Affect Intensity Research Articles

A meta‐analysis of the association between shame and dissociation

Shame and dissociation have been implicated theoretically and empirically in trauma exposure and its sequelae, with shame understood as an intense negative emotion and dissociation as a reaction to intense negative emotions. Understanding the connection between shame and dissociation is important for theory and practice; however, the strength of this association remains unclear. For example, in therapy, both shame and dissociation serve as a barrier to engaging with emotion. Theoretically, these two states should be distinct, as one (dissociation) confers low affective intensity and the other (shame) high intensity. The present meta-analysis focused on the magnitude of the association between these two phenomena and investigated the extent to which gender, trauma exposure, psychiatric comorbidities, and demographic characteristics influence this association given their independent links to shame and dissociation. An initial search of six databases identified 151,844 articles. Duplicates were removed, and additional articles were excluded based on abstract and title screening. After contacting authors for missing data, a full-text screen yielded 25 articles for the present analysis. The results indicate that shame and dissociation were moderately correlated (k = 33, n = 4,705), r = .42, 95% CI [.35, .48], p < .001, but no clear clinical moderators emerged. Despite this association, very few studies utilized experimental designs to examine the association between these constructs. Future research should focus on experimental study designs to investigate the extent to which shame induces dissociation or vice versa.

Reconceptualizing Women's Wellbeing During the Pandemic: Sport, Fitness and More-Than-Human Connection.

This paper explores the gendered, disruptive effects and affective intensities of COVID-19 and the ways that women working in the sport and fitness sector were prompted to establish more-than-human connection through technologies, the environment, and objects. Bringing together theoretical and embodied insights from object interviews with 17 women sport and fitness professionals (i.e., athletes, coaches, instructors) in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper advances a relational understanding of the multiple human and nonhuman forces that shape and transform women's wellbeing during pandemic. Drawing upon particular feminist materialisms (i.e., Barad, Braidotti, Bennett), we reconceptualize wellbeing to move beyond biomedical formulations of health or illness. Through our analysis and discussion, we trace embodied ways of knowing that produce wellbeing as a more-than-human entanglement, a gendered phenomenon that can be understood as an ongoing negotiation of affective, material, cultural, technological and environmental forces during a period of disruption and uncertainty.

Intense positive affect without arousal is possible: Subjective and physiological reactivity during a partnered sexual meditative experience

Though common models suggest that affect intensity can be thought of as orthogonal to arousal, examples of intensely pleasant low arousal stimuli remain rare. To support this orthogonal model, we examined whether a specific meditative sexual practice, Orgasmic Meditation (OM), induces such a state. Thus, this study measured changes in subjective affect as well as skin conductance responses (SCR), as a proxy for physiological arousal associated with sympathetic nervous system activity, during a single 15-minute partnered sexual meditative practice (Orgasmic Meditation; OM) in 93 participants. Almost all participants experienced sustained positive affect during the task. Whereas seconds after OM start approximately half the participants experienced sustained increased SCR, the other half experienced sustained decreased SCR. This observation suggests that the experience of sustained positive affect in intimate interactions may be associated with multiple mechanistic profiles including both decreased and increased arousal.

Affective intensities of polarization: the making of the Islamist/secularist divide through articulations of news media in Turkey

ABSTRACT This study examines discursive articulations in mainstream news media in Turkey, through which the Islamist/secularist divide is imagined. Building upon discourse-theoretical analysis and affect theory, the study states that news media become the ultimate domain in which polarization is fuelled by affective forces. To illustrate this point, I draw upon the representations of Istanbul’s conquest by Ottoman forces, as a privileged signifier in articulations of Turkishness. I examine the opinion articles published in mainstream news media, following the framework of ‘reading for affect’. Accordingly, I identify two contrasting moods attributing affective value to Istanbul’s conquest. Hyperbolic narratives are central to Islamist imaginaries, as they attach utmost significance to Istanbul’s conquest. Conversely, secularist imaginaries are mostly built upon satire of disdain especially in relation to the celebrations of the conquest. Rhetorical works play a pivotal role in the signification of the city’s conquest. Rather than plainly constructing networks of meanings, they are the affective elements putting Istanbul’s conquest on the stage. From that vantage point, the study argues that affect and signification are not autonomous layers of discourse. Affective intensities are indeed articulated in chains of signifiers that conclude in the sedimentation and fixation of meanings.

Affective Intensities of Single Lives: An Alternative Account of Temporal Aspects of Couple Normativity

The number of people living without a partner is growing globally, but this demographic shift has barely disrupted the tenacity of the couple norm. Researchers have identified several concrete mechanisms of singlism – practices that feed the unequal treatment of single people. Nevertheless, there is still a need to develop an understanding of how singlism operates affectively. To provide insights into the affective intensities of single lives, we incorporate the notion of affective inequality into an analysis of singlehood and temporality, bringing together a range of data sets to further develop this idea. We examine the varying affective and psychic experiences that characterise how singles feel about their singlehood, how they experience the current moment and how they view the future. We argue that these experiences are shaped by singlism, and that affective inequalities and affective privileges co-condition the possibilities for different types of relationships.

Intra-individual variability and stability of affect and craving among individuals receiving medication treatment for opioid use disorder.

Affect and craving are dynamic processes that are clinically relevant in opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment, and can be quantified in terms of intra-individual variability and stability. The purpose of the present analysis was to explore associations between opioid use and variability and stability of affect and craving among individuals receiving medication treatment for OUD (MOUD). Adults (N = 224) with OUD in outpatient methadone or buprenorphine treatment completed ecological momentary assessment (EMA) prompts assessing positive affect, negative affect, opioid craving, and opioid use. Dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM) was used to quantify person-level indices of magnitude and stability of change. Beta regression was used to examine associations between intra-individual variability and stability and proportion of opioid-use days, when controlling for overall intensity of affect and craving. Results suggested that greater magnitude of craving variability was associated with opioid use on a greater proportion of days, particularly among individuals with lower average craving. Low average positive affect was also associated with higher proportion of days of use. Individuals who experience substantial craving variability in the context of lower average craving may be particularly vulnerable to opioid use during treatment. Ongoing assessment of craving may be useful in identifying treatment needs. Examining correlates of intra-individual variability and stability in MOUD treatment remains a relevant direction for future work.

Neural indices of performance monitoring are associated with daily emotional functioning in youth with anxiety disorders: An ERP and EMA study

Excessive monitoring of one's performance is a characteristic of anxiety disorders that has been linked to alterations in implicit emotion regulation (ER), including elevations in neural measures of performance monitoring (i.e., error- and correct-related negativity; ERN and CRN). Elevations in ERN and CRN amplitudes have been reported consistently in anxiety disorders, suggesting that an overactive performance monitoring system is linked to ER difficulties in anxiety. Yet, the relevance of these lab-based neural measures for day-to-day emotional functioning remains poorly understood. This study examined the degree to which ERN and CRN amplitudes are associated with measures of daily ER difficulties in youth with anxiety disorders. Youth (N = 100, Mage = 11.14, SDage = 1.46) completed a computerized flanker task assessing the ERN and CRN. They then completed a 5-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol assessing their daily ER (i.e., intensity of momentary and peak negative affect, intensity of worry, reliance on maladaptive ER strategies). Results showed that more negative mean CRN amplitudes were associated with higher levels of negative emotional reactivity and more intense worries. There were no significant associations between ERN amplitude and EMA measures. Furthermore, elevations in CRN were linked to more frequent use of maladaptive ER strategies (i.e., rumination, physiological reactivity, avoidance). Together, results indicate that among youth with anxiety, individual differences in CRN, but not ERN, amplitudes are related to daily ER difficulties. Findings highlight the clinical utility of a lab-based neural measure of ER, suggesting that the CRN, rather than the ERN, reflects individual ER differences in the context of daily life among youth with pediatric anxiety disorders. As such, the CRN might serve as an important dimensional index of a treatment target that can be tracked with a validated, multi-method measure.

Solitude in Pixels

This article studies Doku, a digital figure created by multimedia artist Lu Yang. Unlike Lu’s previous works that celebrate how virtuality makes possible the fashioning of a formless figure free of bodily restraints and thus of various identity makers, Doku betrays a different take on the potentials of the virtual in relation to the corporeal. By closely examining select videos featuring Doku, I highlight Lu’s emphasis on Doku’s entangled bodily presence and affective intensity. Contextualized against the backdrop of contemporary digital cinema’s engagement with corporeality and of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these features of Doku invite us to reevaluate Lu’s figuration of digital bodies.

“Oh, My God, Buy It!” Investigating Impulse Buying Behavior in Live Streaming Commerce

The rapid popularity of live streaming promotes the emergence of a new business model known as live streaming commerce. Due to high interactivity and rich-sensory stimuli, live streaming easily leads to consumers’ impulse buying. However, knowledge on impulse buying in live streaming commerce is considerably limited. Drawing on the social presence theory and cognitive-affective framework, our study proposes a theoretical framework with which to examine how live streaming affects consumers’ urge to buy impulsively. In an online survey, 267 valid responses were obtained. Results indicate that social presence of live streamer, social presence of other viewers and social presence of product positively influence affective intensity. Results also show that social presence of other viewers and social presence of product negatively influence perceived risk. Furthermore, this study proves that the urge to buy impulsively is driven by affective state (i.e., affective intensity) instead of cognitive state (i.e., perceived risk) in the live streaming commerce context. This study provides a deep understanding of the psychological mechanism underlining consumers’ impulse buying in live streaming commerce. The findings also offer suggestions for online retailers to enhance product sales.

0261 Pre-Sleep Arousal Predicts Subsequent Night’s REM Frontal Theta Power in a Naturalistic Context

Abstract Introduction Decreased rapid eye movement (REM) frontal theta spectral activity during sleep has been identified following intense negative experiences in both naturalistic and experimental settings. It is unknown, however, whether this spectral marker a) also appears following lower intensity naturalistic negative affective experiences, and b) whether it is responsive to arousal, to negative valence, or to both. Methods In a community sample of adults (N = 50, age range 21-49 [M = 30.30, SD = 7.85]) with no mental health or sleep disorders except bruxism, we separately measured naturalistic experiences of negative valence and arousal 40-60 minutes prior to bedtime, then assessed at-home sleep using a single night of ambulatory polysomnography with 8 electroencephalography channels. REM frontal theta was calculated as the mean relative spectral power density between 4.9-8 Hz at F3 and F4 during REM. Affective experience was assessed with a 0-100 slider rating filled out on participants’ smartphones. Negative valence was assessed by asking, “How negative are you feeling right now?” Arousal was assessed using a composite of somatic and cognitive arousal that reverse scored and averaged two ratings, “How calm is your body?” and “How quiet is your mind?” Analyses were conducted with Bayesian general linear models using flat priors. Results Contrary to our hypothesis, pre-sleep arousal was linearly associated with increased REM frontal theta (ß = 2.06 [0.95, 3.20], pMAP &amp;lt; 0.001). A quadratic association fit the data better than the linear model (Bayes Factor = 250.47), such that, for low to moderate pre-sleep arousal, REM frontal theta power increased as arousal ratings increased, but for moderate to high pre-sleep arousal, REM frontal theta power decreased as arousal ratings increased (ß = -2.04 [-3.18, -0.90], pMAP &amp;lt; 0.001). Both associations remained significant even adjusting for negative valence. Contrary to expectations, pre-sleep negative valence was not associated with REM frontal theta. Conclusion Separately measuring affect dimensions revealed that REM frontal theta power was selectively responsive to naturalistic pre-sleep arousal. At higher arousal ratings, our results matched prior findings. However, at lower arousal ratings, the association was reversed, suggesting that spectral markers may vary across affective intensities and contexts. Support (If Any) National Science Foundation Graduate FellowshipR56, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, “Emotion dysregulation and sleep-time masticatory muscle activity in sleep bruxism,” DE025321

On care infrastructures and health practices: How people in health promotion programmes try to change their everyday life.

This paper contributes to challenging common behavioural or cognitive explanations for health and wellbeing outcomes, focussing on social practices through which people, with the help of other subjects, try to improve their health conditions. To renew the debate about health promotion, my work is placed at the intersection between the sociology of health and illness and science and technology studies, adopting the concepts of care infrastructures and health practices that are introduced in the next section. With this goal, my paper draws on a qualitative study concerning a Workplace Health Promotion programme aimed at reducing the risks of Type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases among sedentary workers. The findings illustrate how a care infrastructure in the field of health promotion is designed, put to work, repaired and 'put aside' in relation to two health practices ('doing physical activity' and 'following the Mediterranean diet'). Drawing on the presented case, I show how the change in daily habits in the fields of nutrition and physical activity is a collective effort involving different spheres of life, connecting human and non-human elements and bringing out affective intensities among them.

What Happens Next? Using the Story Completion Method to Surface the Affects and Materialities of Digital Privacy Dilemmas

People’s ideas and practices concerning their personal data and digital privacy have received growing attention in social inquiry. In this article, we discuss findings from a study that adopted the story completion method together with a theoretical perspective building on feminist materialism to explore how people make sense of and respond to digital privacy dilemmas. The Digital Privacy Story Completion Project presented participants with a set of four story prompts (‘stems’) for them to complete. Each introduced a fictional character facing a privacy dilemma related to personal data generated from their online interactions or app use. Our analysis surfaces how privacy is imagined as simultaneously personal and social, redolent with affective intensities, and framed through relational connections of human and nonhuman agents. While the story stems involved scenarios using digital technologies, participants’ stories extended beyond the technological. These stories offer insight into why and how the potential for and meaning of digital privacy unfolds into more-than-digital worlds.

Assemblages of Pandemic Populism

Throughout the pandemic, we have witnessed the channelling of affective intensities into demonstrations, sieges, and violent outbursts underpinned by far right-wing populism, including the siege of Capitol Hill, counter-BLM protests and so-called “anti-hygienic protests” against lockdowns and public health measures. These outbursts, as sensational manifestations of the more general turn to populism, attest to the urgency of understanding the structures of feelings underlying populist logic and the affective tactics used to spread them. The intensification of these affects by the pandemic and consequent lockdowns requires urgent attention as the associated socio-economic crisis and moral-panic are contributing to far-right populist resentments, the long-term effects of which remain to be seen. I look here how digital media contributes to what has been termed “pandemic populism” in an assemblage consisting of right-wing populist logic, digital and particularly social media, the COVID19 virus and associated public health measures. Far-right populist media and activists have taken advantage of the confusion around public health measures during the pandemic to blur boundaries between fact and fiction to fit the effects of the pandemic into their own narratives. Accordingly, I include in my analysis consideration of hyper-partisan media and the power of conspiracy theories, mis- and dis-information and how these forms of mediation engage populations in ways that challenge rational models of communication. I adopt a version of affect theory developed by Lisa Blackman in conjunction with Rebecca Coleman’s concept of (infra)structures of feeling to make sense of the affective dimensions underpinning right-wing populism, which exert pressure on and mediate actions and experiences and which have been exacerbated by the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Figure of the Martyr in Iran-Iraq Postwar Movies

Abstract This article focuses on the post–Iran-Iraq War representations of the martyr figure, with a close reading of the film Safar be Chazzabeh. The author interrogates the gendered representation of martyrdom and masculinity as central to the narration of the postwar films. She shows how postwar films continue to keep Islamic nationalism in circulation through the martyr figure by conveying a fictive yet affective time of the nation where death opens space for the continuation of life. While post–Iran-Iraq War movies collapse men's emotional relations in the war zone with their heroic martyrdom for the nation-state's sake, they aesthetically mediate the possibility of men's homosociality in the precarious and affective intensity of the war zone.

The specificity and the affective sign of autobiographical memories in individuals with depressive disorders and alcohol use disorder.

Mental disorders may disrupt autobiographical memory (AM). An example is over general memories - without details, generalized or semantic. This paper assesses the functioning of AM in a depressive episode (DEP) and alcohol use disorder (ALC). The study compared two study groups: hospitalized patients with DEPand ALC, and two control groups: people hospitalized for gastroenterological conditions (CON) and healthy individuals (PAN) (N =39 for each group; mean age: 46.0 ± 13.6 years; no differences). The specificity of AM was examined by the Autobiographical Memory Test.Participants rated memories in terms of vividness, affective intensity and sign. DEP and ALC groups recalled fewer specific memories than the control groups (p <0.001 for: all, positive and negative cue words), with the lowest results in DEP. Clinical groups recalled also more negative and less positive memories (p <0.001) than the control groups, with a deficit of positive ones in DEPand an excess of negative memories in ALC. An analysis of non-specific responses revealed that the ALC group recalled more "extended" memories than the CON group (p <0.005) and more "categorical" ones than control groups (p <0.05). The DEP group remembered more "semantic associations" than the PAN group (p <0.001). The results confirmed the presence of OGM in both clinical groups. ALC disrupts the mechanism of generating specific memories to alesser extent than mood disorders. Moreover, subjects from the clinical groups assess their past more pessimistically than the controls, with a reduced number of positive memories in people with a depressive episode, and probably an increased number of negative ones in people with ALC.

The roles of negative emotion intensity, negative emotion differentiation, and self‐compassion in loss of control eating

Negative affect intensity is robustly related to binge eating, but the relationship between negative emotion differentiation (i.e., the ability to differentiate negatively-valenced emotions) and binge eating is unclear. Further, little is known about factors that might reduce emotion intensity and/or enhance emotion differentiation, thereby reducing binge eating. Self-compassion is consistently linked to less binge eating, which may be due to decreased negative affect and/or an enhanced ability to differentiate emotions. The current study examined the roles of negative emotion intensity, negative emotion differentiation, and self-compassion in binge eating using ecological momentary assessment. Participants were 201 university students (52.2% female) who completed questionnaires assessing affect seven times a day, and engagement in loss of control (LOC) eating episodes at the end of each day, for 10 days. The average of sadness, fear, guilt, and hostility subscales represented negative emotion intensity; intraclass correlations across negative affect subscales defined negative emotion differentiation. Both daily (i.e., within-person) and trait (i.e., between-person) emotion variables were examined as predictors. Between-person negative emotion intensity, but not negative emotion differentiation, significantly predicted LOC eating occurrence. Self-compassion had a significant effect on LOC eating frequency, and this relationship was partially mediated via negative emotion intensity, but not via negative emotion differentiation. Lower levels of negative emotion intensity partially account for the relationship between greater self-compassion and less frequent LOC eating. These findings highlight the importance of cultivating self-compassion to down-regulate negative emotions and to reduce LOC eating. Our findings suggest that university students who approach their limitations compassionately experience fewer negative emotions in daily life and engage in less loss of control eating. Lower levels of negative affect partially explain this relationship between self-compassion and loss of control eating. These results highlight the importance of cultivating an understanding and a compassionate attitude toward oneself for reducing eating pathology.

Association of real-time assessed mood, affect and suicidal ideation in psychiatric inpatients with unipolar depression.

Previous research provided preliminary support of a potential reinforcing effect of suicidal ideation demonstrating reduced negative affect and increased positive affect after thinking about suicide. The present study therefore sought to investigate the role of mood and affect as a proximal risk factor of suicidal ideation in a high-risk sample. Seventy-four psychiatric inpatients (72% female) with unipolar depression and current and/or lifetime suicidal ideation aged 18 to 85 years (M = 37.6, SD = 14.3) took part in an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) over 6 days. Multilevel analyses were calculated. Analyses revealed negative valence of mood and low positive affect to be predictors of subsequent intensity of suicidal ideation (active, passive) as well as predictors of change in suicidal ideation (active, passive) since the last measurement. High negative affect only predicted intensity of passive suicidal ideation. Suicidal ideation (active, passive) was prospectively associated with subsequent negative valence of mood and lower positive affect as well as with higher intensity of negative affect. Suicidal ideation (active, passive) also predicted the change in valence of mood, positive affect and negative affect since the last measurement. Mood and affect should be taken into account as important proximal risk factors of active and passive suicidal ideation. The results do not support the idea of a reinforcing effect of suicidal ideation. In fact, they show a pattern of reduced subsequent positive affect, negative valence of mood and increased negative affect. Replication studies with larger samples and longer EMA follow-ups are needed.

Reimagining joy as a performative force in early childhood education

In this conceptual paper, the affective intensity of joy is approached as becoming. Following a relational ontology, joy is attended to both as performed in relation to others (human and more-than-human) and as a performative agent. This paper is based on an empirical exploration of the remarkableness of young children's everyday lives in a Finnish early childhood education context. This study contributes to the emerging field of affective and embodied research practices in early childhood education by disrupting and reimagining the way in which joy is thought about and researched. Exploring joy from a post-qualitative methodological approach and drawing on a relational ontology will afford novel research insights and new knowledge about joy as a phenomenon beyond the individual human. By reading diffractively and drawing on a ‘practical provocation’, the author aims to increase understanding of joy as a performative force, which is important for early years practitioners and researchers. Acknowledging the relational and performative aspects of young children's joy within intra-action reveals the remarkable and transformative possibilities in seemingly unremarkable and mundane events.

Paisaje sonoro y oralidad en Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

This article focuses on the soundscape of Persiles y Sigismunda. Cervantes-in the same way that he uses ekphratic strategies-gives a crucial role to the acoustic universe. It allows the author to introduce a multiplicity of levels of affective intensity, psychological nuances, or reflections on the art of telling a story. This article explores how the sound-scape (silence, noises, tones, music, silence, and oral narratives) fulfills various functions depending on the context of the passage. It also analyzes how the acoustic universe complements the narrative function, since the sound helps to intensify, accelerate, or modify the story.

Tiger atmospheres and co-belonging in mangrove worlds

This article adopts a place-based approach to explore tiger atmospheres in the Sundarbans, a transboundary environmental commons and major climatic hotspot in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta of India and Bangladesh. We argue that affective intensities of greed ( lobh), fear ( bhaya), respect ( srodhya), trust ( biswas) and empathy ( karuna) sensed by the tiger subject contribute to novel theoretical as well as empirical insights into co-belonging and intersectional multispecies justice. We explore these animal atmospheres through multi-sited ethnographic research that include embodied observations, photographs, 31 in-depth interviews and focus groups with impoverished as well as racialised low-caste Hindus (Dalits/Scheduled Castes), Adivasis (Indigenous peoples) and Muslim forest-dwellers in India and Bangladesh. This attention to more-than-human geographies, animal atmospheres and subaltern stories situated in the Bengal delta unsettles macro-narratives of forest conservation and wildlife management that reduce animals to passive subjects or alternatively make them killable.