Bulent Turan

Emotional experience improves with age: Evidence based on over 10 years of experience sampling

Recent evidence suggests that emotional well-being improves from early adulthood to old age. This study used experience-sampling to examine the developmental course of emotional experience in a representative sample of adults spanning early to very late adulthood. Participants (N = 184, Wave 1; N = 191, Wave 2; N = 178, Wave 3) reported their emotional states at five randomly selected times each day for a one week period. Using a measurement burst design, the one-week sampling procedure was repeated five and then ten years later. Cross-sectional and growth curve analyses indicate that aging is associated with more positive overall emotional well-being, with greater emotional stability and with more complexity (as evidenced by greater co-occurrence of positive and negative emotions). These findings remained robust after accounting for other variables that may be related to emotional experience (personality, verbal fluency, physical health, and demographic variables). Finally, emotional experience predicted mortality; controlling for age, sex, and ethnicity, individuals who experienced relatively more positive than negative emotions in everyday life were more likely to have survived over a 13 year period. Findings are discussed in the theoretical context of socioemotional selectivity theory.

How Interpersonal Motives Clarify the Meaning of Interpersonal Behavior: A Revised Circumplex Model

Circumplex models have organized interpersonal behavior along 2 orthogonal dimensions-communion (which emphasizes connection between people) and agency (which emphasizes one persons influence over the other). However, many empirical studies have disconfirmed certain predictions from these models. We therefore revised the model in 4 ways that highlight interpersonal motives. In our revision: (a) the negative pole of communion is indifference, not hostility; (b) a given behavior invites (not evokes) a desired reaction from the partner; (c) the complement of a behavior is a reaction that would satisfy the motive behind that behavior; (d) noncomplementary reactions induce negative affect. If the motive is unclear, the meaning of the behavior is ambiguous. This ambiguity helps explain failures in social support, miscommunications in everyday life, and features of most personality disorders. The model emphasizes measurable individual differences: Reactions that are complementary for one person need not be complementary for another.

The Role of HIV-Related Stigma in Utilization of Skilled Childbirth Services in Rural Kenya : A Prospective Mixed-Methods Study

Janet Turan and colleagues examined the role of the perception of women in rural Kenya of HIV-related stigma during pregnancy on their subsequent utilization of maternity services.

Motives for eating tasty foods associated with binge-eating. Results from a student and a weight-loss seeking population ☆

The aim of this study was to use the Palatable Eating Motives Scale (PEMS) to determine if and what motives for eating tasty foods (e.g., junk food, fast food, and desserts) are associated with binge-eating in two diverse populations. BMI and scores on the PEMS, Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), and Binge-eating Scale (BES) were obtained from 247 undergraduates at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and 249 weight-loss seeking patients at the UAB EatRight program. Regression analyses revealed that eating tasty foods to forget worries and problems and help alleviate negative feelings (i.e., the 4-item Coping motive) was associated with binge-eating independently of any variance in BES scores due to sex, age, ethnicity, BMI, other PEMS motives, and YFAS scores in both students (R² = .57) and patients (R² = .55). Coping also was associated with higher BMI in students (p < 0.01), and in patients despite their truncated BMI range (p < 0.05). Among students, the motives Conformity and Reward Enhancement were also independently associated with binge-eating. For this younger sample with a greater range of BES scores, eating for these motives, but not for Social ones, may indicate early maladaptive eating habits that could later develop into disorders characterized by binge-eating if predisposing factors are present. Thus, identifying ones tasty food motive or motives can potentially be used to thwart the development of BED and obesity, especially if the motive is Coping. Identifying ones PEMS motives should also help personalize conventional treatments for binge-eating and obesity toward improved outcomes.

Mechanisms for the Negative Effects of Internalized HIV-Related Stigma on Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence in Women: The Mediating Roles of Social Isolation and Depression

Background: Internalization of HIV-related stigma may inhibit a persons ability to manage HIV disease through adherence to treatment regimens. Studies, mainly with white men, have suggested an association between internalized stigma and suboptimal adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, there is a scarcity of research with women of different racial/ethnic backgrounds and on mediating mechanisms in the association between internalized stigma and ART adherence. Methods: The Womens Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) is a multicenter cohort study. Women living with HIV complete interviewer-administered questionnaires semiannually. Cross-sectional analyses for the current article included 1168 women on ART for whom data on medication adherence were available from their last study visit between April 2013 and March 2014, when the internalized stigma measure was initially introduced. Results: The association between internalized stigma and self-reported suboptimal ART adherence was significant for those in racial/ethnic minority groups (AOR = 0.69, P = 0.009, 95% CI: 0.52 to 0.91), but not for non-Hispanic whites (AOR = 2.15, P = 0.19, 95% CI: 0.69 to 6.73). Depressive symptoms, loneliness, and low perceived social support mediated the association between internalized stigma and suboptimal adherence in the whole sample, as well as in the subsample of minority participants. In serial mediation models, internalized stigma predicted less-perceived social support (or higher loneliness), which in turn predicted more depressive symptoms, which in turn predicted suboptimal medication adherence. Conclusions: Findings suggest that interconnected psychosocial mechanisms affect ART adherence, and that improvements in adherence may require multifaceted interventions addressing both mental health and interpersonal factors, especially for minority women.

Testosterone and social evaluative stress: The moderating role of basal cortisol

Research has suggested that stressful situations lead to a decrease in testosterone, whereas concern with ones social status increases testosterone. However, results from studies examining testosterone reactivity in stressful situations that involve evaluation by others (hence status concerns) are inconsistent. Furthermore, there is a lack of research examining individual differences in testosterone responses in such situations. In this study 85 male participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST, which includes performing speech and arithmetic tasks in front of two critical evaluators) and practiced solving puzzles. Testosterone and cortisol levels were assessed from saliva. Across participants, testosterone increased from baseline to peak levels following the stressor tasks. Importantly, the increase in testosterone was larger for participants with lower basal cortisol. Hence, lower basal cortisol (which is known to be associated with low social fearfulness) may help one to mobilize a larger testosterone response in situations that involve social-evaluative stress. Given the hypothesized adaptive role of a larger testosterone response in social competition situations, the results suggest that there may be long-term benefits in learning to lower ones social fearfulness in situations involving potential for negative evaluation by others.

Framing Mechanisms Linking HIV-Related Stigma, Adherence to Treatment, and Health Outcomes

We present a conceptual framework that highlights how unique dimensions of individual-level HIV-related stigma (perceived community stigma, experienced stigma, internalized stigma, and anticipated stigma) might differently affect the health of those living with HIV. HIV-related stigma is recognized as a barrier to both HIV prevention and engagement in HIV care, but little is known about the mechanisms through which stigma leads to worse health behaviors or outcomes. Our conceptual framework posits that, in the context of intersectional and structural stigmas, individual-level dimensions of HIV-related stigma operate through interpersonal factors, mental health, psychological resources, and biological stress pathways. A conceptual framework that encompasses recent advances in stigma science can inform future research and interventions aiming to address stigma as a driver of HIV-related health.

Eating tasty food to cope. Longitudinal association with BMI.

The goals of this study were to determine if a change in certain motives to eat highly palatable food, as measured by the Palatable Eating Motives Scale (PEMS), could predict a change in body mass index (BMI) over time, to assess the temporal stability of these motive scores, and to test the reliability of previously reported associations between eating tasty foods to cope and BMI. BMI, demographics, and scores on the PEMS and the Binge Eating Scale were obtained from 192 college students. Test-retest analysis was performed on the PEMS motives in groups varying in three gap times between tests. Regression analyses determined what PEMS motives predicted a change in BMI over two years. The results replicated previous findings that eating palatable food for Coping motives (e.g., to forget about problems, reduce negative feelings) is associated with BMI. Test-retest correlations revealed that motive scores, while somewhat stable, can change over time. Importantly, among overweight participants, a change in Coping scores predicted a change in BMI over 2 years, such that a 1-point change in Coping predicted a 1.76 change in BMI (equivalent to a 10.5 lb. change in body weight) independent of age, sex, ethnicity, and initial binge-eating status (Cohens f(2) effect size = 1.44). The large range in change of Coping scores suggests it is possible to decrease frequency of eating to cope by more than 1 scale point to achieve weight losses greater than 10 lbs. in young overweight adults, a group already at risk for rapid weight gain. Hence, treatments aimed specifically at reducing palatable food intake for coping reasons vs. for social, reward, or conformity reasons, should help achieve a healthier body weight and prevent obesity if this motive-type is identified prior to significant weight gain.

Prototypes and personal templates: collective wisdom and individual differences.

This article concerns individual differences in the associative meaning of psychological concepts. Associative meaning may be assessed with prototype methodology, which yields a list of features of the concept ordered according to their rated importance. Our theory concerns individual differences in a concepts associative meaning: A personal template reveals a persons idiosyncratic associative meaning. It is possible to assess the degree to which a personal template matches the corresponding prototype. The theory distinguishes among three types of concepts. One type, for example, specifies a particular behavior to be predicted, for example, a person who is likely to commit suicide, and features of the prototype would include predictors of suicidal behavior. According to the theory, the most prototypical features are (under specifiable conditions) valid predictors, and people with a strong template-to-prototype match possess more valid knowledge about the concept than do people with a weak template-to-prototype match. Other types of concepts cannot be validated (e.g., those describing subjective experiences). In that case, a strong template-to-prototype match does not reflect a persons degree of valid knowledge. The authors provide three applications of the theory.

Interpersonal Mechanisms Contributing to the Association Between HIV-Related Internalized Stigma and Medication Adherence

Previous research suggests that people living with HIV (PLWH) sometimes internalize HIV-related stigma existing in the community and experience feelings of inferiority and shame due to their HIV status, which can have negative consequences for treatment adherence. PLWH’s interpersonal concerns about how their HIV status may affect the security of their existing relationships may help explain how internalized stigma affects adherence behaviors. In a cross-sectional study conducted between March 2013 and January 2015 in Birmingham, AL, 180 PLWH recruited from an outpatient HIV clinic completed previously validated measures of internalized stigma, attachment styles, and concern about being seen while taking HIV medication. Participants also self-reported their HIV medication adherence. Higher levels of HIV-related internalized stigma, attachment-related anxiety (i.e., fear of abandonment by relationship partners), and concerns about being seen by others while taking HIV medication were all associated with worse medication adherence. The effect of HIV-related internalized stigma on medication adherence was mediated by attachment-related anxiety and by concerns about being seen by others while taking HIV medication. Given that medication adherence is vitally important for PLWH to achieve long-term positive health outcomes, understanding interpersonal factors affecting medication adherence is crucial. Interventions aimed at improving HIV treatment adherence should address interpersonal factors as well as intrapersonal factors.