Associations between childhood adversity and daily suppression and avoidance in response to stress in adulthood: can neurobiological sensitivity help explain this relationship?

Background and objectivesAlthough it has been postulated that psychological responses to stress in adulthood are grounded in childhood experiences in the family environment, evidence has been inconsistent. This study tested whether two putative measures of neurobiological sensitivity (vagal flexibility and attentional capacity) moderated the relation between women's reported exposure to a risky childhood environment and current engagement in suppressive or avoidant coping in response to daily stress.Design and methodsAdult women (N = 158) recruited for a study of stress, coping, and aging reported on early adversity (EA) in their childhood family environment and completed a week-long daily diary in which they described their most stressful event of the day and indicated the degree to which they used suppression or avoidance in response to that event. In addition, women completed a visual tracking task during which heart rate variability and attentional capacity were assessed.ResultsMultilevel mixed modeling analyses revealed that greater EA predicted greater suppression and avoidance only among women with higher attentional capacity. Similarly, greater EA predicted greater use of suppression, but only among women with greater vagal flexibility.ConclusionChildhood adversity may predispose individuals with high neurobiological sensitivity to a lifetime of maladaptive coping

Walks4work: Rationale and study design to investigate walking at lunchtime in the workplace setting

Background: Following recruitment of a private sector company, an 8week lunchtime walking intervention was implemented to examine the effect of the intervention on modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors, and further to see if walking environment had any further effect on the cardiovascular disease risk factors. Methods. For phase 1 of the study participants were divided into three groups, two lunchtime walking intervention groups to walk around either an urban or natural environment twice a week during their lunch break over an 8week period. The third group was a waiting-list control who would be invited to join the walking groups after phase 1. In phase 2 all participants were encouraged to walk during their lunch break on self-selecting routes. Health checks were completed at baseline, end of phase 1 and end of phase 2 in order to measure the impact of the intervention on cardiovascular disease risk. The primary outcome variables of heart rate and heart rate variability were measured to assess autonomic function associated with cardiovascular disease. Secondary outcome variables (Body mass index, blood pressure, fitness, autonomic response to a stressor) related to cardiovascular disease were also measured. The efficacy of the intervention in increasing physical activity was objectively monitored throughout the 8-weeks using an accelerometer device. Discussion. The results of this study will help in developing interventions with low researcher input with high participant output that may be implemented in the workplace. If effective, this study will highlight the contribution that natural environments can make in the reduction of modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors within the workplace. © 2012 Brown et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

The Role of Humor as a Character Strength in Positive Psychology

In positive psychology, humor has been identified as one of twenty-four character strengths considered ubiquitously important for human flourishing. Unlike the other strengths, humor was a late addition to this classification system and its status as a strength continues to be somewhat controversial. Therefore the purpose of this thesis was to explore how humor fits within positive psychology. Four studies were conducted to achieve this goal. Study 1 involved a cross-sectional design and compared the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths - Humor Scale (the humor measure used in positive psychology, which assumes that humor is a unitary and positive construct) with the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; a widely used multidimensional measure of humor) that assesses both adaptive and maladaptive styles of humor in their ability to predict well-being. Additionally, this study and Study 2 explored the ability of humor to predict well-being over and above the effects of gratitude, another more well-studied character strength. The results indicated that the HSQ was a better predictor of happiness, resilience, and morality than was the positive psychology humor scale and that humor added further variance to the prediction of well-being beyond the effects accounted for by gratitude. Study 3 extended these findings by using a longitudinal daily diary methodology to explore the relationships between daily humor styles, gratitude, and well-being. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed interesting differences in associations between positive and negative humor styles and well-being at the within-person and between-person levels and in interactions between these levels. For example, at the between-person level, self-defeating humor was correlated with all four outcome measures whereas at the within-person level, this style was unrelated to satisfaction with life, positive mood, and altruism. The cross-level interactions indicate that when this style is used infrequently, it does not appear to be detrimental with respect to well-being. However, when used habitually, it seems to be particularly associated with negative outcomes. Finally, Study 4 involved a longitudinal experimental manipulation to test two new positive psychology humor exercises designed to improve well-being. The first exercise was a more traditional humor exercise that did not require participants to distinguish among humor types whereas the second exercise taught participants to distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive humor (with the expectation that reduced maladaptive humor use would follow). While results indicated that there were no differences among interventions (traditional humor, humor styles, and a well-studied gratitude exercise) with respect to changes in well-being, all three interventions produced significant improvements in positive mood compared to a control group. Possible explanations for these findings and implications for future research are discussed

Cognitive psychopathology: The role of emotion

This paper examines the role of emotion in the understanding of psychopathology. The influential Cognitive Therapy model of Beck is briefly reviewed and a number of limitations are considered. Two particular weaknesses are highlighted in the understanding of cognitive psychopathology; namely, the importance of multi-level processing systems and the importance of emotion. The Power and Dalgleish (1997, 2008) SPAARS model is presented to show the advantages that arise from the inclusion of multilevel processes combined with a theoretical account of emotion. In order to illustrate the application of the SPAARS model to cognitive psychopathology, findings from a recent emotion profile analysis of clinical depression and anxiety are summarised. The analyses also illustrate the importance of shamerelated emotions in depression in contrast to the guiltrelated emotions that are highlighted in classification systems such as DSM-IV. ------ RESUMO ------ Neste artigo fazemos uma reflexão sobre o papel da emoção na compreensão da psicopatologia. Fazemos uma breve revisão e apontamos uma série de limitações. do influente modelo da Psicoterapia Cognitiva preconizado por Beck. Dois pontos particularmente fracos são destacados na compreensão da psicopatologia cognitiva; nomeadamente, a importância dos sistemas de processamento multi-nível e a importância das emoções. Apresentamos o modelo SPAARS de Power e Dalgleish (1997, 2008), para mostrar as vantagens que resultam da inclusão de processos de multi-nível combinados com uma teoria relacionada com as emoções. Com o objectivo de ilustrar a aplicação do modelo SPAARS à psicopatologia cognitiva. Referimos, de forma sucinta, o que foi observado numa recente analise sobre o perfil da depressão e ansiedade clínicas. Estas analises ilustram também a importância das emoções relacionadas com a vergonha na depressão, em contraste com as emoções relacionadas com a culpa que são destacadas em sistemas de classificação como o DSM-IV

PREDICTING THE INDIVIDUAL MOOD LEVEL BASED ON DIARY DATA

Understanding mood changes of individuals with depressive disorders is crucial in order to guide personalized therapeutic interventions. Based on diary data, in which clients of an online depression treatment report their activities as free text, we categorize these activities and predict the mood level of clients. We apply a bag-of-words text-mining approach for activity categorization and explore recurrent neuronal networks to support this task. Using the identified activities, we develop partial ordered logit models with varying levels of heterogeneity among clients to predict their mood. We estimate the parameters of these models by employing Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques and compare the models regarding their predictive performance. Therefore, by combining text-mining and Bayesian estimation techniques, we apply a two-stage analysis approach in order to reveal relationships between various activity categories and the individual mood level. Our findings indicate that the mood level is influenced negatively when participants report about sickness or rumination. Social activities have a positive influence on the mood. By understanding the influences of daily activities on the individual mood level, we hope to improve the efficacy of online behavior therapy, provide support in the context of clinical decision-making, and contribute to the development of personalized interventions

Utilising daily diaries to examine oral health experiences associated with dentine hypersensitivity

Background: The current investigation examined the determinants of oral health experiences associated with dentine hypersensitivity using prospective diary methodology. Methods: Staff and students from a large UK university who had self-diagnosed dentine hypersensitivity completed an online daily diary and text survey for two weeks recording their mood, oral health-related coping behaviours, coping and pain appraisals, pain experiences and functional limitations. Cross sectional and lagged path analyses were employed to examine relationships. Results: 101 participants took part in the diary study. Participants had a mean age of 26.3 years (range=18-63) and most were female (N=69). Individuals who used more oral health-related coping behaviours predicted and experienced greater levels of pain on subsequent days. Negative mood also predicted worse pain outcomes. The daily diary method provided a useful avenue for investigating variations in oral health experiences and relationships between variables that can fluctuate daily. Conclusions: Psychological variables such as coping and mood play an important role in the pain experiences of people with dentine hypersensitivity. The study highlights the benefits of using prospective methods to elucidate the experiences of people with oral condition

The Contribution of Attachment Styles and Reassurance Seeking to Daily Mood and Relationship Quality in Romantic Couples

Excessive reassurance seeking (ERS), defined as the stable tendency to excessively and persistently seek assurances from others, has recently emerged as a possible risk factor for interpersonal distress and depression. An important limitation in the ERS literature concerns the mechanism(s) by which individuals engage in ERS. The current daily diary study was among the first to examine the daily relationships among ERS, mood, and relationship quality in romantic couples, and explore how these associations were moderated by individual and partner attachment styles. Method: A sample of 110 heterosexual couples completed measures of attachment, ERS, symptoms of depression, and relationship quality. Results: In line with prior research, an anxious attachment style was associated with higher daily ERS, and an avoidant attachment style with lower daily ERS. Lower levels of trust were also associated with greater daily ERS, whereas higher relationship quality was related to greater daily ERS in men, and lower daily ERS in women. This study extended the literature by demonstrating that for women with an anxious attachment style, and men with an avoidant attachment style, ERS was related to lower next day trust. In contrast, the partners of men with an avoidant attachment style, who also engaged in ERS, reported higher levels of next day trust. This study was also the first to examine how individual attachment styles influenced the perception of, and reactions to, ERS. Women with an anxious attachment style liked when their male partners engaged in ERS, as illustrated by higher levels of reported trust. Conclusion: These results support the idea that attachment styles play an important role in determining whether or not ERS leads to negative interpersonal consequences. They also suggest that it is not the behaviour or frequency of ERS per se that is associated with negative relational outcomes; rather, it is the combination of relationship insecurities and ERS that leads to negative social consequences. The ERS model may need to be re-conceptualized to account for the notion that there may be both secure and insecure forms of reassurance seeking, with the insecure leading to negative psychological or interpersonal outcomes

Measuring Daily Events and Experiences: Decisions for the Researcher

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/98999/1/j.1467-6494.1991.tb00260.x.pd