Effects of Therapeutic Intervention on Parentally Bereaved Children's Emotion Reactivity and Regulation 15 Years Later.

The Family Bereavement Program (FBP) is a family-based intervention for parentally bereaved children and surviving caregivers. Results are reported of a randomized controlled trial, examining intervention effects on emotional reactivity and regulation of young adults who participated in the program 15 years earlier. Participants (N = 152) completed four emotion challenge tasks: reactivity to negative images, detached reappraisal while viewing negative images, positive reappraisal while viewing negative images, and reengagement with positive images. Outcomes included cardiac interbeat interval (IBI), pre-ejection period (PEP), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as well as self-reported emotional experience and regulation effectiveness. Direct intervention effects and effects mediated through improved parenting were estimated. Several significant effects were observed in primary analyses; however, none remained significant after correction for familywise Type I error. Parenting mediated FBP effects on IBI during negative reactivity (b = 15.04), and on RSA during positive reengagement (b = 0.35); the latter effect was accounted for by changes in breathing. Intervention condition was a direct predictor of self-reported detached reappraisal effectiveness (b = 1.00). Intervention and gender interacted in predicting self-reported negative emotion during the negative reactivity (b = 1.04) and positive reappraisal tasks (b = 1.31) such that intervention-condition men reported more negative emotions during those tasks. Although these findings should be considered preliminary given the limited power of the corrected statistical tests, they suggest long-term effects of family intervention following the death of a parent on offspring's emotional reactivity and regulation ability that should be pursued further in future research.

Drinking While Stressed and Drinking to Cope Differentially Relate to Mental Health.

Excessive alcohol use, as well as drinking to manage distress, are known to undermine mental health. The current study examined the unique associations of simply consuming alcohol while stressed, versus using alcohol to cope with distress, with mental health during the early stages of COVID-19. Participants (N = 264) reported their alcohol use and use of alcohol/substances to cope with stress daily for 22 days and completed measures of mental health at baseline and every 7 days thereafter. Hierarchical regression models were tested to predict drinking while stressed, drinking to cope, and mental health. At baseline, drinking while stressed was not significantly associated with mental health when coping motives were accounted for. However, drinking to cope was significantly associated with greater stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Drinking while stressed was significantly predicted by baseline stress and loneliness, while drinking to cope was significantly predicted by baseline anxiety. Drinking while stressed was not a significant predictor of change in mental health when coping motives were accounted for. Drinking to cope was a significant predictor of increases in depression but not of change in stress, anxiety, or loneliness. The motivation to manage distress appears to be driving the negative effects of alcohol use on mental health.

Empathic concern motivates willingness to help in the absence of interdependence.

Previous research suggests that empathic concern selectively promotes motivation to help those with whom we typically have interdependent relationships, such as friends or siblings, rather than strangers or acquaintances. In a sample of U.S. participants (collected between 2018 and 2020), our studies not only confirmed the finding that empathic concern is directed somewhat more strongly toward interdependent relationship partners, but also showed cross-sectionally (Studies 1a-1b), and when manipulating target distress experimentally (Study 2), that empathic concern predicts higher willingness to help only when people perceive low interdependence in their relationship with the target. In Study 3, we manipulated perceived interdependence with an acquaintance via shared fate, and found that empathic concern only predicted helping motivation when we reduced shared fate, but not when we increased shared fate. These results suggest that when people perceive high interdependence in their relationships, shared fate is the driving force behind their desire to help, whereas when people perceive low interdependence with someone in need, empathic concern motivates them to help. A relationship-building perspective on empathic concern provides avenues for testing additional moderators, including those related to target-specific characteristics and culture and ecology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Be the Change You Want to See: Intergroup Helping Reduces InGroup Bias and Facilitates OutGroup Bias in Trading Behaviors.

This research investigated how an instance of intergroup helping affects intergroup attitudes and cooperative behavior. Past research demonstrates that helping behavior elicits prosociality, both reciprocally and toward uninvolved third parties. However, much of this research has either ignored group membership altogether or has assumed a shared group identity between benefactor and beneficiary. Where intergroup helping has been directly evaluated, more negative intergroup attitudes are often observed. The current study examined the effects of an instance of intergroup helping, introduced during a card game, on the beneficiary's attitudes of closeness and cooperative trading behavior as well as those of ingroup and outgroup witnesses to the helping act. Results from this well-powered study (N = 1,249) indicate that although intergroup helping is less likely to impact feelings of closeness, intergroup cooperative trading increases for both the beneficiary and the intergroup observers. These findings add to the understanding of how helping impacts intergroup relations.

What is shared, what is different? Core relational themes and expressive displays of eight positive emotions.

Understanding positive emotions' shared and differentiating features can yield valuable insight into the structure of positive emotion space and identify emotion states, or aspects of emotion states, that are most relevant for particular psychological processes and outcomes. We report two studies that examined core relational themes (Study 1) and expressive displays (Study 2) for eight positive emotion constructs--amusement, awe, contentment, gratitude, interest, joy, love, and pride. Across studies, all eight emotions shared one quality: high positive valence. Distinctive core relational theme and expressive display patterns were found for four emotions--amusement, awe, interest, and pride. Gratitude was associated with a distinct core relational theme but not an expressive display. Joy and love were each associated with a distinct expressive display but their core relational themes also characterised pride and gratitude, respectively. Contentment was associated with a distinct expressive display but not a core relational theme. The implications of this work for the study of positive emotion are discussed.

Fulfilling the Promise of Well-Being Science: the Quest for Conceptual and Measurement Precision.

Research on well-being has grown exponentially in the last 30 years, employing a variety of constructs and operational measures to produce a wealth of empirical research. This has led to a rich and high-impact, yet somewhat fragmented body of work. The target article by Park and colleagues initiates a valuable conversation aimed at converging on a shared conceptual definition of well-being. A rigorous program of further theoretical analysis and new research is needed to identify the boundaries as well as the core of well-being, and to document facets that are both statistically distinct and meaningful. The resulting conceptual clarity and measurement precision will facilitate mechanism-level research on causes and consequences of well-being, providing a strong foundation for scalable interventions.

Funny Date, Creative Mate? Unpacking the Effect of Humor on Romantic Attraction.

Extensive research shows that people are attracted to funny dating partners, with several competing, sometimes conflicting, explanations for why humor is strongly desired in a mate. The present research asks whether humor is interpreted as a reliable, hard-to-fake indicator of some other, valuable trait. Across six experiments, we manipulated humor in a hypothetical date, online dating profile, or video profile and asked which of several traits statistically linked to humor are reliably inferred about funny partners. Humor-specifically partners producing humor-consistently led to higher ratings of partner creative ingenuity. This effect was not moderated by gender, and mediated desirability for different types of partnership. Results further revealed stronger preference for a first-date activity requiring creative ingenuity with a funny versus non-funny partner. Humor may signal that a potential partner is skilled at creative problem-solving, which may be particularly important when considering various forms of partnership.

Shades of expansiveness: Postural expression of dominance, high-arousal positive affect, and warmth.

In addition to the face, bodily posture plays an important role in communicating affective states. Postural expansion-how much space the body takes up-has been much studied as expressing and signaling dominance and pride. The present research aimed to expand research on the range of affect dimensions and affect-laden personality characteristics that are expressed via expansiveness, investigating specific forms of expansiveness and their interactions with other postural elements (e.g., arm position). Using an innovative expression-production method, Study 1 (N = 146) characterized full-body expressions of dominance, joy, hope, and awe; results indicated joy is communicated most expansively and suggested a signature arm position for most feelings. Studies 2 and 3 (Ns = 352 and 183) revealed that other postural features interact with expansiveness to signal dominance (arms akimbo, head raised, stability), as distinct from high-arousal positive affect (arms high up, head raised) and warmth (arms high up, head raised, instability). Together, this research adds needed data on full-body expressions of positive affect states and provides systematic analysis of different affective messages and varieties of postural expansiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Future of Affective Science: Introduction to the Special Issue.

Modern affective science-the empirical study of emotional responding and affective experience-has been active for a half-century. The Future of Affective Science special issue considers the history of this field and proposes new directions for the decades ahead. Contributors represent diverse theoretical perspectives, methodological expertise, and domains of study, and the special issue includes both literature reviews and new empirical studies as illustrations. This introductory article synthesizes the contributions, articulating the broader context of the current status of our field and highlighting common themes across articles as well as gaps notable even in this special issue. Sections of the article address theoretical and conceptual issues, research methodology, the questions we ask, and translation of basic affective science to applied domains. We conclude that much has been learned from the first 50 years of affective science, and it is now time for new theories, new research questions, and innovative methods for the decades ahead.

Within- and between-group heterogeneity in cultural models of emotion among people of European, Asian, and Latino heritage in the United States.

Research on cultural variation in emotion values and beliefs has usually explained this variation in terms of individualism and collectivism, typically comparing European American against East Asian cultural contexts. This study examined emotion model variability across as well as within cultural contexts in a large sample of young adults of Latino heritage along with people of European and East Asian heritage. Using latent class analysis, we characterized and predicted endorsement of emotion models, distinguishing emotion ideals (the emotions one desires) from beliefs about injunctive norms for emotion (the emotions one believes are appropriate). Students from three universities in different regions of the United States (N = 1,618; 490 of European heritage, 463 of Asian heritage, 665 of Latino heritage) provided data on the desirability and appropriateness of experiencing 19 specific emotions in daily life, as well as their U.S. cultural orientation and sociodemographic characteristics. Four distinct classes/models of emotion desirability and four classes/models of emotion appropriateness emerged. Latent class regression demonstrated that endorsement of emotion models was systematically related to heritage group membership and mainstream cultural orientation. Findings suggest meaningful within-group heterogeneity in emotion models and highlight the ways in which emotion models among people of Latino heritage are both similar to and distinct from models among people of European and Asian heritage. By developing a more nuanced understanding of between- and within-group variation in emotion models and highlighting the Latin American form of collectivism as in need of further research, this study advances cultural psychology, affective science, and their integration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Breaking the Link Between Negative Emotion and Unhealthy Eating: the Role of Emotion Regulation.

Stressful experiences frequently lead to increased consumption of unhealthy foods, high in sugar and fat yet low in nutrients. Can emotion regulation help break this link? In a laboratory experiment (N = 200), participants were encouraged to ruminate on a current, distressing personal problem, followed by instruction to use a specific emotion regulation strategy for managing feelings around that problem (challenge appraisal, relaxation/distraction, imagined social support, no-instruction control). Participants then spent 15 min on an anagram task in which 80% of items were unsolvable-a frustrating situation offering a second, implicit opportunity to use the regulation strategy. During the anagram task they had free access to a snack basket containing various options. Analyses revealed significant differences among regulation conditions in consumption of candy versus healthy snack options; challenge appraisal led to the healthiest snack choices, imagined social support to the least healthy snack choices. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-023-00190-5.

Awe, wonder, and the human mind.

The human mind is unique in its ability to form, store, and manipulate elaborate conceptual models of the world; yet these models have vast, inevitable gaps. Where the models end, the potential for wonder and awe begins. Psychology research has begun to uncover distinctive implications of awe for how we perceive our environment and ourselves. More science investigating basic features of awe is needed to fulfill its promise for improving the human experience. Awe, accessible in everyday life, can be a valuable tool for enhancing well-being.

Positive emotion dispositions and emotion regulation in the Italian population.

The goal of this large-scale study was to test the relationship between positive emotion dispositions (i.e., Joy, Contentment, Pride, Love, Compassion, Amusement, and Awe) and two strategies of emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the Italian population. 532 Italian-speaking adults completed the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scales (DPES), the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule (PANAS), the Italian Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Big-Five Inventory (BFI). DPES scales showed high reliability. Exploratory Factor Analysis showed that a 6-factor model fits the Italian sample better. Joy and Contentment loaded on the same factor. Items assessing the other five emotions loaded on separate factors. The patterns of relationships between positive emotion dispositions, positive and negative affects traits (PANAS), and personality traits (BFI) indicated concurrent validity of the DPES. Twelve separated multiple regression models with BFI and ERQ factors as predictors and DPES factors as response variables showed that Extraversion significantly positively predicted of all DPES emotions. Agreeableness predicted Happiness, Love, Compassion, and Awe positively. Conscientiousness predicted Amusement and Love negatively and Compassion, Pride, and Happiness positively. Neuroticism predicted all emotions negatively except for Compassion. Positive emotions were significantly and positively predicted by reappraisal, and negatively predicted by suppression.

Unpacking wonder: from curiosity to comprehension.

From the macrocosm of the universe to the microcosm of the human body, our discoveries about ourselves and the natural world continue to spark our experience of awe and wonder. But how exactly does science define and explain the experience of awe and wonder? Social psychologist Michelle Shiota, writer Caspar Henderson, and astrophysicist Alex Filippenko unpack the emerging science behind the emotions of awe and wonder, including their role in our ongoing quest for understanding and knowledge.

Who emphasizes positivity? An exploration of emotion values in people of Latino, Asian, and European heritage living in the United States.

Emotion values vary within and between individualistic and collectivistic cultural contexts. The form of collectivism prevalent in Latin America emphasizes simpatía, a cultural model that stresses the relational benefits of positivity but also the costs of negativity. This model was predicted to engender a pattern of emotion values distinct from that of the more commonly studied collectivist group, people of Asian heritage (PAH), among whom an emphasis on moderating positive and negative emotions is typically observed, and from people of European heritage (PEH), among whom authenticity in emotions is typically valued. College students of Latino (n = 659), Asian (n = 446), and European (n = 456) heritage living in the United States completed a study examining positive and negative emotion values. Mixed-model analysis of variance that included interactions among culture, emotion valence (positive, negative), value type (desirability, appropriateness), and response type (experience, expression) suggested distinct patterns of emotion values across groups. People of Latino heritage (PLH) rated positive emotions as more desirable and appropriate to experience and express than PAH (ps < .001) but less desirable and appropriate to experience and express than PEH (ps ≤ .001). PLH also rated negative emotions as more undesirable (ps < .001) but similarly inappropriate to experience and express (ps > .05) compared with PAH and as similarly undesirable (ps > .05) but more inappropriate to experience (p < .001) compared with PEH. The emotion-value pattern that emerged was largely consistent with simpatía for PLH and provides new evidence of similarity and variation in emotion values in three distinct contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Ethnic variation in gratitude and well-being.

Gratitude is positively associated with health and well-being. Past studies of gratitude have primarily focused on the distinct cultural context of European Americans. The current studies aimed to extend gratitude research to Latino and East Asian Americans, 2 collectivistic contexts known to differently value positive emotions. Two studies explored whether Latino and East Asian Americans varied in gratitude experience and whether the disposition toward gratitude was associated with well-being for both. In Study 1, participants completed measures of the emotional experience and expression of gratitude. Latino Americans rated the desirability, appropriateness, frequency, and intensity of their gratitude experience-expression higher than did East Asian Americans. Moreover, European Americans' gratitude experience and expression was similar to those of Latino Americans and higher than those of East Asian Americans. In Study 2, participants completed measures of gratitude disposition and indicators of well-being. Latino Americans reported a higher disposition toward gratitude than did East Asian Americans. Higher disposition toward gratitude was associated with higher self-esteem and with less loneliness and perceived stress across groups. However, the strength of the association of gratitude with subjective health and depressive symptoms varied by group in theoretically expected ways. The promising possibilities of extending research on gratitude to culturally diverse groups is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia is associated with tonic positive emotionality.

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSAREST) indexes important aspects of individual differences in emotionality. In the present investigation, the authors address whether RSAREST is associated with tonic positive or negative emotionality, and whether RSAREST relates to phasic emotional responding to discrete positive emotion-eliciting stimuli. Across an 8-month, multiassessment study of first-year university students (n = 80), individual differences in RSAREST were associated with positive but not negative tonic emotionality, assessed at the level of personality traits, long-term moods, the disposition toward optimism, and baseline reports of current emotional states. RSAREST was not related to increased positive emotion, or stimulus-specific emotion, in response to compassion-, awe-, or pride-inducing stimuli. These findings suggest that resting RSA indexes aspects of a person's tonic positive emotionality.

Emotion recognition in objects in patients with neurological disease.

OBJECTIVE: Considerable research indicates that individuals with dementia have deficits in the ability to recognize emotion in other people. The present study examined ability to detect emotional qualities of objects. METHOD: Fifty-two patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), 20 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 18 patients awaiting surgery for intractable epilepsy, and 159 healthy controls completed a newly developed test of ability to recognize emotional qualities of art (music and paintings), and pleasantness in simple sensory stimuli (tactile, olfactory, auditory), and to make aesthetic judgments (geometric shapes, room décor). A subset of participants also completed a test of ability to recognize emotions in other people. RESULTS: Patients with FTD showed a marked deficit in ability to recognize the emotions conveyed in art, compared with both healthy individuals and patients with AD (relative to controls, deficits in patients with AD only approached significance). This deficit remained robust after controlling for FTD patients' ability to recognize pleasantness in simple sensory stimuli, make aesthetic judgments, identify odors, and identify emotions in other people. Neither FTD nor AD patients showed deficits in recognizing pleasant sensory stimuli or making aesthetic judgments. Exploratory analysis of patients with epilepsy revealed no deficits in any of these domains. CONCLUSION: Patients with FTD (but not AD) showed a significant, specific deficit in ability to interpret emotional messages in art, echoing FTD-related deficits in recognizing emotions in other people. This finding adds to our understanding of the impact these diseases have on the lives of patients and their caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Responding to the emotions of others: Age differences in facial expressions and age-specific associations with relational connectedness.

Responding prosocially to the emotion of others may become increasingly important in late life, especially as partners and friends encounter a growing number of losses, challenges, and declines. Facial expressions are important avenues for communicating empathy and concern, and for signaling that help is forthcoming when needed. In a study of young, middle-aged, and older adults, we measured emotional responses (facial expressions, subjective experience, and physiological activation) to a sad, distressing film clip and a happy, uplifting film clip. Results revealed that, relative to younger adults, older adults showed more sadness and confusion/concern facial expressions during the distressing film clip. Moreover, for older adults only, more sadness and fewer disgust facial expressions during the distressing film clip were associated with higher levels of relational connectedness. These findings remained stable when accounting for subjective emotional experience, physiological activation, and trait empathy in response to the film clip. When examining the uplifting film clip, older adults showed more happiness facial expressions relative to younger adults at trend levels. More facial expressions of happiness were associated with higher levels of relational connectedness, but unlike the effect of sadness expressions, this was not moderated by age. These findings underscore an important adaptive social function of facial expressions-particularly in response to the distress of others-in late life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Birds of a feather don't always fly farthest: similarity in Big Five personality predicts more negative marital satisfaction trajectories in long-term marriages.

Decades of research suggest that similarity in demographics, values, activities, and attitudes predicts higher marital satisfaction. The present study examined the relationship between similarity in Big Five personality factors and initial levels and 12-year trajectories of marital satisfaction in long-term couples, who were in their 40s and 60s at the beginning of the study. Across the entire sample, greater overall personality similarity predicted more negative slopes in marital satisfaction trajectories. In addition, spousal similarity on Conscientiousness and Extraversion more strongly predicted negative marital satisfaction outcomes among the midlife sample than among the older sample. Results are discussed in terms of the different life tasks faced by young, midlife, and older adults, and the implications of these tasks for the "ingredients" of marital satisfaction.