Adaptive Equilibrium Regulation: Modeling Individual Dynamics on Multiple Timescales.

Damped Linear Oscillators estimated by 2nd-order Latent Differential Equation have assumed a constant equilibrium and one oscillatory component. Lower-frequency oscillations may come from seasonal background processes, which non-randomly contribute to deviation from equilibrium at each occasion and confound estimation of dynamics over shorter timescales. Boker (2015) proposed a model of individual change on multiple timescales, but implementation, simulation, and applications to data have not been demonstrated.

Affect, interpersonal behaviour and interpersonal perception during open-label, uncontrolled paroxetine treatment of people with social anxiety disorder: a pilot study.

Background: Laboratory-based research with community samples has suggested changes in affective, behavioural and cognitive processes as possible explanations for the effects of serotonergic medications. Examining the effects of serotonergic medications using an ecological momentary measure (such as event-contingent recording) in the daily lives of people with social anxiety disorder would contribute to establishing the effects of these medications on affect, behaviour and one form of cognition: perception of others’ behaviour.

Methods: The present study assessed changes in affect, interpersonal behaviour and perception of others’ behaviour in adults with social anxiety disorder using ecological momentary assessment at baseline and over 4 months of a single-arm, uncontrolled, open-label trial of treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor paroxetine.

Intra- and Interindividual Variability in the Behavioral, Affective, and Perceptual Effects of Alcohol Consumption in a Social Context.

Background: We examined the influence of interindividual differences in alcohol use on the intraindividual associations of drinking occurrence with interpersonal behaviors, affect, and perceptions of others during naturally occurring social interactions.

Methods: For 14 consecutive days, 219 psychology freshmen (55% female; M  = 20.7 years, SD = 2.

Trait agreeableness and social status moderate behavioral responsiveness to communal behavior.

The present study examined the influence of trait Agreeableness and its interaction with social role status on interpersonal correspondence as reflected in the within-person relation between a person's communal (agreeable-quarrelsome) behavior and perceptions of the interaction partner's communal behavior. We used a sample of working adults (original data set: 113 participants and 12,303 interpersonal events; constrained data set in the work setting: 109 participants and 3,193 interpersonal events) and an event-contingent recording procedure to assess behavior in naturalistic interpersonal events. The results of multilevel modeling indicated that interpersonal correspondence was lower for high trait Agreeableness persons than for low trait Agreeableness persons, apparently due to less responsiveness to more disagreeable behavior by the other person in an interaction.

Possible role of more positive social behaviour in the clinical effect of antidepressant drugs.

Increasing serotonin decreases quarrelsome behaviours and enhances agreeable behaviours in humans. Antidepressants, even those whose primary action is not on serotonin, seem to increase serotonin function. We suggest that antidepressants act in part by effects on social behaviour, which leads to a gradual improvement in mood.

Autonomous and controlled motivation and interpersonal therapy for depression: moderating role of recurrent depression.

Objectives: We examined the moderating role of depression recurrence on the relation between autonomous and controlled motivation and interpersonal therapy (IPT) treatment outcome.

Design: The investigation was conducted in an out-patient mood disorders clinic of a large university-affiliated psychiatric hospital. The sample represents a subset of a larger naturalistic database of patients seen in the clinic.

Alcohol in a social context: findings from event-contingent recording studies of everyday social interactions.

Background: Data concerning the effects of alcohol on social interaction in everyday life are limited.

Methods: Healthy volunteers in 4 studies of social behaviors and mood were instructed to complete record forms immediately after a social interaction had occurred, a method known as event-contingent recording. Record forms asked questions about quarrelsome, agreeable, dominant, and submissive behaviors; about aspects of mood; and, in 3 studies, about perceptions of others.

Social behaviour and mood in everyday life: the effects of tryptophan in quarrelsome individuals.

Objective: We hypothesized that increasing brain serotonin in healthy individuals with high scores on 2 self-report measures of trait quarrelsomeness would reduce quarrelsome behaviours and enhance agreeable behaviours when measured ecologically using an event-contingent recording method.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind crossover study, in which participants took tryptophan (3 g/d) and placebo for 15 days each and recorded how they behaved, felt and perceived others during everyday social interactions.

Results: Tryptophan significantly decreased quarrelsome behaviours and increased agreeable behaviours and perceptions of agreeableness.

Ecological momentary assessment: what it is and why it is a method of the future in clinical psychopharmacology.

Current methods of assessment in clinical psychopharmacology have several serious disadvantages, particularly for the study of social functioning. We aimed to review the strengths and weaknesses of current methods used in clinical psychopharmacology and to compare them with a group of methods, developed by personality/social psychologists, termed ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which permit the research participant to report on symptoms, affect and behaviour close in time to experience and which sample many events or time periods. EMA has a number of advantages over more traditional methods for the assessment of patients in clinical psychopharmacological studies.

Children and affect: strategies for self-regulation and sex differences in sadness.

Thirty-two children, aged 6 to 11, were interviewed concerning their responses to distressing situations. Results indicate that the children possessed expectancies for coping with both sadness and anger. Coping strategies were predominantly behavioral, verbalized, and self-oriented; the most common was to engage in a distracting activity.