Emotional Empathy in the Social Regulation of Distress: A Dyadic Approach.

Although research suggests distressed individuals benefit from others' empathy, it is unclear how an individual's level of empathy influences dyadic responses during emotional situations. In the current study, female participants ( = 140; 70 dyads) were paired with a stranger. One member of each dyad (the experiencer) was randomly assigned to undergo a stressful task and disclose negative personal experiences to their partner (the listener).

Development of a brief online intervention to address aggression in the context of emotion-related impulsivity: Evidence from a wait-list controlled trial.

Trait-like tendencies to respond impulsively to emotion, labelled emotion-related impulsivity, are robustly related to aggression. We developed and tested an online intervention to address emotion-related impulsivity and aggression. The 6-session intervention focused on behavioral techniques shown to decrease arousal and aggression, supplemented with implementation intentions and smartphone prompts to facilitate skills transfer into daily life.

A brief online intervention to address aggression in the context of emotion-related impulsivity for those treated for bipolar disorder: Feasibility, acceptability and pilot outcome data.

Although aggression is related to manic symptoms among those with bipolar disorder, new work suggests that some continue to experience elevations of aggression after remission. This aggression post-remission appears related to a more general tendency to respond impulsively to states of emotion, labelled emotion-related impulsivity. We recently developed the first intervention designed to address aggression in the context of emotion-related impulsivity.

Defeatist performance beliefs in college students: Transdiagnostic associations with symptoms and daily goal-directed behavior.

Defeatist performance beliefs are prevalent and linked to decreased motivation in people with psychological disorders. In this study, we investigated whether defeatist performance beliefs were associated with transdiagnostic psychopathology risk in people with no history of formal diagnosis and whether defeatist performance beliefs impacted engagement in daily goal-directed behavior. One hundred and two college students completed self-report measures of defeatist performance beliefs and risk for depression, mania, and psychosis.

Positive urgency and emotional reactivity: Evidence for altered responding to positive stimuli.

Positive urgency, defined as a tendency to become impulsive during positive affective states, has gained support as a form of impulsivity that is particularly important for understanding psychopathology. Despite this, little is known about the emotional mechanisms and correlates of this form of impulsivity. We hypothesized that positive urgency would be related to greater emotional reactivity in response to a positive film clip.

Negative symptoms in psychometrically defined schizotypy: The role of depressive symptoms.

People high in schizotypy, a risk factor for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, can have negative symptoms, including diminished experience of motivation/pleasure (MAP) and emotional expressivity (EXP). Additionally, people high in schizotypy often report elevated depressive symptoms, which are also associated with diminished MAP and EXP. In this study, we examined whether negative symptoms were related to schizotypy above and beyond the presence of depressive symptoms.

Positive urgency is related to difficulty inhibiting prepotent responses.

Positive urgency, the tendency to respond impulsively to positive affective states, has been linked to many psychopathologies, but little is known about mechanisms underpinning this form of impulsivity. We examined whether the Positive Urgency Measure (PUM) related to higher scores on performance-based measures of impulsivity and cognitive control that were administered after a positive mood induction. Undergraduates (n = 112) completed the self-report PUM, several positive mood inductions, and behavioral measures of impulsivity and cognitive control.

Defeatist Performance Beliefs, Negative Symptoms, and Functional Outcome in Schizophrenia: A Meta-analytic Review.

Negative symptoms are a strong predictor of poor functional outcome in people with schizophrenia. Unfortunately there are few effective interventions for either negative symptoms or functional outcome, despite the identification of potential mechanisms. Recent research, however, has elucidated a new potential mechanism for negative symptoms and poor functional outcome: defeatist performance beliefs (DPB), or negative thoughts about one's ability to successfully perform goal-directed behavior that can prevent behavior initiation and engagement.

Do people with schizophrenia have difficulty anticipating pleasure, engaging in effortful behavior, or both?

Motivation deficits are common in schizophrenia, but little is known about underlying mechanisms, or the specific goals that people with schizophrenia set in daily life. Using neurobiological heuristics of pleasure anticipation and effort assessment, we examined the quality of activities and goals of 47 people with and 41 people without schizophrenia, utilizing ecological momentary assessment. Participants were provided cell phones and called 4 times a day for 7 days, and were asked about their current activities and anticipation of upcoming goals.

Daily life evidence of environment-incongruent emotion in schizophrenia.

Researchers have recently hypothesized that negative emotion in positive situations may be one mechanism for understanding emotion dysfunction in schizophrenia. Using ecological momentary assessment, we examined the relationship between emotion experience and environmental context in the daily lives of participants with and without schizophrenia. Participants with (n=47) and without schizophrenia (n=41) were provided a cellular telephone and called four times a day for one week.

A validation of well-being and happiness surveys for administration via the Internet.

Internet research is appealing because it is a cost- and time-efficient way to access a large number of participants; however, the validity of Internet research for important subjective well-being (SWB) surveys has not been adequately assessed. The goal of the present study was to validate the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X; Watson & Clark, 1994), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS; Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999) for use on the Internet. This study compared the quality of data collected using paper-based (paper-and-pencil version in a lab setting), computer-based (Web-based version in a lab setting), and Internet (Web-based version on a computer of the participant's choosing) surveys for these three measures of SWB.