Michelle Gayle Newman

Pennsylvania State University | Penn State · Department of Psychology

Accessible, low-cost intervention options are necessary to address the rise in mental health problems among college students. Digital guided self-help, or coached, programs have been developed to provide such services, with many commercially available. As such, there are a large and growing number of individuals coaching these programs. However, an...

The emergence of artificial emotional intelligence technology is revolutionizing the fields of computers and robotics, allowing for a new level of communication and understanding of human behavior that was once thought impossible. Whereas recent advancements in deep learning have transformed the field of computer vision, automated understanding of...

Objective To examine the mental health problems that college students with eating disorders (EDs) and comorbid depression and/or anxiety disorders preferred to target first in a digital treatment program and explore correlates of preferred treatment focus. Methods Four hundred and eighty nine college student users of a digital cognitive‐behavioral...

BACKGROUND: In theory, habitually exercising mindfulness skills can improve cognitive functioning abilities. However, no comprehensive quantitative reviews of the efficacy of MBIs on global and unique cognitive subdomains exist to date. METHOD: This meta-analysis examined the effects of MBIs on global cognition and 15 cognitive subdomains. Inclusio...

The emergence of artificial emotional intelligence technology is revolutionizing the fields of computers and robotics, allowing for a new level of communication and understanding of human behavior that was once thought impossible. While recent advancements in deep learning have transformed the field of computer vision, automated understanding of ev...

Introduction: Emerging technological interventions for psychological disorders are being developed continually. Offering imaginal exposure exercises as a self-help intervention presents the opportunity to acquire foundational skills to address social anxiety. The current study evaluates the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel smartphone appli...

Objective: There is a strong association between sleep disturbance and negative affect. However, the day-to-day directional connections between sleep and negative affect remain unclear. We examined day-to-day relationships between sleep duration and negative affect in community adults. Methods: Participants were two subsamples of the Midlife in...

Background Vulnerability theories propose that suboptimal levels of lipid markers and proinflammatory proteins predict future heightened depression. Scar models posit the reverse association. However, most studies that tested relationships between non-specific immune/endocrine markers and depression did not separate temporal inferences between peop...

OBJECTIVE: We studied current psychotherapy utilization rates among college students with mental health problems and identified characteristics associated with differential utilization. PARTICIPANTS: Nationwide online survey of students screening positive for at least one clinical mental health problem (N = 18,435). METHODS: Rates and correlates of...

Researchers have held a long-standing debate regarding the validity of discrete emotions versus global affect. The current manuscript tries to integrate these perspectives by explicitly examining the structures of state emotions and trait affect across time. Across three samples (sample 1: N = 176 Unites States undergraduates in a 50 day daily diar...

Objective: This study sought to determine if upregulating positive emotion both reduces symptoms and increases well-being for those with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Method: Eighty-five participants were diagnosed with GAD by both questionnaire and clinical interview. They were then randomly assigned to one of two seven-day smartphone-del...

Online surveys are routinely used in mental health screening and treatment follow-up assessment, though they can yield low response rates. We tested the effects of social psychology-informed influence strategies for increasing rates of participation in an online mental health screening survey (Experiment 1) and a treatment follow-up survey (Experim...

BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are increasing in prevalence among college students, yet few students receive treatment due to barriers such as insufficient resources in college counseling centers. Digital mental health interventions (DMHIs) have potential to overcome barriers and offer accessible, evidence-based care to college students. Howeve...

Background: There is substantial heterogeneity in how people react to potentially traumatic events (PTEs). Although some literature has explored this heterogeneity, there are only a few studies identifying factors associated with it within the disaster literature. Objective: The current investigation identified latent classes of post-traumatic s...

Interpersonal theory organizes social behavior along dominant (vs. submissive) and warm (vs. cold) dimensions. There is a growing interest in assessing these behaviors in naturalistic settings to maximize ecological validity and to study dynamic social processes. Studies that have assessed interpersonal behavior in daily life have primarily relied...

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) often precede and predict one another. Heightened stress reactivity may be a mediation mechanism underlying the long-term connections between GAD and MDD. However, cross-sectional studies on this topic have hindered directional inferences. Method: The present stud...

Given its interpersonal underpinnings, relational factors may be salient in psychotherapy for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Supporting this point, research has indicated a positive total alliance-improvement correlation in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for GAD. However, less research has disaggregated this correlation into within- and be...

Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) co-occur at high rates, often preceding and predicting one another over long durations. Interpersonal theories propose that relationships with others may contribute to the longitudinal connections between MDD and GAD. Therefore, the current study examined the medi...

Background: This study examined the incremental validity of the Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM) in predicting generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms when compared against well-established constructs in the GAD literature: intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and negative problem orientation (NPO). Method: In this study, 185 students (108 of whom...

This study examined the relationship between the Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM; Newman & Llera, 2011) and impairment in the problem-solving process using an in-vivo laboratory-based problem-solving task. We also explored whether general emotional CA tendencies explained the relationship between trait worry and problem-solving outcomes. In this stud...

BACKGROUND: The Contrast Avoidance Model (CAM) suggests that although worry increases negative emotion, it also increases the probability of a subsequent decrease in negative emotions and increase in positive emotions (labeled positive emotional contrasts; PECs), in the face of benign or positive events. Such PECs reinforce maintenance of worry. Ho...

The contrast avoidance model (CAM) suggests that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are sensitive to a sharp increase in negative and/or decrease in positive affect. They thus worry to increase negative emotion to avoid negative emotional contrasts (NECs). However, no prior naturalistic study has examined reactivity to negative eve...

BACKGROUND: Little is known about whether brief mindfulness ecological momentary interventions (MEMI) yield clinically beneficial effects. This gap exists despite the rapid growth of smartphone mindfulness applications. Specifically, no prior brief MEMI has targeted generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Moreover, although theories propose that MEMI c...

Little is known about whether brief mindfulness ecological momentary interventions (MEMI) yield clinically beneficial effects for generalized anxiety disorder. Thus, this randomized controlled trial evaluated the efficacy of a 14-day smartphone MEMI (vs. self-monitoring placebo (SMP)). Sixty-eight MEMI participants exercised multiple core mindfulne...

Introduction This was a re-analysis of Zainal and Newman (2022) correcting for critiques by Sorjonen, Nilsonne, et al. (2022). As recommended by these authors, in this reanalysis we no longer adjust for baseline measures of the outcome variable in our examination of the longitudinal within-person relations between need for cognition (NFC) and anxie...

Background: The contrast avoidance model (CAM) proposes that persons with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are sensitive to sharp increases in negative emotion or decreases in positive emotion (i.e., negative emotional contrasts; NEC) and use worry to avoid NEC. Sensitivity to and avoidance of NEC could also be a shared feature of major depressi...

Background Little is known about whether brief mindfulness ecological momentary interventions (MEMIs) yield clinically beneficial effects. This gap exists despite the rapid growth of smartphone mindfulness applications. Specifically, no prior brief MEMI has targeted generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Moreover, although theories propose that MEMIs...

Background: Biopsychosocial models posit that experiencing parental childhood abuse increases vulnerability to psychopathology in adulthood. There are a lack of studies investigating mediators of the parental childhood abuse-adulthood psychopathology relation. The current study investigated if trait self-acceptance mediated the parental childhood...

This secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) examined whether contrast avoidance (CA) in Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) could be reduced through savoring—purposeful engagement with positive emotions. 85 participants were diagnosed with GAD by both clinical interview and questionnaire. They were then randomly assigned to one of...

NTRODUCTION: Major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) co-occur at high rates, often preceding and predicting one another over long durations. Interpersonal theories propose that relationships with others may contribute to the longitudinal connections between MDD and GAD. Therefore, the current study examined the mediat...

Purpose of Review We synthesize theories proposing complex relations between cognitive functioning and anxiety-related concepts. We evaluate vulnerability theories suggesting that deficits in various cognitive functioning domains predict future anxiety-associated concepts. We examine scar theories asserting the opposite direction of effects (i.e.,...

Background: The Contrast Avoidance Model (Newman & Llera, 2011) proposes that worry is reinforced by avoiding a negative contrast and increasing the likelihood of a positive contrast. Objective: To determine if reinforcement of worry occurs naturalistically via contrasts in both negative and positive emotion. Method: Using event-contingent mom...

Introduction Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is common and disabling. Different versions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have been tested, but no treatment works for everyone. Therefore, researchers have attempted approaches to enhance CBT. Areas covered The current narrative review examines meta-analyses and individual trials of CBT-base...

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the need for mental healthcare that can be delivered remotely and at scale to college students. This study evaluated the efficacy of online self-help for stress among students during the pandemic. Method: College students with moderate or higher stress (N = 585) were recruited between November 2020 a...

Interpersonal theory organizes social behavior along dominant (vs. submissive) and warm (vs. cold) dimensions. There is a growing interest in assessing these behaviors in naturalistic settings to maximize ecological validity and to study dynamic social processes. Studies that have assessed interpersonal behavior in daily life have primarily relied...

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) reliably precede and predict one another. However, there is insufficient data on mediators through which the longitudinal GAD-MDD association unfold. Based on insomnia theories, such as the hyperarousal model of sleep, we tested the degree to which poor global sleep...

Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) co-occur at high rates, often preceding and predicting one another over long durations. Interpersonal theories propose that relationships with others may mediate the longitudinal MDD–GAD pathway. Therefore, the current study examined the mediational effect of posit...

Vulnerability models posit that executive functioning (EF) problems centrally impact future common (vs. rare) psychopathology symptoms. Conversely, scar theory postulates that depression/anxiety (vs. other psychopathology) symptoms centrally influence reduced EF. However, most studies so far have been cross-sectional. We used cross-lagged panel net...

According to dynamic systems theory, initial symptom instability is necessary for long-term stable change to occur from psychotherapy. Such instability may be assessed using sudden gains (SGs), sudden losses (SLs), and reversals. The present study examined these symptom change patterns and their association with treatment outcome using intensive di...

Background Within-person growth in life satisfaction (LS) can protect against declines in cognitive functioning, and, conversely, over time. However, most studies have been cross-sectional, thereby precluding causal inferences. Thus, we used bivariate dual latent change score modeling to test within-person change-to-future change relations between...

Objective The need for clinical services in U.S. colleges exceeds the supply. Digital Mental health Interventions (DMHIs) are a potential solution, but successful implementation depends on stakeholder acceptance. This study investigated the relevance of DMHIs from students' perspectives. Methods In 2020–2021, an online cross-sectional survey using...

Background Scar theory proposes that heightened depression and anxiety precede and predict worse cognitive functioning outcomes, whereas the vulnerability theory posits the opposite pathway. However, most investigations on this topic have been cross-sectional, precluding causal inferences. Thus, we used cross-lagged prospective network analyses to...

According to the Contrast Avoidance model (CAM), worry causes increased and sustained negative affect and such negative affect enables avoidance of a future sharp increase in negative emotion. However, only pathological worriers (vs. controls) view worry as a positive coping strategy to avoid a negative emotional contrast (NEC). We examined if rumi...

Background Myriad emotion regulation and coping theories have proposed that avoidant/emotion-oriented coping is a cause and consequence of anxiety and depression. However, few studies have investigated potential mechanisms underlying the prospective anxiety-depression disorder relation. The current study examined various coping strategies (i.e., de...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic could affect college students’ mental health. We examined screening rates for psychological disorders before and during the pandemic.Methods Undergraduates were surveyed before (n = 3643) or during the pandemic (n = 4970). Logistic regression adjusting for participant demographics was conducted.ResultsFrequencies of...

Introduction: Scar theories propose that elevated depression and anxiety can predispose people to future decreased executive function (EF) via heightened inflammation across decades. However, more longitudinal (versus cross-sectional) research on this topic is needed. Objective: We thus investigated if increased major depressive disorder (MDD),...

Introduction: Decreased motivational tendency to seek out, engage in, and enjoy investing in complex cognitive processes in a sustained manner (need for cognition; NFC) may be a predictor and consequence of heightened anxiety and depression symptoms (ADS). However, the majority of investigations on this topic have been cross-sectional, which hinde...

According to the Contrast Avoidance model (CAM), worry causes increased and sustained negative affect and such negative affect enables avoidance of a future sharp increase in negative emotion. However, only pathological worriers (vs. controls) view worry as a positive coping strategy to avoid a negative emotional contrast (NEC). We examined if rumi...

Background: Vulnerability theories propose that higher levels of lipid and pro-inflammatory markers precede and relate to future heightened depression and anxiety. Scar models posit the reverse association. However, most studies testing biomarker-psychopathology relations have been cross-sectional, which precludes causal inferences, and did not dif...

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) often precede and predict one another. Stress reactivity theories of psychopathology posit that patterns of heightened emotional reactions to stressors can result in increased vulnerability to the development of anxiety and depression. However, cross-sectional studie...

The dual process model proposes that early and later bereavement involve different types of stressors and adaptation processes (Stroebe & Schut, 1999, 2010). It is thus possible that different factors facilitate adaptation during early months versus subsequent years following widowhood. Elevated depressive symptoms, though prevalent after widowhood...

Background: The scar theory proposes that heightened depression and anxiety precede and predict worse cognitive functioning outcomes, whereas the vulnerability model posits the opposite pathway. However, most investigations on this topic have been cross-sectional, which precludes causal inferences. Thus, our study used both contemporaneous and temp...

Reliable and valid measurements of anxiety, chronic worry, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms is essential when seeking to draw cross-cultural and gender comparisons. Accordingly, the current study determined the psychometric properties of five widely used symptom measures in the United States (U.S.) and Singapore (SG) and across gender:...

Background: The ability to effectively regulate one's emotions has been established as an important transdiagnostic mechanism in the development and maintenance of psychopathology. To date, much of the research on emotion regulation (ER) has been conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) samples. Specifically, th...

Vulnerability models posit that executive functioning (EF) problems centrally impact future common (vs. rare) psychopathology symptoms. Conversely, scar theory postulates that depression/anxiety (vs. other psychopathology) symptoms centrally influence reduced EF. However, most studies so far have been cross-sectional. We used cross-lagged panel net...

Background Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) has shown promising efficacy for the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and related comorbidities. However, most trials conducted to date were therapist-led, and little is known about the efficacy of self-guided VRE. Therefore, this randomized controlled trial (RCT) aimed to determine the ef...

Theorists (Cacioppo, Petty, Feinstein, & Jarvis, 1996) have proposed that persons with diminished motivation to actively and systematically seek out, consider, and think about corrective information (i.e., low need for cognition; NFC) are vulnerable to encounter elevated anxiety and depression across long periods. Simultaneously, based on the scar...

Background: Affective neuroscience and scar theories propose that increased excessive worry, the hallmark symptom of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), predicts future declines in executive functioning (EF). However, the preponderance of crosssectional designs used to examine between-person chronic worry-EF relations has blocked progress on unders...

BACKGROUND: Cytokine theory of depression proposes that increased baseline inflammatory activity, may accumulate over time and lead to future major depressive disorder (MDD). However, most research conducted on this topic has been cross-sectional and examined between- (vs. within-) persons and symptom severity (vs. diagnosis). Therefore, we tested...

Previous studies on parental support have consistently shown it predicts lower adolescent alcohol use, yet findings regarding the influence of parental monitoring have been mixed. The current study aims to resolve this concern while examining peer selection as a mediator of both parenting factors. The current study used structural equation modeling...

Background Scar and vulnerability models assert that increased psychopathology may predict subsequent executive functioning (EF) deficits (and vice versa) over protracted timescales, yet most prior work on this topic has been cross-sectional. Thus, we tested the within- and between-person relations between EF, depression, and anxiety. Methods Olde...

BACKGROUND: Online guided self-help may be an effective and scalable intervention for symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) among university students in India. METHODS: Based on an online screen for GAD administered at four Indian universities, 222 students classified as having clinical (DSM-5 criteria) or subthreshold (GAD-Q-IV score ≥ 5....

Objective In a national sample of college students, the current study aimed to: 1) examine differences in probable diagnoses of EDs (i.e., anorexia nervosa (AN), clinical/subthreshold bulimia nervosa (BN), or binge eating disorder (BED)) and weight and shape concerns by sexual orientation and gender identity, and 2) examine differences in ED chroni...

Background: Parenting theories propose that lack of childhood parental affection confers increased vulnerability to heightened adulthood depression. However, only a few prospective studies have examined this topic, and no studies included mediators of the childhood parental affection-adulthood depression connection. Objective: This study examine...

Objectives: Using two intensive longitudinal data sets with different timescales (90 minutes, daily), we examined emotion network density, a metric of emotional inflexibility, as a predictor of clinical-level anxiety and depression. Design: Mobile-based intensive longitudinal assessments. Methods: 119 participants (61 anxious and depressed, 58...

Background: General aggression and evolutionary models posit that more severe early exposure experiences to trauma (physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or neglect) place one at risk for adulthood psychopathology through heightened trait anger expression-internal (Anger-In) and external (Anger-Out). However, there are a dearth of empirical studie...

Background: Scar and vulnerability models assert that increased psychopathology maypredict subsequent executive functioning deficits (and vice versa) over protracted timescales, yet most prior work on this topic has been cross-sectional. Thus, we tested the within- and between- person relations between EF, depression and anxiety. Method: Older adul...

The research domain criteria (RDoC) define cognitive processes (e.g., rumination, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety sensitivity) as key elements of psychopathology (Cuthbert, 2015). However, there is currently a dearth of construct equivalence studies to advance the RDoC agenda to adopt transdiagnostic approaches. We thus aimed to validate the la...

Objectives: Using two intensive longitudinal datasets with different timescales (90 minutes, daily), we examined emotion network density (a metric of emotional rigidity) as a predictor of clinical levels of anxiety and/or depression. Design: Mobile-based intensive longitudinal assessments. Methods: In study 1, 119 participants (61 anxious and depre...

About a third of college students struggle with anxiety, depression, or an eating disorder, and only 20-40% of college students with mental disorders receive treatment. Inadequacies in mental health care delivery result in prolonged illness, disease progression, poorer prognosis, and greater likelihood of relapse, highlighting the need for a new ap...

Background: Scar models posit that heightened anxiety and depression can increase risk for subsequent reduced executive function (EF) through increased inflammation across months. However, the majority of past research on this subject used crosssectional designs. We therefore examined if elevated generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive...

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a widespread and debilitating disorder. In this review, we present updated research on worry, along with the emotional, information processing, interpersonal, and biological factors underlying this disorder, through the lens of a comprehensive model of GAD: the Contrast Avoidance Model. This model sheds light o...

Introduction Many individuals believe that worry helps solve real-life problems. Some researchers also purport that nonpathological worry can aid problem solving. However, this is in contrast to evidence that worry impairs cognitive functioning. Objective This was the first study to empirically test the effects of a laboratory-based worry inductio...

Cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) fundamentally aims to ameliorate generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms, which stem from habitual, inflexible, and spiraling systems of interaction between somatic, cognitive, and emotional responses to appraised threats. This chapter describes the core components of CBT often employed in clinical trials of G...

Interpersonal and emotional processing therapy (I/EP) was developed in the early 1990s as an attempt to remedy the shortcomings of cognitive‐behavioral therapy. It cohesively unifies interpersonal, emotional, and cognitive problems of the therapeutic change process and human functioning. This chapter presents an overview of the process and implemen...

Background: Scar models propose that elevated psychiatric disorder severity predisposes people to future decreased executive function (EF) through heightened inflammation. However, most prior research on this topic has been cross-sectional. We thus investigated if increased Time 1 (T1) common psychiatric disorder severity predicted Time 3 (T3) EF d...

Background Trait negative affect (NA) is a central feature of anxiety and depression disorders. Neurocognitive and scar models propose that within‐person increase in NA across one period of time relates to a decline in cognitive functioning at a future period of time and vice versa. Yet, there has been little research on whether a within‐person cha...

Background: The past 30 years have witnessed growing scientific interest regarding the impact of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on cognitive functions. Several theories propose that habitually exercising mindfulness skills can improve cognitive abilities, but no comprehensive quantitative reviews of the effect of MBIs on global and unique c...

Background: The past 30 years have witnessed growing scientific interest regarding theimpact of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on cognitive functions. Several theories propose that habitually exercising mindfulness skills can improve cognitive abilities, but no comprehensive quantitative reviews of the effect of MBIs on global and unique co...

Background: The past 30 years have witnessed growing scientific interest regarding the impact of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) on cognitive functions. Several theories propose that habitually exercising mindfulness skills can improve cognitive abilities, but no comprehensive quantitative reviews of the effect of MBIs on global and unique c...

Positive emotions serve important functions for mental health. Susceptibility to reduced positive emotions in the context of stress may increase risk for poor mental health outcomes, including anxiety and depressive disorders and low overall levels of positive emotion. In an eight-day daily diary study within a larger panel study (N = 1,517), we te...

Theories of cognitive therapy have long suggested that those with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have inaccurate expectations. By challenging them with objective evidence, symptoms are thought to decrease. To test these premises, this study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) during the Worry Outcome Journal (WOJ) treatment to determine...