Abstract Background and objectives According to cognitive models, attentional biases in depression play key roles in the onset and subsequent maintenance of the disorder. The present study examines ...the processing of emotional facial expressions (happy, angry, and sad) in depressed and non-depressed adults. Methods Sixteen unmedicated patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 34 never-depressed controls (ND) completed an eye-tracking task to assess different components of visual attention (orienting attention and maintenance of attention) in the processing of emotional faces. Results Compared to ND, participants with MDD showed a negative attentional bias in attentional maintenance indices (i.e. first fixation duration and total fixation time) for sad faces. This attentional bias was positively associated with the severity of depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the MDD group spent a marginally less amount of time viewing happy faces compared with the ND group. No differences were found between the groups with respect to angry faces and orienting attention indices. Limitations The current study is limited by its cross-sectional design. Conclusions These results support the notion that attentional biases in depression are specific to depression-related information and that they operate in later stages in the deployment of attention.
We introduce the Pemberton Happiness Index (PHI), a new integrative measure of well-being in seven languages, detailing the validation process and presenting psychometric data. The scale includes ...eleven items related to different domains of remembered well-being (general, hedonic, eudaimonic, and social well-being) and ten items related to experienced well-being (i.e., positive and negative emotional events that possibly happened the day before); the sum of these items produces a combined well-being index.
A distinctive characteristic of this study is that to construct the scale, an initial pool of items, covering the remembered and experienced well-being domains, were subjected to a complete selection and validation process. These items were based on widely used scales (e.g., PANAS, Satisfaction With Life Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale, and Psychological Well-Being Scales). Both the initial items and reference scales were translated into seven languages and completed via Internet by participants (N = 4,052) aged 16 to 60 years from nine countries (Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and USA).
Results from this initial validation study provided very good support for the psychometric properties of the PHI (i.e., internal consistency, a single-factor structure, and convergent and incremental validity).
Given the PHI's good psychometric properties, this simple and integrative index could be used as an instrument to monitor changes in well-being. We discuss the utility of this integrative index to explore well-being in individuals and communities.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Given the need to understand both the negative and positive psychological consequences of the current global COVID-19 pandemic (Brewin et al. in Perspectives in Public Health
...https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913920957365
2020), the aim of this study was to test a cognitive model of post-traumatic symptoms (PTS) and post-traumatic growth (PTG) during confinement caused by the SARS-COV-2 epidemic. In line with cognitive models of trauma elaboration (Park in Psychological Bulletin
https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018301
), we included in our model some beliefs associated to the world (e.g., primal beliefs about a good world), to the self (e.g., death anxiety or orientation toward the future) and to others (e.g., suspiciousness or identification with humanity). To evaluate the explanatory model, a national representative sample of adults between the ages of 18 and 75 (N = 1951) was surveyed between 7th and 13th April, 2020, in the middle of a strict 7-week national confinement. Structural equation modelling yielded a very similar model to the one initially specified. The results highlight the role of both negative and positive core beliefs, which are pertinent to the current pandemic threat, in the appearance of PTS and PTG, respectively. In short, primal beliefs about a good world, openness to the future and identification with humanity were associated with PTG; while suspiciousness, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety about death and also identification with humanity were associated with PTS and consequent impairment. This is an innovative study of different pathways to traumatic responses and growth during a pandemic. Future research is needed to replicate its findings.
Both hedonic and eudemonic components of well-being have been related to different variables such as mental and physical health, or social and economic factors. However, and despite the growing ...interest in the study of well-being, there is scarce evidence on the role that these components play in high cognitive processes such as attentional deployment towards emotional information. The aim of the present study is to disentangle the relation between current affect (state hedonic well-being), integrative well-being (i.e. hedonic, eudaimonic and social well-being), and attentional biases towards emotional information. Participants (
N
= 119) performed and eye-tracking task where they were asked to freely watch a series of 108 pairs of faces depicting happy, sad or neutral expressions in three types of conditions (i.e. happy vs. neutral, sad vs. neutral, and happy vs. sad faces). Results showed that both current affect and integrative well-being were associated with a maintenance attentional bias towards positive information (i.e. happy faces). Further, using bootstrapping mediation analysis, we found that the relation observed between current affect and positive maintenance attentional biases was totally mediated by integrative well-being levels. We discuss the relevance of the present results in the incipient research on cognitive and emotional processes and well-being.
The present study aims to develop a brief instrument to assess self-reported affective experiences, the Hedonic and Arousal Affect Scale (HAAS), rooted in the valence-arousal model of affect. ...Throughout four different studies, we found that: (1) the 12-item version showed a better goodness-of-fit than an initial longer version (Study 1; n = 259); (2) the two-dimensional model of affect (i.e., four-factor model: positive affect and high arousal, positive affect and low arousal, negative affect and high arousal, and negative affect and low arousal) showed the best fit to our data (Study 2; n = 525); (3) the HAAS showed evidence of concurrent validity with related measures in the field (Study 3; n = 480); and (4) it showed partial support for temporal invariance (Study 4; n = 262). The content and psychometric qualities of the HAAS make it a suitable brief scale to measure affect and could be particularly useful for repeated measures designs such as psychological interventions, experimental studies, or ecological momentary assessment studies.
•Brief instrument (12 items) to assess self-reported affective experiences•Rooted in the valence-arousal model of affect•Concurrent validity with related measures and temporal invariance•Useful for repeated measures designs (e.g. interventions, experimental, diary)
Research traditions on cognition and depression focus on relatively unconnected aspects of cognitive functioning. On one hand, the neuropsychological perspective has concentrated on cognitive control ...difficulties as a prominent feature of this condition. On the other hand, the clinical psychology perspective has focused on cognitive biases and repetitive negative patterns of thinking (i.e., rumination) for emotional information. A review of the literature from both fields reveals that difficulties are more evident for mood-congruent materials, suggesting that cognitive control difficulties interact with cognitive biases to hinder cognitive switching, working memory updating, and inhibition of irrelevant information. Connecting research from these two traditions, we propose a novel integrative cognitive model of depression in which the interplay between mood-congruent cognitive control difficulties, cognitive biases, and rumination may ultimately lead to ineffective emotion-regulation strategies to downregulate negative mood and upregulate positive mood.
The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a measure widely used to assess life satisfaction. This paper aims to test its psychometric properties, factor structure, and distribution scores across ...age, gender, education, and employment status. For this purpose, a representative sample of the Spanish population (N = 2,964) was used. Although analyses showed no significant differences across age or gender, participants with higher education level and those who held an occupation were more satisfied with their lives. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a unifactorial structure with significant correlations between the SWLS, and subjective happiness and social support. The internal consistency of the scale was .88. Thus, our results indicate that the Spanish version of the SWLS is a valid and reliable measure of life satisfaction within the Spanish context.
Traditionally, treatments for depression have been primarily focused on reducing patients’ symptoms or deficits and less concerned with building positive resources. This study aims to compare the ...efficacy of a manualized protocol of empirically-validated positive psychology interventions (PPI) with a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocol. This controlled clinical trial included 96 adult women with a DSM-IV diagnosis of major depression or dysthymia. Participants were blindly allocated to a 10-session PPI (
n
= 47) or CBT (
n
= 49) group therapy condition. Intention to treat analysis showed that both interventions were effective in reducing clinical symptoms and increasing well-being. There were no significant differences between groups in either main outcomes (i.e., severity of depressive symptoms and clinical diagnosis) or secondary outcomes (e.g., positive and negative affect, and satisfaction with life). Even within the most severely depressed participants, no differences between PPI and CBT emerged. If further clinical studies confirm these results, this would widen treatment choice for both patients and professionals.
Although the PASTOR model provides a comprehensive framework to study resilience, it faces some challenges. First, some higher-order concepts (e.g., meaning) may be difficult to model in the ...laboratory. Second, defining resilience as an absence of pathology might be conceptually restrictive. Finally, the proposal that the severity of the event is associated to different appraisal mechanisms needs further evidence.
The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect is characterised by a spatial cognitive representation of low numbers to the left side of space and high numbers to the right side ...of space. This effect has been found using a diversity of stimuli and experimental paradigms. However, the influence of emotional stimuli on this effect remains unclear. In this study, the SNARC effect is analysed in relation to pairs of emotional facial stimuli (happy–neutral, sad–neutral and happy–sad pairs). Gaze patterns of 151 participants were analysed when exposed to a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm consisting of pairs of emotional faces preceded by small and large numbers. Replicating previous results, a standard SNARC effect was found independently of the emotional expressions of the faces (i.e., there was a significant linear trend of number magnitude in the frequency of first fixations of the gaze to the left side space). However, specific slope analyses revealed that the SNARC effect was influenced by the spatial position of each emotion presented in the emotional pairs. Specifically, the effect disappeared in happy–neutral trials, when the happy faces were allocated in the right position and also in happy–sad trials when two emotional stimuli were simultaneously displayed. The study revealed that the SNARC effect is sensitive to the spatial position of emotional stimuli which further adds to other known limits of the phenomenon. The limitations of the study and its implications in the area of cognition and emotion are also discussed.
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