For Better or Worse
Self-Compassion Increases Self-Improvement Motivation
Juliana Breines & Serena Chen
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Can treating oneself with compassion after making a mistake increase self-improvement motivation? In four experiments, the authors examined the hypothesis that self-compassion motivates people to improve personal weaknesses, moral transgressions, and test performance. Participants in a self-compassion condition, compared to a self-esteem control condition and either no intervention or a positive distraction control condition, expressed greater incremental beliefs about a personal weakness (Experiment 1); reported greater motivation to make amends and avoid repeating a recent moral transgression (Experiment 2); spent more time studying for a difficult test following an initial failure (Experiment 3); exhibited a preference for upward social comparison after reflecting on a personal weakness (Experiment 4); and reported greater motivation to change the weakness (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that, somewhat paradoxically, taking an accepting approach to personal failure may make people more motivated to improve themselves.
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When Feeling Bad Can Be Good: Mixed Emotions Benefit Physical Health Across Adulthood
Hal Hershfield et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Traditional models of emotion-health interactions have emphasized the deleterious effects of negative emotions on physical health. More recently, researchers have turned to potential benefits of positive emotions on physical health as well. Both lines of research, though, neglect the complex interplay between positive and negative emotions and how this interplay affects physical well-being. Indeed, recent theoretical work suggests that a strategy of "taking the good with the bad" may benefit health outcomes. In the present study, the authors assessed the impact of mixed emotional experiences on health outcomes in a 10-year longitudinal experience-sampling study across the adult life span. The authors found that not only were frequent experiences of mixed emotions (co-occurrences of positive and negative emotions) strongly associated with relatively good physical health, but that increases of mixed emotions over many years attenuated typical age-related health declines.
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Amir Hetsroni et al.
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examine the relationship between TV viewing and economic expectations during economic recession. A content analysis of 84 hours of local network primetime programming (news and nonnews) identifies a moderate bias toward economic pessimism in the broadcasts. A survey of the adult population (N = 356) points at a significant positive relationship between TV viewing (total viewing and viewing of news programming) and economic pessimism at both the national and the personal levels. A similar relationship exists between TV viewing and optimistic bias - the tendency to be more pessimistic on economic matters at the national than at the personal level. These results remain significant when controlled for demographics, trust in national institutions, evaluation of current economic situation and consumption of media other than TV, and corroborate a second-order cultivation effect in the economic context.
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Changes in suicide rates following media reports on celebrity suicide: A meta-analysis
Thomas Niederkrotenthaler et al.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, forthcoming
Background: A growing number of studies indicate that sensationalist reporting of suicide is associated with increases in suicide rates, but in the light of some negative findings, the issue has remained controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the best current evidence on the association between celebrity suicide stories and subsequent suicides.
Methods: Literature searches of six data sources (Medline, Psychlit, Communication Abstracts, Education Resources Information Center, Dissertation Abstracts and Australian Public Affairs Database (APAIS)) were conducted. Studies were included if they (1) adopted an ecological design, (2) focused on celebrity suicide, (3) had completed suicide as outcome variable, (4) analysed suicide rates across all suicide methods, (5) used data from after World War II and (6) satisfied basic quality criteria.
Results: 10 studies with totally 98 suicides by celebrities met the criteria. The pooled estimate indicated a change in suicide rates (suicides per 100 000 population) of 0.26 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.43) in the month after a celebrity suicide. There was substantial heterogeneity between studies, which was explained by the type of celebrity (entertainment elite vs others) and the region of study, as indicated by mixed-effects meta-regression. The region-of-study-specific effect of reporting a suicide by an entertainment celebrity was 0.64 (95% CI 0.55 to 0.73) in North America, 0.58 (95% CI 0.47 to 0.68) in Asia, 0.36 (95% CI -0.10 to 0.61) in Australia and 0.68 (95% CI 0.51 to 0.85) in Europe. There was no indication of publication bias.
Conclusions: Reports on celebrity suicide are associated with increases in suicides. Study region and celebrity type appear to have an impact on the effect size.
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Government Partisanship and Human Well-Being
Tetsuya Matsubayashi & Michiko Ueda
Social Indicators Research, May 2012, Pages 127-148
Abstract:
This paper shows that the partisan composition of government is strongly related to the well-being of citizens, measured by the reported level of life satisfaction and suicide rates in industrial countries. Our analysis, using survey data of 14 nations between 1980 and 2002, shows that the presence of left-leaning parties in government is associated with an increase the level of individual life satisfaction. The relationship holds true even after controlling for the effects of macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product, unemployment rates and government welfare policies. Our panel data analysis of 21 nations between 1980 and 2004 also shows that suicide rates decrease when a country experiences a shift to more left-leaning government. The increased presence of right-wing parties in government has a negligible effect on suicide rates.
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Tal Bergman Levy et al.
Bioethics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Euthanasia and physician assisted-suicide are terms used to describe the process in which a doctor of a sick or disabled individual engages in an activity which directly or indirectly leads to their death. This behavior is engaged by the healthcare provider based on their humanistic desire to end suffering and pain. The psychiatrist's involvement may be requested in several distinct situations including evaluation of patient capacity when an appeal for euthanasia is requested on grounds of terminal somatic illness or when the patient is requesting euthanasia due to mental suffering. We compare attitudes of 49 psychiatrists towards euthanasia and assisted suicide with a group of 54 other physicians by means of a questionnaire describing different patients, who either requested physician-assisted suicide or in whom euthanasia as a treatment option was considered, followed by a set of questions relating to euthanasia implementation. When controlled for religious practice, psychiatrists expressed more conservative views regarding euthanasia than did physicians from other medical specialties. Similarly female physicians and orthodox physicians indicated more conservative views. Differences may be due to factors inherent in subspecialty education. We suggest that in light of the unique complexity and context of patient euthanasia requests, based on their training and professional expertise psychiatrists are well suited to take a prominent role in evaluating such requests to die and making a decision as to the relative importance of competing variables.
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Does an iPod make you happy? An exploration of the effects of iPod ownership on life satisfaction
Antje Cockrill
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, forthcoming
Abstract:
The Apple iPod is currently the undisputed leading product in the global MP3 player market. This competitive advantage is due to the design, high functionality, and perhaps most importantly, the ‘cool factor' which Apple has managed to obtain with its products. This study explores if owning an iPod (as opposed to another brand of MP3 player) makes a difference in the perception of general life satisfaction. Using Diener et al.'s generic satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) to measure the dependent variable life satisfaction, a model with the key concepts usage, benefits, peer influence, design, iPod phenomenon, and iPod bubble has been developed and tested in a variety of ways, including regression analysis. The sample consisted of a multinational sample of 240+ young adults, aged 18-35 years. The demographic profiles of iPod and non-iPod owners were very similar, but for iPod owners, 23 per cent of the variance in overall life satisfaction is explained by the key concepts used in this research. Key influencing variables for iPod owners are peer influence and design. For non-iPod owners, the amount of variance explained by the independent variables was negligible. iPod owners also considered their MP3 players to be much ‘cooler' than did non-iPod owners. This article considers the managerial implications of these findings for Apple and for competing brands. The social implications of these findings and their significance are also discussed, and several potential areas for further research are highlighted.
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Zheng Wang & John Tchernev
Journal of Communication, June 2012, Pages 493-513
Abstract:
The increasing popularity of media multitasking is frequently reported in national surveys while laboratory research consistently confirms that multitasking impairs task performance. This study explores this apparent contradiction. Using dynamic panel analysis of time series data collected from college students across 4 weeks, this study examines dynamic reciprocal impacts of media multitasking, needs (emotional, cognitive, social, and habitual), and corresponding gratifications. Consistent with the laboratory research, cognitive needs are not satisfied by media multitasking even though they drive media multitasking in the first place. Instead, emotional gratifications are obtained despite not being actively sought. This helps explain why people increasingly multitask at the cost of cognitive needs. Importantly, this study provides evidence of the dynamic persistence of media multitasking behavior.
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Effects of positive attitude and optimism on wage and employment: A double selection approach
Madhu Sudan Mohanty
Journal of Socio-Economics, June 2012, Pages 304-316
Abstract:
Using two samples from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), a longitudinal data set from the United States, and following a double selection approach, the current study estimates the worker's employment and wage equations simultaneously with positive attitude and optimism as additional explanatory variables. Modeling employment as a bivariate decision process, the study examines different factors that influence the worker's labor market participation decision, the employer's hiring decision and the wage rate. The study finds the evidence that the worker's positive attitude and optimism affect the worker's employment probability from different angles: the former through the participation decision and the latter through the hiring decision. Following an alternative approach, this study also provides strong support to the earlier finding that positive attitude affects the worker's wage positively. Interestingly, the effects of attitude variables on the worker's wage are found to be quite comparable in magnitude to the wage effects of the traditional human capital variables.
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Can't buy me love?: Anxious attachment and materialistic values
Ian Norris et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Anxiously attached individuals desire but may not always form meaningful social relationships. Previous research demonstrates that money eases the pain of social rejection; Relatedly, people can form relationships with material possessions. Accordingly, we hypothesized that materialistic values may facilitate these substitute relationships in anxiously attached individuals. Study 1 demonstrated a positive relationship between anxious attachment and two different measures of materialism in two independent samples. Study 2 replicated this finding and provided further evidence that the adoption of materialistic values may fill a social void in anxiously attached individuals. Specifically, loneliness mediated the relationship between anxious attachment and materialism. These results suggest that anxiously attached individuals may adopt mechanisms to substitute relationships with objects for relationships with people, and that they might do so in order to deal with the loneliness that results from a lack of meaningful social interaction.
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The Cerebellum Link to Neuroticism: A Volumetric MRI Association Study in Healthy Volunteers
Dennis Schutter et al.
PLoS ONE, May 2012
Abstract:
Prior research suggests an association between reduced cerebellar volumes and symptoms of depression and anxiety in patients with mood disorders. However, whether a smaller volume in itself reflects a neuroanatomical correlate for increased susceptibility to develop mood disorders remains unclear. The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between cerebellar volume and neurotic personality traits in a non-clinical subject sample. 3T Structural magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired, and trait depression and anxiety scales of the revised NEO personality inventory were assessed in thirty-eight healthy right-handed volunteers. Results showed that cerebellar volume corrected for total brain volume was inversely associated with depressive and anxiety-related personality traits. Cerebellar gray and white matter contributed equally to the observed associations. Our findings extend earlier clinical observations by showing that cerebellar volume covaries with neurotic personality traits in healthy volunteers. The results may point towards a possible role of the cerebellum in the vulnerability to experience negative affect. In conclusion, cerebellar volumes may constitute a clinico-neuroanatomical correlate for the development of depression- and anxiety-related symptoms.
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Oxytocin selectively moderates negative cognitive appraisals in high trait anxious males
Gail Alvares et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The mammalian neuropeptide oxytocin has well-characterized effects in facilitating prosocial and affiliative behavior. Additionally, oxytocin decreases physiological and behavioral responses to social stress. In the present study we investigated the effects of oxytocin on cognitive appraisals after a naturalistic social stress task in healthy male students. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 48 participants self-administered either an oxytocin or placebo nasal spray and, following a wait period, completed an impromptu speech task. Eye gaze to a pre-recorded video of an audience displayed during the task was simultaneously collected. After the speech, participants completed questionnaires assessing negative cognitive beliefs about speech performance. Whilst there was no overall effect of oxytocin compared to placebo on either eye gaze or questionnaire measures, there were significant positive correlations between trait levels of anxiety and negative self-appraisals following the speech. Exploratory analyses revealed that whilst higher trait anxiety was associated with increasingly poorer perceptions of speech performance in the placebo group, this relationship was not found in participants administered oxytocin. These results provide preliminary evidence to suggest that oxytocin may reduce negative cognitive self-appraisals in high trait anxious males. It adds to a growing body of evidence that oxytocin seems to attenuate negative cognitive responses to stress in anxious individuals.
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Mechanisms of white matter changes induced by meditation
Yi-Yuan Tang et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using diffusion tensor imaging, several recent studies have shown that training results in changes in white matter efficiency as measured by fractional anisotropy (FA). In our work, we found that a form of mindfulness meditation, integrative body-mind training (IBMT), improved FA in areas surrounding the anterior cingulate cortex after 4-wk training more than controls given relaxation training. Reductions in radial diffusivity (RD) have been interpreted as improved myelin but reductions in axial diffusivity (AD) involve other mechanisms, such as axonal density. We now report that after 4-wk training with IBMT, both RD and AD decrease accompanied by increased FA, indicating improved efficiency of white matter involves increased myelin as well as other axonal changes. However, 2-wk IBMT reduced AD, but not RD or FA, and improved moods. Our results demonstrate the time-course of white matter neuroplasticity in short-term meditation. This dynamic pattern of white matter change involving the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain network related to self-regulation, could provide a means for intervention to improve or prevent mental disorders.
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Real-Time Self-Regulation of Emotion Networks in Patients with Depression
David Linden et al.
PLoS ONE, June 2012
Abstract:
Many patients show no or incomplete responses to current pharmacological or psychological therapies for depression. Here we explored the feasibility of a new brain self-regulation technique that integrates psychological and neurobiological approaches through neurofeedback with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In a proof-of-concept study, eight patients with depression learned to upregulate brain areas involved in the generation of positive emotions (such as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) and insula) during four neurofeedback sessions. Their clinical symptoms, as assessed with the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HDRS), improved significantly. A control group that underwent a training procedure with the same cognitive strategies but without neurofeedback did not improve clinically. Randomised blinded clinical trials are now needed to exclude possible placebo effects and to determine whether fMRI-based neurofeedback might become a useful adjunct to current therapies for depression.
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The power of the past: Nostalgia as a meaning-making resource
Clay Routledge et al.
Memory, forthcoming
Abstract:
In three experiments we tested whether nostalgia bolsters meaning in life relative to two other modes of autobiographical thought: imagining a desired future experience and recalling a positive past experience. In Experiment 1 participants thought about a nostalgic or desired future experience and then completed a presence of meaning scale. Thinking about a nostalgic (compared to desired future) experience increased perceived presence of meaning. In Experiment 2 we examined whether nostalgia can additionally reduce the search for meaning. Participants thought about a nostalgic, desired future or recent positive experience, and then completed a search for meaning scale. Nostalgia, relative to both comparison conditions, decreased the search for meaning. Finally we tested whether, by virtue of its capacity to increase meaning, nostalgia can mitigate threats to meaning. In Experiment 3 participants were exposed to either absurd or representational art, under the guise that they would later have to interpret its meaning, and then thought about either a nostalgic or a recent positive experience. Meaning was subsequently measured. The absurd art interpretation condition decreased the perceived presence of meaning but nostalgic reflection attenuated this effect.
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Mathias Weymar et al.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, July 2012, Pages 1511-1518
Abstract:
A key component of acute stress is a surge in vigilance that enables a prioritized processing of highly salient information to promote the organism's survival. In this study, we investigated the neural effects of acute stress on emotional picture processing. ERPs were measured during a deep encoding task, in which 40 male participants categorized 50 unpleasant and 50 neutral pictures according to arousal and valence. Before picture encoding, participants were subjected either to the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test (SECPT) or to a warm water control procedure. The exposure to the SECPT resulted in increased subjective and autonomic (heart rate and blood pressure) stress responses relative to the control condition. Viewing of unpleasant relative to neutral pictures evoked enhanced late positive potentials (LPPs) over centro-parietal scalp sites around 400 msec after picture onset. Prior exposure to acute stress selectively increased the LPPs for unpleasant pictures. Moreover, the LPP magnitude for unpleasant pictures following the SECPT was positively associated with incidental free recall performance 24 hr later. The present results suggest that acute stress sensitizes the brain for increased processing of cues in the environment, particularly priming the processing of unpleasant cues. This increased processing is related to later long-term memory performance.
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K.C.H.J. Smolders, Y.A.W. de Kort & P.J.M. Cluitmans
Physiology & Behavior, 20 August 2012, Pages 7-16
Abstract:
Nocturnal white light exposure has shown marked results on subjective and objective indicators of alertness, vitality and mood, yet effects of white light during daytime and under usual office work conditions have not been investigated extensively. The current study employed a mixed-group design (N = 32), testing effects of two illuminance levels (200 lx or 1000 lx at eye level, 4000 K) during one hour of morning versus afternoon exposure. In four repeated blocks, subjective reports, objective performance and physiological arousal were measured. Results showed effects of illuminance on subjective alertness and vitality, sustained attention in tasks, and heart rate and heart rate variability. Participants felt less sleepy and more energetic in the high versus the low lighting condition, had shorter reaction times on the psychomotor vigilance task and increased physiological arousal. Effects of illuminance on the subjective measures, as well as those on heart rate were not dependent on time of day or duration of exposure. Performance effects were most pronounced in the morning sessions and towards the end of the one-hour exposure period. The effect on heart rate variability was also most pronounced at the end of the one-hour exposure. The results demonstrate that even under normal, i.e. nonsleep or light deprived conditions, more intense light can improve feelings of alertness and vitality, as well as objective performance and physiological arousal.
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Stevie Yap, Ivana Anusic & Richard Lucas
Journal of Research in Personality, forthcoming
Abstract:
A nationally representative panel study of British households was used to examine the extent to which Big Five personality traits interact with the experience of major life events (marriage, childbirth, unemployment, and widowhood) to predict increases and decreases in life satisfaction following the event. Results show that major life events are associated with changes in life satisfaction, and some of these changes are very long lasting. Personality traits did not have consistent moderating effects on the association between stressful life events and life satisfaction over time.
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Sarah Whittle et al.
Psychoneuroendocrinology, July 2012, Pages 881-891
Abstract:
Early timing of puberty (i.e., advanced pubertal maturation relative to peers) has been linked to the onset of depressive symptoms during the early adolescent phase. However, the precise neurobiological mechanisms linking early pubertal timing to adolescent depressive symptoms are not clear. We investigated whether the volume of the pituitary gland, a key component of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes, mediated the relationship between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms in 155 adolescents (72 females) both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. At baseline (M age 12.7, SD 0.5 years), early pubertal timing predicted larger pituitary gland volume and higher depressive symptoms (especially for girls), but there was no mediation effect. Longitudinally, however, larger pituitary gland volume at baseline was found to mediate the relationship between early pubertal timing and increased depressive symptoms over time (M follow-up period = 2.57 years, SD = 0.26) for both boys and girls. Our findings suggest that neurobiological mechanisms are partly responsible for the link between early pubertal timing and depressive symptoms in adolescents. We speculate that an enlarged pituitary gland in adolescents with early pubertal timing might be associated with hyperactivation of the hormonal stress response, leading to increased susceptibility to environmental stressors, and subsequent development of depressive symptoms. Given the well-established relationship between increasing depressive symptoms in adolescence and later disorder, these findings have implications for targeted prevention and early intervention strategies for depressive disorders in adolescence.
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Arthur Stone, Stefan Schneider & James Harter
Journal of Positive Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
There are many beliefs about the patterning of positive and negative mood over the course of the week. Support has been found for ‘Blue Monday', ‘Thank God it's Friday' and Weekdays versus Weekend effects, although in relatively small studies and often with student samples. Using telephone questionnaire data from a large national survey (N = 340,000), we examined day-of-week (DOW) effects on positive and negative moods. Unlike prior studies, we also tested the potential moderating effects of four demographic variables on DOW. Strong support was found for better mood on weekends and Fridays, but there was minimal support for a Blue Monday effect and no differences were observed between Saturdays and Sundays. Demographics moderated some DOW effects: DOW effects were diminished for older and retired respondents, but there was little DOW difference by gender or presence of a partner. DOW is associated with mood, but not always in ways we believe.