A replication and extension of the interpersonal process model of demand/withdraw behavior: Incorporating subjective emotional experience

The demand/withdraw (D/W) interaction pattern is a maladaptive cycle of behavior that is associated with a wide range of deleterious individual and relational outcomes. Partners' emotional responding during couple conflict has long been theorized to play a central role in the occurrence of D/W. The interpersonal process model of D/W behavior suggests that each partner's emotional responses are associated with their own as well as the other partner's behavior in the D/W cycle and that the nature of these associations varies across partners. A prior test of the interpersonal process model provided support for sex- and role-specific associations between vocal emotional expression and demanding and withdrawing behaviors. The current study expands the conceptual frame of the interpersonal process model by incorporating subjective emotional experience. Hypothesized associations between subjective emotional experience, emotional expression, and role-specific demanding and withdrawing behaviors were tested in a sample of 59 couples using an actor-partner interdependence model. Results reveal that spouses experience and express nonsignificantly different levels of negative affect but strongly differ in how the experience and expression of those emotions are related to demanding and withdrawing behaviors. High levels of women's demanding behavior were associated with the combination of experiencing and expressing high levels of negative affect, while high levels of men's withdrawing behavior were associated with experiencing high levels of negative affect but expressing low levels of negative affect. Implications of results for understanding emotional processes in maladaptive cycles and for clinical practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Associations Between Physical Activity Enjoyment and Age-Related Decline in Physical Activity in Children-Results From a Longitudinal Within-Person Study

Physical activity declines from childhood to adolescence. Affective factors may partially account for this decline. The present study investigated whether within-person changes in children's enjoyment of physical activity are associated with the age-related decline in physical activity. Children (N = 169, 54% female, 56% Hispanic; 8-12 years old at enrollment) took part in a longitudinal study with six assessment waves across 3 years. At each wave, enjoyment of physical activity was reported, and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) was measured with an accelerometer across seven consecutive days. MVPA and enjoyment of physical activity both declined across waves. Multilevel analyses revealed that within-person changes in enjoyment moderated the effects of age on within-person changes in MVPA. Enjoyment appeared to be a dynamic factor that buffered against the age-related decline in physical activity in youth. These findings call for health promotion interventions that encourage enjoyable physical activities.

The Emerging Role of Interdisciplinarity in Clinical Psychoanalysis

Given the tight interconnections proposed between brain and psyche, psychoanalysis was conceptualized as an interdisciplinary theory right from the beginning. The diversification of knowledge performed by different science and technology fields, concerned with the same matter (explaining mind and brain and connecting them), makes this interdisciplinarity even more visible and evident. This challenges the integrative potential lying in psychoanalytic meta-theory.

A Book Interaction Scheme to Enhance Children's Reading Experiences and Preferences

The interaction between children and books is an essential part of the reading experience. Publishers all over the world are working to cultivate reading habits in children and attract attention to traditional books. Considering the invaluable nature of these early reading experiences. This paper investigated the effects of book interaction design on 5–6 years old children, taking into account reading preferences, measuring reading time, and emotional response to improve their reading experience and potentially design books according to these interactions. The results showed that preschool children (5–6 years old) prefer sensory interaction, and that book interaction design has a significant influence on reading time, affective experience, and subjective ratings. Girls around 5–6 years preferred folding interaction and pop-up interaction in reading. This study summarizes these results in order to provide practical guidelines for book publishers, enabling them to design better books for children.

Does Work Stressors Lead to Abusive Supervision? A Study of Differentiated Effects of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors

Purpose

From the perspective of affective events theory, the present study examines whether two distinct categories stressors (challenge-hindrance stressors) have different effects (hindrance or promotion) on abusive supervision.

Materials and Methods

The data of 203 pairs of supervisor–subordinate have been collected from 12 different Chinese enterprises.We first conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) in Lisrel software to test the model’s validity. And then, we used the descriptive statistics to example the correlations of variables. Finally, we conducted hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap methods to test hypotheses.

Results

The finding shows that two distinct categories stressors have different indirect effects (hindrance or promotion) on abusive supervision. Specifically, challenge stressors reduce abusive supervision through positive affective experience, while hindrance stressors increase abusive supervision through negative affective experience. In addition, locus of control plays a first-stage moderated-mediation role in the indirect effect of challenge stressors on abusive supervision and in the indirect effect of hindrance stressors on abusive supervision.

Conclusion

This study offers some comprehensive insights for why and when challenge stressors and hindrance stressors have different effects on abusive supervision. This study extends the current literature by directly testing two different underlying psychological mechanisms (resource acquisition and resource depletion), which are responsible for the different effects of challenge stressors and hindrance stressors. Also, individuals’ cognitive attribution tendency is confirmed as boundary conditions of the direct effect of work stressors on affective experience and indirect effects of work stressors on abusive supervision.

Mindfulness, Experiential Avoidance, and Affective Experience in Older Adults

Subjective well-being is comprised of two components: affective experience and life satisfaction. Older adulthood is marked by changes and challenges that have the potential to diminish well-being. As the proportion of older adults in the population rises, it is becoming increasingly important to identify factors that may be protective against these potentially detrimental events. Mindfulness and acceptance constructs have been shown to be associated with affective experience across the lifespan. However, little work has examined which facets of mindfulness drive these associations. The current study aimed to explore the associations between acceptance and mindfulness processes and positive and negative affect in older adults. Eighty-five healthy older adults completed self-report measures of mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and positive and negative affect. Results from linear regression analyses indicated that the act with awareness and nonreactivity facets of mindfulness were particularly important in their contribution to positive affect. Additionally, higher levels of experiential avoidance accounted for significant variance in negative affect. These findings help to elucidate how mindfulness and acceptance processes play a role in affective experience in older adults. Future studies should explore these facets in clinical populations to help create more targeted clinical goals.

Do Narcissists Enjoy Visiting Social Networking Sites? It Depends on How Adaptive They Are

Previous evidence suggests that narcissistic people tend to visit social networking sites (SNS) frequently, but the emotions accompanying their engagement on such sites has not been a significant subject of study. Therefore, we examined the relationship between narcissism and the affective experience on SNS in two different samples. To do so, we not only examined narcissism as a whole but also distinguished between adaptive and maladaptive narcissism. Results of the two studies consistently showed that: (1) narcissism as a whole was not correlated with the SNS affective experience; (2) maladaptive narcissism was predictive of a worse affective experience on SNS; and (3) partly due to a positive correlation with self-esteem, adaptive narcissism was associated with a better SNS affective experience. In addition, these findings held with SNS activities considered in simultaneity. The present research extends our understanding of the relationship between narcissism and social networking as well as that between emotion and social networking.

Affective Experience on Social Networking Sites Predicts Psychological Well-Being Off-Line

Previous studies have pondered the relevance of social networking sites (SNSs) to psychological well-being, but few have taken online affective experience into consideration. To extend previous research on the relationship between SNSs and psychological well-being, we opted to target emotions experienced while visiting SNSs as a means to predict off-line well-being. In our two studies, we surveyed affective experience on SNSs, overall life satisfaction, and general emotional well-being of young adults who access SNSs regularly. The results consistently demonstrated a positive association between SNS affective experience and off-line well-being. This finding held with SNS activities (Studies 1 and 2) and relevant personality traits (i.e., the Big Five factors, self-esteem; Study 2) considered in simultaneity. Our research highlights the important role of affective experience on SNSs in predicting off-line well-being as well as helps clarify the relationship between SNSs and well-being.

Modulating affective experience and emotional intelligence with loving kindness meditation and transcranial direct current stimulation: A pilot study

Positive emotional perceptions and healthy emotional intelligence (EI) are important for social functioning. In this study, we investigated whether loving kindness meditation (LKM) combined with anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would facilitate improvements in EI and changes in affective experience of visual stimuli. LKM has been shown to increase positive emotional experiences and we hypothesized that tDCS could enhance these effects. Eighty-seven undergraduates were randomly assigned to 30 minutes of LKM or a relaxation control recording with anodal tDCS applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (left dlPFC) or right temporoparietal junction (right TPJ) at 0.1 or 2.0 milliamps. The primary outcomes were self-reported affect ratings of images from the International Affective Picture System and EI as measured by the Mayer, Salovey and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. Results indicated no effects of training on EI, and no main effects of LKM, electrode placement, or tDCS current strength on affect ratings. There was a significant interaction of electrode placement by meditation condition (p = 0.001), such that those assigned to LKM and right TPJ tDCS, regardless of current strength, rated neutral and positive images more positively after training. Results suggest that LKM may enhance positive affective experience.

The Selfie Paradox: Nobody Seems to Like Them Yet Everyone Has Reasons to Take Them. An Exploration of Psychological Functions of Selfies in Self-Presentation

Selfies appear as a double-edged phenomenon. Taking, posting, and viewing selfies has become a daily habit for many. At the same time, research revealed that selfies often evoke criticism and disrespect, and are associated with non-authenticity and narcissism. The present study (N = 238) sheds further light on the somewhat contradictory phenomenon of selfies and their psychological value. In addition to previous studies on selfies and personality traits, the present research explores relations to popular, habitual self-presentation strategies, self-reflections on own and others’ selfie-taking behavior, selfie-related affect, and perceived consequences of selfies, by applying a combination of self-constructed and existing scales [e.g., habitual self-presentation scales (Merzbacher, 2007), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson et al., 1988)]. Our findings confirmed habitual self-presentation strategies as a relevant factor for understanding selfies: Participants scoring high on self-promotion (promoting one’s strength and abilities) and self-disclosure (revealing one’s feelings for earning sympathy) felt especially positive while takings selfies, whereas understatement was correlated with negative feelings. Nevertheless, self-presentational motives were rather attributed to others’ selfies than to own selfies. Moreover, others were assumed to have more fun and positive feelings while taking selfies whereas own selfies were judged as more authentic and self-ironic. Altogether, participants expressed a distanced attitude toward selfies, with stronger agreement for potential negative consequences (threats to self-esteem, illusionary world) than for positive consequences (e.g., relatedness, independence), and a clear preference (82%) for viewing more usual pictures instead of selfies in social media. The revealed selfie-bias, i.e., the systematic discrepancy between judgments on own versus others’ selfies, and the reported critical attitude toward selfies allows multiple interpretations. Taking peoples’ statements literally, selfies should have never become as popular as they actually are. On the other hand, the selfie bias may fulfill a psychological function. Perceiving one’s own selfie behavior as self-ironic and only half-committed, allows to fulfill self-presentational needs without feeling narcissistic. In conclusion, we suggest that the playful and somewhat ambiguous support of self-presentation may be a key factor for the success of selfies. Relations to biases and mechanisms from social psychology, limitations of the present study and implications for future research are discussed.

Emotional blunting following left basal ganglia stroke: the role of depression and fronto-limbic functional alterations

Disorders of the basal ganglia (BG) alter perception and experience of emotions. Left hemisphere BG (LBG) stroke is also associated with depression. The interplay between depression and alterations in emotional processing following LBG stroke was examined. Evoked affective responses to emotion-laden pictorial stimuli were compared among LBG stroke and healthy participants and participants with stroke damage in brain regions not including the LBG selected to equate depression severity (measured using the Hamilton Depression Scale) with LBG damage participants. Brain activity {[O(15)]water positron emission tomography, PET} was measured in LBG stroke relative to healthy participants to identify changes in regions associated with emotion processing and depression. LBG stroke subjects reported less intense emotions compared with healthy, but not stroke comparison participants. Depression negatively correlated with emotional experience for positive and negative emotions. In response to positive stimuli, LBG subjects exhibited higher activity in amygdala, anterior cingulate, dorsal prefrontal cortex, and insula compared to healthy volunteers. In response to negative stimuli, LBG subjects demonstrated lower activity in right frontal-polar region and fusiform gyrus. Higher baseline activity in amygdala and ventral and mesial prefrontal cortex and lower activity in left dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex were associated with higher depression scores. LBG stroke led to blunted emotions, and brain activity alterations accounting for reduced affective experience, awareness and depression. Depression and fronto-limbic activity changes may contribute to emotional blunting following LBG stroke.

The relation of expression recognition and affective experience in facial expression processing: an event-related potential study

The present study investigates the relationship of expression recognition and affective experience during facial expression processing by event-related potentials (ERP). Facial expressions used in the present study can be divided into three categories: positive (happy), neutral (neutral), and negative (angry). Participants were asked to finish two kinds of facial recognition tasks: one was easy, and the other was difficult. In the easy task, significant main effects were found for different valence conditions, meaning that emotions were evoked effectively when participants recognized the expressions in facial expression processing. However, no difference was found in the difficult task, meaning that even if participants had identified the expressions correctly, no relevant emotion was evoked during the process. The findings suggest that emotional experience was not simultaneous with expression identification in facial expression processing, and the affective experience process could be suppressed in challenging cognitive tasks. The results indicate that we should pay attention to the level of cognitive load when using facial expressions as emotion-eliciting materials in emotion studies; otherwise, the emotion may not be evoked effectively.