The within-person dynamics of affect, meaning in life, and perceived stress

Altered affect and cognitive dysfunction are transdiagnostic, burdensome, and pervasive features of many psychiatric conditions which remain poorly understood and have few efficacious treatments. Research on the genetic architecture of these phenotypes and causal relationships between them may provide insight into their aetiology and comorbidity. Using data from the Lifelines Cohort Study, we conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on positive and negative affect and four cognitive domains (working memory, reaction time, visual learning and memory, executive function). Using publicly available large GWAS on related - albeit distinct-phenotypes (depression, anxiety, wellbeing, general cognitive ability [GCA]) we conducted genetic correlation and Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to examine genetic overlap and causal relationships. We identified one genome-wide hit (p<5×10-8) for reaction time, and many loci with suggestive associations (p<5×10-6; N range= 11-20 independent hits) for other phenotypes. For most phenotypes, gene mapping and tissue expression analysis of suggestive hits from the GWAS showed increased gene expression in brain tissue compared to other tissues. As predicted, negative affect is genetically correlated with mental health phenotypes (depression r g=0.51; anxiety r g=0.70; wellbeing r g = -0.71) and cognitive domains are genetically correlated with GCA and brain volume (r g ≤ 0.66). Genetic correlations between negative and positive affect suggest that they are dissociable constructs (r g = -0.18) with negative affect having higher genetic overlap with GCA than positive affect (r g =-0.19 vs -0.06). This could indicate that negative affect has a higher shared neural basis with GCA than positive affect and/or GCA and negative affect may exhibit causal relationships. MR analyses suggest potential causal effects of higher GCA on reduced negative affect, reduced risk of depression and anxiety, and higher wellbeing, but little impact on positive affect. We also report evidence for potential causal effects of depression and lower wellbeing on reduced GCA. Taken together, these results suggests that GCA may be a valid target for negative affect (but not positive affect) and depression and wellbeing may be valid targets for GCA.

Effects of cigarette abstinence on negative and positive affect by depression symptom levels: A lab study

This study aims to explore the association between the positive and negative affect and subjective well-being (SWB): happiness, satisfaction with life, and mental health. A sample of 179 undergraduates was recruited. The results indicated that men obtained statistically significant higher mean scores than women in happiness and mental health, whereas women had a high mean score than their male counterparts in negative affect. All the Pearson correlations were significant except between the positive and negative affect. All the significant correlations were positive except between the negative affect and SWB scales, i.e., negative. The principal components analysis retained two factors in the men group and labeled «Positive affect and SWB» and «Negative affect vs. happiness». One factor was extracted in the women group and labeled «SWB and positive affect vs. negative affect». Stepwise regression revealed that the predictors of happiness were mental health and satisfaction (in men), and satisfaction, mental health, and positive affect (in women). Predictors of satisfaction with life were happiness in men, and happiness and negative affect (-ve) in women. It was concluded that affect is a salient factor in SWB, particularly happiness and satisfaction with life.

This study examined 3 types of synchrony (i.e., asynchrony, synchrony, and desynchrony) between positive and negative affect in a sample of adult widows and assessed whether individual differences in synchrony type predicted adjustment over time. Participants included 34 widows from the Notre Dame Widowhood Study, who reported on their positive and negative affect across a 98-day period following conjugal loss and responded to follow-up questionnaires every 4 months for 1 year. Multilevel models revealed that although the nomothetic average of the synchrony scores indicated a negative or desynchronous relationship between positive and negative affect, an ideographic view identified evidence of individual differences. Furthermore, patterns of change in the relationship between positive and negative affect suggested that, over time, desynchrony in affect generally abates for widows but individual differences were predictive of adjustment over time. Furthermore, distinct trajectories that the women follow from the time of their husband's death include patterns of resilience and delayed negative reaction, each of which predicted present levels of grief. Discussion focuses on (a) individual differences in the within-person structure in affect, (b) the dynamic processes involving negative and positive affect, and (c) the predictive power of synchrony scores.

During the early outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, a strict home lockdown was maintained in Spain for more than 50 days, disrupting social and economic activities. The aim of this study is to explore affective and well-being responses during the initial period of mandatory home lockdown. Specifically, we analyzed: 1) differences in risk perception according to sociodemographic and health profile; 2) relation between social and environmental characteristics of home isolation, positive and negative affect and meaning in life; and 3) the relationship between activities and behaviors performed by people under lockdown and well-being. A total of 1343 Spanish residents participated in this correlational and cross-sectional study. Results show a significant relationship between health and economic risk perception associated with confinement. Higher health risk perception was identified among the older population and those belonging to high-risk groups. High resilience was linked to lower negative affect and greater positive affect and meaning in life. Regarding social and environmental characteristics of home isolation, people living with others reported greater negative affect than people living alone and the daily frequency of use of open-air spaces was linked to positive affect. Higher positive affect and meaning in life were also reported in people who frequently participated in community activities or by helping others. Lower negative affect was only associated with physical exercise.

Positive and negative parental affect influence developing parent-child attachment relationships, especially during infancy as well as children's social-emotional, academic, and behavioral functioning later in life. Increasingly, because both mothers and fathers can play central caregiving roles, the parenting qualities of both parents demand consideration. Therefore, this study investigated whether parental gender and caregiving role were associated with mothers' and fathers' positive affect and negative affect during interactions with their 4-month-old firstborn infant, while determining whether parenting stress, infant temperament, having a singleton/twin, and living in the Netherlands, France, or the United Kingdom were related to parental positive affect and negative affect. In all, 135 different-sex, same-sex male, and same-sex female couples (113 fathers and 157 mothers, comprising 147 primary, and 123 secondary caregivers) who conceived through artificial reproductive techniques were studied. The couples were videorecorded at home while in feeding, cleaning, and playing contexts to assess the levels of positive and negative parental affect. In addition, the couples completed questionnaires about their caregiving role, parenting stress, and the infants' temperament. Mixed linear models indicated that the levels of positive and negative parental affect toward the infant in all contexts were not related to parental gender, caregiving role, the interaction between parental gender and caregiving role, parenting stress, infant temperament, or singleton/twin status. However, the target parental behaviors were related to the country of origin, suggesting differences among Dutch, French, and British parents. Overall, we found no evidence that gender or caregiving roles were associated with the levels of positive and negative affect shown by the parents.

Background: The affect regulation theory of binge eating suggests that binge eating is triggered by negative affect and functions to reduce negative affect. While binge eating frequently follows negative affect, available evidence suggests that negative affect increases immediately following a binge episode. However, it remains unclear whether short-term decreases in negative affect occur during the binge episode itself. In addition, the role of positive affect in binge eating is not well understood. Objectives: (1) To examine trajectories of positive and negative affect before and after binge eating episodes among women with bulimia nervosa (BN); and (2) to compare positive and negative affect during binge episodes to affect before binge episodes. Exploratory aims were (3) to compare trajectories of positive and negative affect before and after binge eating episodes that are anticipated vs. unanticipated; and (4) to compare trajectories of positive and negative affect before and after objective vs. subjective binge eating episodes. Method: Thirty-five women with BN were asked to answer questions about binge eating and affect several times daily over a 14-day period using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) procedure. Affect during binge episodes was assessed retrospectively during the EMA rating following each binge episode. Results: Positive affect decreased in the hours before binge episodes and increased in the hours following binge episodes, while negative affect increased in the hours before binge episodes and decreased in the hours following binge episodes. Negative affect was rated as higher and positive affect was rated as lower during binge episodes relative to before binge episodes. Trajectories of positive and negative affect did not differ based on anticipation of the binge episode or based on the size of the binge episode (objective vs. subjective). Discussion: The present findings replicate prior research on trajectories of positive and negative affect before and after binge episodes, and suggest that these trajectories are consistent regardless of whether the binge was anticipated in advance and regardless of the size of the binge episode. Comparisons of positive and negative affect before vs. during binge episodes did not support the affect regulation hypothesis of binge eating, as affect was found to worsen during binge episodes. Results may be more consistent with theories suggesting reduced inhibitory control over eating during negative emotional states, but do not suggest that binge eating produces improvements in positive and negative affect in comparison to pre-binge affective states. Further research is needed to better understand factors that maintain binge eating.

Affect and physical fitness play an important role in psychological and physical health; however, the association between those variables in youth remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of physical fitness on positive and negative affect in Spanish children and adolescents. Healthy young Spanish people (n = 1,490) were recruited for the present study: 542 children (n=272 girls; mean age 9.6years) and 948 adolescents (n=454 girls; mean age 14.1years) with complete baseline data on health-related fitness tests (20 m shuttle run test, 4×10 m test, muscular fitness index, and physical fitness index), and positive and negative affect (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule). Higher performance on physical fitness components was associated with positive affect (β=-0.176-0.118, all P<0.05). There was no association between all physical fitness components and negative affect (β=-0.100-0.15, all P>0.05). There were differences on positive affect between the lowest and the highest quartile of the physical fitness index in boys (P=0.037, Cohen'sd 0.60) and girls (P=0.004, Cohen'sd = 0.69), and between the lowest and the highest quartile of muscular fitness index in girls (P<0.001, Cohen's d = 0.76). Promoting physical activity during the school years, including strength exercises to increase muscular fitness, could improve positive affect levels and thus psychological health.

Introduction The World Health Organization recommends moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for 150 minutes per week to reduce the risk of primary or secondary cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Adherence to these recommendations is only around 30% in the US. Identifying reliable barriers or facilitators of time spent in MVPA is a critical component to primary and secondary CVD prevention. Negative affect, including feelings such as being sad, nervous, and restless, is known to diminish time spent in MVPA, whereas positive affect, which includes feelings such as being calm, happy, or full of life is associated with MVPA increases. Relatedly, variability in positive but not negative affect is associated with poorer physical health. What is unclear is how intra-individual variability of positive and negative affect may influence MVPA. Research question What is the influence of variations (i.e. intra-individual day-to-day) in positive and negative affect on variations in MVPA? Method. Guided by the individual and self-management theory, a secondary analysis was conducted of data from a nationwide US sample of participants. Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Refresh Wave Study Daily Diary Project, we analyzed eight consecutive days of affect and MVPA assessments in a sample of 553 healthy participants (54% women, 86% white, mean age = 48.7 years). Latent trajectory models were computed to determine the influence of daily positive and negative affect on daily MVPA. Results Affect variability, calculated as the standard deviation of daily positive and negative affect, was positively correlated with MVPA variability. An autoregressive cross-lagged latent trajectory model provided the best fit to examine relationships between positive affect, negative affect, and MVPA (χ2=946.54, df=379, p&amp;lt;0.001; CFI=0.95; RMSEA=0.05, SRMR = 0.06). Positive, but not negative affect, intercepts were significantly correlated with MVPA trajectories (r=0.19, p&amp;lt;0.05). Individuals who initially begin the eight day time span with a higher reported positive affect show a modest increase in MVPA over the same time period (r=0.19, p&amp;lt;0.001). By contrast, individuals evidencing increases in positive affect over the time span showed a decreased rate of change in MVPA over that same time (r=−0.32, p&amp;lt;0.001). Conclusion The association of positive affect to MVPA necessitates a complex analysis to more fully understand intra-individual-level interactions. Relatively higher positive affect with fewer fluctuations was associated with greater MVPA. These intriguing preliminary findings must be considered in light of important limitations (e.g., only eight days of data; affect and MVPA do not necessarily follow diurnal patterns). Still, findings support the view that beginning with positive affect may lead to stability in time spent in MVPA. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: None

Positive affect and hope contribute to individuals’ psychological adjustment and positive youth development. The purpose of the study was to examine growth in positive and negative affect as well as state hope in Chinese adolescents in a juvenile correctional institution. We also investigated whether distinct trajectories of affect and hope predicted mental health and externalizing, internalizing, and prosocial behavior. The study included 198 male adolescents in a Chinese juvenile correctional institution and comprised nine measurement points (T1-T9) which were one week apart, respectively. Positive and negative affect and state hope were assessed from T1 to T8, and mental health and internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior were measured at T9. Analyses of latent growth curve and latent class growth models were estimated. It was found that positive and negative affect, as well as state hope, decreased over time. Youth in classes characterized by higher state hope and lower negative affect reported better mental health than youth in classes characterized by lower levels of these constructs. Because of the beneficial effects of lower negative affect and higher state hope on mental health and internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior, interventions strengthening hope and reducing negative affect may promote positive youth development in juvenile correctional institutions.

Nature of studyPositive organizational behavior studies shows that positive states (e.g., positive emotions) and state-like constructs (e.g., specific selfefficacy) have relationship with and impact on organizational behaviors and outcomes (Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998). Positive affect is state of pleasurable engagement and reflects extent to which person feels enthusiastic, active, and alerts (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1998). Positive affect (PA) can be measured as state or trait, with state PA capturing how one feels at given points in time, whereas trait represents stable individual differences in level of affect generally experienced (George & Brief, 1992; Watson & Pennbaker, 1989).These states tend to be more spontaneous and thus are often induced by situational factors. On other hand, although positive traits and trait-like characteristics may be predictive of more transient positive states, contribution of traits to organizational behaviors and performance and attitudinal outcomes generally tends to be more indirect in nature and interactive with more direct impact of positive states and state-like characteristics (Cropanzano, James, & Konovsky, 1993; George, 1991; įlies, Scott, & Judge, 2006; Wright, 2005; Wright, Cropanzano, & Meyer, 2004).Positive affect is associated with seeing opportunity in an issue as well as lower levels of risk taking (Mittal & Ross, 1998). People in positive state process information more heuristically, whereas people in negative state approach information more systematically.Positive affect has been shown to be effective in medical contexts, improving decision making among medical students and creative problem solving and diagnostic reasoning process among practicing physicians (Estards, Isen, & Young, 1994-1997; Isen, Rosenweing, & Young, 1991). Theories ofpositive and negative affect emphasize extent to which individuals engage in strategies to deal; with stress and success of those strategies depends largely upon characteristics of individual. Negative affectivity (NA) is possibly individual difference variable that has most potential to influence self-report measures of occupational stressors and subsequent perceptions of strain (Brief, Burke, George; Robinson, W Schaubroeck, Ganster, & Fox, 1992). Watson and Clark (1984) conclude that individuals high in negative affect are more likely to experience distress and dissatisfaction.High positive affectivity reflects enthusiasm; high energy, concentration, and determination (McIntyre, Watson, Clark, & Cross, 1991). Individuals with high in positive affectivity view world in more positive light and report leading full and interesting lives (Watson & Pennebaker, 1989). Positive affect may buffer individual from potentially detrimental effects of stress. One might expect positive affect to be negatively correlated with both stress and strain. Research showing that higher levels of positive affect enhance creative problem solving (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987) and that positive affect is associated with positive problem solving approaches (Elliott, Sherwin, Harkins, & Marmaroush, 1995). One study by Cropanzano, James, and Konovsky (1993) reported that negative affect and positive affect both related to work attitudes. Their study was to find out effects of both positive affect and negative affect on organizational commitment, turnover, job satisfaction, and performance. Clark and Watson (1999) described both positive and negative affect as pervasive cognitive states that influence responses to wide range of situations.Beehr and Newman (1978) define occupational stress as a condition arising from interaction of people and their jobs characterized by changes within people that force then to deviate from their normal functioning. The Information Technology Association of America has defined information technology (IT) as the study, design, development, application, implementation, support or management of computer based information systems . …

SummaryWe examine the effects of the balance between positive and negative affect experienced at work on well‐being outcomes. An extensive literature on affect balance suggests that it is not only positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) alone that affect well‐being; rather it is the balance between them that matters. We use experience sampling methods and polynomial regression to test the notion that daily PA and NA at work, along with their interactive and nonlinear effects, predict employee well‐being after work. In a sample of working adults, we find that affect balance—the dynamic interplay between daily PA and NA—at work was differentially associated with various indices of well‐being: PA, NA, and the interaction between them predicted physical and mental health. Affect balance at work also predicted life satisfaction, but only for those low on trait affect balance. Detailed examination of the joint effects of PA, NA, and the balance between them reveals that high PA at work is most important for life satisfaction, whereas both low NA and high PA are important for health. Low NA plays an especially important role in physical health.

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book Forum: Mood DisordersFull AccessMood and TemperamentJOHN C. MARKOWITZ, M.D., JOHN C. MARKOWITZSearch for more papers by this author, M.D., New York, N.Y.Published Online:1 Mar 2001https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.158.3.507AboutSectionsView EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail Funny how we ignore what surrounds us. Just as the “clinician’s illusion” leads us to recall our sickest patients as the norm (1), psychiatric training encourages a reflex conceptualization of mood within a pathological context. David Watson, a psychology professor, writes about the ubiquitous affect we often forget: normal, euthymic mood.Mood and Temperament requires clinicians to rethink moods as brief, not lingering, and positive, with only intermittent negativity, in an ongoing, undulating “stream of affect.” Neither money (beyond subsistence level), marriage, children, education, nor social status correlates with self-reported happiness—a highly subjective construct—although religion apparently elevates. Objective factors matter less than an individual’s emotional “set point” of expectations and social comparisons. Women suffer more mood and anxiety disorders than men, but in general populations there are few differences between the sexes in mood. People—at least the students Watson has long studied—feel mildly good until some upsetting event briefly evokes negative affect. Is that how you feel?Watson establishes constructs of positive and negative affect comprising more specific emotions such as joviality, self-assurance, fear, sadness, guilt, and hostility. Life events tend to have quotidian severity—student examinations, not deaths—and “depression” is an affective dimension comparable to anger, not a syndrome. In Watson’s quasibiopsychosocial model, temperament and mood interact with environment, endogenous and sociocultural rhythms, and individual variability. Temperament dominates, however. Life seems reducible to positive and negative affect, a one-note (or two-note) symphony.Regarding life events, Watson debunks the idea that weather affects mood, dismisses as illusory the perceptions of night owls (some people feel most serene at night but not at their peak positive affect) and “blue” Mondays, but finds evidence for “Sunday blahs.” He finds affect stable over years, situations (solitary versus social), stress levels, and social roles. (But is it dispositional stability or systematic subjective bias if subjects self-report consistent moods?)Reviewing five-factor (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness) personality models like the NEO Personality Inventory, Watson links four of the five factors to affect. Individual differences in negative and positive affectivity are the central cores of neuroticism and extraversion and provide the unifying “glue” that forms these “higher-order dispositions” (p. 203). He considers whether the relationship between affect and personality is instrumental (e.g., extraverted behaviors yield good events and good moods) or temperamental (negative affect produces introverted behavior). His welter of correlations, however, cannot unscramble this chicken-or-egg question. Would that Watson had transcended dichotomous correlations, since the interaction of instrumental and temperamental factors presumably is complex.The glaucomatous scope of the lone chapter on psychopathology may indicate the distance between normative psychology and psychiatry. This text on mood omits DSM definitions of mood disorders. Concentrating on his pet negative and positive affect models, Watson argues for merging DSM diagnoses, oblivious to treatment differences among major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and borderline personality disorder. Despite its jacket blurb trumpeting a “comprehensive framework” for understanding mood, this book contains little physiology, neuroanatomy, or psychopathology. An inadequate, unbiological discussion of diurnal and premenstrual mood cycles cites mostly 1970s and 1980s references. Although mentioning “hormonal secretions” in passing (p. 122), Watson depends on subjective self-assessment. He discusses serenity but not serotonin, neuroticism but not norepinephrine.The book hangs, for better and worse, on Watson’s two decades of normative data. He has researched on campus productively but largely limits himself to that corpus, from the campus. Deeming the life events literature unwieldy to summarize (p. 63), for example, he emphasizes his own data, reliant on self-reported mood ratings of (euthymic) psychology students, exhaustively describing several studies where one would suffice. He insufficiently discusses the generalizability and limits of convenience samples and self-assessment data. The psychiatric reader may hanker for greater breadth.Watson belabors academic disputes of doubtful general interest, including hair-splitting mood classifications. In a book heavy in intercorrelations of affects and graphs of their temporal shifts, Watson often seems to write for competing research colleagues. Alternatively, the reader can imagine himself or herself a student in Watson’s undergraduate class, sitting through impersonal, theoretical, lengthy, and often repetitive lectures, delivered in a clear but monotonic first-person narrative under Watson’s intrusive “I.” This may provoke negative affect.By David Watson. New York, Guilford Publications, 2000, 340 pp., $40.00.Reference1. Cohen P, Cohen J: The clinician’s illusion. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1984; 41:1178–1182Google Scholar FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited byNone Volume 158Issue 3 March 2001Pages 507-508 Metrics History Published online 1 March 2001 Published in print 1 March 2001

Introduction: Migration affects people’s lives, including their behaviours which impact both physical and mental health. Anxiety and depressive symptoms in migrants have been linked to negative physical and mental health outcomes associated with eating behaviour. This study aimed to analyse the mediating impact of positive and negative affect on the relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms and emotional eating in migrants. Method: A sample of 922 Colombian migrants in Chile participated in the study. The Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire were used for data collection. Mediation analysis was conducted using structural equation models. Results: Anxiety and depression correlated positively. Anxiety presented positive results on negative affect and emotional eating and negative results on positive affect. Depression had positive impacts on negative affect and emotional eating and negative impacts on positive affect. Only negative affect presented significant positive results on emotional eating. Only negative affect presented a specific and statistically significant indirect influence on anxiety and emotional eating. Positive affect and negative affect jointly presented a total and statistically significant indirect effect between anxiety and EE and between depression and emotional eating. Conclusions: This study provides evidence of how negative affect mediates the relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms and emotional eating.

Associations of DHEA(S) with negative and positive affect in people who smoke daily with elevated and low depression symptoms: A pilot laboratory study