War experiences and relationship problems predict pain sensitivity cross-sectionally among patients with chronic primary pain.

BACKGROUND Most patients suffering from chronic pain are more susceptible to pain and pressure due to higher pain sensitivity. Since psychosocial factors play a central role in developing and maintaining chronic pain, investigating associations between pain sensitivity and psychosocial stressors promises to advance the biopsychosocial understanding of chronic pain. OBJECTIVES We aimed to replicate Studer et al.'s (2016) findings about associations of psychosocial stressors with pain sensitivity in a new sample of patients with chronic primary pain (ICD-11, MG30.0). METHODS A pain provocation test was used on both middle fingers and earlobes to assess pain sensitivity among 460 inpatients with chronic primary pain. Potentially life-threatening accidents, war experiences, relationship problems, certified inability to work, and adverse childhood experiences were assessed as potential psychosocial stressors. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate associations between psychosocial stressors and pain sensitivity. RESULTS We partially replicated Studer et al.'s findings. Similar to the original study, patients with chronic primary pain showed enhanced pain sensitivity values. Within the investigated group, war experiences (β = 0.160, p < .001) and relationship problems (β = 0.096, p = .014) were associated with higher pain sensitivity. In addition, the control variables of age, sex, and pain intensity also showed a predictive value for higher pain sensitivity. Unlike Studer et al., we could not identify a certified inability to work as a predictor of higher pain sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that beyond age, sex, and pain intensity, the psychosocial stressors of war experiences and relationship problems were associated with higher pain sensitivity

The green-eyed monster in social media: Development and Validation of a Digital Jealousy Scale

Romantic jealousy is an emotional feeling arising when individuals suspect they are at risk of losing their romantic partner to a potential rival. Due to almost unlimited opportunities to establish social connections, the partner’s use of social media can easily trigger jealousy-related feelings. Unsurprisingly, an increasing number of studies investigate “digital jealousy”. However, a standardized instrument assessing digital jealousy is still missing. Therefore, we developed a 10-item digital jealousy scale (DJS). The postulated one-factor structure fitted the data very well. Reliability was high (McDonald’s W=.91). Strict measurement invariance across sex and partial strict invariance for relationship status was particularly interesting since women scored higher than men and singles higher than non-singles. Correlations between jealousy and personality as well as attachment dimensions were consistent with previous results on these relationships for established jealousy measures. The DJS thus provides a valuable instrument to assess jealousy in the digital world of social media

Inter- and intraindividual differences in alpha synchronization during creative ideation

Existing evidence on the relationship between EEG alpha power and creative ideation demonstrates that the process of creative ideation (measured with divergent thinking tasks) is associated with increases in alpha power (i.e. task-related alpha synchronization). Recent studies further indicate that this alpha synchronization changes depending on the time course of the creative process. However, the role of possible specificity of lower and upper alpha band power in the creative process seems to be unclear. While most studies concentrated on alpha power in the upper alpha band (10-12 Hz), others also focused on the lower alpha band (8 - 10 Hz) or on the broad alpha frequency range (8-12 Hz). The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the time course of EEG alpha power during the process of creative ideation separately for the lower and upper alpha bands. Furthermore, we were interested in whether this process of creative ideation differs with regard to inter-individual (originality and intelligence scores) and intra-individual (creative responses vs. non-creative responses) differences. For the study, sixty-one participants completed an Alternate Uses Task (AUT) while an EEG was recorded and changes in task-related performance (relative to rest) were determined in both alpha frequency sub-bands for three time intervals of the idea generation period. Data are currently being analyzed. This study allows a deeper understanding of the role of the different alpha frequency bands in the creative ideation process as a function of inter- and intraindividual differences

How does experimentally induced pain affect creative ideation and underlying attention-related psychophysiological mechanisms?

While the adverse effect of chronic pain on attention and more complex cognitive abilities is well documented, the findings for experimentally induced pain are inconsistent. These inconsistencies could be attributable to sufficient attentional resources and/or compensatory mechanisms in individuals with experimentally induced pain that are not observable at the behavioral level but could be revealed by psychophysiological measures such as the electroencephalography (EEG). With the current study, we aimed to investigate whether experimentally induced pain affects creative ideation in an adaptation of the Alternate Uses Task (AUT). Performance in the AUT was compared between 39 females in a pain group and 37 females in a pain-free group. While solving the task, EEG was recorded to measure the degree of internally directed attention assessed by means of task-related power (TRP) changes in the upper alpha-frequency band. The results revealed that the pain group and the pain-free group did not differ in AUT performance at the behavioral level. However, TRP increases in the upper alpha band at right (vs. left) temporal, parietal, and occipital electrode sites were significantly more pronounced in the pain group compared to the pain-free group. These results indicate that individuals in the pain group allocated more attention to internal mental processes during creative ideation than individuals in the pain-free group. The necessary inhibition of pain might have caused this additional activation so that the pain group performed similarly well on the behavioral level as the pain-free group

The Green-Eyed Monster in Social Media – Development and Validation of a Digital Jealousy Scale

&lt;jats:p&gt; Abstract: Romantic jealousy describes a feeling when individuals suspect losing their romantic partner to a potential rival. Social media has a high potential to trigger romantic jealousy as it offers almost unlimited opportunities to build social relationships. Thus, it is unsurprising that many studies are now examining social media‐induced jealousy (SoMJ). However, there has been a lack of standardized instruments that can capture SoMJ independently of a specific social media platform. In the present two studies, we developed the 9-item Digital Jealousy Scale (DJS) in German and English and examined its psychometric properties using three heterogeneous samples from Germany and the United Kingdom. The postulated one-factor structure fitted the data very well. Additionally, construct validity was established by showing the expected correlations between the DJS and personality variables such as other jealousy measures, attachment dimensions, self-esteem, and the Big Five dimensions. The DJS is thus a valuable instrument to assess SoMJ. &lt;/jats:p&gt

The impact of chronic pain on creative ideation: An examination of the underlying attention-related psychophysiological mechanisms.

BACKGROUND Attentional deficits in patients with chronic pain are common and well-studied. Yet, few studies have examined the effects of chronic pain on more complex cognitive abilities that rely on well-functioning attentional systems. With the current study, we aimed to investigate whether the impact of chronic pain on attention affects creative ideation as measured with an adaptation of the alternate uses task (AUT). METHODS Performance in the AUT was compared between 33 patients suffering from chronic pain and 33 healthy matched controls. While solving the task, EEG was recorded to measure the degree of internally directed attention assessed by means of task-related power (TRP) changes. RESULTS The results revealed that patients with chronic pain generated less creative ideas than healthy controls. This lack of performance was accompanied by lower event-related synchronization (ERS), especially in right parietal sites. Furthermore, these ERS differences explained one-third of the inter-group variance in AUT performance. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that performance decrements in creative ideation in patients with chronic pain may be at least partly attributable to attentional impairments associated with chronic pain