Do Positive Psychological Factors Equally Predict Resistance to Upper Respiratory Infections in African and European Americans?

Examining Links Between Distinct Affective States and Tobacco Lapse During a Cessation Attempt Among African Americans: A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Affect states are posited to play a pivotal role in addiction-related processes, including tobacco lapse (i.e., smoking during a quit attempt), and distinct affective states (e.g., joy vs. happiness) may differentially influence lapse likelihood. However, few studies have examined the influence of distinct affective states on tobacco lapse.

PURPOSE

This study examines the influence of 23 distinct affect states on tobacco lapse among a sample of tobacco users attempting to quit.

METHODS

Participants were 220 adults who identified as African American (50% female, ages 18-74). Ecological momentary assessment was used to assess affect and lapse in real-time. Between and within-person associations testing links between distinct affect states and lapse were examined with multilevel modeling for binary outcomes.

RESULTS

After adjusting for previous time's lapse and for all other positive or negative affect items, results suggested that at the between-person level, joy was associated with lower odds of lapse, and at the within-person level, attentiveness was associated with lower odds of lapse. Results also suggested that at the between-person level, guilt and nervous were associated with higher odds of lapse, and at the within-person level, shame was associated with higher odds of lapse.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study uses real-time, real-world data to demonstrate the role of distinct positive and negative affects on momentary tobacco lapse. This work helps elucidate specific affective experiences that facilitate or hinder the ability to abstain from tobacco use during a quit attempt.

Self-Rated Health and Mortality: Moderation by Purpose in Life

Poor self-rated health consistently predicts reduced longevity, even when objective disease conditions and risk factors are considered. Purpose in life is also a reliable predictor of diverse health outcomes, including greater longevity. Given prior work in which we showed that purpose in life moderated the association between chronic conditions and health-related biological factors, the aim of the current study was to examine the role of purpose in life in moderating the relationship between subjective health and mortality. We also examined potential differences in these associations by race/ethnicity. Data were from two large national longitudinal studies-the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study-with a 12- to 14-year follow-up period for mortality estimates. Results of logistic regression analyses showed that purpose in life and self-rated health were both significantly positively associated with longevity, and that purpose in life significantly moderated the relationship between self-rated health and mortality. Stratified analyses showed similar results across all racial/ethnic groups, with the exception of Black MIDUS participants. These results suggest that greater purpose in life may provide a buffer against the greater probability of mortality associated with poor subjective health.

Well-being: Strengthening and Broadening a Key Psychological Construct

Park et al.'s (2022) goal of bringing conceptual clarity to the study of psychological aspects of well-being is a good one. We consider their work in terms of its implications for moving towards an understanding of well-being that reflects the full spectrum of human experience, especially the experience of people who remain underrepresented, and poorly accounted for, in psychological science. In our view, there is reason to think that strengthening existing frameworks and broadening in terms of methodologies will be most productive for developing a comprehensive and inclusive understanding of well-being. We describe the distinct strength of the subjective well-being (SWB) construct for this purpose and offer two empirical examples that highlight the value of multiple measures and methods for understanding well-being. We suggest that continued use of the SWB measure, combined with state-of-the-art emotion measurement, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies be recommended as the way forward.

Psychology Meets Biology in COVID-19: What We Know and Why It Matters for Public Health

Psychosocial factors are related to immune, viral, and vaccination outcomes. Yet, this knowledge has been poorly represented in public health initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic. This review provides an overview of biopsychosocial links relevant to COVID-19 outcomes by describing seminal evidence about these associations known prepandemic as well as contemporary research conducted during the pandemic. This focuses on the negative impact of the pandemic on psychosocial health and how this in turn has likely consequences for critically relevant viral and vaccination outcomes. We end by looking forward, highlighting the potential of psychosocial interventions that could be leveraged to support all people in navigating a postpandemic world and how a biopsychosocial approach to health could be incorporated into public health responses to future pandemics.

A daily diary study on stressors, hurt feelings, aggression, and somatic symptoms: The role of rejection sensitivity and negative emotion differentiation

The current study adopted a daily diary design to examine associations of daily stressors and hurt feelings to three unfavorable daily outcomes, including verbal aggression, physical aggression, and somatic symptoms and the moderation of rejection sensitivity and negative emotion regulation on the relations between these daily variables. A total of 248 college students participated in the daily diary study in which they responded to the assessment on a daily basis for 7 consecutive days. The results indicated that daily stressors predicted daily verbal aggression; daily stressors, daily hurt feelings, and rejection sensitivity predicted somatic symptoms. Negative emotion regulation moderated the association between stressors and verbal aggression such that more stressors and high negative emotion regulation predicted more frequent daily verbal aggression. Rejection sensitivity moderated the association of hurt feelings to verbal and physical aggression. Perception of hurt feelings and high rejection sensitivity predicted more verbal aggression but less physical aggression. Rejection sensitivity also moderated the association of stressors to somatic symptoms such that more stressors and high rejection sensitivity predicted more somatic symptoms. The findings collectively highlight the importance of supporting individuals with high rejection sensitivity to encode social cues in a healthy way. It is imperative to provide emotion regulation skills to cope with negative emotions derived from social interactions.