Intolerance to uncertainty, worry and attention

This portfolio Thesis consists of three parts: a Systematic Literature Review, an Empirical Research Report and Appendices.Part One is a Systematic Literature Review, concerning the prediction of worry in adults. Though various definitions of worry implicate different psychological constructs, Intolerance to Uncertainty (IU) has been considered to have a unique relationship with worry. Hence, the review evaluated whether IU is a superior predictor of worry. Sixteen studies were identified by applying eligibility criteria in searches across two electronic databases. Methodological quality of studies was incorporated into the interpretation of findings. Generally, it was found that IU is indeed predictive of worry. However, IU did not always explain the highest proportion of worry, when compared with constructs tied to alternative theories of worry. Reasons for this are discussed, as well as clinical implications, future research directions and limitations of literature included and the review itself.Part Two is an Empirical Research Report, exploring IU and attention. A clearer understanding of how IU influences cognitive processes can help to improve current treatments for Generalised Anxiety Disorder. The report extended a previous study by investigating whether IU biases attentional processes towards information considered as threatening in GAD and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Fifty-seven participants completed questionnaires on Depression, Anxiety and IU. Participants also provided personal relevance ratings of words used in a computerised task, in which reaction times to Threat words were considered a measure of attentional bias. No significant relationships between levels of Depression, Anxiety, IU and attentional threat bias were found. Discussion of findings focuses on the experimental task’s sensitivity to detecting the hypothesised effects. Theoretical implications are tentatively drawn and recommendations for improving the future use of the experimental task are made.Part Three contains Appendices to Parts One and Two and a Reflective Statement on the research process

The Relationship between Neuroticism, Self-Esteem, and Disordered Eating Attitudes: Examining the Health at Every Size Theory

Background. In the modern day treatment of overweight/obesity, conflicting recommendations regarding treatment have been released by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and advocates of the Health at Every Size (HAES) movement. While the AND have indicated their support for self-monitoring practices, such as keeping a food diary or tracking calories, HAES advocates have claimed that these restrictive practices may result in increased disordered eating tendencies and poor self-esteem. Subjects. The participants for this study included 410 students at Grand Valley State University. Almost 80% of participants were female, and just over 85% of participants identified as white. Methods. Participants completed three self-report measures through the online survey system Qualtrics: the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES), which evaluates self-esteem; the EAT-26, which is a measure of characteristics of eating disorders, and eight items from the Big Five Inventory that measures an individual’s level of neuroticism. These data were analyzed using regression models, correlation, and Mann-Whitney U tests conducted with SPSS v.20 software. Results. Diet tracking was significantly correlated with increased disordered eating attitudes and behaviors, as well as lower self-esteem. Self-esteem was found to be a significant negative predictor of scores on a measure of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. Individuals who diet tracked scored higher on a measure of disordered eating. Finally, lower scores on a measure of neuroticism significantly predicted greater frequency of meeting dietary goals. Conclusion.This study confirmed previous research findings on the correlative links between self-esteem, diet tracking, and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors. The recommendations provided by the AND and HAES proponents each have some value in health management, as demonstrated by the work of previous studies. However, the limitations of the available research and lack of data on this topic in more diverse populations suggest that additional research is required to comprehend the most optimal integration of treatment methodologies. Findings from this study support a multi-modal approach to weight management that combines mental health screening with traditional diet tracking approaches

Using Linguistic Features to Estimate Suicide Probability of Chinese Microblog Users

If people with high risk of suicide can be identified through social media like microblog, it is possible to implement an active intervention system to save their lives. Based on this motivation, the current study administered the Suicide Probability Scale(SPS) to 1041 weibo users at Sina Weibo, which is a leading microblog service provider in China. Two NLP (Natural Language Processing) methods, the Chinese edition of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) lexicon and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), are used to extract linguistic features from the Sina Weibo data. We trained predicting models by machine learning algorithm based on these two types of features, to estimate suicide probability based on linguistic features. The experiment results indicate that LDA can find topics that relate to suicide probability, and improve the performance of prediction. Our study adds value in prediction of suicidal probability of social network users with their behaviors

How Impulsivity influences the Post-purchase Consumer Regret?

Background: The role of impulsivity in post-purchase consumer regret is unclear and intriguing because of the negative emotions that underlie both constructs. It is particularly important to examine the impact of impulsivity on the relationship between regret and the Emotionality dimension of the HEXACO model of personality. Objectives: The purpose of this paper was to investigate the associations between consumer regret components: outcome regret and process regret, attention, motor and non-planning dimensions of impulsivity and Fearfulness, Anxiety, Dependence and Sentimentality domains of Emotionality. Methods/Approach: The sample consisted of undergraduates from Zagreb, Croatia (Mage = 25.93, 56% females). The correlation and the regression analysis were performed. We used the Baratt impulsivity scale (BIS-11), the HEXACO-PI-R Emotionality scale and the Post Purchase Regret Scale (PPRS). Results: The PPCR total score was associated with the BIS-11 total score, attention and non-planning impulsivity. Regret due to foregone alternatives was related to attention and non-planning impulsivity, while regret due to a change in significance was related only to attention impulsivity. Regret due to under-consideration positively correlated with non-planning impulsivity. Conclusions: The results indicate that relations between impulsivity and consumer regret have an important role in understanding consumer behavior and that impulsivity has a moderate association between consumer regret and Emotionality

Social support communication behavior, depression symptomatology, and marital satisfaction among distressed couples

The relationships between individual depression symptomatology, marital satisfaction, and social support communication behaviors were examined. Social support communication behaviors of partners as a moderator of the relationship between their own individual depression symptomatology and marital satisfaction was also examined. This study included 96 chronically and seriously distressed heterosexual married couples seeking couple therapy. This study found no relationship between marital satisfaction and depressive symptomatology and no relationship between depression symptomatology and positive and negative social support (p \u3e .05). A significant interaction between gender and marital satisfaction in predictive depressive symptomatology was found (p \u3c .05). Negative social support was significantly negatively related to marital satisfaction (p \u3c .01). Positive social support was significantly positively related to marital satisfaction (p \u3c .001). Social support did not moderate the relationship between depression symptoms and marital satisfaction (p \u3e .05)

USING RESTORATION-ORIENTED COPING AND THE DUAL PROCESS MODEL WITH BEREAVED UNDERGRADUATES

Approximately 60% of college seniors lost at least one family member or friend since beginning college (Cox, Dean, & Kowalski, 2015). Research reveals that bereaved students are more likely than their nonbereaved peers to struggle with academic problems and attrition (Cousins, Servaty-Seib & Lockman, 2017), highlighting the importance of identifying protective factors for this group of individuals. Researchers have identified restoration-oriented coping as a helpful coping mechanism in other samples (Caserta & Lund, 2007; Caserta, Lund, Utza, & de Vries, 2009). Despite qualitative evidence suggesting bereaved undergraduates often employ restoration-oriented coping, no research has formally assessed the effects of restoration-oriented coping in a bereaved undergraduate sample. This study assessed the effects of restoration-oriented coping on students’ (N=420; 68.8% female; 46.7% white) psychological well-being in a longitudinal design. Data were part of a larger study (“Spit 4 Science”) assessing the development of substance use and emotional health outcomes in college students. Students were assessed annually; those who reported a loss, had pre-, and post-loss data were included in analysis. Hierarchical multiple linear regressions were conducted and showed restoration-oriented coping was predictive of better psychological well-being and that this relationship was strengthened by social support quality. Extraversion was also predictive of better psychological well-being, while openness and neuroticism were related to poorer psychological well-being. Moreover, neuroticism mediated the relationship between distress at indication of loss and post-loss follow-up. Further research of restoration-oriented coping efforts among bereaved undergraduates is warranted. Additional resources and support may help to keep students engaged following a loss

Drinking Motives Underlying Internalizing and Externalizing Pathways to Alcohol Misuse in College Students

Alcohol misuse, including heavy episodic use and negative consequences, is a major public health concern and a particular problem among college students. The etiology of alcohol misuse is not well resolved, with multiple and often contradictory factors implicated in its development. Genetic factors influence alcohol misuse but few specific genes have been identified. A potential reason for these challenges is that alcohol misuse is phenotypically and genetically heterogeneous; that is, there are multiple causal pathways underlying its development. Previous typologies have suggested that distinct internalizing and externalizing pathways are involved, with corresponding differences in profiles of personality, temperament, and comorbid psychopathology. Drinking motives, specifically drinking for positive reinforcement versus negative reinforcement motives, map intuitively onto such pathways and may provide a mechanism explaining their development. The aim of this project was to utilize drinking motives as intermediate phenotypic measures to investigate genetic and environmental factors contributing to the hypothesized diverging internalizing and externalizing pathways to alcohol misuse in a prospective, longitudinal sample of college students. Mixture modeling approaches identified distinct internalizing and externalizing subgroups with both quantitative and qualitative differences in traits/symptoms. The externalizing subgroup had a broader risk profile and elevated levels of both types of drinking motives, while the internalizing subgroup had specifically elevated levels of internalizing symptoms and negative reinforcement motives. Longitudinal analyses indicated stability of drinking motives throughout college and differential associations between positive/negative reinforcement motives and internalizing, externalizing, and alcohol misuse measures. Cross-lagged structural equation models pointed to a causal direction of effect of positive reinforcement motives on alcohol misuse. Finally, a series of genetic association analyses identified some promising genes and genetic variants underlying drinking motives and internalizing psychopathology, though their genetic etiologies remain largely inconclusive. The results of this project tie together several parallel lines of research on alcohol misuse and in the broader psychiatric genetics field. Findings support the existence of distinct, though not wholly separate, internalizing and externalizing subgroups, and suggest that the intermediate mechanisms of drinking motives are a valuable tool through which to understand these heterogeneous pathways to alcohol misuse