Daily aggression domains differentially relate to daily affect and self-esteem.

How do daily fluctuations in aggression relate to daily variability in affect and self-esteem? Although research has examined how trait aggression relates to affect and self-esteem, state aggression has received little attention. To this end, we had 120 US undergraduates participate in a 14-day daily diary study where they responded to state-level measures of aggression, affect, and self-esteem. Crucially, we used multifaceted state measures of both aggression (anger, hostility, verbal aggression, physical aggression) and affect (positive vs. negative, activated vs. deactivated). Multilevel models revealed that daily anger and hostility related positively to daily negative affect and negatively to daily positive affect. Similarly, daily anger and hostility related negatively to daily self-esteem. In contrast, daily verbal and physical aggression were largely unrelated to daily affect and self-esteem; however, unexpectedly, daily physical aggression related positively to daily positive activated affect, but only when controlling for the other daily aggression domains. Overall, daily attitudinal aggression measures-anger and hostility-related to daily affect and self-esteem in theoretically consistent ways, whereas daily behavioral aggression measures-verbal and physical aggression-did not. Our findings support expanding the General Aggression Model to incorporate state-level processes.

Relationships Among Belief in God, Well-Being, and Social Capital in the 2020 European and World Values Surveys: Distinguishing Interpersonal and Ideological Prosociality.

Analyses of the 2020 combined European and World Values Surveys (124,958 respondents from 77 countries) found that people who believed in God tended to be happier, more satisfied with lives, and healthier than non-believers. Believers trusted people close to them (e.g., neighbors) more than non-believers, although non-believers tended to trust people in general and trust people from other countries more than believers. Non-believers tended to be more ideologically prosocial than non-believers (e.g., belonging to an environmental organization, advocating freedom of speech vs. control). Such differences were stronger in countries in which there were more vs fewer believers. Moreover, these differences remained after controlling for individual differences in sex, age, education, income, and left-right political orientation.

An (Un)Holy Trinity: Differences in Climate Change-Induced Distress Between Believers and Non-believers in God Disappear After Controlling for Left-Right Political Orientation.

We examined differences in reactions to climate change as a function of belief in God. We studied four samples, convenience samples of university students in the USA (n = 627) and in Poland (n = 628), a nationally representative sample of adults in Poland (n = 1154), and a nationally representative sample of adults in the USA (n = 1098). In each study we measured the distress people felt about climate change, belief in God, and left-right political orientation. These constructs were measured slightly differently across the studies. Regardless of how these constructs were measured, believers were less distressed by climate change than non-believers, and with only a few exceptions, these differences disappeared after covarying political orientation (left-right or liberal-conservative). Contrary to those who argue that there is something inherent in religious belief that predisposes people to deny or ignore climate change, the present results suggest that it is the (growing) confluence of faith and conservative political orientation that is responsible for the fact that some people of faith tend to deny climate change or actively oppose efforts to combat it.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces clinical symptoms, but do not change frontal alpha asymmetry in people with major depression disorder.

OBJECTIVES: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) has demonstrated to be successful in the reduction of relapse rates in patients with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). Little is known if MBCT is effective for treating individuals with current MDD episode and about underlying psychophysiological mechanisms of symptoms reduction. The aim of the present study was to assess effects of MBCT on depressed individuals in terms of reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms and to evaluate if this therapeutic improvement would be reflected on neurophysiological level by shift in frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). PARTICIPANTS: We studied 20 individuals with current MDD. DESIGN: Participants were randomly assigned either to waiting list or 8-week MBCT. Before and after the treatment we have assessed depression, anxiety, and FAA in resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) - an indicator of approach vs. withdrawal-related response dispositions and a vulnerability factor of MDD. RESULTS: In line with previous findings, reduction of depressive and anxiety symptoms, but no change in mean values of FAA in MBCT group was found. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide a support for the beneficial effects of MBCT in current MDD treatment, however, they do not support the hypothesis on alpha asymmetry change as a neural correlate of MDD improvement.

Relationships Between Religiosity and Naturally Occurring Social Interaction.

For 2 weeks, participants (282 US collegians) used a diary technique to describe the social interactions they had each day. These descriptions included how enjoyable the interaction was, how confident they felt, and how intimate the interaction was. They also completed a measure of Allport's Intrinsic-Extrinsic religious orientation, the Christian Orthodoxy scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory. A series of multilevel modeling analyses found that enjoyment and confidence in social interaction were positively related to the Extrinsic Personal factor of the IE scale, whereas intimacy of interactions was not related to any of these measures. These relationships remained after controlling for orthodox beliefs and depression. These results suggest that the extent to which people find comfort in religious beliefs and practices (e.g., prayer) is positively related to the quality of their daily social experiences.

Manifestations of clinical depression in daily life: a daily diary study of descriptions of naturally occurring events.

In the present study, clinically depressed (n = 135) and non-depressed adults (n = 138) described the events that happened to them each day for two weeks, and these descriptions were content analysed. Participants also rated how stressful and how positive each event was. Multilevel analyses found that depressed individuals, compared to the non-depressed, used more negative emotion words and more pronouns and used fewer positive emotion words, and they rated events as more stressful and less positive. Stressfulness of events was positively related to the use of pronouns and negative emotion words and was negatively related to the use of positive emotion words. Relationships between positivity of events and word counts were in the opposite direction. Controlling for stressfulness or positivity of events eliminated differences between the depressed and non-depressed in word use, except for use of other-pronouns words. Compared to the non-depressed, depressed people may either experience a greater number of objectively stressful or less pleasant daily events or perceive naturally occurring daily events as more stressful and less positive, and they describe daily events in ways that are consistent with such differences.

Self-presentational motives and public self-consciousness: Why do people dress a certain way?

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the self-presentational motives underlying people's selection of their daily dress and relationships between these motives and public self-consciousness. METHOD: Participants in this study, 61 working adults, described their motives for choosing what they wore each day for 2 weeks. They also provided trait-level measures of self-consciousness, social anxiety, and self-monitoring. RESULTS: Multilevel modeling analyses found positive relationships between public self-consciousness and the strength of various self-presentational motives for why people chose the clothes they wore each day. In contrast, there were few relationships between the strength of these motives and private self-consciousness, social anxiety, and self-monitoring. Participants felt better about themselves when they received compliments from others about their attire and when they were more (vs. less) satisfied with how they had dressed each day. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that dispositional public self-consciousness manifests itself in daily life in the form of motives for choosing daily attire, specifically for motives that involve self-presentation.

Attention to negative words predicts daily rumination among people with clinical depression: evidence from an eye tracking and daily diary study.

The present study examined relationships between attention to negative words and daily rumination and daily adjustment in a sample of clinically depressed individuals. We recorded eye movements of 43 individuals diagnosed with major depression while they were freely viewing dysphoric, threat-related, neutral, and positive words. Then, each day for one week, participants provided measures of their daily rumination and psychological adjustment. Multilevel analyses found that attention to dysphoric and threat-related words was positively related to daily rumination and attention to threat-related words was negatively related to daily adjustment. These findings suggest that the impaired ability to disengage from negative words is positively related to rumination in daily life and is negatively related to well-being, as defined in terms of Beck's Triad.

Where the Rubber Meats the Road: Relationships between Vegetarianism and Socio-political Attitudes and Voting Behavior.

Previous research has found that omnivores are more hierarchical and more authoritarian than vegetarians. To examine if such differences extend to political behavior a sample of American undergraduates (N = 1211) described their diets, endorsement of social policies, political orientation, and voting behavior. Consistent with previous research, we found that compared to vegetarians and semi-vegetarians, omnivores favored conservative policies more strongly and liberal polices less strongly, identified more closely with the Republican party and less closely with the Democratic party, were less liberal, approved of Donald Trump's performance more, and were more likely to have voted for Trump.

The dynamics of searching for meaning and presence of meaning in daily life.

OBJECTIVE: Research on searching for meaning in life has focused on trait-level relationships rather than within-person relationships. Our goal was to examine within-person relationships between daily states of searching for meaning in life, daily states of presence of meaning in life, and daily states of well-being. METHOD: To advance our understanding of searching for meaning in life, we conducted a daily diary study with two samples in which 254 undergraduate students (Mage = 18.54, SD = 1.55; 66.9% female) completed daily reports of presence and search for meaning in life and well-being for 2 weeks (n = 3,288). RESULTS: Between persons, search was negatively related to presence and well-being. In contrast, within persons, daily search was positively related to presence and well-being. Relationships between daily search and daily well-being were mediated by daily presence of meaning in life. Lagged analyses indicated that greater search on one day led to greater presence the next day. CONCLUSIONS: The implications of these within-person findings suggest that researchers should reconsider the potential consequences that occur from searching for meaning in life, including the possibility that greater searching is associated with increased well-being.

Positive online attentional training as a means of modifying attentional and interpretational biases among the clinically depressed: An experimental study using eye tracking.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the effectiveness of online positive attention bias modification training (ABMT) in inducing positive attention and positive interpretational biases in depressed individuals. METHOD: Clinically depressed individuals (n = 60) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions of 14-day online ABMT. In the positive ABMT condition, a probe replaced positive stimuli in 100% of trials. In the control condition, the probe replaced positive stimuli in 50% of trials. Before and after training, we recorded eye movements during the completion of a Scrambled Sentence Task in which participants created positive or negative sentences. Participants also completed measures of symptoms of depression and anxiety. RESULTS: After training, participants in the positive ABMT condition fixated longer on positive keywords than participants in the control group and experienced a significant reduction in anxiety. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that positive AMBT can promote positive attention bias among clinically depressed individuals.

Within-Person Relationships Between Recreational Running and Psychological Well-Being.

Participants in the study were recreational runners (N = 244) who maintained online diaries. Once a week for approximately 3 months they indicated how far they had run each day that week, and at the end of the week, they provided measures of their psychological well-being. A series of multilevel modeling analyses (weeks nested within persons) found that well-being, measured in terms of self-esteem, life satisfaction, self-efficacy, meaning in life, and affect, was positively related to how many days people ran each week and how far they ran each week. Satisfaction with one's progress mediated relationships between well-being and the amount of running, suggesting that increases in running lead to increases in satisfaction with progress, which lead to increased well-being. These results complement and extend existing research on the psychological benefits of exercise.

Vegetarianism, depression, and the five factor model of personality.

This study investigated whether vegetarians and omnivores differ in their personality characteristics. We measured the five factor model of personality and depressive symptoms in vegetarians, who avoided meat and fish (n = 276); semi-vegetarians, who ate some meat and/or fish (n = 1191); and omnivores (n = 4955). Although vegetarians and semi-vegetarians were more open to new experiences, they were more neurotic and depressed than omnivores. Neither conscientiousness nor agreeableness varied as a function of dietary habits. These findings contribute to our understanding about differences between vegetarians' and omnivores' personalities, which might help us better understand individual differences in food preferences.

Relationships between vegetarian dietary habits and daily well-being.

The goal of the present study was to examine differences in the daily experiences of vegetarians and non-vegetarians. At the end of each day for two weeks, a convenience sample of American undergraduates described how they felt and how they thought about themselves that day, and they described the events that occurred to them that day. Multilevel modeling analyses (days nested within persons) found that vegetarians (individuals who avoided all meat and fish, n = 24) reported lower self-esteem, lower psychological adjustment, less meaning in life, and more negative moods than semi-vegetarians (individuals who ate some meat and/or fish, n = 56) and omnivores (individuals who did not restrict their intake of meat or fish, n = 323). Vegetarians also reported more negative social experiences than omnivores and semi-vegetarians. Although women were more likely than men to identify as vegetarians and semi-vegetarians, controlling for participant gender did not change the results of the analyses. The differences we found are consistent with other research that suggests that vegetarians are less psychologically well-adjusted than non-vegetarians. The implications of the present results for understanding relationships between dietary habits and well-being are discussed.

Relationships between meaning in life, social and achievement events, and positive and negative affect in daily life.

Research on meaning in life has generally focused on global meaning judgments. This study examined how people's daily experiences, represented by events that occur in daily life, influence their perceived sense of meaning on a daily basis. One hundred sixty-two college students completed daily reports for 2 weeks. We examined the relationships among daily social and achievement events, daily positive and negative affect, and daily meaning in life. In addition, we tested the possible moderating influence of depressive symptoms on these relationships. Positive daily social and achievement events were related to greater daily meaning, above and beyond the contributions of daily positive and negative affect. Negative social and achievement events were related to less daily meaning, and negative achievement events covaried with daily meaning above and beyond positive and negative affect. Depression moderated the relationships between positive events and meaning, such that people who reported more depressive symptoms had greater increases in daily meaning in response to positive social and achievement events than individuals who reported fewer symptoms. These findings suggest the important role that daily events may play in fluctuations in people's affective experiences and sense of meaning in life.

The Brief Aggression Questionnaire: Structure, Validity, Reliability, and Generalizability.

In contexts that increasingly demand brief self-report measures (e.g., experience sampling, longitudinal and field studies), researchers seek succinct surveys that maintain reliability and validity. One such measure is the 12-item Brief Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ; Webster et al., 2014), which uses 4 3-item subscales: Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, Anger, and Hostility. Although prior work suggests the BAQ's scores are reliable and valid, we addressed some lingering concerns. Across 3 studies (N = 1,279), we found that the BAQ had a 4-factor structure, possessed long-term test-retest reliability across 12 weeks, predicted differences in behavioral aggression over time in a laboratory experiment, generalized to a diverse nonstudent sample, and showed convergent validity with a displaced aggression measure. In addition, the BAQ's 3-item Anger subscale showed convergent validity with a trait anger measure. We discuss the BAQ's potential reliability, validity, limitations, and uses as an efficient measure of aggressive traits.

Gender differences in reactions to the sexualization of athletes.

Participants rated a series of photographs that depicted well-known male and female athletes in a sexualized fashion or not. In general, sexualized targets were perceived as more attractive but as less competent than non-sexualized targets, and for ratings of competence, sexualization effects were greater for female targets. Sexualization had no effects on women's perceptions of the competence of male targets, whereas for men, sexualization affected their perceptions of the competence of both male and female targets, although the influence of sexualization was stronger for female targets than it was for male targets. These findings suggest that the gender of the target and of the perceiver needs to be considered when evaluating the influences of sexualization. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of objectification theory, which has focused on the objectification of women by women.

Sexual healing: daily diary investigation of the benefits of intimate and pleasurable sexual activity in socially anxious adults.

A growing literature attests to deficits in social and romantic life quality in people with elevated social anxiety, but no research to date has explored how intense intimate encounters influence social anxiety symptoms. This study investigated whether the presence and quality of sexual activity on a given day predicted less social anxiety and negative cognitions on a subsequent day. We also explored whether the benefits of sexual activity would be stronger for more socially anxious individuals. Over 21 days, 172 undergraduate students described the presence and quality of sexual activity, social anxiety symptoms, and use of social comparisons on the day in question. Time-lagged analyses determined that being sexually active on one day was related to less social anxiety symptoms and the generation of fewer negative social comparisons the next day. Furthermore, more intense experiences of pleasure and connectedness during sex predicted greater reductions in social anxiety the next day for people high in trait social anxiety, compared to those low in trait social anxiety. These results were similar regardless of whether sex occurred in the context of romantic relationships or on weekdays versus weekends. The results suggest that sexual activity, particularly when pleasurable and intimate, may mitigate some of the social anxiety and negative comparisons frequently experienced by people with high trait social anxiety.

The brief aggression questionnaire: psychometric and behavioral evidence for an efficient measure of trait aggression.

A key problem facing aggression research is how to measure individual differences in aggression accurately and efficiently without sacrificing reliability or validity. Researchers are increasingly demanding brief measures of aggression for use in applied settings, field studies, pretest screening, longitudinal, and daily diary studies. The authors selected the three highest loading items from each of the Aggression Questionnaire's (Buss & Perry, 1992) four subscales--Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, anger, and hostility--and developed an efficient 12-item measure of aggression--the Brief Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ). Across five studies (N = 3,996), the BAQ showed theoretically consistent patterns of convergent and discriminant validity with other self-report measures, consistent four-factor structures using factor analyses, adequate recovery of information using item response theory methods, stable test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with behavioral measures of aggression. The authors discuss the reliability, validity, and efficiency of the BAQ, along with its many potential applications.