Simulating Thoughts to Measure and Study Internal Attention in Mental Health

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iftach Amir ◽  
Liad Ruimi ◽  
Amit Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Experimental Study ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Cognitive Vulnerability ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Internal Attention

Our mind’s eye and the role of internal attention in mental life and suffering has intrigued scholars for centuries. Yet, experimental study of internal attention has been elusive due to our limited capacity to control the timing and content of internal stimuli. We thus developed the Simulated Thoughts Paradigm (STP) to experimentally deliver own-voice thought stimuli that simulate the content and experience of thinking and thereby experimental study of internal attentional processes. In independent experiments (N=122) integrating STP into established cognitive-experimental tasks, we found and replicated evidence that emotional reactivity to negative thoughts predicts difficulty disengaging internal attention from, as well as biased selective internal attention of, those thoughts, which predict cognitive vulnerability (e.g., negative repetitive thinking), which predicts anxiety and depression. Reported findings may have exciting implications for the study of internal attention broadly, models of internal attentional (dys)control in cognitive vulnerability and mental health more specifically.

scholarly journals Simulating thoughts to measure and study internal attention in mental health

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iftach Amir ◽  
Liad Ruimi ◽  
Amit Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Experimental Study ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Cognitive Vulnerability ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Attentional Processes ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
Mind's Eye ◽  
Internal Attention

AbstractOur mind’s eye and the role of internal attention in mental life and suffering has intrigued scholars for centuries. Yet, experimental study of internal attention has been elusive due to our limited capacity to control the timing and content of internal stimuli. We thus developed the Simulated Thoughts Paradigm (STP) to experimentally deliver own-voice thought stimuli that simulate the content and experience of thinking and thereby experimental study of internal attentional processes. In independent experiments (N = 122) integrating STP into established cognitive-experimental tasks, we found and replicated evidence that emotional reactivity to negative thoughts predicts difficulty disengaging internal attention from, as well as biased selective internal attention of, those thoughts; these internal attention processes predict cognitive vulnerability (e.g., negative repetitive thinking) which thereby predict anxiety and depression. Proposed methods and findings may have implications for the study of information processing and attention in mental health broadly and models of internal attentional (dys)control in cognitive vulnerability and mental health more specifically.

scholarly journals Feeling Empathically Toward Other People and the Self: The Role of Perspective Shifting in Emotion Sharing and Self-Reassurance

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chui-De Chiu ◽  
Hau Ching Ng ◽  
Wing Ki Kwok ◽  
Marieke S. Tollenaar
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
The Self ◽  
First Person ◽  
Cognitive Characteristic ◽  
Negative Thoughts ◽  
The Moment

Feeling one’s own emotions empathically when negative thoughts about the self arise, a defining element of self-reassurance, promotes resilience to prolonged emotional reactivity. We propose that feeling empathically toward the self is accomplished by first stepping into the shoes of an objectified, undesired self-aspect, after which the process of perspective shifting should be completed by reengaging the self to experience the moment in the first person. We hypothesize that the resumption of the egocentric perspective in perspective shifting, a cognitive characteristic of sharing other people’s emotions, is crucial for self-reassurance as well. The relationships among flexibility in perspective shifting, self-reassurance, and emotion sharing were examined in community participants. Our results show that quickly switching back to a visuospatial egocentric perspective after adopting an opposing perspective relates to self-reassurance and emotion sharing. We conclude that both reassuring the self and empathizing with other people involve flexibility in perspective shifting.

scholarly journals Positive and Negative Emotion Regulation in Adolescence: Links to Anxiety and Depression

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Young ◽  
Christina Sandman ◽  
Michelle Craske
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Adolescent Anxiety

Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews the current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological, and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of altered neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Approaches to improve treatments based on empirical evidence of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescents are also discussed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.

scholarly journals A Tuesday in the life of a flourisher: The role of positive emotional reactivity in optimal mental health.

Emotion ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 938-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lahnna I. Catalino ◽  
Barbara L. Fredrickson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emotional Reactivity

scholarly journals The Role of Religiosity to Address the Mental Health Crisis of Students: A Study on Three Parameters (Anxiety, Depression, and Stress)

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohmah Najihah Misran ◽  
Jamilah Hanum Abdul Khaiyom ◽  
Zul Azlin Razali
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Crisis ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Anxiety Depression

Religiosity is a construct that has interesting implications in the mental health issues of youths. This study examines the role of religiosity on anxiety, depression, and stress using 148 Muslim students studying Islamic studies at undergraduate provision in an Islamic University as sample. Results indicated that the level of religiosity among the participants ranged from moderately religious to highly religious. The mean levels of anxiety, depression, and stress among the participants were moderate, and a significant number of students suffered from severe psychological distress. Female students were reported to experience significantly slightly more stress than male students. Furthermore, the relationship between religiosity, anxiety, and depression was significantly negative but not stressful. Further analysis found that religiosity serves as a protective factor for depression. Meanwhile, some religiosity components (i.e., avoidance of sinful acts and frequent conduct of recommended acts) were found to be a significant protective factor against anxiety and depression, respectively. Thus, in retrospect, mental health and religion appear to converge on managing psychological distress. As so to speak, this is a vital point in the emerging mental health services in which the incorporation of religious components into clinical practice may show good promising results in aiding the recovery process of psychological health issues. Likewise, embedding religiosity in one’s life, or being religiously minded, reflected in daily life manifestation, is linked with better mental health outcomes.

scholarly journals The Moderating Role of Personal Resources Between Demands and Ill-Being of Romanian Healthcare Professionals in the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ica Secosan ◽  
Delia Virga ◽  
Zorin Petrisor Crainiceanu ◽  
Lavinia Melania Bratu ◽  
Tiberiu Bratu
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Personal Resources ◽  
Health Complaints ◽  
Medical Field ◽  
Global Epidemic ◽  
Moderating Role

Background and Objectives: The illness caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19) triggered considerable mental consequences for the medical staff. Our aim was to research whether frontline healthcare workers' positive psychological state—PsyCap—impacts the relationship between anxiety/depression and burnout/mental health complaints.Material and Methods: One hundred twenty-six medical professionals working on the frontline at the Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department in Romania took validated surveys between March and April 2020. All information was collected online after accessing a link that was received in an email message. The inclusion criteria concerned the categories of healthcare professionals who came into direct contact with patients during the COVID-19 global epidemic through the performed medical act, as well as time spent in the medical field of ICU an EM, namely at least 1 year in the department. We excluded from the research other categories of employees and auxiliary staff, as well as healthcare workers with <1-year experience in the medical field. The moderating role of personal resources (PsyCap) between demands (such as anxiety and depression) and ill-being (burnout and mental health complaints) of healthcare professionals were tested via hierarchical multiple regressions.Results: We tested the moderating role of PsyCap on the relation between anxiety and ill-being. The results indicated that high anxiety predicts lower emotional exhaustion and a low level of mental health complaints about Romanian healthcare professionals when PsyCap is high. The moderating role of PsyCap on the relation between depression and ill-being was tested in the second hypothesis. The results indicated that high depression predicts lower inefficacy and a low level of mental health complaints about Romanian healthcare professionals when PsyCap is increased.Conclusions: PsyCap is a crucial variable that may decrease the impact of anxiety and depression on psychological outcomes such as emotional exhaustion, inefficacy, and psychological problems among Romanian medical professionals working on the frontline during the COVID-19 global epidemic. Thus, psychological interventions that help medical staff gain personal resources are appropriate in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Positive and negative emotion regulation in adolescence: links to anxiety and depression

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Seaton Young ◽  
Christina F Sandman ◽  
Michelle G. Craske
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotional Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Reactivity ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Adolescent Anxiety

Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Greater integration of multiple measures within the same study would also facilitate more reliable evidence of effects observed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.

Traumatization, Not Habituation: The Impact of a Long Lockdown on Mental Health and the Role of Media Use (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominika Grygarová ◽  
Petr Adámek ◽  
Veronika Juríčková ◽  
Jiří Horáček ◽  
Eduard Bakštein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Continuous Exposure ◽  
Czech Population ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Impact ◽  
News Use

BACKGROUND Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Czech population experienced a second lockdown lasting for about half a year, restricting free movement, and imposing social isolation. It is not known whether the impact of the long lockdown resulted in habituation to the adverse situation or in the traumatization of the Czech population, and whether the media and its specific use contributed to these processes. OBJECTIVE This study aimed at elucidating the effect of the long lockdown on the mental health of the Czech population, and the role of exposure to COVID-19 news reports and specific forms of media news use in mental health. METHODS We conducted two consecutive surveys in the early (November 2020) and late (March/April 2021) phases of the nationwide lockdown on the same nationally representative group of Czech adults (N = 1,777) participating in a longitudinal panel study. RESULTS Our findings show that the self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression increased in the second observed period, whereby confirming the negative effect of the pandemic lockdown as it unfolded, suggesting that restrictive measures and continuous exposure to a collective stressor did not result in strengthening of resilience but rather in ongoing traumatization. The results also suggest a negative role of the media’s coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in mental health during the early, and particularly late phase of the lockdown. Furthermore, we found several risk and protective factors of specific media news use. The media practice in news consumption connected to social media use was the strongest predictor of exacerbated mental health symptoms, particularly in the late phase of the lockdown. Also, news media use characterized by internalization of information learned from the news, as well as negative attitudes towards media news, were associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. On the other hand, the use of infotainment, together with an in-depth and contextual style of reading news articles, were related to improvement of mental health. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed that the long lockdown resulted in traumatization rather than habituation, and in more pronounced effects (both negative and positive) of media use in mental health.

scholarly journals The role of loneliness as a mediator between autism features and mental health among autistic young adults

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136236132096778
Author(s):  
Hillary K Schiltz ◽  
Alana J McVey ◽  
Bridget Dolan Wozniak ◽  
Angela D Haendel ◽  
Rachel Stanley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Health Concerns ◽  
Autistic Adults ◽  
Mental Health Concerns ◽  
Social Loneliness

Autistic adults commonly experience anxiety and depression. These mental health concerns are often tied to social experiences, such that mental well-being can be supported by social connection and deteriorated by loneliness. The mediating role of social and emotional loneliness (i.e. social isolation and lack of emotional attachment, respectively) between autism features and mental health has yet to be empirically tested among autistic adults. Here, 69 autistic young adults completed self-report questionnaires assessing social contact (Friendship Questionnaire), autism features (Autism Quotient), mental health (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Social Phobia Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory), and loneliness (Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults). Positive associations emerged between autism features, social loneliness, family loneliness, social anxiety, and depression. In addition, more social contact was related to less social and family loneliness and less social anxiety but was not related to depression. Mediation analyses indicated significant indirect effects of social contact and autism features on mental health through social loneliness. Indirect effects partially held substituting family loneliness for social loneliness and did not hold using romantic loneliness. In light of these results, the scientific and clinical implications of the role of loneliness for autistic young adults are discussed and recommendations provided. Lay abstract Autistic adults commonly experience mental health concerns including social anxiety and depression, which can have negative effects on their quality of life. It is not completely clear, however, why rates of mental health concerns are so high. Some evidence suggests that social connectedness might play a key role. The goal of this study was to explore links between loneliness, mental health concerns, autism features, and social contact among autistic adults and test whether the links between mental health with autism features and social contact can be explained by loneliness. Researchers in this study collected data using questionnaires completed by 69 autistic young adults. Autistic adults who reported more autism features also reported more social and family loneliness, higher levels of social anxiety and depression, and fewer initiated social contacts. In addition, adults with more social contact initiations were likely to report lower levels of social and family loneliness and social anxiety but not depression. Results showed that the link from social engagement and autism features to social anxiety and depression symptoms could be mostly explained by loneliness. The results of this study expand previous findings by illustrating one factor (loneliness) that might be responsible for the high rates of mental health concerns among adults on the autism spectrum. These findings highlight the importance of studying factors related to mental health concerns among autistic adults and ways to best support social connectedness for the mental well-being of autistic young adults.

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