The existing empirical literature suggests that during difficult situations, the concurrent experience of positive and negative affects may be ideal for ensuring successful adaptation and well-being. ...However, different patterns of mixed emotions may have different adaptive consequences. The present research tested the proposition that experiencing a pattern of secondary mixed emotion (i.e., secondary emotion that embrace both positive and negative affects) more greatly promotes adaptive coping than experiencing two other patterns of mixed emotional experiences: simultaneous (i.e., two emotions of opposing affects taking place at the same time) and sequential (i.e., two emotions of opposing affects switching back and forth). Support for this hypothesis was obtained from two experiments (Studies 1 and 2) and a longitudinal survey (Study 3). The results revealed that secondary mixed emotions predominate over sequential and simultaneous mixed emotional experiences in promoting adaptive coping through fostering the motivational and informative functions of emotions; this is done by providing solution-oriented actions rather than avoidance, faster decisions regarding coping strategies (Study 1), easier access to self-knowledge, and better narrative organization (Study 2). Furthermore, individuals characterized as being prone to feeling secondary mixed emotions were more resilient to stress caused by transitions than those who were characterized as being prone to feeling opposing emotions separately (Study 3). Taken together, the preliminary results indicate that the pattern of secondary mixed emotion provides individuals with a higher capacity to handle adversity than the other two patterns of mixed emotional experience.
The present paper is addressed to (1) the validation of a recently proposed typology of anxiety and depression, and (2) the presentation of a new tool-the Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire ...(ADQ)-based on this typology. Empirical data collected across two stages-construction and validation-allowed us to offer the final form of the ADQ, designed to measure arousal anxiety, apprehension anxiety, valence depression, anhedonic depression, and mixed types of anxiety and depression. The results support the proposed typology of anxiety and depression and provide evidence that the ADQ is a reliable and valid self-rating measure of affective types, and accordingly its use in scientific research is recommended.
The revised reinforcement sensitivity theory-personality questionnaire (RST-PQ), developed by Corr and Cooper, is a new questionnaire that corresponds with the revised version of the reinforcement ...sensitivity theory. The aim of this article is to present an extended analysis of the construct validity of RST-PQ's Polish adaptation. Two studies were conducted: the first was to establish construct validity, and the second to test stability over a five-week period. The results showed that the internal consistency of all the scales is satisfactory, comparable to or even higher than for the original version. Examining construct validity with other personality measures (EPQ-R, STAI, BIS/BAS, SPSRQ-s, PANAS-X, FCB-TI) showed that the Polish version of the RST provides an adequate measure of the theoretical constructs differentiated in the revised RST. Moreover, the results showed that RST-PQ is a sensitive measure that makes it possible to accurately detect clinical form of depression. The factor structure of the Polish version generally replicated the original one, albeit with slightly weaker parameters. Test-retest reliability was found to be generally acceptable.
•Polish version of RST-PQ shows satisfactory internal consistency and stability over five weeks.•Slightly weaker parameters of the factor structure were observed.•BIS and BAS scales allow to differentiate depressive symptoms.
The BIS–BAS scales (
Carver & White, 1994), which assess Gray’s motivational systems, were translated into Polish. The first part of this contribution contains a psychometric analysis of the Polish ...translation. The analyses include basic item and scale descriptions as well as structural equation modeling of the measurement model. The second part describes two studies for proving convergent and discriminant validity. In the first study, the correlations are presented on the dimension of the Polish translation of the EPQ-R (including extraversion and neuroticism), STAI-Y2 (with anxiety) and PANAS (with positive and negative affects). The second study includes PTS (with strength of excitation, strength of inhibition, and mobility), FCB-TI (with emotional reactivity, endurance, activity, briskness, and perseveration). The psychometric results as well as the results from convergent and discriminant validity analyses provide evidence for a successful translation of the original scales including relationships to temperamental constructs.
This study applied a person-centered approach to differentiate the usage of cognitive emotion regulation strategies among subgroups of individuals by employing latent profile analyses. The subgroups ...were identified according to their temperament type (informing about how people formally process emotional stimuli) and anxiety/depression types (indicating what the content of processed emotional stimuli is). Specifically, we: (a) examined the existence of latent personality profiles based on two temperament types, high/low stimulation processing capacities, on the behavioral level that manifested themselves as a strength and adequacy of processing, and anxiety (arousal, apprehension) and depression types (valence, anhedonic), representing an affective content in the identified profiles. We further (b) explored how these profiles relate to cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Participants (N = 678; 52.6% females, age of 18–65 years) completed three questionnaires assessing: temperament; anxiety and depression types; and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Five latent affective-temperament profiles were identified with a series of latent profile analyses: Strong-Anhedonic, Weak-Apprehension, Strong-Healthy, Weak-Valence, and Very Weak-Anhedonic. The results indicated significant between-profile differences in cognitive emotion regulation strategies. This study enables applicative recommendations to be formulated concerning the effective usage of cognitive emotion regulation strategies.
The relationship between the BIS and affect is well documented. However, knowledge about the mechanisms underlying this relationship is still limited. In the revised model of the BIS (Corr, 2008), ...its activation elicits a cascade of cognitive processes, including attentional scanning and risk assessment. We hypothesised that specific, BIS - dependent cognitive strategies related to attentional scanning and risk assessment play a mediating role in the relationship between the BIS and affect. Impulsive and careful attentional scanning strategies were examined by the Emotional Faces Attention Test. Risk assessment processes, seen here as cognitive strategies of emotion regulation, were evaluated by the CERQ. The mediation models were tested in non-clinical (N = 715) and anxiety and depression subclinical samples (N = 220). Additionally, two BIS scales were applied for further validation of the revised BIS theory: Carver and White's (1994) and Corr and Cooper's (2016). Generally, our results showed that different cognitive strategies mediated the relationship between the BIS and affect in non-clinical and sub-clinical samples, indicating that high BIS sensitivity leads to the employment of specific cognitive strategies when emotional problems are experienced. Finally, Carver & White's BIS scale showed better predictive validity in the tested mediation models than Corr & Cooper's BIS scale.
•In men, evening chronotype was related to higher testosterone levels assessed from hair.•In men, sleep loss was related to lower testosterone and DHEA levels.•In women, no links between chronotype ...and hair testosterone, DHEA, or progesterone.
Chronotype describes preferences for functioning at different times of the day. At the onset of puberty, a sharp shift towards eveningness starts, reaching its peak at the end of adolescence, followed by a steady shift towards morningness as the ageing process occurs. Puberty is also the time when sex differences appear, with men being more inclined to eveningness than women, which diminishes around menopause; the described pattern of changes in chronotype leads to the hypothesis that reproductive hormones may be the driving factor behind this conversion. In the present study, we aimed to verify this hypothesis by analysing participants’ testosterone, progesterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels in the three months, as indicated by assays in 3-cm hair strands from the scalp. Participants (n = 239) of both sexes also completed the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire. The results showed that in men higher testosterone levels were related to eveningness and less sleep loss, whereas greater sleep loss was associated with lower levels of DHEA. In women, no associations between chronotype and levels of the analysed hormones were found. The results support the hypothesis that testosterone levels play a role in shaping eveningness. We further hypothesised that a possible cause of the higher secretion level of testosterone in men with the evening chronotype is a mechanism to offset the negative consequences of sleep loss.
The present study was designed to address the hypothesis that differences and similarities in patterns of attentional processing in recently proposed types of anxiety and depression are connected ...with the dominant (reactive, regulative) function they play in stimulation processing and their structural components. Participants (N = 1247) filled out the Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire, which assesses types of anxiety and depression, and completed the Emotional Faces Attentional Test one week later. The obtained results confirmed our prediction and suggested that the proposed typology of anxiety and depression is valid in the adaptive meanings of both phenomena.
In Strelau’s theory of temperament (RTT), there are four types of temperament, differentiated according to low vs. high stimulation processing capacity and to the level of their internal ...harmonization. The type of temperament is considered harmonized when the constellation of all temperamental traits is internally matched to the need for stimulation, which is related to effectiveness of stimulation processing. In nonharmonized temperamental structure, an internal mismatch is observed which is linked to ineffectiveness of stimulation processing. The three studies presented here investigated the relationship between temperamental structures and the strategies of categorization. Results revealed that subjects with harmonized structures efficiently control the level of stimulation stemming from the cognitive activity, independent of the affective value of situation. The pattern of results attained for subjects with nonharmonized structures was more ambiguous: They were as good as subjects with harmonized structures at adjusting the way of information processing to their stimulation processing capacities, but they also proved to be more responsive to the affective character of stimulation (positive or negative mood).
Previous studies carried out within the rule-discovery paradigm demonstrated that people use different strategies depending on the affective value of the rule exemplars (i.e., whether they are ...sources of personal gains or losses). When learning positive categories, people tend to attach more weight to false positives than false negatives, resulting in overly narrow final categories (prevalence of sufficient over necessary categorization criteria), whereas when learning negative categories, the relative weights attached to the categorization errors are reversed, resulting in larger final categories and a prevalence of necessary over sufficient categorization criteria. This asymmetry is underlain by the affective negativity effect, responsible for risk aversion in decision making.
In the present study, we tested the role of anxiety in categorization behaviour, operationalized within Gray’s theory of the behaviour inhibition system (BIS), and predicted intensification of the usual asymmetry in high BIS participants. Using the rule-discovery paradigm we manipulated the affective meaning of categories (gains vs. losses) and type of feedback for categorization decisions (full vs. incomplete feedback). Results confirmed positive–negative asymmetry in categorization. However, contrary to expectations, the high BIS persons placed in the incomplete feedback gain conditions were not more but less risk averse than were low BIS persons.
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