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Olfactory abilities in alexithymic participants - Study 1
No full textAlexithymia is a psychological construct characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. However, to our knowledge, only two studies investigated the processing of odours in alexithymia, even though there is extensive proof that emotion and olfaction are closely linked. Lombion et al. (2010) tested three groups of women: two groups with high and low alexithymia, as well as anorexia and depression, plus a third group of healthy controls. Alexithymics over-evaluate intensity and pleasantness of odorants compared to non-alexithymics or control subjects. However, this study does not allow us to draw firm conclusions regarding possible deficits in emotional odor perception associated with alexithymia. First, it has been shown that both severely depressed patients (Pause et al., 2001; Pollatos et al., 2007) and patients with anorexia (Schreder et al., 2008) present reduced olfactory sensitivity. Second, both patient groups received medications that could affect odor perception (Ship et al., 1993). In the second study (Cecchetto et al., 2017), emotional responses to unpleasant, neutral odors and clean air were collected through self-report ratings and psychophysiological measures in a sample of 62 healthy participants with high (HA), medium (MA) and low (LA) levels of alexithymia. HA and MA groups showed altered physiological responses to odors, compared to LA, while no differences among the groups were observed in odor ratings; moreover, affective and cognitive alexithymia components were differently associated with the performance on olfactory tests, skin conductance response to odors, reaction times in the rating task, and scores on olfactory questionnaires. Even though this study suggests that the difficulties described in alexithymic individuals in processing visual and auditory emotional stimuli are extended also to olfactory emotional stimuli, it does not allow to drive comprehensive conclusions on whether alexithymic participants present lower basic olfactory abilities or only altered affective reactions and awareness to odors in the environment
Olfactory abilities in alexithymic participants - Study 2
No full textAlexithymia is a psychological construct characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. However, to our knowledge, only two studies investigated the processing of odours in alexithymia, even though there is extensive proof that emotion and olfaction are closely linked. Lombion, et al. (2010) tested three groups of women: two groups with high and low alexithymia, as well as anorexia and depression, plus a third group of healthy controls. Alexithymics over-evaluate intensity and pleasantness of odorants compared to non-alexithymics or control subjects. However, this study does not allow us to draw firm conclusions regarding possible deficits in emotional odor perception associated with alexithymia. First, it has been shown that both severely depressed patients (Pause et al., 2001; Pollatos et al., 2007) and patients with anorexia (Schreder et al., 2008) present reduced olfactory sensitivity. Second, both patient groups received medications that could affect odor perception (Ship et al., 1993). In the second study (Cecchetto et al., 2017), emotional responses to unpleasant, neutral odors and clean air were collected through self-report ratings and psychophysiological measures in a sample of 62 healthy participants with high (HA), medium (MA), and low (LA) levels of alexithymia. HA and MA groups showed altered physiological responses to odors, compared to LA, while no differences among the groups were observed in odor ratings; and second, affective and cognitive alexithymia components were differently associated with the performance on olfactory tests, skin conductance response to odors, reaction times in the rating task, and scores on olfactory questionnaires. Even though this study suggests that the difficulties described in alexithymic individuals in processing visual and auditory emotional stimuli are extended also to olfactory emotional stimuli, it does not allow to drove comprehensive conclusions on whether alexithymic participants present lower basic olfactory abilities or only altered affective reactions and awareness to odors in the environment
Online food retail: Who’s buying it, what are they buying, and what tactics are used to promote healthy or unhealthy purchases, a scoping review
No full textDue to the COVID-19 pandemic, online food retail experienced rapid growth. This setting of growth may potentially influence the healthfulness of food purchases and food-related disparities associated with accessibility, availability, and pricing. The objective of this scoping review is to understand the current landscape of online food retailing in the real world. This review seeks to answer, but is not limited to, the following questions:
-What is the availability of online food retail? Who uses online food retail and how/why do they use it?
-What kinds of food products are sold in online food retail, and how does the availability of different food products compare to brick-and-mortar stores?
-What pricing, promotion, and placement tactics are the food industry using to promote their products in online food retail?
-What are the unique aspects of online food retail compared to brick-and-mortar stores (e.g., the food industry’s ability to personalize the advertising that each shopper is exposed to and the buying and selling of consumer data)
Study 2: Old film vs New film
No full textThis study is part 2 of a larger project aimed at developing new stimulus material that compares to the material used in Holmes et al (2009).
Study 1 compared a sequence of filmscenes depicting interpersonal violence (e.g. murder) with scenes about accidents/natural disaster. Neither sequence was superior in terms of eliciting image-based intrusions in a 7 - day diary. Therefore, for part 2 we compiled a new sequence that included the "best" scenes (in terms of eliciting image-based intrusions) from both the accident and interpersonal violence sequences in study 1.
In the current project we compare this new sequence of scenes to the original material used in Holmes et al (2009)
Making Sense
No full textDo messages about specific versions of activities for children’s gender group cause children to think that their gender is not the norm for that activity
Establishing Open Science Research Priorities in Health Psychology: A research prioritisation Delphi exercise
No full textThis study will use a structured and systematic Delphi exercise approach to identifying the most pressing research priorities in relation to open science and health psychology as outlined by European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) members. This output of this process aims to inform and guide the conduct of focused, prioritised research by both EHPS members and others interested in open science within health psychology, reducing the likelihood for research waste whilst maximising the potential for collaborative research. This study is being run by the European Health Psychology Society’s (EHPS) Open Science Special Interest Group
Institutional Mindset & Student Experience
No full textExisting research has shown that fixed or growth mindset beliefs can affect students’ psychological experiences and academic outcomes in college or university. These effects have been found for both students’ personal mindsets and their perceptions of their professors’ mindsets in STEM classes.
Related research in other types of organizations (e.g., workplaces, clubs) has found evidence that mindset beliefs can be espoused at the organizational level and that people’s perceptions of these organizational mindsets can shape their psychological experiences and behavior.
Are colleges and universities, like other organizations, characterized by institution-level mindsets? If so, what kinds of cues lead students to perceive their college or university as having a more fixed or more growth institutional mindset, and how does perceived institutional mindset influence students’ psychological experiences and academic outcomes?
The purpose of this project is to explore the predictors and consequences of perceived institutional mindset on college campuses. Specifically, we will test 1) whether students’ perceptions of their college’s institutional mindset predict their psychological experiences (e.g., belonging and stereotype threat) and academic outcomes (e.g., GPA and the number of credits they take and earn) and 2) whether academic and/or social integration during the first year predicts perceived institutional mindset
Use expectancies and experienced gratification and compensation in social networks use disorder and tobacco use disorder
No full textProblematic use of social networks is increasingly discussed as another specific form of Internet-associated behavioral addictions (Wegmann et al., 2018). Use expectancies refer to subjective thoughts regarding concrete effects of drug intake or a specific behavior; and have already been identified as relevant factor in tobacco use disorder (Abrams et al., 2011) and social network use disorder (SNUD; Wegmann et al., 2015). Furthermore, it is assumed that positive reinforcement mechanisms (i.e., experiences of gratification, rewarding experiences) play a crucial role in symptoms of SNUD. By contrast, negative reinforcement and compensation-seeking mechanisms (i.e., reduction of the fear of isolation and fear of missing out) are relevant for a “fear-driven” approach (Wegmann & Brand, 2019). However, it remains unclear whether the use of social network applications can indeed gratify usage motives or compensate unsatisfied needs, and whether this affects future use expectancies.
Against this background, the approach to track behavior in daily life is especially promising; it avoids recall bias, opens the stage for sophisticated analyses of specific behavioral patterns (Montag et al., 2016), and might provide the possibility to assess cognitive tendencies such as use expectancies and experienced gratification or compensation of (formerly) unsatisfied needs immediately after using social networks applications.
The aim of this project is to investigate and compare the relevance of specific use expectancies as well as gratification and compensation experiences in SNUD and tobacco use disorder.
For this purpose, subjects will be divided into four groups based on standardized tests and interviews: Subjects with 1) SNUD, 2) risky social networks use, 3) unproblematic use, and 4) tobacco use disorder. These participants complete a two-week smartphone-based survey using the experience sampling method.
It es expected that the results acquired from this study will help to confirm the findings of the I-PACE model (Brand et al., 2019) which suggests that use expectancies and gratification play an active part in triggerring and maintaining Internet use disorders
Status Effects on the Binding of Event Elements in Episodic Memory
No full textIn two experiments we aim to investigate whether the presence of a person of high social status in an event leads to more coherent event representations (i.e., stronger binding of event elements) and whether, in an interpersonal setting with different status compositions, a minority high in social status leads to more coherent event representations. Binding processes lead to a stochastic dependency of the retrieval of event elements such that the probability of retrieving an event element is related to the probability of retrieving another element from the same event (Horner & Burgess, 2013; Meiser & Bröder, 2002; Starns & Hicks, 2005). Hypothesis 1 will be examined in Experiment 1. Hypotheses 2 will be examined in Experiment 2