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Stress is multidimensional, including exposure, subjective appraisals, perceived coping, rumination, and worry. Although research has shown each dimension can predict poor social, emotional, and subjective well-being, rarely have these dimensions of stress been compared as one is experiencing stress. This paper used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to repeatedly measure stress dimensions and self-reported health to test whether each stress dimension has a unique relationship with well-being over time at the between-person and within-person levels. Participants (n = 165, 79.6% female) were Hispanic undergraduates, who completed EMAs twice a day for 14 consecutive days, resulting in 3,436 EMAs and 1,987 morning sleep observations. At each EMA, participants reported on the dimensions of stress, feelings of loneliness and belongingness (social well-being), levels of sadness, happiness, and anxiety (emotional well-being), and how healthy they felt (subjective well-being). Sleep quality and duration (subjective well-being) were assessed each morning. Multilevel models revealed few relationships at the between-person level. At the within-person level, appraisals, coping, rumination, and worry consistently predicted social, emotional, and subjective well-being. Lagged analyses suggested some relationships for appraisal, coping, and worry. Results suggest the importance of measuring stress in a multidimensional capacity and examining associations with well-being across multiple health facets.

Caregivers to Alzheimer’s patients are at risk for depression, partly due to restriction of self-oriented activities. This study tested if having more diversity in activities, doing activities more...

Background Research pairing ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology and ambulatory cortisol during daily life is still rare, as is careful testing of the within-person associations between stress, affect, and cortisol. Using a circumplex approach, we considered both valence and arousal components of affect. Purpose To examine the within-person covariation of momentary cortisol with momentary perceived stress, affective valence, and affective arousal in everyday life. Methods 115 working adults (Mage = 41.2; 76% women; 76% white) completed six EMA surveys per day over 3 days. Each assessment included reports of perceived stress and affect (used to construct indicators of affective valence and arousal), followed by a saliva sample (from which cortisol was assessed). Multi-level models were used to examine the momentary associations between perceived stress, affective valence, affective arousal, and cortisol. Results Moments characterized by higher perceived stress were associated with higher cortisol (p = .036). Affective valence covaried with cortisol (p = .003) such that more positive valence was associated with lower cortisol and more negative valence with higher cortisol. Momentary affective arousal was not related to cortisol (p = .131). When all predictors were tested in the same model, only valence remained a significant predictor of cortisol (p = .047). Conclusion Momentary perceived stress and affective valence, but not affective arousal, were associated with naturalistic cortisol. Cortisol was more robustly associated with affective valence than perceived stress or affective arousal. These findings extend our understanding of how moments of stress and particular characteristics of affective states (i.e., valence but not arousal) may “get under the skin” in daily life.

Previous research suggests that affectionate touch such as hugs might downregulate stress systems such as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. However, the current literature lacks in generalizability beyond the laboratory setting and outside the context of romantic relationships. The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a measure of the HPA axis and is responsive to daily fluctuations in stress and social information. However, associations between affectionate touch and the CAR have never been assessed. This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to measure daily hugging behaviors in 104 first-year college students and salivary cortisol to assess the CAR. Participants who reported more daily hugs in their social interactions had significantly smaller CARs the next morning compared to days they reported fewer hugs. This study contributes to the literature on social interactions and stress responsive systems and emphasizes the importance of assessing affectionate touch behaviors such as hugs that can be exchanged outside the context of romantic relationships.

Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) is an essential component of a modern congenital cardiac surgery program. The circuit components and bedside management team may, however, vary among institutions. Here, we evaluate our initial experience with a modified ventricular assist device-based ECLS circuit primarily managed by the bedside nurse. We hypothesize that our outcomes are comparable to Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) registry data. All patients who received ECLS from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019 at a single institution were included. Primary outcomes were survival to ECLS decannulation and discharge or transfer. Secondary outcomes included complications from ECLS. Data were compared to available ELSO registry data. Thirty-seven patients underwent 44 ECLS runs during the study period. Forty percent of patients had single ventricle physiology. Nearly 46% of patients received ECLS as part of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (eCPR). Survival to ECLS decannulation (68.2%) and survival to discharge or transfer (61.4%) did not differ from overall ELSO outcomes (69.7%, P = .870 and 50.7%, P = .136), as well as survival to discharge or transfer in a comparable cohort of ELSO centers (53.1%, P = .081). Patients with complications had a lower rate of survival to discharge or transfer but this did not reach statistical significance (47.7% vs. 75.0%, P = .455). Neurologic (50.0%), hemorrhagic (45.5%), and renal complications (31.8%) were most common in this cohort. A modified ventricular assist device-based ECLS circuit with primary management by the bedside nurse can provide comparable support in a neonatal and pediatric cardiac surgery population. Cost analyses and further delineation of the complication profile are necessary for a complete characterization of this system.

Background Anxiety, anger, and sadness are related to elevated ambulatory blood pressure (ABP), yet it is unclear whether each emotion exerts unique effects. Moreover, an understanding of who might be most susceptible to the negative effects of these emotions is limited, with the trait tendency to experience them or one’s race as potential moderators. Purpose The study examined the potential for differential effects of momentary anxiety, anger, and sadness on ABP. The study assessed whether a trait tendency to experience these negative emotions and/or race (Black vs. non-Black) would moderate these relationships. Methods Participants (n = 153) completed trait anxiety, anger, and depressive symptoms measures at baseline. ABP was collected over two 24-hour periods 3–4 months apart. Momentary measures of anxiety, anger, and sadness were assessed via ecological momentary assessment (EMA) after each ABP reading. Results Momentary anxiety consistently predicted diastolic blood pressure but not systolic blood pressure. Momentary anger and sadness did not predict blood pressure (BP). Conditional effects were found with momentary anxiety and anger predicting elevated BP in those individuals with trait anxiety/anger at its mean. Trait anxiety and depression consistently predicted heightened BP in Black participants. Trait anger did not moderate the relationships between negative emotions and ABP. Conclusions Findings suggest that momentary anxiety and anger should be given attention as potential risk factors for hypertension and highlight the unique perspective of EMA methods. Black participants who were more anxious and depressed experienced heightened BP, with anxiety and depression providing possible intervention targets in improving racial disparities in cardiovascular health.

Research implicates experiences of discrimination in exacerbating cardiometabolic disease (CMD) risk. Belongingness has been suggested as a buffer against the adverse effects of discrimination. However, when discrimination occurs in an environment to which one feels they belong, then the potential benefits of belongingness may dissipate or even exacerbate the effects of discrimination. In the present study, we examined these competing hypotheses on how campus belonging might moderate the relationship between discrimination experienced on campus and CMD risk. College students (n = 160, 60.9% Latino/a/x) reported the frequency of on-campus discrimination and campus belongingness, and then completed items assessing risk for CMD. More frequent discrimination related to higher comparative CMD risk among those who reported high campus belongingness, even after adjusting for relevant covariates. These findings highlight the complicated nature of belongingness in the context of physical health. Future research is needed to better understand the role of environment when considering morbidity among college students.

Introduction: Children and youth under the age of 19 provide daily care for family members living with illness, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Caregiving affects school performance, social support, stress, and anxiety. Yet, little is known about potential disruptions in sleep. Methods: A quasi-experimental matched comparison of age- and gender-matched young carers (n = 8) and non-carers (n = 12) was used in this study. Participants completed a pre/post survey, wore an actigraphy device, and journaled sleep/wake times for 5 days. Results: Young carers had shorter sleep duration (t = 51.19 (11.99)), efficiency (t = 55.49 (14.00)), sleep quality (t = 51.32 (12.26)), and higher rates of utilizing sleep medications (t = 50.81 (11.49)). The case study sleep data showed that carers had lower total sleep time (CG = 6.75 ± 1.47, NCG = 7.08 ± 1.36) and sleep efficiency than non-caregivers (0.80 ± 0.23). Case examples were reported across groups. Conclusions: The study results demonstrate feasibility, while providing crucial initial case data on sleep quality in young carers. The findings underscore the need to better document the impact of caregiving on young carer’s well-being across several areas, including sleep. This data has implications for larger scale studies examining how sleep disruption impacts well-being more broadly and in providing support and respite interventions for young carers across disorders.

This study employed an intersectional approach (operationalized as the combination of more than one social identity) to examine the relationship between aspects of social identity (i.e., race, gender, age, SES), self-reported level of mistreatment, and attributions for discrimination. Self-reported discrimination has been researched extensively and there is substantial evidence of its association with adverse physical and psychological health outcomes. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship of multiple demographic variables (including social identities) to overall levels self-reported mistreatment as well the selection of attributions for discrimination. A diverse community sample (N = 292; 42.12% Black; 47.26% male) reported on experiences of discrimination using the Everyday Discrimination Scale. General linear models were used to test the effect of sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., race, gender, age, SES) on total discrimination score and on attributions for discrimination. To test for intersectional relationships, we tested the effect of two-way interactions of sociodemographic characteristics on total discrimination score and attributions for discrimination. We found preliminary support for intersectional effects, as indicated by a significant race by age interaction on the selection of the race attribution for discrimination; gender by SES on the age attribution; age by gender on the education attribution; and race by SES on the economic situation attribution. Our study extends prior work by highlighting the importance of testing more than one factor as contributing to discrimination, particularly when examining to what sources individuals attribute discrimination.

Although stress is a common experience in everyday life, a clear understanding of how often an individual experiences and reports stress is lacking. Notably, there is little information regarding factors that may influence how frequently stress is reported, including which stress dimension is measured (i.e., stressors-did an event happen, subjective stress-how stressed do you feel, conditional stress-how stressful a stressor was) and the temporal features of that assessment (i.e., time of day, day of study, weekday vs. weekend day). The purpose of the present study was to conduct a coordinated analysis of five independent ecological momentary assessment studies utilizing varied stress reporting dimensions and temporal features. Results indicated that, within days, stress was reported at different frequencies depending on the stress dimension. Stressors were reported on 15-32% of momentary reports made within a day; across days, the frequency ranged from 42 to 76% of days. Depending on the cutoff, subjective stress was reported more frequently ranging about 8-56% of all moments within days, and 40-90% of days. Likewise, conditional stress ranged from just 3% of moments to 22%, and 11-69% of days. For the temporal features, stress was reported more frequently on weekdays (compared to weekend days) and on days earlier in the study (relative to days later in the study); time of day was inconsistently related to stress reports. In sum, stress report frequency depends in part on how stress is assessed. As such, researchers may wish to measure stress in multiple ways and, in the case of subjective and conditional stress with multiple operational definitions, to thoroughly characterize the frequency of stress reporting.

Objective This study examined whether recalling a social stress that evoked lonely feelings produces greater affective and blood pressure responses than recalling non-social stress or a relaxing event. Methods Young adults (n = 114) underwent one of three inductions: recalling a social stressor in which one felt lonely, recalling a non-social non-lonely stressor, and relaxation. Negative affect was assessed during baseline, induction, and recovery. Blood pressure was assessed continuously using a finger cuff. Results Both the lonely and non-lonely stress conditions reported increased negative affect following the induction, with neither condition having fully recovered to baseline levels by the end of the study. For blood pressure, during recovery, blood pressure increased linearly for the lonely stress condition, but remained steady for the other conditions. Conclusions Recalling a social stress evoking lonely feelings may be more harmful for cardiovascular health than recalling non-social stressors. Results extend work demonstrating that in vivo stressors involving social evaluation elicit larger stress responses compared to stressors without this component.

Sleep problems and poorer well-being may be particularly salient for Latino/a college students as they tend to experience sociocultural adjustments during this transitory time. Social connections, a correlate of health, change moment-to-moment for college students and may be experienced differently for people who more strongly endorse horizontal collectivist cultural values. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine how in-the-moment social connections influence in-the-moment health, and how horizontal collectivism moderates the moment-to-moment associations. Self-identified Latino/a college students (n = 221) completed a demographic information and cultural values questionnaire and then responded to EMA measures on their social connections, affective and subjective well-being, and sleep for 14 consecutive days. Better in-the-moment social connections associated with better health. Horizontal collectivism moderated some, but not all associations between social connections and health. Social connections are multidimensional and differently predict in-the-moment health among Latino/a college students who more strongly endorse horizontal collectivistic values. We discuss implications for identifying vulnerable well-being moments among this understudied population.

The objective of this study was to examine the link between systemic and general psychosocial stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in a group of U.S. Latinos as a function of acculturation and education within the blended guiding conceptual framework of the biopsychosocial model of the stress process plus the reserve capacity model. We analyzed data from self-identifying Mexican-origin adults (n= 396, 56.9% female,Mage= 58.2 years, 55.5% < 12 years of education, 79% U.S.-born) from the Texas City Stress and Health Study. We used established measures of perceived stress (general stress), neighborhood stress and discrimination (systemic stress) to capture psychosocial stress, our primary predictor. We used the atherosclerotic CVD calculator to assess 10-year CVD risk, our primary outcome. This calculator uses demographics, cholesterol, blood pressure, and history of hypertension, smoking, and diabetes to compute CVD risk in the next 10 years. We also created an acculturation index using English-language use, childhood interaction, and preservation of cultural values. Participants reported years of education. Contrary to expectations, findings showed that higher levels of all three forms of psychosocial stress, perceived stress, neighborhood stress, and perceived discrimination, predicted lower 10-year CVD risk. Acculturation and education did not moderate the effects of psychosocial stress on 10-year CVD risk. Contextualized within the biopsychosocial and reserve capacity framework, we interpret our findings such that participants who accurately reported their stressors may have turned to their social networks to handle the stress, thereby reducing their risk for CVD. We highlight the importance of examining strengths within the sociocultural environment when considering cardiovascular inequities among Latinos.

Despite widespread interest in variance in affect, basic questions remain pertaining to the relative proportions of between-person and within-person variance, the contribution of days and moments, and the reliability of these estimates. We addressed these questions by decomposing negative affect and positive affect variance across three levels (person, day, moment), and calculating reliability using a coordinated analysis of seven daily diary, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), and diary-EMA hybrid studies (across studies age = 18-84 years, total Npersons = 2,103, total Nobservations = 45,065). Across studies, within-person variance was sizeable (negative affect: 45% to 66%, positive affect: 25% to 74%); in EMA more within-person variance was attributable to momentary rather than daily level. Reliability was adequate to high at all levels of analysis (within-person: .73-.91; between-person: .96-1.00) despite different items and designs. We discuss the implications of these results for the design of future intensive studies of affect variance.

Women make up the majority of doctoral degree earners yet remain underrepresented in tenure-track positions within the academy. Gender disparities result in part from the accumulation of subtle, ty...

Stress is an established risk factor for negative health outcomes, and responses to everyday stress can interfere with health behaviors such as exercise and sleep. In accordance with the Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program, we apply an experimental medicine approach to identifying stress response targets, developing stress response assays, intervening upon these targets, and testing intervention effectiveness. We evaluate an ecologically valid, within-person approach to measuring the deleterious effects of everyday stress on physical activity and sleep patterns, examining multiple stress response components (i.e., stress reactivity, stress recovery, and stress pile-up) as indexed by two key response indicators (negative affect and perseverative cognition). Our everyday stress response assay thus measures multiple malleable stress response targets that putatively shape daily health behaviors (physical activity and sleep). We hypothesize that larger reactivity, incomplete recovery, and more frequent stress responses (pile-up) will negatively impact health behavior enactment in daily life. We will identify stress-related reactivity, recovery, and response in the indicators using coordinated analyses across multiple naturalistic studies. These results are the basis for developing a new stress assay and replicating the initial findings in a new sample. This approach will advance our understanding of how specific aspects of everyday stress responses influence health behaviors, and can be used to develop and test an innovative ambulatory intervention for stress reduction in daily life to enhance health behaviors.

It is well established that individuals who engage in more positive social interactions report a broad array of benefit relative to those with fewer positive social interactions. Yet less is known about how, within individuals, naturally occurring social interactions in daily life relate to momentary indicators of health (e.g., mood, psychological, and physiological stress). The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine these within-person relationships, as well as complementary between-person relationships, among 115 adults (75% female; Mage = 41.21). Participants completed six EMA surveys per day for 3 days to report on whether they experienced any social interactions and whether the interactions were pleasant as well as on their mood, pain, tiredness, interest, and perceived stress; they also provided a salivary cortisol sample after each EMA survey. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that individuals felt more happiness and interest, and less sadness, tiredness, and pain, during moments when they were engaged in a social interaction versus when they were not. Individuals also reported less stress during more pleasant versus less pleasant social interactions. When examining between-person effects, we found evidence that people who gave more pleasant interactions generally reported more positive outcomes. This study presents evidence for intraindividual links between social interactions and momentary health indicators in daily life.

Advancing age is often characterized by preserved or even enhanced emotion regulation, which is thought to manifest in terms of age-related reductions in the within-person association between stressors and negative affect. Existing research from ecological momentary assessment and end-of-day daily diary studies examining such age-related benefits have yielded mixed results, potentially due to differences in samples, design, and measurement of everyday stressors and negative affect. We conducted a coordinated analysis of 5 ecological momentary assessments and 2 end-of-day daily diary studies to examine adult age differences in the within-person association between everyday stressors and negative affect. Reported stressor occurrences are robustly associated with higher negative affect, regardless of study design and sample characteristics. Across studies, interactions between age and everyday stressors predicting negative affect revealed a pattern of age-related decreases in the stressor-negative affect association, but this interaction was only significant for 2 studies. Further, examination of statistical power of the included studies suggests that, despite differences in the number of repeated assessments, power to detect within-person stressor-negative affect associations is quite good. In contrast, despite possessing wider age ranges, observed age differences were relatively small in magnitude, and studies are potentially underpowered to detect age differences in these within-person associations. We discuss the importance of study design, interval of repeated assessments and number of participants for examining age differences in everyday stressors and negative affect, as well as the virtue of coordinated analyses for detecting consistent direction of associations, but inconsistent patterns of statistical significance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives Unfulfilled basic psychological needs have been associated with disordered eating behaviours, but the mechanisms underlying that associations are not well understood. This study examined a two-stage path model linking basic psychological need satisfaction to disordered eating behaviours via issues of control. Methods Female university students (N = 323; Mage = 19.61), community participants (N = 371; Mage = 29.75), and women who self-reported having been diagnosed with an eating disorder (ED; N = 41; Mage = 23.88) completed measures of psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy and competence), issues of control (i.e., feelings of ineffectiveness and fear of losing self-control [FLC]), and ED pathology. Results Path analysis revealed that unsatisfied needs of autonomy and competence were indirectly related to disordered eating behaviours through feelings of ineffectiveness and FLC. Conclusions The results indicate that issues of control might be one of the mechanisms through which lack of psychological need satisfaction is associated with disordered eating. Although the model was constructed using cross-sectional data, these findings suggest potential targets for prevention and treatment efforts aimed at reducing disordered eating in young females. Practitioner points Our results indicate that young women with chronically unfulfilled basic psychological needs might be vulnerable to developing disordered eating behaviours. The observed patterns suggest that persistent experience of need frustration may engender an internal sense of ineffectiveness and lack of control, which then compels individuals to engage in disordered eating behaviours in an attempt to regain autonomy and competence. Interventions for eating disorders may be most effective when emphasizing the promotion of people's needs for autonomy and competence. Limitations The model was constructed using cross-sectional data. Future experimental and longitudinal studies are needed to confirm the temporal sequence from basic psychological needs to issues of control. The sample only consisted of young women. Further research should explore how thwarting of psychological need satisfaction functions in men. Our clinical sample was small and diagnosis was not confirmed through clinical interview; therefore, those data should be interpreted with caution.

This paper asks whether workers with greater socioeconomic status (SES) experience different levels of stress at work than workers with lower SES and, if so, what might explain these differences. We collected innovative assessments of immediate objective and subjective measures of stress at multiple time points across consecutive days from 122 employed men and women. We find that in comparison to higher SES individuals, those with lower SES reported greater happiness at work, less self-reported stress, and less perceived stress; cortisol, a biological marker of stress, was unrelated to SES. Worker's momentary perceptions of the workplace were predicted by SES, with higher SES individuals more commonly reporting feeling unable to meet work demands, fewer work resources, and less positive work appraisals. In turn, perceptions of the workplace had a generally consistent and robust effect on positive mood, subjective stress, and cortisol.

Identifying momentary influences on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) will help explain ABP variability; however, most research only examines aggregate ABP at the between-person level. This study used within-person methods to examine whether affective dimensions-valence and arousal-differentially predicted momentary ABP levels. A community sample (n = 39) wore an ABP cuff that took BP measurements every 20 min for 24 h. At each measurement, participants reported levels of valence and arousal on electronic diaries. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of momentary and person-averaged levels of valence and arousal on ABP. Greater momentary negative valence and arousal predicted higher systolic BP compared to more positive or lower arousal assessments; higher averaged levels of arousal predicted higher DBP. The results suggest the independence of the effects of valence and arousal on BP. These findings have important implications for designing interventions to lower ABP.

The experience of naturally-occurring stress in daily life has been linked with lower physical activity levels. However, most of this evidence comes from general and static reports of stress. Less is known how different temporal components of everyday stress interfere with physical activity. In a coordinated secondary analysis of data from two studies of adults, we used intensive, micro-longitudinal assessments (ecological momentary assessments, EMA) to investigate how distinct components of everyday stress, that is, reactivity to stressor events, recovery from stressor events, and pileup of stressor events and responses predict physical activity. Results showed that components of everyday stress predicted subsequent physical activity especially for indicators of stress pileup. In both studies, the accumulation of stress responses over the previous 12h was more predictive of subsequent physical activity than current stress reactivity or recovery responses. Results are compared to the effects of general measures of perceived stress that showed an opposite pattern of results. The novel everyday stress approach used here may be fruitful for generating new insights into physical activity specifically and health behaviors in general.

Author(s): Zawadzki, Matthew J; Sliwinski, Martin J; Smyth, Joshua M | Abstract: BackgroundBoth exposure to stress and perseverative cognitions (PCs)-repetitive cognitive representations of real or imagined stressors-are linked with poor psychological health. Yet, stress exposure and PCs are correlated, thus potentially obscuring any unique effects.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to concurrently test associations between stress exposure and PCs and psychological health to examine the independent relationship of each with psychological health. Moreover, we examined whether these relationships are similar across sex, age, and race.MethodsAn adult community sample (n = 302) completed a measure of stress exposure, three PCs scales, and questionnaires assessing self-reported psychological health, including emotional well-being, vitality, social functioning, role limitations due to personal problems, subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and poor sleep quality.ResultsStructural equation modeling was used to test a model in which both stress exposure and PCs predict psychological health. PCs consistently predicted all the psychological health outcomes, but stress was largely unrelated to the outcomes despite bivariate correlations suggesting a relationship. A follow-up model identified indirect effects of stress exposure on psychological health via PCs. Results were fairly consistent regardless of one's sex, age, or race.ConclusionsPCs robustly predicted all of the psychological health outcomes, intimating PCs as a common pathway to poor psychological health. Results have implications for stress interventions, including the need to address PCs after experiencing stress.

ObjectivesThis study examined whether self-focused and other-focused resiliency help explain how early family adversity relates to perceived stress, subjective health, and health behaviors in college women.ParticipantsFemale students (N = 795) participated between October 2009 and May 2010.MethodsParticipants completed self-report measures of early family adversity, self-focused (self-esteem, personal growth initiative) and other-focused (perceived social support, gratitude) resiliency, stress, subjective health, and health behaviors.ResultsUsing structural equation modeling, self-focused resiliency associated with less stress, better subjective health, more sleep, less smoking, and less weekend alcohol consumption. Other-focused resiliency associated with more exercise, greater stress, and more weekend alcohol consumption. Early family adversity was indirectly related to all health outcomes, except smoking, via self-focused and other-focused resiliency.ConclusionsSelf-focused and other-focused resiliency represent plausible mechanisms through which early family adversity relates to stress and health in college women. This highlights areas for future research in disease prevention and management.

© 2015 The Society of Behavioral Medicine Background: Although a relationship between mood and pain has been established cross-sectionally, little research has examined this relationship using momentary within-person data. Purpose: We examined whether baseline depressive symptoms and within-person levels of negative and positive mood predicted momentary pain among 31 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Depressive symptomatology was measured at baseline. Mood and RA symptoms were self-reported via ecological momentary assessment five times a day for seven consecutive days. Analyses controlled for gender, age, weekend day, time of day, and experiences of stress. Results: Greater momentary positive mood was associated with less momentary pain and fewer arthritis-related restrictions; negative mood was associated with more restrictions. Greater depressive symptomatology also predicted more pain and restrictions, an effect which was not accounted for by mood. Conclusions: Results suggest that both depression and mood are uniquely associated with momentary pain; as such, multi-component interventions may provide optimal disease management.

This article presents the current state of research on confronting and reducing sexism. We first provide a systematic overview about prior work on confronting sexism. We identify gaps in the literature by outlining situational and contextual factors that are important in confronting sexism and introduce how these are addressed in the current volume. Second, we review prior work on reducing sexism. Compared to research on reducing other forms of prejudice, research on interventions to reduce sexism is rare. We explain why mechanisms that are successful in reducing other forms of prejudice cannot simply be adapted to reducing sexism. We then outline how the articles of this issue promote research, theory, and policy on reducing sexism. In conclusion, the aim of this issue is to bring together novel theoretical approaches as well as empirically tested methods that identify key antecedents and consequences of diverse ways of confronting and reducing sexism.

The harms of subtle sexism tend to be minimized despite negative cumulative effects, thus people may be less motivated to address subtle sexism. We tested the effectiveness of an experiential learning intervention, WAGES-Academic (Workshop Activity for Gender Equity Simulation-Academic), to educate about the harms of subtle sexism in the academic workplace. Across two studies, WAGES increased the recognition of everyday sexism as harmful and promoted behavioral intentions to discuss and seek information about gender inequity compared to a control condition that provided identical information as WAGES but without experiential learning. These effects were due to WAGES limiting reactance and promoting self-efficacy. Moreover, WAGES did not differ in reactance or self-efficacy compared to a control condition that provided no gender inequity information. This suggests that WAGES buffers the potential negative effects of simply presenting gender inequity information. Results suggest that WAGES, and experiential learning more broadly, has the potential to change attitudes and behaviors about everyday sexism.

Health Psychology 2017, Vol. 36, No. 8, 811– 818 © 2017 American Psychological Association 0278-6133/17/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000466 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Revisiting the Lack of Association Between Affect and Physiology: Contrasting Between-Person and Within-Person Analyses Matthew J. Zawadzki Joshua M. Smyth and Martin J. Sliwinski University of California–Merced Pennsylvania State University John M. Ruiz William Gerin University of Arizona Pennsylvania State University Objective: Despite experimental manipulations that reliably elicit affective and physiological responses, the relationship between the two frequently appears small or nonexistent. We propose that this is, at least in part, due to a mismatch between the nature of the question being asked and the analytic methods applied. For example, to test if levels of affect reliably covary with physiology over time—a within- person question— one cannot apply analytic approaches that test whether people are similarly reactive across domains—a between-person question. The purpose of this paper is to compare within-person and between-person analyses testing the association between affect and physiology. Method: Participants (N ⫽ 60) recalled an event from their lives that made them angry. Self-reported anger and objective blood pressure levels were recorded at baseline, after the recall, and 5 times during recovery. Results: Between-person correlations between anger and blood pressure were nonsignificant across all phases of the study, suggesting that those least/most reactive for anger were not least/most reactive for blood pressure. These null findings held regardless of whether linear or nonlinear assumptions were modeled. In contrast, within-person multilevel modeling indicated a clear relationship, suggesting that when a person was angrier that person’s blood pressure was higher compared with when that person was less angry. Conclusion: Results suggest the importance of appropriately matching analytic strategy to the nature of the question regarding the relationships between affect and physiology. Implications for past and future research are discussed. Keywords: affect, correlation, physiology, anger, blood pressure pressure [BP]), the relationship between the changes in affect and physiology is often statistically nonsignificant or modest in mag- nitude. For example, a meta-analysis indicated that changes in negative affect due to a stressor only accounted for 2–12% of changes in cardiovascular responses despite large changes in car- diovascular responses after the stressor (Feldman et al., 1999). If participants report more negative affect as a result of a stressor, and their bodies react to the same stressor, then one would rea- sonably expect that the changes in affect and physiology would be strongly associated. Measuring affect and physiology and examining how these variables relate and change over time are important questions for biobehavioral and psychophysiological research. Such evidence helps to better understand the etiology and progression of disease and inform interventions. However, researchers studying the asso- ciation between affective and physiological changes in the labo- ratory face a conundrum. Although experimental manipulations often increase self-reported negative affect (e.g., the experience of anger) and influence physiological responses (e.g., raise blood Understanding the Lack of Correspondence This article was published Online First March 9, 2017. Matthew J. Zawadzki, Department of Psychological Sciences, Univer- sity of California–Merced; Joshua M. Smyth, Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University; Martin J. Sliwinski, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University; John M. Ruiz, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona; William Gerin, Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University. Portions of this work were presented in an oral session at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Miami, Flor- ida. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Matthew J. Zawadzki, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of California–Merced, 5200 North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343. E-mail: mjz172@psu.edu Many explanations have been offered for the lack of association between affect and physiology (Gerin et al., 1999; Hilmert & Kvasnicka, 2010). For example, how variables are measured may not be adequate because affect is usually measured at the end of a study period (e.g., baseline) whereas physiology is often continu- ously measured (Feldman et al., 1999; Lovallo & Gerin, 2003). Another explanation questions the ability of participants to accu- rately report on their affective states (Sato & Kawahara, 2011; Thomas & Diener, 1990) and if self-reports of affect are valid indicators of one’s “true experience” (Russell & Barrett, 1999). For example, individuals may report how they want others to think they are feeling rather than what they are actually experiencing

Although exposure to stressors in daily life is a common experience, reports of stressor frequency may be influenced by how they are assessed. Moreover, age differences in attending to negative stimuli might influence rates of stressor reporting across the lifespan. We conducted a coordinated analysis of seven large data sets that assessed stressor frequency using end of day [EOD; one overall report daily], ecological momentary assessment [EMA; multiple reports throughout a day], or hybrid designs [both EOD and EMA]. Our analysis examined if the frequency of stressor reporting differs by: (1) the approach used (i.e., EOD/EMA/hybrid); (2) temporal features (e.g., day of week, number or position of measurement days); or (3) a function of age. Analyses suggest that assessment method, temporal features, and age can impact the frequency of stress reporting. These results have important implications for how stress is assessed and interpreted in studies using EOD and EMA designs.

Global life satisfaction has been linked with long-term health advantages, yet how life satisfaction impacts the trajectory of long-term health is unclear. This paper examines one such possible mechanism-that greater life satisfaction confers momentary benefits in daily life that accumulate over time. A community sample of working adults (n=115) completed a measure of life satisfaction and then three subsequent days of ecological momentary assessment surveys (6times/day) measuring affect (i.e., emotional valence, arousal), and perceived stress, and also provided salivary cortisol samples. Multilevel models indicated that people with higher (vs. lower) levels of life satisfaction reported better momentary affect, less stress, marginally lower momentary levels and significantly altered diurnal slopes of cortisol. Findings suggest individuals with high global life satisfaction have advantageous daily experiences, providing initial evidence for potential mechanisms through which global life satisfaction may help explain long-term health benefits.

Ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) has long been recognized by researchers as the gold standard of blood pressure (BP) measurement. Researchers and clinicians typically rely on the mean measure of ABP; however, there is considerable variability in the beat-to-beat BP. Although often ignored, this variability has been found to be an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease and mortality. The aim of this paper is to provide a conceptual review of ABP variability (ABPV) focusing on the following: associations between ABPV and health, whether ABPV is reliable, how to calculate ABPV, predictors of ABPV, and treatments for ABPV. Two future directions are discussed involving better understanding ABPV by momentary assessments and improving knowledge of the underlying physiology that explains ABPV. The results of this review suggest that the unique characteristics of ABPV provide insight into the role of BP variability in hypertension and subsequent cardiovascular illness.

Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7/7 (2013): 502–506, 10.1111/spc3.12034 Teaching and Learning Guide for Stress and Health: A Structural and Functional Analysis of Chronic Stress Matthew J. Zawadzki and Joshua M. Smyth Pennsylvania State University This guide accompanies the following article: Smyth, J. M., Zawadzki, M. J., & Gerin, W. (2013). Stress and health: A structural and functional analysis of chronic stress. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 217–227. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12020. Author’s Introduction It is widely believed that “stress” is bad for health, especially stress that is considered “chronic”. Yet, defining precisely what is meant by chronic has largely been absent from theoretical and empirical examinations of stress. This article provides working definitions of acute and chronic stress, discusses how chronic stress can take different forms, and focuses on delineating the conditions that tend to give rise to chronic stress. As part of this discussion, this article considers the role that various features of the environment, and how the environment is perceived, contribute to the chronicity of stress. In addition, it discusses the important role that engaging in perseverative cognitions (such as ruminating or worrying) has in leading a person to experience stress too often and for too long. More specifically, it describes how perseverative cognitions can interact with each of the conditions that give rise to chronic stress, thus exacerbating the amount (and impact) of chronic stress the person is experiencing. One take-home message is that there may not be just one “kind” of chronic stress; rather, chronic stress may arise from a range of contributing sources and may have different shapes and forms. Extending this logic, the article concludes with a discussion of how interventions to reduce stress may benefit from ideographically tailoring treatment to the type(s) of chronic stress an individual is experiencing. Author Recommends Baum, A., O’Keefe, M. K., & Davidson, L. M. (1990). Acute stressors and chronic responses: The case of traumatic stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 1643–1654. doi: 10.1111/j. 1559-1816.1990.tb01499.x Baum and colleagues describe three different ways to categorize the duration of a stress response: duration of the physical stressor, the duration of perception of the stressor as a threat, and the persistence of the response to the stressor. These factors are then discussed in terms of how singular events can cause extended physiological responding beyond the stressor being present and what would constitute a typical time of recovery. This work is drawn upon to consider the different factors that give rise to chronic stress. Brosschot, J. F., Gerin, W., & Thayer, J. F. (2006). The perseverative cognition hypothesis: A review of worry, prolonged stress-related physiological activation, and health. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60, 113–124. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.06.074 © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Devices and technology 151 An extended validation of the ScottCare 320 ambulatory blood pressure monitor: recommendations for clinical application Matthew J. Zawadzki a , Lillie Vandekar a , Joshua M. Smyth a , Donald Haas b and William Gerin a Objectives The purpose of this study was to validate the ScottCare 320 ambulatory blood pressure monitor (ABPM) using both group-level and individual-level validation procedures. The group-level validation followed a modified protocol of the European Hypertension Society’s validation protocol. The individual-level validation was conducted to ensure that the monitor is valid from both a research and clinical perspective. Methods Participants (n = 41) had three simultaneous blood pressure (BP) measurements taken by a trained listener using a mercury column sphygmomanometer and the ScottCare ABPM, which was used to validate the monitor at the group-level and the first half of the individual-level validation (i.e. the difference between the ABPM and auscultatory means for each participant

Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7/4 (2013): 217–227, 10.1111/spc3.12020 Stress and Disease: A Structural and Functional Analysis Joshua Smyth*, Matthew Zawadzki, and William Gerin Pennsylvania State University Abstract Chronic stress, a validated health risk factor, remains an ambiguous construct in spite of years of research. We propose that chronic stress is best understood as a series of acute stress responses, and that these responses become maladaptive when they occur frequently or are of long duration. We focus on the factors that contribute to chronic stress: whether the presence of a stressor, real or imagined, is long-lived and ⁄ or frequent (repeated activation), the degree to which the stressor is perceived as a threat even when no longer present (low or slow adaptation), and the extent to which the duration of responding is prolonged (delayed or failure to return to homeostasis). Importantly, we examine how perseverative cognitions (such as rumination and worry) contribute to chronic stress by creating and sustaining acute stress responses, largely via influencing activation, adaptation, and return to homeostasis. Finally, we discuss the implications of our stress model: that interventions can be ideographically tailored to address how an individual is experiencing chronic stress; that researchers may be better able to identify specific characteristics of chronic stress that relate most strongly to poor health; and that moderators of chronic stress may function through these contributing factors rather than via general effects on the system. Introduction Everyone ‘‘knows’’ that stress is bad for you – we are told that it can make you ill and even kill you. Research generally supports this view; stress is related to the risk of cardio- vascular disease, HIV ⁄ AIDS, and major depression, with emerging evidence linking stress to upper respiratory tract infections, asthma, herpes viral infections, autoimmune diseases, and wound healing (e.g. Cohen, Janicki-Deverts, & Miller, 2007). Additionally, the liter- ature describing plausible biological pathways whereby chronic stress may influence dis- ease onset and ⁄ or progression is rapidly growing (see Miller, Chen, & Cole, 2009; for review). Recent reviews have concluded that stress is related to complex alterations in both endocrine (e.g. Miller, Chen, & Zhou, 2007) and immune processes (e.g. Byrne- Davis & Vedhara, 2008; Segerstrom, 2010), and highlighted large individual differences in response to stress. Some work also suggests that stress may impair normal genetic pro- cesses, notably DNA expression and repair (e.g. Flint, Baum, Chambers, & Jenkins, 2007; Kiecolt-Glaser, Stephens, Lipetz, Speicher, & Glaser, 1985). The Scope of This Paper In spite of the ubiquity of stress as a construct, and the tremendous amount of research on stress in behavioral medicine and health psychology, it remains a challenge to clearly label, model, and understand. Providing comprehensive reviews on the extensive comple- ment of stress theories is beyond the scope of this paper; where appropriate, we direct the reader to source material. The overarching purpose of this paper is to synthesize the major extant perspectives so as to provide a simple schematic for helping to understand a 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

© 2015, The Society of Behavioral Medicine. Background: Engagement in leisure has a wide range of beneficial health effects. Yet, this evidence is derived from between-person methods that do not examine the momentary within-person processes theorized to explain leisure’s benefits. Purpose: This study examined momentary relationships between leisure and health and well-being in daily life. Methods: A community sample (n = 115) completed ecological momentary assessments six times a day for three consecutive days. At each measurement, participants indicated if they were engaging in leisure and reported on their mood, interest/boredom, and stress levels. Next, participants collected a saliva sample for cortisol analyses. Heart rate was assessed throughout the study. Results: Multilevel models revealed that participants had more positive and less negative mood, more interest, less stress, and lower heart rate when engaging in leisure than when not. Conclusions: Results suggest multiple mechanisms explaining leisure’s effectiveness, which can inform leisure-based interventions to improve health and well-being.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Objective: Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are related to psychological health, with most work examining reappraisal and suppression. Yet, emerging findings suggest that rumination may have stronger relationships with psychological health, namely depression, than other ER strategies. This paper replicated and extended this work by testing whether rumination was independently associated with a range of poor psychological health risk indicators and outcomes. In addition, it explored whether the reason why rumination is so deleterious to health is because it underlies the stress–health relationship. Design: Participants (n = 218) completed measures online. Main outcome measures: Surveys assessed ER strategies (reappraisal, suppression, proactive coping, emotion support seeking, and rumination), health risk indicators (hostility, optimism, self-esteem), health outcomes (depression, poor sleep quality, anxiety) and perceived chronic stress. Results: Multivariate regression analyses revealed rumination as the only ER strategy with a consistent independent effect on all the health risk indicators and outcomes. Bootstrapping analyses revealed indirect effects of perceived chronic stress on all the health variables via rumination. Conclusion: Rumination had a deleterious relationship with psychological health, perhaps because rumination underlies the relationship between stress and psychological health. Results have implications for interventions, particularly emphasizing the need to target ruminative thinking after stressful experiences.

Using innovative data with objective and subjective measures of stress collected from 122 employed men and women, this paper tests the thesis of the Time Bind by asking whether people report lower stress levels at work than at home. The study finds consistent support for the Time Bind hypothesis when examining objective stress data: when participants were at work they had lower values of the stress hormone cortisol than when they were at home. Two variables moderated this association - income and children at home - such that the work as haven effect was stronger for those with lower incomes and no children living at home. Participants also, however, consistently reported higher subjective stress levels on work days than on non-work days, which is in direct contrast to the Time Bind hypothesis. Although our overall findings support Hochschild's hypothesis that stress levels are lower at work, it appears that combining work and home increases people's subjective experience of daily stress.

OBJECTIVE: Social support has been linked to beneficial effects on health directly (main effect) and as a buffer to stress. Most research, however, has examined these relationships using global and retrospective assessments of health and stress, which may be subject to recall biases. This study used ambulatory ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods to test the main and stress-buffering effects of social support on the daily health and well-being of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. DESIGN: Community volunteers with asthma (n = 97) or RA (n = 31) responded to EMA prompts five times daily for one week. MAIN OUTCOMES: Baseline perceived social support was obtained, and then, participants reported mood, stress and symptoms using EMA. Multilevel mixed-modelling examined whether social support predicted mood and symptoms directly or via stress-reducing effects. RESULTS: Supporting a main effect, more perceived social support predicted decreased negative mood and stress severity. Supporting a stress-buffering effect, more perceived social support resulted in fewer reported symptoms when stress was present. CONCLUSION: Results suggest perceived social support directly relates to better ambulatory status and dynamically buffers individuals against the negative effects of stressors, and highlight the importance of studying social support across different temporal and contextual levels.

Early adverse experiences have been associated with disordered eating, but the mechanisms underlying that association are not well understood. The purpose of this study is to test a structural equation model in which early adversity is associated with disordered eating via intrapersonal resources, interpersonal resources, and body dissatisfaction.Female university students (n = 748) completed a series of questionnaires online, including measures of early adverse experiences, intrapersonal resources (self-esteem and personal growth initiative), interpersonal resources (gratitude and social support), body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating and exercising to lose weight.Structural equation modeling indicated that early adverse experiences were negatively associated with interpersonal and intrapersonal resources. Intrapersonal resources were negatively associated with body dissatisfaction, whereas interpersonal resources were positively associated with body dissatisfaction (although negative bivariate correlations in this latter case suggest possible suppression effects). Finally, body dissatisfaction was associated with a range of disordered eating behaviors and exercise.Early adverse experiences are important to consider in models of disordered eating. The results of this study highlight potential points of early prevention efforts, such as improving personal resources for those who experience early adversity, to help reduce the risk of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in young women.

In two multipart studies, we tested the effectiveness of an experiential learning-based intervention (Workshop Activity for Gender Equity Simulation–Academic [WAGES-Academic]) to reduce sexism endorsement. We randomly assigned undergraduates to either WAGES ( n = 144) or one of two control conditions ( n = 268): one where participants received the same information as WAGES but without experiential learning or another that included an experiential group activity but no gender equity information. WAGES participants (vs. both controls) reported less endorsement of sexist beliefs after completing the activity and/or at a follow-up 7–11 days later as measured by the Modern Sexism (Study 1), Neo-sexism (Study 2), Hostile Sexism (Study 2), and Gender-Specific System Justification (Studies 1 and 2) scales. Both studies demonstrated that these effects were attributable to WAGES providing more information, evoking less reactance, eliciting more empathy, and instilling more self-efficacy compared to the other conditions. Results suggest that programs to reduce sexist beliefs will be successful only insofar as they invite access to discussion in such a way that does not elicit defensive denial of the problem, create a context in which participants are readily able to empathize with other, and instill feelings of self-efficacy that one can address the problem.

Original article Absorption in Self-Selected Activities Is Associated With Lower Ambulatory Blood Pressure but Not for High Trait Ruminators Matthew J. Zawadzki, 1 Joshua M. Smyth, 1 Marcellus M. Merritt, 2 and William Gerin 1 methods Participants (n = 38) reported engagement in SSAs and how absorbing they were, responded to trait rumination and perceived stress ques- tionnaires, wore an ABP monitor for 24 hours, and at each ABP meas- urement answered electronic diary questions assessing activity levels, affect, social interactions, and caffeine and tobacco use. results Regression analyses tested whether the reported absorption of SSAs, trait rumination, and their interaction predicted daytime and nighttime systolic and diastolic ABP. Greater absorption predicted lower daytime and nighttime ABP (bs = −18.83 to −8.79; Ps < .05), but this relation- ship was moderated by trait rumination (bs = 3.72 to 9.97; Ps < .05). Follow-up analyses revealed that absorption was unrelated to ABP for those with high trait rumination but that more absorption predicted lower ABP for those less prone to rumination. conclusions Our results suggest that regular engagement in absorbing SSAs is related to lower ABP. These findings have implications for the devel- opment of nonpharmacological interventions and suggest SSAs may serve as an adjuvant intervention strategy to lower BP. Keywords: absorption; ambulatory blood pressure; blood pressure; hypertension; intervention; nonpharmacological; rumination. doi:10.1093/ajh/hpt118 Hypertension affects approximately 30% of Americans, 1,2 and is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. 1,3 Nonpharmacological (behavioral) interventions, includ- ing meditation and controlled breathing, have shown effectiveness in reducing blood pressure (BP) 4,5 and are recommended for BP control programs. 6 Moreover, evi- dence suggests that these interventions produce addi- tive effects to drug therapy. 7 Although effective, patients report that these interventions are not always enjoyable and require significant alterations to daily routines. 8–10 These negative experiences may represent barriers to engagement and may predict lowered adherence to these interventions. Notably, nonpharmacological interventions appear to share a common component in requiring individuals to direct and sustain their attention away from their thoughts, which are often negative, 11 and become absorbed in the intervention activity. Diverting attention away from negative thoughts is potentially quite important. For example, rumi- nating or brooding about negative experiences can elicit and maintain a stress response, including autonomic and immu- nological activation, that can elevate acute BP and lead to sustained BP elevations over time. 12–14 Conversely, provid- ing a positive or enjoyable way to absorb one’s attention after a stressor prevents rumination and speeds up BP recovery subsequent to the stressor. 15,16 Thus, we propose that recur- ring engagement in activities that sustain and direct atten- tion away from one’s negative thoughts can have long-term effects in lowering BP that should persist beyond engage- ment in the activity itself. If so, we further propose that individuals could engage in a wide range of activities that absorb attention and thus could Correspondence: Matthew Zawadzki (mjz172@psu.edu). 1 Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania; 2 Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Initially submitted April 10, 2013; date of first revision May 31, 2013; accepted for publication June 21, 2013; online publication July 16, 2013. © American Journal of Hypertension, Ltd 2013. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com American Journal of Hypertension 26(11) November 2013 1273 Downloaded from http://ajh.oxfordjournals.org/ at Pennsylvania State University on August 26, 2014 background A range of nonpharmacological interventions (e.g., meditation) have posi- tive effects on blood pressure (BP) but tend to have poor adherence. These interventions may lower BP partly by absorbing and directing attention away from one’s negative thoughts. We hypothesized that recurring self- selected activities (SSAs) that are attentionally absorbing may similarly lower BP. We examined the effect of reported engagement in SSAs dur- ing the previous month prior to participation on ambulatory BP (ABP) and whether those prone to rumination were less likely to show these effects.

Currently, it is not well understood when positive and negative moods would encourage and dis- courage the process of identifying and seeking out valuable information. Building upon the mood-as-a-resource hypothesis and the mood-behavior-model, this project reconciles mixed findings by investigating and finding support for the hypothesis that positive moods encourage seeking instrumental information when performance is perceived to be weak; whereas negative moods encourage it when performance is perceived to be strong. These effects are due to mood influencing the perceived value (i.e. instrumentality) of information and cannot be explained by arguing that mood altered the affective costs/ benefits associated with the information. Overall, these results indicate that positive moods may help individuals acquire information to resolve an existing problem, whereas negative moods may help individuals acquire information when there is no apparent problem.