Zoekresultaten

Feasibility of emotion-regulating improvisational music therapy for young adult students with depressive symptoms

Introduction: Depression can be a serious problem in young adult students. There is a need to implement and monitor prevention interventions for these students. Emotion-regulating improvisational music therapy (EIMT) was developed to prevent depression. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of EIMT for use in practice for young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. Method: A process evaluation was conducted embedded in a larger research project. Eleven students, three music therapists and five referrers were interviewed. The music therapists also completed evaluation forms. Data were collected concerning client attendance, treatment integrity, musical components used to synchronise, and experiences with EIMT and referral. Results: Client attendance (90%) and treatment integrity were evaluated to be sufficient (therapist adherence 83%; competence 84%). The music therapists used mostly rhythm to synchronise (38 of 99 times). The students and music therapists reported that EIMT and its elements evoked changes in all emotion regulation components. The students reported that synchronisation elicited meaningful experiences of expressing joy, feeling heard, feeling joy and bodily responses of relaxation. The music therapists found the manual useful for applying EIMT. The student counsellors experienced EIMT as an appropriate way to support students due to its preventive character. Discussion: EIMT appears to be a feasible means of evoking changes in emotion regulation components in young adult students with depressive symptoms in a university context. More studies are needed to create a more nuanced and evidence-based understanding of the feasibility of EIMT, processes of change and treatment integrity.

Emotion valence, intensity, and emotion regulation in immigrants and majority members in the Netherlands

We were interested in interethnic differences and similarities in how emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal, suppression and social sharing) can be predicted by emotion valence and intensity. The sample consisted of 389 Dutch majority members and members of five immigrant groups: 136 Turkish and Moroccan, 105 Antillean and Surinamese, 102 Indonesian, 313 Western and 150 other non-Western immigrants. In a path model with latent variables we confirmed that emotion regulation strategies were significantly and similarly related to emotion valence and intensity across the groups. Negative emotions were more reappraised and suppressed than positive emotions. Intensity was positively related to social sharing and negatively related to reappraisal and suppression. The Dutch majority group scored higher on emotion valence than Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. Also, the Dutch majority group scored lower on reappraisal than all non-Western groups, and lower on suppression than Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. We conclude that group differences reside more in mean scores on some components than in how antecedents are linked to regulation strategies.

Exploring Tailored Virtual Emotion Regulation Approaches for Individuals with Emotional Eating

Background Emotional eating is a complex problem fostering obesity and resulting from maladaptive emotionregulation. Traditional behavioural weight loss interventions have shown insignificant effect. They can be improvedby targeting the specific needs of individuals with emotional eating.Objective The current study explored a tailored online approach with the aim to positively influence affect (positiveand negative) and emotion regulation by applying one of three exercises: body scan, opposite action, and positivereappraisal.Design An embedded mixed‑method design (questionnaire data (t0, t1, t2) and perceived usefulness of exercisesin t2) was used to evaluate the effects of a two‑week online quasi‑experimental pilot study.Subjects/setting In total, 80 participants with self‑reported emotional eating difficulties (DEBQ‑E; Memo = 3.48,SD = .64, range 1.62–4.92) finished baseline measurements; 15 completed the intervention. The study sample was pre‑dominantly female (95%), from 18 till 66 (Mage = 38,0 ± SD = 14.25).Results Participants reported that the exercises helped them to pay attention to their physical sensations, and to see positive aspects in negative matters. The exercises were considered difficult by the participants, with too littleexplanation, and dull, due to minor variation. The observed changes revealed small, and moreover, not significant improvements of the three exercises on positive and negative affect and overall emotion dysregulation. Although the quantitative results did not reach significance, the qualitative data highlighted which aspects of the tailored exer‑cises may have contributed to mood and emotion regulation outcomes. A notable observation in the present studyis the substantial dropout rate, with the number of participants decreasing from 80 at baseline (T0) to 15 at the post‑intervention stage (T2).Conclusions Future studies should identify tailored online exercises in emotion regulation skills in more detailand explore the contexts in which they are most effective in a personalized virtual coach virtual coach to be devel‑oped for individuals with emotional eating. Given the high dropout rate, more emphasis should be given to a properpresentation of the exercises, as well as more explanation of their usefulness and how to perform them.

Influences of cognitive appraisal and individual characteristics on citizens’ perception and emotion in urban environment: Model development and virtual reality experiment

To model individuals' experience of urban spaces, this study integrates knowledge from environmental psychology and artificial intelligence to propose a framework for individuals' perceptions and emotion by incorporating individual characteristics and cognitive appraisal together with environment attributes as determinants. A path model is employed to capture how the four perceptions of environmental qualities (safety, liveliness, comfort, and legibility) and three dimensions of emotion (pleasure, arousal, dominance) are influenced by individual characteristics and cognitive appraisal using data collected in an online virtual reality experiment with 237 participants. Results show that emotional pleasure is more directly influenced by environmental attributes while arousal and dominance are closely related to a person's current mood and personality. Perceptions of environmental qualities do have mediating effects in emotion generation, but contribute differently to the three dimensions of emotion. Cognitive appraisal variables directly influence emotion generation, with ideal values always having positive effects and expected values always negative effects. The findings can help capture the dynamic process of emotional experiences between diverse individuals and may support experience-centered simulation and prediction.

Concentration camp memorials: how emotion clusters affect meaning and visit intention

The emotional experience of a visit to a concentration camp memorial is high in intensity and wide in diversity. Clustering of this emotional experience has led to a better understanding of the valence of emotions. It is not known how these emotion clusters affect the meaning derived from the experience and how this affects visit intention. This study addressed this gap in research and explored the potential relations between emotion clusters and meaning in the context of an expected visit to a concentration camp memorial. This study finds that the emotion cluster Sympathy is the only cluster to have a significant and large positive direct effect on Meaning and a significant, but small, positive indirect effect on Visit Intention. The Misery cluster is the only cluster that has a significant but small negative direct effect on Visit Intention. The Positivity cluster has no effects on Meaning and Visit Intention. In the discussion, we address the role of empathy, and theoretical implications are framed in Terror Management Theory. Managerial implications include a discussion on the use of promotion to trigger empathy.

Sedje Hémon