Effects of chronic exercise on feelings of energy and fatigue: A quantitative synthesis.

The authors investigated the effect of chronic exercise on feelings of energy and fatigue using meta-analytic techniques. Chronic exercise increased feelings of energy and lessened feelings of fatigue compared with control conditions by a mean effect delta of 0.37. The effect varied according to the presence or absence of a placebo control or whether chronic exercise was completed alone or in combination with an additional therapy. Investigations that used a placebo control and examined chronic exercise alone found no effect of chronic exercise on feelings of energy and fatigue. Certain placebo controls may increase feelings of energy and lessen feelings of fatigue when used with older adults or people with psychological distress. The results highlight the need for research identifying the most useful control conditions for accurately interpreting mental health outcome data obtained in chronic exercise investigations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood reactivity to daily negative events in early adolescence: Relationship to risk for psychopathology.

Emotional responses to negative daily experiences in young adolescents may provide important clues to the development of psychopathology, but research is lacking. This study assessed momentary mood reactivity to daily events as a function of risk profile in a school sample, ages 11-14. High-risk (HR, n = 25) and low-risk (LR, n = 106) subgroups completed frequent self-reports of mood and events for 5 days. HR adolescents reported more negative events involving family and peers. Multilevel modeling results showed that negative events, especially if stressful, were associated with increased negative and decreased positive affects, with heightened responses in HR adolescents. HR adolescents with greater stress over the last 3 months showed additional increases in depressed mood following negative events. Altered reactivity to and dysfunctional appraisals of daily events may link adolescent risk profiles to later mental health problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal comparisons in everyday life.

According to the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model (H. W. Marsh, 1986), students not only compare their own abilities in a domain with those of other students (social comparison), they also compare their own achievements in different domains (internal comparison). The main purpose of this study was to investigate internal comparison processes in everyday life using an introspective methodology. Over 2 weeks, 67 university students (Study 1) and 65 high school students (Study 2) using a diary instrument recorded more upward than downward internal comparisons, most of them triggered by academic achievement situations. In both studies, multilevel analyses showed links between the direction of comparison and affective state: (a) upward internal comparisons were associated with negative mood states; (b) downward internal comparisons were associated with positive mood states; (c) upward internal comparisons increased positive and decreased negative mood states; (d) downward internal comparisons decreased positive and increased negative mood states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rapid picture presentation and affective engagement.

Emotional reactions were assessed to pictorial stimuli presented in a continuous stream at rapid speeds that compromise conceptual memory and the processing of specific picture content. Blocks of unpleasant, neutral, or pleasant pictures were presented at the rate of either three pictures per second or seven pictures per second. Even with rapid presentation rates, startle reflexes, corrugator muscle activity, and skin conductance responses were heightened when viewing unpleasant pictures. These effects were stronger later in the aversive block, suggesting that cumulative exposure increasingly activates the defense system. The findings suggest that, despite conceptual masking inherent in rapid serial visual presentation, affective pictures prompt measurable emotional engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rumination, negative cognition, and their interactive effects on depressed mood.

Response styles theory posits that rumination represents a trait vulnerability to depression. Recent evidence has suggested that rumination predicts changes in depression more strongly among individuals with high levels of negative cognition. Three studies evaluated this model of interactive vulnerabilities. Study 1 provided empirical support for the distinction between rumination and negative cognitive content. The next 2 studies investigated the interactive model in the laboratory. Study 2 randomly assigned participants to either ruminate or distract following a sad mood induction. This study found that rumination was more strongly associated with dysphoria among individuals who report high levels of negative cognition. Similarly, Study 3 found that rumination and negative cognition interact to predict changes in dysphoria across a no-task delay period following a sad mood induction. These studies provide support for an interactive model in which rumination amplifies the deleterious effects of negative cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of state and trait affect on HIV risk behaviors: A daily diary study of MSM.

Objective: To characterize the influence of state and trait affect on HIV risk behaviors. Design: Men who have sex with men (N = 155) completed reports of trait affect and daily reports of affect and sexual behaviors each night for up to 30 days. Main Outcome Measures: Analyses focused on the role of state and trait positive activation (PA), negative activation (NA), anxious arousal (AA), and sexual activation (SA) on sexual risk taking, operationalized as having a sex partner, a partner-related risk composite, and an HIV risk behavior composite. Results: State SA was positively associated with having a sex partner and HIV risk behaviors; trait SA was positively associated with partner-related risk. State AA was negatively associated with having a sex partner and positively associated with HIV risk behaviors. Trait AA had a negative association with partner-related risk and moderated the effects of state AA. State PA was negatively associated with HIV risk behaviors, and trait PA had a main effect on having a sex partner. NA had no significant trait or state effects. Conclusion: These data suggest a role for multiple affective states in sexual risk taking. Models of HIV risk-taking behaviors should be extended to include affective processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of negative moods on self-enhancing cognitions: The role of reflective versus ruminative mood orientations.

This research program examined how self-focused attention to feelings affects the relation between mood negativity and self-enhancing thought. The primary hypothesis was that the particular manner in which people focus on their moods (reflective vs. ruminative) determines whether they reveal positive (i.e., mood-incongruent) or negative (i.e., mood-congruent) self-relevant thoughts in response to negative moods. Studies 1-4 revealed that social comparisons, temporal comparisons, and other self-enhancing cognitions (i.e., attributions, disidentification, relationship evaluations) are more likely to be mood incongruent when people adopt a reflective orientation to their negative feelings and more likely to be mood congruent when they adopt a ruminative orientation. Additionally, moods and mood orientations affected self-enhancing thoughts through the mediating influence of mood regulation goals and intentions (Studies 5 and 6). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family Functioning and Children's Adjustment: Associations Among Parents' Depressed Mood, Marital Hostility, Parent-Child Hostility, and Children's Adjustment.

Relations between parents' depressed mood, marital conflict, parent-child hostility, and children's adjustment were examined in a community sample of 136 ten-year-olds and their parents. Videotaped observational and self-report data were used to examine these relations in path analyses. A proposed model was tested in which mothers' and fathers' depressed mood and marital hostility were associated with children's adjustment problems through disruptions in parent-child relationships. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' marital hostility were linked to parent-child hostility, which in turn was linked to children's internalizing problems. Fathers' depressed mood was linked to children's internalizing problems indirectly through father-child hostility. Fathers' depressed mood was directly linked to children's externalizing problems and indirectly linked through father-child hostility. For mothers, marital hostility was directly linked to children's externalizing problems, and marital hostility in fathers was indirectly linked to children's externalizing problems through father-child hostility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Case Report: Restitution 101.

The Case Report is a forum for distinguished clinicians representing a range of theoretical orientations to share diagnostic formulations and treatment recommendations of the same psychotherapy patient. The present case is that of Ms. S, a young woman with features of borderline personality disorder, mood disturbance, and posttraumatic stress disorder who was self-referred for individual outpatient psychotherapy. Treatment was precipitated by the sudden onset of vivid, snapshot-like memories of early childhood sexual abuse. Material from the initial weeks of therapy is presented, followed by a discussion of points of convergence and divergence from the expert therapists. Finally, a few closing comments are offered by the case contributor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Audience-tuning effects on memory: The role of shared reality.

After tuning to an audience, communicators' own memories for the topic often reflect the biased view expressed in their messages. Three studies examined explanations for this bias. Memories for a target person were biased when feedback signaled the audience's successful identification of the target but not after failed identification (Experiment 1). Whereas communicators tuning to an in-group audience exhibited the bias, communicators tuning to an out-group audience did not (Experiment 2). These differences did not depend on communicators' mood but were mediated by communicators' trust in their audience's judgment about other people (Experiments 2 and 3). Message and memory were more closely associated for high than for low trusters. Apparently, audience-tuning effects depend on the communicators' experience of a shared reality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)