Applying the theory of planned behavior to examine adjuvant endocrine therapy adherence intentions.

OBJECTIVE: Adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET) in breast cancer survivors is suboptimal. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study aimed to identify the strongest predictors from the TPB of AET intentions and past behavior and assessed whether ambivalence and anticipatory emotions increased the predictive capacity of TPB. METHODS: Two hundred eighty women diagnosed with hormone positive (HR+) breast cancer who filled at least one prescription of AET responded to a survey measuring TPB constructs, attitudinal ambivalence, and anticipatory emotions. The outcomes were intentions to adhere to AET and past medication adherence (previous 2 weeks). RESULTS: The TPB explained 66% of intentions to adhere to AET (P < 0.001). Ambivalence did not improve the TPB model's predictive value. When emotions were included with TPB, the model explained 70% of adherence intentions F11,226  = 52.84, P < 0.001 (R2c  = .70). This increase of 4% in predictability was statistically significant (ΔR2  = 0.04), F6, 226  = 7.90, P < 0.001. Women who self-reported nonadherence in the past 2 weeks differed significantly in the TPB variables, ambivalence, and anticipatory emotions from adherent women. Nonadherent participants reported lower-future intentions to adhere F1, 236  = 5.63, P = 0.018. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest key concepts, such as anticipatory positive emotions that should be addressed in future interventions to enhance AET adherence and survivorship.

When feeling bad makes you look good: guilt, shame, and person perception.

In two studies, we examined how expressions of guilt and shame affected person perception. In the first study, participants read an autobiographical vignette in which the writer did something wrong and reported feeling either guilt, shame, or no emotion. The participants then rated the writer's motivations, beliefs, and traits, as well as their own feelings toward the writer. The person expressing feelings of guilt or shame was perceived more positively on a number of attributes, including moral motivation and social attunement, than the person who reported feeling no emotion. In the second study, the writer of the vignette reported experiencing (or not experiencing) cognitive and motivational aspects of guilt or shame. Expressing a desire to apologise (guilt) or feelings of worthlessness (private shame) resulted in more positive impressions than did reputational concerns (public shame) or a lack of any of these feelings. Our results indicate that verbal expressions of moral emotions such as guilt and shame influence perception of moral character as well as likeability.

Cognition and Emotion over twenty-five years.

In the 25 years since its foundation, Cognition and Emotion has become a leading psychological journal of research on emotion. Here we review some of the ways in which this has occurred. Questions have included how parallel systems of cognition and emotion can operate in emotion regulation and psychological therapies (including the issue of free will), how the cognitive approach to emotion works, how emotion affects attention, memory, and decision making, and how emotion research is moving beyond the individual mind into the space of the interpersonal.

Processing bias for terror-related stimuli and September 11th-related distress in college students.

The psychological sequelae of the September 11th terrorist attacks were examined in 249 college students at three sites in the USA and one site in the UK in the year following the attacks. Participants completed questionnaires tapping 9/ 11-related exposure and distress, and completed a modified Stroop task assessing time to color-name cards containing terror-related and neutral words. Geographical location and amount of exposure to the attacks were significant predictors of self-reported 9/11-related distress, but were not associated with processing bias for terror-related stimuli. Self-reported 9/11-related distress was significantly associated with processing bias, but only in the group (n = 124) which performed the neutral card first. Processing biases for terror-related stimuli are dependent on method of assessment and appear to be more closely tied to self-reported distress than to amount of objective exposure to the attacks.

The Effectiveness of Somatization in Communicating Distress in Korean and American Cultural Contexts.

Previous research has documented that Asians tend to somatize negative experiences to a greater degree than Westerners. It is posited that somatization may be a more functional communication strategy in Korean than American context. We examined the effects of somatization in communications of distress among participants from the US and Korea. We predicted that the communicative benefits of somatic words used in distress narratives would depend on the cultural contexts. In Study 1, we found that Korean participants used more somatic words to communicate distress than US participants. Among Korean participants, but not US participants, use of somatic words predicted perceived effectiveness of the communication and expectations of positive reactions (e.g., empathy) from others. In Study 2, we found that when presented with distress narratives of others, Koreans (but not Americans) showed more sympathy in response to narratives using somatic words than narratives using emotional words. These findings suggest that cultural differences in use of somatization may reflect differential effectiveness of somatization in communicating distress across cultural contexts.

The role of public exposure in moral and nonmoral shame and guilt.

Although scholarly traditions assume that shame results more from the public exposure of a transgression or incompetence than guilt does, this distinction has little empirical support. Four studies, using either undergraduate participants' responses to hypothetical scenarios, their remembered experiences, or the coding of literary passages, reexamined this issue. Supporting traditional claims, public exposure of both moral (transgressions) and nonmoral (incompetence) experiences was associated more with shame than with guilt. Shame was also more strongly linked with nonmoral experiences of inferiority, suggesting 2 core features of shame: its links with public exposure and with negative self-evaluation. The distinctive features of guilt included remorse, self-blame, and the private feelings associated with a troubled conscience.

Maternal Depression and Family Media Use: A Questionnaire and Diary Analysis.

We describe the association between postpartum depression and the quantity and content of infant media use. Households with depressed mothers viewed twice as much television as households with non-depressed mothers did, and depressed mothers appeared to derive comparatively greater pleasure from television viewing. Maternal depression was associated with an increased exposure to child-directed content by 6-9-month-old infants, although it was not associated with an increased exposure to adult-directed programming. Depressed mothers also reported being less likely to sit and talk with their children during television use or to consult outside sources of information about media. This increase in television exposure without corresponding parental involvement could negatively affect developmental outcomes.

I fear your envy, I rejoice in your coveting: on the ambivalent experience of being envied by others.

We present 2 studies on being envied. Study 1 used an emotional narrative methodology. We asked 44 Spanish (23 women, 21 men) and 48 European American (36 women, 12 men) participants to tell us about a recent experience in which others envied them. We classified the antecedents, relationship context, markers of envy, coping strategies, and positive and negative implications of being envied. In Study 2, 174 Spanish (88 women, 86 men) and 205 European American (106 women, 99 men) participants responded to a situation in which they had something someone else wanted. We manipulated the object of desire (academic achievement or having "a better life"). We measured individual differences in orientation to achievement (i.e., vertical individualism), cooperation and interpersonal harmony (i.e., horizontal collectivism), a zero-sum view of success, beliefs that success begets hostile coveting, fear of success, and dispositional envy. We also measured participants' appraisals, positive and negative emotions, and coping strategies. The findings from both studies indicate that being envied has both positive (e.g., increased self-confidence) and negative consequences (e.g., fear of ill will from others). Being envied had more positive and more negative psychological and relational consequences among those participants who were achievement oriented (European Americans) than among participants who were oriented to cooperation and interpersonal harmony (Spanish).

The Roles of Self-Esteem and Social Interaction in Embarrassment.

This experiment investigated the circumstances that lead to embarrassment. Two theories of embarrassment were tested, one based on social interaction, the other based on self-esteem. The predictions of these two theories were compared in a situation in which the theories make contrasting predictions, namely, one in which esteem-threatening feedback is delivered to a person under the guise of a pleasant but transparent pretext. Subjects (N= 90) reported feelings of embarrassment and of self-esteem that were most consistent with the interaction theory. The implications of these findings for other theories of social anxiety are discussed.

Envy and Jealousy: Semantic Problems and Experiential Distinctions.

Although traditional scholarly views suggest that envy and jealousy produce distinct affective experiences, empirical work is contradictory. The present study treated this problem from both semantic and experiential perspectives. First, subjects described situations in which they had felt strong envy and strong jealousy. These descriptions were coded for whether they conformed to traditional definitions of the two emotions. The results demonstrated that although the words envy and jealousy have overlapping meanings, the source of this overlap is the broad meaning of the word jealousy. Whereas the word jealousy may denote either jealousy (romantic jealousy, most commonly) or envy, the word envy will tend to be used in one sense alone, as a social-comparison-based emotion. In the second part of the study, subjects indicated for a series of affective states whether each was more characteristic of strong envy or strong jealousy. The results suggested that each emotion is associated with a differing profile of feelings. Reasons for the discrepancy between these results and previous empirical work are discussed.