Interoceptive Awareness and Anorexia Nervosa: When Emotions Influence the Perception of Physiological Sensations.

ABSTRACT: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is related to difficulties in emotion regulation, including a deficit in interoceptive awareness. The lack of interoceptive awareness is considered a vulnerability involved in the development and maintenance of anorexic symptoms. Surprisingly, no study has been conducted that focuses on these associations in an emotional context. This study measures the interoceptive awareness-using heartbeat self-counting and a sphygmomanometer-of 25 subjects suffering from AN and 25 control subjects, first at rest and then in an emotional situation. The results show that a deficit in interoceptive awareness was observed for the subjects suffering from AN at rest as well as when an emotional context was induced. This study encourages future investigations to focus on the impact of interoceptive deficit in AN to develop as efficient a care regimen as possible for these subjects.

How self-compassion moderates the effect of body surveillance on subjective happiness and depression among women.

According to objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), being treated as an object leads women to engage in self-objectification, which in turn increases body surveillance and body shame as well as impairs mental health. However, very little is known about what factors could act as buffers against the detrimental consequences of self-objectification. This paper seeks to understand the role of self-compassion (the ability to kindly accept oneself or show self-directed kindness while suffering) in the perception that women have of their own bodies. Results indicate that self-compassion moderated the effect of body surveillance on depression and happiness separately among women. More specifically, for women low in self-compassion, body surveillance was negatively associated with happiness, which was explained by increased depression. In sum, our results indicate that self-compassion protects against the detrimental consequences of body surveillance.

Hypnosis, Meditation, and Self-Induced Cognitive Trance to Improve Post-treatment Oncological Patients' Quality of Life: Study Protocol.

INTRODUCTION: A symptom cluster is very common among oncological patients: cancer-related fatigue (CRF), emotional distress, sleep difficulties, pain, and cognitive difficulties. Clinical applications of interventions based on non-ordinary states of consciousness, mostly hypnosis and meditation, are starting to be investigated in oncology settings. They revealed encouraging results in terms of improvements of these symptoms. However, these studies often focused on breast cancer patients, with methodological limitations (e.g., small sample size, no control group, and no follow-up). Another non-ordinary state of consciousness may also have therapeutic applications in oncology: self-induced cognitive trance (SICT). It seems to differ from hypnosis and meditation, as it involves the body more directly. Thus, investigating its clinical applications, along with hypnosis and meditation interventions, could improve available therapeutic options in oncology. This article details the study protocol of a preference-based longitudinal controlled superiority trial aiming to assess the effectiveness of 3 group interventions (hypnosis, meditation, and SICT) to improve oncological patients' quality of life, and more specifically CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties (primary outcomes). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A power analysis required a total sample of 160 patients. Main inclusion criteria are: cancer diagnosis, active treatments completed for less than a year, no practice of hypnosis, meditation, or SICT, and presence of at least one of these four symptoms: fatigue, sleep difficulties, depression, or anxiety. Each participant will choose the intervention in which they want to participate (hypnosis, mindful self-compassion meditation, SICT, or no intervention-control group). To test the effectiveness of the interventions, data will be collected by questionnaires and neurobiological measures and directly from the medical record at four time points: before inclusion in the study (baseline); immediately after the intervention; and at 3- and 12-month follow-up. The longitudinal data in each group will then be measured. DISCUSSION: In addition to standard cancer therapies, there is a growing interest from patients in complementary approaches, such as hypnosis, meditation, and SICT. The results of this study will be useful to increase knowledge about short- and long-term effectiveness of 3 group interventions for CRF, emotional distress, sleep, pain, and cognitive difficulties in patients with different cancers. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov/ (NCT04873661). Retrospectively registered on the 29th of April 2021. url: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04873661.

Gratitude Moderates the Relation between Daily Hassles and Satisfaction with Life in University Students.

Satisfaction with life as a judgmental cognitive process can be negatively influenced by appraisals of daily events such as hassles. Trait-gratitude-a tendency to appraise, recognize and respond to life events through being grateful-is a determinant of mental health and well-being, and has been shown to be related to the positive appraisal of life. The aim of the current study was to investigate the moderating role of trait-gratitude in the relationship between daily hassles and satisfaction with life. In the process of carrying out this study, the French version of the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) was validated. A total of 328 French undergraduates completed questionnaires measuring gratitude, satisfaction with life, and daily hassles to test the main hypothesis. They also completed optimism, coping strategies, depression, and anxiety questionnaires in order to assess the convergent validity of the French version of the GQ-6. First, the results showed satisfactory psychometric properties of the Gratitude Questionnaire. Second, the results indicated the moderating role of trait-gratitude in the relationship between daily hassles disturbance and satisfaction with life. This study further documents the role of gratitude as a determinant of well-being and provides French-speaking clinicians and researchers with a useful tool to measure grateful disposition.

Self-Compassion and Rumination Type Mediate the Relation between Mindfulness and Parental Burnout.

The COVID-19 lockdown increased the day-to-day challenges faced by parents, and thereby may have increased parental burnout risk. Therefore, identifying parental burnout protection factors is essential. This study aimed to assess the protective role of the following factors which can be increased through mindfulness practice: trait mindfulness, self-compassion, and concrete vs. abstract ruminations. A total of 459 parents (Mage = 40; 98.7% female) completed self-reported questionnaires at two-time points to assess the predictive role of mindfulness on parental burnout, self-compassion and rumination type, and the mediating role of self-compassion and rumination type in the relation between mindfulness and parental burnout. Results showed that trait mindfulness, self-compassion, and rumination type at Time 1 predicted levels of parental burnout at Time 2. Self-compassion (indirect effects: b = - 22, 95% CI = [-38, -05], p < 0.01), concrete ruminations (indirect effects: b = -20, 95% CI = [-32, -09], p < 0.001), and abstract ruminations (indirect effects: b = -0.54, 95% CI = [-71, -37], p < 0.001) partially mediated the relation between trait-mindfulness and parental burnout. These findings showed that trait mindfulness, self-compassion, and concrete (vs. abstract) ruminations may help prevent parental burnout in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results contribute to the field of research on parental burnout prevention and will allow for the development of effective approaches to mental health promotion in parents.

Resilience Predicts Lower Anxiety and Depression and Greater Recovery after a Vicarious Trauma.

This study validated the French version of the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS-F) and tested the protective role of resilience in the context of vicarious trauma (22 March 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels) regarding anxiety and depression symptoms. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated a single-factor structure of the BRS-F. Investigation of convergent validity showed that the BRS-F was positively correlated with usual outcomes such as subjective happiness, acceptance, and sense of coherence, and negatively correlated with anxiety and depression symptoms. Lastly, the results of the study showed that resilience protected against the effect of vicarious trauma in two ways. First, at the time of exposure, the more resilient individuals reported lower levels of anxiety and depression symptoms. Second, after three months, the more resilient individuals recovered from these symptoms, whereas no significant effect was found for less resilient individuals. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

Examining the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale in 20 diverse samples: Support for use of a total score and six subscale scores.

This study examined the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) using secondary data drawn from 20 samples (N = 11,685)-7 English and 13 non-English-including 10 community, 6 student, 1 mixed community/student, 1 meditator, and 2 clinical samples. Self-compassion is theorized to represent a system with 6 constituent components: self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness and reduced self-judgment, isolation and overidentification. There has been controversy as to whether a total score on the SCS or if separate scores representing compassionate versus uncompassionate self-responding should be used. The current study examined the factor structure of the SCS using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) to examine 5 distinct models: 1-factor, 2-factor correlated, 6-factor correlated, single-bifactor (1 general self-compassion factor and 6 group factors), and 2-bifactor models (2 correlated general factors each with 3 group factors representing compassionate or uncompassionate self-responding). Results indicated that a 1- and 2-factor solution to the SCS had inadequate fit in every sample examined using both CFA and ESEM, whereas fit was excellent using ESEM for the 6-factor correlated, single-bifactor and correlated 2-bifactor models. However, factor loadings for the correlated 2-bifactor models indicated that 2 separate factors were not well specified. A general factor explained 95% of the reliable item variance in the single-bifactor model. Results support use of the SCS to examine 6 subscale scores (representing the constituent components of self-compassion) or a total score (representing overall self-compassion), but not separate scores representing compassionate and uncompassionate self-responding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Acceptance alone is a better predictor of psychopathology and well-being than emotional competence, emotion regulation and mindfulness.

Emotional competence, emotion regulation, mindfulness and acceptance have all been strongly associated to emotional disorders and psychological well-being in multiple studies. However little research has compared the unique predictive ability of these different constructs. We hypothesised that they will all share a large proportion of common variance and that when compared to the broader constructs emotional competence, emotion regulation and mindfulness, acceptance alone would predict a larger proportion of unique variance METHODS: 228 participants from a community sample completed anonymously measures of anxiety, depression, happiness, acceptance, mindfulness, emotional competence and emotion regulation. We then ran multiple regressions to assess and compare the predictive ability of these different constructs. RESULTS: For measures of psychological distress, the acceptance measure uniquely accounted for between 4 and 30 times the variance that the emotional competence, emotion regulation and mindfulness measures did. LIMITATIONS: These results are based on cross-sectional designs and non-clinical samples, longitudinal and experimental studies as clinical samples may be useful in order to assess the potential protective power of acceptance over time. Another limitation is the use of self-report questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS: Results confirmed our hypothesis, supporting the research on the importance of acceptance as a central factor in the understanding of the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders.

Robust, replicable, and theoretically-grounded: A response to Brown and Coyne's (2017) commentary on the relationship between emodiversity and health.

In 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, we reported 2 studies demonstrating that the diversity of emotions that people experience-as measured by the Shannon-Wiener entropy index-was an independent predictor of mental and physical health, over and above the effect of mean levels of emotion. Brown and Coyne (2017) questioned both our use of Shannon's entropy and our analytic approach. We thank Brown and Coyne for their interest in our research; however, both their theoretical and empirical critiques do not undermine the central theoretical tenets and empirical findings of our research. We present an in-depth examination that reveals that our findings are statistically robust, replicable, and reflect a theoretically grounded phenomenon with real-world implications. (PsycINFO Database Record

Self-Compassion Scale (SCS): Psychometric Properties of The French Translation and Its Relations with Psychological Well-Being, Affect and Depression.

Over the past few years, the topic of self-compassion has attracted increasing attention from both scientific and clinical fields. The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) was created to specifically capture this way of being kind and understanding towards oneself in moments of turmoil. In this article, we present a French adaptation of the SCS. We first explore the psychometric properties of this adaptation and then investigate its relation to psychological well-being. As in the original version of the SCS, the French adaptation has a strong 6-factor structure but a weaker hierarchical second order structure. However the bi-factor model yields a good omega index suggesting the relevance of a single score accounting for self-compassion. Moreover, there was a relation between the SCS and classical outcomes such as a positive relation with psychological well-being and negative relation with depressive symptoms. We then hypothesized that self-compassion would have a moderating role on the relation between affect and depression. This hypothesis was confirmed: expressing negative affect is correlated with depressive symptoms; however, being kind with oneself lowers depressive symptoms even when expressing negative affect. In conclusion, this research presents a valid self-compassion measure for French-speaking researchers and clinicians and outlines the need for further research on the concept of self-compassion.

Joint effect of alexithymia and mood on the categorization of nonverbal emotional vocalizations.

The role of stable factors, such as alexithymia (i.e., difficulties identifying and expressing feelings, externally oriented cognitive style), or temporary factors, such as affective states (mood), on emotion perception has been widely investigated in the literature. However, little is known about the separate or joint effect of the alexithymia level and affective states (positive affectivity, negative affectivity) on the recognition of nonverbal emotional vocalizations (NEV) (e.g., laughs, cries, or sighs). In this study, participants had to categorize NEV communicating 10 emotions by selecting the correct verbal emotional label. Results show that the level of alexithymia is negatively correlated to the capacity to accurately categorize negative vocalizations, and more particularly sad NEV. On the other hand, negative affectivity appeared negatively correlated with the ability to accurately categorize NEV in general, and negative vocalizations in particular. After splitting the results by the alexithymia level (high vs. low scorers), significant associations between mood and accuracy rates were found in the group of high alexithymia scorers only. These findings support the idea that alexithymic features act across sensory modalities and suggest a mood-interference effect that would be stronger in those individuals.

Emodiversity and the emotional ecosystem.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 143(6) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (see record 2014-49316-001). There is a color coding error in Figure 2. The correct color coding is explained in the erratum.] Bridging psychological research exploring emotional complexity and research in the natural sciences on the measurement of biodiversity, we introduce--and demonstrate the benefits of--emodiversity: the variety and relative abundance of the emotions that humans experience. Two cross-sectional studies across more than 37,000 respondents demonstrate that emodiversity is an independent predictor of mental and physical health--such as decreased depression and doctor's visits--over and above mean levels of positive and negative emotion. These results remained robust after controlling for gender, age, and the 5 main dimensions of personality. Emodiversity is a practically important and previously unidentified metric for assessing the health of the human emotional ecosystem.

Emotional plasticity: conditions and effects of improving emotional competence in adulthood.

This study aimed to investigate (a) whether it is possible to increase emotional competence (EC) in adulthood; (b) whether this improvement results in better mental, physical, and social adjustment; (c) whether this improvement can be maintained 1 year later; and (d) whether these benefits are accompanied by a reduction in stress-hormone secretion (i.e., cortisol). One hundred and thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to an EC-enhancing intervention (in group format) or to a control group. Participants in the intervention group underwent a specifically designed 15-hr intervention targeting the 5 core emotional competencies, complemented with a 4-week e-mail follow-up. Results reveal that the level of emotional competencies increased significantly in the intervention group in contrast with the control group. This increase resulted in lower cortisol secretion, enhanced subjective and physical well-being, as well as improved quality of social and marital relationships in the intervention group. No significant change occurred in the control group. Peer reports on EC and quality of relationships confirmed these results. These data suggest that emotional competencies can be improved, with effective benefits on personal and interpersonal functioning lasting for at least 1 year. The theoretical implications of these results as well as their practical implications for the construction and the development of effective emotional competencies interventions are discussed.

Increasing emotional competence improves psychological and physical well-being, social relationships, and employability.

This study builds on earlier work showing that adult emotional competencies (EC) could be improved through a relatively brief training. In a set of 2 controlled experimental studies, the authors investigated whether developing EC could lead to improved emotional functioning; long-term personality changes; and important positive implications for physical, psychological, social, and work adjustment. Results of Study 1 showed that 18 hr of training with e-mail follow-up was sufficient to significantly improve emotion regulation, emotion understanding, and overall EC. These changes led in turn to long-term significant increases in extraversion and agreeableness as well as a decrease in neuroticism. Results of Study 2 showed that the development of EC brought about positive changes in psychological well-being, subjective health, quality of social relationships, and employability. The effect sizes were sufficiently large for the changes to be considered as meaningful in people's lives.