The momentary benefits of positive events for individuals with elevated social anxiety

Understanding how individuals with varying levels of social anxiety respond to daily positive events is important. Psychological processes that increase positive emotions are being widely used as strategies to not only enhance well-being but also reduce the symptoms and impairment tied to negative emotional dispositions and conditions, including excessive social anxiety. At present, it is unclear whether and how levels of social anxiety impact the psychological benefits derived from momentary positive events. We used ecological momentary assessment to examine the impact of trait social anxiety on momentary changes in emotions, sense of belonging, and social approach versus avoidance motivation following positive events in daily life. Over the course of a week, people with elevated social anxiety experienced greater momentary anxiety and social avoidance motivation and lower momentary happiness and sense of belonging on average. Despite these impairments, individuals with elevated social anxiety experienced greater psychological benefits-in the form of reduced anxiety and motivation to avoid social situations, and an increased sense of belonging-following positive events during the past hour that were rated as particularly intense. This pattern of findings was not specific to social anxiety, with evidence of similar effects for other forms of internalizing psychopathology (general anxiety and depression). These observations detail circumstances in which individuals with social anxiety, and other emotional disturbances, can thrive-creating potentially important targets for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The most important life goals of people with and without social anxiety disorder: Focusing on emotional interference and uncovering meaning in life

People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) display maladaptive attitudes towards emotions. In this experience-sampling study, we explored the extent to which people with SAD viewed anxiety and pain as an impediment to pursuing personal strivings and deriving meaning in life. Participants were adults diagnosed with SAD and a control comparison group who completed baseline questionnaires and daily surveys for 14 consecutive days. People with SAD perceived anxiety and pain as interfering with progress towards their strivings to a greater degree than healthy controls. Perception of emotion-related goal interference was inversely associated with daily meaning. This relationship was moderated by diagnostic group such that there was a strong, inverse association with daily meaning in life for people with SAD; for controls, no association was found. Results suggest that negative beliefs about the value of anxiety and pain are pronounced in people with SAD and may impede derivation of meaning in life.

The Curious Neglect of High Functioning After Psychopathology: The Case of Depression

We address a key issue at the intersection of emotion, psychopathology, and public health-the startling lack of attention to people who experience benign outcomes, and even flourish, after recovering from depression. A rereading of the epidemiological literature suggests that the orthodox view of depression as chronic, recurrent, and lifelong is overstated. A significant subset of people recover and thrive after depression, yet research on such individuals has been rare. To facilitate work on this topic, we present a generative research framework. This framework includes (a) a proposed definition of healthy end-state functioning that goes beyond a reduction in clinical symptoms, (b) recommendations for specific measures to assess high functioning, and (c) a road map for a research agenda aimed at discovering how and why people flourish after emotional disturbance. Given that depression remains the most burdensome health condition worldwide, focus on what makes these excellent outcomes possible has enormous significance for the public health.

Optimal Well-Being after Major Depression

Can people achieve optimal well-being and thrive after major depression? Contemporary epidemiology dismisses this possibility, viewing depression as a recurrent, burdensome condition with a bleak prognosis. To estimate the prevalence of thriving after depression in United States adults, we used data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study. To count as thriving after depression, a person had to exhibit no evidence of major depression, and had to exceed cut offs across nine facets of psychological well-being that characterize the top 25% of US nondepressed adults. Overall, nearly 10% of adults with study documented depression were thriving ten years later. The phenomenon of thriving after depression has implications for how the prognosis of depression is conceptualized and for how mental health professionals communicate with patients. Knowing what makes thriving outcomes possible offers new leverage points to help reduce the global burden of depression.

Social Anxiety and the Quality of Everyday Social Interactions: The Moderating Influence of Alcohol Consumption

Most research on the link between social anxiety and alcohol consumption has examined problematic outcomes without consideration of potential adaptive functions. Alcohol is an anxiolytic that has the short-term benefit of reducing anxiety; consumption may act as a social lubricant that facilitates higher quality social interactions. Using experience-sampling methodology, we examined how consuming alcohol attenuates the adverse effects of social anxiety in naturally occurring social interactions. Participants (N = 160) completed demographic and trait measures, then completed daily assessments for 14 consecutive days. Results from multilevel model analyses revealed that during face-to-face social interactions, state social anxiety was inversely related to 10 indicators of healthy social interactions (e.g., enjoyment, laughter, feelings of acceptance). Alcohol consumption moderated seven of these associations, such that when participants consumed alcohol in social situations, state social anxiety was no longer associated with social interaction quality. The quantity of alcoholic drinks consumed moderated two of these associations. Furthermore, we found evidence for directionality, such that social anxiety in a given social interaction predicted alcohol consumption in a subsequent social interaction, but not the reverse (i.e., alcohol consumption did not prospectively predict state social anxiety). In social situations that involved alcohol, experiences of social anxiety no longer thwarted one's ability to derive social benefits. These results should be interpreted in the context of a participant sample with relatively low levels of trait social anxiety and frequency of alcohol use. Nonetheless, obtaining social rewards may be a reinforcement mechanism that maintains the link between social anxiety and alcohol consumption.

Is grit relevant to well-being and strengths? Evidence across the globe for separating perseverance of effort and consistency of interests

OBJECTIVE

Researchers conceptualize grit as the combination of two facets: perseverance of effort and consistency of interests toward long-term goals. We tested the reliability of grit facet scores across the globe and examined how differently each grit facet related to well-being and personality strengths.

METHOD

An international sample of 7,617 participants from six of the seven continents (excluding Antarctica) completed an online survey.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analyses and omega reliability coefficients indicated that the 12 items from the original Grit Scale were multidimensional and reliably measured perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Concurrent validity analyses showed that perseverance of effort was moderately to strongly related to subjective well-being, beliefs about well-being, and personality strengths, whereas consistency of interests had weak or negative correlations with these outcomes. The stronger relations with perseverance of effort were replicated across seven regions of the world. The presence of overall grit was supported in individualistic countries, but not collectivistic countries (i.e., those in Latin America and Asia).

CONCLUSIONS

We discuss the multidimensionality of grit, including a conceptual understanding of overall grit and how it may differ across cultures. We suggest well-being and strengths researchers study grit facets separately due to their differential validity.

High risk, high reward: Daily perceptions of social challenge and performance in social anxiety disorder

Individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) have difficulty engaging in social situations because their actions are predicated on minimizing the subjectively biased high potential for rejection. That is, individuals with SAD frequently perceive social situations as challenging, and their performance as subpar. Yet when individuals perceive themselves as succeeding in challenging situations, they typically report these situations as enjoyable and rewarding. This subjective experience of succeeding in a challenging situation has been studied as flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975; 2000). Thirty-three adults with SAD and 34 matched healthy controls completed a baseline assessment, along with daily and experience sampling entries for 14 days. Results were analyzed using three-level generalized linear mixed effects models, with observations nested within days, nested within participants. Although individuals with and without SAD experienced the same frequency of flow in daily life, social situations led to proportionally more flow in participants with SAD than healthy controls. Both results were unexpected, and reasons for them are explored at length. Several experiential variables (positive emotions during and importance ascribed to the event) predicted the probability of flow during each situation. These results offer intervention-relevant suggestions for how individuals may benefit from seeking out challenging situations that offer maximal rewards.

Predicting treatment course and outcome using a promotion and prevention framework in a community sample of arthritis sufferers

OBJECTIVE

The present study examined the proposition that patients need to focus on something beyond simply "getting better". In a sample of arthritis sufferers, we distinguished individuals by the goals that motivated them - moving toward aspirational goals and maximizing gains (promotion focus) rather than obligations and minimizing losses (prevention focus) - and how these motivational styles influenced treatment.

METHODS

Patients (N=254) participated in a randomized controlled trial of resistance training and self-management, providing 6 time points of data over 2 years. Promotion and prevention focus at baseline were used to predict the course (compliance and changes in coping self-efficacy) and outcome (changes in physical functioning) of treatment.

RESULTS

Arthritis sufferers with strong promotion orientations showed significant improvements in physical functioning (a direct positive impact on physical health); there were no significant associations with treatment compliance and coping self-efficacy. Arthritis sufferers with strong prevention orientations complied less with the treatment and showed little change in coping self-efficacy during treatment, which, in turn, predicted worse physical functioning over time (a pernicious, indirect influence on treatment outcome).

CONCLUSION

A focus on positive approach-oriented goals may improve overall treatment response, whereas a focus on negative avoidance-oriented goals may degrade treatment response through reduced compliance and self-efficacy.

Gratitude across the life span: Age differences and links to subjective well-being

Gratitude has been described as an adaptive evolutionary mechanism that is relevant to healthy psychological and interpersonal outcomes. Questions remain as to whether the presence and benefits of gratitude are consistent from young adulthood to old age; prior research has yielded mixed evidence. We examined the magnitude and direction of age differences in gratitude in three samples (combined N = 31,206). We also examined whether gratitude was associated with greater/lesser well-being at different periods in the life course. We found that the experience of gratitude was greatest in older adults and least in middle aged and younger adults. Further, we found that the associations between gratitude and subjective well-being remained relatively constant across the lifespan. Findings are discussed from a developmental perspective.

Personality strengths in romantic relationships: Measuring perceptions of benefits and costs and their impact on personal and relational well-being

Three studies using samples of people in romantic relationships were conducted to create a new individual difference measure of partner strengths in couples. The 2 perceptions of partner strengths included (1) appreciation of their use and effectiveness and (2) recognition of costs associated with their use. Factor analyses supported 2-factors and we found that greater appreciation of partner strengths predicted greater relationship satisfaction, commitment, investment, intimacy, self-expansion, and support for goal pursuit; recognizing significant costs with partner strengths was inversely related to several outcomes. Using a 1-week daily diary, we found that appreciation of partner strength use and recognition of costs associated with these strengths predicted daily relationship satisfaction and whether basic psychological needs were met within the relationship. The explanatory power of partner strength perceptions could not be explained by the actual character strengths or Big Five personality traits of partners, support for positive self-disclosures (capitalization), or gratitude for relationship partners. Finally, we found that the relational consequences of partner strength perceptions were not just "in the head" of the perceiver-influencing partner relational outcomes. This research program provides evidence for the use of a new measure of how strengths are perceived to better understand romantic couples and aspirational targets in clinical interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

A Daily Diary Study of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Romantic Partner Accommodation

Little is known about the role of romantic partner symptom accommodation in PTSD symptom maintenance. To explore the bidirectional associations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and romantic partner symptom accommodation over time, military servicemen (n=64) with symptoms of PTSD and their cohabiting heterosexual civilian romantic partners (n=64) completed a 2-week daily diary study. Cross-lagged, autoregressive models assessed the stability of men's PTSD symptoms and partners' accommodation, as well as the prospective associations of earlier PTSD symptoms with later accommodation and vice versa. Analyses used Bayesian estimation to provide point estimates (b) and Credible Intervals (CIs). In all models, PTSD symptoms (total and individual clusters) were highly stable (b=0.91; CI: 0.88-0.95), and accommodation was moderately stable (b=0.48; CI: 0.40-0.54). In all models, earlier PTSD symptoms (total and clusters) were significantly, positively associated with later accommodation (b=0.04; CI: 0.02-0.07). In contrast, earlier accommodation was significantly associated only with later situational avoidance (b=0.02; CI: 0.00-0.07). Thus, PTSD symptoms may lead to subsequent accommodating behaviors in romantic partners, but partner accommodation seems to contribute only to survivors' future situational avoidance symptoms. The findings reinforce the notion that PTSD symptoms have an impact on relationship behaviors, and that accommodation from partners may sustain avoidant behaviors in particular. Clinicians should attend to romantic partners' accommodating behaviors when working with survivors.

Cognitive vulnerabilities in parents as a potential risk factor for anxiety symptoms in young adult offspring: An exploration of looming cognitive style

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Given that anxiety runs in families, it is critical to understand the cognitive factors that may be responsible for this intergenerational transmission. The present study offers a first step by exploring the link between mother and father tendencies to view potentially threatening situations as rapidly escalating toward dreaded outcomes (i.e., looming cognitive style) and the emotional disturbances and looming cognitive styles of their adult offspring.

METHODS

We assessed cognitive vulnerabilities, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample (N = 382) of Italian college students and their parents.

RESULTS

The looming cognitive style of fathers, but not mothers, was significantly related to greater anxiety in adult offspring. This finding was obtained for both sons and daughters, and remained even after statistically controlling for the anxiety, worry, depressive symptoms, and anxiety sensitivity (AS) of parents). Notably, the association between fathers' looming cognitive style and offspring symptoms was not related to their child's depressive symptoms, and similar to prior work, served as a cognitive marker specific to anxiety.

LIMITATIONS

The present study relied on a cross-sectional design and did not use clients diagnosed with anxiety disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that it may prove fruitful to consider parental vulnerabilities such as looming cognitive styles in comprehensive cognitive and interpersonal models of anxiety. The intergenerational transmission of emotional difficulties seems to extend beyond anxiety to beliefs about the escalation of threat.