Multiple sclerosis and self-alienation: a study based on self and others representations.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. MS causes many changes in the lives of its patients, forcing them to renegotiate their lives. Part of these changes are related to patients' self- and others- mental representations.

College students' perceptions of concussion: Illness beliefs and masculinity norms predict stigma and willingness to seek treatment.

College students' beliefs and attitudes concerning concussion, and masculinity norms, were examined in relation to stigma and willingness to seek treatment for possible concussion. Beliefs were measured using a revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ). : Participants were 631 undergraduates at a Northeastern university, most of whom were nonathletes with no concussion.

Exposure to conflicting COVID-19 information in undergraduates: Implications for pandemic-related information-seeking and concern, attention, and cognitive workload.

To examine college students' conflicting COVID-19 information exposure, information-seeking, concern, and cognitive functioning. 179 undergraduates were recruited in March-April 2020, and 220 in September 2020 (Samples 1 and 2, respectively). Students completed the Attention Network Test, NASA Task Load Index, and COVID-related questions.

Associations between the late positive potential and PTSD, anxiety, and depressive symptoms among trauma-exposed undergraduates.

Background: The late positive potential (LPP) is a neural marker of attention to emotional stimuli; dysregulations in those attentional processes might contribute to trauma-related psychopathology. Although higher LPP amplitudes to negative images have been found to be associated with anxiety symptoms, results have been mixed regarding depressive and PTSD symptoms, especially among trauma-exposed populations. Further, the relationships between the LPP to positive and neutral images and psychopathology symptoms have been underexamined.

Pathways from exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination to depression: Testing a social-cognitive model.

Rationale And Objective: Interpersonal racial/ethnic discrimination is a risk factor for depression across the lifespan in minoritized racial/ethnic groups. This study tests a model proposing that social cognitive processes, including relational schemas, mediate the link between discrimination and depression. Relational schemas enable individuals to form mental representations of others, reflecting prior social learning and generating expectations about future social relations.

Lay beliefs about the causes and treatment of depression: Tests of measurement models and associations.

Background: There is reason to expect beliefs about depression's causes and treatment to influence use of psychotherapy, but the literature is marked by theoretical, methodological, and empirical inconsistencies. This study assessed the factorial validity of measures of beliefs about depression's causes and formal treatment versus self-management. It also tested the links of causal attributions to general treatment/self-management beliefs and endorsement of specific interventions.

Healthy or not? The impact of conflicting health-related information on attentional resources.

Despite its ubiquity, little is known about the impact of exposure to conflicting health information on cognitive efficiency. We hypothesized that it would reduce attentional capacity, as evidenced by (1) increased response errors during the Attention Network Test (ANT), (2) decreased efficiency of each ANT system (alerting, orienting, execute control), and (3) increased self-reported workload, (4) nutritional confusion and (5) nutritional backlash. A sample of 184 online participants were assigned randomly to read an article containing either congruent or conflicting health information.

Psychosocial predictors of virus and social distancing fears in undergraduate students living in a US COVID-19 "hotspot".

The COVID-19 pandemic is positioned to exact a substantial mental health toll on the global population. Heightened fears of viral contamination and fears of the negative consequences of social distancing (e.g.

Biological causal beliefs and depression stigma: the moderating effects of first- and second-hand experience with depression.

Background: Essentialist theory (ET) links biological attributions for mental illnesses to pessimistic prognostic beliefs and stigma. The commonsense model (CSM) provides a nuanced framework for studying illness beliefs as shaped by experience.

Aims: ET-informed hypotheses linking causal and prognostic beliefs and stigmatizing attitudes concerning depression were tested using CSM constructs with a focus on the moderating effects of self-reported experience with this disorder.

Poincaré plot indices as measures of sympathetic cardiac regulation: Responses to psychological stress and associations with pre-ejection period.

The Poincaré plot is a visual representation of the R-R time series within a Cartesian plane constructed by plotting each R-R interval as a function of the previous one. The plot can be characterized by parameters that quantify the standard deviation (SD) of short- and long-term R-R interval variability (SD1 and SD2, respectively). Claims regarding the use of Poincaré plot analysis as an alternative to conventional time-domain and spectral analytic measures of parasympathetic contributions to heart rate variability (HRV) have been evaluated somewhat extensively.

Dispositional Optimism and Cardiovascular Reactivity Accompanying Anger and Sadness in Young Adults.

Background: Dispositional optimism, a generalized expectation for positive outcomes, appears to promote physical health and well-being, including positive effects on cardiovascular disease outcomes. Mechanisms may involve adaptive responses to psychological stressors that dampen their physiological impact.

Purpose: This study investigated (i) whether individual differences in optimism are associated with attenuated cardiovascular reactivity (CVR); (ii) whether the CVR moderating effect of optimism differs for two stress emotions, anger and sadness; and (iii) whether separate measures of optimism and pessimism, and the more commonly used measure that combines them, differ in their relationships with CVR.

Integrating affective and cognitive correlates of heart rate variability: A structural equation modeling approach.

High frequency heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of neurocardiac communication thought to reflect predominantly parasympathetic cardiac regulation. Low HRV has been associated empirically with clinical and subclinical levels of anxiety and depression and, more recently, high levels of HRV have been associated with better performance on some measures of executive functioning (EF). These findings have offered support for theories proposing HRV as an index measure of a broad, self-regulatory capacity underlying aspects of emotion regulation and executive control.

Self-rated health is associated with the length of stay at the intensive care unit and hospital following cardiac surgery.

Background: Recently, a considerable amount of evidence suggested that anxiety, depression and other psychosocial variables might influence the outcomes of cardiac surgery. This study investigated the relationship between length of stay at the intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital after surgery and different psychosocial variables (e.g.

Mending broken hearts: marriage and survival following cardiac surgery.

Marriage has long been linked to lower risk for adult mortality in population and clinical studies. In a regional sample of patients (n = 569) undergoing cardiac surgery, we compared 5-year hazards of mortality for married persons with those of widowed, separated or divorced, and never married persons using data from medical records and psychosocial interviews. After adjusting for demographics and pre- and postsurgical health, unmarried persons had 1.

Factor structure and longitudinal invariance of the Medical Adherence Report Scale-Asthma.

Adequate assessment of adherence to medical treatment is critical for both research purposes and clinical practice. This study examined the factor structure and longitudinal invariance of the Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS-A10) in a sample of asthmatic patients. We examined longitudinal data from 294 inner-city, adult participants with moderate to severe asthma.

Depressive symptoms, trait aggression, and cardiovascular reactivity to a laboratory stressor.

Background: Depression and anger/aggression-related traits are thought to promote coronary disease, at least in part, through their associations with stress-related cardiovascular processes. It is unclear whether the effects of these factors on cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) are redundant, additive, or synergistic.

Purpose: The main goal of this study was to examine the independent and interactive effects of depressive symptoms and anger/aggression-related traits in promoting CVR.

Trait hostility and ambulatory blood pressure among traffic enforcement agents: the effects of stressful social interactions.

This study investigated the hypothesis that trait hostility is associated with heightened cardiovascular reactivity to potentially stressful social interactions but not to nonsocial activities in the workplace. Participants were 73 (39 women) New York City traffic enforcement agents (TEAs) who patrol the streets and issue summonses for vehicular and parking violations. During their patrols, TEAs face potentially stressful interactions when they encounter motorists and pedestrians who may be angry about receiving summonses.

Measurement invariance of the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire across African-American and Latino adult asthma patients.

Purpose: This study tested the factorial and measurement invariance of the Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (MiniAQLQ) in a sample of Latino and African-American asthmatic patients.

Methods: We used confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to examine data from adult outpatients diagnosed with asthma (n = 265). We proceeded by examining the original factor structure of the MiniAQLQ in the whole sample.

Looking Inside the Black Box of "Attendance at Services": New Measures for Exploring an Old Dimension in Religion and Health Research.

Research in religion and health has spurred new interest in measuring religiousness. Measurement efforts have focused on subjective facets of religiousness such as spirituality and beliefs, and less attention has been paid to congregate aspects, beyond the single item measuring attendance at services. We evaluate some new measures for religious experiences occurring during congregational worship services.

Coping with racism: a selective review of the literature and a theoretical and methodological critique.

Racism is a stressor that contributes to racial/ethnic disparities in mental and physical health and to variations in these outcomes within racial and ethnic minority groups. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss key issues in the study of individual-level strategies for coping with interpersonal racism. We begin with a discussion of the ways in which racism acts as a stressor and requires the mobilization of coping resources.

Framing written emotional expression from a religious perspective: effects on depressive symptoms.

Objective: Previous research has found an inverse association between exposure to emotional trauma and well-being. More recently, studies on written emotional expression found that repeated expression of a traumatic experience is beneficial to physical health. However, possible mechanisms through which written emotional expression may work to influence health are still under investigation.

PERCEIVED RACISM AND NEGATIVE AFFECT: ANALYSES OF TRAIT AND STATE MEASURES OF AFFECT IN A COMMUNITY SAMPLE.

Racism is a significant psychosocial stressor that is hypothesized to have negative psychological and physical health consequences. The Reserve Capacity Model (Gallo & Matthews, 2003) suggests that low socioeconomic status may influence health through its effects on negative affect. We extend this model to study the effects of racism, examining the association of lifetime perceived racism to trait and daily negative affect.

Psychosocial factors in heart surgery: presurgical vulnerability and postsurgical recovery.

Objective: Distress and low perceived social support were examined as indicators of psychosocial vulnerability in patients about to undergo heart surgery.

Design: A total of 550 study patients underwent heart surgeries, including bypass grafting and valve procedures. Psychosocial interviews were conducted about five days before surgery, and biomedical data were obtained from hospital records.

Commonsense illness beliefs, adherence behaviors, and hypertension control among African Americans.

Hypertension, particularly among African Americans, has been increasing in importance in the past 10 years. One aspect of this problem is poor disease management. This study examined illness beliefs, behaviors, and hypertension control among 102 African American outpatients.

Reported fatigue, difficulty, and cardiovascular response to a memory challenge.

Female undergraduates were presented the opportunity to earn a small chance of winning a modest prize by memorizing in 2 min two or six nonsense trigrams (meaningless series of three letters, such as AED). Analysis of cardiovascular measures taken during the work period indicated that systolic blood pressure responses first rose and then fell with self-reported fatigue in the two trigram condition. By contrast, the responses declined with self-reported fatigue in the six trigram condition, starting relatively high and ending low.