Executive Self, Self-Esteem, and Negative Affectivity: Relations at the Phenotypic and Genotypic Level

Mindfulness and Behavior Change

Initiating and maintaining behavior change is key to the prevention and treatment of most preventable chronic medical and psychiatric illnesses. The cultivation of mindfulness, involving acceptance and nonjudgment of present-moment experience, often results in transformative health behavior change. Neural systems involved in motivation and learning have an important role to play. A theoretical model of mindfulness that integrates these mechanisms with the cognitive, emotional, and self-related processes commonly described, while applying an integrated model to health behavior change, is needed. This integrative review (1) defines mindfulness and describes the mindfulness-based intervention movement, (2) synthesizes the neuroscience of mindfulness and integrates motivation and learning mechanisms within a mindful self-regulation model for understanding the complex effects of mindfulness on behavior change, and (3) synthesizes current clinical research evaluating the effects of mindfulness-based interventions targeting health behaviors relevant to psychiatric care. The review provides insight into the limitations of current research and proposes potential mechanisms to be tested in future research and targeted in clinical practice to enhance the impact of mindfulness on behavior change.

On the link of self-esteem, life satisfaction, and Neuroticism

OBJECTIVE

Self-esteem (SE) and life satisfaction (LS) are highly correlated but little is known about the sources of this association. Both characteristic adaptations are negatively correlated with Neuroticism (N). We investigated the relationship between SE, LS, and N and the degree to which shared variance was explained by N from a behavior genetic perspective.

METHOD

We analyzed more than 2,000 German same-sex twin pairs and their siblings. Twins were 17 and  23 years old and siblings were M = 21.6 years old. The sample was balanced regarding gender. We applied multivariate twin-sibling Cholesky models to obtain genetic and environmental correlations and estimated the impact N had on genetic and environmental correlations of SE and LS.

RESULTS

The genetic correlation between SE and LS was .99 and 47% of this phenotypic correlation was explained by genetics. About 28% of the common genetic variance between SE and LS was explained by shared genes with N.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that N is not a common factor of SE and LS. The results are not in line with theories assuming that N is a basic tendency whose genetic factors account for most of the genetic variance between the assumed characteristic adaptations SE and LS.

Genetic and Environmental Sources of Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem and Affect: Results from a Genetically Sensitive Multi-group Design

In today's world, researchers frequently utilize indirect measures of implicit (i.e., automatic, spontaneous) evaluations. The results of several studies have supported the usefulness of these measures in predicting behavior, as compared to utilizing direct measures of explicit (i.e., purposeful, deliberate) evaluations. A current, under-debate issue concerns the origin of these implicit evaluations. The present genetically sensitive multi-group study analyzed data from 223 twin pairs and 222 biological core families to estimate possible genetic and environmental sources of individual differences in implicit and explicit self-esteem and affect. The results show that implicit self-esteem and affect maintain a substantial genetic basis, but demonstrate little influence from the shared environment by siblings (e.g., shared familial socialization in childhood). A bivariate analysis found that implicit and explicit evaluations of the same construct share a common genetic core which aligns with the motivation and opportunity as determinants (MODE) model.

Self-efficacy is mainly genetic, not learned: a multiple-rater twin study on the causal structure of general self-efficacy in young people

Social learning theory postulates that self-efficacy is learned through the person's interaction with his/her physical and social environment. In this genetically informative, population-based, multi-informant study of 1,394 adolescent twin pairs, self-efficacy was modeled as one latent psychometric self-efficacy factor with genetic and environmental effects common to all informants, as well as for effects specific for each informant. The results showed that 75% of variation in self-efficacy was due to genetic factors. Non-shared environmental causes explained the remaining 25% of the variance in the latent factor, with no effect of common environment. Some informant-specific effects were also found. The present study challenges the theoretical assumption of learning as the dominant etiological factor behind self-efficacy in young people.

The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5HTTLPR) moderates the effect of adolescent environmental conditions on self-esteem in young adulthood: a structural equation modeling approach

Here we examine the effects of both self-reported and independent observer-reported environmental risk indices, the serotonin transporter gene promoter (5HTTLPR) polymorphism, and their interaction on self-esteem. This trait was assessed during early and mid adolescence (mean age=14 and 16.5, respectively) and young adulthood (mean age=21.8) in a prospective cohort of 1214 unrelated participants in the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Using structural equation modeling we identified a gene-environment (G×E) interaction using observer-report but not self-report measures of environmental stress exposure during adolescence: 5HTTLPR genotype and observer-reports of home and neighborhood quality (HNQ) during adolescence interacted to predict self-esteem levels in young adulthood (p<.004). Carriers of the s allele who lived in poor HNQ conditions during adolescence reported lower self-esteem in young adulthood than those with a good HNQ during adolescence. In contrast, among individuals with the l/l genotype, adolescent HNQ did not predict adulthood self-esteem. Genes may moderate the effect of adolescent environmental conditions on adulthood self-esteem.

Family Economic Hardship and Progression of Poor Mental Health in Middle-aged Husbands and Wives

Using prospective data from 370 middle-aged husbands and wives during a 12-year period, we investigated the intra-individual and dyadic influence of family economic hardship on the levels of depressive symptoms of husbands and wives over their middle years. The results suggest that family economic hardship during the early middle years contributes to subsequent increase in depressive symptoms of husbands and wives after controlling for family economic hardship in late middle years. Consistent with stress-process theory, economic hardship influences depressive symptoms directly and indirectly through its influence on self-esteem. The results also provided evidence for the scar hypothesis which suggests that depression predicts subsequent level of self-esteem and form a reciprocal process between depressive symptoms and self-esteem over time. In sum, for both husbands and wives, our findings showed that depressive symptoms progress over the middle years through a self-perpetuating reciprocal process between self-esteem and depression initiated by early family economic hardship and through cross-spouse influences involving self-esteem and depressive symptoms.

Self-esteem fluctuations and cardiac vagal control in everyday life

It has been proposed that self-esteem buffers threat-responding. The same effect is ascribed to the vagus nerve, which is a primary nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system. Consequently, it has been suggested that self-esteem and cardiac vagal tone are interconnected on a trait, as well as on a state, level. In this study, we examined the relationship of vagal cardiac control and self-esteem fluctuations across a single day using ecological momentary assessment. Eighty-four participants were recruited, and self-esteem, negative affect, and vagal tone were recorded throughout a 22-hour period. Men provided higher self-esteem ratings than women, but the negative relationship between self-esteem and negative affect was stronger in women. Moreover, controlling for potential confounds (e.g., age, BMI, depressive symptoms, smoking status, regular physical activity), we observed that for men, self-esteem was significantly positively associated with cardiac vagal tone, whereas for women it was not. These findings suggest that the relationship between self-esteem and vagal innervation of the heart during daily life is sex-specific and might involve different central-autonomic pathways for men and women, respectively.

Self-esteem, negative emotionality, and depression as a common temperamental core: a study of mid-adolescent twin girls

We tested the structure and magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on the overlap among self-esteem, negative emotionality, and major depression symptoms in adolescent girls (N=706) from the Minnesota Twin Family Study. Genetic and environmental influences on all three operated via a general, heritable factor. Genetic influences explained the majority of overlap among the three constructs, as well as most of the variance in self-esteem and negative emotionality. Genetic influences on depression were more modest and largely due to genetic factors specific to depression. These findings support the theory that self-esteem, depression, and neuroticism represent aspects of a common temperamental core. The interrelations among the three constructs in mid-adolescence is consistent with their interrelations in adulthood.

On Pancultural Self-Enhancement

Taiwanese participants made better-than-average judgments on collectivistic and individualistic traits, evaluated the personal importance of those traits, and completed measures of psychological adjustment (depression, perceived stress, subjective well-being, and satisfaction with life). Replicating findings from other East Asian samples, participants self-enhanced (i.e., regarded the self as superior to peers) more on collectivistic than individualistic attributes and assigned higher personal importance to the former than the latter. Moreover, better adjusted participants manifested a stronger tendency to self-enhance on personally important attributes. These data are consistent with the view that self-enhancement is a universal human motive that is expressed tactically and at odds with the assertion that self-enhancement is a uniquely Western phenomenon.

Coping resources, coping processes, and mental health

Coping, defined as action-oriented and intrapsychic efforts to manage the demands created by stressful events, is coming to be recognized both for its significant impact on stress-related mental and physical health outcomes and for its intervention potential. We review coping resources that aid in this process, including individual differences in optimism, mastery, self-esteem, and social support, and examine appraisal and coping processes, especially those marked by approach or avoidance. We address the origins of coping resources and processes in genes, early life experience, and gene-environment interactions, and address neural underpinnings of coping that may shed light on evaluating coping interventions. We conclude by outlining possible intervention strategies for improving coping processes.

Self-referent constructs and medical sociology: in search of an integrative framework

A theoretical framework centering on four classes of self-referent constructs is offered as a device for integrating the diverse areas constituting medical sociology. Guidance by this framework sensitizes the researcher to the occurrence of parallel processes in adjacent disciplines, facilitates recognition of the etiological significance of findings from other disciplines for explaining medical sociological phenomena, and encourages transactions between sociology and medical sociology whereby each informs and is informed by the other.