The thrill of victory: Savoring positive affect, psychophysiological reward processing, and symptoms of depression

Reward positivity moderates the association between pubertal status and social anxiety symptoms in nine-to-12-year-old youths

The transition to adolescence is characterized by rapid development of puberty, reward processing, and internalizing psychopathology (i.e., depression and anxiety). More advanced pubertal status and altered reward processing are both known to be associated with elevated internalizing symptoms. However, it was unclear to what extent pubertal status and reward processing interacted with each other in predicting internalizing psychopathology. We examined how the puberty-psychopathology association was moderated by the reward processing indexed by ERPs, including the reward positivity (RewP) and the late positive potential (LPP). A-hundred-and-fifteen nine-to-12-year-old typically developing youths (66 girls; Mean age/SD =10.98/1.18 years) reported their pubertal status and symptoms of depression and social anxiety and completed an EEG Doors task that assessed monetary reward feedback processing. A principal component analysis of the ERP data identified a RewP, an anterior LPP, and a posterior LPP, elicited by the win and loss feedback of the task. The puberty-social anxiety relationship was moderated by the RewP, an identified neural marker of reward sensitivity. Specifically, more advanced puberty was associated with heightened social anxiety symptoms in the presence of a larger, but not smaller, RewP. We did not observe any moderating effect of the LPPs. Our study provided novel evidence that a hypersensitivity toward the reward stimuli (indexed by an enlarged RewP) further exacerbated the risks associated with more advanced pubertal status for social anxiety.

A randomized controlled trial of brief behavioral activation plus savoring for positive affect dysregulation in university students

Rising rates of depression on university campuses accentuate the need for specific intervention. Interventions targeting disturbances in positive affect, in particular, remain sparse, yet such deficits interfere substantially with functioning and further exacerbate or maintain negative symptoms. The current study aimed to evaluate the impact of a virtual, two-session Behavioral Activation augmented with Savoring (BA + S) intervention compared to an Emotional Awareness (EA) control group in increasing positive affect. Sixty university students with low positive affect were randomized to BA + S or EA and completed 21 days of experience-sampling of positive affect. Weekly measures of positive and negative valence symptoms were assessed at baseline, sessions one and two, and at one-week follow-up. Through a prori analyses utilizing multilevel and multivariate multilevel models, our results demonstrate that daily positive affect measured via experience-sampling significantly improved in BA + S, whereas positive affect did not change for those receiving EA, though the interaction of condition and time was not significant. Furthermore, interactions in weekly variables were significant. Increases in positive valence symptoms (affect, anhedonia, etc.) were only reported for students receiving BA + S but not EA. Negative valence symptoms (affect, depression, general distress) improved in both conditions but with superior improvements in BA + S compared to EA. BA + S shows promise for a scalable and accessible intervention to university students with clinical levels of positive and negative affect. ClinicalTrials ID: NCT05234476.

Longitudinal associations between sense of belonging, imposter syndrome, and first-year college students' mental health

Objective: The first year of college is a time of major changes in social dynamics, raising questions about ways to promote students' mental health. We examined longitudinal associations between students' sense of belonging, imposter syndrome, depressive symptoms, and well-being. Participants: Fifty-eight first-year college students at a university in the United States participated in the study. Methods: Students completed questionnaires during the first 6 months of college (T1) and at the end of the academic year (T2). Results: Greater sense of social and academic belonging was correlated with lower imposter syndrome, depression, and greater well-being at T1. Accounting for T1 measures, lower imposter syndrome predicted greater well-being but not depression at T2. Accounting for T1 mental health, belonging was not a significant predictor of depression or well-being at T2. Conclusion: Increasing sense of belonging and addressing imposter syndrome early in the transition to college may be critical in promoting mental health.

Neural reward responsiveness and daily positive affect functioning in adolescent girls

Deficits in reward processing have been implicated in the development of many forms of psychopathology, especially major depressive disorder (MDD). One facet of reward processing, known as reward responsivity, has been associated with the development and maintenance of depression across development. The reward positivity (RewP) is an event-related potential derived from electroencephalogram (EEG), which is thought to reflect reward responsivity. An attenuated RewP has been observed in both currently depressed individuals and youth at risk for depression, suggesting it may represent a biomarker of depression. Despite this, little is known about how the RewP translates to behavior and affect in the real world. In the current study, we examined how the RewP relates to real world emotional functioning, measured using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Thirty-eight female adolescents (ages 11-16, Mage = 13.9 years) participated in the study; approximately half of the sample were considered high risk due to maternal lifetime history of MDD. Adolescents completed a monetary reward task while EEG was recorded, followed by a 10-day period of EMA assessing daily affect and emotion regulation strategy use following positive events. Results revealed that the RewP was positively associated with subjective reports of positive, but not negative, daily affect. Results also revealed that the RewP was positively associated with focusing on positive feelings following a positive event (e.g., savoring). Findings from this preliminary study highlight how neural responses to reward in the lab relate to daily life emotional functioning, supporting the RewP as an ecologically valid marker of positive affect functioning among youth.

Savoring life during pandemic: an online intervention to promote well-being in emerging adults

BACKGROUND

Savoring, that is the ability to create and increase positive emotions, represents a promising approach to enhance subjective well-being (SWB) in emerging adults. This controlled study aims to investigate the preliminary effects of a self-help e-savoring intervention on increasing savoring beliefs and strategies and SWB in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

Forty-nine emerging adult participants were recruited using the snowball sampling method. The experimental group (n = 23) completed six online exercises (two exercises per week for three weeks) while the control group (n = 26) did not receive the intervention. Both groups filled out online questionnaires before and after the intervention. User experience and perceived usefulness of the intervention were assessed for the experimental group.

RESULTS

A repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant increase for the experimental group in savoring beliefs (especially toward the present and the future) and in positive emotions compared to the control group. The perspicuity, attractiveness, and efficiency of the online platform were very positively evaluated, and most participants rated the intervention as useful.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this preliminary study together with the high level of adherence and the appreciation for the intervention indicate the potential of promoting online savoring and positive emotions in emerging adults. Future research could evaluate its long-term effects and verify its results with other age groups.

Savoring, worry, and positive emotion duration in generalized anxiety disorder: Assessment and interventional experiment

BACKGROUND

Intentional attempts to savor positive emotions may be infrequent in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) due to avoidance of emotional contrasts. Yet purposeful enjoyment may help reduce worry and increase wellbeing in GAD. We sought to explore 1) the frequency, intensity, and duration of positive emotions from savoring in GAD and 2) its effect on pre-existing worry.

METHOD

The same 139 participants participated in two studies. They first took baseline measures. After, they were explicitly taught about savoring practices. In study 1, all participants were instructed to savor a photograph and video, timing and rating their emotion. Then in study 2, participants underwent a worry induction followed by an interventional experiment. In a savoring condition, participants were instructed to savor a personally-chosen enjoyable video. In a control condition, participants watched an emotionally neutral video.

RESULTS

Participants who met DSM-5 criteria for GAD had significantly lower scores on naturalistic savoring via self-report than those without GAD. Yet when explicitly taught and directed to savor in study 1, there were no differences between those with and without GAD in positive emotion duration and intensity. In study 2, longitudinal linear mixed models demonstrated that savoring after a worry induction significantly decreased worry, decreased anxiety, and increased positive emotions to greater degrees than the control task. These changes did not differ between diagnostic groups. All analyses controlled for depression symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Although persons with GAD tend to savor less in daily life than those without GAD, intentional savoring may decrease worry and increase positive emotion for both groups.

The divide between daily event appraisal and emotion experience in major depression

Appraisal theories predict that emotional experiences are tightly linked to context appraisals. However, depressed people tend to perceive a variety of emotional events more negatively and stressfully and their emotional experience has been described as context insensitive. This raises the question: how different is the intensity of context appraisals from related emotion experiences among depressed relative to healthy people? Surprisingly, we do not know how cohesive intensity of context appraisals and emotional experiences are in depression. In this study, we assessed differences in intensity of context appraisals and emotional experiences across 1634 daily events during three days within and between depressed participants (N = 41) and healthy controls (N = 33) using linear mixed models. Models compared intensities of stressfulness and unpleasantness appraisals to the intensity of negative affect, and intensity of pleasantness appraisals to the intensity of positive affect. Our findings partially supported our predictions of lower cohesiveness in depression: while intensities of pleasantness appraisals and positive affect were more alike among control participants, intensities of unpleasantness and stressfulness appraisals were more similar to the intensities of negative affect in the depressed group. Current work suggests that hedonic dysfunction in depression is possibly driven by a loosely tied positive context appraisal-emotion experience process.

Intervening on Social Comparisons on Social Media: Electronic Daily Diary Pilot Study

BACKGROUND

Literature has underscored the dark aspects of social media use, including associations with depressive symptoms, feelings of social isolation, and diminished self-esteem. Social comparison, the process of evaluating oneself relative to another person, is thought to contribute to these negative experiences such that people with a stronger tendency to compare themselves with others are particularly susceptible to the detrimental effects of social media. Social media as a form of social connection and communication is nevertheless an inevitable-and arguably integral-part of life, particularly for young adults. Therefore, there is a need to investigate strategies that could alter the manner in which people interact with social media to minimize its detrimental effects and maximize the feelings of affiliation and connection.

OBJECTIVE

This pilot study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a brief web-based intervention designed to alter engagement with social media and promote psychological well-being by encouraging social savoring as an alternative to social comparison. Social savoring was operationalized as experiencing joyful emotions related to the happiness of someone else's experiences (ie, feeling happy for someone else).

METHODS

Following an intensive longitudinal design, 55 college students (mean age 19.29, SD 0.93 years; n=43, 78% women and n=23, 42% White) completed baseline measures (individual differences, psychological well-being, connectedness, and social media use) and then 14 days of daily surveys on their social media activity and well-being. On day 8, the group that was randomized to receive the intervention watched a video instructing them on the skill of social savoring and was asked to practice this skill during days 8 to 14.

RESULTS

Overall, participants reported positive perceptions of the intervention. Participants who watched the intervention video reported significantly higher performance self-esteem (P=.02) at posttest than those in the control condition, after controlling for baseline levels. Participants also reported significantly higher state self-esteem (P=.01) on days in which they engaged in more social savoring while using social media, and the use of social savoring increased significantly (P=.01) over time, suggesting that participants found it helpful. Participants in both conditions reported significantly lower levels of social comparison (control: P=.01; intervention: P=.002) and higher levels of connectedness (control: P<.001; intervention: P=.001) at posttest than at baseline.

CONCLUSIONS

Initial evidence from this pilot study suggests that a web-based social savoring intervention may help minimize the potentially harmful consequences of social media use, at least in some domains. Future work is needed to examine the effectiveness and acceptance of this intervention in different age groups and in clinical samples that are in part characterized by higher levels of comparison with others (eg, people with eating disorders).

Disentangling the Effects of Mindfulness, Savoring, and Depressive Symptoms among Emerging Adults

The links between mindfulness, savoring positive experiences, and depressive symptoms have been well established in the literature. Nevertheless, little has been done to disentangle the prospective relations among these constructs. Clarifying the longitudinal relations is crucial, as it enables researchers and practitioners to discern potential trajectories of mental health interventions. In this study, 180 emerging adults between 18 and 27 years old were recruited twice at 3 months apart to complete self-reported measures including mindfulness, savoring positive experiences, and depressive symptoms. Cross-lagged path analysis indicated that savoring the moment was predictive of mindfulness three months later, whereas depressive symptoms were predictive of both mindfulness and savoring the moment three months later, above and beyond the effects of age, gender, and family income. Additionally, mindfulness, savoring positive experiences, and depressive symptoms were significantly correlated at baseline. The present study evidenced short-term inverse effects of depressive symptoms on mindfulness and savoring the moment, as well as a positive effect of savoring the moment on mindfulness. Hence, interventions geared towards reducing symptoms of depression are likely to carry concurrent and prospective benefits for psychological functioning, namely the ability to be present in the moment and to savor.

Self‐compassion and savouring buffer the impact of the first year of the COVID‐19 on PhD students' mental health

Doctoral students face many challenges that were reinforced by COVID-19-related lockdowns. We assessed this impact over 1 year on doctoral students' depression, anxiety, stress, well-being, and doctoral engagement. We also investigated the potential protective role of self-compassion and savouring on mental health, well-being, and doctoral engagement. A total of 134 PhD students from several French universities responded to the three-time points of this longitudinal study. The results showed a significant increase in depression, anxiety and stress and a significant decrease in well-being and doctoral engagement during the first year of the pandemic. Self-compassion and savouring predicted lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, and higher levels of well-being over time. Savouring alone predicted higher doctoral engagement over time. This study reveals the significant impact of the pandemic year on the mental health of doctoral students, and the relevance of self-compassion and savouring as psychological resources to cope with adversity.

Current Progress and Future Directions for Theory and Research on Savoring

As research on savoring has increased dramatically since publication of the book Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience (Bryant and Veroff, 2007), savoring has gradually become a core concept in positive psychology. I begin by reviewing the evolution of this concept, the development of instruments for assessing savoring ability and savoring strategies, and the wide range of applications of savoring in the psychosocial and health sciences. I then consider important directions for future theory and research. To advance our understanding of how naturalistic savoring unfolds over time, future work should integrate the perceptual judgments involved in not only the later stages of attending to and regulating positive experience (where past research has concentrated), but also the initial stages of searching for and noticing positive stimuli. Whereas most research has investigated reactive savoring, which occurs spontaneously in response to positive events or feelings, future work is also needed on proactive savoring, which begins with the deliberate act of seeking out or creating positive stimuli. To advance the measurement of savoring-related constructs, I recommend future work move beyond retrospective self-report methods toward the assessment of savoring as it occurs in real-time. The development of new methods of measuring meta-awareness and the regulation of attentional focus are crucial to advancing our understanding of savoring processes. I review recent research on the neurobiological correlates of savoring and suggest future directions in which to expand such work. I highlight the need for research aimed at unraveling the developmental processes through which savoring skills and deficits evolve and the role that savoring impairments play in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology. Research is also needed to learn more about what enhances savoring, and to disentangle how people regulate the intensity versus duration of positive emotions. Finally, I encourage future researchers to integrate the study of anticipation, savoring the moment, and reminiscence within individuals across time.

Predicting Negative and Positive Affect During COVID-19: A Daily Diary Study in Youths

The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to profoundly affect youths' mental health. Understanding predictors of affective responding to the pandemic is critical for prevention and intervention efforts. This study examines emotion regulation as an important predictor of youth's changes in positive and negative affect. The present study of 115 participants (62 girls, M_age  = 11.77) explores the relation between pre-existing emotion regulation strategies, as measured by multi-week daily diaries pre-COVID, and youths' mean positive and negative affect levels and variability during a 28-day period amidst the pandemic, while including COVID-related worries and isolation as important moderators. The findings provide important insight into interactions between pre-existing vulnerabilities and COVID-related stressors in predicting affective adjustment in youth.

Examining the relationship between anhedonia symptoms and trait positive appraisal style in adolescents: A longitudinal survey study

INTRODUCTION

Anhedonia, defined as a loss of interest and pleasure in previously enjoyable activities, is a core symptom of depression that predicts a poor treatment response in adolescents. We know little about the cognitive vulnerability factors that contribute to the development of anhedonia in youth. This cross-sectional and longitudinal survey study investigated the link between anhedonia symptoms and cognitive appraisal of positive affect.

METHODS

Baseline data were collected from 392 secondary school students in the UK (aged 13-16, 54 % Female), 170 of whom went on to complete the three-month follow-up assessment (a 43 % response rate). Participants rated their anhedonia symptoms and appraisal styles which were measured in terms of use of amplifying appraisals, dampening appraisals, and fear of positive emotion.

RESULTS

At baseline, greater anhedonia was significantly associated with increased levels of dampening and reduced levels of amplifying but was not significantly related to fear of positive emotion. Prospectively, greater baseline levels of amplifying uniquely predicted lower anhedonia severity at three-month follow-up, and vice-versa. There was no evidence for reciprocal prospective associations between anhedonia and, appraisal styles of dampening and fear of positive emotion.

CONCLUSION

These results indicate that cognitive appraisal of positive affect is associated with concurrent and to some extent can predict future symptoms of anhedonia in youth.