Depressed Mood and Smoking Experimentation Among Preteens.

The authors examined children's depressed mood, parental depressed mood, and parental smoking in relation to children's smoking susceptibility and experimentation over 20 months in a cohort of 418 preteens (ages 10-12 at baseline) and their parents. Depressed mood in preteens was strongly related to experimentation but not to susceptibility. In cross-sectional analyses parental depressed mood was related to children's experimentation, but in longitudinal analyses parental depressed mood at baseline did not differentiate children who experimented from those who did not. Although parental smoking was strongly related to experimentation, it was not related to susceptibility either cross-sectionally or longitudinally. Depressed mood among preteens and parents appeared to be more strongly related to children's smoking behaviors than to their intentions to smoke. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family Functioning and Children's Adjustment: Associations Among Parents' Depressed Mood, Marital Hostility, Parent-Child Hostility, and Children's Adjustment.

Relations between parents' depressed mood, marital conflict, parent-child hostility, and children's adjustment were examined in a community sample of 136 ten-year-olds and their parents. Videotaped observational and self-report data were used to examine these relations in path analyses. A proposed model was tested in which mothers' and fathers' depressed mood and marital hostility were associated with children's adjustment problems through disruptions in parent-child relationships. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' marital hostility were linked to parent-child hostility, which in turn was linked to children's internalizing problems. Fathers' depressed mood was linked to children's internalizing problems indirectly through father-child hostility. Fathers' depressed mood was directly linked to children's externalizing problems and indirectly linked through father-child hostility. For mothers, marital hostility was directly linked to children's externalizing problems, and marital hostility in fathers was indirectly linked to children's externalizing problems through father-child hostility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative Mood, Self-Focused Attention, and the Experience of Physical Symptoms: The Joint Impact Hypothesis.

A joint impact hypothesis on symptom experience is introduced that specifies the role of negative mood and self-focus, which have been considered independently in previous research. Accordingly, negative affect only promotes symptom experience when people simultaneously focus their attention on the self. One correlational study and 4 experiments supported this prediction: Only negative mood combined with self-focus facilitated the experience (see the self-reports in Studies 1, 2a, & 2b) and the accessibility (lexical decisions, Stroop task in Studies 3 & 4) of physical symptoms, whereas neither positive mood nor negative mood without self-focus did. Furthermore, the joint impact of negative mood and self-focused attention on momentary symptom experience remained significant after controlling for the influence of dispositional symptom reporting and neuroticism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Defocused Attention in Depressed Mood: Evidence From Source Monitoring.

The authors suggest that depressed mood is associated with a defocused mode of attention, allowing irrelevant information to be noticed and processed more than in nondepressed states. Working on a source monitoring task, subclinically depressed college students selected with the Beck Depression Inventory (A. T. Beck, 1967; D. Kammer, 1983) had better memory for irrelevant stimulus aspects than nondepressed control students. However, depressed students' performance on the relevant stimulus aspects was unimpaired. These results are in conflict with a capacity reduction view of depressed mood and support the hypothesized altered, defocused mode, in which attentional resources are more evenly allocated across various aspects of the materials. The results are discussed within the framework of adaptive functions of emotional states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood and personality-based models of substance use.

Mood and personality-based vulnerabilities have been extensively examined in patients with substance use disorders, but their relevance as models of etiology remains to be fully investigated. The present investigation examined mood and personality-based models of substance use in a nonclinical sample of young adults. Two-hundred and twelve individuals were assessed for personality and clinical characteristics and participated in computerized ambulatory monitoring of mood states and substance use over a 1-week period. Personality factors were strong predictors of substance use frequency over the previous 30 days, as well as of substance use in daily life using ambulatory monitoring. A linear increase was also observed in the intensity of novelty seeking and antisocial personality traits as a function of the social deviance of substances used. However, mood disorder history was related only to the use of illicit drugs other than cannabis, and fluctuations in mood states did not prospectively predict daily use of substances in a manner consistent with self-medication. Moreover, there was little evidence that personality characteristics moderated relations between mood states and substance use in daily life. The relevance of results for mood and personality models of substance use etiology is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inflated Responsibility and Perseverative Checking: The Effect of Negative Mood.

This article reports the results of 2 experiments designed to test predictions from the mood-as-input hypothesis on the role of inflated responsibility in perseverative checking. Through the use of an analog checking task in both experiments, the authors showed that perseveration, as indicated by a range of measures relevant to compulsive checking, was affected by a combination of the level of inflated responsibility and the valency of mood at the outset of checking. In particular, inflated responsibility significantly facilitated checking perseveration only in the context of a negative mood and was not a sufficient condition for checking perseveration to occur. These effects of the various configurations of inflated responsibility and mood valency are predicted by the mood-as-input hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Subjective and Reinforcing Effects of Smoking During Negative Mood Induction.

Two notions strongly held by many smokers are that negative mood increases smoking behavior and that this increase is due to the ability of smoking to alleviate negative affect. This study used a modified mood induction procedure to examine both the impact of smoking on induced mood, as well as the effect of induced mood on actual smoking behavior. Forty-eight smokers were randomly assigned to a smoking or a water-drinking comparison group. Each participant attended 3 sessions during which 1 of 3 mood states (positive, negative, or neutral) was induced. Contrary to expectation, smoking did not attenuate negative affect. However, negative mood induction subsequently quickened latency to smoke and increased number of puffs consumed ad lib. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why We Sing the Blues: The Relation Between Self-Reflective Rumination, Mood, and Creativity.

Past research has shown that creative behavior is associated with a higher risk for depression. The authors hypothesized that a 3rd underlying factor, namely, self-reflective rumination, may explain the connection. This hypothesis was examined in a sample of 99 undergraduate college students, using path analysis. The authors found that self-reported past depressive symptomatology was linked to increased self-reflective rumination. Rumination, in turn, was related to current symptomatology and to self-rated creative interests and objectively measured creative fluency, originality, and elaboration. No direct link existed between currently depressed mood and either creative interest or creative behavior. These results suggest that the association between depression and creativity is solely the result of rumination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infants of Chronically Depressed Mothers Learn in Response to Male, But Not Female, Infant-Directed Speech.

Previous research using a conditioned-attention paradigm demonstrated that 4-month-old infants of depressed mothers (a) failed to acquire associations when a segment of their mothers' infant-directed (ID) speech signaled the presentation of a smiling face but (b) did acquire associations when a segment of an unfamiliar nondepressed mother's ID speech signaled the face (P. S. Kaplan, J. -A. Bachorowski, M. J. Smoski, & W. J. Hudenko, 2002). In the present study, 5- to 13-month-old infants of depressed mothers failed to acquire associations when either their own mothers' (Experiment 1) or an unfamiliar nondepressed mother's (Experiments 1 and 2) ID speech signaled a face. However, these infants acquired associations when a segment of an unfamiliar nondepressed father's ID speech served as the signal (Experiment 2). One possible explanation of these results is that infants of depressed mothers selectively "tune out" ID speech from their mothers and from other, nondepressed, women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring the Brain's Interface Between Personality, Mood, and Emotion: Theoretical Comment on Canli et al. (2004).

T. Canli et al., 2004 (see record 2004-19432-002) use functional MRI to explore the neural interface between personality, mood, and emotional responses. Their finding of a double dissociation in brain response to emotional stimuli based on personality and mood state has significant implications for our understanding of the effects of personality traits and mood states on the neural bases of emotion and cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk and protective factors associated with trajectories of depressed mood from adolescence to early adulthood.

This study used semi-parametric group-based modeling to explore unconditional and conditional trajectories of self-reported depressed mood from ages 12 to 25 years. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 11,559), 4 distinct trajectories were identified: no depressed mood, stable low depressed mood, early high declining depressed mood, and late escalating depressed mood. Baseline risk factors associated with greater likelihood of membership in depressed mood trajectory groups compared with the no depressed mood group included being female, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino American, or Pacific Islander or Asian American; having lower socioeconomic status; using alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs on a weekly basis; and engaging in delinquent behavior. Baseline protective factors associated with greater likelihood of membership in the no depressed mood group compared with the depressed mood trajectory groups included 2-parent family structure; feeling connected to parents, peers, or school; and self-esteem. With the exception of delinquent behavior, risk and protective factors also distinguished the likelihood of membership among several of the 3 depressed mood groups. The results add to basic etiologic research regarding developmental pathways of depressed mood in adolescence and young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Contagious Leader: Impact of the Leader's Mood on the Mood of Group Members, Group Affective Tone, and Group Processes.

The present study examined the effects of leaders' mood on (a) the mood of individual group members, (b) the affective tone of groups, and (c) 3 group processes: coordination, effort expenditure, and task strategy. On the basis of a mood contagion model, the authors found that when leaders were in a positive mood, in comparison to a negative mood, (a) individual group members experienced more positive and less negative mood, and (b) groups had a more positive and a less negative affective tone. The authors also found that groups with leaders in a positive mood exhibited more coordination and expended less effort than did groups with leaders in a negative mood. Applied implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective influences on self-disclosure: Mood effects on the intimacy and reciprocity of disclosing personal information.

How does mood influence people's willingness to disclose intimate information about themselves? Based on recent affect–cognition theories and research on interpersonal behavior, 3 experiments predicted and found that people in a positive mood disclosed more intimate, more varied, and more abstract information about themselves. In contrast, people in a negative mood were more attentive to the behavior of others and reciprocated self-disclosure from their partners more accurately. This effect was obtained in hypothetical situations (Experiments 1 and 2) and in realistic computer-mediated interactions as well (Experiment 3). Experiments 2 and 3 confirmed that mood effects on self-disclosure were mediated by information processing style. The role of affect in information processing and relationship behaviors in particular is discussed, and the implications of these findings for everyday interaction strategies and for contemporary affect–cognition theorizing are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metacognition, Risk Behavior, and Risk Outcomes: The Role of Perceived Intelligence and Perceived Knowledge.

The present study explores 2 key variables in social metacognition: perceived intelligence and perceived levels of knowledge about a specific content domain. The former represents a judgment of one's knowledge at an abstract level, whereas the latter represents a judgment of one's knowledge in a specific content domain. Data from interviews of approximately 8,411 female adolescents from a national sample were analyzed in a 2-wave panel design with a year between assessments. Higher levels of perceived intelligence at Wave 1 were associated with a lower probability of the occurrence of a pregnancy over the ensuing year independent of actual IQ, self-esteem, and academic aspirations. Higher levels of perceived knowledge about the accurate use of birth control were associated with a higher probability of the occurrence of a pregnancy independent of actual knowledge about accurate use, perceived intelligence, self-esteem, and academic aspirations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol Use Among Depressed Patients: The Need for Assessment and Intervention.

For many depressed patients, drinking may interfere with the successful treatment of their depression. Even among patients whose alcohol use does not rise to the level of an alcohol-use disorder, drinking can have a deleterious effect on depression and depressive symptoms and may dampen the impact of treatment for depression. However, subclinical drinking may not be addressed during the course of psychological or psychiatric treatment for depression. The authors advocate for the routine assessment of alcohol use, beyond questioning to diagnose alcohol abuse or dependence, in psychological and psychiatric settings. There is reason to believe that once identified, heavy alcohol use among depressed patients could be addressed effectively through the use of brief motivationally focused interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social Identity as Social Glue: The Origins of Group Loyalty.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated the role of social identity in fostering group loyalty, defined as staying when members can obtain better outcomes by leaving their group. In Experiment 1, high (vs. low) identifiers expressed a stronger desire to stay in the group in the presence of an attractive (vs. unattractive) exit option. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this basic finding and tested several explanations. The results suggest that high identifiers' group loyalty is better explained by an extremely positive impression of their group membership (group perception) than by a justification of previous investments in the group (self-perception) or their adherence to a nonabandonment norm (norm perception). Hence, social identity seems to act as social glue. It provides stability in groups that would otherwise collapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapeutic Alliance, Negative Mood Regulation, and Treatment Outcome in Child Abuse-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

This study examined the related contributions of the therapeutic alliance and negative mood regulation to the outcome of a 2-phase treatment for childhood abuse-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Phase 1 focused on stabilization and preparatory skills building, whereas Phase 2 was comprised primarily of imaginal exposure to traumatic memories. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated the strength of the therapeutic alliance established early in treatment reliably predicted improvement in PTSD symptoms at posttreatment. Furthermore, this relationship was mediated by participants' improved capacity to regulate negative mood states in the context of Phase 2 exposure therapy. In the treatment of childhood abuse-related PTSD, the therapeutic alliance and the mediating influence of emotion regulation capacity appear to have significant roles in successful outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of target group size on risk judgments and comparative optimism: The more, the riskier.

In 5 experiments, college students exhibited a group size effect on risk judgments. As the number of individuals in a target group increased, so did participants' judgments of the risk of the average member of the group for a variety of negative life events. This happened regardless of whether the stimuli consisted of photographs of real peers or stick-figure representations of peers. As a result, the degree to which participants exhibited comparative optimism (i.e., judged themselves to be at lower risk than their peers) also increased as the size of the comparison group increased. These results suggest that the typical comparative optimism effect reported so often in the literature might be, at least in part, a group size effect. Additional results include a group size effect on judgments of the likelihood that the average group member will experience positive and neutral events and a group size effect on perceptual judgments of the heights of stick figures. These latter results, in particular, support the existence of a simple, general cognitive mechanism that integrates stimulus numerosity into quantitative judgments about that stimulus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Finding "Meaning" in Psychology: A Lay Theories Approach to Self-Regulation, Social Perception, and Social Development.

Much of psychology focuses on universal principles of thought and action. Although an extremely productive pursuit, this approach, by describing only the "average person," risks describing no one in particular. This article discusses an alternate approach that complements interests in universal principles with analyses of the unique psychological meaning that individuals find in their experiences and interactions. Rooted in research on social cognition, this approach examines how people's lay theories about the stability or malleability of human attributes alter the meaning they give to basic psychological processes such as self-regulation and social perception. Following a review of research on this lay theories perspective in the field of social psychology, the implications of analyzing psychological meaning for other fields such as developmental, cultural, and personality psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective test of the negative affect model of substance abuse: Moderating effects of social support.

The authors tested whether dimensions of negative affect--specifically, trait levels of negative emotionality and state levels of depressive symptoms--increased risk for substance abuse onset and whether perceived social support moderated this relation using data from a 5-year prospective study of 496 school-recruited adolescent girls. Initial negative emotionality, but not depressive symptoms, and deficits in parental, but not peer, support predicted future substance abuse onset in a multivariate hazard model. Tests of the interaction between negative affect dimensions and social support suggested that support did not moderate the relation of negative affect to risk for substance abuse onset. Results provide prospective support for the etiological role in the onset of substance abuse of trait-linked negative affect and of parental support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)