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PubMed1991

Abnormal processing of affective words by psychopaths.

We tested the hypothesis that psychopathy is associated with abnormal processing of affective verbal material. Criminal psychopaths and nonpsychopaths, defined by the Psychopathy Checklist, performed a lexical decision task ("Is it a word or not?") while we recorded reaction time and event-related potentials in response to letter-strings consisting of affective and neutral words and pronounceable nonwords. On the assumption that they do not make efficient use of affective information, our primary prediction was that psychopaths would show less behavioral and event-related potential differentiation between affective and neutral words than would nonpsychopaths. The results were in accordance with this prediction. The lexical decisions of nonpsychopaths were significantly faster, and relevant event-related potential components were significantly larger, to affective words than to neutral words. In sharp contrast, psychopaths failed to show reaction time facilitation or larger amplitude event-related potentials to affective words. We suggest that psychopaths extract less information from affective words than do other individuals. Possible implications of these and related findings for understanding the behavior of psychopaths are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Brain activation, affect, and aerobic exercise: an examination of both state-independent and state-dependent relationships.

Resting electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetry is a biological marker of the propensity to respond affectively to, and a measure of change in affect associated with, acute aerobic exercise. This study examined the EEG-affect-exercise relationship. Twenty participants performed each of three randomly assigned 30-min conditions: (a) a nonexercise control, (b) a cycling exercise at 55% VO2max, and (c) a cycling exercise at 70% VO2max. EEG and affect were assessed pre- and 0, 5, 10, 20, and 30 min postcondition. No significant results were seen in the control or 55% conditions. In the 70% exercise condition, greater relative left frontal activation preexercise predicted increased positive affect and reduced state anxiety postexercise. Participants (n = 7) with extreme relative left frontal activation postexercise reported concomitant decreases in anxiety, whereas participants (n = 7) with extreme relative right frontal activation postexercise reported increases in anxiety. These findings (a) replicate prior work, (b) suggest a dose-response intensity effect, and (c) support the idea that exercise is an emotion-eliciting event. Affective responses seem to be mediated in part by differential resting levels of activation in the anterior brain regions. Ongoing anterior brain activation reflected concurrent postexercise affect.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The role of the affect and availability heuristics in risk communication.

Results of past research suggest that affect plays an important role in risk perception. Because affect may also increase the availability of risks, affect and availability are closely related concepts. Three studies tested the hypothesis that evoking negative affect (fear), either through past experience or through experimental manipulation, results in greater perceived risk. The present research focused on perception of flooding risk. Study 1 and Study 2 showed that participants who received risk information concerning a longer time period (e.g., 30 years) perceived more danger compared with participants who received risk information for one year. Study 2 showed that the interpretation of risk information was influenced by participants' own experiences with flooding. In Study 3, affect was experimentally manipulated. After looking at photographs depicting houses in a flooded region, participants perceived greater risk compared with participants in a control group. Taken together, the results of these three studies suggest that affect is important for successful risk communication. Results of the present research are in line with the affect heuristic proposed by Slovic and colleagues.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Affective impairment in young acute schizophrenics: its structure, course and prognostic significance.

In order to investigate the structure, longitudinal course, and significance of affect impairments in young acute schizophrenics, we prospectively studied a group of 37 consecutively admitted acute inpatients at baseline and 26 months later (n = 19). They were evaluated at both points on a multidimensional affect rating scale, psychopathology rating scales, and tests of attention and motorium. Additionally, they were assessed on historical and subdiagnostic variables at baseline and on level of functioning at follow-up. Factor analysis revealed three reliably measured affect components: emotional unrelatedness, expressive immobility, and inappropriateness of affect. The first two factors were strongly interrelated and associated also with the BPRS depression factor at baseline. All four affective dimensions proved unstable over the course of 2 years and produced different sets of correlates at the two points of time. In the acute phase, only the depression factor carried favorable prognostic import (r = 0.52, P less than 0.05). Emotional unrelatedness and expressive immobility were of unfavorable consequence only when observed in the follow-up stage. Thus, the affect profile seemed to be an evolving rather than a static phenomenon, precluding generalizations across the early course of schizophrenia. Possible interpretations of the baseline overlap between affect deficits and depression were discussed as well as their different prognostic implications.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1995

A longitudinal follow-up study of seasonal affective disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the long-term stability of a seasonal pattern of recurrent depression, identify possible factors associated with alteration of the seasonal pattern, and determine whether atypical vegetative symptoms during early seasonal depressive episodes predict future seasonal relapses. METHOD: The subjects were 41 patients satisfying the criteria used in the Japanese multicenter study of seasonal affective disorder who were consistently treated at the same outpatient clinic. Their longitudinal courses were evaluated by using case records and the Schedule for Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia--Life-time Version; the mean follow-up period was 10.4 years. RESULTS: Nine subjects (22.0%) consistently showed a fall-winter pattern of recurrence throughout follow-up. Seventeen patients with an initial fall-winter pattern subsequently tended to shift seasons or show less seasonality. This alteration in pattern was possibly associated with antidepressant therapy or life events. Eleven patients with an initial diagnosis of nonseasonal affective disorder subsequently developed seasonal affective disorder; no specific factors were associated with this change. Atypical vegetative symptoms were significantly more common in patients with stable seasonal patterns of recurrence than in those who lost seasonality. CONCLUSIONS: Although seasonal affective disorder appeared to be altered by antidepressant treatment, the presence of a core group of patients with a consistent seasonal pattern of recurrent depression suggests the validity of seasonal affective disorder as a distinct subtype of recurrent affective illness. The findings also suggest that atypical vegetative symptoms during early seasonal depressive episodes predict the subsequent seasonality of depression.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Drives, affects, behavior--and learning: approaches to a psychobiology of emotion and to an integration of psychoanalytic and neurobiologic thought.

Drawing on concepts and data from psychoanalysis, neuroscience, ethology, and experimental psychology, this paper suggests that affects are the prime movers of human motivation and have, in addition, these properties: they are neurophysiologically generated, sensationlike signals originating not in classical sensory systems, but in limbic structures; activation of the neurobiologic affect generators reliably triggers motor stereotype--like facial expression, posture, and tone of voice--which in turn transmit the physical data underlying empathy and emotional communication; and appetitively sought pleasant emotions-sensations and aversive dysphoric feelings serve respectively as the ultimate, "brain-synthesized" positive and negative reinforcers of emotional learning. The latter ideas point to derivative hypotheses: that parental nonverbal behavior and communication evoke in children the affects that guide character development and choice of defense, and that these processes are consistent with an affect-reinforced associative learning model comprising both operant and classical conditioning paradigms. Psychoanalysis as therapy, then, may mechanistically rely for its clinical effectiveness on extinctionlike processes in which new experience in the analyst-patient relationship leads to the modulation or extinction of initially crippling signal affects associatively linked to various other affects, appetites, and behaviors. Finally, the core hypotheses mesh both with recent findings from the cellular study of affect and learning mechanisms and with associative learning-unlearning assumptions variably explicit in psychoanalytic writings since the time of Freud's (1895) Project.

Affect↗
PubMed2003

An evaluation of affect and binge eating.

The affect regulation model of binge eating suggests that binge eating occurs because it provides momentary relief from negative affect. The purpose of this study was to evaluate change in affect during binge eating to evaluate the merits of this model. Participants were young adult women from a midwestern university. Binge eaters recorded their level of pleasantness using the affect grid at 2-minute intervals before, during, and after binge eating episodes and regular meals. Controls recorded in a similar manner during meals. The results showed a different pattern of affect for binge eaters during binge eating episodes and normal meals and for binge eaters and controls at normal meals. The results support the affect regulation model of binge eating and suggest that binge eating is negatively reinforced because it produces momentary relief from negative affect.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Differential relationships between intergroup contact and affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice.

Research on affective dimensions of intergroup relationships suggests that positive effects of intergroup contact can generalize through establishing affective ties with outgroup members. However, research on cognitive dimensions emphasizes that it is often difficult to generalize positive contact outcomes. In this research, the authors examine whether affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice bear different relationships to intergroup contact. Using data from a larger meta-analysis of contact effects, Study 1 demonstrates that affective indicators of prejudice typically yield stronger, inverse contact-prejudice relationships than such cognitive indicators as stereotypes. Study 2 replicates these trends in a survey study using multiple indicators of affective and cognitive dimensions of prejudice. Study 2 also shows significant, inverse relationships between contact and affective prejudice when contact is assessed either as number of outgroup friends or intergroup closeness. Together, these results suggest that affective dimensions of intergroup relationships are especially critical for understanding the nature of contact-prejudice effects.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

The development of affect regulation: bringing together basic and clinical perspectives.

Some discussion of the development of affect regulation in relation to two papers by Drs. Kalin and Leibenluft is provided. The goals are to frame the broader issues, including the conceptualization and definitions of affect regulation, to address questions about the development of affect regulation, and to consider ways to bridge between basic and clinical approaches to understanding disorders of affect regulation emerging in childhood and adolescence. The conceptual framework for affect regulation presented here focuses on interactions between cognitive systems and affective systems. It also appears that this area of research is at a very early point in its development-one rich with opportunities to bridge between basic research in affective neuroscience, developmental psychology, and developmental psychopathology, and holds great promise to advance understanding regarding the earliest roots of these disorders.

Affect↗
PubMed2004

Effects of Hatha yoga and African dance on perceived stress, affect, and salivary cortisol.

BACKGROUND: Dance and yoga have been shown to produce improvements in psychological well-being. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to examine some of the psychological and neuroendocrine response to these activities. METHODS: Sixty-nine healthy college students participated in one of three 90-min classes: African dance (n = 21), Hatha yoga (n= 18), or a biology lecture as a control session (n = 30). Before and after each condition participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), completed the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule, and provided a saliva sample for cortisol. RESULTS: There were significant reductions in PSS and negative affect (ps < .0001) and Time x Treatment interactions (ps < .0001) such that African dance and Hatha yoga showed significant declines, whereas there was no significant change in biology lecture. There was no significant main effect for positive affect (p = .53), however there was a significant interaction effect (p < .001) such that positive affect increased in African dance, decreased in biology lecture, and did not change significantly in Hatha yoga. There was a significant main effect for salivary cortisol (p < .05) and a significant interaction effect (p < .0001) such that cortisol increased in African dance, decreased in Hatha yoga, and did not change in biology. Changes in cortisol were not significantly related to changes in psychological variables across treatments. There was 1 significant interaction effect (p = .04) such that change in positive affect and change in cortisol were negatively correlated in Hatha yoga but positively correlated in Africa dance and biology. CONCLUSIONS: Both African dance and Hatha yoga reduced perceived stress and negative affect. Cortisol increased in African dance and decreased in Hatha yoga. Therefore, even when these interventions produce similar positive psychological effects, the effects may be very different on physiological stress processes. One factor that may have particular salience is that amount of physiological arousal produced by the intervention.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

On discriminating and not discriminating between affect and representation.

The topic involves two issues. They can be related either to different clinical pictures or to divergent opinions about the same clinical facts. But the above mentioned opposition can be found in Freud's work. Listening in analysis differentiates between situations where the distinction of affect and representation is blurred within the general frame of communication and others where this distinction imposes itself because of the critical or chronic character of the predominance of affect. Problems about the discrimination between affect and representation in the unconscious are elucidated in the light of their structural differences. The notion of the psychical representative of the drive announces the reference to the further notion of instinctual impulse. Later on, in Freud's theory, the notion of instinctual impulse has encompassed the distinction between affects and representation. Contemporary authors have, in their vast majority, chosen to refer preferably to object relationships. Nevertheless, the problems raised by Freud remain unanswered. It is with the clinical picture of borderline personality disorders that the lack of discrimination between affect and representation becomes evident. A detailed description is presented of the forms of transference where the irrepresentable prevails, accompanied by feelings of being overwhelmed, repetition compulsion, acting out and somatic reactions. In the countertransference, the affects of helplessness, despair and even the impossibility of grasping the meaning of the patient's communication are frequently met in the analyst. In these clinical pictures, intermediary formations, i.e. psychic organisations where primary processes structures the unconscious, are impaired. One is struck by the limitation of the capacities of representation and by the importance of phenomena related to negative hallucinations specially focused on thought processes, The communication is frequently self-contradictory, the transference oscillating between disembodiment and primitive fusion. The object has a paradoxical status; it is at the same time everything and nothing, the transference being incomprehensible and unanalysable. Different hypotheses are presented to explain the importance of destruction. Finally, the author presents a hypothesis for the deficiency of these intermediary formations because of the absence of continuing cathexis from the primary object at certain important moments of the relationship. It is the establishment of theses intermediary formations that will permit the acceptance of the separation from the object, the child now being able to rely on his own internal creations. However important the influences of the relationship to the other in the genesis of affects, the internal orientation towards the body of the psychic processes is what constitutes the core of the primordial psychic world.

Affect↗
PubMed2000

Expectations of alcohol-induced positive affect: a cross-cultural comparison.

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to investigate the extent to which positive affect is a cross-culturally expected result of drinking alcohol. This first required development of a quantitative estimate of positive affect on a common scale, an essential step neglected in previous comparative research on alcohol expectancies. METHOD: Approximately equal numbers of male and female respondents (N = 1,008; 521 women) from eight countries were asked to complete a survey inquiring about emotional and behavioral responses they expect people to experience after consuming alcoholic drinks, and about limited aspects of their own drinking habits. Multisample latent covariance structure analysis with means was applied to the data and a cross-culturally invariant model of positive affect was extracted. RESULTS: The latent construct for positive affect that emerged was defined by manifest "interpersonal warmth or closeness," "pleasure of social interactions" and "optimism." There were significant national differences in means for this factor, and self-reported drinking frequency was also marginally related to expected positive affect. CONCLUSIONS: Multisample latent covariance structure analysis with means proved a useful tool capable of addressing critical problems in comparative cross-cultural research. In addition, there were indications that the expectation of increased positive affect associated with drinking may be influenced by contextual factors and cultural traditions, making positive affect less easily attributable to the direct pharmacological action of alcohol consumption than has previously been believed.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

On the validity of hypotheses derived from the Rorschach: 1. The relationship between color and affect.

Interpretation of response to color on the Rorschach rests on Rorschach's assertion that color has affective connotations. His assumption was based on the connection of color and affect in culture and as regards the differential response to color by patients he tested. This review focused on research which could lend support to Rorschach's empirically derived notion. Ignoring clinical studies of psychiatric patients (in the absence of any theory of affects unique to specific psychiatric groups), this review focuses primarily on psychological tests of the hypothesis. Affect does seem to be associated with colors but not so specifically as to be useful in interpreting the meaning of the response by any one person. Moreover, affect was seen to affect the many dimensions of the Rorschach stimuli. Interpretation of the response to color must take into account the unsystematic way in which factors influence response to color on the Rorschach, e.g. saturation, context, area covered, etc, vary from card to card. These factors alone influence the response to color and make it impossible to draw conclusions using the plates as constructed. The interpretation of affect from response to color on the Rorschach was seriously questioned.

Affect↗
PubMed2003

Effects of a carbohydrate-restricted diet on affective responses to acute exercise among physically active participants.

Currently, the carbohydrate-restricted diet is very popular. Atkins' book, Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, has sold millions in its more than 25 years of existence. His book promotes the carbohydrate-restricted diet, which focuses on the consumption of proteins and fats as primary calorie and energy sources, while severely restricting carbohydrates. However, when carbohydrates are restricted from the diet, the body's primary energy source is reduced considerably. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the psychological responses to exercise of individuals when on a carbohydrate restrictive diet and when on a noncarbohydrate restrictive diet. For this study, 17 participants practiced a noncarbohydrate-restricted diet for three weeks and the carbohydrate-restricted diet for three weeks, while maintaining previous exercise habits. After each exercise session, the participants completed the Physical Activity Affect Scale, which measures Positive Affect, Negative Affect, Tranquility, and Fatigue. Simple one-way analyses of variance indicated significant treatment differences (ps<.05) relative to Negative Affect, Positive Affect, and Fatigue. The results of the study indicate as predicted, that, when a person restricts carbohydrates from the diet, he will experience more fatigue, more negative affect, and less positive affect in response to exercise than those individuals who are not restricting carbohydrates.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Developing a Short Affect Intensity Scale.

The purpose of this study was to construct a brief version of the 40-item Affect Intensity Measure. Since the assumed one-dimensionality of the scale has been criticized lately, special attention was paid to the factor structure of the full and the brief scales. The scales were tested in three different samples: 510 Belgian citizens representative of the Belgian population, and 204 and 166 students of the University of Antwerp. The Short Affect Intensity Scale has 20 items. Mean scores on the original Affect Intensity Measure were 3.68, 3.67, and 3.67 for the three samples, respectively, while for the Short Affect Intensity Scale the following respective mean scores were registered: 3.76, 3.78, and 3.75. Correlations between the original and brief scales were .94, .93, and .93 for the three samples, respectively. Three factors underlie the Short Affect Intensity Scale: Positive Intensity, Negative Affectivity, and Serenity. Furthermore, the scores for the Short Affect Intensity Scale suggest it is reliable and valid.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Test-retest reliability of subliminal facial affective priming.

Since the seminal 1993 demonstrations o f Murphy an d Zajonc, researchers have replicated and extended findings concerning subliminal affective priming. So far, however, no data on test-retest reliability of affective priming effects are available. A subliminal facial affective priming task was administered to 22 healthy individuals (15 women and 7 men) twice about 7 wk. apart. Happy and sad facial expressions were used as affective primes and neutral Chinese ideographs served as target masks, which had to be evaluated. Neutral facial primes and a no-face condition served as baselines. All participants reported not having seen any of the prime faces at either testing session. Priming scores for affective faces compared to the baselines were computed. Acceptable test-retest correlations (rs) of up to .74 were found for the affective priming scores. Although measured almost 2 mo. apart, subliminal affective priming seems to be a temporally stable effect.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Relation of positive affect with emotion-focused coping in Japanese undergraduates.

This study examined the relationships between coping and positive affect and sex differences in those relationships, focusing on emotional expression as an emotion-focused coping strategy. Undergraduates (193 men and 225 women) completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression to assess positive affect by using the Positive Affect subscale and the General Coping Questionnaire for measurement of coping. Analysis showed a positive relationship between positive affect and both problem-solving and cognitive reinterpretation, but only for men, while a positive relation between positive affect and emotional expression was found only for women. Also there were no interactions of emotional expression and other coping strategies, such as problem-solving, cognitive reinterpretation, and emotional support-seeking, on positive affect. These findings provide evidence to suggest that the relationship between positive affect and coping should be examined by sex.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Antidepressant and double antidepressant treatment for the affective disorder of epilepsy.

BACKGROUND: About half of all patients with chronic epilepsy experience an intermittent and polysymptomatic affective disorder; fewer than 10% suffer from interictal psychotic episodes. The affective disorder responds well to treatment with tricyclic antidepressant medication. The interictal psychosis tends to develop among those with severe affective disorder, responds poorly to antipsychotic medication, and has been more difficult to treat. METHOD: At the Epi-Care Center, Memphis, Tennessee, we have recently begun to treat refractory cases, both nonresponders with affective disorder and those with interictal psychosis, with the combination of a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) and a serotonin selective reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). The double antidepressant treatment of all previously intractable patients with interictal affective disorder seen over a 20-month period at the Epi-Care Center is reported here. RESULTS: The outcome of the novel treatment for the most severe psychiatric disorders of epilepsy has been highly satisfactory: 15 (68%) of 22 previously unresponsive patients with affective disorder were excellent or good responders. CONCLUSION: Antidepressants are the psychotropic drugs of choice for the affective disorder of epilepsy and can be effective in combined form (TCA and SSRI) for otherwise intractable patients. The paradoxical therapeutic effects of proconvulsant drugs in epilepsy conform with the hypothesis that the psychiatric complications of chronic epilepsy result from the development of seizure-suppressing mechanisms that can be mitigated by antidepressants.

Adult↗