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Individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) have difficulties regulating emotion on their own. As people also use social resources to regulate emotion (i.e., interpersonal emotion regulation [IER]), we examined whether these difficulties extend to IER in current and remitted MDD compared to those with no psychiatric disorders (i.e., controls). Adults with current MDD (n = 48), remitted MDD (n = 80), and controls (n = 87) assessed via diagnostic interviewing completed 2-week experience sampling, reporting on how frequently (IER frequency), from whom (sharing partners), and why (IER goals) they sought IER; how the sharing partners responded (sharing partner's extrinsic IER strategies and warmth); and how their feelings about the problem and the sharing partner changed following IER (IER outcomes). Using multilevel modeling, the current-MDD group did not differ from controls in IER frequency and sharing partners, but the current-MDD group demonstrated a more mixed (albeit generally adaptive) profile of received IER strategies and benefited similarly or more from certain IER strategies than the other two groups, suggesting that IER may be a promising avenue for effective emotion regulation in current MDD. The remitted-MDD group sought IER most frequently and demonstrated the most adaptive profile of received IER strategies, and they and the current-MDD group reported seeking more types of IER goals than controls. People with remitted MDD seem highly motivated to pursue IER support and their pursuit takes place in particularly supportive social contexts. Research is needed to examine mechanisms driving these group differences and how IER predicts the course of MDD. General Scientific Summary: In efforts to investigate whether emotion regulation (ER) difficulties in major depressive disorder (MDD) extend to social context, this study examined everyday interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) among adults with current MDD, those whose MDD was in remission, and a healthy control group using the experience sampling method. Although groups showed many similarities in IER processes, they differed in several aspects of IER, including intrinsic IER frequency and goals, extrinsic IER strategies received from others, and IER outcomes following certain IER strategies. This research represents initial efforts to elucidate the characteristics and utility of everyday IER at different stages of MDD and provides preliminary evidence that IER may be a promising avenue for effective ER in MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two studies, participants completed an implicit attractiveness task with faces as primes varying on (a) facial features from Afrocentric to Eurocentric and (b) skin tone from dark to light, and target pictures of environmental scenes varying in attractiveness. On each trial, participants were briefly primed with a face. Next, they categorized a target picture as either attractive or unattractive as quickly as possible. In addition, in Study 2, participants rated the same faces on an attractiveness scale. While results of Study 1 showed that when faces were medium in skin tone, participants were more accurate when primed with a Eurocentric face responding to attractive targets, but also more accurate when primed with an Afrocentric face responding to unattractive targets, a more powerful Study 2 failed to replicate this effect. There was no relationship between participants' explicit ratings of attractiveness and accuracy rates in the implicit attractiveness task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Deficits in goal-directed behavior (i.e. behavior conducted to achieve a specific goal or outcome) are core to schizophrenia, difficult to treat, and associated with poor functional outcomes. Factors such as negative symptoms, effort-cost decision-making, cognition, and functional skills have all been associated with goal-directed behavior in schizophrenia as indexed by clinical interviews or laboratory-based tasks. However, little work has examined whether these factors relate to the real-world pursuit of goal-directed activities in this population. Methods: This study aimed to fill this gap by using Ecological Momentary Assessment (four survey prompts per day for 1 week) to test hypotheses about symptom, effort allocation, cognitive, and functional measures associated with planned and completed goal-directed behavior in the daily lives of 63 individuals with schizophrenia. Results: Individuals with schizophrenia completed more goal-directed activities than they planned [ t (62) = −4.01, p < 0.001]. Motivation and pleasure (i.e. experiential) negative symptoms, controlling for depressive symptoms, negatively related to planned goal-directed behavior [odds ratio (OR) 0.92, p = 0.005]. Increased effort expenditure for high probability rewards (planned: OR 1.01, p = 0.034, completed: OR 1.01, p = 0.034) along with performance on a daily functional skills task (planned: OR 1.04, p = 0.002, completed: OR 1.03, p = 0.047) negatively related to both planned and completed goal-directed activity. Conclusions: Our results present correlates of real-world goal-directed behavior that largely align with impaired ability to make future estimations in schizophrenia. This insight could help identify targeted treatments for the elusive motivated behavior deficits in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: We addressed questions about the potential discrepancy between improvements in activity capacity and improvements in activity performance in daily life. We asked whether this discrepancy is: Common in routine, outpatient care, or an artifact of intervention studies? Unique to upper limb (UL) rehabilitation, or is it seen in walking rehabilitation too? Only seen in persons with stroke, or a broader neurorehabilitation problem? Methods: A longitudinal, observational cohort of 156 participants with stroke or Parkinson disease (PD) receiving outpatient rehabilitation at 5 clinics was assessed around admission and monthly during their episode of care. Individual, longitudinal capacity (Action Research Arm Test or walking speed) and performance (wearable sensor measurements of use ratio or steps/day) data were modeled to extract predicted change scores. Simulation methods were used to determine whether an individual's change was greater than 1 standard error. Participants were classified into categories based on whether or not they improved in capacity (C+ or C−) and/or performance (P+ or P−). Results: A majority (59%) were classified as C+P−. Smaller portions of the sample were classified as C+P+ (20%) and C−P− (21%), with 1 participant (<1%) classified as C−P+. The proportions in the C+P− category were significantly larger in the stroke (χ2 = 48.7, P < 0.0001) and PD (χ2 = 24.3, P < 0.0001) walking subgroups than in the stroke UL subgroup. Discussion and Conclusions: The discrepancy between improvements in capacity and performance is a problem in routine, outpatient neurorehabilitation. If performance information were available, patients and clinicians could act to address it. Video Abstract available for more insights from the authors (see the Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, available at: http://links.lww.com/JNPT/A396). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In clinical practice, physical therapists often use different kinds of tests and measures in the assessment of their patients. For therapists to have confidence when using their tests and measures, an important attribute is having intratester and intertester reliability. Studies that assess reliability are cases of observer agreement. Many studies have been performed assessing observer agreement in the physical therapy literature. The most commonly used method to assess observer agreement studies that use nominal or ordinal data is the statistical method suggested by Cohen and the corresponding reliability coefficient, Cohen kappa. Recently, Cohen kappa has undergone scrutiny because of what is called kappa paradox, which occurs when observer agreement is high but the resulting kappa value is low. Another paradox also occurs when asymmetries exist between raters on their disagreements, resulting in a higher kappa value. In the physical therapy literature, there are numerous examples of this problem, which can often lead to misunderstanding the meaning of the data. This Perspective examines how and why these problems occur and suggests an alternative method for assessing observer agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the authors of a recent meta-analysis concluded there were no age-related differences in the discounting of delayed rewards, they did not examine the effects of income (Seaman et al., 2022). Accordingly, the present study compared discounting by younger and older adults (Ages 35-50 and 65-80) differing in household income. Two procedures were used: the Monetary Choice Questionnaire and the Adjusting-Amount procedure. Whereas no age difference was observed between the higher income (> $80,000) age groups, a significant difference was observed between younger and older adults with lower incomes (< $50,000): The younger adults discounted more steeply than the older adults. These findings, which were observed with both discounting procedures, support our buffering hypothesis, which assumes that the scarcity associated with a lower income is a stressor that can lead to steeper discounting, but that age-related increases in emotional stability can buffer such stressors, leading to age-related differences between lower income age groups. In contrast, no age difference was observed in higher income adults who experience much less scarcity. Further support for the buffering hypothesis comes from the finding that there was no age-related difference in discounting by the lower income groups when distress was statistically controlled. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).