Sequential Growth in Cognitive-behavioral Emotion-processing: A Laboratory Study

Dynamic patterns of COVID stress syndrome among university students during an outbreak: a time-series network analysis

OBJECTIVE

Assessing the progression of COVID stress syndrome (CSS) and understanding how cognitive and emotional factors play a role in the dynamic system is critical for prevention and intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated the dynamic relationship between self-reported COVID stress syndrome, cognitive factors, and emotional factors through time-series network analysis.

METHODS AND MEASURES

Participants were 188 university students involved in an experience sampling method study that lasted 14 days, three times a day, during the COVID-19 pandemic period following a shift in pandemic prevention and control policy.

RESULTS

CSS symptoms are usually present simultaneously, and xenophobia is the most central node of the network. There is a complex mutual predictive relationship between CSS symptoms, in which traumatic stress symptoms are crucial in developing and maintaining the CSS symptom network. Negative affect was associated with CSS symptoms at the same time, and subjective health cognition was a significant predictor of CSS symptoms the next time.

CONCLUSIONS

Traumatic stress symptoms are essential nodes in the CSS symptom network, and negative emotions and subjective health influence the occurrence and development of CSS symptoms.

Tapping your inner psychotherapist: The effects of a growth writing for military cadets on mental health

Although growth writing has been verified to be effective in addressing psychological maladjustment through sequential shifts in emotion-processing strategies, there have been no further findings extending these preliminary observations to applications in the military field. This study aimed to investigate whether growth writing can serve as a novel intervention in enhancing the mental health of cadets. A total of 103 cadets (Sex ratio: 68.9% male, Age: 20.60± 2.16 years) participated in an 8-week writing program and were randomly assigned to either the growth writing group or the unstructured writing group. The growth writing group wrote structured narratives on the themes of exposure, devaluation, and benefit-finding for 30 minutes per week, focusing on the most stressful event in cadet lives. The unstructured writing group freely wrote about their feelings and thoughts regarding the most stressful event in cadet lives for 30 minutes every week. We found that growth writing resulted in greater benefits compared to unstructured writing, as indicated by a more significant reduction in stress, depression, anxiety, and anger, as well as a stronger increase in life satisfaction at the five-week follow-up. Moreover, significant changes were observed in stress, depression, anxiety, anger, and life satisfaction over the three assessment points among cadets in the growth writing group. Overall, the current findings highlight that the growth writing process can serve as a valuable form of self-psychotherapy for cadets who will face challenging battlefields in the future.

Effects of Negative Emotions and Cognitive Characteristics on Impulse Buying During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously disrupted the individual buying habits along with their consumption patterns. Previous studies indicated that anxiety and depression were related to impulse buying. However, no research has explored the mechanism possibly underlying the association between anxiety, depression, and impulse buying. Based on the regulatory focus theory and the emotion-cognition-behavior loop, this study aimed to examine the impacts of negative emotions on impulse buying and the mediating role of cognitive characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2021, 734 Chinese undergraduates were recruited by cluster sampling and they completed self-report measures of anxiety, depression, intolerance of uncertainty, cognitive flexibility, and impulse buying. Results showed that impulse buying was positively associated with anxiety, depression, and intolerance of uncertainty, while it was negatively associated with cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility fully mediated the effects of anxiety and depression on cognitive facet of impulse buying. Meanwhile, intolerance of uncertainty fully mediated the effects of anxiety and depression on affective facet of impulse buying. Overall, this study shows that different pathways can explain how anxiety and depression exacerbate two aspects of impulse buying, and it highlights the importance of cognitive characteristics for the link between negative emotions and impulse buying. Intervention programs should focus on increasing cognitive flexibility and tolerance to uncertainty of high-risk individuals, so as to strengthen their adaptive purchase behaviors.