Examinations of chronic pain and affect relationships: Applications of a dynamic model of affect.

Two studies of the relationship between pain and negative affect are presented in this article: a study of weekly fluctuations in pain and negative affect among those with arthritis and a study of daily fluctuations in pain and negative affect for participants with fibromyalgia. The roles of positive affect and mood clarity (or the ability to distinguish between different emotions) in modifying the size of the relationship between pain and negative affect were examined in both studies as a means of testing the predictions of a dynamic model of affect regulation. In both studies, the presence of positive affect reduced the size of the relationship between pain and negative affect. Also, for arthritis participants with greater mood clarity, there was less overlap in ratings of negative and positive affective states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait positive affect buffers the effects of acute stress on skin barrier recovery.

Objective: This study examines the role of self-reported trait positive affect (PA) on skin barrier recovery after skin disruption, and whether the role of trait PA in wound healing is consistent with the direct effects model or the stress-buffering model of PA and health. Design: Sixty healthy participants (mean age 22.7 ± 3.9 years) completed a self-report measure of trait positive and negative affect, underwent a “tape-stripping” procedure that disrupts normal skin barrier function, and were randomly assigned to a Stress (Trier Social Stress Test) or No Stress (reading task) condition. Main Outcome Measures: Skin barrier recovery was assessed by measuring transepidermal water loss up to 2 hr after skin disruption. Results: Multilevel modeling indicated that greater trait PA was related to faster skin barrier recovery (p     

Affect regulation and temporal discounting: Interactions between primed, state, and trait affect.

Previous research has largely focused on the influence of experienced affect on decision making; however, other sources of affective information may also shape decisions. In two studies, we examine the interacting influences of affective information, state affect, and personality on temporal discounting rates (i.e., the tendency to choose small rewards today rather than larger rewards in the future). In Study 1, participants were primed with either positive or negative affect adjectives before making reward choices. In Study 2, participants underwent either a positive or negative affect induction before making reward choices. Results in both studies indicate that neuroticism interacts with state unpleasant affect and condition (i.e., positive or negative primes or induction) to predict discounting rates. Moreover, the nature of the interactions depends on the regulatory cues of the affective information available. These results suggest that irrelevant (i.e., primes) and stable (i.e., personality traits) sources of affective information also shape judgments and decision making. Thus, current affect levels are not the only source of affective information that guides individuals when making decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily negative mood affects fasting glucose in Type 2 diabetes.

Objective: To examine the relationship between mood and blood glucose in a 21-day daily diary study. Design: During a home visit, information was gathered from 206 persons with Type 2 diabetes regarding demographics, disease characteristics and treatment, and depressive symptoms. They had blood drawn at a laboratory, yielding HbA1C. The participants were then telephoned each evening for 21 days and were asked about their positive and negative mood during the past 24 hours. They also tested their blood glucose upon rising in the morning. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcomes measures were positive and negative affect and fasting glucose. Results: Multilevel analyses revealed a relationship between negative affect on one day and morning glucose on the next day. There was no such relationship between positive affect and glucose, nor was there a comparable effect of glucose on one day and either positive or negative affect on the next day. Conclusion: The observed relationship between mood and blood glucose appears to be because of negative affect, not positive, with no evidence of a lagged effect of glucose on mood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The expression of determination: Similarities between anger and approach-related positive affect.

In this set of studies, we examine the perceptual similarities between emotions that share either a valence or a motivational direction. Determination is a positive approach-related emotion, whereas anger is a negative approach-related emotion. Thus, determination and anger share a motivational direction but are opposite in valence. An implemental mind-set has previously been shown to produce high-approach-motivated positive affect. Thus, in Study 1, participants were asked to freely report the strongest emotion they experienced during an implemental mind-set. The most common emotion reported was determination. On the basis of this result, we compared the facial expression of determination with that of anger. In Study 2, naive judges were asked to identify photographs of facial expressions intended to express determination, along with photographs intended to express basic emotions (joy, anger, sadness, fear, disgust, neutral). Correct identifications of intended determination expressions were correlated with misidentifications of the expressions as anger but not with misidentifications as any other emotion. This suggests that determination, a high-approach-motivated positive affect, is perceived as similar to anger. In Study 3, naive judges quantified the intensity of joy, anger, and determination expressed in photographs. The intensity of perceived determination was directly correlated with the intensity of perceived anger (a high-approach-motivated negative affect) and was inversely correlated with the intensity of perceived joy (a low-approach-motivated positive affect). These results demonstrate perceptual similarity between emotions that share a motivational direction but differ in valence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy across the adult lifespan: Longitudinal and experience-sampling findings.

This study examined change in self-reported empathy in a four-wave longitudinal study spanning 12 years (1992-2004) and the association between empathy and other measures, including daily reports of relationship experiences. Participants initially ranged in age from 10 years to 87 years. Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of age with empathy revealed divergent patterns. Whereas cross-sectional analyses suggested that older adults scored lower in empathy than younger adults, longitudinal analyses showed no age-related decline in empathy. This combined pattern suggests that the cross-sectional age-differences reflect a cohort rather than an age effect, with older cohorts reporting lower levels of empathy than younger ones. Independent of age, empathy was associated with a positive well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) and interaction profile (e.g., positive relations with others). In addition, a subsample of participants (n = 114) conducted experience-sampling about social interactions for a week. People with high self-reported empathy perceived their interactions as more meaningful, felt more positive in these interactions, and thought that their interaction partner felt also more positive. Thus, self-reported empathy was meaningfully associated with adults' actual social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion experience and expression across the adult life span: Insights from a multimodal assessment study.

This investigation represents a multimodal study of age-related differences in experienced and expressed affect and in emotion regulatory skills in a sample of young, middle-aged, and older adults (N = 96), testing formulations derived from differential emotions theory. The experimental session consisted of a 10-min anger induction and a 10-min sadness induction using a relived emotion task; participants were also randomly assigned to an inhibition or noninhibition condition. In addition to subjective ratings of emotional experience provided by participants, their facial behavior was coded using an objective facial affect coding system; a content analysis also was applied to the emotion narratives. Separate repeated measures analyses of variance applied to each emotion domain indicated age differences in the co-occurrence of negative emotions and co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions across domains, thus extending the finding of emotion heterogeneity or complexity in emotion experience to facial behavior and verbal narratives. The authors also found that the inhibition condition resulted in a different pattern of results in the older versus middle-aged and younger adults. The intensity and frequency of discrete emotions were similar across age groups, with a few exceptions. Overall, the findings were generally consistent with differential emotions theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-cultural aging in cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being.

The present study examined age and cultural differences in cognitive and affective components of subjective well-being. A sample of 188 American and Chinese young and older adults completed surveys measuring self-life satisfaction, perceived family's life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Across cultures, older adults reported lower negative affect than did young adults. Americans reported higher self-life satisfaction, perceived family's life satisfaction, and positive affect than did Chinese. In addition, perceived family's life satisfaction was more related to self-life satisfaction for Chinese than for Americans. Findings are discussed in light of socioemotional selectivity theory and theories on culture and self-construal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Autobiographical memory specificity and affect regulation: An experimental approach.

This study investigated J. M. G. Williams's (1996) affect-regulation hypothesis that level of specificity of autobiographical memory (AM) is used to minimize negative affect. It was found that a negative event leads to more reports of subjective stress in high- as compared with low-specific participants. Also, afterward, high-specific participants rated their unprompted memories for the event as more unpleasant. The results indicate that, relative to high specificity, being less specific in the retrieval of AMs is associated with less affective impact of a negative event. Results are discussed within the affect-regulation model. It is suggested that future research take a more functional perspective on AM specificity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrodermal habituation and subjective response: Effects of manifest anxiety and autonomic arousal.

Studied the effects of cortical function and individual differences on galvanic skin response (GSR) habituation to tones of low and moderate intensity. 40 female undergraduates were divided into high- and low-anxious groups, on the basis of their Taylor Manifest Anxiety scale scores, and into high- and low-arousal groups, on the basis of their resting-level GSR activity. High-anxious Ss perceived nonchanging, nonnoxious moderate and low tones as increasing in intensity over trials while their electrodermal responses to the tones were habituating. Although the low-anxious group and the high- and low-arousal groups also showed electrodermal habituation, there were no significant effects of trials for intensity ratings. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reported exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors: The roles of adult age and global perceived stress.

A central goal of daily stress research is to identify resilience and vulnerability factors associated with exposure and reactivity to daily stressors. The present study examined how age differences and global perceptions of stress relate to exposure and emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Sixty-seven younger (Mage = 20) and 116 older (Mage = 80) adults completed a daily stress diary and measures of positive and negative affect on 6 days over a 14-day period. Participants also completed a measure of global perceived stress. Results revealed that reported exposure to daily stressors is reduced in old age but that emotional reactivity to daily stressors did not differ between younger and older adults. Global perceived stress was associated with greater reported exposure to daily stressors in older adults and greater stress-related increases in negative affect in younger adults. Furthermore, across days on which daily stressors were reported, intraindividual variability in the number and severity of stressors reported was associated with increased negative affect, but only among younger adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment states of mind and the quality of young adults' sibling relationships.

This report examines young adults' states of mind regarding their early attachment experiences in relation to the observed and perceived quality of their sibling relationships. Sixty sibling pairs (18–25 years of age) were (a) administered the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1985), (b) videotaped during a conflict resolution task, and (c) asked to describe the quality of their relationship using the Adult Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (Stocker, Lanthier, & Furman, 1997). As hypothesized, dismissing states of mind were associated with lower levels of positive and negative affect while participants attempted to resolve an area of conflict with a sibling as well as with relatively low levels of reported warmth in the relationship. In contrast—but also in line with predictions—preoccupied states of mind were associated with heightened expression of negative affect toward a brother or sister, and the siblings of highly preoccupied individuals reported more conflict in their relationships. Findings provide further support for the importance of young adults' representations of childhood attachment experiences with respect to the quality of their adult relationships. In addition, this study extends previous findings regarding the significance of dismissing versus preoccupied states of mind by demonstrating that these dimensions are differentially associated with behavioral and self-reported aspects of sibling relationship quality in early adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual differences in negative affect repair.

The extant literature implicates affect repair ability as one source of individual differences in negative affect. Emerging from this literature are three regulatory traits that should predict repair ability (negative mood regulation expectancies, monitoring, labeling), yet no experimental examination of this possibility exists. Two studies explored this issue. Participants (Ns = 305, 146) watched negative affect-inducing videos and completed a repair or control writing task, before and after which they reported their affect. Results revealed wide individual differences in repair ability. Specifically, participants with high expectancies of repair success and those who attend to and understand their affect experienced the largest decreases in negative affect and largest increases in positive affect following the repair tasks. These findings advance understanding of individual differences in affect regulation and have implications for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related changes in reasons for using alcohol and marijuana from ages 18 to 30 in a national sample.

This study used up to seven waves of data from 32 consecutive cohorts of participants in the national longitudinal Monitoring the Future study to model changes in self-reported reasons for using alcohol and marijuana by age (18 to 30), gender, and recent substance use. The majority of stated reasons for use decreased in prevalence across young adulthood (e.g., social/recreational and coping with negative affect reasons); exceptions included age-related increases in using to relax (alcohol and marijuana), to sleep (alcohol), because it tastes good (alcohol), and to get high (marijuana). Women were more likely than men to report drinking for reasons involving distress (i.e., to get away from problems), while men were more likely than women to endorse all other reasons. Greater substance use at age 18 was associated with greater likelihood of all reasons except to experiment and to fit in. A better understanding of developmental changes in reasons for use is important for understanding normative changes in substance use behaviors and for informing intervention efforts involving underlying reasons for use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Happy affect and smiling: Is their relation moderated by interpersonal power?

Three studies examined the hypothesis that the relation between self-rated happy affect and overall smiling during dyadic interactions is moderated by one's relative power. In all 3 studies, interpersonal power was experimentally manipulated, and smiling and self-reported happy affect were measured during and after the interaction, respectively. Happy affect was positively correlated with overall smiling for both low-power and high-power participants. Moreover, the correlations for both low- and high-power participants were comparable to those found when power roles were not unequal or made salient, based on analysis of the present studies as well as comparison with the previously published literature. Happy affect and overall smiling had a positive relation that was not moderated by interpersonal power. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived control over development and subjective well-being: Differential benefits across adulthood.

The relationship between perceived control over development (PCD) and subjective well-being (SWB) across adulthood was examined in 3 studies. In Study 1, with 480 adults aged between 20 and 90 years, PCD was closely related to SWB. Chronological age moderated the associations between PCD and SWB beyond individual differences in health, intelligence, social support, and socioeconomic status. In the longitudinal Study 2, with 42 older adults, strong PCD was associated with increased positive affect only when desirable events had occurred previously. In Study 3, older adults experienced greater satisfaction when attributing attainment of developmental goals to their ability, whereas younger adults were more satisfied when attributing such successes to their own efforts. Findings point to adaptive adjustments of control perceptions to age-related actual control potentials across adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit measures of early-life family conditions: Relationships to psychosocial characteristics and cardiovascular disease risk in adulthood.

Objectives: An implicit measure of early-life family conditions was created to help address potential biases in responses to self-reported questionnaires of early-life family environments. We investigated whether a computerized affect attribution paradigm designed to capture implicit, affective responses (anger, fear, warmth) regarding early-life family environments was (a) stable over time, (b) associated with self-reports of childhood family environments, (c) able to predict adult psychosocial profiles (perceived social support, heightened vigilance), and (d) able to predict adult cardiovascular risk (blood pressure) either alone or in conjunction with a measure of early-life socioeconomic status. Method: Two studies were conducted to examine reliability and validity of the affect attribution paradigm (Study 1, N = 94) and associated adult psychosocial outcomes and cardiovascular risk (Study 2, N = 122). Results: Responses on the affect attribution paradigm showed significant correlations over a 6-month period, and were moderately associated with self-reports of childhood family environments. Greater attributed negative affect about early-life family conditions predicted lower levels of current perceived social support and heightened vigilance in adulthood. Attributed negative affect also interacted with early-life socioeconomic status (SES) to marginally predict resting systolic blood pressure (SBP), such that those individuals high in early-life SES but who had implicit negative affect attributed to early-life family conditions had SBP levels that were as high as individuals low in early-life SES. Conclusion: Implicit measures of early-life family conditions are a useful approach for assessing the psychosocial nature of early-life environments and linking them to adult psychosocial and physiological health profiles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intraindividual variability in positive and negative affect over 45 days: Do older adults fluctuate less than young adults?

Opposing scenarios about age-related increases and decreases in intraindividual variability are found in the literature: Whereas accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive functioning is characterized by an age-related increase of short-term variability, age-related decreases in variability could be expected in affective states on the basis of theories of emotion regulation and self development. We examined age differences in intraindividual variability of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and in contingencies among daily affect, daily stress, and daily events using up to 45 daily assessments of 18 young (20–30 years) and 19 older (70–80 years) adults. Whereas age groups differed little in average affect levels, older adults showed significantly less variability in PA and NA than young adults. Age differences accounted for greater variance in variability than personality factors. Multilevel modeling indicated that for young but not older adults, PA was higher (lower) on days with a positive (negative) event, and NA was lower on days with a positive event. There were no age differences in daily affect reactivity to appraised stress severity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Daily Diary Validity Test of Drinking to Cope Measures.

Data from 2 daily diary studies of stress, negative affect, and drinking were used to examine the correspondence between global self-reports of drinking to cope (DTC) and within-person stress/negative affect-drinking associations. In Study 1, 83 community-residing drinkers recorded data in nightly booklets on negative events, perceived stress, negative affect, and drinking for 60 consecutive days. In Study 2, 88 community-residing drinkers recorded data on negative events and negative interpersonal exchanges nightly and negative affect and drinking in near-real time on palmtop computers for 30 consecutive days. Both studies showed only modest correspondence between self-reported DTC and between-person differences in within-day, daily, and weekly associations between stress/negative affect and drinking. The findings indicate that individuals who report higher DTC simply may drink across a wider variety of conditions than those who report relatively lower DTC. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol expectancies and reactivity to alcohol-related and affective cues.

Recent conceptualizations of alcohol expectancies relate cognitive schemas to their neurobiological underpinnings; cue reactivity paradigms lend themselves well to testing this broadened conceptual framework. In the present study, we examined the relationship between self-reported alcohol expectancies and responses to alcohol-related and affective picture cues among fifty-five young adults. In addition to traditional subjective and psychophysiological indices of cue reactivity, the startle eyeblink reflex was obtained during picture cue presentations to address both attention-arousal (early probes) and affective-motivational (late probes) aspects of cue processing. Analyses indicated that participants reporting greater positive, arousing, and social alcohol expectancies rated alcohol cues as more pleasant, arousing, and craving-inducing. In addition, participants displayed inhibited startle reactivity to late alcohol cue probes, indicative of an appetitive reaction. Finally, startle responding to early probes indicated that participants with greater alcohol expectancies displayed blunted attention to negative affect cues. Findings are discussed in terms of the utility of the startle reflex and cue reactivity paradigms for clarifying the relationship between alcohol expectancies and motivated attention to salient cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)