Feeling Bad Research Articles

African American Adolescent Males Living With Obesity

The objective was to explore, through the concepts of self-perception and meaning, the lived experience of obesity in African American males between the ages of 13-17years. Hermeneutic phenomenological design was used to guide the study. Thirteen inner-city African American males were enrolled. All participants had a documented body mass index of >95th percentile and were actively receiving treatment at a medical obesity clinic. Qualitative data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Self-perception and meaning are interrelated and important factors in understanding obesity uniquely from the adolescents view. If individuals do not understand that they are obese then they are unable to assign meaning to obesity within their life. Four main themes were discovered. The main themes were as follows: (1) It Don't Mean Nuthin'; (2) It's Just Me, Who I Am; (3) Something Bad Might Happen; and (4) I'm Confused and I Feel Bad. Patterns emerged that will allow health care workers to engage adolescents on a personal level, thereby increasing the potential for treatment outcomes consistent with weight management clinic goals. To realize successful outcomes for these adolescents, health care providers must incorporate the adolescents' understanding, knowledge, and values related to obesity in treatment planning.

Doing What Feels Good (and Avoiding What Feels Bad)—a Growing Recognition of the Influence of Affect on Exercise Behavior: a Comment on Williams et al.

Doing What Feels Good (and Avoiding What Feels Bad)—a Growing Recognition of the Influence of Affect on Exercise Behavior: a Comment on Williams et al.

Choosing the Right Words: How Language Choice Impacts Comprehension and Results

When we need to discuss a less-than-optimal situation with someone, we often struggle for the right words to effectively communicate what we need to say without causing resentment. Delivering criticism, no matter how constructive, is a difficult task. We can accomplish our mission in a more positive manner by phrasing our disapproval in the form of a possibility for the person, then enrolling him in that possibility. Instead of the individual leaving the discussion feeling bad, having just been told to change “or else,” we’ve now given him a possibility to fulfill.

Bobby Rush: “Blues Singer–Plus”

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bobby Rush's musical career has taken him from Homer, Louisiana, to Arkansas, Chicago, and to his current home in Jackson, Mississippi, where he has lived since early 1980s. His first instrument was a one-strand diddley bow made from a broom wire. His father Emmit Ellis St. was a minister who played guitar and harmonica in his church and encouraged his son's interest in music. Rush (born Emmit Ellis Jr.) first that [he] really loved as a child while listening to Nashville's 50,000-watt radio station WLAC and its disc jockey Bill Alien, who hosted a late-night blues program heard throughout South. Allen promoted records by Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Little Richard, and John Lee Hooker with his jive commercials. On air for forty-five years, Alien inspired a love for blues in generations of his black and white southern listeners. The consummate entertainer, Rush frequently changes clothes between songs, and he dances and interacts with his audience during his performance. He reaches out to women in his audience and tries to put them in my arm, and kind of give them upper hand. He also proudly works Chitlin' Circuit of black clubs in small Mississippi Delta towns like Tchula. Describing his music as a cross range of sound, Rush draws his inspiration from diverse performers, including John Lee Hooker, Prince, Tony Joe White, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, and Muddy Waters. Together they give him what he calls the fusion. I think that's why I draw white and black. Bobby Rush in his own words ... When I first heard blues, I was just a young boy who listened to a record radio station in Nashville, Tennessee. Bill Alien. Hoss Man was a guy who I knew from when I was born in a little place called Homer, Louisiana, who really played blues on radio. When I first heard it as a young kid, that's kind of when I recognized that I really loved blues. I guess I was already loving it, but I just recognized what I was listening to and what I was about. I'm just talking about a seven, eight-year-old kid. There may have been a few times that I heard blues not recalling what station that I was listening to, but I'm thinking at that time about only radio station that was playing blues was WLAC, which was a station out of Nashville. There was another station out of Memphis that at one time was hosted by B.B. King: WDIA. But other than two of them, where I was coming from there was no other way to get blues--other than to sing them myself or hear somebody in my neighborhood singing them. I liked what I heard. In fact, if you talk about black music, blues was only thing I heard a black man or woman singing. So I fell in hue and in love with kind of thing that I could relate to. I could relate to what I knew. That was my first establishing myself, being a blues man. My personally defining blues: to me, it doesn't have to be things that are bad or good. The blues go in both directions. You can be happy about some things and have blues, but it's a temporary happiness. When a guy feels bad, he comes to club. He's down. I try to sing song so I can lift them up, entertain them, make them forget about their problems. It's just a temporary thing that makes you forget about your problems. For me to define what is blues and what's not blues--I think it's very, very hard to say you don't have blues when you often have problems, whether you've got money, whether you're living in a rich neighborhood--or no matter where you live. There's a time you feel bad, and that's blues. It could be president of United States. He has blues because things are not going right, just as they're set out to go. He has blues. It's hard times. The ends not meeting, things just not going right. That's blues to me. …

Bring it On! How Negotiators Strategically Choose to Feel Worse

Though negotiation scholars have generally recommended that negotiators suppress their expressions of emotion, extant research has pointed to the expression of emotions as a powerful strategy in negotiations. For example, Ho and Andrade (2010) suggest that people tend to use the expression of emotions to their advantage in one-shot games and are fully aware of their strategies. Also, expressions of anger and disappointment have been found to inspire more concessions from one’s counterpart than expressions of happiness (Van Kleef, De Dreu, & Manstead, 2004). In a series of experimental studies, we explore the possibility that the actual experience, not just the expression, of negative emotions may also be common, strategic, and beneficial to negotiators.

Going beyond psychopathology-positive emotions and psychological resilience

Byline: G. Swaminath, B. Ravi Shankar Rao 'It was quite sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it, and I did not try to account for it or to find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt "I am going to die" and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve the problem myself, there and then. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: "'Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies." And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff as though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the enquiry: I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the word "I" nor any other word could be uttered. "Well then, " I said to myself, "this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body 'I'? It is silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the 'I' within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit."[sup] [1] True Grit The yogic path of self-enquiry and the enlightenment process of the 17-year-old Ramana (later Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai), took place in a flash and he emerged a jnana yogi , of the highest order, with a large following, many of whom visit his ashram for meditation and peace. Carl Jung spoke highly of Ramana's realisation, and also of its being typically Indian, with its emphasis on the identification of the Self with God.[sup] [1] Such an experience would be customary for many of our anxious patients. The intense, sudden violent fear of death, along with anticipatory anxiety of recurrence and avoidance, drives many to seek emergency solace at hospitals, as well as long-term management using prescription drugs which reduces these symptoms. The extraordinary psychological resilience of Ramana in being able to overcome this intense fear through self-observation, sublimation and asceticism to emerge a superior being is legendary as well as noteworthy. Affective style, one of the most salient characteristics of emotion, is the extraordinary heterogeneity in how different individuals respond to the same emotionally provocative challenge.[sup] [2] The focus of mental healthcare has too often been on understanding and alleviating negative emotional states, such as anxiety, depression, abuse, prejudice and disharmony among others. Focus was lacking on how a majority of people manage to live lives of dignity and purpose, despite all difficulties, and this is now being addressed.[sup] [3] 'Positive psychology' is the study of ordinary human strengths and virtues.[sup] [3] It asks, "What is the nature of the effectively functioning human being, who successfully applies evolved adaptations and learned skills?".[sup] [3] Positive psychology recognizes that persons who carry even the weightiest psychological burdens, can care about much more in their lives, than just the relief of their suffering.[sup] [4] Troubled persons often want more satisfaction, contentment, and joy, not just less sadness and worry. They want to build their strengths, not just correct their weaknesses, or removal of their suffering.[sup] [4] They want lives imbued with meaning and purpose.[sup] [4] The fostering of positive emotion and the building of character may help-both directly and indirectly-to alleviate suffering and to undo its root causes. …

Mythbusting Publishing: Questioning the ‘Runaway Popularity’ of Published Biography and Other Life Writing

Mythbusting Publishing: Questioning the ‘Runaway Popularity’ of Published Biography and Other Life Writing

Looks Good But Feels Bad: Factors That Contribute to Poor Results After Total Knee Arthroplasty

The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient factors that might contribute to a poor result after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Seventy-one knees (6.9%) of 1024 primary TKAs were identified at 1 year follow-up as having a poor result because of either stiffness or pain. Radiographs demonstrated well-fixed and aligned implants. This group was compared with a matched control group of 148nonpainful or stiff TKAs, with similar range of motion preoperatively. Logistic regression analysis was performed to compare age, sex, body mass index, comorbidities, previous surgeries, preoperative narcotic use, tobacco or alcohol use, work status, insurance status, and any history of depression. Factors that were significantly associated with a stiff or painful outcome included female sex, higher body mass index, previous knee surgery, patients on disability, diabetes mellitus, pulmonary disease, and depression.

Can’t Get Enough of That Dopamine

Can’t Get Enough of That Dopamine

Looks Good but Feels Bad: Factors That Contribute to Poor Results After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Looks Good but Feels Bad: Factors That Contribute to Poor Results After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Disease Risk Is Elevated Among People Who Feel Bad About Having Sex

Disease Risk Is Elevated Among People Who Feel Bad About Having Sex

Think “Thin” and Feel Bad: The Role of Appearance Schema Activation, Attention Level, and Thin–Ideal Internalization for Young Women’s Responses to Ultra–Thin Media Ideals

Abstract This study extends previous demonstrations that thin media models have a negative impact on young women’s body image by examining howthis effect occurs. In addition to thin–ideal internalization, shown to moderate this impact (Dittmar & Howard, 2004; Halliwell & Dittmar, 2004a), it investigates two further factors not previously explored together: first, the level of attention at which women process thin images and, second, appearance schema activation as an underlying process that mediates the exposure–anxiety link. Seventy-five women were exposed to either neutral advertisements (no models) or to thin models, at either low or high attention, manipulated by exposure time (10 s vs. 150 ms) and focus instructions. Thin models increase weight–related anxiety to the extent that women internalize the thin ideal, but anxiety is heightened further under conditions of high attention. These two effects are independent, and only the first is mediated fully by appearance schema activation. Research and int...

Ethics Concerns Draw Many Questions, Some Answers

On any problème du jour, and these days it’s ethics, a person must go through some visible motion to convince all interested parties that “something” is being done. The process has a therapeutic effect: Frustrations get vented (often anonymously), the judgments of “experts” gain support, and one gets to imagine that the “bad guy” at least feels bad; all these outcomes are quite uplifting. Ethics is always in plentiful supply as long as problems happen elsewhere. Or, as Otto von Bismarck put it: “Principles are held high as long as one is not held to them.”After people’s nominal attention to ethics has been exhausted, will there have been that grand catharsis, with crooks arrested and abused students redeemed? Stop dreaming: In our society the ultimate enforcement is through the legal system, where the only winners are the lawyers. Put differently, the cost/benefit ratio of following through on most perceived injustices to the satisfaction of the presumably injured simply doesn’t warrant substantive action. A student’s gripe against his professor has very different opportunity costs compared with salvaging a university’s reputation.In science, those who fake data a priori set their own trap and will be caught, aside from the sad fact that they never understood the ultimate privilege of scientific pursuit. Those folks are taken care of automatically and inevitably. The rest constitute a social problem, not a scientific one, and I’d like to offer some specific actionable observations for younger folks out there: Science is done by people and therefore is not exempt from social problems. Start by genuinely coming to grips with that. It’s a fundamental fact, not an aberration. Inquire about your new collaborators and your boss carefully, as you would about salary and benefits. If an institution has a bad reputation, stay away. Money won’t make up for it. If you’ve lost all confidence in your chain of command, consider having worked there a bad investment, pull up stakes, and move on. Don’t play hero and destroy yourself; better yourself. Change your job, change your boss, change your institution, and choose better next time. No white knight will come riding to your rescue, ethics guidelines in hand, and behead the guilty. So stop waiting for one.Once you have folks working for you, step up and lead by example. You’ll find it’s easier to demand standards from others. Once you lead, you get to hear both sides of the argument and do something about the issues raised, even if you don’t agree with the view of the complainer. Be explicitly generous with giving credit, and conscientiously short-change yourself. People will see that you’re not primarily interested in yourself, and you will earn their trust. It’s one of those magic hard-earned ingredients of leadership. I’ve had the huge privilege of working for several men who lived that way.If a sleazeball does get caught—and it happens!—relish the sight and let him know you do. Consider his demise a strength of your organization, not a weakness of it. Besides, leaving someone dangling at the gallows for all to see has been an effective deterrent for thousands of years. After all the ethics discussion has died down, some people will continue to cover their tracks and maybe add another layer of obfuscation; and it will work, too. Some will continue to see the inside but hang on; who knows why? Only a few who have wavered already might actually change—for better or worse. By far the largest group will continue to do good work with decent colleagues and bosses, as they always have. To close with a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole town will be clean.”© 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Regulatory Fit: An Experience that Creates Value

Where does value come from? This paper presents a new answer to this classic question. When an individual's goal orientation is sustained by the manner in which the goal pursuit activity is carried out, the individual experiences regulatory fit, which makes the individual “feel right” about what they are doing (Higgins 2000). This is a different type of value experience than the pleasure and pain experiences associated with positive and negative outcomes. Research is described which tested two implications of the “feel right” fit experience being a distinct type of value experience: (a) that the regulatory fit experience contributes to evaluative experiences, such as increasing the intensity of feeling good or feeling bad about prospective choices, independent of the contribution of outcome experiences (i.e., pleasure from an anticipated positive outcome and pain from an anticipated negative outcome); and (b) that the “feel right” fit experience can transfer to a subsequent outcome evaluation, so that the monetary value of the same choice outcome can increase (following fit) or decrease (following non-fit). The survival advantage of valuing the ways of doing things that sustain goal orientations is discussed.

Ramblin' man: the life and times of Woody Guthrie

Ed Cray creates a haunting portrait of the larger-than-life folk singer who influenced Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and popular music itself, and who captured the spirit of his times in his enduring songs: This Land is Your Land, Going down this road feeling bad, and many more.

‘Nothing that feels bad is ever the last step:’ the role of positive emotions in experiential work with difficult emotional experiences

AbstractThe goal of this paper is to show (i) how the moment‐to‐moment tracking and processing of emotionto completion—in an emotionally engaged patient–therapist dyad where the individual feels safe and known—constitutes a powerful mechanism of therapeutic transformation, and (ii) how positive emotions are sensitive affective markers of that transformational process. Evidence fromtransformational studiesis used to elaborate the vital role of positive emotions in the process of change in general, and, more specifically, in the course of therapeutic work with painful and overwhelming emotional experience. It is proposed that these emergent positive emotions are affective markers which signal the operation of healing transformational processes in psychotherapy. Several types of positive emotion that arise spontaneously during moment‐to‐moment experiential therapeutic work will be described and their role as markers of different transformational processes will be elucidated. The paper begins with examples of clinical work with emotion in AEDP (Accelerated Experiential–Dynamic Psychotherapy), an emotion‐focused and attachment‐based model of therapy that places the dyadic regulation of affect at the centre of both theory and practice. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Total knee arthroplasty: looks good, feels bad

Abstract Total knee arthroplasty has a high success rate but approximately 4%–5% of patients have fair to poor results and 1% of patients are extremely unhappy. With a complete work-up a diagnosis can usually be made to explain the patient's symptoms and lead to an appropriate solution. In that small percentage of cases (1%) with unexplained pain or dysfunction, surgical intervention should be avoided.

Listening with the creative ear.

Herein I explore creativity as a prime force in the evolution of consciousness, a fundamental motivating energy related to a need to maintain or regain spontaneity and freedom, and having rudimentary existence from the beginning of life. It has its own developmental progression, throughout life makes its demands on the mind, is subject to dissociation and repression, and can be defended against as well as used defensively. A force that operates through symbolization, it increasingly distinguishes man from animals and operates to aesthetically express ineffable and evolving states of truth. This formulation is in some way consistent with Bion's (1965, 1970) belief that the most basic drive was "the truth instinct" aimed at achieving a resonance with "0" (an ultimate and transcendent truth). The truth drive links the creative and spiritual. Both involve a surrendering to truths and intelligence beyond the conscious self. This dynamic and creative "consciousness"—more often referred to as the "unconscious" and attributed negative qualities (the repressed and id) in analytic theory—is inherent in existence, and at all times accessible by one's creative and imaginative capacities. The capacity to value, access without excess anxiety, and be free enough to be "driven" by the truth instinct involves nurturance by parenting figures whose own achievement of unconditional love and evolved consciousness allows the child the necessary freedom to explore his full range of feelings or thoughts without being shamed or terrorized into feeling bad, wrong, or afraid of destroying another person. This idea differs from Freud's, who believed that the libidinal and aggressive drives were central to both psychic and physical survival and continuous with our evolution from animals. The former involves an imaginative striving to bring into being what is new, and in so doing may in fact put one's psychic and physical survival in jeopardy. As man evolves into higher states of consciousness, I believe the balance shifts from survival as a primary motivating force to creative processes emerging as a more identifying characteristic of the self. This emergence changes one's relation to the libidinal, aggressive, and interpersonal drives and to what has been considered in analytic thought the primary danger situations-loss of love, object loss, castration anxiety, and superego anxiety. With the evolution of the creative as more central to one's identity, the person wants and needs to be known and understood not just in terms of his * "determined" role as a child of particular parents or a product of a particular culture or in terms of how he obtains satisfaction, comfort, or prestige in relation to his biological determinates, physical and instinctual, but for his

Cyberostracism: Effects of being ignored over the Internet.

Abstract Ostracism is such a widely used and powerful tactic that the authors tested whether people would be affected by it even under remote and artificial circumstances. In Study 1, 1,486 participants from 62 countries accessed the authors' on-line experiment on the Internet. They were asked to use mental visualization while playing a virtual tossing game with two others (who were actually computer generated and controlled). Despite the minimal nature of their experience, the more participants were ostracized, the more they reported feeling bad, having less control, and losing a sense of belonging. In Study 2, ostracized participants were more likely to conform on a subsequent task. The results are discussed in terms of supporting K. D. Williams's (1997) need threat theory of ostracism.

The Role of Emotion in Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Binge Eating Disorder: When Things Have to Feel Worse Before They Get Better

The goal of this study was to investigate the client's emotional experience in group cognitive-behavioral therapy for binge eating disorder (BED). Sixty-five individuals meeting the DSM-IV criteria for BED completed a 12-week manualized treatment conducted by experienced therapists. As predicted, the client's emotional experience was characterized by both positive and negative emotions. Also as expected, the experience of negative emotions was most prevalent in the middle phase of therapy. The client's emotional experience also discriminated between treatment responders and nonresponders. As predicted, the results suggest that the prevalence of positive feelings (e.g., hope, relief) and perception of positive group climates (e.g., stimulating, affectionate) was related to client change. The findings also suggest that the lack of negative feelings (e.g., worried, upset) in the beginning of treatment and, paradoxically, the perception of negative group climates (e.g., depressed, discouraged, inhibited, tens...