Internal and external self-affirmation resources: validation and assessment of psychometric properties of the spontaneous self-affirmation measure using structural equation modeling.

Introduction: People use coping strategies such as self-affirmation to manage threats to their self-esteem. In empirical research, self-affirmation often involves recalling personal values, strengths, or relationships to restore moral integrity. Research shows it improves attitude adjustment, resolves cognitive dissonance, and enhances well-being. Some studies stress the importance of distinguishing between different aspects of self-affirmation, like strengths or social relations. These aspects align with concepts in psychotherapy that differentiate between internal and external resource activation, benefiting health, self-esteem, and resilience. The aim of the current study was twofold: first, to independently test the three-factor structure of the Spontaneous Self-affirmation Measure (SSAM), and second, to integrate self-affirmation strategies into a broader resource activation framework as resilience factors. It also examined associations with self-esteem and effects of age, gender, and education on spontaneous self-affirmation. Methods: 1,100 participants (72% female, age 18-65) were recruited online. The original three-factor structure of the SSAM (with the factors Strengths, Values and Social relations) was examined using structural equation modeling. Further, a theory driven two-factor structure applying an internal and external resources framework was examined, integrating the factors of the SSAM into the taxonomy of resource activation (Internal resources: Strengths and Values; External resources: Social relations). Results: The results of confirmatory factor analyses showed that both the original three-factor structure and the complementary two-factor structure with an Internal resources and External resources factor fit the data appropriately. All three factors of the original factor model showed a high reliability (Strengths: ωt = 0.91, Values: ωt = 0.91, Social relations: ωt = 0.92). We also found measurement invariance across age, gender, and education. Furthermore, group differences regarding gender, education and ethnicity in the utilization of spontaneous self-affirmation strategies were apparent. Finally, it was demonstrated that the Internal resources factor of the complementary two-factor model is significantly more strongly correlated with self-esteem than the External Resources factor [z = 12.80, p < 0.001, 95%CIdiff (0.24, 0.33)]. Discussion: The study confirms the validity of both the three-factor and two-factor structures of the SSAM. Integrating self-affirmation into the resource activation framework may facilitate applying findings from self-affirmation studies to clinical contexts.

Validation of the factor structure of the Experiences Questionnaire using Exploratory Graph Analysis.

Introduction: Decentering describes the ability to shift the focus away from one's subjective experience onto the experience itself. The Experiences Questionnaire (EQ) is a self-report measure that was developed to systematically assess changes in Decentering ability. Although several studies show the validity of the questionnaire, there are discrepancies between the factorial structure of the Decentering scale of the EQ (EQ-D) found in the initial study (one factor) and other studies (two factors). Therefore, the current study aimed to assess the dimensionality of the EQ-D using Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA). Methods: In total, 1,100 participants were recruited online (790 female, 307 male, 3 non-binary; age 18 to 65 years). Participants completed the EQ and the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (RSES). Results: The bootstrapped EGA results revealed a two-dimensional structure of the EQ-D (Factor 1: Distanced Perspective, DP; Factor 2: Accepting Self-perception, AS) with high structural and item stability (all items > 0.70). The two dimensions of the EQ-D showed a high internal consistency (DP: ω = 0.74; AS: ω = 0.86) and discriminant validity with the rumination items of the EQ. Furthermore, a high convergent validity of the EQ was established, as the AS factor exhibited a significantly stronger correlation with self-esteem than the DP factor (z = 7.98, p < 0.001), which aligns with theoretical considerations suggesting that the AS factor encompasses aspects of self-compassion alongside decentering. We also found measurement invariance of the DP and AS factor across age, gender and country but not for education. Discussion: These results support the EQ's validity, demonstrated in a larger sample with a new methodology, aligning with existing two-factor decentering models literature.

An Evaluation of Forced Distance Learning and Teaching Under Pandemic Conditions Using the Technology Acceptance Model.

Research: Due to the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and the resulting pandemic situation, universities were forced to rapidly change their traditional pedagogical and didactical approach by shifting from mostly face-to-face teaching to entirely virtual and online teaching methods. Through this, a "forced" distance learning and teaching situation emerged. This study aimed at investigating the effect of these innovations on the implementation, acceptance, and use of the virtual teaching offer within the framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM). Methods: A total of 218 students and 69 lecturers of a German Medical Faculty completed online questionnaires on the acceptance, satisfaction, and usefulness of the forced distance learning (FDL) and teaching (FDT), respectively. An extended version of the TAM was used to assess the acceptance of the students and lecturers of FDL and FDT. In order to estimate the multivariate dependencies, path analysis was employed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: In general, students and lecturers reported being satisfied with the implementation of the FDL and FDT. Regarding the TAM model, the fit indices suggested an acceptable model fit for both groups. The model of the students revealed that the perceived usefulness had a strong predictive power on the attitude toward using and the perceived ease of use also predicted the attitude. The existing technical infrastructure as well as the general media affinity and pandemic-related worries proved to be positively associated with the perceived usefulness while data security worries and organization of online teaching predicted the perceived ease of use in students. The strong positive predictive power of the perceived usefulness for the attitude toward using was also evident in the model for the lecturers and the technical infrastructure predicted the perceived ease of use in the lecturers. Conclusion: The TAM is a suitable framework to represent the implementation, acceptance, and use of the virtual teaching offer during the special pandemic situation at the university. However, personal and structural context factors were important predictors for the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use in the student group. The forced situation for learning and teaching makes it more difficult to predict the actual use of virtual teaching offers solely based on attitude.

Elated or sad mood induction affects the attention of patients with a bipolar disorder less than that of patients with a depressive disorder.

Introduction: The role of acute mood states as mediating factors in cognitive impairment in patients with mania or depression is not sufficiently clear. Similarly, the extent to which cognitive impairment is trait or state-specific remains an open question. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a mood-induction on attention in patients with an affective disorder.Methods: Twenty-two depressed bipolar patients, 10 manic bipolar patients, 17 with a depressive episode (MDE), and 24 healthy controls performed the Attention-Network-Test (ANT). In a within-participants design, elated and sad moods were induced by an autobiographic recall and measured on a self-report scale. Subsequently, participants performed the ANT again.Results: The modulating effect of the elated mood induction on attention was small. Only the MDE group displayed moderate improvements in selective attention and tonic alertness. Surprisingly, after the sad mood induction, patients with MDE improved moderately on phasic and tonic alertness. Phasic alertness was also enhanced in patients with mania. Finally, after the mood induction, patients with MDE showed the largest variability in attentional performance.Conclusions: Results showed only small effects of mood induction on attention. This supports the view that attention deficits reflect trait variables.

How females think about themselves and how they assume that significant others think about them: The influence of perspective taking on self-referential processing.

People maintain a positive self-concept through positive self-appraisals (Self-Serving Bias Effect, SSBE) and a diminished memory for self-threatening information (Mnemic-Neglect Effect, MNE). Other people also influence a person's self-concept. This study investigated SSBE and MNE in 60 females by using a trait-judgment paradigm applying two perspectives (self- and third-person appraisals) and a recall task. Additionally, self-esteem was assessed as an associated factor. SSBE and MNE were found in both kinds of appraisal perspectives. Interestingly, participants saw themselves as even more positive in reflected appraisals. SSBE and self-esteem were associated only in self-appraisals, indicating a larger SSBE on self-appraisals with raising self-esteem. In conclusion, both what females think about themselves and how they assume that others think about them preserve their overall positive self-concept.

Strategies of selective changing: Preparatory neural processes seem to be responsible for differences in complex inhibition.

Selective inhibition describes the stopping of an action while other actions are further executed. It can be differentiated between two strategies to stop selectively: the fast but global stop all, then discriminate strategy and the slower but more selective first discriminate, then stop strategy. It is assumed that the first discriminate, then stop strategy is especially used when information regarding which action might have to be stopped is already available beforehand. Moreover, it is supposed that both strategies differ in matters of basal ganglia pathways used for their execution. Aim of the present study was to investigate the use of the two strategies in situations requiring selective changing of an action. Eighteen healthy male participants performed a selective stop-change task with informative and uninformative cues during fMRI. Behavioral results show that informative cues led to a benefit in both inhibition times and selectivity. FMRI data revealed that the same cortico-subcortical pathway was used with informative and uninformative cues. Behavioral and neuronal results indicate that participants used the first discriminate, then stop strategy for selective inhibition irrespective of the amount of previously available information. Moreover, the neural activity data indicate that the benefit in the informed condition was produced by an efficient preparation for the concrete change process. Possible factors that might affect which strategy is used for selective stopping are the level of previously available information (foreknowledge) and the experimental set-up, as e.g. task complexity.

Stopping Speed in the Stop-Change Task: Experimental Design Matters!

Previous research comparing the speed of inhibiting a motor response in no-foreknowledge vs. foreknowledge conditions revealed inconsistent findings. While some studies found stopping to be faster in the no-foreknowledge condition, others reported that it was faster in the foreknowledge condition. One possible explanation for the heterogeneous results might be differences in experimental design between those studies. Given this, we wanted to scrutinize whether it makes any difference if foreknowledge and no-foreknowledge are investigated in a context in which both conditions are presented separated from each other (block design) vs. in a context in which both conditions occur intermingled (event-related design). To address this question a modified stop-change task was used. In Experiment 1 no-foreknowledge and foreknowledge trials were imbedded in a block design, while Experiment 2 made use of an event-related design. We found that inhibition speed as measured with the stop signal reaction time (SSRT) was faster in the foreknowledge as compared to the no-foreknowledge condition of the event-related study, whereas no differences in SSRT between both conditions were revealed in the block design study. Analyses of reaction times to the go stimulus reflect that participants tended to slow down their go responses in both experimental contexts. However, in the foreknowledge condition of the event-related study, this strategic slowing was especially pronounced, a finding we refer to as strategic delay effect (SDE), and significantly correlated with SSRT. In sum our results suggest that inhibition speed is susceptible to strategic bias resulting from differences in experimental setup.

A reaction-time adjusted PSI method for estimating performance in the stop-signal task.

A central experimental task in executive control research is the Stop-signal task, which allows measuring the ability to inhibit dominant responses. A crucial aspect of this task consists of varying the delay between the Go- and Stop-signal. Since the time necessary to administer the task can be long, a method of optimal delay choice was recently proposed: the PSI method. In a behavioral experiment, we show a variant of this method, the PSI marginal method, to be unable to deal with the Go-response slowing often observed in the Stop-signal task. We propose the PSI adjusted method, which is able to deal with this response slowing by correcting the estimation process for the current reaction time. In several sets of behavioral simulations, as well as another behavioral experiment, we document and compare the statistical properties of the PSI marginal method, our PSI adjusted method, and the traditional staircase method, both when reaction times are constant and when they are linearly increasing. The results show the PSI adjusted method's performance to be comparable to the PSI marginal method in the case of constant Go-response times, and to outperform the PSI marginal method as well as the staircase methods when there is response slowing. The PSI adjusted method thus offers the possibility of efficient estimation of Stop-signal reaction times in the face of response slowing.

Exploring the relationship of decentering to health related concepts and cognitive and metacognitive processes in a student sample.

BACKGROUND: Decentering, a central change strategy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, is a process of stepping outside of one's own mental events leading to an objective and non-judging stance towards the self. The study aimed at investigating associated mechanisms of decentering. METHOD: The present study investigated the relation of decentering, operationalized by means of the German Version of the Experiences Questionnaire, to severity of depressive symptoms, assessed by the adaptive Rasch-based depression screening, and self-focussed attention, assessed by the Questionnaire of Dysfunctional and Functional Self-Consciousness. Furthermore, the relationship between decentering and a) the ability to shift and allocate attention by means of the Stroop test, and b) metacognitive monitoring, i.e. the absolute difference between judged and real task performance, was investigated. These relationships were examined in 55 healthy students using Pearson's correlations. RESULTS: In line with our assumptions, higher decentering scores were significantly associated with lower scores on severity of depressive symptoms, with higher functional- and lower dysfunctional self-focussed attention. Contrary to our expectations, results neither indicated a relationship between decentering and attention ability, nor between decentering and metacognitive monitoring. CONCLUSIONS: The present results suggest that decentering is associated with concepts of mental health (i.e. less severity of depressive symptoms and higher functional self-focussed attention). Overall, the concept decentering seems to be mainly composed of self-focussed aspects when investigated in a healthy sample without intervention. Further investigations of associated concepts of decentering should consider aspects of self-relevance and emotional valence.

Neural correlates of positive and negative performance feedback in younger and older adults.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies with younger adults have shown that performance feedback can serve as a reward, and it elicits reward-related brain activations. This study investigated whether performance feedback is processed similarly in younger and older adults and whether there are differential aging effects for positive and negative performance feedback. METHODS: We used event-related fMRI in a choice reaction-time task and provided performance feedback after each trial. RESULTS: Although younger and older adults differed in task-related activation, they showed comparable reward-related activation. Positive performance feedback elicited the strongest striatal and amygdala activation, which was reflected behaviorally in slightly faster reaction times. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that performance feedback serves as a reward in both younger and older adults.

Does cognitive behavior therapy alter emotion regulation in inpatients with a depressive disorder?

INTRODUCTION: Emotion regulation plays an important role in the development and treatment of depression. The present study investigated whether the emotion regulation strategies, expressive suppression (ES) and cognitive reappraisal (CR) change in the course of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) of depressive inpatients. Furthermore, it also examined whether changes in CR and ES correlated with positive treatment outcomes. METHODS: Forty-four inpatients from a psychotherapeutic hospital who suffered from a depressive disorder (mean age =36.4 years, standard deviation =13.4 years; 63.6% female) filled in the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory at admission and discharge. To detect changes in emotion regulation, and depression across treatment, data were analyzed using multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) for repeated measures, effect sizes, and Spearman correlations. A P-value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Depression severity (F[1]=10.42, P=0.003; η(2) =0.22) and CR (F[1]=4.71, P=0.04; η(2) =0.11) changed significantly across CBT treatment. ES remained virtually stable. Post-treatment scores of CR were also positively correlated with reduction in depressive symptoms across treatment (ρ=0.30, P=0.05). CONCLUSION: The results suggest that CBT affects emotion regulation in depressive inpatients only for CR and that higher post-treatment scores in CR were related to greater reduction in depressive symptoms across treatment.

Metacognitive monitoring of attention performance and its influencing factors.

Metacognitive monitoring is a central element of metacognitive processing exerting widespread influences on information processing. Albeit being subject to numerous empirical investigations referring to memory performance, there is little research investigating metacognitive monitoring in other cognitive domains. The present study investigated in 45 healthy students whether factors that are known to influence monitoring of memory performance, i.e., task difficulty, time of assessment, and practice, also exhibit a significant impact on monitoring of attention performance. A multivariate analysis of variance with three within-subject repeated measures factors on two dependent variables (monitoring of (a) time, and (b) errors in an attention task) was conducted. Results showed that monitoring ability significantly decreased with increasing task difficulty, was significantly better for post than for pre-assessment, and significantly increased with practice. Therefore, results suggest that the examined factors influenced monitoring of attention performance equivalent to the influence of these factors found in metamemory research.

Measuring decentering in self-reports: Psychometric properties of the experiences questionnaire in a German sample.

Decentering is described as referring to one's current mental experiences from an objective perspective. This study presents a psychometric evaluation of a German version of the Experiences Questionnaire (EQ-D), a self-report instrument designed to measure decentering. Confirmatory factor analysis on a sample of 506 university students indicates acceptable-to-good model fit (χ(2)=58.3; TLI=.92; CFI=.95; RMSEA=.067) for a second-order factor Overall Decentering comprising the two first-order factors Accepting Self-Perception and Distanced Perspective. Preliminary evidence for the validity of the EQ-D was demonstrated via negative correlations with measures of depression and depressive rumination. The present results stress the multidimensional nature of decentering and provide important suggestions for future research on how to investigate and operationalize the decentering construct.

A mediation model of mindfulness and decentering: sequential psychological constructs or one and the same?

BACKGROUND: Mindfulness and decentering are closely related processes both assumed to promote well-being. While some researchers claim that mindfulness and decentering can be clearly differentiated others suggest to use these concepts interchangeably. The precise relation between mindfulness and decentering remains unclear and therefore the present study aims to determine the relation between mindfulness and decentering. METHODS: In a structural equation modeling framework, a mediation model was tested among a sample group of 495 university students (average age 20.8 years, 30.3% female). RESULTS: The identified model shows an acceptable fit to the data and illustrates the role of decentering as a mediator of the relationship between mindfulness and depressive symptoms by complementary mediation and indirect-only mediation. CONCLUSION: The present results cannot sustain previous research, which converted mindfulness and decentering into one single variable. Rather the data suggests to treat mindfulness and decentering as two separable concepts and to regard decentering as an important working mechanism of mindfulness.

The role of 5-HT in response inhibition and re-engagement.

In animal and human research, the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in inhibitory control. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the present study investigated the acute effects of pharmacological modulation of the serotonergic system on brain activation during response inhibition and re-engagement in healthy human volunteers. In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over design 14 men received either a single oral dose of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram (10mg) or a placebo. At the time of the expected plasma peak concentration, participants performed a stop-change task during fMRI. Escitalopram did not affect behavioural performance, since the main effect did not reveal significant differences between reaction times of go-, stop- or change-trials. During successful response inhibition, escitalopram, however, was associated with enhanced brain activation in right prefrontal cortex, right supplementary/pre-motor and bilateral cingulate cortex, and subcortical regions. During inhibition failures, escitalopram also modulated a broad network of brain regions, including anterior cingulate, right parietal cortex, right orbitofrontal cortex, and areas in right temporal cortex and subcortical regions. During response re-engagement escitalopram increased brain activation in right inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus as well as in left middle temporal gyrus. The results implicate the involvement of 5-HT in neural regulation of response inhibition and re-engagement. This study also provides evidence that 5-HT affects both action restraint and action cancellation through modulation of activation of brain areas. The results support the view for a fronto-striatal circuitry for response inhibition in conjunction with serotonin.

Stop or stop-change--does it make any difference for the inhibition process?

In the course of daily living altering environmental conditions or changing internal states often cause us to abandon obsolete planned or initiated actions and force us to update our behavior. The stop-change paradigm, an extension of the very popular stop-signal paradigm, allows the investigation of response inhibition and response re-engagement in a laboratory setting. This is very important as everyday life rarely calls for the complete suppression of actions without subsequent behavioral adjustment. The present review first gives a short overview on stop-signal inhibition and its behavioral and neural models before summarizing the findings in the stop-change domain. In doing so, this review shall contribute to a better understanding of the functional and neural architecture of response inhibition and re-engagement. Moreover, the question is raised whether the same or different inhibition process(es) are involved in stop-signal- and stop-change inhibition.

Can executive control be influenced by performance feedback? Two experimental studies with younger and older adults.

Executive control describes a wide range of cognitive processes which are critical for the goal-directed regulation of stimulus processing and action regulation. Previous studies have shown that executive control performance declines with age but yet, it is still not clear whether different internal and external factors-as performance feedback and age-influence these cognitive processes and how they might interact with each other. Therefore, we investigated feedback effects in the flanker task in young as well as in older adults in two experiments. Performance feedback significantly improved executive performance in younger adults at the expense of errors. In older adults, feedback also led to higher error rates, but had no significant effect on executive performance which might be due to stronger interference. Results indicate that executive functions can be positively influenced by performance feedback in younger adults, but not necessarily in older adults.

When response inhibition is followed by response reengagement: an event-related fMRI study.

In the course of daily living, changing environmental demands often make our actions, once initiated, unnecessary or even inappropriate. Under such circumstances, the ability to inhibit the obsolete action and to update behavior can be of vital importance. Previous lesion and neuroimaging studies have shown that the right prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia seem to play an important role in the inhibition of already initiated motor responses. The present study was designed to investigate whether the neural activity of inhibitory motor control was altered if the inhibition process was succeeded by an additional process, namely the reengagement into an alternative action. Therefore, cerebral blood oxygenation during performance of a stop-change paradigm was registered in 15 male participants using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging. Data analysis showed, that during successful and failed stopping and changing (response inhibition and subsequent response reengagement) of initiated motor responses a very similar network was activated including primarily the right inferior frontal cortex (IFC). Besides, stopping-related activation in right IFC was significantly greater for fast inhibitors than for slow ones. Results of the present study thus further underline the important role of right IFC in response inhibition and suggest that the inhibition process functions similarly regardless whether changing task demands require the complete suppression of an already initiated motor response or its suppression and a subsequent response reengagement into an alternative action.

Serotonergic modulation of response inhibition and re-engagement? Results of a study in healthy human volunteers.

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive functions dependent on the prefrontal cortex, such as the ability to suppress behavior (response inhibition) and initiate a new one (response re-engagement) is important in the activities of daily life. Central serotonin (5-HT) function is thought to be a critical component of these cognitive functions. In recent studies, 5-HT failed to affect stop-signal reaction time (SSRT), a fundamental process in behavioral inhibition. We were interested if response inhibition and re-engagement are influenced through central 5-HT activity as mediated via the 5-HT transporter. METHODS: Here, using a stop-change task, we investigated the effects of acute and repeated treatment with 10 mg escitalopram, a selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitor, in 36 healthy human volunteers on response inhibition and re-engagement in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study with cross-over design. RESULTS: Results do not show an influence of escitalopram on response inhibition or response re-engagement as we did not find differences in SSRT or change reaction time (CRT). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the results of previous studies suggesting that 5-HT is not critical in inhibition of already initiated responses and response re-engagement. We hypothesize that results are due to different forms of behavioral inhibition and 5-HT may critical to other forms.

Differential effects of escitalopram on attention: a placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over study.

RATIONALE: The role of serotonin (5-HT) in attention is not fully understood yet. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to investigate whether attention is modulated after treatment with escitalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). METHODS: We administered 10 mg of escitalopram to 20 healthy subjects in a placebo-controlled, double-blind cross-over design for 1 day or to another 20 participants for a period of 7 days. Attention was assessed at time of plasma peak escitalopram concentration using the computerised Attention Network Test (ANT), which is a combined flanker and cued reaction time task. RESULTS: The results showed differential effects of serotonergic manipulation on attention depending on sequence of intake. For the acute treatment, we found significant differences between escitalopram and placebo for all warning conditions dependent of sequence of intake: participants receiving escitalopram as first treatment showed significant slower reaction times in all warning conditions as compared with placebo while participants receiving escitalopram as second treatment showed significant faster reaction times as compared with placebo. For the sub-chronic treatment, we found significant differences between escitalopram and placebo depending on sequence of intake, but only for the flanker condition: participants receiving escitalopram first had significant slower reaction times in incongruent trials with escitalopram as compared with placebo while participants starting with placebo had significant shorter reaction times in incongruent trials with escitalopram. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, the results showed a differential effect of escitalopram in cognition, especially in attention, and are discussed with regard to an interaction between serotonin and familiarity with the attention test.