The effects of adult aging and induced positive and negative mood on planning.

Changes in executive functions have been found in older adults and also in young adults experiencing positive or negative mood states. The current study investigated the hypothesis that older adults would show greater executive function impairment following mood induction than young adults. Ninety-six participants (half aged 19-37, half aged 53-80) completed a neutral, positive, or negative mood induction procedure, followed by the Tower of London planning task. Significant interactions were found between age and mood such that older adults showed greater planning impairment than young adults in both the positive and negative mood conditions. Emotionally salient events occurring before testing may interfere with executive function in older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are changes in blood pressure and total cholesterol related to changes in mood? An 18-month study of men and women.

The authors investigated the within-person association of reported mood with blood pressure and total cholesterol (TC) levels, each assessed 4 times over an 18-month period in 128 men and 154 women. Change over time in tense arousal was significantly positively associated with changes over time in systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) but not TC. A change in hedonic tone was significantly associated with SBP (an increase in negative affect was associated with an increase in SBP) but not with DBP or TC. There were no sex differences in associations of mood with SBP or TC. However, increases in tense arousal and negative affect were significantly associated with an increase in DBP for women but not men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linking automatic evaluation to mood and information processing style: Consequences for experienced affect, impression formation, and stereotyping.

According to the feelings-as-information account, a person's mood state signals to him or her the valence of the current environment (N. Schwarz & G. Clore, 1983). However, the ways in which the environment automatically influences mood in the first place remain to be explored. The authors propose that one mechanism by which the environment influences affect is automatic evaluation, the nonconscious evaluation of environmental stimuli as good or bad. A first experiment demonstrated that repeated brief exposure to positive or negative stimuli (which leads to automatic evaluation) induces a corresponding mood in participants. In 3 additional studies, the authors showed that automatic evaluation affects information processing style. Experiment 4 showed that participants' mood mediates the effect of valenced brief primes on information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does exercise environment enhance the psychological benefits of exercise for women?

Two experiments examined the psychological benefits of exercise environment. In Experiment 1, 128 female college students were assigned to 1 of 3 laboratory conditions that differed only in with whom they were exercising; in Experiment 2, 88 students were assigned to 1 of 4 walking conditions that differed in the environment (i.e., indoors vs. outdoors) and whom they were with. Before and after exercise, participants completed several mood and enjoyment measures. Participants in Experiment 1 were most calm when exercising alone than with others, and participants in Experiment 2 found the experience most enjoyable if outdoors. Our findings suggest that perceived enjoyment and outdoor exercise may account for some of the psychological benefits of exercise for women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors influencing the temporal relationship between alcohol consumption and experiences with aggression among college women.

The authors assessed temporal relationships among alcohol use, aggression, and mood using daily data from 179 college women. Participants called an interactive voice response system over an 8-week period. The odds of experiencing verbal, sexual, and physical aggression (odd ratios = 2.25, 19.44, and 11.84, respectively) were significantly higher on heavy drinking days (M = 7.46 drinks) compared to nondrinking days. Both a history of victimization and greater psychological symptom severity influenced the odds of involvement in verbal aggression. The odds of alcohol consumption were 3 times higher during the 24 hr following verbal aggression compared with days in which verbal aggression did not occur. On the day immediately following involvement in either verbal or physical aggression, positive mood decreased and negative mood increased. During the week (2-7 days) following sexual aggression, women's positive mood was decreased. These findings reinforce the need for interventions aimed at reducing heavy episodic drinking on college campuses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the hierarchical structure of mood and anxiety disorders: Confirmatory evidence and elaboration of a model of temperament markers.

The authors examined D. Watson's (2005) proposed reconceptualization of the diagnostic categories for mood and anxiety disorders for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders--Fifth Edition (DSM-V) and tested an elaboration of the 2-factor (positive and negative activation) model of underlying temperament markers that incorporates A. Tellegen, D. Watson, & L. A. Clark's (1999a, 1999b) higher-order dimension of happiness-unhappiness (or demoralization; see A. Tellegen et al., 2003). In Study 1, 502 undergraduate students completed several symptom measures of mood and anxiety disorders and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (J. N. Butcher et al., 2001). Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors replicated Watson's distress and fear disorder model. Path analyses showed that demoralization was a primary marker of distress disorders, whereas dysfunctional negative emotions was a primary marker of fear disorders. Low positive emotions was a specific marker of depression and social phobia. This 3-factor path model was associated with better fit than was a 2-factor model excluding demoralization. In Study 2, the authors replicated the findings of Study 1 using data from an archival clinical sample of 636 Veterans Affairs hospital outpatients. The authors' findings provide evidence on the important role of demoralization in mood and anxiety disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do prospective workday appraisals influence end-of-workday affect and self-monitored performance?

The current study uses self-regulation as the basis for a model that examines the influence of three types of workday appraisals (resource, task, and response). At the beginning of their workday, a total of 170 faculty, graduate students, and staff of a university completed appraisal ratings of their anticipated workday tasks, resources, and responses. At the end of the workday, they completed assessments of positive and negative affect and self-monitored performance. Results suggested that resource appraisals of control and skills were predictive of task appraisals of difficulty, threat, and ambiguity. Task appraisals were then predictive of both response appraisals, in terms of anticipated support and effort, and self-monitored performance at the end of the day. Anticipated effort and self-monitored performance were both positively related to positive affect at the end of the day. Anticipated support and self-monitored performance were both negatively related to negative affect at the end of the day, while threat task appraisals were positively related to negative affect. Implications of the results for workplace interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion regulation and intimate partner violence in newlyweds.

Is the inability to regulate negative emotions a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV)? To address this question, the authors asked 72 newlywed couples to report their levels of negative affect every day for 7 days and examined whether variability in those reports was associated with the IPV self-reported to have been perpetrated over the previous year. Although main effects of variability in both husbands' and wives' negative affect did not reach statistical significance, variability in husbands' negative affect significantly interacted with wives' reports of IPV to account for husbands' IPV, even after overall levels of husbands' negative affect, marital satisfaction, and chronic stress were controlled. Specifically, whereas variability in negative affect was unrelated to IPV among husbands with wives who reported no IPV, such variability was positively associated with the IPV perpetrated by husbands with wives who also reported having perpetrated IPV during the previous year. Although preliminary, these results support theories suggesting that the ability to regulate negative emotions may help intimates avoid perpetrating IPV, particularly when faced with a partner's IPV perpetration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

慢些，慢慢来

艺术是自由生产的衍生品，只有思想自由／人格独立／评论自由，才会有伟大的创造，否则带着铁镣跳舞只能出现当代中国艺术那种变态的、扭曲的作品。中国要想出现乔布斯，自由之精神、独立之人格是前提；中国的建筑师要想像口本建筑师一样走向世界，立足于自身文化、致力于原创设计方是正道。     

Early cessation success or failure among women attempting to quit smoking: Trajectories and volatility of urge and negative mood during the first postcessation week.

Aversive symptoms of abstinence from nicotine have been posited to lead to smoking relapse and research on temporal patterns of abstinence symptoms confirms this assumption. However, little is known about the association of symptom trajectories early after quitting with postcessation smoking or about the differential effects of tonic (background) versus phasic (temptation-related) symptom trajectories on smoking status. The current study examined trajectories of urge and negative mood among 300 women using the nicotine patch during the first postcessation week. Ecological momentary assessments collected randomly and during temptation episodes were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling yielding four individual trajectory parameters: intercept (initial symptom level), linear slope (direction and rate of change), quadratic coefficient (curvature), and volatility (scatter). Early lapsers, who lapsed during the first postcessation week, exhibited more severe tonic urge and phasic negative mood immediately after quitting, and more volatile tonic and phasic urge compared to abstainers. Late lapsers, who were abstinent during the first week but lapsed by 1 month, exhibited more severe tonic urge immediately after quitting compared to abstainers. These results demonstrate the importance of early postcessation urge and negative affect and highlight the value of examining both tonic and phasic effects of abstinence from nicotine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)