach allowed for a more in-depth understanding of the meaning of HIV for the participants. This study suggests that coping interventions may be more powerful if they are tailored to individual appraisals of HIV because different forms of coping are likely to be differentially effective depending on the meaning of HIV in the individual's life.     

人际感恩:社会交往中重要的积极情绪

人际感恩是指个体由于接受了他人善意提供的具有一定价值的恩惠而诱发的一种愉悦的、心怀感激而意欲报答的认知性情绪。情境评估过程是人际感恩得以产生的关键环节。此外,人际感恩的产生还会受到受惠者自身特点、双方关系特点等因素的影响。情节剧本、真人互动等任务是研究人际感恩的常见范式。另外,人际感恩还具有个体、二元、团体三个层面的功能。加强人际感恩神经生理机制的研究,考察由人际感恩到特质感恩的培养路径,拓展人际感恩的功能研究,探索中国文化背景下的人际感恩是未来人际感恩的研究方向。     

Anchoring Effects in Simulated Academic Promotion Decisions: How the Promotion Criterion Affects Ratings and the Decision to Support an Application

Six experiments investigated the effect of the promotion criterion in simulated academic promotion decisions. In total, 547 undergraduate students and 33 university faculty members rated a promotion application, and some also indicated their decisions to support or to reject it. Performance ratings were reliably affected by the criterion, with a high criterion resulting in higher ratings than a low criterion, and this criterion effect was found regardless of the evaluator's expertise, whether he or she took the role of an independent assessor or the line manager to the applicant, or whether the criterion was provided by the experimenter or randomly generated by the participant. The criterion also affected the level of support for a candidate when the position applied for was perceived to be extremely competitive, or when a lesser position was considered at a later time. These results provide evidence that the use of a criterion, a fairly common practice in decision‐making processes, may bias performance evaluations, which in turn may have ripple effects that affect the outcome of a chain of events. Our results also shed light on the possible mechanisms that underlie the rating biases in performance appraisal. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.