Experimental test of the affect-regulation theory of bulimic symptoms and substance use: a randomized trial

OBJECTIVE

Conduct a randomized trial to test whether a cognitive behavioral intervention designed to decrease depressive symptoms produces subsequent decreases in bulimic and substance use symptoms.

METHOD

Female participants (N = 145) with elevated depressive symptoms were randomly assigned to a 4-session depression intervention or a measurement-only condition and assessed through 6-month follow-up.

RESULTS

Relative to control participants, intervention participants showed decreases in depressive symptoms. Intervention participants also showed significantly greater reductions in bulimic symptoms, but not substance use, and change in depressive symptoms mediated this effect for bulimic symptoms.

CONCLUSION

The results provide experimental support for the theory that affect disturbances contribute to bulimic pathology, but do not support the affect regulation theory of substance use.

Wellbeing in Urban Greenery: The Role of Naturalness and Place Identity

The aim was to investigate effects of urban greenery (high vs. low naturalness) on place identity and wellbeing, and the links between place identity and wellbeing. It was shown that participants (Gothenburg, Sweden, N = 1347) estimated a stronger attachment/closeness/belonging (emotional component of place-identity), and more remembrance and thinking about and mental travel (cognitive component of place-identity) in relation to high vs. low perceived naturalness. High naturalness was also reported to generate higher wellbeing in participants than low naturalness. Furthermore, place identity was shown to predict participants' wellbeing in urban greenery, accounting for 35% of variance explained by the regression. However, there was a stronger relationship between the emotional vs. the cognitive component of place identity and wellbeing. Finally, a significant role of place identity in mediating the naturalness-wellbeing relationship was shown, indicating that the naturalness-wellbeing connection can be partly accounted for by the psychological mechanisms of people-place bonding.

Nonsuicidal self-injury as an affect-regulation strategy and the moderating role of impulsivity

BACKGROUND

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is used to cope with negative affect states. We investigated the association between impulsivity and this affect-regulation process.

METHOD

Affect states associated with NSSI and impulsivity traits were evaluated in 30 Italian adolescent self-injurers (63.3% female, mean age = 16.63, SD = 0.56).

RESULTS

Nonsuicidal self-injury was associated with decreases in affective arousal, but impulsivity moderated other affective changes. High impulsivity was associated with increases in negative high-arousal affects after NSSI, whereas low impulsivity was associated with increases in positive affects after NSSI.

CONCLUSION

Impulsivity traits influenced the success or failure of the NSSI affect-regulation process.

When death is not a problem: Regulating implicit negative affect under mortality salience

Terror management theory assumes that death arouses existential anxiety in humans which is suppressed in focal attention. Whereas most studies provide indirect evidence for negative affect under mortality salience by showing cultural worldview defenses and self-esteem strivings, there is only little direct evidence for implicit negative affect under mortality salience. In the present study, we assume that this implicit affective reaction towards death depends on people's ability to self-regulate negative affect as assessed by the personality dimension of action versus state orientation. Consistent with our expectations, action-oriented participants judged artificial words to express less negative affect under mortality salience compared to control conditions whereas state-oriented participants showed the reversed pattern.

INSECURE ATTACHMENTS AND THEIR INTERMINGLING TRANSFERENCES

There are least two different but interrelated motivational systems in human beings both of which begin in infancy: the attachment system and the separate, but interacting, psychodynamic system. Each of these systems is the basis of transference. A major focus of the paper is the affect-regulating feature of the attachment system. Infants' emotional states can be well-regulated or dysregulated as they emerge in interactions with their primary caregiver. Aberrant interactions of dysregulation typically lead to the development of insecure or disorganized attachments. Rudimentary transference fantasies initially emerge as the child makes sense or meaning about such maladaptive interactions. Our complex minds comprise multi-determined, personally organized fantasies which include those derived from both the attachment system and the psychodynamic one. I present a clinical description of how these two transference fantasies intersect in the mental life of a patient. A clinical case is offered whose focus is on enactments, transferences, and countertransference.