Increases In Positive Affect Research Articles

An exploratory study of the coming out road drawing: A novel growth promoting intervention for sexual and gender minority individuals

Despite the shift in acceptance of sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals in the United States, heterosexism continues to endure, including a recent swathe of legislative attempts to restrict LGBTQ+ rights. The experience of heterosexism, and resultant minority stress, places SGM individuals at greater risk for negative mental health outcomes, demanding a need for culturally responsive therapeutic interventions. The use of Hanes’ (1995) road drawing, modified as a directive to depict one’s coming out story, was examined as such an intervention. We hypothesized that participants would experience a significant increase in positive affect and decrease in negative affect after they created a road drawing of their coming out story. While findings reflected a trend for an increase in positive affect following the art making directive, t(39) = 1.92, p = .062, statistical significance was only found for those who experienced themselves to be “more out,” t(31) = 2.74, p = .01. No significance was observed for negative affect. Findings support the coming out road drawing as a growth promoting intervention. Examples of participant artwork are provided to highlight the narrative and symbolic quality of the coming out road drawing. Application and direction for future research are discussed.

Short-Term Head-Out Whole-Body Cold-Water Immersion Facilitates Positive Affect and Increases Interaction between Large-Scale Brain Networks.

An emerging body of evidence indicates that short-term immersion in cold water facilitates positive affect and reduces negative affect. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these effects remain largely unknown. For the first time, we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify topological clusters of networks coupled with behavioural changes in positive and negative affect after a 5 min cold-water immersion. Perceived changes in positive affect were associated with feeling more active, alert, attentive, proud, and inspired, whilst changes in negative affect reflected reductions in distress and nervousness. The increase in positive affect was supported by a unique component of interacting networks, including the medial prefrontal node of the default mode network, a posterior parietal node of the frontoparietal network, and anterior cingulate and rostral prefrontal parts of the salience network and visual lateral network. This component emerged as a result of a focal effect confined to few connections. Changes in negative affect were associated with a distributed component of interacting networks at a reduced threshold. Affective changes after cold-water immersion occurred independently, supporting the bivalence model of affective processing. Interactions between large-scale networks linked to positive affect indicated the integrative effects of cold-water immersion on brain functioning.

The effectiveness and equivalence of different versions of a brief online Best Possible Self (BPS) manipulation to temporary increase optimism and affect

Background and objectivesThe Best Possible Self (BPS) has been found to be an effective manipulation to temporarily improve optimism and affect. The BPS has been used in different formats. In some versions, participants just write about their best possible future, while in others this is combined with imagery. An imagery only version has not been tested yet. The aim of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of three different versions of the BPS and their equivalence in improving optimism and affect. MethodsIn an online study format, participants (N = 141) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) writing and imagery BPS; (2) writing BPS; (3) imagery BPS; and (4) a typical day (TD) control condition. ResultsResults showed that each BPS condition significantly improved optimism (i.e. increased positive future expectancies and decreased negative future expectancies) and affect (i.e. increased positive affect and decreased negative affect). Equivalence testing showed that all online BPS conditions were equivalent in increasing optimism and affect, thereby confirming that both the writing and imagery elements of the BPS can independently from each other increase optimism and positive affect in a healthy population. LimitationsOnly the immediate effects of the BPS formats on increasing optimism and affect were measured. ConclusionsThe BPS manipulation can be employed in different ways for potential future exploration, depending on the research question, design and context and/or E-mental health applications for the treatment of individuals suffering from psychological complaints.

Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones

BackgroundLimited prospective outcome data exist regarding transgender and nonbinary youth receiving gender-affirming hormones (GAH; testosterone or estradiol).MethodsWe characterized the longitudinal course of psychosocial functioning during the 2 years after GAH initiation in a prospective cohort of transgender and nonbinary youth in the United States. Participants were enrolled in a four-site prospective, observational study of physical and psychosocial outcomes. Participants completed the Transgender Congruence Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory–II, the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (Second Edition), and the Positive Affect and Life Satisfaction measures from the NIH (National Institutes of Health) Toolbox Emotion Battery at baseline and at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after GAH initiation. We used latent growth curve modeling to examine individual trajectories of appearance congruence, depression, anxiety, positive affect, and life satisfaction over a period of 2 years. We also examined how initial levels of and rates of change in appearance congruence correlated with those of each psychosocial outcome.ResultsA total of 315 transgender and nonbinary participants 12 to 20 years of age (mean [±SD], 16±1.9) were enrolled in the study. A total of 190 participants (60.3%) were transmasculine (i.e., persons designated female at birth who identify along the masculine spectrum), 185 (58.7%) were non-Latinx or non-Latine White, and 25 (7.9%) had received previous pubertal suppression treatment. During the study period, appearance congruence, positive affect, and life satisfaction increased, and depression and anxiety symptoms decreased. Increases in appearance congruence were associated with concurrent increases in positive affect and life satisfaction and decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms. The most common adverse event was suicidal ideation (in 11 participants [3.5%]); death by suicide occurred in 2 participants.ConclusionsIn this 2-year study involving transgender and nonbinary youth, GAH improved appearance congruence and psychosocial functioning. (Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.)

Lessons in a Green School Environment and in the Classroom: Effects on Students' Cognitive Functioning and Affect.

The positive impact of short-term exposure to nature during a green recess in a school day is documented in the literature. In this study we investigated cognitive, academic, and affective effects of a single contact with nature during a regular school lesson in the greenness, compared to an usual classroom lesson, on young students in second and third grades (N = 65). In a within-subjects design, for the cognitive effects we examined children's (a) selective and sustained attention and (b) math calculation performance in common school tasks. For affective effects we considered (c) their positive and negative mood and (d) the perception of environmental restorativeness. Findings revealed that after a single lesson taught in the green school garden, children had greater selective attention and math calculation performance in two tasks than after a similar lesson in the classroom environment. Moreover, children with higher self-reported emotional difficulties showed greater selective attention and reported a statistically significant increase in positive affect and a tendency to a significant decrease in negative affect after the lesson in the greenness than in the classroom. Students also perceived the green space as more restorative than the classroom environment. Results are discussed against theories on the benefits of exposure to natural environments, highlighting the theoretical and practical significance of the study.

Disclosure Writing with the Use of Manipulating Writing Instructions: A Disclosure Writing Study

It is well known that writing about traumatic life events has both physical and psychological long term benefits. James Pennebaker and his colleagues (Pennebaker, Mayne, & Francis, 1997; Pennebaker & Seagal, 1999) suggested that both negative and positive disclosure writing instructions could be useful in understanding positive life events, not only the negative life events. The purpose of this study is to experimentally investigate the order in which participants write about their positive or negative perspectives of life events through an expressive writing paradigm and manipulate the order of instructions that includes negative-only expression, negative to positive expression, positive negative expression, and neutral writing expression. It is hypothesized that writing about negative events then positive events could allow for a greater increase in positive affect, in contrast to writing about strictly negative events or strictly positive events. Once individuals have written about a negative topic then a positive topic, it could help make individuals gain an understanding about a negative event and view positive events with great meaning, without allowing for rumination and negative mood. Undergraduate students were instructed to complete a writing task for fifteen minutes for two days. Follow up evaluations were administered two weeks after the second writing task, asking participants to rate their meaning in life, their health and wellbeing, and positive and negative effectiveness (PANAS). This experiment could determine that the order in which participants write could change the writing paradigm from the completely separating life experiences into strictly negative expression and strictly positive expression. In conclusion, results showed that writing about negative and positive events created further benefits of writing allowing individuals to put negative events in perspective while focusing on the presence of positive life events.

Embodying Devī: Śākta Narratives of Healing and Transformation

This article explores how twelve practitioners of a contemporary Western Śākta community relate to Devī, experience Her presence in their lives, embody Her through the practice of deity yoga, and find their manner of relating to self, others, and the world transformed by it. The narratives were obtained via semi-structured interviews and thus increase the ethnographic data in the field of tantric studies. Altogether, these testimonies suggest that deity yoga and its metaphysical framework, when interpreted through both a theistic and non-theistic lens, may enable a decrease in self-conscious emotions and negative affective reactivity, and an increase in positive affect and self-confidence or trust, as well as empathic or affiliative changes. The latter may result in changes in motivation or goals that are prosocial in nature and enable desirable changes in one’s interpersonal relationships and interactions. Additionally, it may potentially decrease the severity of the impact that neuroticism, mental disorders, substance use disorders, and negative affect can have on an individual’s life, or even assist in eliminating their presence, over time. Finally, it may effectively help some in navigating and overcoming grief or accepting the inevitability of death.

Stage 1 Registered Report: Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats.

Rat tickling is a heterospecific interaction for experimenters to mimic the interactions of rat play, where they produce 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USV), symptoms of positive affect; tickling can improve laboratory rat welfare. The standard rat tickling protocol involves gently pinning the rat in a supine position. However, individual response to this protocol varies. This suggests there is a risk that some rats may perceive tickling as only a neutral experience, while others as a positive one, depending on how tickling is performed. Based on our research experiences of the standard tickling protocol we have developed a playful handling (PH) protocol, with reduced emphasis on pinning, intended to mimic more closely the dynamic nature of play. We will test whether our PH protocol gives rise to more uniform increases in positive affect across individuals relative to protocols involving pinning. We will compare the response of juvenile male and female Wistar rats as: Control (hand remains still against the side of the test arena), P0 (PH with no pinning), P1 (PH with one pin), P4 (PH with four pins). P1 and P4 consist of a background of PH, with treatments involving administration of an increasing dosage of pinning per PH session. We hypothesise that rats exposed to handling protocols that maximise playful interactions (where pinning number per session decreases) will show an overall increase in total 50 kHz USV as an indicator of positive affect, with less variability. We will explore whether behavioural and physiological changes associated with alterations in PH experience are less variable. We propose that maximising the numbers of rats experiencing tickling as a positive experience will reduce the variation in response variables affected by tickling and increase the repeatability of research where tickling is applied either as a social enrichment or as a treatment.

Acceptability of an internet-delivered intervention for adjustment disorder and its role as predictor of efficacy

Background: Internet-delivered interventions offer a feasible way to facilitate access to mental healthcare and considerable evidence supports their effectiveness for the treatment of different mental disorders. However, potential users’ attitudes toward these interventions are crucial for their successful implementation. A better understanding of factors related to treatment acceptance and adherence is required to exploit the full potential of internet interventions. Hence, the aim of the present work was to analyze the acceptability of a therapist-guided internet-delivered CBT intervention for adjustment disorder and its impact on treatment outcomes.Methods: The acceptability was estimated from the acceptance to participate in the randomized controlled trial addressed to explore the effectiveness of the internet intervention in question. Other indicators of acceptability were treatment adherence, expectations, satisfaction, and opinion reported by 34 participants from the trial.Results: Willingness to try an internet intervention was observed and 76.5% of participants completed all seven treatment modules. Less positive initial expectations did not reduce treatment effectiveness, yet they might have led to treatment abandonment. Overall, participants were satisfied with the internet intervention and perceived it as a useful, comfortable and attractive way of receiving psychological assistance. Treatment modules aimed at promoting identification with the treatment goals, relapse prevention, and change in the meaning of the stressor were found to be related to posttraumatic growth and increase in positive affect and quality of life. Participants also expressed that the intervention required considerable motivation. In this regard, therapeutic support was perceived as an important adherence facilitator.Conclusion: The findings from this work support the suitability of internet interventions for the treatment of adjustment disorder. However, further research is required in order to develop guidelines for the design of more attractive and engaging internet interventions.

Feeling Good and In Control: In-game Tools to Support Targets of Toxicity

Game developers, researchers, and players recognize the harm of toxic behaviour in online games-yet toxicity persists. Players' coping strategies are limited to tools that focus on punishing toxic players (e.g., muting, blocking, reporting), which are inadequate and often misused. To address the needs of players experiencing toxicity, we took inspiration from research in other online spaces that provide support tools for targets of harassment. We iteratively designed and evaluated in-game tools to support targets of toxicity. While we found that most players prefer tools that explicitly address toxicity and increase feelings of control, we also found that tools that solely provide social or emotional support also decrease stress, increase feelings of control, and increase positive affect. Our findings suggest that players may benefit from variety in toxicity support tools that both explicitly address toxicity in the moment and help players cope after it has occurred.

Two is better than one: Using a single emotion lexicon can lead to unreliable conclusions.

Emotion lexicons became a popular method for quantifying affect in large amounts of textual data (e.g., social media posts). There are multiple independently developed emotion lexicons which tend to correlate positively with one another but not entirely. Such differences between lexicons may not matter if they are just unsystematic noise, but if there are systematic differences this could affect conclusions of a study. The goal of this paper is to examine whether two extensively used, apparently domain-independent lexicons for emotion analysis would give the same answer to a theory-driven research question. Specifically, we use the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and NRC Word-Emotion Association Lexicon (NRC). As an example, we investigate whether older people have more positive expression through their language use. We examined nearly 5 million tweets created by 3,573 people between 18 to 78 years old and found that both methods show an increase in positive affect until age 50. After that age, however, according to LIWC, positive affect drops sharply, whereas according to NRC, the growth of positive affect increases steadily until age 65 and then levels off. Thus, using one or the other method would lead researchers to drastically different theoretical conclusions regarding affect in older age. We unpack why the two methods give inconsistent conclusions and show this was mostly due to a particular class of words: those related to politics. We conclude that using a single lexicon might lead to unreliable conclusions, so we suggest that researchers should routinely use at least two lexicons. If both lexicons come to the same conclusion then the research evidence is reliable, but if not then researchers should further examine the lexicons to find out what difference might be causing inconclusive result.

The benefits of physical exercise on state anxiety: Exploring possible mechanisms

Although several studies have shown that one acute bout of physical exercise can reduce state anxiety in healthy samples, studies that examine this effect in subclinical and clinical samples are still rare and have found mixed results. In the present study, we investigated the effect of a single session of acute exercise on state anxiety in a subclinical sample with moderate to high anxiety sensitivity. Potential mediators, including self-efficacy, self-esteem, mindfulness, subjective vitality, rumination and emotional competencies were explored. Participants (N = 88) with moderate to high anxiety sensitivity were assigned randomly to either an active group (n = 44) or a control group (n = 44). State anxiety and the mediator variables were assessed before and after the intervention. State anxiety was reduced from baseline to post-intervention, but no difference was found between groups. Exploratory analyses suggested that in the active intervention condition, a reduction in state anxiety was partly mediated by an increase in positive affect and mediated by an increase in subjective vitality. One acute bout of exercise might not be enough to decrease state anxiety in subclinical individuals with moderate to high anxiety sensitivity. However, the results of this study suggest that positive affect and subjective vitality could be two mechanisms that might explain the beneficial effect of exercise on anxiety. This should be further investigated in future studies.

Exploring the effects of nature-based art therapy on happiness and life satisfaction

This research study aimed to address how engaging in nature base art therapy could support well-being with measurement tools that reflect the importance of both happiness and life satisfaction. The combination of art therapy and nature can be applied to help individuals improve wellness, even if an individual is unable to access nature. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if engaging in a nature-based art therapy session would increase one’s life satisfaction and positive affect. It was hypothesized that participants who engage in nature-based art therapy will report an increase in life satisfaction and positive affect as self-reported using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985) and the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988). The methods included two sets of data collection with 75 participants globally within two phases. The results showed that life satisfaction and positive affect improved more during phase II compared to the Phase I.Additionally, there appeared to be a significant difference in how each participant’s scores changed; this could indicate that the nature-based art therapy process allowed individuals to visually explore places in nature during restrictions to their autonomy.

Stage 1 Registered Report: Refinement of tickling protocols to improve positive animal welfare in laboratory rats.

Rat tickling is a heterospecific interaction for experimenters to mimic the interactions of rat play, where they produce 50 kHz ultrasonic vocalisations (USV), symptoms of positive affect; tickling can improve laboratory rat welfare. The standard rat tickling protocol involves gently pinning the rat in a supine position. However, individual response to this protocol varies. This suggests there is a risk that some rats may perceive tickling as only a neutral experience, while others as a positive one, depending on how tickling is performed. Based on our research experiences of the standard tickling protocol we have developed a playful handling (PH) protocol, with reduced emphasis on pinning, intended to mimic more closely the dynamic nature of play. We will test whether our PH protocol gives rise to more uniform increases in positive affect across individuals relative to protocols involving pinning. We will compare the response of juvenile male and female Wistar rats as: Control (hand remains still against the side of the test arena), P0 (PH with no pinning), P1 (PH with one pin), P4 (PH with four pins). P1 and P4 consist of a background of PH, with treatments involving administration of an increasing dosage of pinning per PH session. We hypothesise that rats exposed to handling protocols that maximise playful interactions (where pinning number per session decreases) will show an overall increase in total 50 kHz USV as an indicator of positive affect, with less variability. We will explore whether behavioural and physiological changes associated with alterations in PH experience are less variable. We propose that maximising the numbers of rats experiencing tickling as a positive experience will reduce the variation in response variables affected by tickling and increase the repeatability of research where tickling is applied either as a social enrichment or as a treatment.

Increased positive affect is associated with less generalization of pain-related avoidance

Fear-avoidance models of chronic pain consider excessive spreading (or overgeneralization) of pain-related avoidance toward safe activities to play a crucial role in chronic pain disability. This study (N = 96) investigated whether avoidance generalization is mitigated by positive affect induction. Pain-free, healthy participants performed an arm-reaching task during which certain movements were followed by pain, while another was not. One group then performed an exercise to induce positive affect (positive affect group), while another group performed a neutral exercise (neutral group). A third group also performed the neutral exercise, but did not learn to avoid pain during the arm-reaching task (yoked neutral group). To test generalization, we introduced novel but similar movements that were never followed by pain in all groups. Results showed no differences in generalization between the positive affect and neutral groups; however, across groups, higher increases in positive affect were associated with less generalization of avoidance, and less generalization of pain-expectancy and pain-related fear. Compared to the yoked neutral group, the neutral group showed avoidance generalization, as well as pain-expectancy and pain-related fear generalization. These results point toward the potential of positive affect interventions in attenuating maladaptive spreading of pain-related avoidance behavior to safe activities.

Clients’ perceptions of the working alliance as a predictor of increases in positive affect.

Clients’ perceptions of the working alliance as a predictor of increases in positive affect.

Goal motives and mental contrasting with implementation intentions facilitate strategic goal persistence and disengagement

AbstractIn three experiments, we examine the role of motives underlying goal pursuit and the metacognitive strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) to predict the strategic use of self‐regulation responses (persistence, disengagement, and reengagement) when faced with attainable, unattainable, or multiple goals. We trained half of the participants to use MCII and treated the rest as control. Experiment 1 (N = 261) underscored the role of autonomous motivation in nurturing adaptive cognitive appraisals and coping mechanisms, which facilitated persistence and progress with a difficult but attainable goal. In contrast, controlled motives undermined striving by predicting threat appraisals and giving up coping. MCII training ameliorated the negative impact of controlled motivation on goal striving by reducing threat appraisals. In Experiment 2 (N = 391), we manipulated the task to make the initial goal unattainable. Strategic goal striving (disengagement from the unattainable goal followed by reengagement with an alternative goal) was facilitated by MCII and autonomous goal motives, and culminated in increases in positive affect. In Experiment 3 (N = 432), we extended these findings to a multiple‐goal setting. The research further develops the literatures on self‐regulation and self‐determination, while having implications for life domains where individuals pursue multiple and/or difficult goals.

A positive parenting program to enhance positive affect in children of previously depressed mothers.

Children of mothers with a history of depression are at heightened risk for developing depression and other maladaptive outcomes. Deficits in parenting are one putative mechanism underlying this transmission of risk from mother to child. The present study evaluated whether a brief intervention with mothers with a history of depression produced greater use of positive parenting behaviors and an increase in observed positive affect in their 8- to 10-year-old children. Mothers with a history of depression (n = 65) were randomly assigned to either a positive parenting intervention or an attention control intervention condition. In addition, a comparison group of 66 mothers with no history of depression was evaluated one time. Results revealed significant increases in positive parenting behaviors (e.g., active listening, praise) immediately postintervention in mothers randomized to the positive parenting intervention as compared to those in the attention control condition. Children of mothers in the positive parenting intervention showed increases in positive affect as compared to children of mothers in the attention control intervention. Increases in mothers' active listening and smiling/laughing significantly predicted increases in children's positive affect. The intervention did not increase the rate of children's moment-by-moment positive affect contingent on mothers' positive parenting behaviors. This study showed the short-term effectiveness of a brief parenting intervention for enhancing interactions between mothers with a history of depression and their children by directly targeting mothers' positive parenting and, indirectly, children's expressions of positive affect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Trajectories of positive and negative affect across adolescence: Maternal history of depression and adolescent sex as predictors

BackgroundTrajectories of affect vary across development, with normative increases in positive affect occurring during childhood and declines in positive affect appearing across adolescence. Little is known, however, about predictors of the trajectories of affect across adolescence. The present study examined associations between changes in adolescent affect across adolescence and maternal history of depression and child sex. MethodsParticipants were 240 adolescents and their mothers; 185 mothers had a history of depression (i.e., high risk) and 55 mothers did not (i.e., low risk). Youth were assessed annually from 6th grade (meanage = 11.86 years, SD = 0.57, 54.2 % female, 82 % White) through 12th grade. Latent growth models tested the relation of maternal depression history and adolescent sex with trajectories of adolescent affect. ResultsHigh-risk adolescents exhibited lower levels of PA as compared to low-risk youth (coefficient = −3.51, p = .008, 95 % CI [−6.11, −0.91]). Girls experienced earlier increases in negative affect (NA) as compared to boys, with more positive linear (coefficient = 2.07, p = .002, 95 % CI [0.774, 3.368]) and quadratic (coefficient = −0.29, p = .025, 95 % CI [−0.55,−0.04]) slopes. LimitationsUse of self-report measures and limited generalizability. ConclusionMaternal depression significantly predicted decreases in offspring PA and distinct trajectories of NA in girls and boys. Interventions aimed at reducing risk in adolescent offspring of depressed parents may benefit from targeting PA and supporting girls in early adolescence.

When humor is a matter of heart: Effects on emotional state and interbeat interval

ABSTRACT Previous studies demonstrated that exposure to humor has beneficial effects on psychological well-being. In the present work, we investigated the behavioral and psychophysiological effects of different types of humor on psychological well-being and on the performance during the execution of a stressful cognitive task. To this aim, we examined the behavioral and psychophysiological effects of ToM humorous and Slapstick humorous comic strips before and after executing a stressful cognitive task. We hypothesized that only slapstick humor could reduce the level of anxiety, increase positive affect and improve performance on the cognitive task. Our findings revealed that, at a specific point in time, exposure to ToM Humor and No Humor strips were associated with lower IBI (higher HR, increase in cardiac recruitment) than slapstick humor. This result suggests that humor involving ToM abilities and No Humor strips elicited a greater cognitive engagement level than slapstick humor. Moreover, in an exploratory analysis we found a positive correlation between cardiac deactivation during the exposure to slapstick Humor and individual empathy scores, suggesting that the empathy skills might influence cardiac recruitment and the level of cognitive engagement during the exposure to humorous material.