Associations between valenced news and affect in daily life: Experimental and ecological momentary assessment approaches.

In 203 (mean age = 38.04 years, SD=12.05) participants, we tested the association between valenced news and affect using a 14-day, smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment protocol consisting of two components: 1) a once-per-day experimental protocol in which participants were exposed to good news and bad news stories and 2) a four-times-per-day protocol capturing ecological fluctuations in news consumption. Across both protocols, we replicate findings that consumption of positively valenced news is associated with increased positive affect and decreased negative affect while consumption of negatively valenced news is associated with increased negative affect and decreased positive affect. By integrating the ecological momentary assessment data with network science methodologies, news selection and news effects were modeled simultaneously, uncovering selection processes whereby current positive affect, but not negative affect, predicted future valenced news consumption. Altogether, findings indicate that everyday news consumption influences positive and negative affect and may serve mood management functions for positive but not negative affect.

Adolescent Emotion Network Dynamics in Daily Life and Implications for Depression.

Emotion network density describes the degree of interdependence among emotion states across time. Higher density is theorized to reflect rigidity in emotion functioning and has been associated with depression in adult samples. This paper extended research on emotion networks to adolescents and examined associations between emotion network density and: 1) emotion regulation and 2) symptoms of depression. Data from a daily diary study (t = 21 days) of adolescents (N = 151; 61.59% female; mean age = 14.60 years) were used to construct emotion network density scores. Emotion regulation was measured using The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Short Form (DERS-SF). Depression was measured using the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-Short Version (RCADS-SV). Associations between emotion network density and DERS-SF were examined through Pearson correlations. Multiple regression analyses examined associations between emotion network density and depression. Emotion network density was not associated with the DERS-SF. Follow-up analyses showed that it was positively associated with non-acceptance of emotions (a subscale of the DERS-SF). Emotion network density was positively associated with RCADS-SV depression. Non-acceptance of emotions may encourage the spread of emotion across time and states given that a feature of non-acceptance is to have secondary emotional responses to one's emotions. Emotion networks that are self-predictive may be a risk factor for adolescent depression.

Enriching psychological assessment using a person-specific analysis of interpersonal processes in daily life.

We present a series of methods and approaches for clinicians interested in tracking their individual patients over time and in the natural settings of their daily lives. The application of person-specific analyses to intensive repeated measurement data can assess some aspects of persons that are distinct from the valuable results obtained from single-occasion assessments. Guided by interpersonal theory, we assess a psychotherapy patient's interpersonal processes as they unfold in his daily life. We highlight specific contexts that change these processes, use an informant report to examine discrepancies in his reported interpersonal processes, and examine how his interpersonal processes differ as a function of varying levels of self-esteem and anger. We advocate for this approach to complement existing psychological assessments and provide a scoring program to facilitate initial implementation.