An energizing microintervention: How mindfulness fosters subjective vitality through regulatory processes and flow experience at work.

Can adopting one's morning routines influence employees' experiences throughout the day? To answer this focal question, we examine the daily effects of a brief meditation in the morning on well-being throughout the day considering spillover effects from the home to the work domain and back. To identify the dominant underlying mechanisms of this daily spillover, we draw on the personality systems interactions theory that distinguishes between autonomous self-regulation and effortful self-control as two psychological processes that reflect the regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in alignment or contradiction with one's interests, values, and goals. Accordingly, we hypothesized that meditating in the morning before work fosters autonomous self-regulation and reduces effortful self-control in the work domain, which subsequently facilitates the experience of flow at work and hence fosters subjective vitality in the home domain after work. A quasi-experimental daily-diary study over 10 days with a brief 10-min mindfulness intervention during the final 5 days with 78 participants (588 day-level data points) supported most of our predictions. More specifically, our data suggest a positive indirect effect of the intervention on subjective vitality in the evening via self-regulation and flow experience. However, there was no indirect effect of the intervention on subjective vitality via self-control. The results help to clarify how a mindfulness-based intervention can influence distinct regulatory processes and well-being, crossing boundaries between the work and home domains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Explicating the role of amygdala substructure alterations in the link between hypoleptinemia and rumination in anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: The amygdaloid complex plays a pivotal role in emotion processing and has been associated with rumination transdiagnostically. In anorexia nervosa (AN), we previously observed differential reductions of amygdala nuclei volumes (rostral-medial cluster substantially affected) and, in another study, elevated food-/weight-related rumination. Both amygdala volumes and rumination frequency correlated with characteristically suppressed leptin levels in AN. Thus, we hypothesized that amygdala nuclei alterations might be associated with AN-related rumination and potentially mediate the leptin-rumination relationship in AN. METHODS: Rumination (food-/weight-related) was assessed using ecological momentary assessment for a 14-day period. We employed frequentist and Bayesian linear mixed effects models in females with AN (n = 51, 12-29 years, majority admitted to inpatient treatment) and age-matched healthy females (n = 51) to investigate associations between rostral-medial amygdala nuclei volume alterations (accessory basal, cortical, medial nuclei, corticoamygdaloid transitions) and rumination. We analyzed mediation effects using multi-level structural equation models. RESULTS: Reduced right accessory basal and cortical nuclei volumes predicted more frequent weight-related rumination in AN; both nuclei fully mediated the effect of leptin on weight-related rumination. In contrast, we found robust evidence for the absence of amygdala nuclei volume effects on rumination in healthy females. CONCLUSION: This study provides first evidence for the relevance of specific amygdala substructure reductions regarding cognitive symptom severity in AN and points toward novel mechanistic insight into the relationship between hypoleptinemia and rumination, which might involve the amygdaloid complex. Our findings in AN may have important clinical value with respect to understanding the beneficial neuropsychiatric effects of leptin (treatment) in AN and potentially other psychiatric conditions such as depression.

Real-life self-control conflicts in anorexia nervosa: An ecological momentary assessment investigation.

BACKGROUND: Individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN) are often thought to show heightened self-control and increased ability to inhibit desires. In addition to inhibitory self-control, antecedent-focused strategies (e.g., cognitive reconstrual-the re-evaluation of tempting situations) might contribute to disorder maintenance and enable disorder-typical, maladaptive behaviors. METHODS: Over a period of 14 days, 40 acutely underweight young female patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and 40 healthy control (HC) participants reported their affect and behavior in self-control situations via ecological momentary assessment during inpatient treatment (AN) and everyday life (HC). Data were analyzed via hierarchical analyses (linear and logistic modeling). RESULTS: Conflict strength had a significantly lower impact on self-control success in AN compared to HC. While AN and HC did not generally differ in the number or strength of self-control conflicts or in the percentage of self-control success, AN reported self-controlled behavior to be less dependent on conflict strength. CONCLUSIONS: While patients with AN were not generally more successful at self-control, they appeared to resolve self-control conflicts more effectively. These findings suggest that the magnitude of self-control conflicts has comparatively little impact on individuals with AN, possibly due to the use of antecedent-focused strategies. If confirmed, cognitive-behavioral therapy might focus on and help patients to exploit these alternative self-control strategies in the battle against their illness.

How strategies of selective optimization with compensation and role clarity prevent future increases in affective strain when demands on self-control increase: Results from two longitudinal studies.

In modern working environments effective strategies for regulating goal-directed behavior and allocating and investing limited resources (e.g., selection, optimization, and compensation [SOC] strategies) should enable employees to cope up with job demands that require volitional self-regulation, thereby preventing strain over time. However, theoretical insights suggest that the beneficial impact of SOC strategies on psychological health depends on the degree to which employees experience clarity in their job role. To understand how employees stabilize their psychological health when demands increase over time, I examine interaction effects of changes in self-control demands (SCDs), SOC strategies and role clarity at an earlier point in Time on changes in affective strain in two longitudinal samples from different occupational and organizational settings (international private bank: N = 389; heterogenous sample: N = 313, 2 year lag). In line with recent conceptualizations of chronic forms of distress, affective strain involved emotional exhaustion, depressive symptoms, and negative affect. In support of my predictions, structural equation modeling revealed significant three-way interactions of changes in SCDs, SOC strategies and role clarity on changes in affective strain in both samples. In particular, the positive relationships between changes of SCDs and changes in affective strain were jointly buffered by SOC strategies and role clarity. The present findings offer implications for stabilizing well-being when demands increase over long time periods. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Should I stay or should I go? The role of daily presenteeism as an adaptive response to perform at work despite somatic complaints for employee effectiveness.

Our study seeks to contribute to scholarly understanding of the antecedents and consequences of the crucial, but so far overlooked within-person daily fluctuations in presenteeism. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of presenteeism, which conceptualize presenteeism as an adaptive behavior to deliver work performance despite limitations due to ill-health, we develop a within-person model of daily presenteeism and examine somatic complaints and work-goal progress as crucial joint determinants of daily fluctuations in presenteeism. We further integrate the aforementioned theoretical frameworks with ego-depletion theory to argue that presenteeism requires self-regulation to suppress cognitions, emotions, and behavioral responses associated with ill-health and instead focus on completing one's work tasks. Accordingly, we predict that presenteeism depletes employees' regulatory resources and impairs employees' next-day work engagement and task performance. The results of a daily-diary study across 15 workdays with N = 995 daily observations nested in N = 126 employees show that daily work-goal progress attenuates the daily relation between somatic complaints and presenteeism, thereby also reducing the indirect effect of somatic complaints on employees' next-day work engagement and task performance through presenteeism and ego depletion. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of shifting presenteeism research from the macro- to the micro-level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

How achievement motive enactment shapes daily flow experience and work engagement: The interplay of personality systems.

In the present study, we examined how different forms of achievement motive interact to predict daily flow experience and work engagement. In particular, we conducted two diary studies to examine the main and interaction effects of motive enactment via extension memory (a macrosystem that enables holistic and experience-based information processing) and via the object recognition system (an alert-oriented macrosystem). In study 1, in line with personality systems interaction (PSI) theory, we found that motive enactment via extension memory fosters both day-specific flow and work engagement, whereas the conjunction of both forms of motive enactment has beneficial effects on flow and work engagement (two-way interaction). In study 2, we found that role clarity moderates the interaction of the two forms of enactment, indicating that the two-way interaction occurs when role clarity is low. Our results imply that the interplay of different dispositional forms of achievement motive enactment shapes how employees experience flow and engagement.

The real-life costs of emotion regulation in anorexia nervosa: a combined ecological momentary assessment and fMRI study.

Regulation of emotions is necessary for successful attainment of short-term and long-term goals. However, over-regulation may also have its costs. In anorexia nervosa (AN), forgoing food intake despite emaciation and endocrine signals that promote eating is an example of "too much" self-control. Here we investigated whether voluntary emotion regulation in AN patients comes with associated disorder-relevant costs. Thirty-five patients with acute AN and thirty-five age-matched healthy controls (HCs) performed an established emotion regulation paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging after an overnight fast. The task required reducing emotions induced by positively valenced pictures via distancing. We calculated a neural regulation score from responses recorded in a reward-related brain region of interest (ventral striatum; VS) by subtracting activation measured on "positive distance" trials from that elicited under the "positive watch" (baseline) condition. Complementing the imaging data, we used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to probe disorder-related rumination and affect six times/day for 2 weeks following the scanning session. The neural regulation score indicating reduced VS activation during emotion regulation was used as a predictor in hierarchical linear models with EMA measures as outcomes. No group differences in neural activity were found for the main contrasts of the task. However, regulation of VS activity was associated with increased body-related rumination and increased negative affect in AN, but not in HC. In line with this finding, correlational analysis with longitudinal BMI measurements revealed a link between greater VS regulation and poorer treatment outcome after 60 and 90 days. Together, these results identify a neural correlate of altered emotion regulation in AN, which seems to be detrimental to psychological well-being and may interfere with recovery.

Which daily experiences can foster well-being at work? A diary study on the interplay between flow experiences, affective commitment, and self-control demands.

Previous research has provided strong evidence for affective commitment as a direct predictor of employees' psychological well-being and as a resource that buffers the adverse effects of self-control demands as a stressor. However, the mechanisms that underlie the beneficial effects of affective commitment have not been examined yet. Drawing on the self-determination theory, we propose day-specific flow experiences as the mechanism that underlies the beneficial effects of affective commitment, because flow experiences as peaks of intrinsic motivation constitute manifestations of autonomous regulation. In a diary study covering 10 working days with N = 90 employees, we examine day-specific flow experiences as a mediator of the beneficial effects of interindividual affective commitment and a buffering moderator of the adverse day-specific effects of self-control demands on indicators of well-being (ego depletion, need for recovery, work engagement, and subjective vitality). Our results provide strong support for our predictions that day-specific flow experiences a) mediate the beneficial effects of affective commitment on employees' day-specific well-being and b) moderate (buffer) the adverse day-specific effects of self-control demands on well-being. That is, on days with high levels of flow experiences, employees were better able to cope with self-control demands whereas self-control demands translated into impaired well-being when employees experienced lower levels of day-specific flow experiences. We then discuss our findings and suggest practical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record

Impact of chronic and acute academic stress on lymphocyte subsets and monocyte function.

This study investigated the effects of a temporally confined naturalistic stressor (academic stress) on immune functions. Furthermore, moderating influences of a number of psychological variables were assessed. Five blood samples were obtained from 20 students during an observation period of 8 weeks, starting 4.5 weeks before an exam period up to 1 week following the last exam. The analysis of 45 immune parameters revealed several time-dependent changes attributable to examination stress. We observed a reduction in the absolute numbers of natural killer (NK) cells and monocytes in peripheral blood and a shift towards more immature and naïve cells within NK and T cell populations. In addition, IL-6 and TNF-α production by LPS-stimulated monocytes was increased. Psychological variables were grouped by means of factor analyses into two factors. One factor, which was interpreted as an indication of chronic stress, moderated the relationships between academic stress and percentages of mature CD57+ NK cells. This chronic stress factor was also associated with an increase in memory and a decrease in naïve CD8 T cells and increased serum levels of IL-17. The present study identifies important potential psychological mediators of stress-induced changes in specific immunological parameters.

A naturalistic examination of negative affect and disorder-related rumination in anorexia nervosa.

In anorexia nervosa (AN), volitional inhibition of rewarding behaviors, such as eating, involves a conflict between the desire to suppress appetite and the inherent motive to consume. This conflict is thought to have costs that carry over into daily life, e.g., triggering negative affect and/or recurring ruminations, which may ultimately impact long term outcome. Hence, increasing research effort is being dedicated to understand the link between emotional and ruminative processes in the etiology and maintenance of AN. We investigated whether affective states influence disorder-related rumination in AN applying "ecological momentary assessment", a method which allows the experimenter to gain insight into psychological processes in the natural environment and assess data in real time. Participants (AN = 37, healthy controls = 33) were given a smartphone for 14 days. A ringtone signaled at six random time-points each day to fill in a questionnaire, which gauged disorder-typical thoughts about food and weight as well as affective state. Analyses, applying hierarchical linear models confirmed that AN patients spend more time thinking about food, body shape and weight than controls (p < 0.001). Additionally, the results support the hypothesis that momentary negative affect (but not baseline depression (p = 0.56) or anxiety symptoms (p = 0.60) are positively associated with a higher amount of disorder-related rumination in patients (p < 0.001). Our findings are in line with theories which claim that ruminative thinking induces a vulnerability to negative stimuli which, in turn, fosters heightened negative affect. Thus, therapeutic interventions could be improved by implementing modules that specifically target disorder-related rumination.

Sleep quality and self-control capacity as protective resources in the daily emotional labor process: results from two diary studies.

Daily emotional labor can impair psychological well-being, especially when emotions have to be displayed that are not truly felt. To explain these deleterious effects of emotional labor, scholars have theorized that emotional labor can put high demands on self-control and diminishes limited regulatory resources. On the basis of this notion, we examined 2 moderators of the daily emotional labor process, namely day-specific sleep quality and individual self-control capacity. In particular, in 2 diary studies (NTOTAL = 171), we tested whether sleep quality moderates the influence of emotional dissonance (the perceived discrepancy between felt and required emotions) on daily psychological well-being (ego depletion, need for recovery, and work engagement). In addition, we examined 3-way interactions of self-control capacity, sleep quality, and emotional dissonance on indicators of day-specific psychological well-being (Study 2). Our results indicate that the negative relations of day-specific emotional dissonance to all day-specific indicators of well-being are attenuated as a function of increasing day-specific sleep quality and that self-control capacity moderates this interaction. Specifically, compared with low self-control capacity, the day-specific interaction of emotional dissonance and sleep quality was more pronounced when trait self-control was high. For those with low trait self-control, day-specific sleep quality did not attenuate the negative relations of emotional dissonance to day-specific well-being. Implications for research on emotional labor and for intervention programs are discussed.

Are emotional labour strategies by nurses associated with psychological costs? A cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Emotional labour is an integral part of the role of nurses with surface and deep acting as the core emotional labour strategies. Surface acting involves the regulation of emotional expression with the aim of bringing it in line with organizational display rules, whereas deep acting aims at modifying the situation or perception of situations in order to change felt emotions, accordingly. OBJECTIVES: Since surface acting is thought to consume more cognitive control resources than deep acting, the study examines whether nurses' cognitive control deficits as a stable personal vulnerability factor exert stronger adverse interactive influences with surface acting on job strain than with deep acting. DESIGN: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in combination with absence data referring to a time period of 12 months after administration of the questionnaires. SETTING: A hospital and three nursing homes for the elderly located in a federal state in Germany. PARTICIPANTS: Questionnaires were distributed to the whole nursing staff of which 195 nurses filled in the questionnaire and permitted collecting their absence data (73% participation rate). METHODS: In addition to descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations, confirmatory factor analyses and hierarchical moderated regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Findings revealed significant positive relations of surface acting and cognitive control deficits with indicators of job strain, whereas deep acting was unrelated to strain. In addition, surface acting was found to interact stronger with cognitive control deficits in its relation to strain than deep acting. Compared to nurses with low levels of cognitive control deficits, the adverse influences of surface acting on burnout, depressive symptoms, and sum of days absent were much stronger when high levels of cognitive control deficits were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Consequently, interventions are needed to inform nurses on the detrimental influences of surface acting and train them in the daily use of deep acting as the healthier emotional regulation strategy. In addition, interventions targeted at the enhancement of the individual capacity for self-control would be beneficial to nurses' health.

Job demands and personal resources in their relations to indicators of job strain among nurses for older people.

AIMS: To examine the role of two personal resources (active, problem-focused coping; self-efficacy beliefs) in the relation between job demands and strain. BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that healthcare staff in general and nurses in particular, are at a high risk of suffering from high levels of job strain. In addition to often examined job-related resources (such as control and social support), personal resources are expected to moderate (i.e. buffer) the relation between job demands and indicators of strain, particularly when there is a functional match between the type of demands and resources. DESIGN: Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. METHOD: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted (February-April 2010) among staff members of three nursing homes of a municipal organization for residential elderly care located in an urban area of Western Germany. A total of 145 of 251 employees responded to the invitation to participate in the study (57·8% participation rate). Data were analysed by hierarchical moderated regression analyses. RESULTS: Increasing job demands (quantitative and qualitative workload) had adverse effects on emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic complaints, and turnover intentions, whereas nurses' self-efficacy beliefs exerted beneficial effects on all outcomes. Furthermore, findings revealed that active, problem-focused coping interacts with job demands in the prediction of job strain. CONCLUSION: Both research and practice should focus on a closer match between personal resources and job demands to prevent nurses from being strained.

The moderating role of cognitive control deficits in the link from emotional dissonance to burnout symptoms and absenteeism.

The present study examines whether cognitive control deficits (CCDs) as a personal vulnerability factor amplify the relationship between emotional dissonance (ED; perceived discrepancy between felt and expressed emotions) and burnout symptoms (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) as well as absenteeism. CCDs refer to daily failures and impairments of attention regulation, impulse control, and memory. The prediction of the moderator effect of CCDs draws on the argument that portraying emotions which are not genuinely felt is a form of self-regulation taxing and depleting a limited resource capacity. Interindividual differences in the resource capacity are reflected by the measure of CCDs. Drawing on two German samples (one cross-sectional and one longitudinal sample; NTOTAL = 645) of service employees, the present study analyzed interactive effects of ED and CCDs on exhaustion, depersonalization, and two indicators of absenteeism. As was hypothesized, latent moderated structural equation modeling revealed that the adverse impacts of ED on both burnout symptoms and absence behavior were amplified as a function of CCDs. Theoretical and practical implications of the present results will be discussed.

Costs of simultaneous coping with emotional dissonance and self-control demands at work: results from two German samples.

In the present study, we examine interactive effects of emotional dissonance (ED) and self-control demands (SCDs; impulse control, resisting distractions, and overcoming inner resistances) on emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, depressive symptoms, and absenteeism. We derived the prediction of interactive effects from the well-founded theoretical argument that both sources of work stress draw on and compete for a common limited regulatory resource. On the basis of 2 German samples (1 cross-sectional and 1 longitudinal sample; NTOTAL = 367), 7 of the 8 interactions tested were found to explain significant proportions of variance in all 4 outcomes considered over and beyond that accounted for by demographic characteristics, outcome stability (longitudinal sample), and main effects. Consistent with our hypotheses, the positive relations of 1 of both stressors (ED or SCDs) to psychological strain and absenteeism were amplified as a function of the other stressor. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Differential effects of decision latitude and control on the job demands-strain relationship: a cross-sectional survey study among elderly care nursing staff.

BACKGROUND: According to the influential Job Demands-Control (JD-C) model developed by Karasek (1979; Karasek and Theorell, 1990), job strain is expected to result from high job demands and low job control as well as an interaction between both job characteristics. Previous research, however, has found such an interaction only rarely or inconsistently.It has been suggested that the conceptualization of the control variable (formerly referred to as decision latitude) may be particularly responsible for the lack of supportive findings. OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed at clarifying this issue by contrasting a focused measure of control with a traditional measure of decision latitude in their relations to job strain of health care workers. The measure of decision latitude encompassed a wide range of job characteristics including control, task variety, and learning opportunities. DESIGN: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with job satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints and emotional exhaustion as criterion measures of job strain. SETTING: A supra-regional organization for residential elderly care with 11 nursing homes located in a federal state in Germany. PARTICIPANTS: Questionnaires were distributed to the whole nursing staff, of which 379 filled in the questionnaire during normal working hours (68% participation rate). METHODS: In addition to confirmatory factor analyses, descriptive statistics, and bivariate correlations, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed for testing the corresponding interaction effects. RESULTS: Findings confirmed the assumption that the focused measure of control and the traditional measure of decision latitude represent distinct, yet correlated factors. Furthermore, findings revealed a significant interaction effect between job demands and control on all outcomes considered. By way of contrast, there was no equivalent interaction effect between job demands and decision latitude. In line with the JD-C model, the adverse influence of increasing demands on job satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints and emotional exhaustion were reduced with increasing job control. CONCLUSIONS: Extending the opportunities of health care workers to control work scheduling and the way of performing given tasks can make them less vulnerable against the adverse effects of high job demands.