Positive Emotional Outcomes Research Articles

The Impact of Cancer on Psychological and Social Outcomes

Cancer is now the biggest cause of mortality worldwide. Although the debilitating physical symptoms of cancer have long been known, the psychological and social impacts of cancer have become the subject of examination only relatively recently. The psychological outcomes that have been examined are primarily negative emotional variables, e.g., anxiety, but emerging research has focused on positive emotional variables, e.g., post‐traumatic growth, or cognitive outcomes. In this article, we provide a synthesis of reviews that have addressed the psychosocial impact of cancer. The framework for this synthesis is provided by a conceptualisation in which the presence of cancer impacts on psychosocial outcomes either directly or via mediating variables, including physical symptoms and treatment, and that this effect may be moderated by several variables, some characteristic of the person with cancer (demographic or personality‐related variables) and some characteristic of their environment (social support and medical variables). We also briefly examine the impact of cancer on the broader family unit following cancer diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and bereavement. We conclude that the heterogeneity of the cancer experience highlights the need for theoretically driven research and consistency in measurement approaches to determine mechanisms by which cancer exerts influence on psychosocial outcomes. This would allow development and delivery of targeted psychological interventions and a clearer delineation of the roles of the various parties, including clinical psychologists, family members and policymakers.

Social Daydreaming and Adjustment: An Experience-Sampling Study of Socio-Emotional Adaptation During a Life Transition

Estimates suggest that up to half of waking life is spent daydreaming; that is, engaged in thought that is independent of, and unrelated to, one’s current task. Emerging research indicates that daydreams are predominately social suggesting that daydreams may serve socio-emotional functions. Here we explore the functional role of social daydreaming for socio-emotional adjustment during an important and stressful life transition (the transition to university) using experience-sampling with 103 participants over 28 days. Over time, social daydreams increased in their positive characteristics and positive emotional outcomes; specifically, participants reported that their daydreams made them feel more socially connected and less lonely, and that the content of their daydreams became less fanciful and involved higher quality relationships. These characteristics then predicted less loneliness at the end of the study, which, in turn was associated with greater social adaptation to university. Feelings of connection resulting from social daydreams were also associated with less emotional inertia in participants who reported being less socially adapted to university. Findings indicate that social daydreaming is functional for promoting socio-emotional adjustment to an important life event. We highlight the need to consider the social content of stimulus-independent cognitions, their characteristics, and patterns of change, to specify how social thoughts enable socio-emotional adaptation.

Building Knowledge: The Concept of Care

Aim and Objectives: The aim of this article is to explore whether the specific levels of caring described in Swanson’s Middle Range Caring Theory which include characteristics of caring, people’s concerns and commitments underlying caring, conditions that enhance/inhibit caring and consequences of caring and non-caring could be used in categorizing findings from two literature reviews investigating the concept of care. Background: Nursing has a long legacy as a caring/healing profession where caring is increasingly posited as one of the core concepts in modern nursing science. However, the meanings given to the concept of care remain elusive, ambiguous and unclear. Design: Two systematic literature reviews. Method: Twenty-nine articles based on strategic inclusion and exclusion criteria were synthesized. Data was retrieved from CINAHL, Medline, Embase and PsycInfo covering the period 2003-2016. The literature search used the key words care, concept analysis, systematic review, meta-synthesis, meta-analysis and narrative review. Results: Major themes found were related to the following characteristics of caring persons: compassionate, knowledgeable, positive and reflective. Concerns and commitments underlying caring were doing the right thing, connecting, focusing on the others’ experience, acknowledging individual dignity and worth and being present. Conditions that enhanced/inhibited caring were situational constraints, personality traits, communication skills, health problems and organizational features. Consequences of caring and non-caring actions included both positive and negative emotional, spiritual, physical, and social outcomes for patients, families and nurses. Conclusion: The specific levels of caring described in Swanson’s Middle Range Caring Theory are highly suitable for categorizing the findings from three literature reviews on the concept of care. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Swanson’s Middle Range Caring Theory can be used to guide clinical practice and encourage an individual approach to care. It has been shown to contain clear, comprehensible language in its theoretical basis; this encourages use in clinical practice.

Family and neighbourhood risk and children's problem behaviour: The moderating role of intelligence

General cognitive ability ('general intelligence') has been shown to buffer the effects of family adversity and poverty on emotional and behavioural problems in school age children. Yet, little is known about whether it can protect younger children or change the problem trajectories of at-risk children. We modelled simultaneously the effects of family poverty, neighbourhood poverty and adverse family events on children's trajectories of emotional and behavioural problems at ages 3, 5 and 7. We then tested the role of general intelligence both in changing the trajectories of problems and in buffering the effects of these risk factors at each age, and explored gender differences in its expected protective effects. We analyzed data on 16,916 children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. General intelligence was derived from principal components analysis of several cognitive ability measures at ages 3, 5 and 7. Although general intelligence was not associated with the growth of at-risk children's problems over time, it was associated with the level of positive emotional and behavioural outcomes, and conferred concurrent protection from risk. At age 5, poor children with higher general intelligence had fewer emotional problems than similarly poor children with lower intelligence. Children exposed to family adversity were less likely to have emotional problems at any age if they had higher general intelligence. Higher general intelligence was also related to fewer behavioural problems for children experiencing family adversity at age 5, but not at ages 3 or 7. General intelligence moderated the effect of neighbourhood poverty on behavioural problems at ages 3 and 7, and its effect on emotional problems at age 5. In general, the protective effects of general intelligence, especially for emotional outcomes, applied mainly to girls. General intelligence appears to assist children in building resilience to both family and neighbourhood risk across childhood.

Attachment and Family Processes in Children's Psychological Adjustment in Middle Childhood.

This study examined the links between parent-child attachment, whole family interaction patterns, and child emotional adjustment and adaptability in a sample of 86 community families with children between the ages of 8 and 11years. Family interactions were observed and coded with the System for Coding Interactions and Family Functioning (SCIFF; Lindahl, 2001). Both parents and each target child completed the appropriate form of the Behavior Assessment System for Children-2nd Edition (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). Target children also completed the Children's Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CCSQ; Yunger, Corby, & Perry, 2005). Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that Secure mother-child attachment was a robust predictor of children's emotional symptoms, but father-child attachment strategies were not significant independent predictors. Positive Affect in family interactions significantly increased the amount of variance accounted for in children's emotional symptoms. In addition, Family Cohesion and Positive Affect moderated the relationship between father-child attachment and children's emotional symptoms. When data from all BASC-2 informants (mother, father, child) were considered simultaneously and multidimensional constructs were modeled, mother-child security directly predicted children's adjustment and adaptive skills, but the influence of father-child security was fully mediated through positive family functioning. Results of the current study support the utility of considering dyadic attachment and family interaction patterns conjointly when conceptualizing and fostering positive emotional and behavioral outcomes in children.

Preparatory behavior for condom use among heterosexual young men: a longitudinal mediation model.

Motivation is not sufficient to actually use condoms, as self-regulatory processes are needed to translate motivation into action. Buying condoms and carrying them constitute preparatory behaviors that may serve as proximal predictors of action. Whether or not such preparatory behaviors operate as mediators between intention and action within a broader behavior change framework has been examined. A sample of 150 heterosexual men between ages 18 and 25 years responded at three points in time to a computer-based survey that assessed behavior as well as social-cognitive antecedents. A structural equation model was specified that included preparatory behaviors and self-efficacy as mediators at Time 2. Preparatory behaviors were the most proximal predictors of condom use, and they were, themselves, predicted by self-efficacy and intention. The latter was partly determined by positive emotional outcome expectancies. To bridge the intention-behavior gap, preparatory behaviors play a mediating role, and they represent a side of planning that constitutes the most proximal predictor of condom use.

A systematic review of psychosocial factors associated with emotional adjustment in in vitro fertilization patients

IVF treatment is usually stressful for patients, but individual differences in emotional response do exist. Differences in the stress response may be related to reproductive outcomes as well as to the development of psychiatric problems. This review collates research exploring which psychosocial factors (e.g. personality traits and coping strategies) are associated with the emotional adjustment of IVF patients. The aim is to reveal what is currently known about risk and protective factors for coping with the stress of IVF treatment and where further enquiry would be most beneficial. The databases, MEDLINE/PUBMED (US National Library of Medicine), PsycINFO (American Psychological Association), Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index) and EMbase, were searched from 1978 to September 2012 using relevant key words. All published peer-reviewed studies exploring associations between psychosocial factors and emotional adjustment outcomes were considered for inclusion. There were 23 studies identified for review. One-third of the psychosocial factors explored were found to be significantly related to emotional adjustment outcome measures. Neuroticism and the use of escapist coping strategies were positively associated with distress by multiple studies. Social support was negatively associated with distress by several studies. A number of other psychosocial variables appear to be associated with distress, including self-criticism, dependency, situation appraisals and attachment style, but these have only been explored by one or two studies at most. There is a paucity of research using positive emotional outcome measures (e.g. well-being, positive affect, happiness or life satisfaction) to quantify emotional adjustment. Whilst some psychosocial variables appear to be consistently associated with distress for IVF patients, two-thirds of the variables tested to date do not appear to be associated with emotional adjustment. This review highlights key psychosocial factors to assist the identification of patients at high risk of psychological distress. These findings highlight at least two psychological factors that may be amenable to alteration with psychological or educational interventions. Future work should explore whether experimental manipulation of such psychosocial factors can provide effective stress reduction in this clinical context.

Abstract P3-11-02: Women with pregnancy-associated early breast cancer achieve improved emotional well-being as a result of their cancer experience

Abstract Background: Pregnancy-associated early breast cancer (PAEBC) has increased in incidence as more women pursue childbearing at an older age. The objective of this study was to measure the impact of diagnosis and treatment on emotional health and evaluate the positive emotional outcomes in a group of women with PAEBC. Methods: Between 1989 and 2010, 81 patients were treated for PAEBC with 5-flurouracil, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide (FAC) chemotherapy. Patients completed the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R), which is a questionnaire that measures subjective distress caused by traumatic events and the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PGI), which measures positive outcomes after a traumatic event. Results: Of the 81 women, 53% (43/81) completed the IES-R and 44% (36/81) also completed the PGI. The time since diagnosis ranged from 6 months to greater than 5 years. The median age of the participants was 33 years (range 26-43 years). Of the 43 patients who completed the IES-R, 91% (39/43) did not use avoidance as a primary coping strategy; they felt well equipped to deal with feelings about their diagnosis and treatment. Of patients who inadvertently thought about their diagnosis, 70% (30/43) noted that they avoided becoming upset by their thoughts. Less than 10% (9/43) of patients surveyed felt apathetic towards their diagnosis and subsequent treatment. In terms of positive outcomes, 94% (33/36) felt they were enabled to depend on others in times of crises and felt a greater appreciation for people and their kindness following their diagnosis of PAEBC. Eighty-six percent (31/36) had changed their priorities about what is important in life, felt more compassionate towards others, and felt a greater appreciation for the value of their own life. In addition, 86% (30/36) of patients indicated that they had discovered their inner strength and felt more inclined to change things in their life. Finally, 75% of patients surveyed felt they had developed a stronger religious faith because of their experience and had a better understanding of spiritual matters. The majority of patients reported improvement in interpersonal skills – placing more effort into their relationships and sharing a greater sense of closeness with others. Conclusions: Although women who experience PAEBC are thought to be at high risk for experiencing psychosocial distress, these findings suggest that most do not suffer negative emotional consequences; in fact, these data suggest that they often achieve improved emotional well-being as a result of their cancer experience. It is possible that these women have better emotional outcomes because they have successfully carried a pregnancy while facing a life-threatening illness. Comparisons to other premenopausal breast cancer survivors will be crucial in interpreting these findings. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P3-11-02.

Mental Health and Posttraumatic Growth in Civilians Exposed to Ongoing Terror

This study investigated negative and positive emotional outcomes among civilians exposed to ongoing terror. The measures included direct, indirect, and subjective exposure to terror; human resources; posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms; distress; and posttraumatic growth (PTG). The results indicate that whereas direct exposure is not related to the outcomes, exposure of family members to terror is positively related to PTS and to PTG. Path analysis revealed an indirect relationship between subjective exposure and PTG mediated by PTS, suggesting the role of emotional suffering in inducing growth. Clinical implications of incorporating PTG strategies into the treatment of terror victims are discussed.

The role of musical possible selves in supporting subjective well-being in later life

There is now an accepted need for initiatives that support older people's well-being. There is increasing evidence that active engagement with music has the potential to contribute to this. This paper explores the relationship between musical possible selves and subjective well-being in later life. The research reported here formed part of a larger project that focused on how active music-making could support positive cognitive, social and emotional outcomes. The research comprised three UK case study sites, each offering diverse musical activities. A sample aged 50+ (total N = 398), some of whom were novices and others who are more experienced, was recruited to complete questionnaires that included open questions and measures of well-being. In addition, individual interviews (n = 29) and focus groups (n = 15) were carried out, where participants in musical activities reflected on the meaning and function of music-making in their lives. The interpretation presented here suggests that through music many older people found a means by which they were able to formulate well-understood and highly esteemed versions of their possible future selves. This, in turn, may have been a significant factor in helping to navigate the process of ageing in later life with enhanced subjective well-being, including a sense of purpose, a significant degree of autonomy and a strong sense of social affirmation.

Those who laugh are defenseless: How humor breaks resistance to influence.

Three experiments illustrate that humor in advertisements prevents the development of negative brand associations due to resistance. Previous research on humor in advertising suggested that humor can counter negative responses during ad processing, but less is known about the effect of humor on the development of negative brand associations in memory. Brand associations are important because there is often a time delay between ad exposure and brand decisions. We separately manipulated two typical aspects of humor processing, that is, distraction and positive affect, and examined their effects on the development of respectively negative and positive brand associations. All experiments were conducted with university students as participants. The results showed that resistance causes negative brand associations (Experiments 1 and 2), and humor prevents the development of these negative brand associations more than nondistracting positive stimuli and neutral stimuli (Experiment 2 and 3). The prevention of negative brand associations was caused by the distractive properties of humor. Irrespective of resistance, the positive affect engendered by humor enhanced positive brand associations. Experiment 3 showed that distraction and positive affect in humor uniquely contribute to brand preference. Together, these results illustrate that the effect of humor on resistance follows a two-step process: humor forestalls the development of negative brand associations because of its distractive properties (cognitive mechanism), and engenders positive brand associations because of its positive emotional outcomes (affective mechanism). These effects of humor on brand associations jointly promote brand preference.

It’s not all bad: Women’s construction and lived experience of positive premenstrual change

Although premenstrual change is invariably pathologized and described as PMS or PMDD, there is evidence that many women experience premenstrual changes positively. This suggests that premenstrual change is both a lived experience and social construction, which is not inevitably positioned as debilitating or distressing. However, previous research has provided little insight into how and why women construct premenstrual change as positive. Accordingly, the present study used a critical realist epistemology and a material-discursive-intrapsychic model to explore women’s construction and lived experience of positive premenstrual change. Drawing on focus groups with 47 women, explanations for positive premenstrual experiences included: ‘positive emotional outcomes’, ‘releasing tension’, ‘increased attractiveness’, ‘legitimacy of self-care’ and ‘indication of menstruation’. Findings not only reinforce reports from previous research that many women experience positive premenstrual changes, but also challenge bio-medical conceptualizations of premenstrual change as inherently negative, with accounts of relational negotiation emphasizing the context-dependent nature of premenstrual change.

Pupils making a difference: enhancing the power of the student peer group to promote positive social, emotional and behavioural outcomes

In this paper, the authors review empirical evidence on the effects of peer groups on social, emotional and behavioural functioning. The paper shows that an understanding of the ways in which peer groups can influence the development of deviance and subvert the positive effects of interventions can be exploited in the promotion of positive social and emotional functioning.

Markers of resilience in new police officers: Appraisal of potentially traumatizing events.

This article presents data from a longitudinal study of adjustment to policing, specifically examining the role played by exposure to traumatic events prior to entry to the profession. This study aims to explore the impact of a prior traumatic experience on the appraisal of potentially traumatizing events experienced within the policing context. Seventy-eight police constables were followed from point of entry until the completion of 12 months of operational duties. The results suggest the experience of a traumatic event prior to joining the police may facilitate positive emotional outcomes from exposure to adverse events on the job. This article is the first to examine the impact of prior traumatic events on adjustment to the demands of policing in a longitudinal context and suggests that the experience of prior traumatic events can have a positive impact on officer’s capacity to adapt to the challenges of the police role.

The Emotional Consequences of Service Work: An Ethnographic Examination of Hair Salon Workers

This article explores the connections between service work and the everyday lived emotional experiences of hair salon workers. Over the past few years, numerous studies have linked service work with various social psychological outcomes, including well-being, job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, depression, and stress. In an effort to explore the connections between service work and the everyday lived emotional experiences of service workers, original data in the form of nonparticipant field observations and in-depth interviews of 25 hair salon workers were collected in a moderate-sized Midwestern college town. Our findings are generally consistent with the power and status theories of emotion described by Theodore Kemper (1984, 1990, 1991) and Randall Collins (1984, 1990). Customer service interactions are conducive to both positive and negative emotional outcomes. Specifically, complimentary evaluations and the conferral of intimacy favor feelings of pride and happiness, whereas unsatisfactory evaluations and the denial of intimacy contribute to feelings of anger and sadness.

Social information processing, moral reasoning, and emotion attributions: relations with adolescents' reactive and proactive aggression.

Connections between adolescents' social information processing (SIP), moral reasoning, and emotion attributions and their reactive and proactive aggressive tendencies were assessed. One hundred mostly African American and Latino 13- to 18-year-olds from a low-socioeconomic-status (SES) urban community and their high school teachers participated. Reactive aggression was uniquely related to expected ease in enacting aggression, lower verbal abilities, and hostile attributional biases, and most of these connections were mediated by adolescents' attention problems. In contrast, proactive aggression was uniquely related to higher verbal abilities and expectations of more positive emotional and material outcomes resulting from aggression. Discussion focused on the utility of assessing both moral and SIP-related cognitions, and on the potential influence of low-SES, high-risk environments on these findings.

Keeping Families Together: The Importance of Maintaining Mother–Child Contact for Incarcerated Women

Increases in the population of incarcerated women in the United States have resulted in the separation of growing numbers of mothers and children. The negative effects of dividing families have been noted for both the mothers and the children. The current research examines efforts at keeping imprisoned mothers and children connected through a visitation program. Through one-on-one interviews, the women prisoners share their perspectives about how their children are coping with the separation, their concerns for their children, their views of their roles as mothers, and their needs for after release. The women interviewed include participants in a specialized mother– child visitation program and a comparison group of mothers not in the program. The author suggests that keeping mothers and children connected may produce positive behavioral and emotional outcomes for both the mothers and their children that may reduce correctional costs and increase community safety.

The Moderating Role of Autonomy and Control on the Benefits of Written Emotion Expression

Two studies examined the hypothesis that relative to control motivation, autonomy motivation is associated with effective written expression and regulation, leading to positive emotional, physical, and cognitive outcomes over time. Participants viewed a Hiroshima-Nagasaki documentary in each of two sessions. Study 1 showed that dispositionally autonomous participants, particularly those who expressed, had positive well-being, energy, and memory after the second viewing. Study 2 explored benefits of situational motivation by priming autonomy and control. Results showed that dispositionally controlled individuals received the same benefits as autonomous individuals only when primed with autonomy and encouraged to express. Coding of writing content revealed that the benefits of autonomy were mediated by nondefensive and effective emotional processing, as reflected in greater use of self-referencing and cognitive mechanism words and lower use of concrete words. Results support the expectation that autonomy relates to effective expression and emotion regulation, leading to positive functioning over time.

De impact van het publieke antiretrovirale programma op de fysieke en emotionele levenskwaliteit van HIV/AIDS-patiënten in Zuid-Afrika

This study attempted to assess the relationship between short and medium term public sector ART and both physical and emotional health outcomes in the Free State province of South Africa. The first model examined the effects of less than six months of ART on both physical and emotional QoL and of physical QoL on emotional QoL, while controlling for the possibly perturbing influences of inequitable ART distribution. The second model assessed the effects of the next six months of ART by comparing the physical en emotional QoL of patients at baseline and follow-up. First, the findings demonstrate the positive physical and emotional health outcomes of the first six months of ART in the Free State, South Africa. The study suggests that the poorest of the poor are not the first beneficiaries of the public programme. Second, the results show no additional positive effect of the subsequent six months of ART on the emotional and physical QoL of patients.

On the value of intrinsic rather than traditional achievement goals for performing artists: a short-term prospective study

Educational researchers have examined the effect of achievement goals on student performance, and suggest that both mastery goals and performance-approach goals are beneficial, whereas performance-avoidance goals are harmful. Recent research proposes that these results may not be generalized in the domain of music. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relation of performance approach, performance avoidance, mastery and intrinsic goals to the end-of-year public performance of 129 music, dance and acting conservatory students. Results demonstrated that both types of performance goals (approach and avoidance) were associated with negative emotional outcomes, and that only intrinsic goals were associated with positive performance and emotional outcomes. Mastery goals were unrelated to outcomes in this sample. Intrinsic goals associated with aesthetic expression and enjoyment seemed to be particularly helpful for performing artists.