THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF DISTRESS IN THE ABSENCE OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER TYPES OF DISTRESS

The recent surge in the availability of personal electronics is enabling more people to use them in their daily lives. Yet, many people experience some distress associated with using electronics, especially if they are unable to access or use their devices. This distress has not been adequately examined in previous studies and there is no existing research concerning whether distress without electronics (DWE) is related to other mental health issues. The objective of this study was to investigate the phenomenology of DWE within a non-clinical sample, as well as its association with other types of distress. A sample of 236 students completed a survey including the Sheehan Disability Scale modified to address DWE, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7, Body Sensations Questionnaire, Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire, Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, Anxiety Sensitivity Inventory, UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Distress without Electronics Questionnaire, which was developed for this study. The majority of participants reported experiencing some symptoms of DWE, especially when unable to use phones and computers. DWE was positively correlated with generalized anxiety, agoraphobic, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, and loneliness. Implications and directions for future research are discussed

Challenges to the conceptualization and measurement of religiosity and spirituality in mental health research.

Investigating religiosity and spirituality may help to further elucidate how individuals\u27 worldviews influence their attitudes, behavior, and overall well-being. However, inconsistencies in how these constructs are conceptualized and measured may undercut the potential value of religiosity and spirituality research. Results from a survey of undergraduate students suggest that laypeople define spirituality as independent from social influence and that few people associate religiosity with negative terms. A content analysis of spirituality measures indicates that spirituality measures contain items that do not directly measure the strength of spirituality. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed

Inducing motivational harmony to increase attitudes and intentions to register as an organ donor and engage in general prosocial behavior

In three preregistered studies, we investigated whether positive and negative organ donation attitudes, intentions, as well as general prosocial behavioral intentions, could be influenced by inducing motivational harmony—the sense that things are going well in life. In Study 1, we examined correlations between motivational harmony, organ donation attitudes, intentions, and prosocial behavioral intentions. Study 2a represented an attempt to assess the malleability of motivational harmony using two different autobiographical recall tasks. The successful induction was utilized in Study 2b, designed to assess whether increasing motivational harmony caused changes in organ donation attitudes, intentions, and prosocial behavioral intentions. This study used a Solomon post‐group design, where participants were randomly assigned to receive the scale assessing the proposed mediator (i.e., motivational harmony) or to receive the dependent variables directly after receiving the induction. These studies focused on attitudes and intentions to register oneself as an organ donor after death. Although no direct effects on donor outcomes were identified, the motivational harmony induction task indirectly increased organ donation registration intentions through increased motivational harmony. Moreover, there was both a direct relationship of the motivational harmony induction on prosocial behavior intentions and an indirect association through increased motivational harmony. These findings have theoretical implications for the construct of motivational harmony, as well as practical applications for the promotion of organ donation and prosocial behavior

Supporting School Personnel with SEL During Times of Uncertainty and Stress

To support the psychosocial health and well-being of educators during the COVID-19 pandemic, the YCEI, with funding from Dalio Education (#19-07517) developed a free online certificate course for school personnel. This 10-hour course launched on October 1st and provides school staff with the knowledge, skills, and strategies to understand and manage their emotions Course participants begin by learning about why social and emotional learning is an important component of education. Then, they explore how to identify and manage emotions, including how to support their students with their emotions in scientific and culturally responsive ways. Participants complete “Weekly Action Plans” to build a comprehensive and personalized guide for lasting change. As part of the course experience, participants are invited to participate in a short survey study to inform the scientific and educator practitioner communities about their emotional experiences, impacts, and opportunities for cultivating resilience in both educators and students during this time of crisis. To support the real-time dissemination of findings and to offer support to educators as we continue to move through the challenges of pandemic teaching, we present results from the surveys in white papers here for dissemination

The roles of religiosity and spirituality in moral reasoning.

To better understand the influence of religiosity and spirituality on moral reasoning, 1,037 college students completed a survey including demographic questions, a religiosity measure, a spirituality measure, and Forsyth’s Ethical Position Questionnaire. Religiosity and spirituality positively correlated with moral idealism, whereas spirituality negatively correlated with moral relativism. However, religiosity and spirituality accounted for a very little variability in moral reasoning, suggesting that they do not directly influence moral reasoning. In addition, female participants reported higher spirituality, but there were no gender differences on a spirituality measure. Future research is needed to examine other factors that may influence moral reasoning