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In food choices, conflict arises when choosing between a healthy, but less tasty food item and a tasty, but less healthy food item. The underlying assumption is that people trade-off the health and taste properties of food items to reach a decision. To probe this assumption, we presented food items either as colored images (image condition, e.g. photograph of a granola bar) or as pre-matched percentages of taste and health values (text condition, e.g., 20% healthy and 80% tasty). We recorded choices, response times and electroencephalography activity to calculate mid-frontal theta power as a marker of conflict. At the behavioral level, we found higher response times for healthy compared to unhealthy choices, and for difficult compared to easy decisions in both conditions, indicating the experience of a decision conflict. At the neural level, mid-frontal theta power was higher for healthy choices than unhealthy choices and difficult choices compared to easy choices, but only in the image condition. Those results suggest that either conflict type and/or decision strategies differ between the image and text conditions. The present results can be helpful in understanding how dietary decisions can be influenced towards healthier food choices., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In the process of urbanization, the social adaptation of migrant children has become an important issue in their development. This study adopts family systems theory and ecological systems theory to examine the effects of parental non-involvement strategies in handling sibling conflict on migrant children's social avoidance. It also investigates the mediating role of sibling conflict and parent-child conflict. The results of the study, reported by parents of 253 mobile children with siblings, suggest that parental strategies of not intervening in sibling conflict are an important factor influencing the development of social avoidance in mobile children. The Parental strategy of not intervening in sibling conflict had an effect on migrant children's social avoidance through the separate mediating effect of parent-child conflict, and also through the chained mediating effect of sibling conflict and parent-child conflict. The study also found that the separate mediating effect of sibling conflict was not significant. This study contributes to the research on the relationship between parental non-intervention in sibling conflict and migrant children's social avoidance. It also highlights the impact of sibling conflict and parent-child conflict on migrant children's social avoidance by establishing and validating a comprehensive research model. The results of the study can help parents establish close parent-child relationships for migrant children and provide scientific guidance for children to develop positive sibling relationships. This, in turn, can assist migrant children in better adapting to a new social environment., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Yue et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Conflict is a ubiquitous, but potentially destructive, feature of social life. In the current research, we argue that intellectual humility-the awareness of one's intellectual fallibility-plays an important role in promoting constructive responses and decreasing destructive responses to conflict in different contexts. In Study 1, we examine the role of intellectual humility in interpersonal conflicts with friends and family members. In Study 2, we extend this finding to workplace conflicts. In both studies we find that intellectual humility predicts more constructive and less destructive responses to conflict. This work extends the burgeoning literature on the benefits of intellectual humility by demonstrating its association with responses that help defuse conflictual encounters., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Koetke et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Mental perspectives can sometimes be changed by psychological interventions. For instance, when applied in the context of intergroup conflicts, interventions, such as the paradoxical thinking intervention, may unfreeze ingrained negative outgroup attitudes and thereby promote progress toward peacemaking. Yet, at present, the evaluation of interventions' impact relies almost exclusively on self-reported and behavioral measures that are informative, but are also prone to social desirability and self-presentational biases. In the present study, magnetoencephalography tracked neural alignment, before and after the paradoxical thinking intervention, during the processing of auditory narratives over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thereby evaluated the intervention's potential to change individuals' (n = 80) mental perspectives over the conflict. Compared to baseline, the conflict-targeted intervention yielded a specific significant increased neural alignment in the posterior superior temporal sulcus while processing incongruent as well as congruent political narratives of the conflict. This may be interpreted as a possible change in perspective over the conflict. The results and their interpretations are discussed in view of the critical added value of neuroimaging when assessing interventions to potentially reveal changes in mental perspectives or the way in which they are processed, even in contexts of entrenched resistance to reconsider one's ideological stance., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Changes in conflict pathology during inpatient psychotherapy and their relationship with symptom reduction Background: In psychodynamic psychotherapy, the treatment of a patient's unconscious conflicts represents an essential aspect of psychotherapeutic success. The present study therefore investigated whether 1) the significance of conflict issues changes during inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy, and whether 2) greater changes in the significance of conflicts are associated with a greater reduction in symptoms., Method: 113 patients provided information on their symptoms (BSI-18) and the significance of six OPD conflict themes in active and passive mode (12 conflict scales) by self-report on admission and discharge. Using Welch's t-tests and multiple regression models, both pre-post changes in symptoms and conflict significance and the influence of conflict changes on symptom reduction were analyzed., Results: Four OPD conflict scales changed significantly during treatment. Patients who changed more strongly in terms of the manifestation of conflicts also showed a greater reduction in symptoms., Discussion: The results indicate both a certain stability of conflict issues and their changeability and confirm the psychodynamic theory that change in conflict issues is associated with symptom reduction.

As we interpret language moment by moment, we often encounter conflicting cues in the input that create incompatible representations of sentence meaning, which must be promptly resolved. Although ample evidence suggests that cognitive control aids in the resolution of such conflict, the methods commonly used to assess cognitive control's involvement in language comprehension provide limited information about the time course of its engagement. Here, we show that neural oscillatory activity in the theta-band (∼3-8 Hz), which is associated with cognitive control in nonlinguistic tasks like Stroop and Flanker, provides a real-time index of cognitive control during language processing. We conducted time-frequency analyses of four electroencephalogram data sets, and consistently observed that increased theta-band power was elicited by various kinds of linguistic conflict. Moreover, increases in the degree of conflict within a sentence produced greater increases in theta activity. These effects emerged as early as 300 ms from the onset of the initiating event, indicating rapid cognitive-control recruitment during sentence processing in response to conflicting representations. Crucially, the effect patterns could not be ascribed to processing difficulty that is not due to conflict (e.g., semantic implausibility was neither necessary nor sufficient to elicit theta activity). We suggest that neural oscillations in the theta-band offer a reliable way to test specific hypotheses about cognitive-control engagement during real-time language comprehension. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Anxiety and depression cause major detriment to the patient, family, and society - particularly in treatment-resistant (TR) cases, which are highly prevalent. TR prevalence may be due to current diagnoses being based not on biological measures but on symptom lists that suffer from clinical subjectivity, variation in symptom presentation, and comorbidity., Aims: Goal-conflict-specific rhythmicity (GCSR) measured using the Stop-Signal Task (SST) may provide the first neural biomarker for an anxiety process and disorder. This GCSR has been validated with selective drugs for anxiety. So, we proposed that GCSR could differ between TR and non-TR individuals and do so differently between those diagnoses normally sensitive to selective anxiolytics and those not., Methods: We recorded electroencephalograms (EEG) from 20 TR participants (4 GAD, 5 SAD and 11 MDD) and 24 non-TR participants (4 GAD, 5 SAD and 15 Comorbid GAD/MDD (GMD)) while they performed the SST., Results: There was significant positive GCSR in all groups except the GAD-TR group. GAD-TR lacked GCSR in the low-frequency range. However, TR had little effect in SAD or MDD/GMD populations with apparent increases not decreases., Conclusions: Overall, these results suggest that GAD may occur in two forms: one resulting from excessive GCSR and so being drug sensitive, and the other resulting from some other mechanism and so being TR. In SAD and MDD groups, heightened GCSR could be a consequence rather than the cause, driven by mechanisms that are normally more sensitive to non-selective panicolytic antidepressants., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: Dr Glue has a contract with Douglas Pharmaceuticals to develop novel ketamine formulations. No other authors have disclosures.

The conflict monitoring theory posits that the simultaneous activation of incompatible responses in the current trial leads to response conflict. Conflict occurrence signals to enhance attention to the target stimulus, reduce attention to distracting stimuli, and ultimately lead to conflict adaptation (i.e., reduced interference effect after conflict trials compared to nonconflict trials). However, this theory does not explicitly assume whether the involvement of response execution is necessary in the process of conflict occurrence. Research on the negative emotion theory suggests that even in the absence of response execution, incompatible response representations can induce conflict. Our present study aimed to provide direct behavioural evidence regarding whether conflict activated without response execution is sufficient to trigger conflict adaptation. In a word-colour Stroop task, this study employed the LOOK-to-DO transition design, in which participants refrained from responding in half of the trials (LOOK trials) and responded with key presses in the other half (DO trials). Across three experiments, we controlled for feature integration and contingency learning and manipulated the stimulus presentation duration in the previous trial. The results indicated a significant conflict adaptation effect in reaction time when the stimulus presentation duration was shorter in the previous trial. This finding suggested that in a confounding-minimal design with no response execution in the previous trial, conflict triggers control adjustments and leads to conflict adaptation. This finding aligns with and further elaborates on the original conflict monitoring theory by demonstrating that response execution is not a necessary condition for the generation of response conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Change is a noticeable feature of civic, personal, and organizational life. Progress, Goal achievement, and avoidance of contingence were frequently involved in the implementation of planned changes. Workers might completely recognize the motives for the alteration or the ladders needed to implement it through strong and constant communication. Outstanding communication could help decrease confrontation, rally a complex of alteration provision, and deliver evidence essential for individuals to adjust efficiently. Organizational change is essential for corporations to thrive and raise. It permits workers to comprehend and obligate change and effort successfully. The goal of this study is to determine the effect of conflicts and organizational changes on the communication process in the IT sector. Gathered data has been achieved by survey with help of surveys and then the collected data is analyzed using the SPSS software, SEM model and confirmatory factor analysis. The primary data collected are nearly 126 from employees working in various departments in the IT sector. This study analyzes the effects of conflicts and organizational changes on the communication process in the IT sector. The study also recommends that the IT sector improve strategies for tackling the issues faced because of organizational change., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Ethical conflict is embedded in healthcare and is common in critical care setting. However, there is a paucity of research on the nature of ethical conflict in China. Ethical conflict has cultural and context sensitivity. Therefore, evidence is needed from different backgrounds to help discuss this issue across borders., Aim: This study aimed to qualitatively identify the experience of ethical conflict in critical care professionals in China., Study Design: From December 2021 to February 2022, we performed semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with 21 critical care professionals from five intensive care units in a tertiary general hospital in China. A thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data., Results: Five themes and 14 sub-themes emerged from the data. Critical care professionals probably felt unable to navigate uncertainty, torn by family issues, outraged by unprofessional behaviours of medical staff, being trapped in a socioeconomic dilemma when having experience of ethical conflict. In addition, they also perceived that they could turn struggle into growth., Conclusions: The experience of ethical conflict in critical care professionals involved a mixture of feelings. This study builds a comprehensive understanding of how ethical conflict affected their perceptions of themselves and their profession and provides implications to develop effective coping strategies., Relevance to Clinical Practice: The identification of critical care professionals' experience of ethical conflict would help identify what might trigger the ethical issues and what would be the potential target to optimize in critical practice., (© 2024 British Association of Critical Care Nurses.)

The Stroop Task is a well-known neuropsychological task developed to investigate conflict processing in the human brain. Our group has utilized direct intracranial neural recordings in various brain regions during performance of a modified color-word Stroop Task to gain a mechanistic understanding of non-emotional human conflict processing. The purpose of this review article is to: 1) synthesize our own studies into a model of human conflict processing, 2) review the current literature on the Stroop Task and other conflict tasks to put our research in context, and 3) describe how these studies define a network in conflict processing. The figures presented are reprinted from our prior publications and key publications referenced in the manuscript. We summarize all studies to date that employ invasive intracranial recordings in humans during performance of conflict-inducing tasks. For our own studies, we analyzed local field potentials (LFPs) from patients with implanted stereotactic electroencephalography (SEEG) electrodes, and we observed intracortical oscillation patterns as well as intercortical temporal relationships in the hippocampus, amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) during the cue-processing phase of a modified Stroop Task. Our findings suggest that non-emotional human conflict processing involves modulation across multiple frequency bands within and between brain structures., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None of the authors have potential conflicts of interest to be disclosed., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The role of task priority on task selection in multi-task management is unclear based on prior work, leading to a common finding of 'priority neglect'. However, properties such as urgency and conflict may influence whether operators weigh priority in their decision. We examined the role of instructed task prioritization, bolstered by more urgent and conflicting conditions, on how operators select among emergent, concurrent tasks when multitasking. Using the Multi-Attribute Task Battery (MATB) multitasking platform we tested both an auditory communications task and a manual tracking task as the priority tasks. Results showed that instructed priority significantly increased target task selection under the conflicting task conditions for both tasks. Urgency itself may modulate whether instructions to prioritize affect task selection choices when multitasking, and therefore counter to prior results instructions may yet be useful for helping operators select a higher priority task under conflict, a generalizable effect to be further explored., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Early work on selective attention used auditory-based tasks, such as dichotic listening, to shed light on capacity limitations and individual differences in these limitations. Today, there is great interest in individual differences in attentional abilities, but the field has shifted towards visual-modality tasks. Furthermore, most conflict-based tests of attention control lack reliability due to low signal-to-noise ratios and the use of difference scores. Critically, it is unclear to what extent attention control generalizes across sensory modalities, and without reliable auditory-based tests, an answer to this question will remain elusive. To this end, we developed three auditory-based tests of attention control that use an adaptive response deadline (DL) to account for speed-accuracy trade-offs: Auditory Simon DL, Auditory Flanker DL, and Auditory Stroop DL. In a large sample (N = 316), we investigated the psychometric properties of the three auditory conflict tasks, tested whether attention control is better modeled as a unitary factor or modality-specific factors, and estimated the extent to which unique variance in modality-specific factors contributed incrementally to the prediction of dichotic listening and multitasking performance. Our analyses indicated that the auditory conflict tasks have strong psychometric properties and demonstrate convergent validity with visual tests of attention control. Auditory and visual attention control factors were highly correlated (r = .81)-even after controlling for perceptual processing speed (r = .75). Modality-specific attention control factors accounted for unique variance in modality-matched criterion measures, but the majority of the explained variance was modality-general. The results suggest an interplay between modality-general attention control and modality-specific processing., (© 2024. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has well-known negative effects on romantic relationship functioning, including the occurrence of intimate partner violence (IPV). A separate literature focused on community couples indicates that relationship functioning is more likely to suffer when partners report greater discrepancies in alcohol consumption. It is important to expand this literature to couples with AUD and to examine the role of impactful AUD domains in dyadic functioning. Furthermore, few studies have examined adaptive, treatment-malleable factors that could potentially offset the negative impact of alcohol discrepancies on relationship functioning. This study examined the association between couples' alcohol problem discrepancies and relationship adjustment, as well as the moderating effect of self-reported adaptive conflict negotiation behaviors. Participants were 100 couples (N = 200 individual participants) with intimate partner violence wherein at least one partner met diagnostic criteria for AUD. Actor-Partner Interdependence Models indicated that greater alcohol problem discrepancy was associated with lower dyadic adjustment. Moderation analyses revealed that the highest level of relationship adjustment was observed among couples with lower alcohol problem discrepancy and greater negotiation behaviors, while relationship adjustment was similar for couples with larger alcohol problem discrepancy, regardless of negotiation behaviors. Although further study is needed to clarify under what specific conditions adaptive negotiation behaviors are most helpful, they appear to be beneficial for some couples in this sample. We found no evidence that negotiation behaviors may be harmful among these high-risk couples., (© 2023 Family Process Institute.)

The post-retrieval extinction paradigm, rooted in reconsolidation theory, holds promise for enhancing extinction learning and addressing anxiety and trauma-related disorders. This study investigates the impact of two reminder types, mild US-reminder (US-R) and CS-reminder (CS-R), along with a no-reminder extinction, on fear recovery prevention in a categorical fear conditioning paradigm. Scalp EEG recordings during reminder and extinction processes were conducted in a three-day design. Results show that the US-R group exhibits a distinctive extinction learning pattern, characterized by a slowed-down yet successful process and pronounced theta-alpha desynchronization (source-located in the prefrontal cortex) during CS processing, followed by enhanced synchronization (source-located in the anterior cingulate) after shock cancellation in extinction trials. These neural dynamics correlate with the subtle advantage of US-R in the Day 3 recovery test, presenting faster spontaneous recovery fading and generally lower fear reinstatement responses. Conversely, the CS reminder elicits CS-specific effects in later episodic tests. The unique neural features of the US-R group suggest a larger prediction error and subsequent effortful conflict learning processes, warranting further exploration., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

According to Lewin's seminal motivational theory, conflicts between undesirable alternatives (avoidance-avoidance conflicts) are more difficult to resolve than conflicts between desirable alternatives (approach-approach conflicts). This difference in the difficulty of resolving approach-approach and avoidance-avoidance conflicts was suggested as a general law for human behavior, and subsequent research provided robust evidence to support it. Here we challenge this assertion. We argue that the difference in conflict resolution difficulty depends on the compatibility between the type of conflict (approach-approach vs. avoidance-avoidance) and the affective context (positive vs. negative) in which the conflict is being resolved. We report five studies. Data were collected from 2019 to 2021. In Studies 1-4, we presented participants with both conflict types, embedded in either a positive or a negative affective context. Across different designs and stimuli, and for both experienced difficulty and decision time, we found that in a positive affective context, avoidance-avoidance conflicts were more difficult to resolve than approach-approach conflicts; however, in a negative affective context, no difference between the conflict types was found. In Study 5, we added a neutral control condition to relate our findings to previous research, which did not manipulate the affective context. Taken together, our findings challenge a seminal motivational theory and show that choosing the lesser of two evils is not always more difficult than choosing the greater of two goods. Instead, the difference in conflict resolution difficulty depends on the affective context in which the choice is being made. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Priority-setting policy-makers often face moral and political pressure to balance the conflicting motivations of efficiency and rescue/non-abandonment. Using the conflict between these motivations as a case study can enrich the understanding of institutional design in developed democracies. This essay presents a cognitive-psychological account of the conflict between efficiency and rescue/non-abandonment in health care priority-setting. It then describes three sets of institutional arrangements-in Australia, England/Wales, and Germany, respectively-that contend with this conflict in interestingly different ways. The analysis yields at least three implications for institutional design in developed democracies: (1) indeterminacy at the level of moral psychology can increase the probability of indeterminacy at the level of institutional design; (2) situational constraints in effect require priority-setting policy-makers to adopt normative-moral pluralism; and (3) the U.S. health care system may be in an anti-priority-setting equilibrium., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Background and Objectives: Drawing on affective events theory, the present study investigates relationships between daily interpersonal conflicts and negative and positive affective reactions, and tested whether trait neuroticism moderates immediate (same day) and persisting (next-day) affective reactions., Design and Methods: A sample of 53 Norwegian naval cadets completed a diary questionnaire for 30 consecutive days (total N  = 1590)., Results: As predicted, the findings showed that cadets reported more negative affect (but not less positive affect) on days they were confronted with affective events that were of a conflicting nature. In addition, the proposed interaction effects between daily conflict and neuroticism were significant for both negative and positive affect. Specifically, the immediate and persistent effects of daily conflicts on negative affect were strongest for individuals high (vs. low) in neuroticism. Moreover, individuals high in neuroticism reported less positive affect on days with conflicts, whereas individuals low in neuroticism reported more positive affect the two days following interpersonal conflicts., Conclusions: The findings contribute to affective events theory with important knowledge about the role of trait neuroticism in dealing with interpersonal conflicts in a natural work setting.

Objective: Impaired self-awareness (SA) after acquired brain injury (ABI) has traditionally been linked to deficits in executive functions. However, conflicting findings about this relationship have been reported in the literature. This inconsistency is probably due to the multicomponent nature of both constructs, as not all aspects of executive functions may be equally relevant to all components of self-awareness. This study explored whether offline SA (i.e. metacognitive knowledge) and online SA (i.e. error detection) relate to a less studied executive component, conflict monitoring/resolution., Method: Twenty-six patients with ABI performed the Three-Conflict Cognitive Control Task (3CCT), an experimental task that allowed to measure the ability to monitor and solve three different types of conflicts (Distractors-filtering, Spatial Stroop and Simon). Measures of SA were collected: offline SA was based on self-informant discrepancy about patient's everyday functional difficulties, and online SA was based on error detection abilities during a performance-based naturalistic task (The Breakfast Conflict Task)., Results: After controlling for global cognition, the conflict monitoring measure of 3CCT demonstarted incremental validity in predicting offline and online SA measured in naturalistic tasks., Conclusions: Conflict monitoring/resolution seems to be an important component of SA. This finding contributes to further understand the relationship between executive functions and SA. In addition, conflict monitoring/resolution is an executive component that should be considered when designing assessment and intervention strategies to deal with ISA.

It is unclear how explicit knowledge of an externally imposed mismatch between visual and proprioceptive cues of hand position affects perceptual recalibration. The Bayesian causal inference framework might suggest such knowledge should abolish the visual and proprioceptive recalibration that occurs when individuals perceive these cues as coming from the same source (their hand), while the visuomotor adaptation literature suggests explicit knowledge of a cue conflict does not eliminate implicit compensatory processes. Here we compared visual and proprioceptive recalibration in three groups with varying levels of knowledge about the visuo-proprioceptive cue conflict. All participants estimated the position of visual, proprioceptive, or combined targets related to their left index fingertip, with a 70 mm visuo-proprioceptive offset gradually imposed. Groups 1, 2, and 3 received no information, medium information, and high information, respectively, about the offset. Information was manipulated using instructional and visual cues. All groups performed the task similarly at baseline in terms of variance, weighting, and integration. Results suggest the three groups recalibrated vision and proprioception differently, but there was no difference in variance or weighting. Participants who received only instructional cues about the mismatch (Group 2) did not recalibrate less, on average, than participants provided no information about the mismatch (Group 1). However, participants provided instructional cues and extra visual cues of their hands during the perturbation (Group 3) demonstrated significantly less recalibration than other groups. These findings are consistent with the idea that instructional cues alone are insufficient to override participants' intrinsic belief in common cause and reduce recalibration., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Little is known about the individual factors that potentiate communication conflict in romantic relationships. This study examined the main and interactive effects of two types of emotion regulation in 1240 couples enrolled in an online relationship intervention. Results revealed that higher levels of actors' communication conflict were associated with actors' greater negative urgency and lower cognitive reappraisal. Furthermore, actors' cognitive reappraisal acted as an inhibitor of communication conflict, but only for actors with low levels of negative urgency. Partner effects on perceived actor conflict followed a similar pattern. There was no evidence that the emotion regulation of one partner moderated the effect of the emotion regulation of the other. These results highlight the importance of considering the contribution of couples' emotion regulation in the etiology of their communication conflict and selecting interventions that best match their emotion regulation needs., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Marital and Family Therapy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.)

Psychiatric disorders are multifactorial conditions without clear biomarkers, influenced by genetic, environmental, and developmental factors. Understanding these disorders requires identifying specific endophenotypes that help break down their complexity. Here, we undertake an in-depth analysis of one such endophenotype, namely imbalanced approach-avoidance conflict (AAC), reviewing its significant dependency on the hippocampus. Imbalanced AAC is a transdiagnostic endophenotype, being a feature of many psychiatric conditions in humans. However, it is predominantly examined in preclinical research through paradigms that subject rodents to conflict-laden scenarios. This review offers an original perspective by discussing the AAC through three distinct lights: optogenetic modulation of the AAC, which updates our understanding of the hippocampal contribution to behavioral inhibition; the impact of environmental stress, which exacerbates conflict and strengthens the stress-psychopathology axis; and inherent epigenetic aspects, which uncover crucial molecular underpinnings of environmental (mal) adaptation. By integrating these perspectives, in this review we aim to underline a cross-species causal nexus between heightened hippocampal activity and avoidance behavior. In addition, we suggest a rationale to explore epigenetic pharmacology as a potential strategy to tackle AAC-related psychopathology. This review assumes greater significance when viewed through the lens of advancing AAC-centric diagnostics in human subjects. Unlike traditional questionnaires, which struggle to accurately measure individual differences in AAC-related dimensions, new approaches using virtual reality and computer games show promise in better focusing the magnitude of AAC contribution to psychopathology., (© 2024 The Author(s). Hippocampus published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: The hospital environment is a complex and unpredictable workplace where different providers share the responsibility of patient care. Differences in opinions, values, and experiences between resident physicians and other care team members may trigger conflicts that affect the safety and quality of patient care. Thus, developing conflict competencies may help to negotiate the complexities of different conflict situations and resolve these conflicts. However, the extent of the knowledge and perception of conflict competence among resident physicians remains to be determined., Methods: A survey and qualitative semi-structured interviews of resident physicians were conducted. Participants were recruited voluntarily. Survey results were analyzed using SPSS 21, and MAXQDA 24 was used to evaluate the interview transcripts with thematic analysis., Results: Sixty-five resident physicians completed the survey, and 15 resident physicians were interviewed. 61.5% of the survey respondents identified as female, 76.9% were Caucasian, 35.4% of the respondents were from surgical specialties, and 43.1% of the residents were in their second year of training. 53.8% of the participants reported witnessing or experiencing conflicts weekly, with 44.6% reporting resident physician-nurse conflicts. 63.1% of the conflicts were reported as unresolved, with 16.9% reporting that the conflict affected future working relationships, 25.5% of the conflicts were due to failure of communication, 75.4%residents did not have any form of prior training on conflict management, and 83.1% of them reported interest in conflict competence training. Conflicts mainly affected the quality of care (87.3%) compared to patient safety concerns (12.3%). Participants with prior training in conflict competence were more likely to resolve their reported conflict (p = 0.047). The interviews highlighted 5 main themes: sources of conflict, awareness of conflict resolution styles, addressing conflict and outcomes, and the effect on patient care. Sources of conflict included hierarchy and different priorities. 52.2% of the respondents did not know any style of conflict resolution. Addressing conflict included collaboration, avoidance, competition, and prevention. Avoidance was the most common style used by interviewees, followed by collaboration. While most felt that the conflicts affected the quality of patient care, 1 interviewee reported severe adverse events on the patient., Conclusion: Conflicts are rife in the hospital environment and can affect patient care when unresolved. Resident physicians' knowledge of conflict competence is low and does not reflect the complexity of their working environment. Future training in conflict competence and resolution is warranted., (Copyright © 2024 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: In inpatient wards, there is a risk that conflicts occur when nursing staff interact with psychotic patients. The Interactive Approach (IA) model is an action-based model, used in psychiatric settings, to manage conflict situations. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: The IA model can be used to improve communication between nursing staff and patients in numerous critical situations. Using a structured risk scale to evaluate a conflict can be an effective way to guide action and sort out the different aspects of communication between nursing staff and psychotic patients. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: The clarity of an action-based model will help sort out which interventions are most likely to succeed in each conflict situation. The IA model highlights the importance of understanding and strengthening the patient's perspective, being flexible for each individual patient, and providing the patient with clear information about the situation. ABSTRACT: Introduction The Interactive Approach (IA) model is a structured management tool used to improve communication between caregivers and patients in psychiatric care settings. Aim/Question To examine the nursing staff's experiences of the IA model. How do they use the interventions in conflict situations with psychotic patients? Method A sample of nursing staff (n = 11) was recruited from three psychosis inpatient care units. Semi-structured questions covered staff experiences of working with the problem-solving interventions in the IA model. Transcribed data were analysed by qualitative content analysis. Results Three categories were defined: (1) 'To apply a flexible approach' describes how staff tried to adapt to each patient and situation; (2) 'Try to understand the person's inner world' describes the importance of active listening and exploring the patient's concerns; and (3) 'To communicate clearly' relates to experiences of clear communication and the setting up of boundaries. Discussion The risk scale and training in communication skills helped the interaction between staff and patients in conflict situations. Different interventions were used with a focus on maintaining patient alliance. Implications for Practice The findings highlight the importance of educational efforts and practical training, to prevent violence and the use of coercive measures., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aggression, conflict and restrictive practices present complexities in acute mental health services, as do implementing service changes to reduce them. Existing published literature needs to offer more high-level guidance on the effectiveness of these service changes and their associated implementation factors. As a result, an overview of systematic reviews was undertaken to identify (i) nonpharmacological interventions to reduce conflict, aggression and restrictive practices in acute mental health settings, and (ii) their effects across different clinical outcomes. A parallel re-extraction from primary studies was then utilised (iii) to identify factors influencing successful intervention implementation. Of 124 articles sourced from nine databases and registries, four reviews were retained for the final analysis, using the direction of effect and tabular and narrative summaries. These reviews included programmes or interventions focused on inpatient adolescent, adult and older adult populations. They reported on alternative containment strategies, risk assessments, Safewards, sensory rooms and equipment, Six Core Strategy-based interventions and staff training. The overview found that a combination of interventions intended to improve relationships and reduce interpersonal conflict may help reduce aggression, conflict and restrictive practices. At the same time, stand-alone staff training and sensory rooms and equipment may have mixed effects. The quality of the evidence linking these interventions to reductions in aggression, conflict and restrictive practices is limited. Successful implementation hinges on multiple factors: intervention characteristics, preparation and planning, evaluation and monitoring, outcome interpretation, stakeholder involvement/investment, staff-related factors and contextual factors. Any implementation initiative may benefit from using pragmatic and complexity-informed research methodologies, including integrating meaningful involvement with service users, peer workers and culturally diverse groups., (© 2024 The Author(s). International Journal of Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

According to the Work/Family Border Theory, the pandemic-induced disruptions, such as widespread teleworking adoption, have blurred work and family boundaries. Meanwhile, the Work-Home Resources Model posited that the impact of such disruptions on work-family conflicts and mental health depends on individual resources. Building on previous research, this study hypothesised that self-compassion and self-control mitigate pandemic burnout by reducing work-family conflicts during pandemic. In particular, we proposed that the proactive nature of self-compassion motivates individuals to seek resources for managing work-family conflicts, while self-control translates this motivation into action through behavioural regulation and adaptive coping. Using a three-wave longitudinal design with 568 participants in China during heightened pandemic severity, the study revealed that both self-compassion and self-control were associated with lower pandemic burnout, mediated through reduced work-family conflict. The indirect effect of self-compassion on pandemic burnout via work-family conflicts was significant only for individuals with high or average self-control, emphasising the complementary role of both factors. Our findings underscore the protective value of self-compassion and self-control in navigating work-family conflicts during collective adversities, advocating for their incorporation in theoretical frameworks and practical intervention., (© 2024 International Union of Psychological Science.)

Despite growing evidence that parent-adolescent conflict positively correlates with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) among adolescents, its underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms have yet to be thoroughly examined. Based on the social development model and gene-environment interaction perspective, this study investigates whether the indirect association of parent-adolescent conflict, which impacts adolescent IGD through peer victimization, was moderated by the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene rs53576 polymorphism. Overall, 673 Chinese adolescents (Mean age  = 12.81 years; SD = 0.48 years; 54% boys) were included in this study. The participants completed questionnaires concerning parent-adolescent conflict, peer victimization, and IGD, and genomic DNA was extracted from each participant's saliva and buccal cells. The findings indicated that peer victimization mediated the link between parent-adolescent conflict and IGD among adolescents. The OXTR gene rs53576 polymorphism also moderated this indirect link. Specifically, the indirect effect of parent-adolescent conflict on adolescent IGD through peer victimization was significant for adolescents with AA homozygotes. However, it was non-significant for adolescents with GA and GG genotypes. This research simultaneously considers the roles of family, peers, and genetics in adolescent IGD. Furthermore, it provides beneficial information to customize interventions for adolescent IGD prevention., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Nurses are the frontline professionals caring for patients who have attempted suicide. When clinical nurses learn from medical records or nursing handover, or are proactively informed by patients or family members, that the patients they are caring for have suicidal tendencies, they often experience pressure and face challenges. However, little attention has been given to the experiences of the nurses caring for patients with suicidal intent on medical and surgical wards. We aimed to address this knowledge gap. The purpose of this study was to explore medical and surgical nurses' experiences, especially the internal conflicts they might experience while caring for patients who have a history of attempted suicide. A qualitative descriptive design and semi-structured interviews were used in this study. Twenty-three nurses were recruited and interviewed individually. Data were analysed by qualitative content analysis. The focus of this paper is to examine the emergent theme of intrapersonal conflict experienced by the participants. Nurses' experiences can be clustered into two themes: (1) Pity and annoyance and (2) Hard work does not necessarily pay off. Intrapersonal conflict was identified by participants as considerable fear and anxiety about the possibility of a patient's suicide, as well as a mixture of pity for and annoyance with the patients. Nurses feel sorry for such patients, but they are also annoyed by the extra work required to prevent suicide attempts in the ward. Additionally, having limited time and ability, they see that their hard work does not necessarily pay off and may sometimes lead to punishment. Our findings raise serious concerns about the adequacy of the knowledge of the nurses, their competence and their difficulties in caring for such patients. In addition, there is a need to provide them with appropriate on-the-job education and immediate emotional support relevant to caring for survivors of suicide attempts., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)

Organizational conflict was proposed by dividing it into task conflict and relationship conflict. However, conflict is dynamic and therefor, the conflict transformation is recognized as an important topic in organizational conflict. In particular, task conflict can be easily transformed into relationship conflict due to emotional expression and misattribution in the process of conflict. In addition, task conflict can negatively affect employees' attitudes if it is transformed into relationship conflict even though task conflict can function properly. This transformation of conflict can become more active under certain conditions, and leaders play an important role in this transformation because leaders have an important influence on conflict management. Therefore, this study examined the effect of the transition from task conflict to relationship conflict on burnout and the moderating effect of leaders in the relationship between task and relationship conflict. To this end, surveying 721 employees in 15 departments, and multilevel mediation and moderation analysis were performed. As a result of analysis, employees' burnout increased when task conflict transformed into relationship conflict. In addition, greater the LMX differentiation of leader, greater the effect of task conflict on relationship conflict. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed for leadership and conflict management., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

When people consider what is good for their country, they might face a conflict between the country's short-term and long-term interests. We suggest that resolving this conflict depends on people's form of national identification and future time perspective. Across four studies ( N = 4,274), we showed that constructive patriotism, but not conventional patriotism or glorification, was positively associated with future time perspective. Moreover, we showed that this further translated into people's responses to intertemporal conflicts. Specifically, constructive patriotism was indirectly linked to higher support for national policies with long-term advantages (despite short-term disadvantages) and lower support for national policies with long-term disadvantages (despite short-term advantages), and these links were mediated by future time perspective. Overall, our results demonstrate that distinct forms of national identification are differently linked to future time perspective. Likewise, this helps explain differences in how much people care about their country's present and future., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Physicians frequently encounter situations in which their professional practice is intermingled with moral affordances stemming from other domains of the physician's lifeworld, such as family and friends, or from general morality pertaining to all humans. This article offers a typology of moral conflicts 'at the margins of professionalism' as well as a new theoretical framework for dealing with them. We start out by arguing that established theories of professional ethics do not offer sufficient guidance in situations where professional ethics overlaps with moral duties of other origins. Therefore, we introduce the moral theory developed by Christine M. Korsgaard, that centres around the concept of practical identity. We show how Korsgaard's account offers a framework for interpreting different types of moral conflicts 'at the margins of professionalism' to provide either orientation for solving the conflict or an explanation for the emotional and moral burden involved in moral dilemmas., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Adaptive behaviors require the ability to resolve conflicting information caused by the processing of incompatible sensory inputs. Prominent theories of attention have posited that early selective attention helps mitigate cognitive interference caused by conflicting sensory information by facilitating the processing of task-relevant sensory inputs and filtering out behaviorally irrelevant information. Surprisingly, many recent studies that investigated the role of early selective attention on conflict mitigation have failed to provide positive evidence. Here, we examined changes in the selectivity of early visuospatial attention in male and female human subjects performing an attention-cueing Eriksen flanker task, where they discriminated the shape of a visual target surrounded by congruent or incongruent distractors. We used the inverted encoding model to reconstruct spatial representations of visual selective attention from the topographical patterns of amplitude modulations in alpha band oscillations in scalp EEG (∼8-12 Hz). We found that the fidelity of the alpha-based spatial reconstruction was significantly higher in the incongruent compared with the congruent condition. Importantly, these conflict-related modulations in the reconstruction fidelity occurred at a much earlier time window than those of the lateralized posterior event-related potentials associated with target selection and distractor suppression processes, as well as conflict-related modulations in the frontocentral negative-going wave and midline-frontal theta oscillations (∼3-7 Hz), thought to track executive control functions. Taken together, our data suggest that conflict resolution is supported by the cascade of neural processes underlying early selective visuospatial attention and frontal executive functions that unfold over time., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2024 the authors.)

Background: The family, as the basic socialization environment, is a complex dynamic system that - as a whole and through its subsystems - is in relationships with other social systems (Bagdy in Family socialization and personality disorders. Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest, 2002; Lakatos et al. in Mentálhigiéné és Pszichoszomatika 21(1):56-85, 2020). The system with which the family system has long-term relationships is the work system/environment. Creating and maintaining a work-life balance has become a central issue in our societies, as they are two of the most organising forces, and reconciling them is a very difficult task due to the demands and expectations coming from both directions, often simultaneously (Makra et al. in Magyar Pszichológiai Szemle 67(3):491-518, 2012). This kind of "double burden" primarily affects women, but their increasing role in the labour market is not necessarily followed by an equal sharing of work within family life (Engler et al. in Work-life balance in women's careers. In: Tardos K, Paksi V, Fábri Gy (eds) Scientific careers in the early 21st century. Belvedere Meridionale, Szeged, pp 114-126, 2021). We hypothesise that involvement in work negatively correlates with work-life balance, making it more difficult to integrate into the family. It was expected that the relationship between the number of children and mothers' professional involvement would be negative. A positive correlation was expected between the age of the youngest child and the mothers' work involvement. On the other hand, a family united by cohesion and resilience leads to higher job satisfaction., Methods: For the present analysis, we analysed the relationships between work-family conflict and family structure in working mothers with children in a sample of 273 participants. The self-reported questionnaire included demographic data and 2 standard questionnaires: the Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire and the Olson-Family Test (FACES-IV.). The study was conducted in Hungary., Results: No significant relationship was found between work involvement and work-family conflict. A negative relationship was observed between work involvement and family involvement. Similiarily, no significant relationship was found between the number of children, the age of the youngest child and work involvement, contrary to expectations. The findings indicate a positive relationship between good family cohesion, flexibility and job satisfaction., Conclusion: Striking a work-family balance is a challenging process for families with young children, especially working mothers. A mutually negative relationship between work and family involvement has been shown. The importance of a well-functioning family, with adequate cohesion and flexibility, is reflected in family and job satisfaction. The relationship between work-to-family conflict and job involvement is moderated significantly only when family flexibility is low. The results from the present pilot study indicate important relationships between variables and point to further research directions worth investigating in a larger sample in the future., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

A major goal in evolutionary biology is to elucidate common principles that drive human and other animal societies to adopt either a warlike or peaceful nature. One proposed explanation for the variation in aggression between human societies is the democratic peace hypothesis. According to this theory, autocracies are more warlike than democracies because autocratic leaders can pursue fights for private gain. However, autocratic and democratic decision-making processes are not unique to humans and are widely observed across a diverse range of non-human animal societies. We use evolutionary game theory to evaluate whether the logic of democratic peace may apply across taxa; specifically adapting the classic Hawk-Dove model to consider conflict decisions made by groups rather than individuals. We find support for the democratic peace hypothesis without mechanisms involving complex human institutions and discuss how these findings might be relevant to non-human animal societies. We suggest that the degree to which collective decisions are shared may explain variation in the intensity of intergroup conflict in nature., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objective: Interpersonal and emotional functioning are closely linked and reciprocally influence one another. Contemporary integrative interpersonal theory (CIIT) offers a useful framework to conceptualize these patterns and guide interventions in cases where these patterns result in dysfunction. Stress processes offer several dynamic frameworks to guide empirical investigations using methods that allow for fine-grained analyses in the context of daily life., Method: Four samples of adults (Sample 1, N = 145; Sample 2, N = 160; Sample 3, N = 297; Sample 4 = 89 dyads, 178 individuals) completed ecological momentary assessment protocols focused on a variety of interpersonal and emotional experiences. Samples were enriched for aggressive and self-harming behavior (Sample 1), trait hostility (Sample 2), interpersonal problems (Sample 3), and personality disorder features (Sample 4)., Results: Using multilevel dynamic structural equation modeling, we investigated how emotions and interpersonal functioning operate over brief timescales in daily life. We found evidence for a vicious socioemotional cycle across all four samples, whereby negative emotions related to interpersonal conflict (i.e., perceptions of and enacting cold, antagonistic, or quarrelsome behavior; components that contribute to the interpersonal situation from the perspective of CIIT) which in turn related to increased negative emotions. Although individuals differed in the strength of this process, it was unrelated to trait negative affectivity., Conclusions: Viewing these results through the lens of CIIT, we discuss multiple intervention points highlighted by these dynamic results whereby the vicious cycle might be changed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The study addressed the still-open issue of whether semantic (in addition to response) conflict does indeed contribute to Stroop interference (which along with facilitation contributes to the overall Stroop effect also known as Congruency effect). To this end, semantic conflict was examined across the entire response time (RT) distribution (as opposed to mean RTs). Three (out of four) reported experiments, along with cross-experimental analyses, revealed that semantic conflict was absent in the participants' faster responses. This result characterizes Stroop interference as a unitary phenomenon (i.e., driven uniquely by response conflict). When the same participants' responses were slower, Stroop interference became a composite phenomenon with an additional contribution of semantic conflict that was statistically independent of both response conflict and facilitation. While the present findings allow us to account for the fact that semantic conflict has not been consistently found in past studies, further empirical and theoretical efforts are still needed to explain why exactly it is restricted to longer responses. Indeed, since neither unitary nor composite models can account for this polymorphic nature of Stroop interference on their own, the implications for the current state of theory are outlined., (© 2024. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)

Classic motivational conflicts theory (Lewin, 1931) distinguishes between approach-approach, and avoidance-avoidance conflicts. Previous research has focused solely on testing the theory's prediction that avoidance-avoidance conflicts are more difficult to resolve than approach-approach ones, using outcome measures (decision time and self-reports). The theory, however, specifies a force-fields mechanism to account for this difference in conflict resolution difficulty, whereby avoidance-avoidance conflicts (compared to approach-approach ones) elicit more (a) oscillations and (b) return to the middle point between options. However, this force-fields mechanism has never been empirically tested, arguably due to a lack of the tools to do so. In five studies ( N = 534 U.K. residents), we use mouse-tracking measures to provide insight into the force-fields mechanism. We show that the force-fields' mechanistic properties-oscillations and returns to the middle point-distinguish the two types of conflict and uniquely account for conflict resolution difficulty beyond standard conflict-strength measures. Moreover, we test a novel, theory-driven prediction and robustly show a differential pattern of increased oscillations as a function of the decision-maker's proximity to the decision options. Finally, we test a boundary condition moderating the influence of conflict type on both the force-fields' mechanistic properties and conflict resolution difficulty. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Dual-tasks at the memory encoding stage have been shown to decrease recall performance and impair concurrent task performance. In contrast, studies on the effect of dual-tasks at the memory retrieval stage observed mixed results. Which cognitive mechanisms are underlying this dual-task interference is still an unresolved question. In the present study, we investigated the influence of a concurrent reaction-time task on the performance in a long-term memory task in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants performed an auditory-verbal free recall memory task and a visual-manual spatial Stroop task in a single or dual-task condition, either at the encoding or retrieval stage of the memory task. In Experiment 2, we examined the influence of processing conflicts in a concurrent RT task on memory encoding. Both experiments showed detrimental effects on recall accuracy and concurrent RT task performance in dual-task conditions at the encoding stage. Dual-task conditions at the retrieval stage led to a slowdown in recall latency and impaired concurrent RT task performance, but recall accuracy was maintained. In addition, we observed larger Stroop congruency effects in the dual-task conditions, indicating an increased processing conflict. However, in Experiment 2, we analyzed the effect of the processing conflict in a time-locked manner and could not find a significant influence on success of memory encoding. These findings suggest that processes in both tasks share the same limited capacity and are slowed down due to parallel processing, but we could not find evidence that this is further influenced by task-specific processing conflicts., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objectives: Decision-making for patients with a locally advanced laryngeal carcinoma (T3 and T4) is challenging due to the treatment choice between organ preservation and laryngectomy, both with different and high impact on function and quality of life (QoL). The complexity of these treatment decisions and their possible consequences might lead to decisional conflict (DC). This study aimed to explore the level of DC in locally advanced laryngeal carcinoma patients facing curative decision-making, and to identify possible associated factors., Methods: In this multicenter prospective cohort study, participants completed questionnaires on DC, level of shared decision-making (SDM), and a knowledge test directly after counseling and 6 months after treatment. Descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation tests were used to analyze the data., Results: Directly after counseling, almost all participants (44/45; 98%) experienced Clinically Significant DC score (CSDC >25, scale 0-100). On average, patients scored 47% (SD 20%) correct on the knowledge test. Questions related to radiotherapy were answered best (69%, SD 29%), whilst only 35% (SD 29%) of the questions related to laryngectomy were answered correctly. Patients' perceived level of SDM (scale 0-100) was 70 (mean, SD 16.2), and for physicians this was 70 (SD 1.7)., Conclusion: Most patients with advanced larynx cancer experience high levels of DC. Low knowledge levels regarding treatment aspects indicate a need for better patient counseling., Level of Evidence: 4 Laryngoscope, 134:3604-3610, 2024., (© 2024 The Authors. The Laryngoscope published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.)

In the present study, we investigated the influence of performance-contingent reward prospects on task performance across three visual conflict tasks with manual responses (Experiments 1 & 2: Simon and Stroop tasks; Experiment 3: Simon and Eriksen flanker task) using block-wise (Experiment 1) and trial-wise (Experiments 2 & 3) manipulations to signal the possibility of reward. Across all experiments, task performance (in reaction time and/or error rates) generally improved in reward compared with no-reward conditions in each conflict task. However, there was, if any, little evidence that the reward manipulation modulated the size of the mean conflict effects, and there was also no evidence for conflict-specific effects of reward when controlling for time-varying fluctuations in conflict processing via distributional analyses (delta plots). Thus, the results provide no evidence for conflict-specific accounts and instead favor performance-general accounts, where reward anticipation leads to overall performance improvements without affecting conflict effects. We discuss possible implications for how proactive control might modulate the interplay between target- and distractor-processing in conflict tasks., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Older adults report greater affective well-being in solitude than younger adults, but prior findings are based on correlational designs. We aim to examine age differences in affective well-being in solitude using an experimental design and to examine conflict de-escalation as a potential mechanism. In Study 1, 207 participants were randomly assigned to either a solitude or a social interaction condition. In Study 2, 128 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: solitude-escalation, solitude-de-escalation, interaction-escalation, and interaction de-escalation. After a 15-min solitude or social interaction period, they reported their affective experiences. In Study 1, older (vs. younger) adults reported more positive affect overall. This age-related difference was greater in the solitude (vs. social interaction) condition; older adults reported less negative affect than younger adults in the solitude, but not the social interaction, condition. In Study 2, older (vs. younger) participants reported more high-arousal positive affect in the solitude-escalation condition. This difference was not significant in conflict de-escalation conditions. Our studies provide causal evidence of the relationship between solitude and affective well-being and advance our understanding of motivations that explain why older adults maintain better affective well-being in solitude., (© 2024 International Association of Applied Psychology.)

People with epilepsy often suffer from comorbid psychiatric disorders, which negatively affects their quality of life. Emotion regulation is an important cognitive process that is impaired in individuals with psychiatric disorders, such as depression. Adults with epilepsy also show difficulties in emotion regulation, particularly during later-stage, higher-order cognitive processing. Yet, the spatiotemporal and frequency correlates of these functional brain deficits in epilepsy remain unknown, as do the nature of these deficits in adolescent epilepsy. Here, we aim to elucidate the spatiotemporal profile of emotional conflict processing in adolescents with epilepsy, relative to controls, using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and relate these findings to anxiety and depression symptom severity assessed with self-report scales. We hypothesized to see blunted brain activity during emotional conflict in adolescents with epilepsy, relative to controls, in the posterior parietal, prefrontal and cingulate cortices due to their role in explicit and implicit regulation around participant response (500-1000 ms). We analyzed MEG recordings from 53 adolescents (28 epilepsy [14focal,14generalized], 25 controls) during an emotional conflict task. We showed that while controls exhibited behavioral interference to emotional conflict, adolescents with epilepsy failed to exhibit this normative response time pattern. Adolescents with epilepsy showed blunted brain responses to emotional conflict in brain regions related to error evaluation and learning around the average response time (500-700 ms), and in regions involved in decision making during post-response monitoring (800-1000 ms). Interestingly, behavioral patterns and psychiatric symptom severity varied between epilepsy subgroups, wherein those with focal epilepsy showed preserved response time interference. Thus, brain responses were regressed with depression and anxiety levels for each epilepsy subgroup separately. Analyses revealed that under activation in error evaluation regions (500-600 ms) predicted anxiety and depression in focal epilepsy, while regions related to learning (600-700 ms) predicted anxiety in generalized epilepsy, suggesting differential mechanisms of dysfunction in these subgroups. Despite similar rates of anxiety and depression across the groups, adolescents with epilepsy still exhibited deficits in emotional conflict processing in brain and behavioral responses. This suggests that these deficits may exist independently from psychopathology and may stem from underlying dysfunctions that predispose these individuals to develop both disorders. Findings such as these may provide potential targets for future research and therapies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

This article presents an experiment (N = 127 university students) testing whether the previously found impact of conflict primes on effort-related cardiac response is moderated by objective task difficulty. Recently, it has been shown that primed cognitive conflict increases cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) reactivity-an index of effort intensity-during the performance of relatively easy tasks. This effect could be attributed to conflict-related negative affect. Consequently, as it has been shown for other types of negative affect, we expected conflict primes' effect to be task-context dependent and thus to be moderated by objective task difficulty. In a between-persons design, we manipulated conflict via embedded pictures of conflict-related vs. non-conflict-related Stroop items in a memory task. We expected primed conflict to increase effort in a relatively easy version of the task but to lead to disengagement when task difficulty was objectively high. PEP reactivity corroborated our predictions. Rather than always increasing effort, cognitive conflict's effect on resource mobilization was context-dependent and resulted in weak responses in a difficult task., (© 2024 The Authors. Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research.)

Purpose: Because multiple management options exist for clinical T1 renal masses, patients may experience a state of uncertainty about the course of action to pursue (ie, decisional conflict). To better support patients, we examined patient, clinical, and decision-making factors associated with decisional conflict among patients newly diagnosed with clinical T1 renal masses suspicious for kidney cancer., Materials and Methods: From a prospective clinical trial, participants completed the Decisional Conflict Scale (DCS), scored 0 to 100 with < 25 associated with implementing decisions, at 2 time points during the initial decision-making period. The trial further characterized patient demographics, health status, tumor burden, and patient-centered communication, while a subcohort completed additional questionnaires on decision-making. Associations of patient, clinical, and decision-making factors with DCS scores were evaluated using generalized estimating equations to account for repeated measures per patient., Results: Of 274 enrollees, 250 completed a DCS survey; 74% had masses ≤ 4 cm in size, while 11% had high-complexity tumors. Model-based estimated mean DCS score across both time points was 17.6 (95% CI 16.0-19.3), though 50% reported a DCS score ≥ 25 at least once. On multivariable analysis, DCS scores increased with age (+2.64, 95% CI 1.04-4.23), high- vs low-complexity tumors (+6.50, 95% CI 0.35-12.65), and cystic vs solid masses (+9.78, 95% CI 5.27-14.28). Among decision-making factors, DCS scores decreased with higher self-efficacy (-3.31, 95% CI -5.77 to -0.86]) and information-seeking behavior (-4.44, 95% CI -7.32 to -1.56). DCS scores decreased with higher patient-centered communication scores (-8.89, 95% CI -11.85 to -5.94)., Conclusions: In addition to patient and clinical factors, decision-making factors and patient-centered communication relate with decisional conflict, highlighting potential avenues to better support patient decision-making for clinical T1 renal masses.

Objective: Across three experiments (N = 622), we investigated the effect of the future temporal perspective on wise reasoning within the context of interpersonal conflicts., Method: Studies 1 and 2 applied two heterogeneous measurements of wise reasoning: self-report and open-ended measurements. Participants reasoned about their recent interpersonal conflicts from a future (i.e., 1 year from now) or a present perspective. Similarly, Study 3 tested the relationship between various future temporal distances (i.e., 1 week, 1 year, 10 years, 30 years from now) and wise reasoning., Results: The future temporal perspective significantly promoted wise reasoning compared to the present perspective, especially when the focus was 30 years in the future. Moreover, reasoning about a conflict event from a future perspective first might cause a carry-over effect on reasoning from the present perspective later., Conclusion: Future-oriented temporal perspective significantly improves wise reasoning., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

People often feel mixed and conflicting feelings (i.e., ambivalence) toward their romantic partner. So far, research has primarily shown that ambivalence is linked to negative outcomes in relationships, but is this always true? Building off the affect, behavior, cognition model of ambivalence, the present work tests the idea that, when ambivalent, individuals can experience both positive and negative cognitive and behavioral responses toward their partner. This idea was tested in three different studies with people in romantic relationships: a cross-sectional international study ( n = 665), a 10-day daily diary study ( n = 171), and a 12-day daily diary study with two follow-ups ( n = 176 couples and nine individuals). Across studies, when people experienced greater subjective ambivalence (i.e., explicitly reported feeling mixed and conflicted) toward their partner, they spent more time thinking about the difficulties they faced in their relationship but also about ways in which they can make it better and, in turn, engaged in both constructive (e.g., wanting to spend more time with the partner) and destructive (e.g., ignoring or criticizing the partner) behaviors toward their partner. Ambivalence was also associated with greater fluctuations in both constructive and destructive behaviors daily and over time. This work advances the current knowledge about ambivalence in romantic relationships and further demonstrates that individuals can experience both positive and negative cognitions and behaviors toward a partner when ambivalent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).