Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2023-05-12
Abstract： Objective: Body experiences and conditions are closely relevant to social development and human well-being. However, there is no consensus on the impact of COVID-19 on negative body image in previous studies.
Methods: To investigate the true relationship between COVID-19 and negative body image, this study has developed a dictionary of negative body image to obtain panel data on body image for 31 Chinese provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions from January 2010 to May 2022. We have compared negative body image in different years before and after the pandemic and explored the impact of pandemic severity on negative body image.
Results: The prevalence of negative body image significantly decreased following the outbreak and remained at a relatively low level for two years. After controlling for regional and temporal effects, epidemic severity was found to be a significant predictor of the decline in negative body image.
Limitations: The applicability of the negative body image dictionary beyond Chinese contexts and its efficacy in other countries or regions require further investigation.
Conclusions: The study suggests that the public is likely to adopt certain physical appearances during lockdown due to their fear of mortality and changes in lifestyle. This research has significant implications for comprehending the dynamic transformation of public body image under the influence of catastrophic public health events.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Clinical and Counseling Psychology Subjects: Medicine, Pharmacy >> Preventive Medicine and Hygienics submitted time 2020-02-29
Abstract： We noticed an unusual increase of first-time patients with schizophrenia (F20) in January 2020 since the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this retrospective study is to validate this observation and find potential risk factors, if applicable. A total number of 13,783 records from outpatients in January 2020 were investigated thoroughly. Comparisons between incidence of schizophrenia in outpatients in January 2020 and similar periods of 2017-2019 were made to minimize seasonal influence. Relationship of incidence of schizophrenia and COVID-19 infections in China was calculated. Limited personal information (age, gender, approximate residence) was analyzed to find risk factors.After excluding seasonal factors such as Spring festival, a positive relationship between incidence of schizophrenia in first-time patients and countrywide epidemic situation was found. Statistical results further showed a significant increase of median age from 39 to 50 for first-time patients diagnosed with schizophrenia which is unusual. Meanwhile, a slight but not significant change was found in distribution of gender and approximate residence (urban/suburb). Our data supported that COVID-19 outbreak increased risk of schizophrenia in aged adults which is consistent with the fact that COVID-19 is more lethal to elders. We strongly appeal that public healthcare in countries either with or without infected patients should prepare in advance for potential risks in public mental health. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2023-09-13
Abstract： Background: While psychosocial stressors trigger neuroendocrine responses and affect task performance, many studies overlook the dynamic nature of the stress appraisal process. Goal: This study aims to explore whether subjective appraisals at various time points can interpret individual stress responses, both behaviorally and physiologically, using controlled laboratory conditions. Methods: A total of 137 effective participants were recruited to induce individual stress states using the Trier Social stress Test (TSST). Subjective appraisals were measured both before (anticipatory appraisal) and after the stressor (retrospective appraisal). Concurrently, participants' cortisol responses and task performances were documented. Results: Findings indicate that anticipatory appraisal doesn't significantly impact task performance, whereas retrospective appraisal markedly affects performance of the corresponding tasks. Regarding cortisol levels, multivariate regression analysis revealed that only the retrospective appraisal of the speech task accounted for the observed variance in cortisol response under stress. Discussion: The data suggests that retrospective appraisals are more indicative of behavioral and physiological responses to psychosocial stressors than anticipatory appraisals. These findings lend empirical support to refining the biopsychosocial model and underscore the utility of retrospective appraisal in capturing individual stress response variations.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Biology >> Neurobiology submitted time 2017-07-24
Abstract：Although depression-induced altered pain perception has been described in several laboratory and clinical studies, its neurobiological mechanism in the central nervous system, particularly in the spinal dorsal horn remains unclear. In this study, we therefore aimed to clarify whether nociceptive sensitivity of neuropathic pain is altered in the olfactory bulbectomy (OB) model of depression and whether glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which is involved in the etio-pathologic mechanisms of both major depression and neuropathic pain, contributes to these processes in the spinal dorsal horn of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL) were attenuated in OB-SNL rats with decreased spinal GR expression and nuclear translocation, while NOB (non-olfactory bulbectomy)-SNL rats showed an increased spinal GR nuclear translocation. Decreased GR nuclear translocation with normal mechanical nociception and hypoalgesia of thermal nociception were observed in OB-Sham rats, too. Intrathecal injection of GR agonist dexamethasone (4 µg / rat / day for 1 week) eliminated the attenuating effect of depression on the nociceptive hypersensitivity in OB-SNL rats and aggravated neuropathic pain in NOB-SNL rats, associating with the up-regulation of BDNF, TrkB and NR2B expression in the spinal dorsal horn. The present study shows that depression attenuates the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of neuropathic pain and suggests that altered spinal GR-BDNF-TrkB signaling may be one of the reasons for depression-induced hypoalgesia.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Biology >> Neurobiology submitted time 2017-03-31
Abstract：Although depression-induced altered pain perception has been described in several laboratory and clinical studies, its neurobiological mechanism in the central nervous system, particularly in the spinal dorsal horn remains unclear. In this study, we therefore aimed to clarify whether nociceptive sensitivity of neuropathic pain is altered in the olfactory bulbectomy (OB) model of depression and whether glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which is involved in the etio-pathologic mechanisms of both major depression and neuropathic pain, contributes to these processes in the spinal dorsal horn of male Sprague-Dawley rats. The results showed that mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia induced by spinal nerve ligation (SNL) were attenuated in OB-SNL rats with decreased spinal GR expression and nuclear translocation, while NOB (non-olfactory bulbectomy)-SNL rats showed an increased spinal GR nuclear translocation. Decreased GR nuclear translocation with normal mechanical nociception and hypoalgesia of thermal nociception were observed in OB-Sham rats, too. Intrathecal injection of GR agonist dexamethasone (4 µg / rat / day for 1 week) eliminated the attenuating effect of depression on the nociceptive hypersensitivity in OB-SNL rats and aggravated neuropathic pain in NOB-SNL rats, associating with the up-regulation of BDNF, TrkB and NR2B expression in the spinal dorsal horn. The present study shows that depression attenuates the mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia of neuropathic pain and suggests that altered spinal GR-BDNF-TrkB signaling may be one of the reasons for depression-induced hypoalgesia.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2019-12-20
Abstract： This paper presents baseline results for the Third Facial Micro-Expression Grand Challenge (MEGC 2020). Both macro- and micro-expression intervals in CAS(ME)^2 and SAMM Long Videos are spotted by employing the method of Main Directional Maximal Difference Analysis (MDMD). The MDMD method uses the magnitude maximal difference in the main direction of optical flow features to spot facial movements. The single frame prediction results of the original MDMD method are post processed into reasonable video intervals. The metric F1-scores of baseline results are evaluated: for CAS(ME)^2, the F1-scores are 0.1196 and 0.0082 for macro- and micro-expressions respectively, and the overall F1-score is 0.0376; for SAMM Long Videos, the F1-scores are 0.0629 and 0.0364 for macro- and micro-expressions respectively, and the overall F1-score is 0.0445. The baseline project codes is publicly available at https://github.com/HeyingGithub/Baseline-project-for-MEGC2020_spotting.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2022-03-19
Abstract：
Objective: The bodily expressive action stimulus test (BEAST) is developed to provide a set of standardized emotional stimuli for experimental investigations of emotion and attention, and the consistency has been validated in adult populations abroad. However, the consistency of this test in Chinese population is unclear. To this end, 42 images of each category of emotion (happiness, sadness, fear and anger) were selected from 254 images of the original stimulus set to further examine the consistency of the BEAST in Chinese population.
Methods: Thirty-one Chinese college students and 41 Chinese preschool children participated in this study. All of them were asked to complete an emotion recognition and judgment task.
Results: Results showed that adults had a high degree of consistency in rating these pictures, while the children's consistency was at a medium level. For adults, sadness was the easiest to recognize, followed by fear, anger and happiness were the hardest to recognize. For children, fear was the easiest to recognize, anger and sadness were second, and happiness was also the hardest to recognize. At the same time, adults were more accurate in identifying happiness and sadness than children. For adults, they were more likely to confuse positive emotions with negative emotions. They tended to mistake sadness, fear and anger for happiness. For children, they were more likely to identify sadness as fear and happiness. And they also tended to recognize anger as fear.
Limitations: Fear and anger emotional pictures are suitable in children aged about 5 whereas the applicability of sadness and happiness, especially happy emotional pictures are not ideal.In the picture materials can be improved, and the body posture pictures conveying happiness and sadness can be re-shot in combination with the actual life situation of Chinese people. Meanwhile, children in the lower years of primary school can be selected for exploration.
Conclusions: These results indicate that the recognition performance of BEAST images for Chinese and Western adults are roughly the same, however, under the same cultural context, the recognition performance of adults and children are very different, and generally the recognition accuracy rate of adults is higher than that of children.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Psychological Measurement Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2020-12-03
Abstract： " "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2021-07-22
Abstract： Depression is theoretically associated with poor social functioning and social impairments, but empirical evidence for poor trust or cooperative behavior among depressed patients is scarce and severely under-researched. Based on a revised version of Trust Game, the present study aimed to clarify the equivocal relationships between depression, trust and altruistic cooperative behaviors, whilst taking into consideration of the potentially confounding effects of trait propensity to trust and locus of control. In the new version of Trust Game, each pairs of participant played the role of an investor and a trustee respectively. The investor player first receives an endowment of a given amount of money and decides how much he/she would like to invest. The invested endowment is then tripled and given to the trustee, played by the other participant who decides how much repayment he would like to return. This procedure is repeated for 10 rounds, trust behavior and altruistic cooperative behavior are then quantified as the averaged invested endowments and repayments, respectively. Results revealed that depressive symptoms negatively predicted invested endowments (i.e., the trust behavior) after the trait propensity to trust was controlled for, but a positive relationship between depressive symptoms and repayments (i.e., the altruistic cooperative behavior) was found, which was significantly moderated by the external locus of control. Specifically, in those with higher scores in externality, depressive symptoms actually resulted in a decrease (rather than an increase) in altruistic cooperation. This work, for the first time, clarified the relationships between depression and trust and altruistic cooperation by introducing trait factors such as propensity to trust and locus of controls, providing a new sight of exploring the effects of depressive symptoms on social functions.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2022-05-11
Abstract：
The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused enormous damage to individuals’ normal life and society’s development. Recently, with the emergence of novel coronavirus variants, people around the world are still under the attack of COVID-19. And vaccine uptake is considered one of the most effective methods to defend against this epidemic. However, many people hold hesitant attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine. For the vaccination promotion work, it is important to find out what factors would influence the intention of vaccination. With the aim of practical use, this study identifies two main themes of this factor structure, that is, non-manipulable factors and manipulable factors. This study uses semi-structured interviews to explore the influencing factors related to vaccination willingness. For the interview results analysis, this study employs a mixed-method, which combines qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative topic modeling. The thematic analysis identifies nine key factors and topic modeling identifies seven key factors. After gathering and discussing these key factors, this study confirmed ten key factors as final factors. More specifically, non-manipulable factors contain Effectiveness and safety of vaccines and Vaccine feasibility, and manipulable factors include Convenience of vaccine, Responsibility, External reference, Necessity and urgency of vaccination uptake, Perceived threat, Perceived benefits, Scientific and objective expression, and Policy requirement. This study investigates key influencing factors that would affect public vaccination intentions in China and provides specific guidelines for vaccination promotion for authorities and public health workers.
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Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Management Psychology submitted time 2021-07-22
Abstract： We examined the relationship between supervisor-subordinate guanxi (SSG) and employee silence (ES), and the moderating role of self-regulatory focus (SRF) works on such relationship. With both three dimensions of SSG (deference to supervisor, personal-life inclusion, and affective attachment) and two kinds of SRF (promotion and prevention focus) controlled by scenarios, the results from a survey of 230 part-time MPA program students in Mainland China indicated that (1) ES is positively related to deference to supervisor, affective attachment, and to a lesser extent, personal-life inclusion, and (2) the moderating effect of SRF is significant for the relationships between each dimension of SSG and ES, and specifically, there is less possibility for promotive subordinate to be silent than those with prevention focus in the workplace. The implications of our findings are discussed and suggestions made for future studies.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2021-02-25
Abstract： " The neural mechanism of orthographic-phonological integration was influenced by the temporal relationship of cross-modal stimuli. However, previous studies mainly investigated the neural mechanism of letter-speech sound integration in precise temporal synchrony or small temporal asynchrony conditions. In this study, character-speech sound integration was investigated in a relatively wide temporal window. Chinese characters were presented synchronously to the onset of speech sounds or before speech sound by 300 or 600 ms (referred as AV0, AV300 and AV600). ERP responses evoked by congruent condition (speech sounds were paired with congruent visual characters) and baseline condition (speech sounds were paired with Korean characters) were compared. Different electrophysiological markers were found in the temporal synchrony and temporal asynchrony conditions. In the AV0 condition, developing dyslexia (DD) and typically developing (TD) children showed similar congruency effect on P1, N170 and N300 components, demonstrating the influence of speech sound on visual character processing. In the AV300 condition, DD group showed left-lateralized congruency effect on N200, whereas TD children showed bilateral congruency effect on N200. Both groups showed bilateral congruency effect on N200 in the AV600 condition. We speculate that the insufficient character-speech sound integration exhibited by dyslexic children in the AV300 condition was probably caused by their slow visual processing speed. The results provide unique insight into the neural mechanism of print-speech integration in a wide temporal window and point out the necessity to investigate neural mechanism of print-speech integration in a relatively wide temporal window.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Applied Psychology submitted time 2019-05-05
Wang, Yuzheng
Chen, Yahong
Sun, Yuqi
Zhang, Ke
Wang, Ning
Sun, Yabin
Lin, Xiaoxiao
Wang, Jinyan
Luo, Fei
Abstract： Although extensive research has shown the benefits of meditation on attention, evidence for the benefits of short-term meditation training remains scarce. In addition, prior studies on these benefits have included considerably more females than males, potentially concealing gender differences in attention training effects. Here we present a longitudinal study including equal-sample male and female participants to explore potential gender differences in short-term meditation training effects on an attentional blink (AB) task. One hundred and sixty-five college students were randomly divided into three groups: meditation training, video game training and control (no training). Participants were asked to complete the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and to rate their level of emotional state and time spent on video game playing per day. Participants then completed a 4-day, 20-min training including meditation training, video game training, or a waiting period (control). After training, participants rated their arousal state and emotional state, and performed the AB task. Results showed that participants who completed either short-term meditation training or video game training showed significant improvement on AB performance. Interestingly, meditation training was more effective in females, while video game training was more effective in males. Meditation training, but not video game training, decreased anxiety scores. The current results indicate that gender plays an important role in the benefits of attention training. It is essential that clinicians take gender into consideration when implementing meditation based therapy. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-08-15
Abstract： Uncommon personal names have become increasingly popular in many countries and cultures over the past decades. However, little is known about the causes. We propose that the emphasis on uniqueness, manifested both as a cultural value at the macro level and as an individual need at the micro level, may account for the widely observed increase in unique-naming practices. We tested these hypotheses in China. Study 1 found that the increasing cultural emphasis on uniqueness (rather than on independence or competition), as a Granger cause, explained the increasing name uniqueness. Study 2 revealed that the increasing individual need for uniqueness (rather than narcissism or self-esteem) explained the higher preference for unique baby names among younger than older generations. Study 3 showed that, in actual naming practices, younger parents emphasized name uniqueness (rather than modernity, positivity, or other features) more than older cohorts. These findings convergently support our hypotheses, highlighting the importance of identifying specific mechanisms underlying psychological and behavioral changes, rather than assuming the rising individualism as a general explanation.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2020-10-10
Abstract： Building robust letter-to-sound correspondences is a prerequisite for reading, and such audiovisual integration becomes progressively automatic with development. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the development of audiovisual integration for reading are largely unknown. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a lexical decision task to investigate the changes of brain functional networks that support audiovisual integration for reading between normally developing children (9-12 years old) and adults (20-28 years old). The identified networks were further examined in children with developmental dyslexia (9-12 years old). Results revealed that adults enhanced connectivity in a prefrontal-superior temporal network relative to children, reflecting the attentional modulation to the development of audiovisual integration. Moreover, this network was disrupted in dyslexics, confirming its essential role in audiovisual integration for reading. This study, for the first time, elucidates the neural basis underlying the development of audiovisual integration for reading.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2020-02-05
Abstract： "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2021-04-27
Abstract： Multisensory integration, which enhances the stimulus saliency at the early stage of processing hierarchy, is recently shown to produce a larger pupil size than its unisensory constituents. Theoretically, any modulation on pupil size ought to be associated with the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways that are sensitive to lights. But it remains poorly understood how pupillary light reflex is changed in a multisensory context. The present study evoked an oscillation of pupillary light reflex by periodically changing the luminance of a visual stimulus at 1.25 Hz. It was found that such induced pupil oscillation was substantially attenuated when the bright but not the dark phase of the visual flicker was periodically and synchronously presented with a burst of tones. This inhibition effect persisted when the visual flicker was task-irrelevant and out of attentional focus, but disappeared when the visual flicker was moved from the central field to the periphery. These findings not only offer a comprehensive characterization of the multisensory impact on pupil response to lightness, but also provide valuable clues to the individual contributions of the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways to multisensory modulation of pupil size. "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2020-07-10
Abstract： " "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2020-06-17
Abstract： This study aimed to examine the brain mechanisms underlying the distinctions between automatic and controlled handwriting. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected while adult participants (n = 53) performed a copying task with varying speed control demands. Network analysis showed significant differences in functional connectivity within and between the frontoparietal network (FPN), the default mode network (DMN), the dorsal attention network (DAN), the somatomotor network (SMN) and the visual network (VN) between automatic and speed-controlled handwriting irrespective of written materials, which are thought to reflect general executive control and task-relevant visuomotor operations. However, there were no differences in brain activation between automatic and controlled handwriting. These results suggest that reconfiguration of functional network architecture, rather than regional activation, underlies the dissociations between automatic and controlled handwriting. Our findings shed new light on the neural mechanisms of handwriting mastery and handwriting impairments in individuals with neurological disorders. " "
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology submitted time 2024-03-13
Abstract： Abstract：Money source influences risk-taking behaviors. Although studies consistently indicated that individuals demonstrate a higher propensity to make risk investments when utilizing non-labor income as opposed to labor income, explanations as to why non-labor income leads to continuously blow money from non-labor sources into risky investments are scarce. The current study leverages a computational modeling approach to compare the differences in the dynamic risk investment process among individuals endowed with income from different sources (i.e., non-labor income vs labor income) to understand the shaping force of higher risk-taking propensity in individuals with non-labor income. A total of 103 participants were recruited and completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) with an equal monetary endowment, either as a token for completion of survey questionnaires (representing labor income) or as a prize from a lucky draw game (representing non-labor income). We found that individuals endowed with non-labor income made more risky investments in the BART compared to those with labor income. With computational modeling, we further identified two key differences in the dynamic risk investment processes between individuals endowed with labor and those with non-labor income. Specifically, individuals endowed with non-labor income had a higher preset expectation for risk-taking and displayed desensitization towards losses during risk investments, in contrast to individuals with labor income. This study sheds light on the fundamental factors contributing to the increased tendency for risky investments with non-labor income, providing new insights into the psychological mechanisms underlying risk-taking behaviors.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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