Other Psychology Commons^™

Prenatal Risk For Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd): Fetal Cortisol Exposure Predicts Child Asd Symptoms, Sheena Ram, Mariann A. Howland, Curt A. Sandman, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is multifactorial, complex, and likely involves interactions among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. With respect to environmental influences, a growing literature implicates intrauterine experiences in the origin of this pervasive developmental disorder. In this prospective longitudinal study, we examined the hypothesis that fetal exposure to maternal cortisol may confer ASD risk. In addition, because ASD is four times more prevalent in males than in females, and because sexually dimorphic responses to intrauterine experiences are commonly observed, we examined whether or not any associations differ by fetal sex. Maternal plasma cortisol was measured at …

Measuring Novel Antecedents Of Mental Illness: The Questionnaire Of Unpredictability In Childhood, Laura M. Glynn, Hal S. Stern, Mariann A. Howland, Victoria B. Risbrough, Dewleen G. Baker, Caroline M. Nievergelt, Tallie Z. Baram, Elysia P. Davis

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Increasing evidence indicates that, in addition to poverty, maternal depression, and other well-established factors, unpredictability of maternal and environmental signals early in life influences trajectories of brain development, determining risk for subsequent mental illness. However, whereas most risk factors for later vulnerability to mental illness are readily measured using existing, clinically available tools, there are no similar measures for assessing early-life unpredictability. Here we validate the Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC) and examine its associations with mental health in the context of other indicators of childhood adversity (e.g., traumatic life events, socioeconomic status, and parenting quality). The QUIC was …

Harmful And Helpful Therapy Practices With Consensually Non-Monogamous Clients: Toward An Inclusive Framework, Heath A. Schechinger, John Kitchener Sakaluk, Amy C. Moors

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Drawing on minority stress perspectives, we investigated the therapy experiences of individuals in consensually nonmonogamous (CNM) relationships. Method: We recruited a community sample of 249 individuals engaged in CNM relationships across the U.S. and Canada. Confirmatory factor analysis structural equation modeling was used to analyze client perceptions of therapist practices in a number of exemplary practices (affirming of CNM) or inappropriate practices (biased, inadequate, or not affirming of CNM), and their associations with evaluations of therapy. Open-end responses about what clients found very helpful and very unhelpful were also analyzed. Results: Exemplary and inappropriate practices constituted separate but related patterns …

Positive Affect And Health: What Do We Know And Where Next Should We Go?, Sarah D. Pressman, Brooke N. Jenkins, Judith T. Moskowitz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Positive affect (PA) is associated with better health across a wide range of physical health outcomes. This review reflects on why the study of PA is an essential component of our understanding of physical health and expands on pathways that connect these two variables. To encourage forward movement in this burgeoning research area, measurement and design issues in the study of PA and health are discussed, as are the connections between PA and a range of different health outcomes. Plausible biological, social, and behavioral pathways that allow for positive feelings to get under the skin and influence physical wellness are …

Advancing Research On Psychological Stress And Aging With The Health And Retirement Study: Looking Back To Launch The Field Forward, Alexandra D. Crosswell, Madhuvanthi Suresh, Eli Puterman, Tara Gruenewald, Jinkook Lee, Elissa S. Epel

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objectives

The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) was designed as an interdisciplinary study with a strong focus on health, retirement, and socioeconomic environment, to study their dynamic relationships over time in a sample of mid-life adults. The study includes validated self-report measures and individual items that capture the experiences of stressful events (stressor exposures) and subjective assessments of stress (perceived stress) within specific life domains.

Methods

This paper reviews and catalogs the peer-reviewed publications that have used the HRS to examine associations between psychological stress measures and psychological, physical health, and economic outcomes.

Results

We describe the research to date …

Prompts To Increase Physical Activity At Points-Of-Choice Between Stairs And Escalators: What About Escalator Climbers?, John Belletierre, Ben Nguyen, Sandy Liles, Vincent Berardi, Marc A. Adams, Paddy Dempsey, Yael Benporat, Jacqueline Kerr, Andrea Z. Lacroix, Melbourne Hovell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Since 1980, many studies have evaluated whether stair-use prompts increased physical activity by quantifying changes in stair use. To more completely evaluate changes in physical activity, this study addressed the often-overlooked assessment of climbing up escalators by evaluating the degree to which stair-use sign prompts increased active ascent—defined as stair use or escalator climbing. Over 5 months, at an airport stairs/escalator point of choice, we video-recorded passersby (N = 13,544) who ascended either stairs or escalators, on 10 days with signs and 10 days without signs. Ascenders using the stairs, standing on the escalator, and climbing the escalator were …

Psychological Well-Being And Restorative Biological Processes: Hdl-C In Older English Adults, Jackie Soo, Laura D. Kubzansky, Ying Chen, Emily S. Zevon, Julia K. Boehm

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Rationale

Psychological well-being is associated with better cardiovascular health, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear.

Objective

This study investigates one possible mechanism by examining psychological well-being's prospective association with lipid levels, focusing on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C).

Methods

Participants were 4757 healthy men and women ages ≥50 from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing with clinical data from three times, three to five years apart. Psychological well-being was assessed at baseline using the Control, Autonomy, Satisfaction, and Pleasure scale; HDL-C, triglycerides, and total cholesterol were assayed from blood samples. Descriptive statistics and linear mixed models were used to examine associations …

Treating Adhd With Suggestion: Neurofeedback And Placebo Therapeutics, Robert T. Thibault, Samuel Vassière, Jay A. Olson, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: We propose that clinicians can use suggestion to help treat conditions such as ADHD. Methods: We use EEG neurofeedback as a case study, alongside evidence from a recent pilot experiment utilizing a sham MRI scanner to highlight the therapeutic potential of suggestion-based treatments. Results: The medical literature demonstrates that many practitioners already prescribe treatments that hardly outperform placebo comparators. Moreover, the sham MRI experiment showed that, even with full disclosure of the procedure, suggestion alone can reduce the symptomatology of ADHD. Conclusion: Non-deceptive suggestion-based treatments, especially those drawing on accessories from neuroscience, may offer a safe complement and potential …

Emotion Regulation And Positive Affect In The Context Of Salivary Alpha-Amylase Response To Pain In Children With Cancer, Brooke N. Jenkins, Douglas A. Granger, Ryan J. Roemer, Ariana Martinez, Tara K. Torres, Michelle A. Fortier

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Children with cancer routinely undergo painful medical procedures invoking strong physiological stress responses. Resilience to this pain may be conferred through resources such as emotion regulation strategies and positive affect.

Procedure

This study measured dispositional positive affect in children with cancer (N = 73) and randomly assigned participants to one of three emotion regulation strategy conditions (distraction, reappraisal, or reassurance). Children applied their assigned strategy during an experimental pain procedure (the cold pressor task [CPT]) and provided saliva samples before, immediately after, and 15 min after the CPT. Saliva samples were later assayed for salivary alpha amylase (sAA)—a surrogate …

Neighborhood Cohesion, Neighborhood Disorder, And Cardiometabolic Risk, Jennifer N. Robinette, Susan T. Charles, Tara Gruenewald

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Perceptions of neighborhood disorder (trash, vandalism) and cohesion (neighbors trust one another) are related to residents’ health. Affective and behavioral factors have been identified, but often in studies using geographically select samples. We use a nationally representative sample (n = 9032) of United States older adults from the Health and Retirement Study to examine cardiometabolic risk in relation to perceptions of neighborhood cohesion and disorder. Lower cohesion is significantly related to greater cardiometabolic risk in 2006/2008 and predicts greater risk four years later (2010/2012). The longitudinal relation is partially accounted for by anxiety and physical activity.

Nonlinear Dynamical Systems And Humanistic Psychology, David Pincus, Adam W. Kiefer, Jessica I. Beyer

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The recent debunking by Brown, Sokal, and Friedman of some high-profile results applying chaos theory to positive psychology creates the opportunity to shed light on the quality work that has been done by others in this area. Too many humanists may be unaware of the large volume of legitimate work that exists in the literature apart from Fredrickson and Losada’s article. Often, such legitimate lines of research are ignored, not for lack of scientific merit, but because of artificial guild boundaries and similar silos that separate groups of scientists—even when working in similar areas. It would be unfortunate to have …

Volition And Action In The Human Brain: Processes, Pathologies, And Reasons, Itzhak Fried, Patrick Haggard, Biyu J. He, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans seem to decide for themselves what to do, and when to do it. This distinctive capacity may emerge from an ability, shared with other animals, to make decisions for action that are related to future goals, or at least free from the constraints of immediate environmental inputs. Studying such volitional acts proves a major challenge for neuroscience. This review highlights key mechanisms in the generation of voluntary, as opposed to stimulus-driven actions, and highlights three issues. The first part focuses on the apparent spontaneity of voluntary action. The second part focuses on one of the most distinctive, but elusive, …

Entrainment Of Voluntary Movement To Undetected Auditory Regularities, Aaron Schurger, Nathan Faivre, Leila Cammoun, Bianca Trovó, Olaf Blanke

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In physics “entrainment” refers to the synchronization of two coupled oscillators with similar fundamental frequencies. In behavioral science, entrainment refers to the tendency of humans to synchronize their movements with rhythmic stimuli. Here, we asked whether human subjects performing a tapping task would entrain their tapping to an undetected auditory rhythm surreptitiously introduced in the guise of ambient background noise in the room. Subjects performed two different tasks, one in which they tapped their finger at a steady rate of their own choosing and one in which they performed a single abrupt finger tap on each trial after a delay …

Discrimination And Anger Control As Pathways Linking Socioeconomic Disadvantage To Allostatic Load In Midlife, Samuele Zilioli, Ledina Imami, Anthony D. Ong, Mark A. Lumley, Tara Gruenewald

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective

Recent evidence suggests that experiences of discrimination contribute to socioeconomic status health disparities. The current study examined if the experience and regulation of anger—an expected emotional response to discrimination—serves as an explanatory factor for the previously documented links between socioeconomic disadvantage (SED), discrimination, and allostatic load.

Methods

Data were drawn from the second wave of the Midlife Development in the U.S. study and included 909 adults who participated in the biomarkers subproject.

Results

Results revealed that perceived discrimination was associated with higher levels of allostatic load. Furthermore, we found evidence that perceived discrimination and anger control sequentially explained the …

Ask The Pendulum: Personality Predictors Of Ideomotor Performance, Jay A. Olson, Ewalina Jeyanesan, Amir Raz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

For centuries, people have asked questions to hand-held pendulums and interpreted their movements as responses from the divine. These movements occur due to the ideomotor effect, wherein priming or thinking of a motion causes muscle movements that end up swinging the pendulum. By associating particular swinging movements with “yes” and “no” responses, we investigated whether pendulums can aid decision-making and which personality traits correlate with this performance. Participants (N=80) completed a visual detection task in which they searched for a target letter among rapidly presented characters. In the verbal condition, participants stated whether they saw the target in each trial. …

Psychotherapy Is Chaotic— (Not Only) In A Computational World, Günter K. Schlepek, Kathrin Vol, Wolfgang Aichhorn, Marc-Thorsten Hütt, Katharina Sungler, David Pincus, Helmut J. Schöller

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: The aim of this article is to outline the role of chaotic dynamics in psychotherapy. Besides some empirical findings of chaos at different time scales, the focus is on theoretical modeling of change processes explaining and simulating chaotic dynamics. It will be illustrated how some common factors of psychotherapeutic change and psychological hypotheses on motivation, emotion regulation, and information processing of the client’s functioning can be integrated into a comprehensive nonlinear model of human change processes.

Methods: The model combines 5 variables (intensity of emotions, problem intensity, motivation to change, insight and new perspectives, therapeutic success) and …

Temperament Factors And Dimensional, Latent Bifactor Models Of Child Psychopathology: Transdiagnostic And Specific Associations In Two Youth Samples, Benjamin L. Hankin, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Hannah Snyder, Jami F. Young, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Common emotional and behavioral symptoms co-occur and are associated with core temperament factors. This study investigated links between temperament and dimensional, latent psychopathology factors, including a general common psychopathology factor (p factor) and specific latent internalizing and externalizing liabilities, as captured by a bifactor model, in two independent samples of youth. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that temperament factors of negative affectivity (NA), positive affectivity (PA), and effortful control (EC) could serve as both transdiagnostic and specific risks in relation to recent bifactor models of child psychopathology. Sample 1 included 571 youth (average age 13.6, SD = 2.37, range 9.3–17.5) …

Increasing Valued Behaviors Precedes Reduction In Suffering: Findings From A Randomized Controlled Trial Using Act, Andrew T. Gloster, Jens Klotsche, Joseph Ciarrochi, Georg Eifert, Rainer Sonntag, Hans-Ulrich Wittchen, Jürgen Hoyer

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Psychological flexibility theory (PFT) suggests three key processes of change: increases in value-directed behaviors, reduction in struggle with symptoms, and reduction in suffering. We hypothesized that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) would change these processes and that increases in valued action and decreases in struggle would precede change in suffering.

Method: Data were derived from a randomized clinical trial testing ACT (vs. waitlist) for treatment-resistant patients with primary panic disorder with/without agoraphobia (n= 41). Valued behavior, struggle, and suffering were assessed at each of eight sessions.

Results: Valued actions, struggle, and suffering all changed over the …

Differences In Orgasm Frequency Between Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, And Heterosexual Men And Women In A U.S. National Sample, David Frederick, H. Kate St. John, Justin R. Garcia, Elisabeth A. Lloyd

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

There is a notable gap between heterosexual men and women in frequency of orgasm during sex. Little is known, however, about sexual orientation differences in orgasm frequency. We examined how over 30 different traits or behaviors were associated with frequency of orgasm when sexually intimate during the past month. We analyzed a large US sample of adults (N = 52,588) who identified as heterosexual men (n = 26,032), gay men (n = 452), bisexual men (n = 550), lesbian women (n = 340), bisexual women (n = 1112), and heterosexual women (n = …

Prospective And Dyadic Associations Between Expectant Parents’ Prenatal Hormone Changes And Postpartum Parenting Outcomes, Robin S. Edelstein, William J. Chopik, Darby E. Saxbe, Britney M. Wardecker, Amy C. Moors, Onawa P. Labelle

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

During the transition to parenthood, both men and women experience hormone changes that are thought to promote parental care. Yet very few studies have explicitly tested the hypothesis that prenatal hormone changes are associated with postpartum parenting behavior. In a longitudinal study of 27 first-time expectant couples, we assessed whether prenatal hormone changes predicted self and partner-reported parenting outcomes at three months postpartum. Expectant fathers showed prenatal declines in testosterone and estradiol, and larger declines in these hormones predicted larger contributions to household and infant care tasks postpartum. Women whose partners showed larger testosterone declines also reported receiving more support …

Subjective Well-Being And Cardiometabolic Health: An 8-11 Year Study Of Midlife Adults, Julia K. Boehm, Ying Chen, David R. Williams, Carol D. Ryff, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Objective: Individuals who are satisfied and experience frequent positive emotions tend to have reduced risk for coronary heart disease (CHD). However, conflicting evidence exists and little research has investigated whether well-being is associated with early-warning indicators of biological risk that precede CHD. We investigated whether life satisfaction and positive emotions longitudinally predicted reduced risk of incident cardiometabolic conditions and healthier cardiometabolic risk scores, which may provide insight into underlying mechanisms and novel prevention targets.

Methods: Initially healthy men and women (N=754–854) reported their baseline life satisfaction and positive emotions. During follow-up, presence of manifest cardiometabolic conditions was assessed …

Correlates Of Appearance And Weight Satisfaction In A U.S. National Sample: Personality, Attachment Style, Television Viewing, Self-Esteem, And Life Satisfaction, David Frederick, Gaganjyot Sandhu, Patrick J. Morse, Viren Swami

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We examined the prevalence and correlates of satisfaction with appearance and weight. Participants (N = 12,176) completed an online survey posted on the NBCNews.com and Today.com websites. Few men and women were very to extremely dissatisfied with their physical appearances (6%; 9%), but feeling very to extremely dissatisfied with weight was more common (15%; 20%). Only about one-fourth of men and women felt very to extremely satisfied with their appearances (28%; 26%) and weights (24%; 20%). Men and women with higher body masses reported higher appearance and weight dissatisfaction. Dissatisfied people had higher Neuroticism, more preoccupied and fearful attachment …

Relationship Of Optimism And Suicidal Ideation In Three Groups Of Patients At Varying Levels Of Suicide Risk, Jeff C. Huffman, Julia K. Boehm, Scott R. Beach, Eleanor E. Beale, Christina M. Dubois, Brian C. Healy

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Optimism has been associated with reduced suicidal ideation, but there have been few studies in patients at high suicide risk. We analyzed data from three study populations (total N=319) with elevated risk of suicide: (1) patients with a recent acute cardiovascular event, (2) patients hospitalized for heart disease who had depression or an anxiety disorder, and (3) patients psychiatrically hospitalized for suicidal ideation or following a suicide attempt. For each study we analyzed the association between optimism (measured by the Life-Orientation Test-Revised) and suicidal ideation, and then completed an exploratory random effects meta-analysis of the findings to synthesize this data. …

What Keeps Passion Alive? Sexual Satisfaction Is Associated With Sexual Communication, Mood Setting, Sexual Variety, Oral Sex, Orgasm, And Sex Frequency In A National U.S. Study, David Frederick, Janet Lever, Brian Joseph Gillespie, Justin R. Garcia

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Passion and sexual satisfaction typically diminish in longer-term relationships, but this decline is not inevitable. We identified the attitudes and behaviors that most strongly differentiated sexually satisfied from dissatisfied men and women who had been together for at least three years (N = 38,747). Data were collected in 2006 from cohabiting and married men and women via an online survey on a major national U.S. news website. The vast majority of these participants reported being satisfied with their sex life during their first six months together (83% W; 83% M). Satisfaction with their current sex life was more variable, with …

Variability Modifies Life Satisfaction's Association With Mortality Risk In Older Adults, Julia K. Boehm, Ashley Winning, Suzanne Segerstrom, Laura D. Kubzansky

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Greater life satisfaction is associated with greater longevity, but its variability across time has not been examined relative to longevity. We investigated whether mean life satisfaction across time, variability in life satisfaction across time, and their interaction were associated with mortality over 9 years of follow-up. Participants were 4,458 Australians initially at least 50 years old. During the follow-up, 546 people died. After we adjusted for age, greater mean life satisfaction was associated with a reduction in mortality risk, and greater variability in life satisfaction was associated with an increase in mortality risk. These findings were qualified by a significant …

Paradoxical Interaction Between Ocular Activity, Perception, And Decision Confidence At The Threshold Of Vision, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In humans and some other species perceptual decision-making is complemented by the ability to make confidence judgements about the certainty of sensory evidence. While both forms of decision process have been studied empirically, the precise relationship between them remains poorly understood. We performed an experiment that combined a perceptual decision-making task (identifying the category of a faint visual stimulus) with a confidence-judgement task (wagering on the accuracy of each perceptual decision). The visual stimulation paradigm required steady fixation, so we used eye-tracking to control for stray eye movements. Our data analyses revealed an unexpected and counterintuitive interaction between the steadiness …

Who Pays For Dates? Following Versus Challenging Gender Norms, Janet Lever, David Frederick, Rosanna Hertz

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Chivalry dictates that on a “date,” the man pays, whereas egalitarian ideals suggest that gender should not determine who pays. We examined the extent to which people embrace or reject these competing notions. Unmarried heterosexual participants (N = 17,607) reported their behaviors and attitudes regarding who does and who should pay for dates on a survey posted on NBCNews.com. Although most men (74%) and women (83%) report that both members of the couple contribute to dating expenses after dating for 6 months, most men (84%) and women (58%) reported that men still pay more expenses. Many women (39%) wished men …

Intentions And Voluntary Actions: Reframing The Problem, Aaron Schurger

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Nachev and Hacker are justified in drawing our attention to the importance of conceptual clarity and coherence as these are too often overshadowed by technical sophistication and methodological rigor, which by themselves count for little. But can a process of “conceptual analysis” actually help us to avoid pitfalls, or does it merely serve to expose those pitfalls in hindsight? What is needed is a method for making scientific arguments formulaic and laying bare the implicit assumptions. We have tools for this, but not everyone uses them.

Emotional Inertia: A Key To Understanding Psychotherapy Process And Outcome, Xavier Bornas, Miquel Noguera, David Pincus, Gualberto Buela-Casal

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The processes underlying psychotherapeutic change have increasingly been emphasized in both research and clinical practice. Nonlinear dynamical systems theory (NDS) offers a transdisciplinary scientific approach to the study of these processes. This paper introduces the NDS concept of "emotional inertia", the property of human emotion by which it retains its course so long as it is not acted upon by an external force, as a key to understanding moment-by-moment and also longer-term change processes within psychotherapy. A testable mathematical model of emotional inertia is presented that represents specific impacts of psychotherapeutic processes on emotional dynamics over time. Emotional trajectories in …

Does Monogamy Harm Women? Deconstructing Monogamy With A Feminist Lens, Ali Ziegler, Jes L. Matsick, Amy C. Moors, Jennifer D. Rubin, Terri D. Conley

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we utilize a critical feminist lens to analyze the advantages and disadvantages found within two different romantic relationship configurations: monogamy and polyamory. While visibility of polyamorous relationships has increased in recent years, there is still a lack of information and a plethora of misinformation concerning non-monogamous romantic relationship dynamics (Conley, Moors, Matsick, & Ziegler, 2012; Conley, Ziegler, Moors, Matsick, & Valentine, 2012). One such notion is that polyamory is differentially damaging to women vis-à-vis men. From a phenomenological perspective, sociocultural values dictate that women, unlike men, are prescribed to be dependent upon monogamy in order to define …