Emotional complexity across the life story: Elevated negative emodiversity and diminished positive emodiversity in sufferers of recurrent depression

Transdiagnostic effects of therapist self-disclosure on diverse emotional experiences of clients with emotional disorders and schizophrenia

OBJECTIVE

Despite the clinical significance of emotional diversity, also known as emodiversity, there has been limited investigation into the therapeutic interventions that influence this construct. In the current study we examined the association between immediate therapist self-disclosure (TSD) and emodiversity among two diagnostic groups who tend to experience emotional difficulties: people with schizophrenia and people with emotional disorders (i.e., depression and/or anxiety).

METHOD

The sample comprised 74 clients (37 diagnosed with schizophrenia and 37 with emotional disorders) treated by 45 therapists in a university clinic setting. Following each session, clients self-reported their emotions, and therapists completed a measure of frequency and centrality of their immediate TSD during the session.

RESULTS

Longitudinal multilevel models indicated that immediate TSD was positively associated with clients' global emodiversity, both at the within- and the between-client levels, as well as with clients' negative emodiversity at the between-client level. Moreover, clients with emotional disorders and clients with schizophrenia did not differ in the association between immediate TSD and emodiversity. In addition, across groups, clients treated by therapists who used more immediate TSD on average showed greater increases in global emodiversity during treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

immediate TSD is associated with clients' ability to experience rich and diverse emotional experiences across different disorders. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

Childhood abuse and neglect and profiles of adult emotion dynamics

Childhood maltreatment (CM) is experienced by ∼40% of all children at major personal and societal costs. The divergent associations between emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect in childhood and differences in adult emotional functioning and regulation were examined in terms of daily emotion intensity, variability, instability, inertia, and diversity, reported over 30 days by 290 Dutch aged 19-73. Participants described their abuse/neglect experiences retrospectively using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Dissecting CM effects on adult emotion dynamics may inform theories on the ontogenesis and functioning of emotions, on effects of abuse and neglect, to better understand (dys)functional emotional development, and to prevent their adverse sequelae. Structural equation models (SEM) showed that most types of CM were associated with specific patterns of emotion dynamics, and only emotional abuse had no unique effects on the emotional dynamic indices. Emotional neglect was associated with most measures of emotion dynamics (i.e., less intense, variable, unstable, and diverse emotions). Sexual abuse associated with increases and physical neglect decreases in negative affect variability and instability. Physical abuse was associated with inertia but with a small effect size. Social contact frequency did not mediate much of the relationship between CM types and emotion dynamics.

Negative emodiversity is associated with emotional eating in adolescents: An examination of emotion dynamics in daily life

INTRODUCTION

Emotional eating is a mental health concern, common in adolescents, that develops as a result of their tendency to use high-energy food to regulate their fluctuating emotions. Due to their highly fluctuating emotional life, adolescents tend to have unique within-person profiles of emotional experiences that change across moments and days, often lost in global assessments of emotions. Hence, it is imperative to examine individual differences in dynamics of emotions, as experienced in daily life, in relation to emotional eating in adolescents.

METHODS

In an Ecological Momentary Assessment study, we examined individual differences in three within-person dynamic characteristics (baseline levels, intraindividual variability, and emodiversity) of emotions in 158 dominantly Hispanic adolescents in the United States, aged 14-17 years old, predicting trait-level emotional eating.

RESULTS

Results indicated that higher negative emodiversity, baselines, and variability in stress were predictive of emotional eating in adolescents. When all considered together, negative emodiversity (i.e., variety of the types of negative emotions experienced in one's daily life) remained the only significant predictor of emotional eating.

CONCLUSIONS

This study affirms the importance of diversity in emotional experiences in relation to emotional eating, particularly in daily contexts of adolescents' lives. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between diversity (i.e., variety in types) in positive versus negative emotional experiences with regard to emotional eating. By taking into account the ecological validity of adolescents' daily lives and individual differences in dynamical changes in emotions, we are taking a step forward by shedding light on how the dynamics of negative emotions-in terms of within-person baselines, variability, and diversity-might be related to general levels of emotional eating in adolescents.

Alterations in Emotional Diversity Correspond With Increased Severity of Attenuated Positive and Negative Symptoms in the Clinical High-Risk Syndrome

Background: Alterations in emotional functioning are a key feature of psychosis and are present in individuals with a clinical high-risk (CHR) syndrome. However, little is known about alterations in emotional diversity (i.e., the variety and relative abundance of emotions that humans experience) and clinical correlates in this population. Methods: Individuals meeting criteria for a CHR syndrome (N = 47) and matched healthy controls (HC) (N = 58) completed the modified Differential Emotions Scale (used to derive scores of total, positive, and negative emotional diversity) and clinical interviews (i.e., Structured Interview for Psychosis-Risk Syndromes). Results: Findings showed that the CHR group experienced lower levels of positive emotional diversity compared to HCs. Among the CHR individuals, lower levels of positive and higher levels of negative emotional diversity were associated with more severe attenuated positive and negative symptoms. Analyses controlled for mean levels of emotion and current antipsychotic medication use. Discussion: Results demonstrate that altered emotional diversity (in particular lower levels of positive and higher levels of negative emotional diversity) is a clinically relevant marker in CHR individuals, above and beyond alterations in mean levels of emotional experiences. Future studies may probe sources, downstream consequences, and potential modifiability of decreased emotional diversity in individuals at CHR.

Anticipatory Coping Diversity: Implications for Emotional, Physical, and Cognitive Reactivity to Daily Stressors

OBJECTIVES

This study examines the concept of anticipatory coping diversity, reflected in the evenness and richness of anticipatory coping strategies. The overarching goal of the present study is to show how individual differences in anticipatory coping diversity are associated with emotional, physical, and cognitive reactivity to daily stressors, and to examine whether these dynamic characteristics might differ between younger and older adults.

METHOD

107 younger (M age = 19.44, range 18-36) and 116 older (M age = 64.71, range 60-90) participants reported on 1627 total days via an online daily diary study. Participants reported baseline demographic information (Day 1) and anticipatory coping, stressor exposure, negative affect, physical symptoms, and memory failures (Days 2-9). Anticipatory coping diversity was indexed at the person level using Shannon's entropy to capture the evenness and richness of anticipatory coping strategies across stressors.

RESULTS

People with more anticipatory coping diversity were less emotionally reactive, but more physically and cognitively reactive to daily stressors. Older adults exhibited less anticipatory coping diversity than younger adults, but the patterns of anticipatory coping diversity differences in reactivity appeared to be consistent across younger and older adults.

DISCUSSION

Anticipatory coping diversity reflects a useful index within the stress process that is associated with benefits as well as costs. These findings bridge dispositional and contextual approaches to coping and highlight the importance of understanding how deployment of coping strategies are related to well-being across the adult lifespan.

Rich and Balanced Experiences of Daily Emotions are Associated with Activity Diversity Across Adulthood

OBJECTIVES

Studies demonstrate the association between diverse emotions and health. However, we know little about how these emotions are related to activities in daily life. This study examined whether the diversity of daily activities ("activity diversity") is associated with the diversity of both positive and negative daily emotions ("emodiversity") in adulthood. We also examined if these associations differed by age.

METHODS

Two separate samples of participants from the Midlife in the United States Study II (M2: 2004-2009, n=2,012, Mage=56yrs) and Refresher (MR: 2012-2016, n=779, Mage=47yrs) provided activity and emotion data for eight consecutive days. Using Shannon's entropy, we constructed activity diversity and emodiversity (positive, negative) scores. Analyses adjusted for sociodemographic and health characteristics, total activity time, mean positive/negative emotions, and number of days with positive/negative emotion data.

RESULTS

Greater activity diversity was associated with greater positive emodiversity and greater negative emodiversity in both samples. In the M2 sample, the association between activity diversity and positive emodiversity was stronger among relatively younger adults, such the positive association among those aged 33-44 years was greater than that observed among those aged 68-84 years. Results held after adjusting for time spent in each of the activities or when using different emodiversity metrics (Gini or Simpson coefficients).

DISCUSSION

Broad and even participation of daily activities may provide more opportunities to experience rich and balanced emotions. Findings suggest that the association between activity diversity and emodiversity exists across adulthood, underscoring the value of including information about daily activities when examining emotional experiences across the lifespan.

Validity and reliability of the simplified Chinese patient-reported outcomes version of the common terminology criteria for adverse events

Background

The psychometric properties of the simplified Chinese version of the Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) have not been assessed. Therefore, we aimed to assess its validity, reliability, and responsiveness.

Patients and methods

A Chinese version of the PRO-CTCAE and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) were distributed to 1580 patients from four cancer hospitals in China. Validity assessments included construct validity, measured by Pearson’s correlations and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and known-groups validity, measured by t-tests. The assessment of reliability included internal consistency, measured by Cronbach’s ɑ, and test-retest reliability, measured by the intraclass correlation (ICC). Responsiveness was assessed by standardized response means (SRMs).

Results

Data from 1555 patients who completed the instruments were analyzed. The correlations were high between PRO-CTCAE items and parallel QLQ-C30 symptom scales (r > 0.60, p < 0.001), except for fatigue (severity: r = 0.49). Moreover, CFA showed the PRO-CTCAE structure was a good fit with the data (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.046). Known-groups validity was also confirmed. Cronbach’s ɑ of all item clusters were greater than 0.9 and the median test-retest reliability coefficients of the 38 items were 0.85 (range = 0.71–0.91). In addition, the SRMs of PRO-CTCAE items were greater than 0.8, indicating strong responsiveness.

Conclusion

The simplified Chinese version of the PRO-CTCAE showed good reliability, validity, and responsiveness.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08610-0.