Negative Affect Intensity Research Articles

Using information communication technologies (ICTs) for motivating female adolescents to exercise/run in their leisure time

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a 12-week intervention program on motivational climate in physical education (PE) lessons, on female adolescents' self-efficacy for independent training in leisure time, and on physical fitness measures. Participants were 154 female high school students divided into three groups: (1) received a program to enhance motivation for physical activity (PA) during PE lessons and in leisure time, using the internet; (2) followed the regular curriculum in addition to self-report at the end of each lesson, using smartphone application; (3) engaged in standard PE lesson activities. A self-efficacy for training questionnaire, a motivational climate questionnaire, and tests of physical fitness were administered. Findings indicated improvement pre-post in motivational climate and in the physical fitness measures, and a decline in the intensity of negative affect towards running, in all three groups. Incorporating innovative ways, and promoting self-accountability using self-documentation encourage students to exercise during their leisure time.

Parental Flooding During Conflict: A Psychometric Evaluation of a New Scale.

Parents who are overwhelmed by the intensity and aversive nature of child negative affect - those who are experiencing flooding - may be less likely to react effectively and instead may focus on escaping the aversive situation, disciplining either overly permissively or punitively to escape quickly from child negative affect. However, there are no validated self-report measures of the degree to which parents experience flooding, impeding the exploration of these relations. Thus, we created and evaluated the Parent Flooding scale (PFS), assessing the extent to which parents believe their children's negative affect during parent-child conflicts is unexpected, overwhelming and distressing. We studied its factorial validity, reliability, and concurrent validity in a community sample of 453 couples with 3- to 7-year-old children (51.9% girls) recruited via random digit dialing. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated a one-factor solution with excellent internal consistency. Test-retest stability over an average of 5.6months was high. Concurrent validity was suggested by the associations of flooding with parents' aggression toward their children, overreactive and lax discipline, parenting satisfaction, and parents' anger, as well as with child externalizing behavior and negative affect. Incrementally concurrent validity analyses indicated that flooding was a unique predictor of mothers' and fathers' overreactive discipline and fathers' parent-child aggression and lax discipline, over and above the contributions of parents' anger and children's negative affect. The present results support the psychometric validity of the PFS.

Effects of daily pain intensity, positive affect, and individual differences in pain acceptance on work goal interference and progress.

Multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of morning pain intensity and morning positive and negative affect on pain's interference with afternoon work goal pursuit and with evening work goal progress in a community sample of 132 adults who completed a 21-day diary. The moderating effects of pain acceptance and pain catastrophizing on the associations between morning pain intensity and afternoon work goal interference were also tested. Results revealed that the positive relationship between morning pain intensity and pain's interference with work goal pursuit was significantly moderated by pain acceptance, but not by pain catastrophizing. Both morning pain intensity and positive affect exerted significant indirect effects on evening work goal progress through the perception of pain's interference with work goal pursuit in the afternoon. Furthermore, the mediated effect of morning pain on evening work goal progress was significant when pain acceptance was at the grand mean and 1 SD below the grand mean, but not when pain acceptance was 1 SD above the grand mean. Thus, it appears that high pain acceptance significantly attenuates pain's capacity to disrupt work goal pursuit. Moreover, morning positive affect appears to operate as a protective factor. Additional interpretations and potential explanations for some inconsistent outcomes are discussed along with limitations, clinical implications, and suggestions for future studies.

Live happily live in hiding (from our affect): Alexithymia Influences affect intensity and affect frequency ratings in men

Alexithymia has been frequently studied in the context of negative affect frequency but rarely in the context of positive affect frequency or in the context of affect intensity. However, affect intensity and frequency, even if they are independent, are generally confounded due to an overlap in items wording (tapping both dimensions). The aim of the study was to examine the incremental validity of alexithymia for predicting both affect intensity and frequency, regarding positive and negative valence. Two hundred and fifty five students fulfilled measurements for alexithymia, affect intensity and affect frequency. Results showed that the factor “Difficulty identifying feelings” is related to higher positive and negative affect intensity, as well as to negative affect frequency. Men were also more sensitive to positive affect intensity and frequency if they scored higher on alexithymia. They experienced less often positive affect, but the intensity of their affect was more intense. Conversely, alexithymia did not influence women's affect intensity or affect frequency. Thus, alexithymia factors are associated with specific patterns of affect intensity and frequency, highlighting an overall deficit in the processing of emotions with contrasting patterns regarding gender.

Role of emotional competence in residents’ simulated emergency care performance: a mixed-methods study

ObjectiveEmergency situations can generate negative affect in medical personnel, which can negatively impact on the quality of care. Several studies have demonstrated a positive influence of emotional competence (EC) on...

Facing Sorrow as a Group Unites. Facing Sorrow in a Group Divides.

Collective gatherings foster group cohesion through providing occasion for emotional sharing among participants. However, prior studies have failed to disentangle two processes that are involved in emotional sharing: 1) focusing shared attention on the same emotion-eliciting event and 2) actively sharing one’s experiences and disclosing one’s feelings to others. To date, it has remained untested if shared attention influences group cohesion independent of active emotional sharing. Our experiment investigated the effect of shared versus individual attention on cohesion in groups of strangers. We predicted that differences in group cohesion as called forth by shared vs. individual attention are most pronounced when experiencing highly arousing negative affect, in that the act of experiencing intensely negative affect with others buffers negative affect’s otherwise detrimental effect on group cohesion. Two-hundred sixteen participants were assembled in groups of 3 to 4 people to either watch an emotion-eliciting film simultaneously on a common screen or to watch the same emotion-eliciting film clip on a laptop in front of each group member using earphones. The film clips were chosen to elicit either highly arousing negative affect or one of three other affective states representing the other poles in Russel’s Circumplex model of affect. We examined self-reported affective and cognitive group cohesion and a behavioral measure of group cohesion. Results support our buffer-hypothesis, in that experiencing intense negative affect in unison leads to higher levels of group cohesion than experiencing this affect individually despite the group setting. The present study demonstrates that shared attention to intense negative emotional stimuli affects group cohesion independently of active emotional sharing.

Fading Affect Bias in the Philippines: Confirmation of the FAB in Positive and Negative Memories but Not for Death Memories

SummaryEmotions associated with memories for the loss of a loved one and for negative events in general decrease in intensity more than memories associated with positive events, a phenomenon known as the fading affect bias (FAB). We tested whether FAB was cross‐culturally evident by collecting positive, negative, and memories for the deaths of loved ones from Filipinos. Memories were coded as violent/nonviolent and resolved/unresolved, and we predicted that resolved memories should show greater fading and that affective details should be lower in those memory accounts. FAB analyses revealed that negative affective intensity faded while positive affect remained constant, supporting FAB for positive and negative memories. However, there was no evidence of FAB in Filipinos' death memories. Filipinos' positive memories were distributed from the period of the reminiscence bump and focused on themes of childbirth and marriage, while negative and death memories did not cluster at any period of life.Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

What about the “ups and downs” in our daily life? The influence of affective instability on mental health

Although affective instability is considered to be a crucial factor for mental disorders, research on affective instability and mental health is still rare. The aim of the present study was to investigate affective instability and mental health operationalized by the degree of psychological distress and life satisfaction. Using ecological momentary assessment, we investigated affective intensity and instability in a general population sample (n = 218). Psychological distress and life satisfaction were examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In general, we found that positive affect was more variable than negative affect. When we accounted for the overlap between variables, our findings demonstrated that besides the effects of intensity in negative affect and positive affect, higher positive affective instability was related to better concurrent mental health. Longitudinally, negative affective intensity was a decisive factor in the development of mental health. In sum, our findings revealed that affective instability was not dysfunctional per se. In fact, instability in positive affect seems to be important to achieve mental health.

Emotion Dysregulation and Affective Intensity Mediate the Relationship Between Childhood Abuse and Suicide-Related Behaviors Among Women with Bulimia Nervosa.

Self-harm and suicide attempts occur at elevated rates among individuals with bulimia nervosa, particularly among those who have experienced childhood abuse. This study investigated the potential mediating roles of emotion dysregulation and affective intensity in the relationship between these variables in 125 women with bulimia nervosa. Analyses revealed that emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between sexual and emotional abuse with both self-harm and suicide attempts. Negative affective intensity mediated the relationship between abuse and suicide attempts. The findings may advance the understanding of mechanisms underlying suicide-related behaviors in women with bulimia nervosa who experienced abuse and suggest potential clinical targets.

Emotions experienced at event recall and the self: Implications for the regulation of self-esteem, self-continuity and meaningfulness

The intensity of positive affect elicited by recall of positive events exceeds the intensity of negative affect elicited by recall of negative events (fading affect bias, or FAB). The research described in the present article examined the relation between the FAB and three regulatory goals of the self: esteem, continuity and meaningfulness. The extent to which an event contributed to esteem (Study 1), continuity (Study 2) or meaningfulness (Study 3) was related to positive affect at event recall provoked by positive memories and to negative affect at event recall provoked by negative memories. The relation between affect experienced at recall and the three regulatory goals was bidirectional. The results showcase how individuals use recall for self-regulatory purposes and how they implement self-regulatory goals for positive affect.

Affective Differences Between Psychopathy Variants and Genders in Adjudicated Youth.

The present study used Model-Based Cluster analysis to identify primary and secondary psychopathy variants in a mixed-gender sample of 150 adjudicated adolescents (60 % male; M = 15.2 years old). Distinct primary and secondary psychopathy groups emerged and were entered into a structural equation path model for the purpose of predicting group differences in emotional experiences reported between youth assigned to each variant. Youth characterized by secondary psychopathy reported experiencing significantly more frequent and more intense negative affect than their primary psychopathy counterparts. Frequency and intensity of affect also mediated the association between psychopathy variants and symptoms of depression, in which the secondary psychopathy group endorsed significantly more symptoms of major depression than the primary psychopathy group. Overall, these results suggest that different causal processes and affective experiences may underlie distinct trajectories to primary and secondary psychopathy variants in adjudicated adolescents. As such, youths comprising the secondary subtype of psychopathy may be more aptly considered "callous and emotional," compared with the primary subtype who present as prototypically callous and unemotional.

Complex Interrelations of Trait Vulnerabilities in Mothers and their Infants

Despite the developmental and clinical relevance of this area of inquiry, no studies have examined the interrelations of trait vulnerabilities in the affective, behavioral, and interpersonal domains between mothers and their infants. Thus, this study examined the interrelations of three trait vulnerabilities (i.e., negative affective intensity, impulsivity, and insecure attachment) between mothers and their 12‐ to 23‐month‐old infants, focusing in particular on the unique and interactive influence of these maternal trait vulnerabilities on the expression of and precursors to these traits in their infants. Mother–infant dyads (N = 101) completed several laboratory procedures, and mothers reported on their own and their infants' expressions of the trait vulnerabilities of interest. Findings from this study provide preliminary evidence for intergenerational relations between these traits and suggest that it is the confluence of trait vulnerabilities in mothers that relates to the early expression of some of these traits in infants.

Emotion regulation deficits in intermittent explosive disorder.

Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a psychiatric disorder characterized by repeated acts of affective aggression. Despite the diagnostic emphasis on the failure to control aggressive impulses, there is little research on affective processes and emotion regulation in IED; however, this research suggests possible dysfunctions in experiences of emotional intensity and lability. The hypothesis in the present study was that compared to individuals with other psychiatric disorders, and psychologically healthy individuals, individuals with IED experience greater negative affect intensity and emotional lability. Participants (N = 373) consisted of 202 individuals diagnosed with IED, 68 non-IED psychiatric controls (PC), and 103 healthy volunteers (HV). Emotion regulation was assessed using the General Behavior Inventory, the Affective Lability Scale, and the Affect Intensity Measure. Results showed that IED participants reported greater negative affect intensity and greater emotional lability across several emotion domains (e.g., anger, anxiety, depression) than PC and HV participants. These findings suggest that IED is characterized by more global emotion regulation deficits than those associated with anger alone. Aggr. Behav. 41:25-33 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Inhibitory control in people who self-injure: Evidence for impairment and enhancement

Self-injury is often motivated by the desire to reduce the intensity of negative affect. This suggests that people who self-injure may have difficulty suppressing negative emotions. We sought to determine whether self-injuring individuals exhibit impaired inhibitory control over behavioral expressions of negative emotions, when responding to images containing aversive emotional content. Self-injuring participants and healthy controls completed a Stop Signal Task in which they were asked to judge the valence (positive or negative) of images. Three types of images depicted emotional content (neutral/positive/negative). A fourth type depicted self-cutting. An unpredictable “stop signal” occurred on some trials, indicating that participants should inhibit their responses to images presented on those trials. Compared to controls, self-injuring participants showed poorer inhibition to images depicting negative emotional content. Additionally, they showed enhanced inhibition to self-injury images. In fact, self-injuring participants showed comparable response inhibition to cutting images and positive images, whereas controls showed worse inhibition to cutting images compared to all other types of images. Consistent with the emotion regulation hypothesis of self-injury, people who self-injure showed impaired negative emotional response inhibition. Self-injuring individuals also demonstrated superior control over responses to stimuli related to self-injury, which may have important clinical implications.

Risk for Suicide Among Treatment Seeking Adolescents: The Role of Positive and Negative Affect Intensity

Risk for suicide among adolescents remains a serious public health concern. Despite the relevance of individual differences in affective experience to clinically relevant problems generally, and risk for suicide more specifically, relatively little work has evaluated affect intensity in relation to adolescent risk for suicide. To address this notable gap in the literature, the current study evaluated the unique associations between dimensions of affect intensity and risk for suicide in a sample of 165 treatment-seeking adolescents ages 13–17 years. As predicted, low positive affectivity and high negative affect intensity accounted for unique variance in adolescent suicide risk. Findings are discussed in terms of the theoretical and applied implications of both positive and negative affect intensity in the context of adolescent risk for suicide.

Inter-episode affective intensity and instability: Predictors of depression and functional impairment in bipolar disorder

Background and objectivesDysregulated affect is a hallmark feature of acute episodes of bipolar disorder (BD) and persists during inter-episode periods. Its contribution to course of illness is not yet known. The present report examines the prospective influence of inter-episode affect dysregulation on symptoms and functional impairment in BD. MethodsTwenty-seven participants diagnosed with inter-episode bipolar I disorder completed daily measures of negative and positive affect for 49 days (±8 days) while they remained inter-episode. One month following this daily assessment period, symptom severity interviews and a measure of functional impairment were administered by telephone. ResultsMore intense negative affect and positive affect during the inter-episode period were associated with higher depressive, but not manic, symptoms at the one-month follow-up assessment. More intense and unstable negative affect, and more unstable positive affect, during the inter-episode period were associated with greater impairment in home and work functioning at the follow-up assessment. All associations remained significant after controlling for concurrent symptom levels. LimitationsThe findings need to be confirmed in larger samples with longer follow-up periods. A more comprehensive assessment of functional impairment is also warranted. ConclusionsThe findings suggest that a persistent affective dysregulation between episodes of BD may be an important predictor of depression and functional impairment. Monitoring daily affect during inter-episode periods could allow for a more timely application of interventions that aim to prevent or reduce depressive symptoms and improve functioning for individuals with BD.

The Distinct Affective Consequences of Psychological Distance and Construal Level

Much of the existing literature on psychological distance has focused on cognitive outcomes, such as changes in construal level, largely framing affective processes out of the discussion. The current research examines the distinct influences of psychological distance and construal level on affect-based evaluation. In a first set of experiments, psychological distance (vs. closeness) reduces the intensity of felt affect, while abstract (vs. concrete) thinking increases the positivity of one's thoughts. In a second set of experiments, psychological distance improves evaluations of negative experiences by reducing the intensity of negative affect but hurts evaluations of positive experiences by reducing the intensity of positive affect. By contrast, abstract thinking increases positivity, improving evaluations for both positive and negative experiences alike. These findings have implications for marketing communication strategy and existing theories of psychological distance.

PENGARUH KEPUASAN KERJA TERHADAP INTENSI TURNOVER PADA GURU DI YAYASAN PGRI CIPAYUNG JAKARTA TIMUR AYU SURYANI

The purpose of this research is to gain proper knowledge (legal, valid and true), trustworthy, dependable (reliable) concerning the influence of intense job satisfaction on turnover of teachers in East Jakarta Cipayung PGRI Foundation. This study used a survey, which studied data from samples taken from a populace. Collecting data using a Likert scale questionnaire to variable job satisfaction and turnover intention teacher in East Jakarta Cipayung PGRI Foundation. The sample in this study are all teachers in East Jakarta Cipayung PGRI Foundation (Saturation Sampling). This study uses linear regression analysis. The result is the satisfaction worked intense negative affect turnover. That is, the higher the job satisfaction obtained, the lower turnover intense. In addition, using the f test to determine the significance of the variable to Y produces f of 4.623 with p <0.05, which means there are significant effect all dimensions of job satisfaction on turnover intense. 0.47 shows the determination is meant the proportion of variance explained by the intense turnover entire dimension job satisfaction. The conclusion of this study is that there is significant relationship between the variables of job satisfaction on turnover intention variable. The higher satisfaction received by the teacher, the lower the intention Turnover. So are suggested every teacher should work in a professional manner in order to increase job satisfaction and ultimately reduce intense turnover
 Keywords: Job Satisfaction, Turnover Intention

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of a modified Positive and Negative Affect Schedule including a direction scale (PANAS-D) among French athletes

ObjectivesThe goal of these studies was to provide validity and reliability evidence of a modified Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) including a direction scale (PANAS-D). Study 1 tested the validity and reliability of the PANAS-D to measure both intensity and direction of affects. Study 2 examined the relationships between direction of affects and selected variables (i.e., coping, attainment of achievement goals and sport satisfaction) by controlling for intensity of affects. MethodA total of 306 and 296 athletes (studies 1 and 2) completed the PANAS-D and other self-report questionnaires. Data were analysed with reliability, confirmatory factor analyses (study 1) and correlational analyses (studies 1 and 2). DesignCross-sectional with self-reported questionnaires. ResultsIn study 1, the 4-factor structure of the PANAS-D (intensity and direction of positive affect and negative affect) fitted the data adequately. Multiple-group CFAs showed that PANAS-D was partially invariant across the two measurement occasions (before and after competition). The patterns of relationships between PANAS-D, attainment of achievement goals and coping provided evidence for the criterion-related validity of the PANAS-D. In study 2, direction of positive affect and negative affect were associated with selected outcomes (i.e., coping, attainment of sport achievement goals, and/or sport satisfaction) after intensity of these affective states were held constant. ConclusionsThis study provided support for the reliability and validity of the PANAS-D (study 1) and the incremental validity of the direction of affective states (study 2), supporting the distinction between athletes' intensity and direction of affective states.

A test of the empirical network surrounding affective instability and the degree to which it is independent from neuroticism.

Affective instability (AI) is as a central component of a number of psychiatric disorders, but it has received relatively little empirical attention as an individual construct. The goal of the current study was to study AI in the context of a broad empirical network of relevant constructs and compare its pattern of relations with those generated by trait neuroticism, both of which were assessed using both self- and informant reports. In a sample of 343 college students, the present study examined the correlations generated by an AI factor (derived from a factor analysis of relevant scales) in comparison to neuroticism in relation to personality and etiological and outcome variables. An exploratory factor analysis revealed a one-factor structure of AI related to the experience of intense and changeable negative affect and subsequent physical and behavioral consequences. The correlations generated by self- and informant reports of AI with these external criteria were almost perfectly correlated with the correlations demonstrated by self- and informant reports of neuroticism. Self- and informant reports of AI generated a pattern of results consistent with its role in a number of psychological disorders that are associated with substantial impairment. The current data suggest that AI might be best conceived of as largely overlapping with neuroticism rather than as a distinct construct.