Evaluating interactions between emotion regulation strategies through the interpersonal context of female friends

Introduction: There is a growing interest in examining how interpersonal relationships may shape associations between emotion regulation (ER) strategies and psychopathology.Methods: We used multilevel modeling to test if respondents’ self-reported intrapersonal ER, friends’ self-reported intrapersonal ER, and their interaction were associated with psychopathology in a sample of 120 female friend dyads.Results: Respondents’ use of brooding rumination, expressive suppression, and worry were positively associated with respondent psychopathology. Friend reappraisal moderated the association between respondent reappraisal and respondent psychopathology. Consistent with an interference hypothesis, respondent cognitive reappraisal was only associated with respondent psychopathology when friend cognitive reappraisal was low. Consistent with a compensatory hypothesis, respondent reappraisal was primarily associated with respondent psychopathology when friend repetitive negative thought was high.Discussion: Results support the extension of models of ER strategy interactions from intrapersonal to interpersonal contexts. Future research is needed to replicate the interference and compensatory interactions observed in the data.

Looking on the bright side reduces worry in pregnancy: Training interpretations in pregnant women

Background Recent evidence suggests that anxiety is more common than depression in the perinatal period, however there are few interventions available to treat perinatal anxiety. Targeting specific processes that maintain anxiety, such as worry, may be one potentially promising way to reduce anxiety in this period. Given evidence that negative interpretation bias maintains worry, we tested whether interpretation bias could be modified, and whether this in turn would lead to less negative thought (i.e., worry) intrusions, in pregnant women with high levels of worry. Method Participants (N = 49, at least 16 weeks gestation) were randomly assigned to either an interpretation modification condition (CBM-I) which involved training in accessing positive meanings of emotionally ambiguous scenarios, or an active control condition in which the scenarios remained ambiguous and unresolved. Results Relative to the control condition, participants in the CBM-I condition generated significantly more positive interpretations and experienced significantly less negative thought intrusions. Conclusions Our findings indicate that worry is a modifiable risk factor during pregnancy, and that it is possible to induce a positive interpretation bias in pregnant women experiencing high levels of worry. Although preliminary, our findings speak to exciting clinical possibilities for the treatment of worry and the prevention of perinatal anxiety.

Beyond self-reflection: introducing the concept of rumination in personal informatics

Personal informatics tools can help users self-reflect on their experiences. When reflective thought occurs, it sometimes leads to negative thought and emotion cycles. To help explain these cycles, we draw from Psychology to introduce the concept of rumination—anxious, perseverative cognition focused on negative aspects of the self—as a result of engaging with personal data. Rumination is an important concept for the Human Computer Interaction community because it can negatively affect users’ well-being and lead to maladaptive use. Thus, preventing and mitigating rumination is beneficial. In this conceptual paper, we differentiate reflection from rumination. We also explain how self-tracking technologies may inadvertently lead to rumination and the implications this has for design. Our goal is to expand self-tracking research by discussing these negative cycles and encourage researchers to consider rumination when studying, designing, and promoting tools to prevent adverse unintended consequences among users.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF ANIMATED TV SERIES `RIKO: JARAK MATAHARI_BUMI '' AS AN EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOR CHILDREN

Children are an age group who adapts very well to the stimuli what they receive from their environment, such as movies and games. Unfortunately, entertainment these days contains many negative messages that has an impact on the erosion of moral values, which are, then implemented in the form of negative thought patterns and behaviors.The purpose of this research is to examine how children's entertainment media can be educational, entertaining, and easy to understand with a case study of the animated tv series ‘Riko: Jarak Matahari dan Bumi’This research was studied using the method of pragmatic semiotics initiated by Charles Sanders Peirce by analyzing semiotic elements, then validated with the psychological theory of child development. The results of the analysis show that the semiotic elements presented in ‘‘Riko: Jarak Matahari dan Bumi’ are in line with the psychological principles of child development.

‘I wanted to talk about it, but I couldn’t’, an H70 focus group study about experiencing depression in early late life

Background Knowledge about experiences of depression among younger-old adults from the general population is limited. The aim was to explore experiences of depression in early late life. Methods Sixteen participants in the population-based Gothenburg H70 Birth Cohort Studies (12 women and 4 men) who had reported a history of depression between ages 60–70 took part in focus group discussions (n = 4). Data were analyzed using focus group methodology. Results The analysis resulted in the overall theme ‘I wanted to talk about it, but I couldn’t’. The participants expressed unmet needs of communication about depression with family, friends, and healthcare staff. Participants wanted to know more about the causes and effects of depression, available treatment options and how to avoid recurrence. Lack of knowledge was a source of frustration; trust in health care providers was diminished. Being retired meant that opportunities for communication with co-workers were no longer available, and this made it harder to break negative thought and behavioral patterns. Being depressed meant losing one’s normal self, and participants were grieving this. Thoughts of death and suicide were experienced in solitude; knowing that there was an escape could generate a feeling of comfort and control. Conclusions Younger-old adults have expressed a need to talk about their experiences of depression. They would like to know more about available treatments, potential side effects, and how to avoid recurrence. Care providers also need to be aware there is a need for an existential dialogue about death.

Can Meditation Control the Suicidal Thought? - A Spiritual Insight

Suicide is a social phenomenon and is mainly caused by mental disorder which may be attributed to by genetic, neurotic, and environmental constructs. A total of 5,124 people had committed suicide in the fiscal year 2016/17.The number rose to 5,317 in 2017/18 and to 5,785 in 2018/19. Various social and biological factors have significant roles to create the suicidal thought in depressed people. So it is necessary to explore the coping mechanism of suicidal thought. The main objective of this study is to explore the knowledge and practice for meditation, its process, therefore its effects on human mind and body to control the negative thought leading to suicide. The study is based on the review of literatures concerning a subject. The study has collected the various related literatures and thoroughly reviewed it. The result shows that there is significant effect of meditation on improving the psychological personalities just by reducing the stress level and controlling the suicidal feeling in mind. Many experimental studies have found the significant difference in pre and post thoughts of suicidal indicators after an intervention ina meditation program. In a modern society, people have no time to think for themselves, no time to connect with own inner qualities. The physical facilities are dominant on the daily life activities which has created problem in the work-life balance also so there is need to beware the people especially for many productive age groups to spend some time in doing regular meditation to improve the psychological personalities.

Exploring patterns of ongoing thought under naturalistic and task-based conditions

Previous research suggests that patterns of ongoing thought are heterogeneous, varying across situations and individuals. The current study investigated the influence of a wide range of tasks and individual affective style on ongoing patterns of thought. In total, we used 9 different tasks and measured ongoing thought using multidimensional experience sampling. A Principle Component Analysis of the experience sampling data revealed four patterns of ongoing thought. Linear Mixed Modelling was used to examine the contextual distribution of the thought patterns. Different thought patterns were found to relate to different types of conditions. Intrusive and negative thought pattern expression was found to be influenced by individual affective style (depression level). Overall, these data show that patterns of thought are subject to both contextual and intrinsic variation, suggesting that understanding these important features of experience across a broad range of situations will be useful in understanding their role in human experience.HighlightsPatterns of thought vary across different task contextsThought pattern expression is influenced by individual affective styleThere is a need to broaden the tasks used to study ongoing thought

Epidemiological and cohort study finds no association between COVID-19 and Guillain-Barre syndrome

Background Reports of Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) have emerged during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This epidemiological and cohort study sought to investigate any causative association between COVID-19 infection and GBS. Methods The epidemiology of GBS cases reported via the UK National Immunoglobulin Database were studied from 2016-2019 and compared to cases reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the cohort study, members of the British Peripheral Nerve Society reported all cases of GBS during the pandemic. The clinical features, investigation findings and outcomes of COVID-19 (definite or probable) and non-COVID-19 associated GBS cases were compared. Results The UK GBS incidence from 2016-2019 was 1.65-1.88 per 100,000 people per year. GBS and COVID-19 incidence varied between regions and did not correlate (r = 0.06, 95% CI -0.56 to 0.63, p=0.86). GBS incidence fell between March and May 2020 compared to the same months of 2016-2019. Forty-seven GBS cases were included in the cohort study (13 definite, 12 probable COVID-19 and 22 non-COVID-19). There were no significant differences in the pattern of weakness, time to nadir, neurophysiology, CSF findings or outcome. Intubation was more frequent in the COVID-19+ve cohort (7/13, 54% vs 5/22, 23% in COVID negative) thought to be related directly to COVID-19 pulmonary involvement. Conclusions This study finds no epidemiological or phenotypic clues of SARS-CoV-2 being causative of GBS. GBS incidence has fallen during the pandemic which may be the influence of lockdown measures reducing transmission of GBS inducing pathogens such as Campylobacter jejuni and respiratory viruses.