Individual Differences In Negative Affect Research Articles

Predictors of Perceived Changes in Psychological Wellbeing among Clergy in the USA Serving in the Episcopal Church during the 2021 Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract Applying the balanced affect model of clergy psychological wellbeing, as conceptualised by the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI) and operationalised by The Index of Balanced Affect Change (TIBACh), this study explored the impact of seven sets of variables on individual differences in perceived changes in positive affect and negative affect among 737 clergy in the USA serving in the Episcopal Church during the Covid-19 pandemic. The seven sets of variables were: personal, psychological, contextual, ministry-related, church orientation, theological stance, and attitudinal. The data supported the balanced affect model of clergy psychological wellbeing by demonstrating how different variables predicted individual differences in negative affect and in positive affect. For example, clergywomen showed no differences from clergymen in terms of positive affect, but higher levels of negative affect; active self-supporting and retired clergy showed no differences from stipendiary clergy in terms of positive affect, but lower levels of negative affect; Evangelical clergy showed no differences in negative affect, but higher levels in positive affect. The balanced affect model provides insights into how clergy may be better supported during a pandemic.

A-6 Cognitive Impairment and SES-Related Differences in Affective Traits

Abstract Objective Recent research has suggested that positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) may be sensitive markers of early pathological changes in Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, mechanisms underlying this relationship are poorly understood and likely reflect diverse etiological factors. Method The present study aimed to determine whether individual differences in NA and PA were related to group differences in global cognition and socioeconomic status (SES). We collected data from a group of adult participants aged 57–87 (N = 120). Participants were categorized as cognitively normal (CN) or MCI based on Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) measured PA and NA. Information on SES including education level and household income were collected via interview. Results Results indicated that those with psychometrically-defined MCI statistically differed in PA but not in NA compared to CN adults. Additionally, economically insecure older adults were higher in NA than economically secure older adults. Further, examination of this effect suggested that this economically-related group difference was significantly greater in those with evidence of cognitive impairments than CN. Older age was associated with greater positive affect (r = 0.170, p < 0.050) and lower negative affect (r = −0.296, p = 0.001). Conclusions Results highlight the combined effect of economic insecurity and cognitive impairment on NA, suggesting that economically insecure adults with cognitive impairments may benefit from additional support to reduce its harmful effects on mood. Future research is needed to examine whether heightened NA is a sensitive predictor of depression and MCI.

The impact of homonegativity on gynephilic men's visual attention toward non-preferred sexual targets

Consistent with men's gender-specific patterns of sexual arousal, men tend to look longer at their preferred gender when viewing mixed-sex sexual stimuli. But gynephilic men do attend to males featured in sexual stimuli, and individual differences in negative affect may explain some variability in their sustained attention toward male targets. We explored the influence of homonegativity and affective reactions on visual attention toward sexual stimuli and subsequent feelings of sexual attraction. We sampled gynephilic men in two eye-tracking studies (Study 1: n = 49, Study 2: n = 38) that included measures of universalizing homonegativity, minoritizing homonegativity, and disgust to predict sustained visual attention and reported sexual attraction toward non-preferred targets in still-image and dynamic-video sexual stimuli. Greater feelings of universalizing homonegativity predicted less sustained attention toward solo non-preferred sexual targets. In dynamic stimuli depicting two non-preferred targets engaged in sexual intercourse, greater universalizing homonegativity predicted less sustained attention toward targets in the receptive role, but not in the insertive role. Greater feelings of universalizing homonegativity also predicted lower reported feelings of sexual attraction toward non-preferred targets. Results suggest that gynephilic men's attention and sexual attraction toward male sexual targets is influenced by homonegative attitudes and the target's sexual role.

Adaptation of the Scrambled-Sentences Task to Assess “Shattered Assumptions:” Construction of the Test and Investigation of Neural Substrates in an fMRI Study

Background: Increasing recognition is being given to the importance of cognitions observed in posttraumatic conditions. These cognitions may reflect the activation of negative schemas. The aim of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of the scrambled-sentences task (SST) to assess individual differences in attributions commonly observed after traumas. Originally developed to assess the tendency to activate negative cognitions in individuals predisposed to depression, the SST is a laboratory task the outcome of which has been shown to predict depression relapse and is associated with depressiveness. Sampling and Methods: We used content from self-rating scales for assessment of the activation of trauma-related schemas to develop a trauma-related SST and evaluated its performance in a behavioral study (n = 43) and a functional neuroimaging study (n = 20). Results: In the healthy sample in which we tested it, the trauma-related SST was strongly associated with individual differences in negative affect (scores in depressiveness and neuroticism scales) as well as with the scores on trauma-related cognition scales. However, we failed to detect a clear specificity of trauma-related cognitions in correlations with scores on the trauma-related scales in the healthy participants. The neuroimaging data demonstrated activation of a ventral network of areas that included the perisylvian/temporal cortex and the peri­cingular cortex in handling trauma-related relative to neutral material, replicating previous neuroimaging studies of the SST. Conclusion: The shattered-assumptions SST demonstrated strong associations with individual differences in all of the rating scales used in the study, suggesting its usefulness in capturing aspects of affective psychopathology. The neuroimaging study confirmed the capacity of this task to elicit specific activations. In future studies, evaluation of the conditions in which these neural substrates are active may shed light on the mechanism of schema selection.

The (Dis)Pleasures of Creativity: Spontaneous Eye Blink Rate during Divergent and Convergent Thinking Depends on Individual Differences in Positive and Negative Affect

AbstractPrevious research has demonstrated that individual differences in affect and motivation predict divergent and convergent thinking performance, two thinking processes involved in creative idea generation. Individual differences in affect and motivation also predict spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) during divergent and convergent thinking; and sEBR predicts divergent and convergent thinking performance. This study investigates experimentally whether the relationship between sEBR and divergent and convergent thinking depends on individual differences in affect and motivation. Eighty‐two participants completed the Emotion/motivation‐related Divergent and Convergent thinking styles Scale (EDICOS; G. Soroa et al., 2015), performed the alternative uses task (AUT; divergent thinking) or the remote associates task (RAT; convergent thinking), while their sEBR was captured with an eye‐tracker. The results showed that individual differences in positive affect positively correlated with sEBR for the AUT, whereas individual differences in negative affect positively correlated with sEBR for the RAT. Furthermore, the interaction between individual differences in positive and negative affect and sEBR predicted divergent and convergent thinking performance. The contribution of our study is therefore that individual differences in positive and negative affect can both positively correlate with sEBR during divergent and convergent thinking; and that this predicts divergent and convergent thinking performance.

Individual Differences in Negative Affectivity and Physical Activity in Adolescents: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

To examine the bi-directional relationships between negative affectivity (i.e., depression, anxiety, and anger) and adolescents’ physical activity in nearly real time. Twenty-six adolescents (Mage = 15.67 ± 1.56 years; 57.7% male) were asked to complete 80 self-report measures of their negative affect (depression, anxiety, and anger) via a smartphone app and wear an accelerometer as an objective assessment of their physical activity over 20 consecutive days. Negative fixed effects emerged for within-person depression and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) as well as for within-person anger and MVPA. Further, there were significant random effects for each of the within-person negative affect variables and MVPA. Study findings highlight the importance of considering individual differences in the association between negative affect constructs and physical activity.

Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma Symptoms in African Americans: Negative Affectivity Does Not Explain the Relationship between Microaggressions and Psychopathology.

Prior research has demonstrated a clear relationship between experiences of racial microaggressions and various indicators of psychological unwellness. One concern with these findings is that the role of negative affectivity, considered a marker of neuroticism, has not been considered. Negative affectivity has previously been correlated to experiences of racial discrimination and psychological unwellness and has been suggested as a cause of the observed relationship between microaggressions and psychopathology. We examined the relationships between self-reported frequency of experiences of microaggressions and several mental health outcomes (i.e., anxiety [Beck Anxiety Inventory], stress [General Ethnic and Discrimination Scale], and trauma symptoms [Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale]) in 177 African American and European American college students, controlling for negative affectivity (the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule) and gender. Results indicated that African Americans experience more racial discrimination than European Americans. Negative affectivity in African Americans appears to be significantly related to some but not all perceptions of the experience of discrimination. A strong relationship between racial mistreatment and symptoms of psychopathology was evident, even after controlling for negative affectivity. In summary, African Americans experience clinically measurable anxiety, stress, and trauma symptoms as a result of racial mistreatment, which cannot be wholly explained by individual differences in negative affectivity. Future work should examine additional factors in these relationships, and targeted interventions should be developed to help those suffering as a result of racial mistreatment and to reduce microaggressions.

The contribution of trait negative affect and stress to recall for bodily states

How does trait negative affect shape somatic memory of stressful events? We hypothesized that negative affect would impair accurate recall of one's own heart rate during stressful situations. Two bio-behavioral studies used a new paradigm to test retrospective visceral perception and assessed whether negative affective states experienced during aversive events (i.e., the Trier Stress Task—Time 1) would retrospectively shape recall of past heart rate (Time 2), even when accounting for actual heart rate at the time of each stressful event (Time 1). Results across both studies showed that individual differences in negative affect in response to a stressful task predicted visceral recollections, and those who experienced more negative affect were more inaccurate. Negative affect was associated with a tendency to remember visceral reactions as worse than they actually were.

Interoception and symptom reporting: disentangling accuracy and bias.

Anxiety and anxiety sensitivity are positively related to accuracy in the perception of bodily sensations. At the same time, research consistently reports that these traits are positively related to bias, resulting in the report of more and more intense symptoms that poorly correspond with physiological dysfunction. The aim of this study was to test the relationship of accuracy and bias in interoception. Furthermore, we tested the impact of individual differences in negative affect and symptom report in daily life on interoceptive accuracy and bias. Individuals higher in symptom report in daily life and negative affect were marginally more accurate in an interoceptive classification task in which participants were asked to identify different respiratory stimuli (inducing breathing effort) as belonging to a high or low intensity category. At the same time, bias in overestimating intensity of stimuli was significantly increased in participants higher in symptom report and negative affect, but only for more ambiguous stimuli. Results illustrate that interoceptive accuracy and bias need to be considered independently to understand their interaction with psychological factors and to disentangle (mis)perception of bodily sensations from liberal or conservative perceptual decision strategies.

The relationship between psychological well- and ill-being, and perceived autonomy supportive and controlling interpersonal styles: A longitudinal study of sport coaches

The present study longitudinally explored sports coaches' psychological well-being (positive affect and integration of coaching with one's sense of self) and ill-being (negative affect and devaluation of coaching) as predictors of their perceived autonomy supportive and controlling interpersonal styles towards individuals under their instruction. Participants were 195 sport coaches who completed questionnaire measures at three time points across an eleven-month period. Controlling for social desirability, multilevel analyses revealed that within-person increases and individual differences in positive affect and integration were positively associated with autonomy support. Conversely, within-person increases and individual differences in negative affect, but not devaluation, were associated with increased use of interpersonal control. The indicators of well-being did not predict interpersonal control and the indicators of ill-being did not predict autonomy support. In their entirety, the present findings suggest that autonomy supportive and controlling interpersonal styles have unique correlates, and affective determinants may play a particularly central role in controlling interpersonal styles. Supporting the psychological health of coaches may lead them to create an adaptive interpersonal environment for their athletes.

Affect and self-rated health: A dynamic approach with older adults.

Self-rated health (SRH) predicts mortality above and beyond objective health risks and, as such, comprises an important aspect of health. Established contributors to SRH include affect, age, and disease, but neither their dynamic nor their synergistic contributions to SRH have been comprehensively tested. The present study employed older adults (N = 150; Mage = 75 years) and a longitudinal design with 6-month waves over a period up to 5 years. Positive (PA) and negative affect (NA), chronic disease, and SRH were assessed at each wave. In multilevel models with single predictors, older age, more chronic disease, and higher NA predicted worse SRH, whereas higher PA predicted better SRH. Affect predicted SRH both between and within people. In multilevel models with interactions between affect and age or disease, individual differences in NA predicted worse SRH primarily in older people. Within people, changes in NA were associated with changes in SRH, but more so in younger than in older people. Within people, changes in PA were associated with changes in SRH, but only when health was better than usual. There were both dynamic and synergistic relationships between affect and SRH that could only emerge in a multilevel, multivariable design. In the case of NA, between-person, trait NA had the opposite relationship to SRH and age compared to within-person, state NA. Which component of this relationship predicts mortality is an important question for future research.

Individual differences in negative affect and weekly variability in binge eating frequency

To examine the relationship of neuroticism and negative affect (NA) lability with weekly binge eating fluctuations between binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN). Individuals with BED (n = 30) and BN (n = 54) from the community completed self-report measures at baseline and prospectively for 12 consecutive weeks. Weekly data were analyzed by using (mean) squared successive deviation to account for fluctuations in NA and binge eating from week to week. Generalized estimating equations revealed the presence of a two-way interaction between neuroticism and NA lability predicting binge eating fluctuations (Wald χ(2) = 8.25; df = 1; p = .004), indicating that higher NA lability was only related to larger fluctuations in the frequency of binge eating episodes when present in individuals who were also high on neuroticism. An interaction was also detected between eating disorder diagnosis and NA lability, but this was accounted for by differences in average NA between the diagnoses. This study highlights the relevance of two traits and their interaction in understanding individual differences in binge eating fluctuations. Additionally, findings indicate that diagnostic differences in average NA may impact binge eating fluctuations and NA lability.

Neuroticism as distancing: Perceptual sources of evidence.

Several theories and self-reported sources of data link individual differences in negative affectivity to avoidance motivation. Chronic avoidance motivation, through repeated practice, may result in a relatively cognitive distance-enhancing dynamic whereby events and stimuli are perceived as further away from the self, even when they are not threatening. Such predictions are novel but follow from cybernetic theories of self-regulation. In 5 studies (total N = 463), relations of this type were investigated. Study 1 presented participants with phrases that were ambiguous and found that trait negative affect predicted phrase interpretation in a distance-enhancing temporal direction. Study 2 replicated this effect across a systematic manipulation of event valence. Study 3 asked individuals to estimate the size of words and found that individuals higher in neuroticism generally perceived words to be smaller than did individuals lower in neuroticism. In Study 4, people high (but not low) in neuroticism perceived words to be shrinking faster than they were growing. In Study 5, greater perceptual distancing, in a font size estimation task, predicted more adverse reactions to negative events in daily life. Although normative effects varied across studies, consistent support for a chronic distancing perspective of individual differences in negative affectivity was found.

An Experimental Investigation of Cognitive Defusion

The current study compared cognitive defusion with other strategies in reducing the impact of experimentally induced negative emotional states. Sixty-seven undergraduates were assigned to one of three conditions (cognitive defusion, thought suppression, or control) and instructed in standardized approaches relevant to each condition before viewing film clips intended to elicit fear, sadness, and disgust. Participants then rated their experience of each emotion and completed a Stroop task intended to indirectly measure emotional arousal. While participants did not show any differences in their experience of emotions through self-report, significant differences on the Stroop task provided evidence of varying degrees of arousal between participants using defusion, suppression, and control strategies, with thought suppression and defusion showing the greatest reduction in arousal. These findings were retained after controlling for individual differences in negative affect and suggest that defusion is an effective strategy for reducing emotional distress but raise questions about the specific mechanisms involved in the process.

The impact of bullying on health care administration staff

Investigations of workplace bullying in health care settings have tended to focus on nurses or other clinical staff. However, the organizational and power structures enabling bullying in health care are present for all employees, including administrative staff. : The purpose of this study was to specifically focus on health care administration staff and examine the prevalence and consequences of workplace bullying in this occupational group. A cross-sectional study was conducted based on questionnaire data from health care administration staff who work across facilities within a medium to large health care organization in Australia. The questionnaire included measures of bullying, negative affectivity (NA), job satisfaction, organizational commitment, well-being, and psychological distress. The three hypotheses of the study were that (a) workplace bullying will be linked to negative employee outcomes, (b) individual differences on demographic factors will have an impact on these outcomes, and (c) individual differences in NA will be a significant covariate in the analyses. The hypotheses were tested using t tests and analyses of covariances. A total of 150 health care administration staff completed the questionnaire (76% response rate). Significant main effects were found for workplace bullying, with lower organizational commitment and well-being with the effect on commitment remaining over and above NA. Main effects were found for age on job satisfaction and for employment type on psychological distress. A significant interaction between bullying and employment type for psychological distress was also observed. Negative affectivity was a significant covariate for all analyses of covariance. The applications of these results include the need to consider the occupations receiving attention in health care to include administration employees, that bullying is present across health care occupations, and that some employees, particularly part-time staff, may need to be managed slightly differently to the full-time workforce.

Alcohol stress response dampening: selective reduction of anxiety in the face of uncertain threat.

Problematic alcohol use and stress response dampening (SRD) are intimately interconnected. Recent evidence suggests that alcohol produces selective SRD during uncertain but not certain threat. We systematically varied shock probability in a novel task assessing alcohol SRD during low probable/uncertain threat, while holding temporal precision of threat constant. Intoxicated (0.08% target blood alcohol concentration) and placebo participants completed a cued shock threat task in which probability of shock administration at the offset of brief visual cues varied parametrically. High probability (100%) shock cues represented certain threat as used in earlier research, while lower probability (20% and 60%) shock cues provided novel uncertain threat conditions. Startle potentiation during cues and inter-trial intervals (ITIs) served as the measure of affective response. General linear model analysis indicated that alcohol SRD magnitude increased monotonically as threat uncertainty increased. Alcohol SRD was significantly greater during 20% and 60% shock threat relative to 100% shock threat. Alcohol also significantly reduced startle potentiation during distal threat in shock-free ITIs. Alcohol SRD magnitude during distal/uncertain threat was meaningfully moderated by individual differences in negative affectivity and weekly alcohol consumption. This work advances understanding of which properties of uncertainty are relevant to anxiety and anxiolytic effects of alcohol.

Restorative Biological Processes and Health

Research on psychological influences on physiology primarily focuses on biological responses during stressful challenges, and how those responses can become dysregulated with prolonged or repeated exposure to stressful circumstances. At the same time, humans spend considerable time recovering from those challenges, and a host of biological processes involved in restoration and repair take place during normal, non-stressed activities. We review restorative biological processes and evidence for links between psychosocial factors and several restorative processes including sleep, wound healing, antioxidant production, DNA repair, and telomerase function. Across these biological processes, a growing body of evidence suggests that experiencing negative emotional states, including acute and chronic stress, depressive symptoms, and individual differences in negative affectivity and hostility, can influence these restorative processes. This review calls attention to restorative processes as fruitful mechanisms and outcomes for future biobehavioral research.

Individual differences in negative affect repair.

The extant literature implicates affect repair ability as one source of individual differences in negative affect. Emerging from this literature are three regulatory traits that should predict repair ability (negative mood regulation expectancies, monitoring, labeling), yet no experimental examination of this possibility exists. Two studies explored this issue. Participants (Ns=305, 146) watched negative affect-inducing videos and completed a repair or control writing task, before and after which they reported their affect. Results revealed wide individual differences in repair ability. Specifically, participants with high expectancies of repair success and those who attend to and understand their affect experienced the largest decreases in negative affect and largest increases in positive affect following the repair tasks. These findings advance understanding of individual differences in affect regulation and have implications for future research.

Variation in the serotonin transporter gene modulates selective attention to threat.

The 5-HTTLPR is an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene. Prior research has revealed associations between the short-allele variant of this polymorphism, enhanced self-reported negative emotionality, and hypersensitivity of fear relevant neural circuits. In a sample of 50 healthy women we examined the role of 5-HTTLPR for cognitive-affective processing of phylogenetical fear-relevant stimuli (spiders) in a dot probe task. In contrast to homozygote long-allele carriers (ll), participants carrying at least 1 short allele (ss and sl) selectively shifted attention toward pictures of spiders, when these were presented for a duration of 2,000 ms. These results argue for an involvement of 5-HTTLPR in cognitive processing of threatening stimuli and thus, underpin its general role for individual differences in negative affect.

Physical Activity, Negative Affect, and the Reflex Physiology of Emotion

Physical activity participation is consistently associated with improved mood in both healthy individuals and those diagnosed with a mood or anxiety disorder. Yet there is little evidence to support that physical activity affects the physiological outputs from brain systems that govern emotion. Because changes in emotion presumably underlie changes in mood, it is important to examine the physiology of emotion in the context of physical activity participation as well as individual differences in negative affect. PURPOSE: To examine the effects of physical activity history in the modulation of emotional reactivity among individuals with low and high negative affect. METHOD: Participants (n = 72) were selected from Introduction to Psychology classes based on their scores for depression, trait anxiety and physical activity history on a pre-screening questionnaire. To verify affective and physical activity status, upon arrival to the laboratory participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Blair's (1984) 7-day physical activity history interview. Each participant was then prepared for the electromyographic recording of the corrugator supercilii (facial frowning) and orbicularis oculi (eye blink) muscles, then viewed valence-homogeneous blocks of 36 pleasant, 36 neutral, and 36 unpleasant pictures in a counterbalanced order. Each picture was shown for 6 seconds, all 36 pictures in a block were presented consecutively, and there was a 3-min inter-block interval. Startle eye blink responses were elicited and recorded every 30 seconds after the delivery of a loud (95 dB) brief (50 ms) acoustic stimulus through headphones. RESULTS: Preliminary analyses showed that those who reported high negative did not show the expected increase in facial frowning during the unpleasant pictures; however, this was evident only in those who also reported low levels of physical activity. Furthermore, this lack of unpleasant responsiveness, compared to the normally physically active and low negative affect participants, persisted throughout the pictures to approximately 60 seconds after the unpleasant pictures had ceased. In addition, individuals with low negative affect who also reported normal levels of physical activity responded with less facial frowning during the viewing of neutral pictures compared to those with high negative affect and/or low levels of physical activity. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that individuals with high negative affect may fail to respond appropriately to unpleasant affective stimuli, and that being physically active may promote a healthy emotional response system. Support: NIH F32-MH066601.