Daily Thoughts Research Articles

Problematic sexual behaviours, dissociation, and adult attachment: A path analysis model

BackgroundProblematic sexual behaviours are controversial phenomena, lacking diagnostic consensus, yet they are significant and warrant in-depth scientific research due to their clinically significant consequences. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the association between potential risk factors of sex addiction and problematic online pornography use, with a specific focus on the role of attachment and dissociation. MethodA sample of 375 participants (Mage = 30 years; SD = 12.441) was involved in the research. The collected data were analysed by implementing a path analysis model. ResultsSignificant and positive total effects in the relationships between fearful/preoccupied attachment patterns and both sex addiction and problematic online pornography use were shown. Furthermore, these associations were significantly mediated by dissociation. Finally, sex addiction and problematic online pornography use were significantly associated with daily thoughts about sex and weekly online pornography use, respectively. LimitationsThe cross-sectional design and the use of only self-report measures in an online survey should be kept in mind while interpreting the results. ConclusionsSuch data provide useful insight into the complex interplay of attachment, dissociation, and problematic sexual behaviours, providing information that may inform and guide targeted clinical interventions.

Effects of social media use on employment anxiety among Chinese youth: the roles of upward social comparison, online social support and self-esteem.

Based on the continuous development of new media and mobile communication technologies, social media has significantly influenced people's daily thoughts and behaviors. For young people, social media is a platform for social interaction, and studies have found that social media helps Chinese graduates find employment. This study examined how social media use and its related factors affect employment anxiety. The data was collected from 1,204 Chinese youth through an online survey. The results showed that: (1) the intensity of social media use had a positive predictive effect on employment anxiety; (2) upward social comparison and online social support individually separately mediate the positive relationship between the intensity of social media use and employment anxiety; and (3) self-esteem negatively moderates the effect of upward social comparison and effect of online social support on employment anxiety. The study underscores the importance of reasonable social media usage strategies, positive social perception, and healthy self-perception for fostering a positive employment mindset among youth.

Tolstoy's A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul Written and Selected From the World's Sacred Texts

Tolstoy's A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul Written and Selected From the World's Sacred Texts

The Implications of Web-Driven Diary Writing on Students’ Well-Being: A Piloting Study among University Students

The present article aims to describe to what extent VBee as a web-driven diary writing app affects university students’ well-being during a month of usage. A descriptive qualitative design is used in this research as the details are described and the data obtained during the research are interpreted. This qualitative research data uses a written survey that is questionnaire. Google survey is free survey by Google to make it more practical for researchers to collect the data from the participants. The participants in the study consist of 13 English-as-a foreign-language learners in their second semester at a private university using VBee. After performing analysis on the data, it is found that mostly the students agree that by using this application they can freely express their ideas, communicate their daily thoughts and experiences, convey the students’ doubts or feelings, and build continuous interactions between students and teachers. Finally, some practical recommendations are noted.

Historical loss: Implications for physical activity levels in American Indian adults.

To investigate the relationship between daily thoughts about historical loss and daily levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in American Indian (AI) adults residing on the Blackfeet reservation in Browning, Montana. The study was designed and conducted using a community-based participatory research framework and ecological momentary assessment. Over a period of 1 week, 100 AI adults (mean age = 42.18, SD = 14.92) reported how often they thought about historical loss at the end of each day. During this week-long period, all participants wore a wrist-accelerometer to passively and objectively measure levels of physical activity. We found that Blackfeet AI adults who reported thinking about historical loss more frequently over the course of the week had lower average levels of MVPA over the course of the week compared to Blackfeet AI adults who reported thinking about historical loss less frequently (B = -10.22, 95% CI = -13.83, -6.60). We also found that on days when Blackfeet AI adults thought more about historical loss compared to their weekly average, they had fewer minutes of MVPA compared to their weekly average of minutes of MVPA (B = -0.87, 95% CI = -1.48, -0.27). Our data indicate that thoughts about historical loss are linked to lower levels of MVPA. Given high incidence of chronic health conditions linked to physical inactivity in AIs, more work is needed to identify the mechanisms through which thoughts about historical loss may inhibit physical activity in this population.

Daily Financial Thoughts and Indices of Mental and Physical Health: The Importance of Socioeconomic Status

The current study examined the associations between daily financial thoughts, socioeconomic status (SES), and indices of emotional (positive and negative affect (PA/NA)) and physical health (physical symptoms and cortisol). Participants (N = 782) from the National Study of Daily Experiences, a subsample of the Midlife in the United States Refresher survey, completed daily diary interviews and provided saliva samples, from which cortisol was assayed. Participants who, on average, reported more daily financial thoughts also reported more NA, less PA, more physical symptoms, and had higher cortisol AUCg (all p’s < .05). These effects were more pronounced among people reporting lower SES. Daily fluctuations in financial thoughts also predicted daily fluctuations in NA, PA, and physical symptoms (all p’s <. 01). Again, these associations were more pronounced among people reporting lower SES. Results indicate that intrusive, daily financial thoughts may be one pathway explaining the link between SES and health outcomes.

Evaluating How and Why the Environmental Context Shapes the Course of Development Across the Adult Lifespan

There is a long-standing literature that has documented the importance of both the immediate and distal context in impacting mental and physical health across the adult lifespan. The goal of this symposium is to bring together a collection of papers that target the extent to which the immediate and distal context as measured through objective and subjective indicators relate to pertinent outcomes of mental and physical health. Staben and colleagues use an intensive longitudinal design in middle-aged adults to show that objective and subjective indicators of the neighborhood are associated with higher levels of and are protective against the impact of monthly adversity on mental health and well-being. Munoz and colleagues evaluate associations between objective and subjective early-life neighborhood contexts and whether they play a role in cognitive function at midlife. They find that poorer age-five self-report conditions were associated with lower working memory. Osuna and colleagues examine how both neighborhood and housing conditions play a role on psychological well-being. They find that housing and neighborhood safety conditions are associated with depressive symptoms over time. Piazza and colleagues examine associations between daily financial thoughts, SES, and indices of emotional and physical health. They find that individuals who reported more daily financial thoughts also reported more negative affect and physical symptoms. The discussion by Crimmins will integrate the four papers by highlighting the importance of how different forms of context can impact development in adulthood and old age, particularly in relation to health and well-being and consider future routes of inquiry.

그랜드호텔 형식 영화의 패러디적 변용상 -『12인의 성난 사람들』과 『12인의 상냥한 일본인』의 대비를 중심으로 -

In this paper, I contrasted the American film 12 Angry Men, which shows the essence of a court play, using the spatial constraint properties of a Grand hotel style film that tracks the psychological trends and motive of characters in a limited space and the Japanese film 12 Sweet Japanese which parodies it. Through this, it is confirmed 12 Sweet Japanese is different from the Chinese film 12 Citizens, which is simply a remake of the stage in China and the Russian film 12 People''s Jury, whose original characteristics are diluted with excessive political colors and sociality. While adhering to the original essence of the Grand hotel style, it was examined that the original work was creatively reconstructed. Like the original 12 Angry Men, which specifically visualizes the psychological trends of characters sharing jury room, the same spatial background by commanding of various camera-work, 12 Sweet Japanese adheres to the formal characteristics of the Grand hotel style film by capturing the psychological curves of various characters amid tension and conflict in closed space. However, following the replacement of the title (Angry), which symbolizes the extraversion of the Americans, with the title (Sweet), which symbolizes the introverted temperament of Japanese, the heavy theme of the original work, which pinpoints the problem of universal human consciousness, which is swept away by irrational agitation is microscopically expressed as a daily issue of Japanese called “interhumanism”. Through this, while maintaining the form of the original work, it is proceeding to a parody of substituting a heterogeneous theme or content. Accordingly, it seems that No. 2, who alone pleads guilty and confronted the remaining 11 people, mimics the original protagonist No. 8. In fact, however, his role is reversed as an antagonist, resulting in a satirical transformation of the character whose status is exchanged between the guiltist and the innocent. Thus, it ultimately triggers a transformation of the plot by replacing the grim court play in which a fierce legal battle is unfolded over the truth of the murder case with a chat play with a light atmosphere that reveals the daily thoughts and lifestyles of Japanese. Through this, it was confirmed that 12 Sweet Japanese is enhancing new artistic value by adhering to the formal characteristics of the original 12 Angry Men as a grand hotel-style film, but also by making satirical variations on themes and other elements.

The World Will Never Be the Same … But Will I Change? Anticipated Moral Change in Generation X Post-Corona Narratives

"In the “Letters from a Post-Corona Future” study, we asked participants to imagine a desirable world after the Corona crisis and their own place within it. In resulting narratives, any imagined that the future will not look like the past, but did they also imagine that their own moral orientation would change, that is, their stance towards what is a good human life, the norms and values deserving respect, and their moral behavior? To explore what we call “anticipated moral change”, we focused on Generation X participants (born between 1965 and 1980) since they may be sufficiently mature to have a settled moral orientation and feel concerned by the future, yet sufficiently adaptable to envision internal change. A total of 64 letters from 11 countries were examined. We used concepts from narrative ethics and futures studies to investigate whether anticipated moral change was present in the letters, and if so, in what direction. We identified six categories of anticipated moral change, from radical moral innovation to daily behavior change. We analyzed how these changes were depicted (e.g., metaphors, modals, idiomatic expressions, narrated futures), felt, justified or evaluated. Results consider the forward-looking moral self-perception of participants in terms of daily behavior, emotions, thoughts, self-advice, norms, values, ideals, images, and dreams, thus contribudting to a better understanding of prospective moral change in times of health crisis. We further conceptualized two important categories of change: the inclusion of personal change into collective moral change and renewed moral awareness. "

Minimalist Design in the Age of Archive Fever

Minimalist Design in the Age of Archive Fever

Coronavirus Disease-19 Quarantine Experience in the Middle East Region: Emotional Status, Health Patterns, and Self-efficacy Survey

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID)-19 pandemic can provoke anxiety, stress, sadness, and fear; therefore, the timely assessment of individual psychological health status is urgently necessary for society.&#x0D; AIM: The aim of the study was to assess the emotional states (depression, anxiety, and stress), functional health patterns, and self-efficacy among individuals from Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia during the home quarantine experience associated with COVID-19.&#x0D; METHODS: A descriptive and cross-sectional research design was applied to a convenience sample that included 704 participants from Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Data collection was performed in April 2020, using a self-administered questionnaire that consisted of a sociodemographic data sheet, the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS), a functional health pattern survey, and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES).&#x0D; RESULTS: Overall, the sample was found to have mild-level DASS scores, with significantly higher scores identified for Egyptian participants compared with those from other countries. In contrast, participants from Egypt presented significantly reduced GSES scores than those from other countries. Higher mean DASS scores were identified among females, participants who reported inappropriate housing conditions and participants who were unemployed, young, widowed, and school-educated. A high mean DASS score was significantly associated with reported disturbances in sleep, sexuality, and social communication, work schedule changes, the inability to concentrate on positive thoughts, the inability to empty their brains of daily thoughts, and not caring about regular interactions with family. Increased mean GSES scores were significantly associated with males, participants who reported appropriate housing conditions, participants who live alone, are older, married, hold higher education degrees, and who are employed with sufficient incomes, whereas lower mean GSES scores were significantly associated with participants who reported engaging in regular exercise, experiencing disturbances in sexuality and social communications, and reduced appetites. However, a significant inverse correlation was detected between the mean DASS and GSES scores, with significant positive correlations among the DASS.&#x0D; CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 quarantine was associated with a mild level of depression stress and normal anxiety levels, with higher psychological distress and lower self-efficacy identified among participants from Egypt. The emotional status of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic should be explored further, and awareness programs, designed to address the psychological effects of quarantine, should be promoted, through mass media and other means, with consideration of the effects on the general population, COVID-19 cases, individuals with close contacts with COVID-19 cases, and health-care professionals.

A Daily Diary Investigation of the Defective Self Model Among College Students With Recent Self-Injury

The Defective Self Model of self-injury (Hooley, Ho, Slater, & Lockshin, 2010) asserts that individuals choose to self-injure to gratify the desire for self-punishment associated with a self-critical cognitive style. Specifically, self-injury is used to regulate negative self-directed thoughts and emotions and is made accessible via the belief that the individual deserves punishment. This study sought to test primary assumptions of the Defective Self Model using a 2-week daily diary protocol. It was hypothesized that trait self-criticism would predict daily self-injury urge intensity and behaviors directly, as well as indirectly, through daily thoughts about deserving punishment. We also posited that guilt would predict self-injury urge intensity and behaviors beyond sadness, hostility, and fear. Support for primary hypotheses was mixed. Self-criticism did not directly predict self-injury outcomes, but did indirectly predict urge intensity through daily thoughts about punishment. Daily guilt predicted self-injury urge intensity beyond daily sadness, hostility and fear and was the only type of negative affect associated with self-injury behavior. Results are primarily contextualized through a social cognitive lens in which self-injury urge is precipitated by the activation of a self-critical schema in daily life. Alternatively, self-criticism may serve as a gateway to initial self-injury but lack the sensitivity to predict individual self-injury episodes. Treatments designed to reduce self-critical thoughts and bolster self-compassion may decrease self-injury urge intensity, thereby affecting the frequency of self-injury episodes.

Wireless Brain Wave Classification for Alzheimer’s Patients via Efficient Neural Network Computation

Wireless recording and real time classification of brain waves are essential steps towards future wearable devices to assist Alzheimer’s patients in conveying their thoughts. This work is concerned with efficient computation of a dimension-reduced neural network (NN) model on Alzheimer’s patient data recorded by a wireless headset. Due to much fewer sensors in wireless recording than the number of electrodes in a traditional wired cap and shorter attention span of an Alzheimer’s patient than a normal person, the data is much more restrictive than is typical in neural robotics and mind-controlled games. To overcome this challenge, an alternating minimization (AM) method is developed for network training. AM minimizes a nonsmooth and nonconvex objective function one variable at a time while fixing the rest. The sub-problem for each variable is piecewise convex with a finite number of minima. The overall iterative AM method is descending and free of step size (learning parameter) in the standard gradient descent method. The proposed model, trained by the AM method, significantly outperforms the standard NN model trained by the stochastic gradient descent method in classifying four daily thoughts, reaching accuracies around 90% for Alzheimer’s patient. Curved decision boundaries of the proposed model with multiple hidden neurons are found analytically to establish the nonlinear nature of the classification.

Using Video to Teach Early Language Concepts and Symbols to Children With Complex Communication Needs

Young children who cannot use their natural speech to communicate their daily wants, needs, thoughts, and opinions often rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies that frequently use graphic symbols to assemble messages. Early intervention strategies typically focus on visual scene displays (VSDs) to place target messages in familiar contextualized scenes. However, there are currently no bridging strategies to assist children in moving from VSDs to displays incorporating discrete graphic symbols. The use of contextualized video vignettes is a potential bridge. This preliminary study implemented an intervention using video and play activities paired with a direct instruction approach to teach 10 graphic symbols of important early concepts to children with complex communication needs (CCN). A single-subject multiple baseline across subjects research design was used. Results indicated that the intervention was effective in teaching the target concepts.

HEADS4: Social Media Screening in Adolescent Primary Care.

* Abbreviation: HEADSSS — : home life, education, activities, drugs, sexual activity, safety, and suicide and/or depression Social media intertwines itself with the adolescent experience in our country. Friendships, family ties, romantic relationships, academic pursuits, and even dining all have an inseparable electronic component for this generation. Social media is defined as electronic communication, especially applications and Web sites, through which users create and share information, ideas, and personal messages in an online community.1 The most prominent platforms for this activity are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. Research regarding the merge of social media and clinical practice has grown in the last decade, and we’ve now learned that there are clear correlations between patients’ mental health and social media usage. Aberrant and/or excessive social media usage may contribute to the development of mental health disturbance in at-risk teenagers, such as feelings of isolation, depressive symptoms, and anxiety.2,3 In addition, many mentally ill teenagers express their daily thoughts and stressors via social networking platforms. Thus, gathering information on teenagers’ social media activities may provide a more complete picture of their psychosocial risk profile. Social networking media involves active and passive consumption that can directly influence, if not replace, face-to-face contact. Usage patterns among adolescents resemble the progressive, withdrawal-producing, and dose-dependent … Address correspondence to Amy L. McGuire, JD, PhD, School of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Suite 310D, Houston, TX 77401. E-mail: amcguire{at}bcm.edu

Standalone Effects of a Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Using a Mobile Phone App on Psychological Distress and Alcohol Consumption Among Japanese Workers: Pilot Nonrandomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundResearch that investigates standalone effects of a mobile phone-based cognitive behavioral therapy without any human contact for reducing both psychological distress and risky drinking has been advancing; however, the number of studies is still limited. A mobile phone app called Self Record that facilitates cognitive restructuring through self-monitoring of daily thoughts and activities was developed in Japan.ObjectiveThis study conducted a nonrandomized controlled pilot trial of the Self Record app to investigate standalone effects of the intervention on psychological distress and alcohol consumption among Japanese workers. Additionally, we examined moderating effects of negative mood regulation expectancies, which are beliefs about one’s ability to control one’s negative mood.MethodsA quasi-experimental design with a 1-month follow-up was conducted online in Japan from February 2016 to March 2016. A research marketing company recruited participants. The selection criteria were being a Japanese full-time worker (age 20-59 years), experiencing mild to moderate psychological distress, and having some interest in self-record apps. Assignment to group was based on participants’ willingness to use the app in the study. All participants completed outcome measures of negative mood regulation expectancies, positive well-being, general distress, depression, anxiety, and typical/most weekly alcohol consumption.ResultsFrom the recruitment, 15.65% (1083/6921) of participants met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 51.43% (557/1083) enrolled in the study: 54.9% (306/557) in the intervention group and 45.1% (251/557) in the control group. At the 1-month follow-up, 15.3% (85/557) of participants had dropped out. Intention-to-treat analyses revealed that participants in the intervention group reported increased typical drinking (η2=.009) and heavy drinking (η2=.001). Adherence to using the app was low; 64.8% (199/306) of participants in the intervention group discontinued using the app on the first day. Additionally, 65.7% (366/557) of the total sample did not correctly answer the validity checks in the outcome measures (eg, “Please select ‘mildly agree’ for this item”). Therefore, per-protocol analyses were conducted after removing these participants. Results showed that continuing app users (42/127) in the intervention group reported increases in anxiety (η2=.006), typical drinking (η2=.005), and heavy drinking (η2=.007) compared to those in the control group (85/127). Negative mood regulation expectancies moderated the effects of the intervention for general distress (beta=.39).ConclusionsResults were contrary to our hypotheses. Self-recording methods of standalone mobile phone interventions may heighten individuals’ awareness of their pathological thought and drinking behavior, but may be insufficient to decrease them unless combined with a more intense or face-to-face intervention. Limitations include high attrition in this study; measures to improve the response rate are discussed.

A History of the Urban Underground Tunnel (4000 B.C.E. - 1900 C.E.)

Generally hidden from public view, out of our daily thoughts, and literally under our feet, are myriad urban underground tunnels that make our modern megacities possible. From their ancient beginnings in antiquity, as a means of supplying fresh water and draining waste water from cities, underground tunnels evolved into a means of providing high capacity rail mass transit in our most densely populated urban centers. This paper provides a broad overview of the evolution of urban tunnels across a 6000 year time span and includes the specific engineering formulas/computations for the earliest 19th century subways/infrastructure projects based on the Roman vaulted arch tunnel.

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3

The Diaries of Waslaw Nijinsky and the Absence of the Work

This article attempts to think through the possibility of a purely affective text in relation to the book as it reads The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky. The Diary’s autobiographical status is problematized, the first edition having been heavily edited to produce a more conventional literary work; the unexpurgated edition, while restoring the text’s integrity, heightens the sense of the book as the absence of its author. I argue that the interest of Nijinsky’s text lies not in the record of his daily thoughts and activities, as in a diary—an apparently straightforward autobiographical genre—nor in the memoires of a famous individual, i.e. the famous dancer Nijinsky’s recollections of his life and times to be preserved for the future. The interest is rather expressed by Nijinsky’s “de-facement” and his singular writing of «чувство», or “feeling.” Through comparisons with Tolstoy, as well as the texts of philosophers Maurice Blanchot and Brian Masumi, Nijinsky’s writing is shown to involve an experience that is ruinous to both the subject as a form of expression and the form of the work as a unified whole, an experience inscribed in Nijinsky’s trace of “feeling,” which is comparable to Blanchot’s notion of “the absence of the work”.

From Dis-Bodied Discipleship to Embodied Relationality: Experiential Formation in the Life of Prayer

The ContextCan you put me onto a website with daily thoughts for the day? I want to be able to reflect and begin with a prayer while I'm travelling. This question, recently asked of me by a parishioner about to leave for an extended trip overseas, left me thoughtful. It spoke of a phenomenon that is not limited to New Zealand; it is one that we can all recognize as modern and which has become acceptable. Life is fast and demanding. Time is a luxury, and slow living, as in the culture of slow food, is something rather lost to many of us. Indeed, it has become an unquestioned given-even in the life of prayer, and of being formed in that life. Sites for a quick prayer, a paraphrased psalm to carry us through the day have become a kind of spiritual fix, downed like coffee, consumed on the run; the spiritual fife is mediated by gurus in whom we put our trust without the dynamic of embodied living relationality, letting them tell us how to be spiritual, making up prayers for us so we in turn can use them to talk to God. If prayer is about intimate relationship in and with God, then this phenomenon raises questions about why we would be letting others write the script for our souls, and what has caused our own relationship with Christ to become so estranged.In the New Zealand context this is compounded by lingering hangovers of colonialism. Although some of us are part of families that have been here for five or more generations, the idea that we in our own church discover sources from our own southern-centered wisdom heritage is often discounted, particularly in those of us from English roots. The belief that contextual theology can have its own voice here is often betrayed by referencing and legitimizing what is being aspired to in the writings and teachings from alien cultures. In terms of being formed in prayerfulness, of living the life and letting it radicalize us into transforming yeast in society, we still prefer to look to the (usually) offshore academic, to a current venerated guru, to the latest website, to anyone and anywhere, except to the humility of the Christ contextualized in us and around us. The issue that is faced by those of us who teach and nurture the inner life with those who seek it is not so much that others from our own upper echelons of the church and the academies, or from other countries and cultures have nothing to offer. They do, and there is no excuse for ignorance when it comes to faith. The issue has to do with a kind of faith-based elitism that causes us to look beyond what is right in front of us, overlooking the gospel truth that the inner life is one of intimate relationship with Christ. In the formation process this relationship is treated as a source. When in the course of learning participants begin to express experiences that our fathers and mothers in the tradition have discovered before us, then we turn to them. As far as possible we turn to them in their original writings, keeping with a congruent practice of working with sources to learn from them, as opposed to learning about them. When in the context of holy companioning, we are always working with the primary source that is the person present with us. The formational process attempts to work consistently at this level.The Formational ProcessFrom the perspective of the Benedictine solitary life, I find that as a teacher the call to stability in the Rule of Benedict has much to offer and to guide. Benedict does not hold in high regard those who run after other spiritual homes, or live their Christ relationship out in spiritual stopovers; his descriptions of these monks are uncompromising and constitute the entire content of the very first chapter of the Rule. It is very much a spiritual affliction which he knew in his day. We can also recognize the parallels in our own. It is a perilous distraction that turns us to seek and look to anything other than actually staying focused on our Christ relationship. …