Affective science最新文献

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are often promoted in the Western world as being “secular” in nature, despite the religious/spiritual (R/S) roots of mindfulness itself. Relevant individual characteristics such as R/S, however, have yet to be examined thoroughly in relation to treatment response. Using pre-post experimental designs, we examined the interaction of participant religiosity and different religious framings (Buddhist, secular, spiritual) of a brief MBI as determinants of affective responses to the MBI using regression in two online samples (Study 1: N=677; Study 2: N= 157). Aspects of religiosity (existential quest, scriptural literalism) had differential effects on affective responses to MBIs dependent on the framing of the condition. Participants’ R/S, as well as the R/S attributes of an MBI, may impact affective responses to MBIs. Further research is needed to ascertain how, and to what extent, MBIs might be optimized in order to maximize benefits for participants with diverse religious and existential commitments.

Researchers increasingly use passive sensing data and frequent self-report to implement personalized mobile health (mHealth) interventions. Yet, we know that certain populations may find these technical protocols burdensome and intervention uptake as well as treatment efficacy may be affected as a result. In the present study, we predicted feasibility (participant adherence to protocol) and acceptability (participant engagement with intervention content) as a function of baseline sociodemographic, mental health, and well-being characteristics of 99 women randomized in the personalized preventive intervention Wellness-for-Two (W-4-2), a randomized trial evaluating stress-related alterations during pregnancy and their effect on infant neurodevelopmental trajectories. The W-4-2 study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and wearable electrocardiograph (ECG) sensors to detect physiological stress and personalize the intervention. Participant adherence to protocols was 67% for EMAs and 52% for ECG bio-sensors. Higher baseline negative affect significantly predicted lower adherence to both protocols. Women assigned to the intervention group engaged on average with 42% of content they received. Women with higher annual household income were more likely to engage with more of the intervention content. Researchers should carefully consider tailoring of the intensity of technical intervention protocols to reduce fatigue, especially among participants with higher baseline negative affect, which may improve intervention uptake and efficacy findings at scale.

Social attachments, the enduring bonds between individuals and groups, are essential to health and well-being. The appropriate formation and maintenance of social relationships depend upon a number of affective processes, including stress regulation, motivation, reward, as well as reciprocal interactions necessary for evaluating the affective state of others. A genetic, molecular, and neural circuit level understanding of social attachments therefore provides a powerful substrate for probing the affective processes associated with social behaviors. Socially monogamous species form long-term pair bonds, allowing us to investigate the mechanisms underlying attachment. Now, molecular genetic tools permit manipulations in monogamous species. Studies using these tools reveal new insights into the genetic and neuroendocrine factors that design and control the neural architecture underlying attachment behavior. We focus this discussion on the prairie vole and oxytocinergic signaling in this and related species as a model of attachment behavior that has been studied in the context of genetic and pharmacological manipulations. We consider developmental processes that impact the demonstration of bonding behavior across genetic backgrounds, the modularity of mechanisms underlying bonding behaviors, and the distributed circuitry supporting these behaviors. Incorporating such theoretical considerations when interpreting reverse genetic studies in the context of the rich ethological and pharmacological data collected in monogamous species provides an important framework for studies of attachment behavior in both animal models and studies of human relationships.

Social stress is associated with depression and anxiety, physiological disruptions, and altered brain morphology in central stress circuitry across development. Environmental enrichment strategies may improve responses to social stress. Socially monogamous prairie voles exhibit analogous social and emotion-related behaviors to humans, with potential translational insight into interactions of social stress, age, and environmental enrichment. This study explored the effects of social isolation and environmental enrichment on behaviors related to depression and anxiety, physiological indicators of stress, and dendritic structural changes in amygdala and hippocampal subregions in young adult and aging prairie voles. Forty-nine male prairie voles were assigned to one of six groups divided by age (young adult vs. aging), social structure (paired vs. isolated), and housing environment (enriched vs. non-enriched). Following 4 weeks of these conditions, behaviors related to depression and anxiety were investigated in the forced swim test and elevated plus maze, body and adrenal weights were evaluated, and dendritic morphology analyses were conducted in hippocampus and amygdala subregions. Environmental enrichment decreased immobility duration in the forced swim test, increased open arm exploration in the elevated plus maze, and reduced adrenal/body weight ratio in aging and young adult prairie voles. Age and social isolation influenced dendritic morphology in the basolateral amygdala. Age, but not social isolation, influenced dendritic morphology in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. Environmental enrichment did not influence dendritic morphology in either brain region. These data may inform interventions to reduce the effects of social stressors and age-related central changes associated with affective behavioral consequences in humans.

In this commentary, we offer some remarks concerning distinctions that might be drawn between psychological well-being, emotional well-being, well-being more generally, and flourishing. We put forward a flexible map of flourishing to help understand the relative place of these and other terms, and their respective nestings. We discuss some of the challenges concerning terminology related to the use of ordinary language, as well as practices of branding ordinary language expressions that potentially threaten understanding, and we offer some suggestions as to how to navigate some of these terminological challenges in the well-being literature.

Numerous investigations to date have established the benefits of expressing gratitude for improved psychological well-being and interpersonal relationships. Nevertheless, the social dynamics of gratitude remain understudied. Do the effects of gratitude differ when it is expressed privately, communicated directly to the benefactor one-to-one, or shared publicly? We tested this question in a preregistered intervention study. An ethnically and economically diverse sample of undergraduate students (N = 916) was randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: (1) write gratitude letters and do not share them (private gratitude), (2) share gratitude one-to-one with benefactors via text (1-to-1 gratitude), (3) share gratitude publicly on social media (public gratitude), or (4) track daily activities (control). Participants were asked to complete their assigned activity four times with different people (as applicable) over the course of about a week. Overall, participants assigned to any digital gratitude intervention experienced improvements in state gratitude, positive emotions, negative emotions, elevation, connectedness, support, and loneliness, relative to controls. Relative to all other conditions, participants assigned to text their benefactors showed the biggest boosts in social connectedness and support. Our findings show that easily scalable digital gratitude interventions can advance the well-being of young college students.

There is growing evidence on the impact of arts engagement on flourishing. However, social gradients in arts engagement and flourishing may have led to an overestimation of this impact, and there is a lack of longitudinal research in young people. We aimed to test the longitudinal associations between arts engagement and flourishing in emerging adults, accounting for observed and unobserved individual characteristics. We included 3,333 participants aged 18–28 from the Transition into Adulthood Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We measured flourishing across emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing, and frequency of engagement in artistic, musical, or theatrical organized activities, biennially 2005–2019. We analyzed data using fixed effects regression and Arellano-Bond methods to control for bidirectional relationships. Increases in arts engagement were associated with increases in flourishing, before and after adjusting for time-varying confounders. This relationship was driven by enhanced psychological and social wellbeing. After controlling for bidirectionality, increases in arts engagement predicted subsequent improvements in flourishing and social wellbeing. In sensitivity analyses, residential area was a moderator; arts engagement was only associated with increased flourishing in metropolitan (and not non-metropolitan) areas. Increases in arts engagement are associated with enhanced flourishing within individuals, and these associations hold across many subgroups of the population. Those in non-metropolitan areas may have fewer opportunities for arts engagement. Future work must consider how funding can be distributed to ensure that the arts are accessible across communities and geographical areas, providing all young people with opportunities to experience their potential benefits.

Accurately judging emotion regulation (ER) may help facilitate and maintain social relationships. We investigated the accuracy and bias of ER judgments and their social correlates in a two-part study with 136 married couples (ages 23–85 years). Couples completed trait measures of their own and their partner’s suppression, reappraisal, and situation selection. On a separate day, they discussed a conflict, then rated their own and their partner’s suppression during the discussion. Couples accurately judged their partner’s trait level use of all ER strategies, but they were most accurate for suppression. In contrast, they did not accurately judge state suppression; they showed a similarity bias, such that their own use of state suppression predicted judgments of their partner’s suppression. Greater relationship satisfaction predicted positive biases at the trait level (e.g., overestimating reappraisal, underestimating suppression), but not the state level. Relationship length did not predict ER accuracy or bias. Findings suggest ER is more detectable at the trait level than state level and for strategies with more behavioral cues. Greater relationship satisfaction may signal positive perceptions of partners’ ER patterns.

Park et al.’s (2022) goal of bringing conceptual clarity to the study of psychological aspects of well-being is a good one. We consider their work in terms of its implications for moving towards an understanding of well-being that reflects the full spectrum of human experience, especially the experience of people who remain underrepresented, and poorly accounted for, in psychological science. In our view, there is reason to think that strengthening existing frameworks and broadening in terms of methodologies will be most productive for developing a comprehensive and inclusive understanding of well-being. We describe the distinct strength of the subjective well-being (SWB) construct for this purpose and offer two empirical examples that highlight the value of multiple measures and methods for understanding well-being. We suggest that continued use of the SWB measure, combined with state-of-the-art emotion measurement, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies be recommended as the way forward.

The target article proposes a new term—emotional well-being—and a new definition of that term, which are meant to bring clarity to a broad set of psychological constructs that relate to well-being. Although we appreciate the goal of improving scientific communication through the clarification of terms and definitions, both the chosen terminology and definition are too narrow to capture the broad range of constructs that researchers in these areas study. This imprecision will likely impede rather than aid effective scientific communication. In this commentary, we consider whether it is necessary or even useful to try to define and label the broad category that is the focus of the target article, and we conclude the potential for confusion outweighs the limited benefits that would result.