Children’s nonverbal displays of winning and losing:Effects of social and cultural contexts on smiles

We examined the effects of social and cultural contexts on smiles displayed by children during gameplay. Eight-year-old Dutch and Chinese children either played a game alone or teamed up to play in pairs. Activation and intensity of facial muscles corresponding to Action Unit (AU) 6 and AU 12 were coded according to Facial Action Coding System. Co-occurrence of activation of AU 6 and AU 12, suggesting the presence of a Duchenne smile, was more frequent among children who teamed up than among children who played alone. Analyses of the intensity of smiles revealed an interaction between social and cultural contexts. Whereas smiles, both Duchenne and non-Duchenne, displayed by Chinese children who teamed up were more intense than those displayed by Chinese children who played alone, the effect of sociality on smile intensity was not observed for Dutch children. These findings suggest that the production of smiles by children in a competitive context is susceptible to both social and cultural factors

Promotion of mental health in young adults via mobile phone app: study protocol of the ECoWeB (emotional competence for well-being in Young adults) cohort multiple randomised trials

This is the final version. Available on open access from BMC via the DOI in this recordAvailability of data and materials: Anonymised datasets arising from this trial will be made available after the primary outcomes are published to researchers and other groups via request to a data committee within the Consortium via the University of Exeter’s open access data system Open Research Exeter (ORE). ECoWeB partners will have access to the final trial dataset, commensurate with the grant Consortium Agreement. The results will additionally be updated on ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04148508. The ECoWeB consortium plans to communicate trial results through peer-reviewed open access publications and direct reports to TSC, sponsor, and participants.BACKGROUND: Promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people is a major global priority. Building emotional competence (EC) skills via a mobile app may be an effective, scalable and acceptable way to do this. However, few large-scale controlled trials have examined the efficacy of mobile apps in promoting mental health in young people; none have tailored the app to individual profiles. METHOD/DESIGN: The Emotional Competence for Well-Being in Young Adults cohort multiple randomised controlled trial (cmRCT) involves a longitudinal prospective cohort to examine well-being, mental health and EC in 16-22 year olds across 12 months. Within the cohort, eligible participants are entered to either the PREVENT trial (if selected EC scores at baseline within worst-performing quartile) or to the PROMOTE trial (if selected EC scores not within worst-performing quartile). In both trials, participants are randomised (i) to continue with usual practice, repeated assessments and a self-monitoring app; (ii) to additionally receive generic cognitive-behavioural therapy self-help in app; (iii) to additionally receive personalised EC self-help in app. In total, 2142 participants aged 16 to 22 years, with no current or past history of major depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis will be recruited across UK, Germany, Spain, and Belgium. Assessments take place at baseline (pre-randomisation), 1, 3 and 12 months post-randomisation. Primary endpoint and outcome for PREVENT is level of depression symptoms on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 at 3 months; primary endpoint and outcome for PROMOTE is emotional well-being assessed on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale at 3 months. Depressive symptoms, anxiety, well-being, health-related quality of life, functioning and cost-effectiveness are secondary outcomes. Compliance, adverse events and potentially mediating variables will be carefully monitored. CONCLUSIONS: The trial aims to provide a better understanding of the causal role of learning EC skills using interventions delivered via mobile phone apps with respect to promoting well-being and preventing poor mental health in young people. This knowledge will be used to develop and disseminate innovative evidence-based, feasible, and effective Mobile-health public health strategies for preventing poor mental health and promoting well-being. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ( www.clinicaltrials.org ). Number of identification: NCT04148508 November 2019.European Union Horizon 202

Reappraisal Mitigates Overestimation of Remembered Pain in Anxious Individuals

Anxiety sensitivity, a trait characterized by fear of anxiety-related body sensations, has been linked to heightened attention to pain, appraising body sensations as threatening, and remembering threat-related information. We assessed whether individuals with greater anxiety sensitivity overestimate in remembering pain. We also assessed whether emotion regulation strategies that direct attention away from pain (distraction) or appraisals of pain (reappraisal) would alleviate memory bias. Participants (N = 125) completed a measure of anxiety sensitivity. They were randomly assigned to one of two emotion regulation conditions (distraction, reappraisal) or to a control condition prior to taking part in a cold pressor task. They rated the intensity of pain during and immediately after the task. Memory for pain was assessed 3 to 7 days later. Greater anxiety sensitivity was associated with an increase in threat-related appraisals over time and with remembering pain as having been more intense than originally reported. Engaging in reappraisal mitigated this memory bias but engaging in distraction did not. These findings suggest that health-care practitioners can encourage reappraisal to promote more positive memories of procedural pain, particularly in highly anxious patients, who tend to misremember pain experiences as worse than experienced

Keeping the Magic Alive: How Social Sharing of Positive Life Experiences Sustains Happiness

Life is full of triumphs and defeats. When people experience positive life events, they often share the news, allowing them to savor and capitalize on their good fortune. Sharing positive life experiences with others has been shown to increase the intensity of positive emotion (Gable & Reis, 2010). However, research has yet to address several important questions about the benefits of social sharing and the processes that produce them. Namely, does social sharing increase the duration of positive emotion as well as its intensity? What types of responses from listeners serve to increase positive emotion? The first aim of this dissertation was to investigate whether sharing increases the duration of positive emotion. The second aim of this project was to uncover processes by which sharing increases positive emotion, an issue that has received little empirical attention (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004). I hypothesized that sharing sustains positive emotion because enthusiastic responses lead to an increase in the sharer’s appraisal of the importance of the event. I also hypothesized that enthusiastic responses may sustain positive emotion because they emphasize remarkable and unique aspects of the emotion-eliciting event. Emphasizing such features may slow the sharer’s tendency to “explain away” positive events and the resulting decrease in emotional response. Two studies tested these hypotheses. Study 1 followed students after they received a desirable exam grade. Sharing was associated with longer emotional episodes, more time spent thinking about the grade, and slower fading of emotion across time. Emotion intensity and duration were highest when the sharing targets were perceived as highlighting the importance and remarkability of the event. Study 2 experimentally manipulated responses to sharing after participants received a high score on a creativity test. Although no differences were observed across experimental conditions, for those who shared, the amount of sharing was associated with emotion intensity and duration. This effect was mediated by changes in appraisals of importance and remarkability

Reappraisal Mitigates Overestimation of Remembered Pain in Anxious Individuals

Anxiety sensitivity, a trait characterized by fear of anxiety-related body sensations, has been linked to heightened attention to pain, appraising body sensations as threatening, and remembering threat-related information. We assessed whether individuals with greater anxiety sensitivity overestimate in remembering pain. We also assessed whether emotion regulation strategies that direct attention away from pain (distraction) or appraisals of pain (reappraisal) would alleviate memory bias. Participants (N = 125) completed a measure of anxiety sensitivity. They were randomly assigned to one of two emotion regulation conditions (distraction, reappraisal) or to a control condition prior to taking part in a cold pressor task. They rated the intensity of pain during and immediately after the task. Memory for pain was assessed 3 to 7 days later. Greater anxiety sensitivity was associated with an increase in threat-related appraisals over time and with remembering pain as having been more intense than originally reported. Engaging in reappraisal mitigated this memory bias but engaging in distraction did not. These findings suggest that health-care practitioners can encourage reappraisal to promote more positive memories of procedural pain, particularly in highly anxious patients, who tend to misremember pain experiences as worse than experienced

Keeping the magic alive: social sharing of positive life experiences sustains happiness.

Social sharing of positive life experiences has been linked to increased intensity of positive emotion. Less is known about the relations among sharing, the perceived response of the listener, and the duration of positive emotion. We hypothesised that sharing an experience would sustain positive emotion when listeners responded in a manner that highlighted the appraised importance and remarkability of the experience, thereby slowing hedonic adaptation. College students who received a desirable exam grade (N = 165) reported their emotional response, appraisals, and sharing on the day they received their grade and again the following evening. Sharing was associated with longer episodes of positive emotion and more time spent thinking about the positive event. The association between sharing and emotion duration was greatest when sharing partners were perceived as highlighting the importance and remarkability of the event. This type of sharing also mitigated the fading of emotion intensity over time. These findings suggest that sharing sustains positive emotion by promoting appraisals that "keep the magic alive.

Keeping the magic alive: social sharing of positive life experiences sustains happiness.

Social sharing of positive life experiences has been linked to increased intensity of positive emotion. Less is known about the relations among sharing, the perceived response of the listener, and the duration of positive emotion. We hypothesised that sharing an experience would sustain positive emotion when listeners responded in a manner that highlighted the appraised importance and remarkability of the experience, thereby slowing hedonic adaptation. College students who received a desirable exam grade (N = 165) reported their emotional response, appraisals, and sharing on the day they received their grade and again the following evening. Sharing was associated with longer episodes of positive emotion and more time spent thinking about the positive event. The association between sharing and emotion duration was greatest when sharing partners were perceived as highlighting the importance and remarkability of the event. This type of sharing also mitigated the fading of emotion intensity over time. These findings suggest that sharing sustains positive emotion by promoting appraisals that "keep the magic alive.

Displaying pride: Variation by social context, ethnic heritage, and gender?

Pride is universal; however, the complexities linked to its social status functions and implications for social relationships suggest the possibility of variation in its display. Drawing from empirical evidence, this study examined whether displayed pride would vary by social context (i.e., whether the target was a competitor or a loved one), ethnic heritage (i.e., membership in individualistic or collectivistic cultural groups) and by gender. Young adults (N = 145) verbally described a pride experience to an imagined competitor, loved one, stranger or in a no-context control condition. Results showed similarity in displayed pride across the four contexts. However, some ethnic group and gender variations were observed. Latino/a/x Americans displayed less pride verbally than European Americans while women displayed more than men. These findings contribute to a better understanding of how people manage the display of pride and suggest that ethnic and gendered motivations for managing pride displays are relevant to a comprehensive understanding of interpersonal emotion regulation