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Data from 77 undergraduates high in social anxiety and 75 undergraduates low in social anxiety were used to examine between- and within-group differences in idiosyncratic goal generation, plan generation, and anticipated affect related to goal pursuit. The data did not support the hypotheses related to between- or within-group differences in approach and avoidance goal or plan generation; the two groups did not differ in the number of approach or avoidance goals and plans. Both groups reported higher numbers of approach than avoidance goals and plans. Individuals high in social anxiety rated goals as more social. Although, both groups classified more goals as non-social than social, those high in social anxiety were more likely to classify goals as social. Social goals were expected to relate to less net affective cost or gain and have consequents lasting a shorter duration than non-social goals. When imagining goal pursuit, those high in social anxiety reported expecting more negative affect, more deactivated negative affect, less deactivated positive affect, and rated goal pursuit as less pleasant, but they did not differ from those low in social anxiety with respect to positive affect. Individuals high in social anxiety also believed that the consequents of imagining success would have a shorter duration than did those low in social anxiety and tended to believe that the consequences of failure had a longer duration than did the consequences of success, regardless of goal type, whereas individuals low in social anxiety anticipated the opposite pattern. The study concludes with discussion of how anticipated affect as a consequence of goal pursuit relates to the extant goal and affect research; strengths and limitations of the current research; proposed directions for future research; and potential clinical applications of these findings. / Psychology

Recently, Feldman, Joorman, and Johnson (in press) proposed that differences in the ways individuals respond to positive affect (PA) might impact the length and intensity of PA episodes, perhaps leading to changes in long-term mental and physical health. Feldman et al. (in press) suggested that "positive rumination," repetitive positive self- and symptom-focused responses to positive mood, should enhance PA, whereas "dampening" responses should diminish PA. The Response to Positive Affect Scale (RPA; Feldman et al., in press) was created to measure these constructs. Preliminary research has found that measures of positive rumination and dampening help predict mania and depression symptoms. The current study examined the convergent and predictive criterion validity, and reliability of the constructs of positive rumination and dampening through a combination cross-sectional, experimental, and naturalistic follow-up design. Temple University undergraduates (Phase I N = 1,281, Phase II N = 181, Phase III N = 154) participated in a three-phase study. In Phase I, participants completed the RPA along with a series of positive and negative health and cognition measures. In Phase II, participants were randomly assigned to one of three mood induction groups (negative, neutral, or positive) and completed a series of affect reports over time. One month later, Phase II participants were asked to report on their affect, physical health, mental health, and intervening life events during Phase III. As expected, positive rumination and dampening demonstrated convergent and divergent validity. However, the predictive criterion validity results were mixed, with the constructs predicting some, but not all, responses to mood inductions. The naturalistic follow-up demonstrated that positive rumination interacted with positive life events to predict hypothesized changes in psychological health, but not physical health. The test-retest reliability of the RPA was not acceptable for a trait measure. These results suggest that positive rumination and dampening are important constructs involved in both mental health and illness. Future research should consider alternative strategies for measuring responses to PA, including more realistic experimental paradigms. / Psychology

Yes / Background: The study aim was to determine if state and trait intra-individual measures of everyday affect predict cognitive functioning in healthy older community dwelling European adults (n = 387), aged 55-87 years. Methods: Participants were recruited from centres in France, Italy and Northern Ireland. Trait level and variability in positive and negative affect (PA and NA) were assessed using self-administered PANAS scales, four times a day for four days. State mood was assessed by one PANAS scale prior to assessment of recognition memory, spatial working memory, reaction time and sustained attention using the CANTAB computerized test battery. Results: A series of hierarchical regression analyses were carried out, one for each measure of cognitive function as the dependent variable, and socio-demographic variables (age, sex and social class), state and trait mood measures as the predictors. State PA and NA were both predictive of spatial working memory prior to looking at the contribution of trait mood. Trait PA and its variability were predictive of sustained attention. In the final step of the regression analyses, trait PA variability predicted greater sustained attention, whereas state NA predicted fewer spatial working memory errors, accounting for a very small percentage of the variance (1-2%) in the respective tests. Conclusion: Moods, by and large, have a small transient effect on cognition in this older sample.

This study explores the influence of employee perception of acquisition success and the dispositional antecedents of positive affect and adaptive coping on employee- organization commitment during the 60-day period following a business acquisition. Allen & Meyer's affective, normative and continuance model of commitment was used for the dependent variables. A single sample was analyzed using a hierarchical regression approach. The survey was conducted with TRW's GIT Division, and included 51 employees who participated in three web- based surveys. The surveys were administered at (a) the change of control date, (b) 30 days, and (c) 60 days after the change of control date. Through a full- model regression, the combined dispositional and demographic variables were found to have a significant impact on the three components of employee- organization commitment. Specifically, the dispositional attribute of positive affect had a statistically significant predictive relationship to affective and normative commitment. Employee perception of acquisition success was found to have limited influence only on affective commitment, and finally, company service was determined to have a small predictive value for continuance commitment. The changing nature of the relationships between the independent variables and the dependents over time led to the conclusion that the employee sample was experiencing several symptoms of merger syndrome during the initial post- acquisition time period. As a single case, the study cannot be considered conclusive, however, the study does provide insights into the changing nature of employee- organization commitment during a specific time of organizational change. Research into additional dispositional antecedents to employee commitment is suggested, as well as further research on employee commitment after the initial 60-day post- acquisition integration period. / Ph. D.

Although comorbidity is common between internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression and externalizing symptoms such as aggression, the reason for this co-occurrence remains unclear. High negative affect is one factor that has been proposed to explain the connection between anxiety and depression, as well as between these internalizing symptoms and externalizing symptoms including aggression; however, on its own, it may not explain the common association between symptoms. Research on anxiety suggests that effortful control moderates the relationship between negative affect and anxiety. Low levels of effortful control have also been tied to symptoms of depression and aggression. It was hypothesized that effortful control would moderate the impact of negative affect in associations between internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) and aggression such that individuals who have both high levels of negative affect and low levels of effortful control will be more likely to experience both internalizing symptoms and aggression. It was further proposed that, among the functional subtypes of aggression, this relationship would hold only for reactive aggression, and not for proactive aggression. These predictions were tested via hierarchical regression analyses of self-report data from a large sample of undergraduate students. Findings suggest that effortful control moderates the relationship between negative affect and depression; however, it functions as an additive predictor for both anxiety and reactive aggression. These findings and their implications are discussed. / Master of Science

This study investigated the roles of negative affect and cardiovascular reactivity on the attributional responding of hostile males. College males were screened with the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Cook & Medley, 1954). High and low hostile males were assigned to an arousal inducing (serial subtraction by 7's) or a non-arousal inducing condition (serial subtraction by 1's). Cardiovascular reactivity and self-report of affect were measured to the serial subtraction task. After the task was completed, the participant listened to a vignette (provocative or neutral) which depicted an interpersonal situation. The participant answered questions about the scene to assess attributional responding. The arousal-inducing condition was associated with significantly greater changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate and a higher level of self-reported negative affect than the non-arousal inducing condition. More negative attributions were reported for provocative than neutral scenes. Males in the arousal inducing condition made more negative attributions to neutral scenes than males in the non-arousal condition. There was no significant effect of arousal condition on the negative attributions to provocative scenes. Hostility did not influence the relationship between arousal condition and self-reported affect or arousal condition and attributional responding. This study showed that inducing cardiovascular reactivity prior to a neutral encounter with a partner can affect the males' perception of the potentially neutral encounter. / Master of Science

The present investigation included three studies of the effect of liking upon the differential accuracy of performance ratings of instructors. Likableness and performance level were manipulated within vignettes. Liking was manipulated with trait terms that were found in a pretest to have little implication for performance on the rating dimensions. Instructor performance level was manipulated with incidents of teacher behaviors. The first study investigated the effects of ratee likableness (liked vs. disliked vs. neutral) and ratee performance (high vs. low) as well as the effects of rater sex, rater selective attention ability (high vs. low), and the memory demand of the rating task (memory vs. no memory) on the differential accuracy of ratings. A total of 288 subjects, 144 males and 144 females, rated the performance of four instructor vignettes. The differential accuracy of ratings was analyzed as a 3x2x2x2x2 between-subjects design. Differential accuracy was found to be significantly influenced by the performance level of raters, the selective attention of raters, and the memory demand of the rating task. The factors of likableness, ratee performance, and rater sex jointly influenced differential accuracy. The second study investigated the effect of order of format presentation (before vs. after ratee observation) as well as ratee likableness and performance on rating accuracy. A 3x2x2 (liking x performance x format) between-subject ANOVA on the differential accuracy of ratings provided by 144 male and female subjects revealed the three factors to have a joint influence-on rating accuracy. Ratings were more accurate in the format before than in the format after condition with liking and performance having an interactive effect only in the after condition. Study 3 investigated the operation of schemata, discounting, and recall bias as well as liking and performance on rating accuracy. A regression analysis revealed the recall bias measure to be the only significant predictor of rating accuracy. It was concluded that the pattern of results across the three studies did not offer direct support for either an integrality or schema conceptualization of affect. Consideration of schematic processing offered a potential explanation of the recall bias finding. Applied implications of the results are discussed. / Ph. D.

The body of research in the area parent-adolescent relationships has excluded certain variables and concentrated on the issue of conflict, with some consideration to time spent together and the affect in the relationship. This study included these variables and several others in an examination of 64 adolescents and their daily interactions with their parents and how these interactions relate to the overall quality of the relationship. The principal questions of this research were regarding the ability of time with parents, frequency of interactions, quality of interactions, parental affect during the interactions, importance of the relationship, and adolescent gender, to predict the overall quality of relationships between adolescents and their parents. The regression analysis found that parental affect and the frequency of interactions were capable of significant contributions to relationships with both parents. Bivariate analyses reveal many significant relationships between the research variables. The study suggests that these variables, particularly parental affect and the frequency of interactions, merit further attention in the analysis of parent-adolescent relationships. Comparisons between male (N = 25) and female (N = 39) adolescents' relationships were also made. Males spent significantly more time with their fathers and experienced significantly higher ratios of both positive parental affect and positive interactions with their fathers. On average, the adolescents report that the relationships with their parents were important and that overall quality was good. They also reported that 80 to 90% of their interactions were positive. / Master of Science

In order to integrate a mind, body, spirit approach in school settings, yoga programming such as Y.O.G.A. for Youth was introduced to one public and two charter schools in Los Angeles area urban neighborhoods. The study examined the effectiveness of the overall program and its effect on adolescent stress, emotional affect, and resilience. A survey was administered to measure the three dependent variables and informal interviews were conducted to determine the overall effectiveness of the program. The results of the mixed method approach indicated that the overall program was effective in creating a general sense of well-being and statistically significant in alleviating stress (p < .05), increasing positive affect (p < .05), and resilience (p < .001), in the participants (N=30).