Economy of Shadows: The Effects of Restrictive Regulation on Religiosity in China

Religion is permitted in China, but its practice is tightly regulated by the state. This paper uses individual-level longitudinal data to investigate the association between religious regulation and religious outcomes in China. Measures of regulation are constructed from instances of state action against Christians as well as Christian perceptions of unfair treatment by the government. In summary, as regulation increases, an individual is less likely to identify with a religion and less likely to say that religion is important. For those individuals without religious identification in either wave, regulation is negatively associated with religious importance. Yet, for those individuals with identification in one or two waves, regulation is either unassociated or even positively associated with importance. These findings contribute to research on regulation of religion and religion in China. More broadly, they demonstrate the state can wield considerable power over people's private lives but also that this power has limits.     

自我关注重评和情境关注重评情绪调节策略及对随后认知控制的影响

认知重评作为高度适应性的情绪调节策略, 是否消耗随后任务所需的认知资源仍存在争议。以往研究把重评作为单一策略研究, 并未区分重评亚型对这一问题进行探索。本研究采用情绪调节与认知控制结合的任务, 考察自我关注和情境关注两种重评亚型调节情绪的效果, 以及对随后认知控制的影响是否存在差异。结果发现两种重评策略都能有效调节情绪, 但调节效果存在差异。从行为角度看, 与中性刺激相比, 负性刺激会引发更高的负性情绪水平, 对随后冲突任务的认知控制能力更差。进一步从神经机制水平来看, 增加负性情绪可能会进一步消耗随后任务可用的认知资源, 与自我关注重评相比, 采用情境关注重评降低负性情绪后, 对随后冲突任务的认知控制能力更强。说明两种重评亚型并不同质, 不仅在调节情绪的效果上存在差异, 而且会引发不同的认知控制后果; 同时, 负性情绪水平越高, 认知控制能力可能会越差。     

The role of individual differences in emotion regulation efficacy

Emotion regulation (ER) helps to maintain mental health and achieve optimal functioning. Whether people benefit from various ER strategies may depend on individual difference variables. A sample of undergraduates (N = 378, M_age = 18.6) underwent a negative emotion induction and then were assigned to learn about and perform an ER strategy (cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, or distraction). We tested whether individual differences (cognitive restructuring skills, need for cognition, mindfulness, and experiential avoidance) moderated the efficacy of ER (i.e., decreased negative emotion from before to after applying the strategy). Experientially avoidant individuals had less efficacy in applying the acceptance strategy, compared to the cognitive reappraisal and distraction strategies. Motivation and perceived ability to use each strategy were examined as mediators.     

Opening the closed heart: affect-focused clinical work with the victims of early trauma

This paper begins with the understanding that early trauma leads to powerful dissociative defenses which injure the capacity to feel. It further explores ways to restore this capacity through body-centred attention to affect-in-the-moment in the psychoanalytic situation. Using the author’s personal experience while in analysis as well as a case of severe early trauma, he demonstrates the consciousness-killing effect of primitive defenses and shows how body-sensitive techniques hold the promise of restoring the patient’s sense of aliveness and hence, opening the unconscious to those affect-images that are the building blocks of the human imagination. A final section focuses on the neglect of feeling in Jungian psychology and suggests that the “creation of consciousness” which Jung described as his personal myth, is quintessentially a process of emotional transformation – of bringing unconscious suffering into consciousness – as feelings.     

Pathological personality facets and emotion (dys)regulation in gambling disorder

A number of researches showed high prevalence of personality disorders among addicted gamblers. However, there are still few studies investigating the role of pathological personality facets in Gambling Disorder (GD). Moreover, the nature of the relationship between GD and pathological personality is not clear. We administered to a group of addicted gamblers (N = 79) and a group of healthy participants (N = 101) a battery of self-report questionnaires encompassing the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), The Personality Inventory for DSM-V (PID-5), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Analyses of variance showed that addicted gamblers, compared to healthy participants, scored higher on most of the subscales of the DERS, on the Suppression Dimension of the ERQ and on the five main domains of the PID-5 whereas they obtained lower scores on the Reappraisal subscale of the ERQ. Moreover, multiple regression analyses indicated that some specific facets of pathological personality, emotion dysregulation and lack of cognitive reappraisal, significantly predict GD's severity. Finally, emotion dysregulation levels and lack of cognitive reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between these and GD's severity. Our results confirmed the central roles played by both pathological personality and deficit in emotion regulation capacities in GD. Specifically, Impulsivity, Lack of Perseverance and Suspiciousness may be important predictors of GD severity. Moreover, emotion dysregulation and lack of adaptive emotion regulation strategies partially explained such relationship. As such, training for emotion regulation abilities appears strategically useful in the treatment of addicted gamblers with pathological personality traits.     

Common mechanisms of executive attention underlie executive function and effortful control in children

Executive Function (EF) and Effortful Control (EC) have traditionally been viewed as distinct constructs related to cognition and temperament during development. More recently, EF and EC have been implicated in top‐down self‐regulation ‐ the goal‐directed control of cognition, emotion, and behavior. We propose that executive attention, a limited‐capacity attentional resource subserving goal‐directed cognition and behavior, is the common cognitive mechanism underlying the self‐regulatory capacities captured by EF and EC. We addressed three related questions: (a) Do behavioral ratings of EF and EC represent the same self‐regulation construct? (b) Is this self‐regulation construct explained by a common executive attention factor as measured by performance on cognitive tasks? and (c) Does the executive attention factor explain additional variance in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) problems to behavioral ratings of self‐regulation? Measures of performance on complex span, general intelligence, and response inhibition tasks were obtained from 136 preadolescent children (M = 11 years, 10 months, SD = 8 months), along with self‐ and parent‐reported EC, and parent‐reported EF, and ADHD problems. Results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that behavioral ratings of EF and EC measured the same self‐regulation construct. Cognitive tasks measured a common executive attention factor that significantly explained 30% of the variance in behavioral ratings of self‐regulation. Executive attention failed to significantly explain additional variance in ADHD problems beyond that explained by behavioral ratings of self‐regulation. These findings raise questions about the utility of task‐based cognitive measures in research and clinical assessment of self‐regulation and psychopathology in developmental samples.     

Solving the puzzle of deliberate self-harm: the experiential avoidance model

Despite increasing attention to the phenomenon of deliberate self-harm (DSH), the literature currently lacks a unifying, evidence-based, theoretical framework within which to understand the factors that control this behavior. The purpose of the present paper is to outline such a framework-the Experiential Avoidance Model (EAM) of DSH. The EAM poses that DSH is primarily maintained by negative reinforcement in the form of escape from, or avoidance of, unwanted emotional experiences. Literature on factors that may lead to experiential avoidance is reviewed, along with the mounting empirical evidence that DSH functions to help the individual escape from unwanted emotional experiences. The EAM integrates a variety of research on emotions, experiential avoidance, and DSH within a clinically useful framework that sparks novel research directions.     

台湾实践基因科技应用于临床试验的政策发展可能视野

台湾目前的基因科技发展存在着瓶颈和危机。在日前台湾举办的《基因治疗与临床试验－务实取向的共识凝聚研讨会》上,与会者提出了制约台湾目前基因研究的十大瓶颈,以及面对困境的十项解决方案。     

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.     

儒道情欲调节传统探析

情绪调节是当今情绪心理学的研究热点。中国传统文化中蕴涵着丰富的情欲调节思想。通过挖掘、梳理和提取儒家和道家两个学派的情欲调节思想,将有助于拓宽我国情绪调节研究者的研究思路。