Bethany E. Kok

How Positive Emotions Build Physical Health Perceived Positive Social Connections Account for the Upward Spiral Between Positive Emotions and Vagal Tone

The mechanisms underlying the association between positive emotions and physical health remain a mystery. We hypothesize that an upward-spiral dynamic continually reinforces the tie between positive emotions and physical health and that this spiral is mediated by people’s perceptions of their positive social connections. We tested this overarching hypothesis in a longitudinal field experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group that self-generated positive emotions via loving-kindness meditation or to a waiting-list control group. Participants in the intervention group increased in positive emotions relative to those in the control group, an effect moderated by baseline vagal tone, a proxy index of physical health. Increased positive emotions, in turn, produced increases in vagal tone, an effect mediated by increased perceptions of social connections. This experimental evidence identifies one mechanism—perceptions of social connections—through which positive emotions build physical health, indexed as vagal tone. Results suggest that positive emotions, positive social connections, and physical health influence one another in a self-sustaining upward-spiral dynamic.

Is meditation always relaxing? Investigating heart rate, heart rate variability, experienced effort and likeability during training of three types of meditation

Meditation is often associated with a relaxed state of the body. However, meditation can also be regarded as a type of mental task and training, associated with mental effort and physiological arousal. The cardiovascular effects of meditation may vary depending on the type of meditation, degree of mental effort, and amount of training. In the current study we assessed heart rate (HR), high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) and subjective ratings of effort and likeability during three types of meditation varying in their cognitive and attentional requirements, namely breathing meditation, loving-kindness meditation and observing-thoughts meditation. In the context of the ReSource project, a one-year longitudinal mental training study, participants practiced each meditation exercise on a daily basis for 3 months. As expected HR and effort were higher during loving-kindness meditation and observing-thoughts meditation compared to breathing meditation. With training over time HR and likeability increased, while HF-HRV and the subjective experience of effort decreased. The increase in HR and decrease in HF-HRV over training was higher for loving-kindness meditation and observing-thoughts meditation compared to breathing meditation. In contrast to implicit beliefs that meditation is always relaxing and associated with low arousal, the current results show that core meditations aiming at improving compassion and meta-cognitive skills require effort and are associated with physiological arousal compared to breathing meditation. Overall these findings can be useful in making more specific suggestions about which type of meditation is most adaptive for a given context and population.

Effects of Contemplative Dyads on Engagement and Perceived Social Connectedness Over 9 Months of Mental Training: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance Loneliness is a risk factor for depression and other illnesses and may be caused and reinforced by maladaptive social cognition. Secularized classical meditation training programs address social cognition, but practice typically occurs alone. Little is known about the effectiveness of contemplative practice performed in dyads. Objective To introduce and assess the effectiveness of contemplative dyadic practices relative to classical-solitary meditation with regard to engagement and perceived social connectedness. Design, Setting, and Participants The ReSource Project was a 9-month open-label efficacy trial of three, 3-month secularized mental training modules. Replacement randomization was used to assign 362 healthy participants in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany. Eligible participants were recruited between November 11, 2012, and February 13, 2013, and between November 13, 2013, and April 30, 2014. Intention-to-treat analyses were conducted. Interventions Breathing meditation and body scan (the presence module), loving-kindness meditation and affect dyad (the affect module), and observing-thoughts meditation and perspective dyad (the perspective module). Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcomes were self-disclosure and social closeness. Engagement measures included compliance (ie, the mean [95% margin of error] number of meditation sessions that a participant engaged in per week), liking, and motivation to practice. Results Thirty participants dropped out after assignment to 3 experimental groups; 90 participants were assigned to a retest control that did not complete the main outcome measures; 16 participants provided no state-change data for the affect and perspective modules (226 remaining participants; mean age of 41.15 years; 59.3% female). Results are aggregated across training cohorts. Compliance was similar across the modules: loving-kindness meditation (3.78 [0.18] sessions), affect dyad (3.59 [0.14] sessions), observing-thoughts meditation (3.63 [0.20] sessions), and perspective dyad (3.24 [0.18] sessions). Motivation was higher for meditation (11.20 [0.40] sessions) than the dyads (9.26 [0.43] sessions) and was higher for the affect dyad (10.11 [0.46] sessions) than the perspective dyad (8.41 [0.46] sessions). Social closeness increased during a session for the affect dyad (1.49 [0.12] sessions) and the perspective dyad (1.06 [0.12] sessions) and increased over time for the affect dyad (slope of 0.016 [0.003]) and the perspective dyad (slope of 0.012 [0.003]). Self-disclosure increased over time for the affect dyad (slope of 0.023 [0.004]) and the perspective dyad (slope of 0.006 [0.005]), increasing more steeply for the affect dyad (P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance Contemplative dyads elicited engagement similar to classical contemplative practices and increased perceived social connectedness. Contemplative dyads represent a new type of intervention targeting social connectedness and intersubjective capacities deficient in participants who experience loneliness and in many psychopathologies. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01833104

Estimating and Visualizing Nonlinear Relations among Latent Variables: A Semiparametric Approach.

The graphical presentation of any scientific finding enhances its description, interpretation, and evaluation. Research involving latent variables is no exception, especially when potential nonlinear effects are suspect. This article has multiple aims. First, it provides a nontechnical overview of a semiparametric approach to modeling nonlinear relationships among latent variables using mixtures of linear structural equations. Second, it provides several examples showing how the method works and how it is implemented and interpreted in practical applications. In particular, this article examines the potentially nonlinear relationships between positive and negative affect and cognitive processing. Third, a recommended display format for illustrating latent bivariate relationships is demonstrated. Finally, the article describes an R package and an online utility that generate these displays automatically.

Phenomenological fingerprints of four meditations: Differential state changes in affect, mind-wandering, meta-cognition and interoception before and after daily practice across nine months of training.

Despite increasing interest in the effects of mental training practices such as meditation, there is much ambiguity regarding whether and to what extent the various types of mental practice have differential effects on psychological change. To address this gap, we compare the effects of four common meditation practices on measures of state change in affect, mind-wandering, meta-cognition, and interoception. In the context of a 9-month mental training program called the ReSource Project, 229 mid-life adults (mean age 41) provided daily reports before and after meditation practice. Participants received training in the following three successive modules: the first module (presence) included breathing meditation and body scan, the second (affect) included loving-kindness meditation, and the third (perspective) included observing-thought meditation. Using multilevel modeling, we found that body scan led to the greatest state increase in interoceptive awareness and the greatest decrease in thought content, loving-kindness meditation led to the greatest increase in feelings of warmth and positive thoughts about others, and observing-thought meditation led to the greatest increase in meta-cognitive awareness. All practices, including breathing meditation, increased positivity of affect, energy, and present focus and decreased thought distraction. Complementary network analysis of intervariate relationships revealed distinct phenomenological clusters of psychological change congruent with the content of each practice. These findings together suggest that although different meditation practices may have common beneficial effects, each practice can also be characterized by a distinct short-term psychological fingerprint, the latter having important implications for the use of meditative practices in different intervention contexts and with different populations.

Specific reduction in cortisol stress reactivity after social but not attention-based mental training

Social but not attention-based mental training reduces cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress. Psychosocial stress is a public health burden in modern societies. Chronic stress–induced disease processes are, in large part, mediated via the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system. We asked whether the contemplative mental training of different practice types targeting attentional, socio-affective (for example, compassion), or socio-cognitive abilities (for example, perspective-taking) in the context of a 9-month longitudinal training study offers an effective means for psychosocial stress reduction. Using a multimethod approach including subjective, endocrine, autonomic, and immune markers and testing 313 participants in a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor, we show that all three practice types markedly reduced self-reported stress reactivity in healthy participants. However, only the training of intersubjective skills via socio-affective and socio-cognitive routes attenuated the physiological stress response, specifically the secretion of the HPA axis end-product cortisol, by up to 51%. The assessed autonomic and innate immune markers were not influenced by any practice type. Mental training focused on present-moment attention and interoceptive awareness as implemented in many mindfulness-based intervention programs was thus limited to stress reduction on the level of self-report. However, its effectiveness was equal to that of intersubjective practice types in boosting the association between subjective and endocrine stress markers. Our results reveal a broadly accessible low-cost approach to acquiring psychosocial stress resilience. Short daily intersubjective practice may be a promising method for minimizing the incidence of chronic social stress–related disease, thereby reducing individual suffering and relieving a substantial financial burden on society.

Evidence for the Upward Spiral Stands Steady: A Response to Heathers, Brown, Coyne, and Friedman (2015)

In 2013, we reported in Psychological Science on a longitudinal field experiment in which we randomized participants to receive positive-emotions training (or not), in order to illuminate the pathways by which positive emotions might build physical health (Kok et al., 2013). In their Commentary, Heathers, Brown, Coyne, and Friedman (2015) claim to overturn the conclusions that we and our coauthors drew in that original report. Here, we rebut their claims and illustrate that our substantive conclusions in fact stand steady. Conceptually, Heathers and his colleagues contend that cardiac vagal tone is not a valid proxy for physical health, and that even if it were, high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) is a flawed measure of cardiac vagal tone. It is true that scientists continue to debate the proper measurement and interpretation of cardiac vagal tone. It is also true, as we noted in our original report (pp. 1130–1131), that future research should include additional objective health-related markers to complement the findings that we reported. However, other claims by Heathers et al. are based on misrepresentations of our original report and of the extant research literature. For example, our conclusions do not hinge on the unique properties of a single measurement approach because we found support for our hypothesized model using both a frequency-domain measure of cardiac vagal tone (HF-HRV) and a time-domain measure of cardiac vagal tone (respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which entails direct measurement of respiration using pneumatic bellows that encircle the rib cage). Although we clearly conveyed this dual measurement strategy in our report (p. 1126), Heathers and his colleagues fail to mention this fact and indeed imply that we did not measure respiration (p. 1141). Heathers et al. also imply that our posttraining assessments of HF-HRV were obtained while participants meditated, which would presumably slow their breathing. This was not the case, however. As indicated in our original report (p. 1126), baseline and posttraining measures of cardiac vagal tone were carried out under identical instructions, at rest, without constraints or suggestions regarding respiration. To test whether respiratory changes were indeed confounded with experimental treatment, and thereby might offer an alternative explanation for our reported findings, here we report the results of a repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) that compared baseline and posttraining values for respiratory period (seconds per breath cycle; 3 participants were not included in the analyses because of missing respiratory data). Mean respiratory period for the experimental group was 5.17 s per breath cycle, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [4.51, 5.91], at baseline and 5.45 s per breath cycle, 95% CI = [4.80, 6.19], after the workshop. The corresponding values for the waiting-list control group were 4.97, 95% CI = [4.36, 5.66], and 5.00, 95% CI = [4.42, 5.65].1 The ANOVA revealed that main effects of treatment condition and time were not significant, F(1, 56) = 0.564 and F(1, 56) = 0.676, respectively. The interaction of treatment condition and time was also not significant, F(1, 56) = 0.444. Thus, contrary to the claims of Heathers et al., changes in respiration cannot account for the observed changes in HF-HRV reported in Kok et al. (2013). Regarding the validity of cardiac vagal tone as a healthrelevant biological indicator, ample evidence across 36 studies using a variety of measurement techniques, including HF-HRV, has shown cardiac vagal tone to be associated with all-cause mortality and cardiovascular 584304 PSSXXX10.1177/0956797615584304Kok, FredricksonThe Upward Spiral Stands Steady research-article2015

Helping from the heart: Voluntary upregulation of heart rate variability predicts altruistic behavior.

Our various daily activities continually require regulation of our internal state. These regulatory processes covary with changes in High Frequency Heart Rate Variability (HF-HRV), a marker of parasympathetic activity. Specifically, incidental increases in HF-HRV accompany positive social engagement behavior and prosocial action. Little is known about deliberate regulation of HF-HRV and the role of voluntary parasympathetic regulation in prosocial behavior. Here, we present a novel biofeedback task that measures the ability to deliberately increase HF-HRV. In two large samples, we find that a) participants are able to voluntarily upregulate HF-HRV, and b) variation in this ability predicts individual differences in altruistic prosocial behavior, but not non-altruistic forms of prosociality, assessed through 14 different measures. Our findings suggest that self-induction of parasympathetic states is involved in altruistic action. The biofeedback task may provide a measure of deliberate parasympathetic regulation, with implications for the study of attention, emotion, and social behavior.

Influences of oxytocin and respiratory sinus arrhythmia on emotions and social behavior in daily life

The literature concerning biological influences on positive social behavior shows that, in nonthreatening contexts, tonic oxytocin (OT) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) each predict positive, affiliative behaviors toward certain others and are associated with positive health outcomes. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the degree to which the positive affiliative correlates of OT and RSA can be distinguished when observed at the level of everyday life events. A sample of midlife adults (N = 73) provided tonic indices of these biological characteristics, as well as perceptions of a variety of common life events alongside reports of their emotions during those events. OT and RSA each independently moderated the link between perceived event sociality and positive emotions, whereas only RSA predicted the probability of being with other people during an event. These findings suggest that OT and RSA may each be linked to positive social experiences in complementary yet distinct ways.

Visualizing Confidence Bands for Semiparametrically Estimated Nonlinear Relations Among Latent Variables

Structural equation mixture models (SEMMs), when applied as a semiparametric model (SPM), can adequately recover potentially nonlinear latent relationships without their specification. This SPM is useful for exploratory analysis when the form of the latent regression is unknown. The purpose of this article is to help users familiar with structural equation models to add SEMM to their toolkit of exploratory analytic options. We describe how the SEMM captures potential nonlinearity between latent variables, and how confidence bands (CBs; point wise and simultaneous) for the recovered latent function are constructed and interpreted. We then illustrate the usefulness of CBs for inference with an empirical example on the effect of emotions on cognitive processing. We also introduce a visualization tool that automatically generates plots of the latent regression and their CBs to promote user accessibility. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on the use of this SPM for exploratory research.