Getting inside your head
A Culture–Brain Link: Negative Age Stereotypes Predict Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers
Becca Levy et al.
Psychology and Aging, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although negative age stereotypes have been found to predict adverse outcomes among older individuals, it was unknown whether the influence of stereotypes extends to brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. To consider this possibility, we drew on dementia-free participants, in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, whose age stereotypes were assessed decades before yearly magnetic resonance images and brain autopsies were performed. Those holding more-negative age stereotypes earlier in life had significantly steeper hippocampal-volume loss and significantly greater accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques, adjusting for relevant covariates. These findings suggest a new pathway to identifying mechanisms and potential interventions related to the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Aaron Weidman & Elizabeth Dunn
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although research suggests that people derive more happiness from buying life experiences than material objects, almost no studies have examined how people actually feel while consuming real-world experiential and material purchases. In the present research, we provided the first examination of people’s momentary happiness while consuming these purchases. Participants were randomly assigned to spend C$20 on a material versus experiential purchase (Study 1) or to report a material versus experiential gift they received at Christmas (Study 2); participants in both studies reported their momentary happiness regarding these purchases over 2 weeks, using daily-diary (Study 1) and experience-sampling (Study 2) methodologies. Results suggest that material and experiential purchases deliver happiness in two distinct flavors: Material purchases provide more frequent momentary happiness over time, whereas experiential purchases provide more intense momentary happiness on individual occasions.
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Beyond Income: The Importance for Life Satisfaction of Having Access to a Cash Margin
Martin Berlin & Niklas Kaunitz
Journal of Happiness Studies, December 2015, Pages 1557-1573
Abstract:
We study how life satisfaction among adult Swedes is influenced by having access to a cash margin, i.e. a moderate amount of money that could be acquired on short notice either through own savings, by loan from family or friends, or by other means. We find that cash margin is a strong and robust predictor of life satisfaction, also when controlling for individual fixed-effects and socio-economic conditions, including income. Since it shows not to matter whether cash margin comes from own savings or with help from family members, this measure captures something beyond wealth.
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The Earned Income Tax Credit, Mental Health, and Happiness
Casey Boyd-Swan et al.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on various measures of subjective well-being (SWB) using the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to estimate intent-to-treat effects of the EITC expansion embedded in the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. We use a difference-in-differences framework that compares the pre-and post-expansion SWB-changes of women likely eligible for the EITC (low-skilled mothers of working age) to the SWB-changes of a comparison group that is likely ineligible (low-skilled, childless women of working age). Our results suggest that the EITC expansion generated sizeable SWB-improvements in the three major categories of SWB identified in the literature. The NSFH is one of few datasets containing all three major categories of SWB. Subgroup analyses by marital status suggest that improvements accrued more to married than unmarried mothers. Relative to their childless counterparts, married mothers experienced a 15.7% decrease in depression symptomatology (experiential SWB), a 4.4% increase in happiness (evaluative SWB), and a 10.1% increase in self-esteem (eudemonic SWB). We also present specification checks that increase confidence that the observed SWB-effects are explained by the OBRA90 EITC expansion. Lastly, we explore mechanisms that may explain the differential impact of the EITC expansion by marital status.
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Stephenie Chaudoir & Diane Quinn
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
People living with concealable stigmatized identities are vulnerable to experiencing greater depressive symptoms as a result of occupying a lower social status. In the present research, we examine the effect of changes in enacted stigma and changes in anticipated stigma on trajectories of depressive symptoms over time. A sample of 192 college-aged emerging adults (81.0% female, 81.9% Caucasian, Mage = 18.82 years) living with a concealable stigmatized identity (e.g., mental illness and sexual minority status) completed measures of enacted stigma, anticipated stigma, and depressive symptoms at two time points across eight weeks. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicate that increases in anticipated stigma, but not enacted stigma, predicted poorer trajectories of depressive symptoms, controlling for the effect of baseline rumination and other identity-related variables. These data are among the first to demonstrate that worries about future devaluation predict poorer depressive symptom trajectories over time among college-aged emerging adults.
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The Influence of Framing on Clinicians’ Judgments of the Biological Basis of Behaviors
Nancy Kim et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, forthcoming
Abstract:
Practicing clinicians frequently think about behaviors both abstractly (i.e., in terms of symptoms, as in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed., DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and concretely (i.e., in terms of individual clients, as in DSM–5 Clinical Cases; Barnhill, 2013). Does abstract/concrete framing influence clinical judgments about behaviors? Practicing mental health clinicians (N = 74) were presented with hallmark symptoms of 6 disorders framed abstractly versus concretely, and provided ratings of their biological and psychological bases (Experiment 1) and the likely effectiveness of medication and psychotherapy in alleviating them (Experiment 2). Clinicians perceived behavioral symptoms in the abstract to be more biologically and less psychologically based than when concretely described, and medication was viewed as more effective for abstractly than concretely described symptoms. These findings suggest a possible basis for miscommunication and misalignment of views between primarily research-oriented and primarily practice-oriented clinicians; furthermore, clinicians may accept new neuroscience research more strongly in the abstract than for individual clients.
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Christopher Gidlow et al.
Journal of Environmental Psychology, March 2016, Pages 22–29
Abstract:
There is convergent evidence that natural environments allow restoration from stress. This randomised, cross-over field-based trial compared psychological and physiological responses of unstressed individuals to self-paced 30-minute walks in three pleasant environments: residential (urban), natural (green), and natural with water (blue). Changes from baseline (T1) to T2 (end of 30-minute walk), and T3 (30 minutes after leaving environment) were measured in terms of mood, cognitive function, restoration experiences, salivary cortisol, and heart rate variability (HRV). In the final sample (n=38; 65% male; mean age 40.9±17.6 years), mood and cortisol improved at T2 and T3 in all environments. Green and blue environments were associated with greater restoration experiences, and cognitive function improvements that persisted at T3. Stress reduction (mood and cortisol changes) in all environments points to the salutogenic effect of walking, but natural environments conferred additional cognitive benefits lasting at least 30 minutes after leaving the environment.
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Jonathan Remue et al.
Neuropsychology, forthcoming
Objective: Previous research has demonstrated that prefrontal activity is related to control over stress responses. However, the causal mechanisms are not well understood. In this study we investigated the possible influence of brain stimulation on the physiological stress response system. Because an increased stress response is known to precipitate psychiatric disorders, further inquiry can have important clinical implications.
Method: In 38 healthy, right-handed female participants, we examined the effects of a single sham-controlled high-frequency (HF) repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) session over the left (n = 19) and right (n = 19) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on the autonomic nervous system stress response, as measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Stress was transiently induced through evaluative negative feedbacks.
Results: Although the induction procedure was efficient in increasing self-reported distress in all groups and conditions, only after real HF-rTMS over the left DLPFC the physiological stress response was diminished, as indicated by a significant increase in HRV. No effects were found in the sham or right side stimulation condition.
Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that increasing brain activity by HF-rTMS over the left DLPFC can help attenuating physiological stress reactions. Results are indicative of the positive effects of rTMS on stress resilience and underscore the possible benefit of HF-rTMS as a transdiagnostic intervention. Finally, the results also show that effects only occur when stimulating the left DLPFC, which is in line with the therapeutic effects of HF-rTMS in affective disorders.
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Raymond Lam et al.
JAMA Psychiatry, forthcoming
Objective: To determine the efficacy of light treatment, in monotherapy and in combination with fluoxetine hydrochloride, compared with a sham-placebo condition in adults with nonseasonal MDD.
Design, Setting, and Participants: Randomized, double-blind, placebo- and sham-controlled, 8-week trial in adults (aged 19-60 years) with MDD of at least moderate severity in outpatient psychiatry clinics in academic medical centers. Data were collected from October 7, 2009, to March 11, 2014. Analysis was based on modified intent to treat (randomized patients with ≥1 follow-up rating).
Interventions: Patients were randomly assigned to (1) light monotherapy (active 10 000-lux fluorescent white light box for 30 min/d in the early morning plus placebo pill); (2) antidepressant monotherapy (inactive negative ion generator for 30 min/d plus fluoxetine hydrochloride, 20 mg/d); (3) combination light and antidepressant; or (4) placebo (inactive negative ion generator plus placebo pill).
Main Outcomes and Measures: Change score on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) from baseline to the 8-week end point. Secondary outcomes included response (≥50% reduction in MADRS score) and remission (MADRS score ≤10 at end point).
Results: A total of 122 patients were randomized (light monotherapy, 32; fluoxetine monotherapy, 31; combination therapy, 29; placebo, 30). The mean (SD) changes in MADRS score for the light, fluoxetine, combination, and placebo groups were 13.4 (7.5), 8.8 (9.9), 16.9 (9.2), and 6.5 (9.6), respectively. The combination (effect size [d] = 1.11; 95% CI, 0.54 to 1.64) and light monotherapy (d = 0.80; 95% CI, 0.28 to 1.31) were significantly superior to placebo in the MADRS change score, but fluoxetine monotherapy (d = 0.24; 95% CI, −0.27 to 0.74) was not superior to placebo. For the respective placebo, fluoxetine, light, and combination groups at the end point, response was achieved by 10 (33.3%), 9 (29.0%), 16 (50.0%), and 22 (75.9%) and remission was achieved by 9 (30.0%), 6 (19.4%), 14 (43.8%), and 17 (58.6%). Combination therapy was superior to placebo in MADRS response (β = 1.70; df = 1; P = .005) and remission (β = 1.33; df = 1; P = .02), with numbers needed to treat of 2.4 (95% CI, 1.6 to 5.8) and 3.5 (95% CI, 2.0 to 29.9), respectively. All treatments were generally well tolerated, with few significant differences in treatment-emergent adverse events.
Conclusions and Relevance: Bright light treatment, both as monotherapy and in combination with fluoxetine, was efficacious and well tolerated in the treatment of adults with nonseasonal MDD. The combination treatment had the most consistent effects.