Modulating Emotion to Understand Prosocial Behavior

Reviews the book, Prosocial motives, emotions, and behavior: The better angels of our nature edited by Mario Mikulincer and Phillip R. Shaver This book serves as a well-organized primer for anyone interested in factors governing prosocial behaviors. Importantly, it also highlights why behaving prosocially is beneficial not only to the recipient but also to the provider, even when that deed is as simple as forgiveness. The broad goal of this book is to integrate what is known about prosocial behavior. The editors do a magnificent job making this edited work tell a cohesive story. In sum, this book does more than simply summarize types of prosocial motives, emotions, and behaviors. It provides a foundation for thinking about how to manage interpersonal, group, and perhaps societal (intergroup) relationships. Given our country’s military involvement abroad, it is refreshing to see work that highlights how we might attain positive social behavior. This book is relevant to a wide readership. It will appeal not only to social psychologists but also to any social scientist interested in human interactions. This includes those with interests in positive and health psychology. Experimental psychologists, who may have little background in social psychology, will also find this book enjoyable as it highlights a number of social psychological theories succinctly

Gratitude as an Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Strategy

Reviews the book, The Spectrum of Gratitude Experience by John Elfers and Patty Hlava. Elfers and Hlava articulate the gratitude experience from a scientific perspective. They present key features of the lived gratitude experience in separate chapters but nicely scaffold their argument. These authors effectively unravel the complexity of this affective experience and explain its utility. The authors weave the role of gratitude in interpersonal relationships throughout the book. Principally, they define gratitude as a positive emotional experience derived from being given a benefit, typically (although not exclusively) in caring relationships. The authors present the evolutionary origin of gratitude, define types of gratitude, and discuss its development in one’s identity. Perhaps the most compelling information is on the effects of experiencing gratitude. This book is most relevant for affective scientists. The authors delicately bridge various theories of emotion (e.g., basic, cognitive, action tendencies) to provide a framework for the multifaceted nature of gratitude. You do not need to have a background in psychology to appreciate this book. It would interest anyone who is curious about the human condition

Profiles of Emotion Regulation: Understanding Regulatory Patterns and The Implications for Posttraumatic Stress

Trauma survivors often experience posttraumatic stress (PTS) and report concurrent difficulties with emotion regulation (ER). Although individuals typically use multiple regulatory strategies to manage emotion, no studies yet examine the influence of a constellation of strategies on PTS in a community sample. We assessed six ER strategies and investigated whether specific profiles of ER (i.e. the typical pattern of regulation, determined by how often each strategy is used) were related to PTS. A hierarchical cluster analysis indicated that four distinct profiles were present: Adaptive Regulation, Active Regulation, Detached Regulation, and Maladaptive Regulation. Further analyses revealed that an individual\u27s profile was not related to frequency of past trauma, but had the power to differentiate symptom severity for overall PTS and each symptom cluster of posttraumatic stress disorder. These findings highlight how profiles characterising multiple regulatory strategies offer a more complete understanding of the ways ER can account for PTS

Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation

The subjective experience of one’s environment is constructed by interactions among sensory, cognitive, and affective processes. For centuries, meditation has been thought to influence such processes by enabling a nonevaluative representation of sensory events. To better understand how meditation influences the sensory experience, we used arterial spin labeling functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the neural mechanisms by which mindfulness meditation influences pain in healthy human participants. After 4 d of mindfulness meditation training, meditating in the presence of noxious stimulation significantly reduced pain unpleasantness by 57% and pain intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest. A two-factor repeated-measures ANOVA was used to identify interactions between meditation and pain-related brain activation. Meditation reduced pain-related activation of the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify brain regions associated with individual differences in the magnitude of meditation-related pain reductions. Meditation-induced reductions in pain intensity ratings were associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, areas involved in the cognitive regulation of nociceptive processing. Reductions in pain unpleasantness ratings were associated with orbitofrontal cortex activation, an area implicated in reframing the contextual evaluation of sensory events. Moreover, reductions in pain unpleasantness also were associated with thalamic deactivation, which may reflect a limbic gating mechanism involved in modifying interactions between afferent input and executive-order brain areas. Together, these data indicate that meditation engages multiple brain mechanisms that alter the construction of the subjectively available pain experience from afferent information

Interactive Gaming Reduces Experimental Pain With or Without a Head Mounted Display

While virtual reality environments have been shown to reduce pain, the precise mechanism that produces the pain attenuating effect has not been established. It has been suggested that it may be the ability to command attentional resources with the use of head mounted displays (HMDs) or the interactivity of the environment. Two experiments compared participants’ pain ratings to high and low levels of electrical stimulation while engaging in interactive gaming with an HMD. In the first, gaming with the HMD was compared to a positive emotion induction condition; and in the second experiment the HMD was compared to a condition in which the game was projected onto a wall. Interactive gaming significantly reduced numerical ratings of painful stimuli when compared to the baseline and affect condition. However, when the two gaming conditions were directly compared, they equally reduced participants’ pain ratings. These data are consistent with past research showing that interactive gaming can attenuate experimentally induced pain and its effects are comparable whether presented in a head mounted display or projected on a wall

Establishment and Replication of Emotion Regulation Profiles: Implications for Psychological Health

Background and Objectives: A promising method of capturing the complex nature of emotion regulation is to assess composite profiles of regulation (i.e., default pattern of regulation across multiple strategies). However, it remains unclear whether regulatory profiles demonstrate consistency across samples and in relation to mental health. Design: Two studies are presented here. Both utilized a cross-sectional design, and the second study presents a replication of the first. Method: Both studies utilized self-report data from independent undergraduate samples to perform latent profile analyses of emotion regulation use. Results: Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated evidence for four replicable regulatory profiles: Adaptive, Accepting (with or without Suppression), Non-accepting, and Maladaptive. Profiles were also related to symptoms of depression and anxiety, such that those consistently relying on adaptive strategies reported lower symptoms than those relying more heavily on maladaptive strategies. Conclusions: These findings clarify previous work which tied regulatory profiles to psychological health by extending a person-centered approach to understanding the ways in which individuals regulate their emotions

Research priorities of women at risk for preterm birth: findings and a call to action.

BACKGROUND:Traditional hierarchical approaches to research give privilege to small groups with decision-making power, without direct input from those with lived experience of illness who bear the burden of disease. A Research Justice framework values the expertise of patients and communities as well as their power in creating knowledge and in decisions about what research is conducted. Preterm birth has persisted at epidemic levels in the United States for decades and disproportionately affects women of color, especially Black women. Women of color have not been included in setting the agenda regarding preterm birth research. METHODS:We used the Research Priorities of Affected Communities protocol to elicit and prioritize potential research questions and topics directly from women of color living in three communities that experience disproportionately high rates of preterm birth. Women participated in two focus group sessions, first describing their healthcare experiences and generating lists of uncertainties about their health and/or healthcare during pregnancy. Women then participated in consensus activities to achieve 'top-priority' research questions and topic lists. The priority research questions and topics produced by each group were examined within and across the three regions for similarities and differences. RESULTS:Fifty-four women participated in seven groups (14 sessions) and generated 375 researchable questions, clustered within 22 topics and four overarching themes: Maternal Health and Care Before, During, and After Pregnancy; Newborn Health and Care of the Preterm Baby; Understanding Stress and Interventions to Prevent or Reduce Stress; and Interpersonal and Structural Health Inequities. The questions and topics represent a wide range of research domains, from basic science, translational, clinical, health and social care delivery to policy and economic research. There were many similarities and some unique differences in the questions, topics and priorities across the regions. CONCLUSIONS:These findings can be used to design and fund research addressing unanswered questions that matter most to women at high risk for preterm birth. Investigators and funders are strongly encouraged to incorporate women at the front lines of the preterm birth epidemic in research design and funding decisions, and more broadly, to advance methods to deepen healthcare research partnerships with affected communities

The Role of Loneliness as a Mediator Between Autism Features and Mental Health Among Autistic Young Adults

Autistic adults commonly experience anxiety and depression. These mental health concerns are often tied to social experiences, such that mental well-being can be supported by social connection and deteriorated by loneliness. The mediating role of social and emotional loneliness (i.e. social isolation and lack of emotional attachment, respectively) between autism features and mental health has yet to be empirically tested among autistic adults. Here, 69 autistic young adults completed self-report questionnaires assessing social contact (Friendship Questionnaire), autism features (Autism Quotient), mental health (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Social Phobia Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory), and loneliness (Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults). Positive associations emerged between autism features, social loneliness, family loneliness, social anxiety, and depression. In addition, more social contact was related to less social and family loneliness and less social anxiety but was not related to depression. Mediation analyses indicated significant indirect effects of social contact and autism features on mental health through social loneliness. Indirect effects partially held substituting family loneliness for social loneliness and did not hold using romantic loneliness. In light of these results, the scientific and clinical implications of the role of loneliness for autistic young adults are discussed and recommendations provided. Lay abstract Autistic adults commonly experience mental health concerns including social anxiety and depression, which can have negative effects on their quality of life. It is not completely clear, however, why rates of mental health concerns are so high. Some evidence suggests that social connectedness might play a key role. The goal of this study was to explore links between loneliness, mental health concerns, autism features, and social contact among autistic adults and test whether the links between mental health with autism features and social contact can be explained by loneliness. Researchers in this study collected data using questionnaires completed by 69 autistic young adults. Autistic adults who reported more autism features also reported more social and family loneliness, higher levels of social anxiety and depression, and fewer initiated social contacts. In addition, adults with more social contact initiations were likely to report lower levels of social and family loneliness and social anxiety but not depression. Results showed that the link from social engagement and autism features to social anxiety and depression symptoms could be mostly explained by loneliness. The results of this study expand previous findings by illustrating one factor (loneliness) that might be responsible for the high rates of mental health concerns among adults on the autism spectrum. These findings highlight the importance of studying factors related to mental health concerns among autistic adults and ways to best support social connectedness for the mental well-being of autistic young adults

Implicit Emotion Regulation: A Novel Method for Capturing Individual Differences in Acute Emotion Regulation

Implicit emotion regulation is a mechanism that relies on habitual patterns to regulate efficiently without direct awareness. While an important aspect of successful regulation, few studies have assessed it experimentally. Those that have typically prime reappraisal and compare this strategy to explicit reappraisal or a control. The current study introduced a novel paradigm to assess implicit use of reappraisal or suppression. Specifically, we used a cognitive bias modification task to evaluate differences in implicit emotion regulation strategy selection. This resulted in roughly half of the participants tending toward choosing predominantly reappraisal words (High Reappraisers) and half choosing equal numbers of reappraisal and suppression words (Flexible Regulators). The possibility that this reflected implicit regulation style was further supported by significant relationships between implicit regulation choice and self-reported use of strategies. Contrary to hypotheses, implicit regulation style did not affect self-reported emotions following the distress task. Still, those scoring high in implicit reappraisal reported fewer difficulties in overall emotion regulation. These findings highlight the utility of a behavioral measure to capture variations in implicit emotion regulation style to better understand the context and factors that are most effective for emotion regulation more generally