Misophonia and Hearing Comorbidities in a Collegiate Population.

OBJECTIVES: Misophonia is a little-understood disorder in which certain sounds cause a strong emotional response in those who experience it. People who are affected by misophonia may find that noises like loud chewing, pen clicking, and/or sniffing trigger intense frustration, anger, or discomfort. The relationship of misophonia with other auditory disorders including loudness hyperacusis, tinnitus, and hearing loss is largely underexplored. This project aimed to investigate the prevalence and hearing-health comorbidities of misophonia in a college-aged population by using an online survey. DESIGN: A total of 12,131 undergraduate and graduate students between the ages of 18 and 25 were given the opportunity to answer an in-depth online survey. These students were sampled in a roughly 50 of 50 sex distribution. The survey was created using Qualtrics and included the following components: electronic consent, demographics questionnaire, Misophonia Questionnaire (MQ), Khalfa's Hyperacusis Questionnaire (HQ), Tinnitus and Hearing Survey, and Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI). To be eligible for compensation, answers for each of the above components were required, with the exception of the TFI, which was only presented to students who indicated that they experienced tinnitus. Respondents were determined to have high or possible likelihood of having misophonia if they gave specific answers to the MQ's Emotion and Behavior Scale or the MQ Severity Scale. RESULTS: After excluding duplicate responses and age-related outliers, 1,084 responses were included in the analysis. Just over 20% (n = 217) of the sample was determined to have a high or probable likelihood of having misophonia. The sample was primarily White, female, and of mid-to-high socioeconomic status. There was a strong positive correlation between MQ total scores and HQ total scores. High likelihood misophonia status showed a significant relationship with self-reported hearing loss and tinnitus. No statistically significant relationship was found between misophonia and age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. MQ total scores differed significantly when separating respondents by sex, self-reported tinnitus, and loudness hyperacusis. White respondents had significantly higher MQ total scores than Asian/Asian American respondents. CONCLUSIONS: The estimated prevalence of misophonia was about 8% to 20% of the sample, which agrees with most of the currently published research examining misophonia symptoms in collegiate populations. Results of data analysis suggest that misophonia severity may be related to loudness hyperacusis, sex, and possibly tinnitus. Future studies are needed to further examine the characteristics of these relationships, possibly in populations more optimized to reflect the general population or those with hearing-health disorders.

Pleasurable emotions and internalizing psychopathology: A multi-study examination of specificity and alternative explanations.

OBJECTIVES: Past research has been inconclusive regarding the specificity of associations between discrete pleasurable emotions and internalizing symptoms. Contentment may be especially relevant to depression, whereas tranquillity may be especially relevant to worry. The goal of the current research was to clarify the mixed findings regarding the relation between pleasure deficits and internalizing psychopathology. METHODS: Participants from three samples (Total N = 757) completed alternative measures of depression and pleasurable emotions. Participants in Study 1 also completed a measure of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, and close peers to a subset of participants (N = 64) reported their perceptions of participants' depression severity. Participants in Studies 2 and 3 also completed a measure of worry. RESULTS: Across the three samples, contentment was significantly negatively associated with self-reported depression. This association could not be accounted for by tranquillity, cheerfulness, anticipatory pleasure, or consummatory pleasure. Contentment was also strongly negatively associated with peer-reported depression. Contentment was more strongly associated with depression than was cheerfulness. However, the strength of the association between contentment and depression relative to the strength of the association between tranquillity and depression depended on how contentment and depression were measured. Conversely, tranquillity was more strongly associated with worry than were contentment or cheerfulness. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides further evidence of the potential importance of the role of contentment in depression and tranquillity in worry. It may be useful to attend to contentment when assessing and treating depression and to attend to tranquillity when assessing and treating elevated worry.

Strangulation as an Acquired Brain Injury in Intimate-Partner Violence and Its Relationship to Cognitive and Psychological Functioning: A Preliminary Study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this work was to examine the relationship between strangulation-related alterations in consciousness (AIC) and cognitive and psychological outcomes in women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). SETTING: Participants were recruited from a variety of settings, including women's shelters and support programs. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 99 women were enrolled in the study. After applying exclusion criteria for factors that could mask or confound the effects of strangulation, 52 women remained for analyses. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, retrospective. MAIN MEASURES: We used several cognitive measures to assess learning, long-term and working memory, visuomotor speed, cognitive flexibility, and nonverbal cognitive fluency as well as several psychological measures to assess posttraumatic stress symptomatology, general distress, worry, anhedonic depression, and anxious arousal. We also used the Brain Injury Severity Assessment interview to examine the association between strangulation-related AICs and these measures of cognitive and psychological functioning. RESULTS: Women who had experienced strangulation-related AICs performed more poorly on a test of long-term memory (P < .03) and had higher levels of depression (P < .03) and posttraumatic stress symptomatology (P < .02) than women who had not experienced strangulation-related AIC. When controlling for potential confounding variables, including number of IPV-related traumatic brain injuries, women who had experienced strangulation also performed more poorly on a measure of working memory. CONCLUSION: This is the first report to assess strangulation in this manner and demonstrate links to cognitive and psychological functioning. These preliminary data contribute to our knowledge of strangulation and its effects on women who have experienced IPV.

Examining the latent structure of emotional awareness and associations with executive functioning and depression.

Emotional awareness is comprised of dispositions towards and knowledge about one's emotions. Executive functions (EF) are cognitive processes that organise and guide behaviour towards one's goals. Both emotional awareness and EF play a role in processes such as emotion regulation and are risk factors for the development and maintenance of depression. Although previous research suggests that aspects of emotional awareness are related to EF, methodological and measurement limitations within the available literature make it difficult to clearly understand how they are associated. In this registered report, we examined the extent to which task-based measures of a specific EF process, shifting, are differentially related to unique facets of emotional awareness (i.e. emotional clarity of type, emotional clarity of source, voluntary attention to emotions, and involuntary attention to emotions), and to what extent EF and emotional awareness are related to depression. Using structural equation modelling, we found evidence that emotional clarity of type was associated with greater shifting cost. Shifting was not associated with any other facet of emotional awareness. Depression was linked to lower emotional clarity of type, higher involuntary attention to emotions, but not poorer EF performance. We discuss how emotional awareness and EF may be uniquely related to depression.

Did the DSM-5 Improve the Traumatic Stressor Criterion?: Association of DSM-IV and DSM-5 Criterion A with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: A recent meta-analysis found that DSM-III- and DSM-IV-defined traumas were associated with only slightly higher posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms than nontraumatic stressors. The current study is the first to examine whether DSM-5-defined traumas were associated with higher levels of PTSD than DSM-IV-defined traumas. Further, we examined theoretically relevant event characteristics to determine whether characteristics other than those outlined in the DSM could predict PTSD symptoms. METHOD: One hundred six women who had experienced a trauma or significant stressor completed questionnaires assessing PTSD, depression, impairment, and event characteristics. Events were rated for whether they qualified as DSM-IV and DSM-5 trauma. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between DSM-IV-defined traumas and stressors. For DSM-5, effect sizes were slightly larger but still nonsignificant (except for significantly higher hyperarousal following traumas vs. stressors). Self-reported fear for one's life significantly predicted PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the current DSM-5 definition of trauma, although a slight improvement from DSM-IV, is not highly predictive of who develops PTSD symptoms. Our study also indicates the importance of individual perception of life threat in the prediction of PTSD.

Emotional influences on perception and working memory.

Although there has been steady progress elucidating the influence of emotion on cognition, it remains unclear precisely when and why emotion impairs or facilitates cognition. The present study investigated the mechanisms involved in the influence of emotion on perception and working memory (WM), using modified 0-back and 2-back tasks, respectively. First, results showed that attentional focus modulated the impact of emotion on perception. Specifically, emotion facilitated perceptual task performance when it was relevant to the task, but it impaired performance when it was irrelevant to the task. The differential behavioural effect of emotion on perception as a function of attentional focus diminished under high WM load. Second, attentional focus did not directly modulate the impact of emotion on WM, but rather its influence depended on the dynamic relationship between internal representations. Specifically, WM performance was worse when the material already being held online and the new input were of matching emotions (e.g. both were negative), compared to when they were not. We propose that the competition between "bottom-up" and "top-down" processing for limited cognitive resources explains the nature of the influence of emotion on both perception and WM.

Emotional Awareness Moderates the Relationship Between Childhood Abuse and Borderline Personality Disorder Symptom Factors.

OBJECTIVE: To examine pathways to borderline personality disorder (BPD), focusing on childhood abuse and emotional attention and clarity. METHOD: Among 293 community residents (mean age = 43.1; 53.9% female), measured associations between the BPD symptom factors of disturbed relatedness, affective dysregulation, and behavioral dysregulation and (a) childhood abuse (emotional, physical, and sexual); (b) emotional attention and clarity; and (c) negative affect, using structured interviews, the Schedule for Non-Adaptive and Adaptive Personality-2, the Trait Meta Mood Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale, respectively. RESULTS: All forms of childhood abuse were associated with BPD symptom factors. Emotional attention and clarity moderated the effects of childhood physical and emotional abuse on behavioral dysregulation and disturbed relatedness. All results held when controlling for negative affect. CONCLUSION: The relations between childhood abuse and BPD are robust. Emotional attention and clarity may help elucidate the links between childhood abuse and BPD.

Why Do People Believe What They Do? A Functionalist Perspective.

Why do people believe what they do? Scholars and laypeople alike tend to answer this question by focusing on the representational functions of beliefs (i.e., representing the world accurately). However, a growing body of theory and research indicates that beliefs also can serve important hedonic functions (i.e., decreasing/increasing negative or positive emotional states). In this manuscript, we describe: (1) the features of belief, (2) the functions served by beliefs, with a focus on the hedonic function, (3) an integrative framework highlighting the hedonic function and contrasting it with the representational function, (4) the implications of our framework, and related future research directions for individual differences in belief, belief change, and the ways in which beliefs contribute to adaptive versus maladaptive psychological functioning.

The relation between depression and appreciation: The role of perceptions of emotional utility in an experimental test of causality.

The present research examined the potential role of perceived utility of appreciation in depressive symptoms. In a between-subjects design, participants were induced to increase their experience of appreciation or their perceived usefulness of appreciation. Self-reported perceptions of emotional utility, actual experience of emotion, as well as depression scores gathered from semi-structured interviews, were obtained at baseline and post-induction. As predicted, although participants in both groups evidenced lower levels of depressive symptoms at post-induction than at baseline, there was a greater decrease among participants in the appreciation-utility condition than among those in the appreciation-experience condition. Further, perceived utility of appreciation was an important mediator in moderated mediation models.

Emotional awareness and delusions in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Emotion plays a significant role in schizophrenia. Emotional awareness (i.e., attention to and clarity of emotions) is associated with a wide range of outcomes. Given that individuals with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder differ in the significance of their mood symptoms, the present research examined whether the association between emotional awareness and delusions differs for these two groups of patients. METHODS: Emotional awareness (i.e., attention to and clarity of emotions) was measured with self-report in a sample of 44 individuals diagnosed with either schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Clinical ratings of delusions were made using the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms. RESULTS: For the sample as a whole, individuals with higher levels of attention to emotion tended to have more severe delusions. In addition, diagnostic group significantly moderated the relation between emotional clarity and delusions. LIMITATIONS: Conclusions regarding causality cannot be drawn due to the cross-sectional design. Replication is particularly important given the small sample sizes. CONCLUSIONS: The present research indicates that emotional awareness is associated with delusions. The results raise the possibility that the emotional factors that contribute to delusional beliefs among individuals with schizophrenia differ in at least some ways from the emotional factors that contribute to delusional beliefs among individuals with schizoaffective disorder.

Examining the contextual and temporal stability of perceptions of emotional utility.

The present research examined the degree to which perceptions of emotional utility are stable across contexts and over time. Self-reported perceptions of emotional utility and actual experience of emotion were measured in two samples of college students. In Study 1, participants were presented with two different types of goals (independent vs. interdependent) and were asked to rate the degree to which they found different types of emotions (e.g., appreciation, pride) useful in each context. In Study 2, participants completed daily online questionnaires in which they responded to questions assessing perceptions of emotional utility and actual affect in relation to personal goals. As predicted, across both samples, perceived utility of specific types of emotions was found to be associated with specific types of goals. Importantly, perceived utility of emotion was also found to be a relatively stable individual difference variable, even after taking into account the actual experience of emotion.

Self-conscious emotions in worry and generalized anxiety disorder.

OBJECTIVES: Current theories regarding worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) highlight the potential avoidance functions of worry, and it has been suggested that worry functions to avoid self-conscious emotions in particular. Therefore, the present study examined the roles of proneness and aversion to self-conscious emotions in worry and GAD. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data from two samples were collected: (1) a sample of 726 undergraduates, and (2) a selected sample of 51 community members, 37.3% of whom met DSM-IV criteria for GAD. Zero-order correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to examine associations of self-conscious emotion constructs to worry and GAD. METHOD: Proneness to guilt and shame (propensities for experiencing guilt and shame, respectively) were assessed via the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3. Aversion to guilt and shame (perceptions of guilt and shame, respectively, as especially painful, undesirable emotions) were assessed using the Guilt Aversion Assessment and Shame-Aversive Reactions Questionnaire, respectively. Worry was assessed using the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and GAD was assessed via the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders. RESULTS: Correlations indicated positive associations between self-conscious emotion constructs and worry/GAD. However, in the selected community sample, regression analyses indicated that only shame aversion was positively associated with worry/GAD, over and above all other self-conscious emotion constructs and depression. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest a prominent role for an intolerance for shame in worry and GAD, which is broadly consistent with psychological models of worry. Future directions for research and clinical implications are discussed. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Positive clinical implications: Evidence supporting the theorized importance of self-conscious emotions in worry and GAD. Specifically highlights the need to address intolerance for shame in treatment. Limitations: Small sample size in Study 2. Use of cross-sectional data.

Substantial symptom changes in naturalistic recovery from aversive events.

OBJECTIVE: Researchers have recommended examining trajectories of recovery from aversive events, including sudden gains and spikes. We examined rates, attributions for, and outcomes associated with substantial symptom improvements and brief exacerbations after aversive events. METHOD: Sixty-three women completed questionnaire measures of mood, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. They used a Life History Calendar (LHC) to draw the trajectory of symptom levels from the event to the present, and were interviewed regarding the course of their symptoms. Based on the LHC and interview, we coded whether each participant experienced substantial improvements and/or brief exacerbations and reasons for them. RESULTS: Participants frequently experienced substantial improvements and brief exacerbations, most of which they attributed to external events. Substantial improvements-but not substantial brief exacerbations-were associated with significantly lower symptom levels. CONCLUSION: Substantial improvements are similar to sudden gains in therapy samples. Substantial improvements in avoidance and mood have positive, bidirectional effects on each other.

The effect of participating in a trauma- and stressful event-focused study.

OBJECTIVE: Researchers have increasingly examined whether participants who have experienced a traumatic event should be considered vulnerable research populations. Studies have typically asked participants in trauma-focused research whether they were upset by the study or perceived any benefit from it. The current study extends such research by measuring mood and exploring potential moderators of the impact of study participation. METHOD: Participants were 107 women who experienced a traumatic or stressful event and completed an event-focused research protocol. Negative affect was measured, using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, at the time of the study and 1 week later. RESULTS: Participants reported significantly lower levels of negative affect in the week after the study than before it. Decreases in negative affect were greatest for those with highest levels of depression at the time of interview. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in a trauma- or stressful-event-focused study is not harmful and may even be beneficial, especially among depressed participants.

Exploring phenotypic overlap across schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions in American and Chinese young adults.

Competing theories have been proposed to explain the considerable overlap in social-cognitive features and risk factors across schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions (ASCs). Six previous factor analyses have been reported in the literature, yet all have major limitations; evidence for the clear superiority of any of the competing theories is insufficient and warrants further investigation. The primary aim of the present research was to identify dimensions that cut across schizotypy and ASCs while addressing limitations of past research. Data were collected from three independent samples (n = 1006, 544, and 2469) in the U.S. and China using the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, and the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales. Exploratory factor analyses in Sample 1 identified an interpretable three-factor structure, which was replicated in Samples 2 and 3 using confirmatory factor analyses. We found consistent evidence for three dimensions (Aberrant Salience, Asociality, and Concrete Thinking) underlying schizotypy and ASCs. This three-dimension model is consistent with a common vulnerability model of schizotypy and ASCs. Implications of these findings for the schizotypy and ASCs literature are discussed.

Emotional awareness, gender, and peculiar body-related beliefs.

Research has broadly established that emotional disturbances are associated with body image disturbances. This is the first study to examine links between facets of emotional awareness and peculiar body-related beliefs (PBB), or beliefs about an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance or bodily functioning. In a sample of college students (n=216), we found that low emotional clarity (the extent to which the type and source of emotions are understood) was associated with higher PBB in both women and men, and the relation between emotional clarity and PBB was further moderated by attention to emotions (the extent to which emotions are attended to) and gender. Men with low attention to emotions and women with high attention to emotions both experienced higher levels of PBB if they also reported low levels of emotional clarity. This interactive effect was not attributable to shared variance with body mass index, neuroticism or affect intensity.

Are emotional clarity and emotion differentiation related?

Distinct literatures have developed regarding the constructs of emotional clarity (people's meta-knowledge of their affective experience) and emotion differentiation (people's ability to differentiate affective experience into discrete categories, e.g., anger vs. fear). Conceptually, emotion differentiation processes might be expected to contribute to increased emotional clarity. However, the relation between emotional clarity and emotion differentiation has not been directly investigated. In two studies with independent, undergraduate student samples, we measured emotional clarity using a self-report measure and derived emotion differentiation scores from scenario-based (Study 1) and event-sampling-based (Study 2) measures of affect. We found that emotional clarity and emotion differentiation are: (i) associated to a very small and statistically insignificant degree; and (ii) differentially associated with trait and scenario-based/event-sampling-based measures of affect intensity and variability. These results suggest that emotional clarity and differentiation are distinct constructs with unique relations to various facets of affective experience.

Clarity of Emotions and Goals: Exploring Associations with Subjective Well-Being Across Adulthood.

Despite declines in cognition associated with age, emotional health tends to increase. However, extant studies find few differences in the type or number of emotion regulation strategies used by older compared to younger adults. This study tested the hypothesis that older adults have greater clarity of their emotions and goals compared to younger adults. Participants (total N = 709, ages 18-81) recruited in age-stratified samples completed measures of emotional clarity, goal clarity, depression, and life satisfaction. Results suggested that emotional clarity and goal clarity are positively correlated factors, with emotional clarity showing the lowest levels in emerging adults and highest levels in older adults. Goal clarity was lowest among emerging adults, but only small differences were found between middle and older adults. Across adulthood both emotional clarity and goal clarity were linked to lower depressive symptoms and greater life satisfaction. Limitations include data being cross-sectional and self-report based and the youngest sample being recruited differently from the older samples, but the results raise the possibility of developmental changes in emotional clarity across adulthood. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00179-6.

The interactive effects of different facets of threat uncertainty and cognitive load in shaping fear and anxiety responses.

A large body of research indicates that exaggerated response to uncertainty of a future threat is at the core of anxiety and related disorders, underscoring the need for a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Although behavioral and neuroimaging studies have suggested a close relationship between uncertainty responses and cognitive control, little is known about what elements of uncertainty are more or less vulnerable to cognitive modulation in shaping aversive responses. Leveraging a novel paradigm, an n-back working memory task embedded within a modified threat-of-shock paradigm, we examined how the influences of different facets of uncertainty (i.e., occurrence and timing) on psychophysiological responses were modulated by cognitive load. Psychophysiological responses were assessed using the acoustic startle reflex. Replicating prior work, the effects of cognitive load and temporal unpredictability of threat on startle responses were evident. The effect of occurrence unpredictability appears to depend on other factors. Under low cognitive load, startle response was potentiated when both the occurrence and the timing of threat were predictable. Under high cognitive load, startle response was significantly reduced, especially when a threat context involves uncertainty in both temporal and probability domains. These observations provide a framework for refining the model of fear and anxiety and for understanding the etiology of psychological disorders characterized by maladaptive uncertainty responses.

An experimental and simulation study of the impact of emotional information on analogical reasoning.

We investigated whether and how emotional information would affect analogical reasoning. We hypothesized that task-irrelevant emotional information would impair performance whereas task-relevant emotional information would enhance it. In Study 1, 233 undergraduates completed a novel version of the People Pieces Task (Emotional Faces People Task), an analogical reasoning task in which the task characters displayed emotional or neutral facial expressions (within-participants). The emotional faces were relevant or irrelevant to the task (between-participants). We simulated the behavioral results using the Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies (LISA) model of relational reasoning. LISA is a neurally plausible, symbolic-connectionist computational model of analogical reasoning. In comparison to neutral trials, participants were slower but more accurate on emotion-relevant trials, and were faster but less accurate on emotion-irrelevant trials. Simulations using the LISA model demonstrated that it is possible to account for the effects of emotional information on reasoning in terms of how emotional stimuli attract attention during a reasoning task. In Study 2, 255 undergraduates completed the Emotional Faces People Task at either a high- or low-working memory load. The high working memory load condition of Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1, showing that participants were more accurate on emotion-relevant trials than on emotion-irrelevant trials; in Study 2, this increased accuracy could not be accounted for by a speed-accuracy tradeoff. The working memory manipulation influenced the manner in which the congruence (with the correct answer) of emotion-irrelevant emotion influenced performance. Simulations using the LISA model showed that manipulating the salience of emotion, the error penalty, as well as vigilance (which determines the likelihood that LISA will notice it has attended to an irrelevant relation), could reasonably reproduce the behavioral results of both low and high working memory load conditions of Study 2.