Appraisal Of Events Research Articles

Assessing safety in hormonal male contraception: a critical appraisal of adverse events reported in a male contraceptive trial

IntroductionThere is unmet need for male contraceptive options, but a recent injectable combination male contraceptive trial was terminated early due to adverse events (AEs).MethodsWe examined the frequency of reported AEs...

Elevated perceived threat is associated with reduced hippocampal volume in combat veterans

Reduced hippocampal volume is frequently observed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the psychological processes associated with these alterations remain unclear. Given hippocampal involvement in memory and contextual representations of threat, we investigated relationships between retrospectively reported combat exposure, perceived threat, and hippocampal volume in trauma-exposed veterans. T1-weighted anatomical MRI scans were obtained from 56 veterans (4 women, 52 men; 39 with elevated PTSD symptoms, “PTSS” group) and hippocampal volume was estimated using automatic segmentation tools in FreeSurfer. Hippocampal volume was regressed on self-reported perceived threat from the Deployment Risk and Resilience Inventory, and combat exposure from the Combat Exposure Scale. As a secondary analysis, hippocampal volume was regressed on Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) symptoms. In veterans with elevated PTSD symptoms, hippocampal volume was inversely related to perceived threat while deployed while controlling for self-reported combat exposure. Hippocampal volume was also inversely correlated with avoidance/numbing CAPS symptoms. Future research should clarify the temporal milieu of these effects and investigate whether individual differences in hippocampal structure and function contribute to heightened threat appraisal at the time of trauma vs. subsequently elevated appraisals of traumatic events.

Perception of stress in aging: the role of environmental variables and appraisal of the life experiences on psychological stress

BackgroundPsychological stress plays a pivotal role in individual well-being in aging. Environmental and psychological variables influence the stress responses of older adults. This study investigated the impact of some sociodemographic and appraisal of the life experiences on perceived stress. Method300 older adults participated in the study. A measure of psychological stress and a questionnaire assessing the appraisal of life events and beliefs on the experience to be an older person were used. ResultsFemales reported higher levels of stress. Moreover, the participants who lived in a rural area were more stressed than those who lived in an urban area. Beliefs on aging and condition of life affected perceived stress more than physical and objective variables. LimitationThe study has several limitations. The data were self-reported, and the design of the study was cross-sectional. Moreover, a convenience sample was used. ConclusionsThis study showed that appraisal that old persons have of their life influences perceived stress. Well-being in aging is a complex goal and involves socio-emotional adjustment. Findings permit to hypothesize that encouraging independence is the base for enhancing the well-being of the older person. Older people must have the resources they need to deal with the challenges they face, to achieve a sense of purpose and control in their lives. This issues could be critical when planning the organization of services for older adults. These services should not just aim to maintain physical health but should also take into account the psychological needs of older people.

Unwanted Conflict? The Analysis of the Impact of Misperception, Beliefs and Psychology of President Nasser at the Outbreak of the Six Day War

The Six Day War was one of the most defining moments in the history of the Modern Middle East. This paper seeks to add to the existing scholarship on the subject by going beyond the structural explanation. It gives special attention to the role of unit-level variables like perception, personality, and political psychology of decision-makers. As one scholar noted, threats are not perceived in a vacuum, and are, instead, products of complex synthesis of subjective appraisal of events by the decision-makers. The focus will be on the beliefs and perceptions of the most impactful actor in this crisis: Egyptian President Nasser. As will be argued, his decision-making was shaped by his experience with foreign imperialism, a general misconception of super power intentions, an incorrect analogy between two crucial crisis situations with Israel: the February 1960 Rotem Crisis, and the build-up to the June War in 1967, and especially his complicated relations with the US leaders.

The mediating role of shame and fear of compassion on the relationship between major life events and depressive symptoms

An extensive body of research has showed the impact of major life events on depressive symptoms. However, the underlying psychological processes that contribute to this association are still unclear. The present study aims to explore the mediating role of external shame and fears of receiving compassion on the associations of the number of major life events and their appraisals by the individual with depressive symptoms. Participants were 400 Portuguese-speaking adults from the general population (121 men and 279 women) with ages between 18 and 65 years, that completed self-report measures. Correlation analysis showed significant and positive associations between the number of major life events that occurred in the previous year and the positive and negative appraisal of such events, external shame, fears of receiving compassion, and depressive symptoms. Path analysis revealed that external shame and fears of receiving compassion fully mediated the effects of number of life events on depressive symptoms. Furthermore, results showed a direct effect of negative appraisal of major life events on depressive symptoms. This study sheds light on the psychological processes that may underlie the relationship between the cumulative number of major life events and depressive symptoms. Specifically, it suggests that the occurrence of major life events can impact on depressive symptoms when associated with feelings of shame and fears of receiving compassion from others.

The “mask” filtered by the new media: family functioning, perception of risky behaviors and internet addiction in a group of Italian adolescents

Recent literature underlines that, during adolescence, social networks are used to manage friendships. The reflection on the relational dynamics in social networks is based on the construction and shaping identity; online identity becomes not only personal information published on the Internet but also support in defining identity in peer group situations.Internet becomes an integral part of their experiential context, weakening influence of the family context on the development of identity. In this process, the web becomes both architect and theatre of Identity achievement, and it enables the adolescents to choose an impressive visual and comprehensive filter for their lives, contributing to the “Mask” construction or the genesis of a “Pseudo-Self”.The research goal is to investigate the influence of family functioning on the perception of risky behaviors as well as the disfunctional use of the Internet in a group of Italian adolescents, taking part in a research-intervention, carried out within school organizational context. The research involved 110 high school students, aged between 15 and 18 (with an average age of 16.14 years), who, in test and test-re test phases, completed the following instruments: Family Assessment Device, Cognitive Appraisal of Risky Events, and Internet Addiction Test. Data show that the perceived behavioral control determines a higher risk perceptions; an elevated problem-solving capacity and family communication lead to reduce the internet use in students. In the field of identity development, the reflection on the relationship between the image and its representation on the social networks is fundamental, in order to help adolescents to become aware of their choices.

Change and Continuity in Low-Income Working Mothers' Food Practices for Young Children in Response to Life Events.

To understand how changes in low-income mothers' work, home, and childcare environments impact their food practices for young children. The grounded theory, theory-guided, design included two in-depth qualitative interviews (6 to 8months apart) with each of 19 low income, working/student mothers of Head Start children, living in a rural county in Upstate New York. Interviews covered mothers' experiences of employment, school, family, household, and childcare events over one school year and whether and how events changed child food practices. Emergent themes related to mothers' experiences of life events, with attention to influences on child food practices, were open-coded using a constant comparative approach. A life course approach and a transactional model of the stress process informed interpretation. Within the study period, most mothers reported at least one life event, with many experiencing one or more changes in employers, job schedules, residence, household members, or childcare situation. Emergent patterns of adjustment in child food practices linked with life events were shaped by mothers' appraisals of life events, the availability of coping resources, and their adaptations to events, based on temporal, financial, and social resources. The findings support a view of child feeding informed by the transactional model of stress. Instability in work, family, household, and childcare highlight changing contexts for child food practices in daily life. Research and practice should acknowledge the changing nature of the child feeding context and the need for children's caregivers to make adjustments in response to changing resources.

An appraisal of flood events using IMD, CRU, and CCSM4-derived meteorological data sets over the Vaigai river basin, Tamil Nadu (India)

The study of the impact on climate change on water resources provides useful information for long-term trend analyses of important issues such as control of floods, management of drought, agricultural production, etc. This work is an attempt to assess the flood events in Vaigai watershed, Tamil Nadu (India). The Mann–Kendall test was performed to assess the rainfall and temperature trends on data extracted from Climatic Research Unit (CRU) and Community Climate System Model 4 (CCSM4) model for historical and future scenarios. The CCSM4 model was compared with India Meteorological Department and CRU data sets to analyze the performance and consistency of model data among the years of flood, viz., 1993, 2010, and 2015. The CCSM4 model was able to capture, in a few instances, the historical as well as future flood events over the region. The maximum rainfall (738.11 mm) was predicted for 2021 followed by 2038 and 2040, and the lowest rainfall (43.40 mm) was predicted for 2036. Besides, the temperature increased by 1 °C and rainfall was mostly maximum in September corresponding to the south-west monsoon (SWM) season. The predicted increases in rainfall can result in flash floods, which have serious implications on the agricultural sector and water resources of the basin, while the decreasing rainfall during the other seasons helps to reduce the flood severity.

Cervical re-explorations and proxy survival following parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism using Australian administrative data.

Administrative data may have utility in the impartial assessment of surgical outcomes and rare events. We have used a publicly available sample of the Australian pharmaceutical and health service provision (medical benefits scheme) databases to assess outcomes following parathyroidectomy for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHP). A cohort study using linked pharmaceutical and medical benefits schemes data was performed covering the period 1993-2014. Procedure codes identified participants undergoing parathyroidectomy for PHP and subsequent cervical re-exploration surgery (CRX), and the last service date used as a proxy for survival. Time to CRX and survival were modelled using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Demographic data and the era of parathyroid surgery were managed as covariates for Cox regression survival analyses. A total of 2165 persons undergoing parathyroidectomy for PHP were identified. Median follow-up was 5.3 years (range 0.2-22). The annual number of parathyroidectomies for PHP increased gradually; 72 individuals underwent CRX (3.3%). The median time to CRX was 152 days (confidence interval 0-396) in 2000-2004 reducing to 47 days (confidence interval 15-78) for the period 2010-2014 (log-rank P = 0.027). The proportion of persons requiring CRX reduced over time from 6.1% in 1997 to 2.1% in 2012 (r2 = 0.5817, P = 0.023). Overall median survival (24.6 years) was poorer when compared with age matched controls (log-rank P = 0.025) but was not associated with CRX or gender. Administrative data can be used for the assessment of surgical outcomes and may be useful for comparisons of surgical performance, and the appraisal of infrequent events. CRX rates following parathyroidectomy for PHP are improving in Australia.

Cognitive reappraisal capacity mediates the relationship between prefrontal recruitment during reappraisal of anger-eliciting events and paranoia-proneness

Difficulties in emotion regulation, particularly in using adaptive regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal, are a commonly observed correlate of paranoia. While it has been suggested that poor implementation of cognitive reappraisal in dealing with aversive events precedes the onset of subclinical paranoid thinking, there is little empirical research on neural activation patterns during cognitive reappraisal efforts that might indicate vulnerability towards paranoid thinking. Prefrontal EEG alpha asymmetry changes were recorded while n = 57 participants were generating alternative appraisals of anger-eliciting events, and were linked to a behavioral measure of basic cognitive reappraisal capacity and self-reported paranoia proneness (assessed by personality facets of hostility and suspiciousness; Personality Inventory for DSM-5). Mediation analysis revealed that less left-lateralized activation at ventrolateral prefrontal sites during reappraisal efforts predicted a higher degree of paranoia proneness. This relationship was mediated through poorer cognitive reappraisal capacity. Matching previous evidence, findings suggest that inappropriate brain activation during reappraisal efforts impairs individuals’ capacity to come up with effective alternative interpretations for anger-evoking situations, which may accentuate personality features related to increased paranoid thinking. The findings add to our understanding of neurally underpinned impairments in the capacity to generate cognitive reappraisals and their link to maladaptive personality and behavior.

Understanding Emotion Inflexibility in Risk for Affective Disease: Integrating Current Research and Finding a Path Forward.

Emotion-related disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress, eating, substance and some personality disorders) include some of the most common, burdensome, and costly diseases worldwide. Central to many, if not all of these disorders, may be patterns of rigid or inflexible emotion responses. Indeed, theorists point to emotion in-flexibility as a potential cause or maintaining factor in emotion-related diseases. Despite the increasing prominence of emotion inflexibility in theories of affective disease, a comprehensive review of the developing empirical literature has not yet been conducted. Accordingly, this review will examine the three dominant lines of inquiry assessing emotion flexibility. These include: (1) the capacity to use and vary deliberate emotion regulation strategies, (2) the context sensitivity of spontaneous emotional responses, and (3) flexibility in the appraisal of emotional events and experiences. Moreover, current evidence suggests that each of these three lines of research may converge to suggest the interplay of two key biological dimensions in emotion inflexibility, threat sensitivity, and cognitive control, known to be impaired in patients with affective disorders. In short, this developing body of work suggests a path by which future research could explicate and even exploit the ties between emotion inflexibility and affective disease, contributing to the development of improved models of risk, assessment, and intervention, with broad implications for psychological health.

Національно-культурні особливості мовного образу людини в автобіографічних розповідях діалектоносіїв Слобожанщини

The article describes the permament and variable links in the dialect autobiographical narrative, recorded in the Ukrainian East-Slobozhan dialects, and characterizes the national-cultural features of the linguistic image of a person in them. The author notes that the stable links of the autobiographical story include information about the family, school education, further education, work. Variables are parts in which respondents indicate their date and place of birth and their relatives, tell about the historical period, which took place in childhood and youth. Linguistic means of expression of meaning are forms of verbs of the past, separate forms of present and future time, forms of infinitivl, vocabulary on the sign of kinship and virginity, names of residential buildings, domestic animals, dishes. Stories contain an estimated vocabulary, by which respondents submit an appraisal of events, indicate the behavior of fellow villagers, and so on. Sometimes the forms of the celebrated plurality used in relation to the elderly (grandparents, grandmothers, parents) are preserved. Such communication gives expression to the honored connotation. The autobiographical stories of many women are full of nouns with diminutive and caressful suffixes. So the respondents nominate their settlements, dwellings, close people, pets, dishes, utensils. This is one of the ways of expressing thoughts, which is a special communication style, characteristic of older women, when the narrator expresses his particular attitude to the described events, shows that these memories are expensive for her.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAINING PROGRAM FOR INTERVENTION AND RESCUE PERSONNEL

The manner in which individuals deal with stressful situations depends on several variables. Personality characteristics, event circumstances, preparedness of individual, personal appraisal of events, pre-existing organizational and personal stressors are all key factors. Psychological resistance to stress can be the result of spontaneous evolution, or can be developed through special training, through programs that increase the threshold beyond which functional alterations may occur, resulting from dealing with stressful events. Psychological training can be improved by acquiring specific psychological knowledge and strategies and by indirect experiences with emergency situations and scenarios. Procedures such as stress inoculation, emotional management and stress reduction management, cognitive restructuring, relaxation techniques, problem solving and optimization of interpersonal relationships can be learned and used by individuals. Along with training in conditions as close as possible to future reality of interventions, psychological training can contribute both to the success of intervention and rescue operations and to appropriate management of emotions generated by emergency response. The current paper details issues regarding the implementation of a psychological training program for intervention and rescue personnel in toxic/ flammable/ explosive environments, in order to test it and to identify adjustments needed to be made for optimizing it, as well as a series of theoretical fundaments for each of the five modules of the program.

Body compassion safeguards against the impact of major life events on binge eating

Body compassion is a fresh construct that incorporates two multidimensional concepts: body image and self-compassion. Although self-compassion has revealed a protective role against body image and eating-related problems (e.g., binge eating), the study of this specific compassionate competence focused on body image is still largely unexplored. The present study aimed to test two moderation models which hypothesized that body compassion moderates the impacts of (i) the cumulative number and (ii) negative appraisal of major life events on binge eating behaviours, in a sample of 458 women from the Portuguese general population.Results showed that body compassion was negatively associated with major life events and binge eating. Moderation analysis results demonstrated the moderator effect of body compassion on the relationship between major life events (both cumulative number and negative appraisal) and binge eating, accounting for 34% and 33% of the variance of binge eating, respectively. The moderator effect of body compassion was confirmed to low to medium levels of body compassion and, overall, results seem to suggest that, for the same levels of major life events (in number or negative appraisal), women who present higher body compassion present less binge eating symptoms. Although these data are preliminary and need support from a longitudinal design research, current findings appear to be promising by suggesting the relevance of promoting body compassion in prevention and treatment programs for disordered eating attitudes and behaviours.

Influence of trait anxiety, child maltreatment, and adulthood life events on depressive symptoms.

BackgroundVarious personality traits mediate the association between childhood stress and depressive symptoms in adulthood. The aim of this study was to clarify the indirect effects of the experience of child maltreatment on depressive symptoms and appraisal of life events in adulthood through trait anxiety.Subjects and methodsA total of 404 participants who were volunteer subjects from the community were studied using the following self-administered questionnaire surveys: Patient Health Questionnaire-9, which measures depressive symptoms; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y, which measures trait anxiety; the Child Abuse and Trauma Scale, which measures child maltreatment; and Life Experiences Survey, which measures negative and positive appraisal of adulthood life events.ResultsStructural equation modeling demonstrated that the experience of child maltreatment increased depressive symptoms in adulthood as well as the negative appraisal of life events in adulthood through an increase in trait anxiety. Furthermore, trait anxiety affected depressive symptoms in adulthood through its influence on the negative appraisal of adulthood life events. The following indirect effect was also significant: the experience of child maltreatment increased the negative appraisal of adulthood life events via trait anxiety and subsequently influenced adult depressive symptoms.LimitationsThe subjects of this study are volunteer subjects from the community including healthy people, and hence the results may not be generalizable to major depressive patients. Recall bias should be considered when interpreting the results. Because this study is a cross-sectional study, the causality between the experience of child maltreatment and depression is not clear.ConclusionThis study suggests that trait anxiety may play a mediating role in the influence of the experience of child maltreatment on depressive symptoms in adulthood and negative appraisal of adulthood life events.

El papel de la valoración de los sucesos vitales estresantes en el Trastorno Depresivo Mayor

IntroductionMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is a multifactorial disease in which, due to the interaction of several variables, the vulnerability of suffering from it increases. Several models, such as the diathesis–stress model, have explained these interactions. However, experiencing stressful events does not always lead to the development of MDD, and the attribution and appraisal of stressful events contributing to further development of depression symptoms has been considered as a possible explanation. ObjectiveTo determinate the association and the predictive power of the frequency and appraisal of stressful life events to predict MDD symptomatology. MethodsCase-control study with 120 psychiatric patients and 120 people from the general population. A structured clinical interview and the life events questionnaire (Sandín and Chorcot) were used to evaluate the sample. The data were analysed with non-parametric tests and binary logistic regression. ResultsThe psychiatric patients reported significantly higher levels of negative affect, frequency of stressful life events, perceived stress, negative appraisal of the situation and lack of perceived control. The binary logistic regression model indicated that poor perception of control of the stressful event is the most determining factor, followed by negative evaluation of the situation. ConclusionsThe attributions that are made regarding a stressful event are variables that predict MDD, specifically the assessment of the perceived control over the situation. These results concur with the aetiological models of MDD, such as the cognitive diathesis–stress model.

GC-MS metabolomics reveals disturbed metabolic pathways in primary mouse hepatocytes exposed to subtoxic levels of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) is a well-known hepatotoxic drug. Although its toxicity has been thoroughly studied at high concentrations, there is still insufficient knowledge on possible alterations of cell function at subtoxic concentrations, which are in fact more representative concentrations of intoxication scenarios. In this study, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolomics approach was used to investigate the metabolic changes in primary mouse hepatocytes (PMH) exposed to two subtoxic concentrations of MDMA (LC01 and LC10) for 24h. Metabolomic profiling of both intracellular metabolites and volatile metabolites in the extracellular medium of PMH was performed. Multivariate analysis showed that the metabolic pattern of cells exposed to MDMA discriminates from the controls in a concentration-dependent manner. Exposure to LC10 MDMA induces a significant increase in some intracellular metabolites, including oleic acid and palmitic acid, and a decrease in glutamate, aspartate, 5-oxoproline, fumarate, malate, phosphoric acid, α-ketoglutarate and citrate. Extracellular metabolites such as acetophenone, formaldehyde, pivalic acid, glyoxal and 2-butanone were found significantly increased after exposure to MDMA, compared to controls, whereas 4-methylheptane, 2,4-dimethyl-1-heptene, nonanal, among others, were found significantly decreased. The panel of discriminatory metabolites is mainly involved in tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, fatty acid metabolism, glutamate metabolism, antioxidant defenses and possibly changes in the liver enzyme machinery. Overall, these results highlight the potential of the intra- and extracellular metabolome to study alterations triggered by subtoxic concentrations of MDMA in hepatic cell functions, which represents a more realistic appraisal of early toxicity events posed by exposure to this drug. In addition, these results also revealed some metabolites that may be used as potential biomarkers indicative of early events in the hepatotoxicity induced by MDMA.

The Emotion Process: Event Appraisal and Component Differentiation.

Much emotion research has focused on the end result of the emotion process, categorical emotions, as reported by the protagonist or diagnosed by the researcher, with the aim of differentiating these discrete states. In contrast, this review concentrates on the emotion process itself by examining how ( a) elicitation, or the appraisal of events, leads to ( b) differentiation, in particular, action tendencies accompanied by physiological responses and manifested in facial, vocal, and gestural expressions, before ( c) conscious representation or experience of these changes (feeling) and ( d) categorizing and labeling these changes according to the semantic profiles of emotion words. The review focuses on empirical, particularly experimental, studies from emotion research and neighboring domains that contribute to a better understanding of the unfolding emotion process and the underlying mechanisms, including the interactions among emotion components.

The relationship between moral injury appraisals, trauma exposure, and mental health in refugees.

Refugees are often exposed to multiple traumatic experiences, leading to elevated rates of psychological disorders. There is emerging evidence that appraisals of traumatic events as violating deeply held moral beliefs and frameworks (i.e., moral injury) impact negatively on refugee mental health. Despite this, no research has systematically investigated moral injury appraisals in refugees. Participants were 222 refugees from diverse backgrounds who had recently resettled in Australia. They completed measures of mental health in Arabic, Farsi, Tamil, or English through an online survey. This study first investigated the factor structure of the Moral Injury Appraisals Scale (MIAS), and then examined the relationship between the moral injury factors and key predictor (age, gender, trauma exposure) and outcome (Posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] symptom clusters, anger, and depression) variables. Confirmatory factor analyses of the MIAS supported a two-factor model, comprising a Moral Injury-Other (MI-Other) factor (i.e., interpreting the violation as being enacted by others) and a Moral Injury-Self (MI-Self) factor (i.e., interpreting the violation as being enacted by oneself). Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that both factors were predicted by higher trauma exposure, and both predicted more severe anger and depression. Notably, while MI-Other was associated with more severe PTSD, MI-Self was associated with lower levels of intrusions. These results suggest that there may be subtypes of moral injury appraisals that are associated with different mental health outcomes. These findings have potential implications for designing treatments that address the psychological impact of the refugee experience.

Creative Thinking in an Emotional Context: Specific Relevance of Executive Control of Emotion-Laden Representations in the Inventiveness in Generating Alternative Appraisals of Negative Events

Although divergent thinking ability in different domains may largely rely on the same basic executive functions, domain-specific functions may also be important, in particular when it comes to more real-life creativity demands. This study investigated if functional executive control of emotion-laden representations may be specifically relevant in cognitive reappraisal, which implies being creative in an affective context. In a sample of 88 healthy individuals, the relation between the participants’ inventiveness in generating positive reappraisals of adverse events (Reappraisal Inventiveness Test) and in generating novel ideas without emotional component (conventional divergent thinking test) to their executive functioning in tasks without (Mittenecker Pointing Test) and with emotional contribution (humor processing task) was studied. In line with hybrid models of creative thinking, poorer basic inhibition skills were found to be associated with poorer fluency performance in both divergent thinking tasks. Relations applied more specifically to reappraisal inventiveness when it came to executive processes with a more prominent emotional component. Creative performance in both tasks may have been hampered by time limits. The results support the notion that, in addition to basic executive functioning, more specific cognitive control functions are implicated in more real-life creative performance, according to related domain-specific demands.