Age-Based Positivity Effects in Imagining and Recalling Future Positive and Negative Autobiographical Events

The impact of psychological distress, socio-demographic and work-related factors on coping strategies used by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

AIM

This study aimed to determine factors associated with coping strategies used by nursing staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 365 nurses were selected from referral hospitals for COVID-19 patients in Tabriz, Iran between February 2022 and July 2022. An online self-administered questionnaire was distributed through social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Instagram. The survey package included a modified Brief COPE scale, socio-demographic and work-related questions, and a measure of psychological distress. Multiple regression analysis examined associated factors with coping strategies in SPSS. The study adhered to the STROBE guidelines for reporting.

RESULTS

The mean age of participants was 31.2 (7.3) years old. Of the 365 participants, 209 (58.9%) used maladaptive coping strategies, and 214 (57.6%) reported experiencing psychological distress. Psychological distress was the strongest predictor of maladaptive coping strategies (β = 4.473, p < 0.001). Female nurses (β = 3.259, p < 0.05), nurses who were under 35 years of age (β = 3.214, p < 0.05), nurses with fewer than ten years of experience (β = 2.416, p < 0.001), those who worked in COVID-19 ICUs (β = 4.321, p < 0.001), floor nurses (β = 2.344, p < 0.001), and those who worked two or more years in COVID-19 settings (β = 3.293, p < 0.001) had higher mean scores in maladaptive coping strategies.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contributions.

Simulating the best and worst of times: the powers and perils of emotional simulation

We are remarkably capable of simulating events that we have never experienced. These simulated events often paint an emotional picture to behold, such as the best and worst possible outcomes that we might face. This review synthesises dispersed literature exploring the role of emotion in simulation. Drawing from work that suggests that simulations can influence our preferences, decision-making, and prosociality, we argue for a critical role of emotion in informing the consequences of simulation. We further unpack burgeoning evidence suggesting that the effects of emotional simulation transcend the laboratory. We propose avenues by which emotional simulation may be harnessed for both personal and collective good in applied contexts. We conclude by offering important future directions.

Prevalence and correlates of antisocial personality disorder in older adults

OBJECTIVES

There is a paucity of research on antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in the geriatric population and the majority of knowledge on the disorder is drawn from young adult samples. Researchers posit that the prevalence of ASPD as well as other personality disorders (PDs) is underestimated among older adults. Using a nationally representative sample, the present study examines the prevalence and correlates of ASPD in adults ages 50 and older.

METHODS

We analyzed data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions Waves I and III. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to investigate associations between ASPD and sociodemographic characteristics. A series of logistic regression analyses were also conducted to study associations between ASPD and medical conditions (liver and cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and stomach ulcer), major psychiatric disorders (lifetime major depressive disorder, mania, and generalized anxiety disorder), and substance use disorders (lifetime alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and nicotine use disorders).

RESULTS

Findings indicated that the prevalence of ASPD increases through early adulthood, with a peak at 3.91% in younger adults and decline to 0.78% in adults ages ≥65. Older adults with ASPD are more likely to be diagnosed with a substance use disorder, major depression, mania, and generalized anxiety disorder as well as each medical condition.

CONCLUSION

Older adults with ASPD experience increased rates of medical and psychiatric comorbidities. These conditions exacerbate the existing challenges associated with diagnosing and treating this population and may have serious consequences for the patient, their caregivers and society.

Prospective Memory and Positivity Bias in the COVID-19 Health Crisis: The Effects of Aging

This study aimed to determine whether the observed tendency to remember more positive than negative past events (positivity phenomena) also appears when recalling hypothetical events about the future. In this study, young, middle-aged, and older adults were presented with 28 statements about the future associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, half positive and half negative. In addition, half of these statements were endowed with personal implications while the other half had a more social connotations. Participants rated their agreement/disagreement with each statement and, after a distraction task, they recalled as many statements as possible. There was no difference in the agreement ratings between the three age groups, but the participants agreed with positive statements more than with negative ones and they identified more with statements of social content than of personal content. The younger and older individuals recalled more statements than the middle-aged people. More importantly, older participants recalled more positive than negative statements (positivity effect), and showed a greater tendency to turn negative statements into more positive or neutral ones (positivity bias). These findings showed that the positivity effect occurs in even such complex and situations as the present pandemic, especially in older adults. The results are discussed by reference to the notion of commission errors and false memories resulting from the activation of cognitive biases.

Looking on the Bright Side: Aging and the Impact of Emotional Future Simulation on Subsequent Memory

OBJECTIVES

When younger adults simulated positive future events, subsequent memory is positively biased. In the current studies, we explore age-related changes in the impact of emotional future simulation on subsequent memory.

METHODS

In Experiment 1, younger and older adults simulated emotional future events before learning the hypothetical outcome of each event via narratives. Memory was assessed for emotional details contained in those narratives. In Experiment 2, a shorter temporal delay between simulation and narrative encoding was used to reduce decay of simulation memory over time.

RESULTS

Future simulation did not bias subsequent memory for older adults in Experiment 1. However, older adults performed similar to younger adults in Experiment 2, with more liberal responses to positive information after positive simulation.

DISCUSSION

The impact of an optimistic outlook on subsequent memory is reduced with age, which may be at least partly attributable to declining memory for future simulations over time. This work broadens our understanding of the functional consequences of age-related declines in episodic future simulation and adds to previous work showing reduced benefits of simulation with age on tasks tapping adaptive functions.

Age-related changes in repetition suppression of neural activity during emotional future simulation

Despite advances in understanding the consequences of age-related episodic memory decline for future simulation, much remains unknown regarding changes in the neural underpinnings of future thinking with age. We used a repetition suppression paradigm to explore age-related changes in the neural correlates of emotional future simulation. Younger and older adults simulated positive, negative, and neutral future events either 2 or 5 times. Reductions in neural activity for events simulated 5 versus 2 times (i.e., repetition suppression) identify brain regions responsive to the specific emotion of simulated events. Critically, older adults showed greater repetition suppression than younger adults in the temporal pole for negative simulations, and the cuneus for positive simulations. These findings suggest that older adults distance themselves from negative future possibilities by thinking about them in a more semantic way, consistent with the view that older adults down-regulate negative affect and up-regulate positive affect. More broadly this study increases our understanding of the impact of aging on the neural underpinnings of episodic future simulation.

Memory of Medical Scenarios for End-of-Life Support Preferences

We studied memory of health scenarios for end-of-life support decisions and stability of life support preferences. Psychology students (n = 36, age M = 27.25, SD = 6.21, 64% females) were administered the Life Support Preferences Questionnaire to assess their memory of six medical scenarios with different prognoses, care treatment, and end-of-life support choices. Recall, recognition, confidence and decision stability were assessed immediately and one month later. Correct recall decreased and incorrect recall increased from immediate to long-term recall, F(2, 68) = 74.38, p < .001, η2p = .69. In recall, participants spontaneously gave false information consistent with prior knowledge of illnesses and medical scenarios. Participants who had suffered a disease or serious accident did worse on correct recall, F(1, 34) = 6.59, p = .015, η2p = .16, and had more errors, F(1, 34) = 4.68, p = .038, η2p = .12, than participants who had not. In the recognition test there were no differences between hits and false alarms, showing the difficulty in discriminating between true and false contents. Confidence was greater for hits than for false alarms, F(1, 34) = 10.86, p = .002, η2p = .24, but this subjective measure did not seem to be a good predictor of accuracy because confidence was greater than the mean value for hits (p = .001, d = 1.74) and for false alarms (p = .001, d = 0.96). Long-term memory was quite poor and biased, but life support preferences did not change much.