A multimethod assessment to study the relationship between rumination and gender differences

Rumination is described as the propensity of responding to distress by repetitively and passively focusing on one’s negative emotions, and failures, and their consequences (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991, 1998). Therefore, given that rumination is characterized especially by difficulties in managing and controlling negative emotional states, it is considered as the most common (impaired) emotional regulation strategy, and can be defined as an emotional process related to a repetitive, undesired, and past-oriented negatively inclined thought (Compare, Zarbo, Shonin, Van Gordon, & Marconi, 2014; Smith & Alloy, 2009). Recent evidence suggested that because of problems related to monitoring of negative states, rumination may be associated with exaggerated physiological reactivity relative to demands from the environment, and to some difficulties in attentional control abilities. The current study aimed at deepening our understanding of the role that a maladaptive emotional regulation strategy – such as rumination – might play in physiological response changes and in engaging dysfunctional attentional strategies. We used a multimethod assessment including self-reports (i.e., Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), physiological measures, (i.e., Heart Rate Variability recording), and attention tasks (i.e., Stroop Task) in order to examine the multiple aspects of rumination across genders. Sixty-eight individuals (30 males and 38 females) were administered DERS −16, RRQ and, soon after them, the Stroop task. Immediately after completing the Stroop task (T1), participants were exposed to a three-phase, baseline-stress-recovery experimental paradigm while their heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded. After completing the experimental paradigm, Stroop stimuli were presented for the second time (T2), in order to examine possible intra-individual differences between the two performances in the Stroop task. Our findings showed that rumination was higher in females than in males, but in men it appeared to be strongly associated with an overall impaired emotional regulation. However, no gender differences in rumination and emotion dysregulation were found when inspecting physiological data. The current study aims to contribute towards a better understanding which emotion regulation strategies and which physiological mechanisms are associated with rumination.     

Changes in Muscle Activity in Response to Assistive Force during Isometric Elbow Flexion

Abstract

This study investigated the muscle activity and force variability in response to perturbation of assistive force during isometric elbow flexion. Sixteen healthy right-handed young men (age: 22.0?±?1.1?years; height: 171.9?±?4.8?cm; weight 68.4?±?11.2?kg) were recruited and the muscle activity of biceps brachii and triceps brachii were assessed using surface electromyography. Workload force and assistive force applied on isometric elbow flexion significantly affected the changes in both biceps and triceps muscle activities. A higher assistive force was shown to result in reduced biceps muscle activity compared to the unassisted period. In contrast, the efficiency of the assistive force acting on the biceps decreased as the assistive force increased. In general, the force variability of the biceps muscle remained approximately the same at lower workload force conditions than that at higher workload force conditions. In conclusion, higher assistive force may not yield a higher performance efficiency in human-assistive force interaction.     

Electroencephalographic and autonomic alterations in subjects with frequent nightmares during pre-and post-REM periods

Abnormal arousal processes, sympathetic influences, as well as wake-like alpha activity during sleep were reported as pathophysiological features of Nightmare Disorder. We hypothesized that in Nightmare Disorder, wake-like cortical activity and peripheral measures linked to arousals would be triggered by physiological processes related to the initiation of REM periods. Therefore, we examined electroencephalographic (EEG), motor and autonomous (cardiac) activity in a group of nightmare (NM) and healthy control (CTL) subjects during sleep-state-transitions while controlling for the confounding effects of trait anxiety. Based on the second-nights’ polysomnographic recordings of 19 Nightmare Disordered (NM) and 21 control (CTL) subjects, we examined the absolute power spectra focusing on the alpha range, measures of heart rate variability (HRV) and motor (muscle tone) activity during pre-REM and post-REM periods, separately. According to our results, the NM group exhibited increased alpha power during pre-REM, but not in post-REM, or stable, non-transitory periods. While CTL subjects showed increased HRV during pre-REM periods in contrast to post-REM ones, NM subjects did not exhibit such sleep state-specific differences in HRV, but showed more stable values across the examined sleep stages and less overall variability reflecting generally attenuated parasympathetic activity during sleep-state-transitions and during stable, non-transitory NREM states. These differences were not mediated by waking levels of trait anxiety. Moreover, in both groups, significant differences emerged regarding cortical and motor (muscle tone) activity between pre-REM and post-REM conditions, reflecting the heterogeneity of NREM sleep. Our findings indicate that NM subjects’ sleep is compromised during NREM–REM transitions, but relatively stabilized after REM periods. The coexistence of sleep-like and wake-like cortical activity in NM subjects seems to be triggered by REM/WAKE promoting neural activity. We propose that increased arousal-related phenomena in NREM–REM transitions might reflect altered emotional processing in NM subjects.     

Intraindividual Variability in Narrative Identity: Complexities,Garden Paths,and Untapped Research Potential

This paper introduces key concepts for studying intraindividual variability in narratives (narrative IIV). Narrative IIV is conceptualized in terms of sources of within-person variation (events and audiences) and dimensions of variation (structural and motivational/affective dimensions of narratives). Possible implications of narrative IIV for well-being and self and social development are outlined. Considering narrative IIV leads to complexity in both theory and method, raising the issue of whether some avenues might be more productive than others. Using previously collected data, we sought to evaluate the research potential of different indices of narrative IIV (n = 106 participants; n = 1272 narratives). All analyses were preregistered: doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/SXV4W . Findings show that narrative IIV is distinct depending on source and dimension, replicating previous work. However, narrative IIV was largely unrelated to the measures of well-being and self and social development used in the present study. These findings support the practice of aggregating across narratives in existing research, at least for these outcomes and sources of variation, and provide important guidance for investigators who remain interested in the possible insights that narrative IIV may reveal about the person. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The relation between thinking and mood in daily life: The effects of content and context of thought

The association between thought content and mood in daily life is far from established. The aim of the present investigation was to examine the role of content and context of thought in daily life mood (i) concurrent and across time, and (ii) as simple effects and as interactions between them. Participants were 50 university students (82% female), who completed experience sampling assessments for a week. Linear mixed-effects models showed that time and object aspects of thought were significantly associated with concurrent mood. In addition, interaction effects between object of thought and thought context (activity) significantly predicted concurrent, but not future, mood, sometimes showing a switch from a positive to a negative association in certain contexts. It is concluded that associations between thought content and mood in daily life (i) are depending on the activity context, and (ii) seem to be relatively short-lived in most cases.