Health Psychology Research Research Articles

Can autoethnography enhance research in health psychology?

While autoethnography can offer unique insights into subjective experiences, some researchers view it as lacking generalizability and scientific rigor. This essay argues that autoethnography is an epistemologically defensible method from a theoretical standpoint. Ontologically, it is valuable and capable of enriching health psychological research by providing accounts of palliative and curative treatments and illness experiences for patients, carers, and practitioners that may not be fully accessible by other means.

Addressing Power Relations in Health Psychology Research: EHPS 2023 Roundtable Report

Addressing Power Relations in Health Psychology Research: EHPS 2023 Roundtable Report

Demystifying Open Science in health psychology and behavioral medicine: a practical guide to Registered Reports and Data Notes

ABSTRACT Open Science practices are integral to increasing transparency, reproducibility, and accessibility of research in health psychology and behavioral medicine. Drives to facilitate Open Science practices are becoming increasingly evident in journal editorial policies, including the establishment of new paper formats such as Registered Reports and Data Notes. This paper provides: (i) an overview of the current state of Open Science policies within health psychology and behavioral medicine, (ii) a call for submissions to an Article Collection of Registered Reports and Data Notes as new paper formats within the journal of Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine, (iii) an overview of Registered Reports and Data Notes, and (iv) practical considerations for authors and reviewers of Registered Reports and Data Notes.

From Pixels to Palate: Communication around #vegan on Instagram and its relation with eating intentions

Social media is an increasingly important yet understudied context for eating behaviors in general and veganism in particular. In four studies, we first explored and described the information environment the platform Instagram presents related to veganism. Second, we examined how engaging with this environment is associated with offline eating intentions via psychological mechanisms. We scraped datasets of Instagram posts tagged with #vegan (44,316 posts in total) and employed network analysis with their hashtags (Study 1), as well as clustering with images and sentiment analysis with texts (Study 2). Studies 3 (N = 117) and 4 (N = 251) used online surveys to investigate associations between different forms of engaging with social media content, psychological constructs, and offline eating intentions. Posts about veganism were frequently related to food, health and fitness, cosmetics, and photography. Images most often depicted food (34.7%), non-food products (30.4%), people (7.9%), and animals (2.0%). The sentiment of most posts was positive. Being exposed to Instagram content about veganism was more strongly and consistently associated with eating intentions than active forms of engagement. Attitude and self-identity emerged as the most relevant mechanisms for these effects. Food is the most prominent yet not sole topic among posts about veganism on Instagram, and hashtags used in this context partially relate to motives for following a vegan diet. Exposure to this information environment might influence offline eating decisions via psychological mechanisms. With growing usage and its potential influence, social media should receive increasing attention in (health) psychological research and practice.

Validierung eines Fragebogeninstrumentes zur Erfassung des Erlebens von Natur: Die Experience of Nature Scale

Zusammenfassung Hintergrund: In den letzten Jahren ist insbesondere die Natur als Ressource in das Interesse der gesundheitspsychologischen Forschung gerückt. In Ergänzung zum etablierten Konzept der Naturzuwendung als Haltung wurde ein For­schungsinstrument zum Naturerleben entwickelt, welches das subjektive, teilweise intentionale Erleben von Natur unter unterschiedlichen Aspekten beleuchtet. Dazu gehören insbesondere Natur als Erlebensraum, um sich von der Alltagsbelastung distanzieren zu können, um Auszeiten durch Ruhe und Stille finden zu können, um emotionale Ausgeglichenheit zu erlangen, Natur als Ort der Faszination und des Staunens, Naturerleben als Basis für einen verantwortlichen Umgang mit der Natur. Das Manuskript zeigt die Ergebnisse der Validierung des neu entwickelten Fragebogeninstrumentes zum Naturerleben. Methoden: Eine anonyme Online-Querschnittsstudie unter 441 Teilnehmenden wurde mit standardisierten Fragebogeninstrumenten zur Validie­rung der Experience of Nature Scale (ENS) mittels explorativer Faktoren- (Hauptkomponentenanalyse mit Varimax-Rotation) und Reliabilitätsanalysen (Cronbachs α) durchgeführt. Ergebnisse: Die explorative Faktorenanalyse der Naturerlebens-Skala mit 11 Items ergab drei Hauptfaktoren mit guter interner Kongruenz, die 71% der Varianz erklären: (1) Alltagsdistanzierung/Entspannung (Cronbachs α = 0,87), (2) Faszination Natur/Staunen (Cronbachs α = 0,82) und (3) Verantwortungsempfinden für Natur (Cronbachs α = 0,85). Diese Faktoren korrelierten stark mit der Naturverbundenheit (NR-6) und moderat bis stark mit Ehrfurcht/Dankbarkeit (GrAw-7) im Sinne der Konvergenzvalidität, aber nur marginal bis schwach mit psychologischem Wohlbefinden (WHO-5). Schlussfolgerungen: Die ENS zur Erfassung des affektiven Erlebens von Natur hat gute psychometrische Qua­litätsindizes und kann in künftigen Studien zur Bedeutung dieses Erlebens von Natur zum Beispiel als Prädiktor- oder Prozessvariable eingesetzt werden.

Risks Associated with Prescribing Zolpidem: A Case Report and Literature Review

Introduction Zolpidem is a nonbenzodiazepine, which acts as a sedative- hypnotic that binds to GABA (A) receptors at the same location as benzodiazepines and increases GABA effects in the central nervous system (Kovacic et al. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity 2009, 2(1), 52–57). Literature shows that behavioral changes including amnesia, hallucinations, and other neurocognitive effects are some of the known side effects (Edinoff et al. Health psychology research 2021, 9(1), 24927). We present a case about Ms. A, a female in her sixties with a history of major depressive disorder with psychotic symptoms who was brought into the hospital by the EMS under police custody after stabbing her granddaughter with a knife. During the evaluation she was dissociating with impaired memory of the circumstances of her presentation. Collateral information about Ms. A revealed that she had no history of being violent, or any history of psychoactive substance use. Ms. A’s home psychiatric medications consisted of Sertraline 100mg, Bupropion 150 mg, Zolpidem 5mg.ObjectivesTo better understand the potential risks with prescribing zolpidem in patient with insomnia.MethodsIn depth literature review about zolpidem. In addition, observation of Ms. A in the emergency with a full medical workup including but not limited to urine drug screen, brain imaging, lumbar puncture, etc.Results Ms.A medical workup was positive for a urinalysis revealing asymptomatic bacteriuria and she was treated empirically with cefdinir. Her medication regimen consisted of Bupropion 150 mg and Sertraline 100m, both daily. Zolpidem was discontinued and changed to Clonazepam 0.5mg for insomnia. She was also started on Olanzapine 5mg in the AM and 10mg in the PM. Her mental status was noted to have improved after discontinuation of Zolpidem. Patient received one dose in the hospital but after two days since discontinuation her mental status improved. Upon literature review previous reports have been published citing cases of patients on Zolpidem physically acting out while sleeping in a parasomnia-like behavior, with no recollection of memories upon awakening. (Inagaki et al. Primary care companion to the Journal of clinical psychiatry 2010, 12(6)). There are case reports of Zolpidem associated homicide (Paradis et al.The primary care companion for CNS disorders 2012, 14(4).Conclusions One limitation of our study is the patient was noted to have a sudden change in behavior with altered mental status which may be attributed to an underlying asymptomatic bacteriuria. It should be noted that this may have been an incidental finding. This does not exclude the possibility of Zolpidem as the primary cause of the change of her altered mental status or further exacerbating the change in her mental status. Though Zolpidem can be therapeutic and safe, we as clinicians have to be aware of the potential side effects of Zolpidem when prescribing medications.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Stability and variation of brain-behavior correlation patterns across measures of social support

Abstract The social environment has a critical influence on human development, cognition, and health. Research in health psychology and social neuroscience indicate an urgent need to understand how social relationships are associated with brain function and organization. To address this, we apply multilayer modeling and modularity maximization—both established tools in network neuroscience—to jointly cluster patterns of brain-behavior associations for seven social support measures. By using network approaches to map and analyze the connectivity between all pairs of brain regions simultaneously, we can clarify how relationships between brain regions (e.g. connectivity) change as a function of social relationships. This multilayer approach enables direct comparison of brain-behavior associations across social contexts for all brain regions and builds on both ecological and developmental neuroscientific findings and network neuroscientific approaches. In particular, we find that subcortical and control systems are especially sensitive to different constructs of perceived social support. Network nodes in these systems are highly flexible; their community affiliations, which reflect groups of nodes with similar patterns of brain-behavior associations, differ across social support measures. Additionally, our application of multilayer modeling to patterns of brain-behavior correlations, as opposed to just functional connectivity, represents and innovation in how multilayer models are used in human neuroscience. More than that, it offers a generalizable technique for studying the stability and variation of brain-behavior associations.

Understanding and optimising gratitude interventions: the right methods for the right people at the right time

Objective Gratitude has consistently been associated with various beneficial health-related outcomes, including subjective wellbeing, positive mental health, and positive physical health. In light of such effects, positive psychology researchers and practitioners have often implemented gratitude interventions in an attempt to build individuals’ orientations toward appreciation and thankfulness. Recent meta-analyses and reviews have revealed, however, that these interventions often have mixed effects on gratitude or other health outcomes. With this issue in mind, we aimed to identify (a) contextual considerations that may impact the effectiveness of these approaches, and (b) recommendations for the optimisation of gratitude interventions. Methods and Measures Seventeen mental health professionals or experienced health psychology researchers engaged in semi-structured interviews to address the research questions. Results Thematic analysis of the data resulted in three contextual themes—cultural considerations, personal characteristics, and life experience—that were discussed as factors likely to influence intervention effectiveness. With respect to recommendations, participants highlighted the importance of encouraging deep engagement in gratitude tasks, consistent repetition of those tasks, and the value of interpersonal expressions of gratitude. Conclusion Discussion is centred on suggestions for future research on gratitude and on implications for the implementation of gratitude interventions.

Navigating precarity in clinical and health psychology research

Navigating precarity in clinical and health psychology research

First-interview response patterns of intensive longitudinal psychological and health data.

Self-report data are essential in health psychology research where an individual's perception is critical to understanding one's health and psychological status. Intensive data collection over time, including daily diary assessments, is necessary in understanding within- and between-person variability in health and psychological processes over time. An "initial elevation or latent decline" (IELD) effect, inherent of self-report data, is increasingly acknowledged in the social psychology literature, but awareness of this effect in health psychology research is lacking, particularly in studies that emphasize within- and between-person variability in self-reports. The IELD effect is a pattern in which responses tend to be more extreme at the initial interview relative to subsequent responses. This paper illustrates the impact of IELD in applications of mixed-effects models based on observational self-reports and concludes that researchers take such effects into account in data analysis or in the research designing phase to help mitigate such effects.

Self-Assessed Experience of Emotional Involvement in Sensory Analysis Performed in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) technology has gained significant attention in various fields, including education for health professionals, sensory science, psychology, and consumer research. The first aim of the paper is to explore the self-assessed experience of emotional involvement in sensory analysis performed in VR. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a widely used self-report measure that assesses positive and negative affective states. VR sensory analysis involves the use of immersive, interactive, and multi-sensory environments to evaluate sensory perception and emotional responses. By synthesizing relevant literature, this paper provides insights into the impact of VR on affective states, the effectiveness of VR in eliciting emotions, and the potential applications of the PANAS in VR sensory analysis. Furthermore, the second aim of the paper is to uncover the effect of VR sensory evaluation on the participant’s emotional states, as it has a significant effect on their evaluations. The results suggest an increase in the sum of positive effects and a decrease in the negative ones. Although these results are promising, the relationship between the PANAS and VR sensory analysis is still underexplored, with limited research investigating the specific effects of VR on affective states measured using the PANAS. Further research is needed to better understand the potential of the PANAS in assessing emotional responses in VR environments and its implications for sensory analysis.

Gender roles and gender norms associated with psychological distress in women and men among the Dutch general population.

Women report more psychological distress than men, which may be related to both biological sex and socio-cultural gender. We tested whether associations between gender and distress differ for women and men. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 678 Dutch people (54% women). Gender roles were assessed as masculinity and femininity. A composite gender norm score was calculated by summing gendered sociodemographics. Multivariate regressions examined sex, gender, and their interaction for depressive symptoms, anxiety, and perceived stress, additionally adjusted. Women reported more psychological distress. People scoring higher on masculine gender roles, but not feminine gender roles, reported lower psychological distress. A higher gender norm score was related to more depressive symptoms and perceived stress. This association was only present in men and was explained by health-related covariates. This research shows that there is a need to further elaborate on the discrepancies between sex and gender in health psychology research to better understand individual differences.

Tutorial on causal mediation analysis with binary variables: An application to health psychology research.

Mediation analysis has been widely applied to explain why and assess the extent to which an exposure or treatment has an impact on the outcome in health psychology studies. Identifying a mediator or assessing the impact of a mediator has been the focus of many scientific investigations. This tutorial aims to introduce causal mediation analysis with binary exposure, mediator, and outcome variables, with a focus on the resampling and weighting methods, under the potential outcomes framework for estimating natural direct and indirect effects. We emphasize the importance of the temporal order of the study variables and the elimination of confounding. We define the causal effects in a hypothesized causal mediation chain in the context of one exposure, one mediator, and one outcome variable, all of which are binary variables. Two commonly used and actively maintained R packages, mediation and medflex, were used to analyze a motivating example. R code examples for implementing these methods are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Working with stakeholders to translate health psychology research into practice: Reflections from evaluations of two national behaviour change programmes

Working with stakeholders to translate health psychology research into practice: Reflections from evaluations of two national behaviour change programmes

The Psychology of Erectile Dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is a major chronic condition affecting hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide. This review provides a concise overview of research on the psychological experience of erectile dysfunction. There is evidence that psychological factors such as personality, depression, stress, and cognitive interference (e.g., performance worry, shifts in attentional focus) contribute to erectile problems. There is also evidence that the experience of erectile dysfunction can have negative psychological effects, including feelings of emasculation and humiliation, decreases in self-confidence and feelings of self-worth, feelings of isolation and loneliness, increases in depression, and decreases in subjective well-being. Effects on the affected individuals’ sexual partner include feelings of being unattractive, feelings of rejection, feeling unloved, decreases in self-esteem, and frustration. Psychological interventions (particularly multimodal interventions) show promise for treating erectile dysfunction, but more research is needed to help establish their effectiveness. We present a brief research agenda of critical areas in need of further study. This review should be of interest to the general public and also researchers looking to develop a program of research in sexual health psychology that focuses on the psychological experience of erectile dysfunction.

Health equity is not possible without addressing disparities.

Health equity is the aspirational assurance of optimal health for all. Synonymous with fair and just opportunities for physical and mental health, equity work reflects intentional efforts to remove access barriers and allocate high-quality, need-based resources. Health equity is not possible without meaningful reductions in disparities-and evaluating progress goes further to describe, assess, and continuously evaluate fairness and social justice within structures, community contexts, and healthcare. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) has a longstanding and deep commitment to advancing health equity. This article describes efforts in two specific areas: workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and scientific initiatives. We also summarize five actionable strategies for health equity promotion in health psychology-relevant research and practice, including increasing workforce DEI, inclusive research participation, cultural competence and humility, applying community-engaged research principles, and going beyond "do no harm." Meaningful equity work often requires major shifts in approaches, dedicated resources, and targeted efforts toward social justice. The current emphasis on addressing health disparities and understanding the structural factors underlying them presents unequivocal opportunities for changes in clinical practice and research. NIMHD seeks to support innovative health psychology and behavioral medicine research with the potential to transform health via effective and equitable interventions/treatments, systems changes, and policies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Open science in health psychology and behavioral medicine: A statement from the Behavioral Medicine Research Council.

Open Science practices include some combination of registering and publishing study protocols (including hypotheses, primary and secondary outcome variables, and analysis plans) and making available preprints of manuscripts, study materials, de-identified data sets, and analytic codes. This statement from the Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC) provides an overview of these methods, including preregistration; registered reports; preprints; and open research. We focus on rationales for engaging in Open Science and how to address shortcomings and possible objections. Additional resources for researchers are provided. Research on Open Science largely supports positive consequences for the reproducibility and reliability of empirical science. There is no solution that will encompass all Open Science needs in health psychology and behavioral medicine's diverse research products and outlets, but the BMRC supports increased use of Open Science practices where possible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Open Science in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine: A Statement From the Behavioral Medicine Research Council.

Open Science practices include some combination of registering and publishing study protocols (including hypotheses, primary and secondary outcome variables, and analysis plans) and making available preprints of manuscripts, study materials, de-identified data sets, and analytic codes. This statement from the Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC) provides an overview of these methods, including preregistration; registered reports; preprints; and open research. We focus on rationales for engaging in Open Science and how to address shortcomings and possible objections. Additional resources for researchers are provided. Research on Open Science largely supports positive consequences for the reproducibility and reliability of empirical science. There is no solution that will encompass all Open Science needs in health psychology and behavioral medicine's diverse research products and outlets, but the BMRC supports increased use of Open Science practices where possible.

Review of the psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Spanish version in a sample of Puerto Rican workers.

This study aimed to examine the internal structure and assess the psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in a Puerto Rican sample of workers. This instrument is a nine-item questionnaire, which was conceptualized as a unidimensional structure; however, there are mixed results regarding this internal structure. This measure is used in the occupational health psychology context in organizations in Puerto Rico; nevertheless, there is little evidence of its psychometric properties with samples of workers. A total of 955 samples from two different study samples were used in this cross-sectional study design in which the PHQ-9 was used. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis, bifactor analysis, and random intercept item factor analysis to examine the internal structure of the PHQ-9. Moreover, a two-factor model was examined by randomly assigning items to the two factors. Measurement invariance across sex and the relationship with other constructs were examined. The best-fitted model was the bifactor model followed by the random intercept item factor. The five sets of two-factor models with items randomly assigned obtained acceptable and similar fit indices regardless of the items. The results suggest that the PHQ-9 appears to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure depression. The more parsimonious interpretation of its scores, for now, is a unidimensional structure. Comparison across sex appears to be useful in occupational health psychology research settings since the results suggest that the PHQ-9 is invariant regarding this variable.

Withdrawal

Journal of Health Psychology Research, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp.29–37（2021 年発行）の 菅原 大地・福 楓・神代 嗣雄・林 拓実著，「慈悲に関連した短期認知行動療法が休離職者の 職場復帰の困難感と社会機能に与える影響」論文は，著者により取下げられました。