The prediction of affective experiences, also known as affective forecasting, is an integral component of individuals' decision-making processes. Yet, research consistently demonstrates that affective forecasts (AF) and recollections (AR) are generally inaccurate. Recent research has demonstrated distinct patterns of AF/R bias related to psychopathology. The present study examined the relationship between AF/R and features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), anxiety, and depression using Valentine's Day as the target event.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major stressors, increases in internalizing symptomatology, and greater reliance on online interactions. We examined associations between social media use, online social support, pandemic-related stress, and internalizing symptoms, and tested the moderating role of social media use on the relation between stress and symptom change across time.

Depression is associated with increased negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), as well as interpersonal difficulties. Although most studies examine symptoms and affect at only one time point, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) captures data on affect and activity in real time and across contexts. The present study used EMA to explore the links between in-person and virtual social interactions, depressive symptoms, and momentary affect.

Social distancing and sheltering-in-place mitigate the physical health risks of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19); however, there are concerns about the impact on mental health and social engagement.

Interpersonal strain is linked with depressive symptoms in middle-aged adults. One possible mechanism accounting for this relation is a reduction in hope, defined as the belief in one's capacity both to reach and to generate a variety of ways to obtain goals. The strength of the strain-depressive symptoms relation is not uniform across individuals, however, pointing to the likelihood that individual differences in the ability to successfully navigate relationship strain play a role in mitigating its negative effects. One potential moderator of the strain - depressive symptoms relation is self-compassion, which encompasses the capacity to respond to one's own negative thoughts and experiences in a kind and nonjudgmental way. Although theory and empirical evidence suggest that self-compassion is protective against the impact of stress on mental health outcomes, little research has investigated how self-compassion operates in the context of relationship strain. In addition, few studies have examined psychological mechanisms by which self-compassion protects against mental health outcomes, depression in particular. Thus, this study examined 1) the extent to which hope mediates the relation between family strain and depressive symptoms, and 2) whether these indirect effects are conditional on self-compassion in a community sample of middle-aged adults.

Drawing from literature in social and clinical psychology, we explore mechanisms associated with the lack of empathy for people who engage in self-injurious behaviors.

Researchers have examined how several contexts impact the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies. However, few have considered the emotion-to-be-regulated as a context of interest. Specific emotions are important contexts because they may require particular responses to internal and external stimuli for optimal regulation. Ninety-two undergraduates completed 10 days of ecological momentary assessment, reporting their current mood, recent emotions, and emotion regulation strategies three times per day. The frequency with which certain emotion regulation strategies were used (i.e., acceptance, positive refocusing, reappraisal, problem-solving, and other-blame) differed by the specific emotion experienced. Acceptance and positive refocusing were associated with better mood regardless of emotion, while substance use was associated with worse mood regardless of emotion. Reappraisal was associated with better mood in response to anger than anxiety or sadness, while emotional suppression and other-blame were associated with worse mood in response to anger. These results suggest some emotion regulation strategies exhibit emotion-invariant effects while others depend on the emotion-to-be-regulated.

Interpersonal trust behavior is an important target for the identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders with interpersonal dysfunction. Adolescent depression is a highly interpersonal disorder marked by impaired social interactions. However, trust has received little empirical attention. The examination of reward-related decision-making using behavioral economic methods is a relatively novel approach for studying trust in adolescent depression. The present study employed a modified trust game to examine whether depressive adolescents exhibited perturbed reward-related decision-making in social and/or nonsocial contexts.

The current study investigated whether high and low socially anxious individuals would show differences in affective forecasting accuracy (i.e., the prediction of emotional states in response to future events) to positive versus negative social evaluation. High (=94) and low (=98) socially anxious participants gave a speech and were randomly assigned to receive a positive or negative evaluation. For affective forecasts made proximally (moments before the speech), those low in social anxiety overpredicted their affect to a greater extent to a negative evaluation versus a positive evaluation. In contrast, those high in social anxiety overpredicted their affect to positive and negative evaluations comparably, and failed to adjust their prediction for a future hypothetical negative evaluation - in effect, not learning from their prior forecasting error. Results suggest that affective forecasting biases deserve further study as a maintaining factor for social anxiety symptoms.

We propose a model of healthy intentional emotion regulation that includes (1) a large repertoire of (2) adaptive strategies that (3) one persists with despite initial negative feedback. One hundred forty-four undergraduates (average age = 19.20 years; 68% female, 79% Caucasian) completed a novel performance task indicating what they would think or do to feel better in response to eleven stressful vignettes. After their initial response, participants indicated four more times how they would respond if their previous strategy was not working. Raters categorized each response as an emotion regulation strategy and coded the adaptiveness of each strategy. Participants self-reported Neuroticism, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms, and depressive symptoms. We regressed each personality dimension and psychopathology symptom on our model of healthy emotion regulation. Neuroticism was negatively associated with adaptiveness and persistence. Extraversion was positively associated with adaptiveness. Conscientiousness was positively associated with repertoire, adaptiveness, and persistence, while BPD symptoms were negatively associated with all three variables. Depressive symptoms were negatively associated with persistence. These preliminary findings suggest that people with larger repertoires of more adaptive emotion regulation strategies who persist with these strategies despite initial negative feedback report less personality pathology and psychological distress.

Socioecological approaches to public health problems like addiction emphasize the importance of person-environment interactions. Neighborhood and social network characteristics may influence the likelihood of relapse among individuals in recovery, but these factors have been understudied, particularly with respect to conceptualizing social network characteristics as moderators of neighborhood disadvantage. Drawing from a larger prospective study of individuals recruited from outpatient treatment (N=451) and interviewed 1, 3, 5, and 7 years later, the aim of this study was to examine the independent and interactive effects of neighborhood and social network characteristics on continued problem drinking after treatment. Models using generalized estimating equations controlling for demographic and other risk factors found the number of heavy drinkers in one's network increases risk of relapse, with the effects being significantly stronger among those living in disadvantaged neighborhoods than among those in non-disadvantaged neighborhoods. No independent effects were found for neighborhood disadvantage or for the number of network members supporting reduced drinking. Future research is needed to examine potential protective factors in neighborhoods which may offset socioeconomic disadvantage as well as to investigate the functions that network members serve in helping to improve long-term treatment outcomes.

Expressive flexibility (EF), the ability to enhance and suppress emotional expressions, predicts decreases in anxiety and depression symptoms years later (Bonanno, Papa, Lalande, Westphal, & Coifman, 2004). Bonanno and Burton (2013) proposed that knowing the most appropriate strategy for a situation (context sensitivity; CS), and awareness of how well strategies are working (feedback sensitivity; FS), partially explain this effect. We conducted a conditional process analysis to test this theory. One hundred thirty-eight undergraduates completed a behavioral measure of EF and self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, CS, and FS over one month. CS moderated the effect of EF on one-month changes in symptoms of anxiety and depression ( = .03): EF only predicted decreased anxiety and depression symptoms among people low in CS. FS mediated the effect of EF ( -.10, -.01) on changes in anxiety and depression symptoms: higher baseline EF was associated with higher two-week FS, which predicted decreased one-month anxiety and depression symptoms. Results suggest EF and CS may be compensatory skills and FS may be necessary to experience the adaptive effects of emotion regulation flexibility.

More optimistic expectations for change in patients entering treatment often predict more favorable outcomes. However, our understanding of the nature and function of those expectancies is limited. The current study tested the proposal that optimistic expectancies among patients seeking outpatient psychotherapy for major depressive disorder may be explained in part by having a more adaptive self-regulatory style. A sample of 56 adults (78.6% female; mean age 36.5) completed measures of expectancies, depressive symptoms, and aspects of self-regulation. Participants also completed a week of experience sampling using a cell phone system that signaled them 8 random times per day for 7 days. Results were largely consistent with hypotheses. Depressed participants with more optimistic expectancies had a stronger promotion goal orientation, higher goal re-engagement, and reported greater progress on their most important personal goals; daily positive affect and positive situational appraisals were also higher. Findings may suggest a possible self-regulatory mechanism underlying optimistic expectancies for change.

Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives (e.g., social comparison theory, reward theory, evolutionary theory), the present research examined the relations of self and friendship network weight status to body satisfaction, self-esteem, and depression. A diverse, population-based sample of adolescents completed measures of well-being and were measured for height and weight. Boys had greater self-esteem if their male friendship networks' weight status mismatched, versus matched, their own weight status ( = .23). Conversely, boys had greater body satisfaction if their female friendship networks' weight status matched, versus mismatched, their own weight status ( = .18). For girls, the relations of male and female friendship networks' weight status with well-being did not vary by one's own weight status. Evolutionary theory appears to best explain the observed patter of results, and clinicians may want to consider friends' weight status when dealing with adolescents' body satisfaction issues.

The present study examined the roles of shame- and guilt-proneness as mediators of associations between general causality orientations and depressive symptoms. We expected autonomy would be associated with less depressive symptoms based on higher guilt-proneness and lower shame-proneness, whereas control would be associated with more depressive symptoms based on lower guilt-proneness and higher shame-proneness. Undergraduates ( = 354) completed assessments of general causality orientations, shame- and guilt-proneness, and depressive symptoms in exchange for extra credit. Results of mediation analyses were generally supportive of the framework indicating that shame- and guilt-proneness mediate associations between self-determination and depressive symptoms. Autonomy was indirectly associated with less depressive symptoms through positive associations with guilt-proneness, in spite of unexpected positive associations with shame-proneness. Control and impersonal orientation were indirectly associated with more depressive symptoms through positive associations with shame-proneness. Results extend previous research relating self-determination to mental health in providing preliminary support suggesting that individual differences in self-determination facilitate differential tendencies in experiencing guilt and shame.

Socially anxious cannabis users are influenced by cannabis expectancies and normative perceptions. The present study examines the influence of psychosocial factors on cannabis use vulnerability factors as the result of interactions between norms perceptions, social anxiety, and expectancies.

Assortative-mating theories propose that individuals select romantic relationship partners who are similar to them on positive and negative qualities. Furthermore, stress-generation and intergenerational transmission of divorce models argue that one's depression history or family-of-origin relationship problems predict qualities of a marital partner that predispose them to relationship distress. We analyzed data from 172 newlywed couples to examine predictors and mediators of a marital partner's risk index. First, an index of one's own and one's partner risk was created through factor analysis and was comprised of measures that indicate insecurity about oneself. This index was significantly correlated with baseline marital satisfaction and, among men, steps toward divorce at follow-up. Then, structural equation modeling tested direct and indirect pathways predicting partner's risk index, analyzing prior depression history and family-of-origin relational impairment as predictors and one's own risk index as the mediator. Results demonstrated that own risk index reliably predicted partner's risk, while own risk index also mediated the relationship between own family-of-origin relational dysfunction/depression history and partner's risk index. These results support assortative mating theories and suggest that the association between adverse family-of-origin relationships or depression history and the risk profile in one's marital partner is explained by one's own risk profile.

This study examined the effects of parents' positive and negative affect and behavior while interacting with their preschool child and the moderating role of child temperament in predicting children's subsequent difficulty with socially appropriate behavior around school-entry. Independent observational measures were used to assess child temperament (dysphoria; exuberance) and parenting at age 3, and multi-informant reports of child socially appropriate behavior were collected at age 6 (N = 219). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that children's temperamental dysphoria moderated the relationship between positive parenting and later socially appropriate behavior. High- and low-dysphoric children trended in opposite directions; highly dysphoric children experienced greater difficulty with socially appropriate behavior as levels of positive parenting increased, whereas low-dysphoric children experienced less difficulty with socially appropriate behavior with higher levels of positive parenting. There was also an interaction between positive and negative parenting, whereby the combination of elevated positive negative parenting predicted children's later difficulty with socially appropriate behavior. The findings suggest that positive parenting interacts with early child temperament and negative parenting to impact the development of children's socially appropriate behavior.

Depression is characterized by a bleak view of the future, but the mechanisms through which depressed mood is integrated into basic processes of future-oriented cognition are unclear. We hypothesized that dysphoric individuals' predictions of what will happen in the future () and how the future will feel () are attributable to individual differences in incorporating present emotion as judgment-relevant information. Dysphoric individuals ( = 77) made pessimistic likelihood estimates and blunted positive affective forecasts relative to controls ( = 84). These differences were mediated by dysphoric individuals' tendencies to rely on negative emotion as information more than controls-and on positive emotion less-independent of anhedonia. These findings suggest that (1) blunted positive affective forecasting is a distinctive component of depressive future-oriented cognition, and (2) future-oriented cognitive processes are linked not just to current emotional state, but also to individual variation in using that emotion as information. This role of individual differences elucidates basic mechanisms in future-oriented cognition, and suggests routes for intervention on interrelated cognitive and affective processes in depression.

Culture shapes the emotions people feel and want to feel. In Western cultures, happiness is an emotion that many people want to feel. Although experiencing happiness is associated with increased well-being and psychological health, recent evidence suggests wanting to feel happy to an extreme degree, or, highly valuing happiness, leads to decreased well-being. To examine whether these effects of valuing happiness might extend to clinical outcomes, we examined the hypothesis that depression is associated with highly valuing happiness. To do so, we examined the relationship between valuing happiness and depression in two U.S. samples. As hypothesized, valuing happiness was associated with increased depressive symptoms in a community sample with remitted major depressive disorder (MDD), even when controlling for social desirability and neuroticism (Study 1). Furthermore, valuing happiness was elevated in a remitted MDD sample (vs. healthy controls), even when controlling for current depressive symptoms, general affect valuation, and extreme goal pursuit (Study 2). Taken together, these findings suggest that the culturally-pervasive value placed on attaining happiness can represent a risk factor for symptoms and a diagnosis of depression. More broadly, they indicate that a cultural approach can meaningfully extend our understanding of clinical phenomena.

Traumatic events bring an increased need for social connection but paradoxically can make relationships more difficult. The current research examines the unique role social surrogates such as favorite TV shows, books, and celebrities may play in fulfilling the social needs of people who have experienced trauma. Across two studies we predicted and found that experiencing traumatic events is associated with higher interest in using social surrogates. Furthermore, individuals who have experienced trauma without developing PTSD are able to effectively use social surrogates to combat social isolation. However, perhaps because PTSD symptoms often are associated with impaired social functioning, those with PTSD actually feel worse after social surrogate use. Implications for trauma, PTSD, social surrogates, and social self research are discussed.