scholarly journals Current Progress and Future Directions for Theory and Research on Savoring

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred B. Bryant

As research on savoring has increased dramatically since publication of the book Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience (Bryant and Veroff, 2007), savoring has gradually become a core concept in positive psychology. I begin by reviewing the evolution of this concept, the development of instruments for assessing savoring ability and savoring strategies, and the wide range of applications of savoring in the psychosocial and health sciences. I then consider important directions for future theory and research. To advance our understanding of how naturalistic savoring unfolds over time, future work should integrate the perceptual judgments involved in not only the later stages of attending to and regulating positive experience (where past research has concentrated), but also the initial stages of searching for and noticing positive stimuli. Whereas most research has investigated reactive savoring, which occurs spontaneously in response to positive events or feelings, future work is also needed on proactive savoring, which begins with the deliberate act of seeking out or creating positive stimuli. To advance the measurement of savoring-related constructs, I recommend future work move beyond retrospective self-report methods toward the assessment of savoring as it occurs in real-time. The development of new methods of measuring meta-awareness and the regulation of attentional focus are crucial to advancing our understanding of savoring processes. I review recent research on the neurobiological correlates of savoring and suggest future directions in which to expand such work. I highlight the need for research aimed at unraveling the developmental processes through which savoring skills and deficits evolve and the role that savoring impairments play in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology. Research is also needed to learn more about what enhances savoring, and to disentangle how people regulate the intensity versus duration of positive emotions. Finally, I encourage future researchers to integrate the study of anticipation, savoring the moment, and reminiscence within individuals across time.

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. e11-e19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth E Marfeo ◽  
Pengsheng Ni ◽  
Tamra Keeney ◽  
Alan Jette

Abstract Background and Objectives To better understand the disablement process among older adults, improved measures of activity limitations are needed. Traditional population-level measures lack the ability to distinguish precise gradations of activity limitation and are unable to detect degrees of differences over a wide range of ability levels. Therefore, we used contemporary measurement methods to improve upon current methodologies for characterizing activity limitations within the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) . Research Design and Methods We used the NHATS Round 1 cohort to assess the feasibility of constructing an Activity Limitations scale using Rasch item response theory methods. Factor analysis was used to develop the scale from a set of existing items in the NHATS Mobility, Self-Care, and Household Activity domains. Psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated and the scale was used to examine change in activity limitations among the sample from 2011 to 2015. Results Results supported an 18-item scale (N = 7,609). Rasch infit and outfit statistics were within acceptable range for all items (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.95; sample score reliability = 0.83). From 2011 to 2015, 5.88% older adults demonstrated increase in function, 15% showed decrease in function, and 78% of the sample showed no change (did not exceed ± MDC90). Discussion and Implications Findings demonstrate that a unidimensional, interval scale of activity limitations can be constructed using traditional survey measures nested within the NHATS. Results revealed concerns regarding ceiling effects within the current self-report items of activity limitations suggesting future work is needed to expand the range of ability currently represented in the NHATS Activity Limitation items.


1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sergio Guglielmi

Many early studies of prejudice adopted psychophysiological measures as a way to circumvent the limitations of self-report instruments. Despite serious methodological weaknesses, that literature consistently points to the value of physiological probes as nonreactive indexes of affective responses to target stimuli. Possible reasons for the virtual abandonment of psychophysiological approaches in the study of prejudice over the last 15 years are outlined, and their reintroduction is advocated on methodological and conceptual grounds. Theoretical perspectives and empirical research in a closely related area, the psychophysiology of emotion, are reviewed and the implications of this literature for the study of prejudice are discussed. Several psychophysiological approaches have been found valuable for assessing the valence and intensity of emotional responses. The availability of these tools, together with the shifting theoretical zeitgeist, make prejudice research ready for a return to psychophysiological methodologies. A multimethod prejudice assessment model is proposed and its theoretical and heuristic advantages are discussed.


Author(s):  
Miji Um ◽  
Melissa A. Cyders

Positive emotion-based impulsivity (i.e., positive urgency) is an important impulsivity-related trait associated with a wide range of problematic behaviors and clinical disorders, including substance use, alcohol dependence, pathological gambling, risky sexual behaviors, and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, among others. Since its identification in 2007, research has begun to better appreciate how positive emotions bias decision-making and can lead to many of the same negative outcomes that for years were primarily believed to be connected with negative emotional states. However, much still remains to be uncovered about positive urgency, including (a) how best to assess such tendencies without the limitations of self-report biases, (b) how positive urgency imparts risk in specific clinical samples, (c) which mechanisms underlie how positive urgency imparts risk, and (d) how best to intervene on or prevent positive emotion–based risky behaviors. This chapter reviews the accumulating empirical evidence for positive urgency, presents potential mechanisms for how it might affect risk-taking and clinical problems, and discusses many limitations in the current understanding that have thus far made it difficult to identify, prevent, and intervene on this tendency. There are, of course, adaptive and maladaptive features to positive emotions. The extent to which these positive emotions increase risk-taking, however, is an endophenotypic marker of mental health risk across a range of clinical disorders. Better understanding of mechanisms underlying this tendency will lead to identification of novel treatment and prevention targets with broad clinical applicability.


2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Gaither ◽  
Jessica D. Remedios ◽  
Jennifer R. Schultz ◽  
Keith B. Maddox ◽  
Samuel R. Sommers

Abstract. Research shows that I-sharing, or sharing subjective experiences with an outgroup member, positively shapes attitudes toward that outgroup member. We investigated whether this type of social experience would also promote a positive interracial interaction with a novel outgroup member. Results showed that White and Black participants who I-shared with a racial outgroup member (vs. I-sharing with a racial ingroup member) expressed more liking toward that outgroup member. However, I-sharing with an outgroup member did not reduce anxious behavior in a future social interaction with a novel racial outgroup member. Therefore, although sharing subjective experiences may increase liking toward one individual from a racial outgroup, it remains to be seen whether this positive experience can influence behaviors in future interactions with other racial outgroup members. Future directions are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 13-26
Author(s):  
Brandon W. Hawk

Literature written in England between about 500 and 1100 CE attests to a wide range of traditions, although it is clear that Christian sources were the most influential. Biblical apocrypha feature prominently across this corpus of literature, as early English authors clearly relied on a range of extra-biblical texts and traditions related to works under the umbrella of what have been called “Old Testament Pseudepigrapha” and “New Testament/Christian Apocrypha." While scholars of pseudepigrapha and apocrypha have long trained their eyes upon literature from the first few centuries of early Judaism and early Christianity, the medieval period has much to offer. This article presents a survey of significant developments and key threads in the history of scholarship on apocrypha in early medieval England. My purpose is not to offer a comprehensive bibliography, but to highlight major studies that have focused on the transmission of specific apocrypha, contributed to knowledge about medieval uses of apocrypha, and shaped the field from the nineteenth century up to the present. Bringing together major publications on the subject presents a striking picture of the state of the field as well as future directions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 431-449
Author(s):  
Oleg V. Shekatunov ◽  
Konstantin G. Malykhin

The article is devoted to the specifics of studying the industrial labour force of Russia in the 1920s - 1930s in Russian historiography. The various stages of study from the 1920s through the 1930s and up to the last years are concerned. The relevance of the study is due to several factors. These include contradictions in the assessments of Bolshevik modernization of the 1920s and 1930s; projected labour force shortages in modern Russia; as well as the existing labour force shortage in industry at the moment. This determines the relevance of studying the historical period, which was characterized by the most acute personnel problems in the country. The novelty of the study is due to the fact that in modern Russian historiography there is no holistic, integrated view of the problems of the labour force potential formation of Russian industry in the 1920s and 1930s. It is noted that there is no research aimed at analyzing the historiography of these problems. The main stages of the study of industrial labour force are highlighted. The analysis of scientific works correlated with each stage of the study of the topic is performed. The problems and methodology of each stage are considered. A review of a wide range of scientific papers both articles and thesis is presented.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Gerlicher ◽  
Merel Kindt

A cue that indicates imminent threat elicits a wide range of physiological, hormonal, autonomic, cognitive, and emotional fear responses in humans and facilitates threat-specific avoidance behavior. The occurrence of a threat cue can, however, also have general motivational effects and affect behavior. That is, the encounter with a threat cue can increase our tendency to engage in general avoidance behavior that does neither terminate nor prevent the threat-cue or the threat itself. Furthermore, the encounter with a threat-cue can substantially reduce our likelihood to engage in behavior that leads to rewarding outcomes. Such general motivational effects of threat-cues on behavior can be informative about the transition from normal to pathological anxiety and could also explain the development of comorbid disorders, such as depression and substance abuse. Despite the unmistakable relevance of the motivational effects of threat for our understanding of anxiety disorders, their investigation is still in its infancy. Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer is one paradigm that allows us to investigate such motivational effects of threat cues. Here, we review studies investigating aversive transfer in humans and discuss recent results on the neural circuits mediating Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer effects. Finally, we discuss potential limitations of the transfer paradigm and future directions for employing Pavlovian-to-Instrumental transfer for the investigation of motivational effects of fear and anxiety.


2020 ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
A. Simonova ◽  
S. Chudakov ◽  
R. Gorenkov ◽  
V. Egorov ◽  
A. Gostry ◽  
...  

The article summarizes the long-term experience of practical application of domestic breakthrough technologies of preventive personalized medicine for laboratory diagnostics of a wide range of socially significant non-infectious diseases. Conceptual approaches to the formation of an integrated program for early detection and prevention of civilization diseases based on these technologies are given. A vision of the prospects for the development of this area in domestic and foreign medicine has been formed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (23) ◽  
pp. 4403-4434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susimaire Pedersoli Mantoani ◽  
Peterson de Andrade ◽  
Talita Perez Cantuaria Chierrito ◽  
Andreza Silva Figueredo ◽  
Ivone Carvalho

Neglected Diseases (NDs) affect million of people, especially the poorest population around the world. Several efforts to an effective treatment have proved insufficient at the moment. In this context, triazole derivatives have shown great relevance in medicinal chemistry due to a wide range of biological activities. This review aims to describe some of the most relevant and recent research focused on 1,2,3- and 1,2,4-triazolebased molecules targeting four expressive NDs: Chagas disease, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Leishmaniasis.


Author(s):  
Ilana Seager ◽  
Douglas S. Mennin ◽  
Amelia Aldao

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a debilitating condition characterized by excessive, pervasive, uncontrollable, and paralyzing worries about a wide range of future situations. Individuals with this condition frequently find themselves stuck in worry and tension cycles in futile attempts at reducing uncertainty and increasing control. GAD has been associated with substantial impairments in functioning and reduced quality of life. GAD remains poorly understood, and the long-term efficacy and end-state functioning resulting from treatment are weaker compared to other anxiety disorders. Some treatments (e.g., emotion regulation therapy, acceptance-based behavioral therapy) have improved efficacy, partly by targeting emotional dysfunction. Basic psychopathology research has focused on identifying the role of negative affect in GAD, so little is known about how positive affect is experienced and regulated in this disorder. This is particularly important in light of the overlap of this condition with major depressive disorder, which is characterized by low or suppressed positive emotion. Developing such an understanding is essential to further improve the efficacy of emotion-based treatments. This chapter reviews current and future directions in the study of positive affect in GAD. The chapter reviews the nascent research on positive affect and GAD, then illustrates dimensions of future work.


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