Self-Transcendent Values and Neural Responses to Threatening Health Messages

Risk Perception and Security Attitudes: the Role of Human Values on Brazilian Police Officers and Civilians

Studies on crime and parking facilities also appear to have a strong focus on car theft with small emphasis on psychological and cognitive variables to investigate potential crimes in this environment. Furthermore, there is limited literature on such crimes in South America, particularly in Brazil. This study has the objective of offering an instrument to assess risk perception in public and private parking lots of free circulation, as well as to understand and describe how individual values influence this variable regarding civilians' and police officers' perception of hazards present in free circulation public and private parking lots. A psychometrically valid risk perception and security attitude scale is presented. The scores of the two groups were predicted by human values. It was observed a mapping of risk situations in parking lots, as well as attitudes that can prevent crimes. Implications for the development of social public safety policies are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11896-022-09511-z.

Purpose in Life, Loneliness, and Protective Health Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and Objectives

Social distancing, while effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), can increase social isolation. The current preregistered study examined purpose in life as a psychological resource that may buffer against loneliness and increase intentions to engage in health-protective behaviors.

Research Design and Methods

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 517 adults (mean = 37.71, SD = 11.30; range = 19–73) reported their levels of purpose in life, current and prepandemic levels of loneliness, and degrees to which they intended to engage in behaviors known to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Results

Across age, having a stronger sense of purpose in life was associated with lower loneliness, as well as greater intentions to engage in COVID-protective behaviors. Higher loneliness was associated with lower intentions to maintain social distance and engage in additional health promotion behaviors such as handwashing. However, this link was not present at higher levels of purpose in life. Older age was also associated with less loneliness, but not for individuals with lower levels of purpose in life.

Discussion and Implications

Results suggest that psychological resources such as purpose in life are associated with increased protective health behaviors. Furthermore, purpose in life may reduce loneliness and counteract the negative effects of stressors that diminish the willingness to engage in health-protective behaviors. Our data also highlight resilience among older individuals in times of isolation during a global pandemic.

The plasticity of well-being: A training-based framework for the cultivation of human flourishing

Research indicates that core dimensions of psychological well-being can be cultivated through intentional mental training. Despite growing research in this area and an increasing number of interventions designed to improve psychological well-being, the field lacks a unifying framework that clarifies the dimensions of human flourishing that can be cultivated. Here, we integrate evidence from well-being research, cognitive and affective neuroscience, and clinical psychology to highlight four core dimensions of well-being-awareness, connection, insight, and purpose. We discuss the importance of each dimension for psychological well-being, identify mechanisms that underlie their cultivation, and present evidence of their neural and psychological plasticity. This synthesis highlights key insights, as well as important gaps, in the scientific understanding of well-being and how it may be cultivated, thus highlighting future research directions.

Adherence to Life-Style Recommendations and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Population-Based Study of Children Aged 10 to 11 Years

OBJECTIVE

The incidence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among children and youth is high, and temporal increases have been paralleled by deteriorating life-styles. Poor diet quality, physical inactivity, poor sleep habits, and sedentary behaviors have all been associated with ADHD. However, no earlier prospective study has examined the independent and combined importance of meeting established life-style recommendations in childhood for ADHD in adolescence. We examined the associations of adherence to life-style recommendations with the incidence of ADHD and the utilization of health services associated with ADHD.

METHODS

Life-style survey among 10- and 11-year-old students (N = 3436) was linked to administrative health data. Associations between adherence to nine established life-style recommendations with ADHD diagnosis and number of physician visits for ADHD until age 14 years were examined using Cox proportional hazard and negative binomial regression.

RESULTS

Before age 14 years, 10.8% of students received an ADHD diagnosis. Meeting recommendations for vegetables and fruit, meat and alternatives, saturated fat, added sugar, and physical activity was associated with fewer ADHD diagnoses. Compared with children who met one to three recommendations, meeting seven to nine recommendations was associated with substantially lower incidence of ADHD and fewer physician visits related to ADHD (hazard ratio = 0.42 [95% confidence interval = 0.28-0.61]; rate ratio = 0.38 [95% confidence interval = 0.22-0.65]).

CONCLUSIONS

Life-style recommendations exist to benefit development and physical health. Their promotion comes at no harm and may have benefits for ADHD. Experimental evidence is needed to clarify the potential bidirectional relationship between ADHD and adverse health behaviors.

How Are Personal Values Linked to Help-Seeking Stigma?

The extent to which individuals prioritize different personal values may be conceptually linked to the perceptions of societal stigma associated with seeking psychological help (public stigma), as well as the extent to which they apply that stigma to themselves (self-stigma). We examined how personal values predicted public stigma and self-stigma of seeking psychological help. Undergraduates ( N = 342) from two universities, one historically Black college/university and one predominantly White institution, completed questionnaires assessing personal values and public stigma and self-stigma of seeking psychological help. Self-transcendence values predicted lower self-stigma directly and indirectly via public stigma. Though there were no structural differences between the modeled relationships of values, public stigma, and self-stigma between Black/African American and White/European American undergraduates, the groups differed in their prioritization of self-transcendence, openness to change, and conservation values. Results suggest that understanding how individuals prioritize certain values over others may help explain group-differences in help-seeking stigmas.

Addressing personal parental values in decisions about childhood vaccination: Measure development

OBJECTIVE

Evidence-based strategies to address vaccine hesitancy are lacking. Personal values are a measurable psychological construct that could be used to deliver personalized messages to influence vaccine hesitancy and behavior. Our objectives were to develop a valid, reliable self-report survey instrument to measure vaccine values based on the Schwartz theory of basic human values, and to test the hypothesis that vaccine values are distinct from vaccine attitudes and are related to vaccine hesitancy and behavior.

METHODS

Parental Vaccine Values (PVV) scale items were generated using formative qualitative research and expert input, yielding 24 items for testing. 295 parents of children aged 14-30 months completed a self-report survey with measures of Schwartz's global values, the PVV, vaccine attitudes, and vaccine hesitancy. Factor analysis was used to determine vaccine values factor structure. Associations between vaccine values, vaccine attitudes, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccination behavior were assessed using linear and logistic regression models. Late vaccination was assessed from electronic medical records.

RESULTS

A six-factor structure for vaccine values was determined with good fit (RMSEA = 0.07, Bentler's CFI = 0.91) with subscales for Conformity, Universalism, Tradition, Self-Direction, Security- Disease Prevention, and Security- Vaccine Risk. Vaccine values were moderately associated with Schwartz global values and vaccine attitudes, indicating discriminant validity from these constructs. Multivariable linear regression showed vaccine hesitancy was associated with vaccine values Conformity (partial R² = 0.10) and Universalism (0.04) and vaccine attitudes Vaccine Safety (0.52) and Vaccine Benefit (0.16). Multivariable logistic regression showed that late vaccination was associated with vaccine value Self-direction (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.26-2.65) and vaccine attitude of Vaccine Benefit (OR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.32-0.60).

CONCLUSIONS

The PVV scale had good psychometric properties and appears related to but distinct from Schwartz global values and vaccine attitudes. Vaccine values are associated with vaccine hesitancy and late vaccination and may be useful in tailoring future interventions.

Cognitive regulation of ventromedial prefrontal activity evokes lasting change in the perceived self-relevance of persuasive messaging

Persuasive messages can change people's thoughts, feelings, and actions, but these effects depend on how people think about and appraise the meaning of these messages. Drawing from research on the cognitive control of emotion, we used neuroimaging to investigate neural mechanisms underlying cognitive regulation of the affective and persuasive impact of advertisements communicating the risks of binge drinking, a significant public health problem. Using cognitive control to up-regulate (vs. down-regulate) responses to the ads increased: negative affect related to consequences of excessive drinking, perceived ad effectiveness, and ratings of ad self-relevance made after a one-hour delay. Neurally, these effects of cognitive control were mediated by goal-congruent modulation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex and distributed brain patterns associated with negative emotion and subjective valuation. These findings suggest that people can leverage cognitive control resources to deliberately shape responses to persuasive appeals, and identify mechanisms of emotional reactivity and integrative valuation that underlie this ability. Specifically, brain valuation pattern expression mediated the effect of cognitive goals on perceived message self-relevance, suggesting a role for the brain's valuation system in shaping responses to persuasive appeals in a manner that persists over time.

Examining interpersonal self-transcendence as a potential mechanism linking meditation and social outcomes

Distinct types of meditation practice addressed in this review can help cultivate skills people may bring to later social interactions. We examine self-transcendence, or the drive to benefit others beyond the self, as a key mechanism through which meditation may promote positive social outcomes. Self-transcendence cultivated through various styles of meditation can impact social outcomes through two main pathways: First, self-transcendence can turn rigid, defensive self-focus into flexible and receptive self-construals. Second, it can increase positive other-focus by integrating reward and social signals in the brain. These accounts offer one practical solution of positively transforming social relations and highlight potential usefulness of considering self-transcendence in researching social effects of meditation.

The Neurobiology of Health Communication

This issue of Psychosomatic Medicine describes findings from an innovative study by Kang et al that used neuroimaging methods to quantify neural responses to health communications. Findings indicated that sedentary individuals who hold self-transcendent values show attenuated limbic threat responses to communications about the benefits of physical activity. Furthermore, participants who were instructed to articulate such values showed some evidence of additional blunting of the same neural response. In this editorial, we provide context for the interpretation of these findings within the existing research using the brain-as-predictor approach, and other recent trends within biobehavioral medicine involving the use of neuroscience methods in the service of health behavior change.