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The relative deprivation trap: How feeling deprived relates to the experience of generalized anxiety disorder
Abstract
Introduction: How income inequality associates with poorer mental health remains unclear. Personal relative deprivation (PRD) involves appraising oneself as unfairly disadvantaged relative to similar others and has been associated with poorer mental health and negative cognitive appraisals. As generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is associated with negative cognitive appraisals, PRD may relate to the experience of GAD and its cognitive predictors, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), positive beliefs about worry (PBW), negative beliefs about worry (NBW), and experiential avoidance (EA).
Method: In two observational studies (Study 1, N = 588; Study 2, N = 301) participants completed measures of PRD, cognitive predictors and symptoms of GAD, subjective socioeconomic status (SES), self-efficacy, and self-esteem.
Results: A relationship between PRD and GAD was found across studies, which was simultaneously mediated by IU and NBW. These results remained when controlling for subjective SES but were weakened when controlling for self-concept factors.
Discussion: This research supports the possibility that the experience of deprivation may “trap” people in thinking patterns that contribute to anxious symptomology.
... This frustration may predict various types of behavior such as aggression and social deviance [36]. Previous research has found that individuals with RD are prone to persistent and distressing states of anxiety [37], and may attempt to escape this frustrating reality through deviant behaviors such as smoking, alcohol dependence, and binge eating [38][39][40]. Hence, college students who perceive higher RD due to the influence of USC on network are more likely to experience anxiety, increasing the likelihood of alcohol dependence. ...
... The findings also suggest that the emergence of RD further exacerbates anxiety levels among college students. This could be attributed to RD inducing negative cognitive patterns, which heighten anxiety experiences, consistent with previous research [37]. Specifically, college students often experience a sense of RD when comparing themselves to individuals with certain advantages online [61]. ...
... Specifically, college students often experience a sense of RD when comparing themselves to individuals with certain advantages online [61]. This feeling of RD can form negative thinking patterns and eventually increase levels of anxiety among college students [37,62]. Therefore, college students may resort to maladaptive behaviors, such as developing alcohol dependence, as temporary means of alleviating their anxiety [63]. ...
Background
Nowadays, contemporary society has placed growing emphasis on the alcohol drinking behavior of college students.
Methods
This study employed a cross-sectional design to assess the relationship between upward social comparison (USC) on network and college students drinking behavior, while exploring the mediation impact of relative deprivation (RD) and anxiety. A total of 329 college students (Mage = 21.37 years old; 16.11% women) were enrolled to complete a set of questionnaires evaluating USC on network, RD, anxiety and alcohol dependence.
Results
The results showed that (1) USC on network, RD, anxiety and alcohol dependence were significantly, positively correlated in pairs, and (2) RD and anxiety exhibited a significant chain mediating role between USC on network and alcohol dependence, and USC on network positively predicted alcohol dependence via the mediating effect of anxiety.
Conclusions
This study reveals that USC on network positively predicts alcohol dependence via the mediating effect of anxiety, and that RD and anxiety play a chain-mediating role between USC on network and alcohol dependence.
... This sense of deprivation can cause serious damage to their physical and mental health [11,13]. It has been demonstrated that individuals with RD are prone to negative emotions, such as anxiety [14], and tend to escape a frustrating reality, leading to a deviant behavior [15]. Hence, the present study hypothesizes that RD and anxiety may play a chain mediating role between USC on network and alcohol dependence. ...
... Thus, this research presumes that RD also has a signi cant predictive effect on anxiety. Historical studies have demonstrated that individuals with RD tend to exhibit negative emotions (e.g., anxiety) [14], and the individual's RD can signi cantly predict anxiety [27]. Moreover, higher degree of RD are related to greater risk of anxiety [28]. ...
... The reason behind this is that when college students are more frequently compared with others in USC on network, they will perceive themselves to be in a disadvantaged position, which in turn leads to RD [46]. Additionally, individuals who experience RD are tend to develop negative emotions (e.g., anxiety) [14], and consequently increases the risk of alcohol dependence. This process explains the speci c process of USC on network affecting alcohol dependence. ...
Background: Nowadays, contemporary society has placed growing emphasis on the alcohol drinking behavior of adolescents.
Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design to assess the relation between upward social comparison (USC) on network and adolescent drinking behavior, while exploring the mediation impact of relative deprivation (RD) and anxiety. A total of 329 adolescents (Mage =21.38 years old; 16.10% females) were enrolled to complete a set of questionnaires evaluating USC on network, RD, anxiety and alcohol dependence.
Results: The results showed that (1) USC on network, RD, anxiety and alcohol dependence were significantly, positively correlated in pairs, and (2) RD and anxiety exhibited a significant chain mediating role between USC on network and alcohol dependence, and USC on network positively predicted alcohol dependence via the mediating effect of anxiety.
Conclusions: This study reveals that USC on network positively predicts alcohol dependence via the mediating effect of anxiety, and that RD and anxiety play a chain-mediating role between USC on network and alcohol dependence.
... Greitemeyer & Sagioglou, 2017;Mishra & Carleton, 2015), with studies identifying significant correlations between relative deprivation and anxiety, and low levels of well-being (e.g. Nadler et al., 2020). IRD has also been linked with aggression (e.g. ...
... Thus, as a type of negative coping strategy and response style, experiential avoidance may also link to IRD. For example, Nadler et al. (2020) found that higher IRD significantly predicted stronger experiential avoidance for adults. ...
ABSTRACT Based on the integration of ecological systems theory and the risk and protective factor model, the current study tested whether individual relative deprivation mediated the association between perceived social support and adolescents' experiential avoidance and whether this mediation model was moderated by subjective social class. A sample of 582 senior high school students in China participated in the current survey. The results indicated that perceived social support was negatively related to the students' experiential avoidance. Mediation analysis showed a significant indirect effect of perceived social support on experiential avoidance, via individual relative deprivation. Moreover, the mediation effect of individual relative deprivation was moderated by subjective social class. Specifically, the negative relationship between perceived social support and individual relative deprivation, and the direct relationship between perceived social support and experiential avoidance were stronger for adolescents with low subjective social class. In contrast, the positive relationship between individual relative deprivation and experiential avoidance was stronger for adolescents with high subjective social class.
... 41 This could even become the root of organizational instability and paralysis. Extending above logic, with the expanding contrast between employees' expectation and real situation, consequent frustration will seriously damage their physical and mental development, 48 then employees may experience strong psychological stress and their behaviors may suffer a negative impact in coping styles. 42 In summary, CCB is a special OCB and appears as an extra-role behavior, so it is excluded from organizations' formal reward system. ...
... 49 Deserved demand standard cannot be realized, and current situation becomes increasingly unable to meet the basic interests appeal, 40 then lasting emotions of dissatisfaction will bring more maladaptive consequences to mental health. 48 If subjective dissatisfaction cannot be released through appropriate channels, extra burden will cause physical and mental discomfort, and increase employees' difficulty to maintain their original subjective work wellbeing, 50 which further constitutes a huge organizational hazard. Therefore, this research inferred that employees have a sense of relative deprivation due to being forced to implement CCB and fail to receive effective resource compensation. ...
Purpose
On the basis of previous research results, the opinion that compulsory citizenship behavior (CCB) leads to negative impacts over employees and organizations prevails. However, the latest researches negate the absence of rewards and favorable evaluation from organizational system for CCB. Instead, CCB is likely to be awarded by incentive allocation and recognitive affirmation. In the case of the resource compensation based on CCB, will the expected utility of CCB still show the consistence with the traditional CCB researches, imposing negative effects over employees and organizations?
Methods
This research explored the mechanism and boundary condition based on self-determination theory (SDT) and relative deprivation theory (RDT) to avert the negative effects of CCB, hoping to explain the above question. Time-lagged survey data from 227 employees tested the moderated mediation model, and the results verified the hypotheses.
Results
With resource compensation after the delivery of CCB, employees will not feel relative deprivation caused by reluctant false citizenship behaviors. In addition, relative deprivation expresses the gap between expectation and reality, low psychological discrepancy will not deeply undermine employees’ work well-being.
... Thus, a person can be objectively or subjectively "high status" on a national scale, but still feel resentment about how their material circumstances compare with those of their self-selected peers. Correspondingly, in previous work PRD has been found to show only modest correlations with objective and subjective socio-economic status (e.g., correlations ranging from -. 18 to -.53 in [15]), and PRD predicts a range of social, economic and health outcomes after controlling for objective and/or subjective status (e.g., [15][16][17][18]). Our interest in the possibility that PRD might be associated with environmental attitudes and behaviours was motivated by a consideration of some of the key elements of pro-environmentalism, and by recent work connecting these elements to PRD. ...
... Thus, a person can be objectively or subjectively "high status" on a national scale, but still feel resentment about how their material circumstances compare with those of their self-selected peers. Correspondingly, in previous work PRD has been found to show only modest correlations with objective and subjective socio-economic status (e.g., correlations ranging from -. 18 to -.53 in [15]), and PRD predicts a range of social, economic and health outcomes after controlling for objective and/or subjective status (e.g., [15][16][17][18]). Our interest in the possibility that PRD might be associated with environmental attitudes and behaviours was motivated by a consideration of some of the key elements of pro-environmentalism, and by recent work connecting these elements to PRD. ...
Personal relative deprivation (PRD; the belief that one is worse off than other people who are similar to oneself) is associated with a reduced willingness to delay gratification, lower prosociality, and increased materialism. These results suggest that PRD may play a role in shaping people’s willingness to act to protect the natural environment. We report 3 studies that investigate a possible link between PRD and pro-environmental intentions (ENV). Study 1 was an exploratory study using a US sample; Studies 2 and 3 were pre-registered replications using UK and US samples, respectively. In each study, participants self-reported PRD and ENV; they also indicated their subjective social status (where they come on a national “ladder” of social class) and reported their income, education, age, and gender/sex. All three studies found a negative correlation between PRD and ENV. However, multiple regression analyses in which ENV was regressed on PRD and all other variables simultaneously indicated that the unique effect of PRD was small and, for Studies 2 and 3, the 95% confidence intervals included zero. No other variable emerged as a clear unique predictor across all three studies. The data suggest that PRD may be associated with reduced intention to act pro-environmentally, but the causal status of this association, and its relationship to other demographic and social-status variables, remains a topic for further research.
... The relative deprivation theory suggests that an individual's sense of well-being is influenced by comparisons with others around them. If individuals perceive their situation as better than that of others, they are more likely to experience happiness (Nadler et al., 2020;Moore and Aweiss, 2003;Hoch and Loewenstein, 1991;Collins, 1996). Conversely, if they feel that their situation is worse than others' , they may experience a sense of "deprivation" and feel unhappy. ...
In the context of promoting educational equity and improving welfare, exploring ways to further enhance residents’ subjective well-being from the perspective of educational equity holds significant practical importance. This study uses the educational Gini coefficient to measure the educational inequality index across different provinces and cities, and matches it with data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to investigate the relationship between educational inequality and residents’ subjective well-being. The research findings reveal a significant negative correlation between educational inequality and residents’ well-being, with observed heterogeneity. Specifically, educational inequality has a greater negative impact on groups with lower levels of well-being, rural areas, and the central and western regions of China. Mechanism analysis confirms the income distribution effect and economic growth effect of educational inequality. Therefore, increasing attention to the issue of educational equity and understanding the well-being effects of educational inequality are of great significance for the Chinese government in improving residents’ welfare in the new era.
... In one study relative deprivation was not found to predispose people to cardiovascular illness, although the combination of low socioeconomic status (SES) and living in a neighborhood surrounded by other low SES households did (Boylan & Robert, 2017). Relative deprivation also has been found to be related to elevated incidence of anxiety, panic, and depression (Eibner et l, 2004;Nadler et al., 2020) and to poorer general physiological health (Park, 2021). ...
It is known that economic problems can cause psychological stress, and that psychological stress causes physiological changes often linked to disease. Here we report a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on physiological effects of psychological treatment for individuals with economic problems. Of 5071 papers in our initial PsycInfo search, we identified 16 papers on physiological effects for psychological treatment of the economically stressed. We found 11 controlled studies, among which we found a small to moderate significant effect size, Hedges’ g = 0.319, p < 0.001. The largest effect sizes were found for heart rate variability and measures of inflammation, and the smallest for measures involving cortisol. The studies were all on chronically poor populations, thus restricting generalization to other financially stressed populations such as students, athletes in training, and those stressed by relative deprivation compared with neighbors or other reference groups. None of the studies examined effects of these psychophysiological changes on disease susceptibility, and none included elements of financial planning. The nascent field of financial psychophysiology calls for more research in these areas. Even so, results suggest that financially stressed people can benefit physiologically from psychological stress management methods.
... Relative deprivation results in anxiety and attention bias toward a threat , which may indicate that individuals with high levels of relative deprivation are more inclined to engage in automatic negative thinking and develop avoidance attitudes when solving emotional problems (Nadler et al., 2020). The theory of emotion suppression proposed by Langner et al. (2012) may explain this phenomenon. ...
Background
Relative deprivation is one of the factors that influences the development of personality and behavior. However, it is still unclear whether and how relative deprivation decreases the prosocial behavior in adolescents. This study aimed to examine the association between relative deprivation and adolescent prosocial behavior and the role of emotion regulation strategies and empathy in modifying this association.
Methods
The present study included 609 secondary school students (M = 15.42 years, SD = 0.653) in Fujian Province, China. All participants completed the Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Scale, the Basic Empathy Scale, and Prosocial Behavior Scale. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 7.4.
Results
Relative deprivation was negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal, but positively correlated with expressive suppression. Cognitive reappraisal was positively correlated with empathy and prosocial behavior, but expressive suppression was not. Empathy was positively correlated with prosocial behavior. Relative deprivation decreased prosocial behavior through (a) cognitive reappraisal, (b) empathy, and (c) chain mediation of cognitive reappraisal and empathy. No significant mediating effect of expressive suppression was found.
Conclusion
The results indicate that relative deprivation decreases adolescent prosocial behavior, and that cognitive reappraisal and empathy are the potential psychological mechanisms that affect the association between relative deprivation and adolescent prosocial behavior.
... Finally, relative deprivation is closely related to inequality (Beshai et al., 2017;Zhao & Peng, 2021). Thus, social and political actions to reduce inequality, such as income and gender inequality, may be necessary to eliminate relative deprivation and its negative consequences (Nadler et al., 2020;Zhao & Peng, 2021). ...
Displaced aggression refers to pernicious acts against innocent people. To date, little is known about mechanisms underlying dynamic changes in displaced aggression. The present study constructed a cross-lagged model to examine the dynamic effects of relative deprivation on displaced aggression and the mediation mechanisms underlying these effects. A total of 1130 undergraduate students participated in this three-wave longitudinal study. The results showed that relative deprivation predicted changes in displaced aggression through concurrent changes in levels of hostile attribution bias and moral disengagement. Hostile attribution bias and moral disengagement could predict each other longitudinally. The relationships between relative deprivation and displaced aggression, and relative deprivation and hostile attribution bias were mutual. This multiple mediation model with two mutually predicting mediators was explained from the aggressive motivation perspective. The findings help inform aggression theories and have implications for the prevention of and interventions against displaced aggression.
... Simultaneously, the cognitive maintenance theory of insomnia provides a conceptual framework for the relationship between relative deprivation, social anxiety, and poor sleep quality. Individuals who experience relative deprivation indulge in negative evaluations and cognitions of themselves, which awaken negative emotions such as social anxiety (Nadler et al., 2020), leading to the accumulation of Plot of the relationship between relative deprivation and social anxiety at two levels of trait mindfulness. Moderated mediation model with key results for college students. ...
Although previous studies have confirmed the association between relative deprivation and individual health, the relationship between and underlying mechanisms of relative deprivation and sleep quality have rarely been explored. Therefore, the present study investigated how relative deprivation affected sleep quality by testing an integrated model and examining the roles of social anxiety and trait mindfulness. We surveyed 568 college students using the Relative Deprivation Scale, Interaction Anxiousness Scale, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, and Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. Data were analyzed using SPSS 24.0 and PROCESS macro for SPSS. We found that a high relative deprivation score predicted poor sleep quality, and social anxiety partially mediated this relationship. Our model also indicated that the relationship between relative deprivation and sleep quality via social anxiety was moderated by mindfulness. Specifically, increasing trait mindfulness may decrease the indirect effect of relative deprivation on sleep quality through social anxiety. The current study expands our understanding of the underlying mechanisms, paths, and conditions of the effects of relative deprivation on sleep quality. Furthermore, we provide additional evidence that trait mindfulness can mitigate the adverse effects of negative events. College students should consciously use trait mindfulness techniques to consider problems, reduce anxiety, and improve their sleep quality.
... In addition to contextual factors such as liminality, personal factors are known to play an important role in influencing moral disengagements such as personal relative deprivation and malicious envy (Zhao & Zhang, 2021). Personal relative deprivation is considering someone at an unfair disadvantage when comparing themselves to similar others and reacting with anger, resentment and dissatisfaction (Nadler et al., 2020). In line with this, perceptions of fairness are also known to influence moral disengagement, so people who perceive an unfair social context are more likely to experience moral disengagement (Zhao et al., 2019). ...
This chapter is building conceptual background of psychological risk for international tourists. Drawing on Place Attachment Theory, Moral Disengagement Theory, Followership Theory, Job Demands-Resources, Acculturation Theory and Goal Progress Theory of Rumination, this chapter proposes a framework of psychological risks with six psychological risks that tourists could encounter in foreign destination: destination detachment risk, moral disengagement risk, risk of false risk assessment, burnout risk, risk of loneliness and risk of rumination. High destination detachment could lead tourists to behave less environmentally friendly, while high moral disengagement could lead tourists to behave less ethically friendly. Followership to the influencers in social media could lead tourists to engage in risk-taking behaviours and false risk assessment, leading to burnout risk, risk of loneliness and risk of rumination, where negative autobiographical memory is created and forming memory-related distress when they arrive homes. Place detachment and moral disengagement risk local environmental and social health, while burnout, loneliness and rumination pose risks for the tourists' psychological health. Several studies propose suggestions for the destination manager and tourists to manage the risk effectively and adequately, including place attachment and moral engagement campaign, careful travel planning and social support.
Previous research has reported both positive and negative associations between school socioeconomic status (SES) and internalizing problems among adolescents. Little is known about cross-national differences in this association, as well as potential mediators and moderators. Therefore, this study investigated this association using representative cross-national samples of adolescents whilst exploring the mediating role of schoolwork pressure and classmate support, and the moderating role of family SES and country-level income inequality. Using data from adolescents aged 11–15 from 44 countries, participating in the 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study (N = 202,202), we employed multilevel regression models with cross-level interactions. School SES was operationalized as the average family affluence of adolescents within a school and psychological complaints (e.g., feeling low/depressed) were used as an indication of internalizing problems. On average across countries, adolescents in higher SES schools reported more psychological complaints, with a large effect size. However, differences in this association were observed across countries, with a positive association in 19 out of 44 countries, a negative association in one country, and nonsignificant associations in the remaining countries. Schoolwork pressure partially mediated the average association between school SES and psychological complaints, as school SES was positively associated with schoolwork pressure which was associated with more psychological complaints. Our results did not support the mediating role of classmate support. Also, we found a moderating effect of family SES, indicating a stronger positive association between school SES and psychological complaints for those with a below average family SES compared to those with an average and above average family SES. No moderating effect was observed for country-level income inequality. These findings suggest that adolescents with low family SES attending higher SES schools are especially at risk for psychological complaints, and may therefore require tailored support. A promising strategy to reduce psychological complaints entails addressing schoolwork pressure.
This study examined associations between characteristics of the residential neighbourhood and the school and adolescent mental health, including the moderating role of family socioeconomic status (SES) and family support. Nationally representative Dutch data from adolescents aged 12–16 (N = 6422) were analysed through cross-classified multilevel models. Findings showed that school characteristics are more strongly linked to adolescent mental health than residential neighbourhood characteristics. More specifically, higher levels of school SES were associated with more hyperactivity-inattention problems, while higher levels of school social disorder were related to more conduct problems and more peer relationship problems. Further, higher levels of school SES were associated with more emotional symptoms only for adolescents with a relatively low family SES. Higher levels of neighbourhood SES were associated with fewer peer relationship problems. Overall, there was little evidence for the moderating role of family SES or family support.
To examine the relationship between relative deprivation and social anxiety, which affects mental health, and investigate the mediating role of perceived control and the moderating role of belief in a just world (BJW) in an understudied population in Asia, we surveyed 1573 rural-to-urban migrant children (48% female; M age = 12.3, SD = 1.7) in southeast China. Relative deprivation was positively correlated with social anxiety; perceived control partially mediated this connection. Moreover, BJW moderated the indirect effect, which was stronger for male migrant children with lower levels of BJW. The limitations and practical implications of this study are discussed.
This study proposes subjective social status-a person's perception of his/her standing in the social hierarchy-is an important psychological mechanism driving the inequality-satisfaction link. Building on sociological and social-psychological research, it argues (i) the contextual effect of income inequality on subjective well-being is mediated by social status perceptions, and (ii) income inequality moderates the relationship between subjective social status and well-being. The empirical analysis is based on data from the 2012/2013 European Social Survey. Applying multi-level modelling techniques, the study finds income inequality lowers the self-perception of social status and, in turn, the overall well-being of individuals (the mediation argument). It also finds that income inequality increases the importance of subjective social status to life satisfaction (the moderation argument). The results are limited to the European context and should encourage researchers to test the hypotheses in other geographic regions and to dig deeper into the underlying mechanisms explaining if and why income inequality matters to the well-being of individuals.
Drawing on social comparison and equity theories, we investigated the role that perceived similarity of a comparison target plays in how resentful people feel about their relative financial status. In Study 1, participants tended to choose a comparison target who was better off, and they selected a target they perceived to be more similar than dissimilar along dimensions that surrounded their financial outcomes. In Study 1, perceived relative disadvantage was positively associated with resentment regardless of the perceived similarity of the comparison target. The results of Studies 2 to 5b clarified these findings by showing that being both similar and dissimilar to a target can cause resentment depending on the context. Using hypothetical and real social comparisons, we found that people are more dissatisfied with their financial outcomes when their comparative targets have the same background qualifications (i.e., are similar) but are financially better off (Studies 2, 3b, 4, and 5b). However, we also found that when the comparative financial contexts were similar (i.e., equal affluence), participants were more dissatisfied when their target for comparison had lower qualifications (i.e., was dissimilar; Studies 2, 3a, 4, and 5a). In all cases, perceptions of unfairness mediated the effects of social comparison on financial dissatisfaction. Taken together, these studies address some of the ambiguities around what it means to be similar to a target in the context of social comparisons of affluence, and they underscore the importance of perceived unfairness in the link between social comparison and resentment with one’s financial status.
Relative deprivation (RD) is the judgment that one or one’s ingroup is worse off compared with some relevant standard coupled with feelings of dissatisfaction, anger, and resentment. RD predicts a wide range of outcomes, but it is unclear whether this relationship is moderated by national cultural differences. Therefore, in the first study, we used national assessments of individual-collectivism and power distance to code 303 effect sizes from 31 different countries with 200,578 participants. RD predicted outcomes ranging from life satisfaction to collective action more strongly within individualistic nations. A second survey of 6,112 undergraduate university students from 28 different countries confirmed the predictive value of RD. Again, the relationship between individual RD and different outcomes was stronger for students who lived in more individualistic countries. Group-based RD also predicted political trust more strongly for students who lived in countries marked by lower power distance. RD effects, although consistent predictors, are culturally bounded. In particular, RD is more likely to motivate reactions within individualistic countries that emphasize individual agency and achievement as a source of self-worth.
Background
Personal relative deprivation is a negative social comparison process typified by self-comparison, negative appraisal, and resultant negative emotionality. Personal relative deprivation has been associated with poorer physical and mental health in several domains. It has been hypothesized that the deprivation-health link operates through a stress pathway. Stress has been specifically implicated in the onset and maintenance of functional disorders, including fibromyalgia and functional gastrointestinal disorders. Despite the theoretical links between personal deprivation, stress, and functional disorders, researchers have not assessed relationships between these variables.
Methods
We recruited community participants (n = 517; 54.9% female) to examine whether personal relative deprivation can account for variance in fibromyalgia and functional gastrointestinal symptoms beyond known demographic correlates of physical health. We also examined whether the relationships between personal relative deprivation and functional disorder symptoms are mediated by stress.
Results
Consistent with our hypotheses, personal relative deprivation accounted for symptom variance in fibromyalgia and functional gastrointestinal disorders beyond that accounted for by demographic variables alone. Further, self-reported stress was found to mediate relationships between personal relative deprivation and fibromyalgia and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Conclusions
The current results support biopsychosocial models of physical health and suggest that, for patients presenting with functional disorders symptoms, a combination of biological and psychosocial interventions may be warranted.
The success of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) as an online research platform has come at a price: MTurk has suffered from slowing rates of population replenishment, and growing participant non-naivety. Recently, a number of alternative platforms have emerged, offering capabilities similar to MTurk but providing access to new and more naïve populations. After surveying several options, we empirically examined two such platforms, CrowdFlower (CF) and Prolific Academic (ProA). In two studies, we found that participants on both platforms were more naïve and less dishonest compared to MTurk participants. Across the three platforms, CF provided the best response rate, but CF participants failed more attention-check questions and did not reproduce known effects replicated on ProA and MTurk. Moreover, ProA participants produced data quality that was higher than CF's and comparable to MTurk's. ProA and CF participants were also much more diverse than participants from MTurk.
There is immense concern about economic inequality, both among the scholarly community and in the general public, and many insist that equality is an important social goal. However, when people are asked about the ideal distribution of wealth in their country, they actually prefer unequal societies. We suggest that these two phenomena can be reconciled by noticing that, despite appearances to the contrary, there is no evidence that people are bothered by economic inequality itself. Rather, they are bothered by something that is often confounded with inequality: economic unfairness. Drawing upon laboratory studies, cross-cultural research, and experiments with babies and young children, we argue that humans naturally favour fair distributions, not equal ones, and that when fairness and equality clash, people prefer fair inequality over unfair equality. Both psychological research and decisions by policymakers would benefit from more clearly distinguishing inequality from unfairness.
Importance: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is poorly understood compared with other anxiety disorders, and debates persist about the seriousness of this disorder. Few data exist on GAD outside a small number of affluent, industrialized nations. No population-based data exist on GAD as it is currently defined in DSM-5.
Objective: To provide the first epidemiologic data on DSM-5 GAD and explore cross-national differences in its prevalence, course, correlates, and impact.
Design, Setting, and Participants: Data come from the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative. Cross-sectional general population surveys were carried out in 26 countries using a consistent research protocol and assessment instrument. A total of 147 261 adults from representative household samples were interviewed face-to-face in the community. The surveys were conducted between 2001 and 2012. Data analysis was performed from July 22, 2015, to December 12, 2016.
Main Outcomes and Measures: The Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to assess GAD along with comorbid disorders, role impairment, and help seeking.
Results: Respondents were 147 261 adults aged 18 to 99 years. The surveys had a weighted mean response rate of 69.5%. Across surveys, DSM-5 GAD had a combined lifetime prevalence (SE) of 3.7% (0.1%), 12-month prevalence of 1.8% (0.1%), and 30-day prevalence of 0.8% (0). Prevalence estimates varied widely across countries, with lifetime prevalence highest in high-income countries (5.0% [0.1%]), lower in middle-income countries (2.8% [0.1%]), and lowest in low-income countries (1.6% [0.1%]). Generalized anxiety disorder typically begins in adulthood and persists over time, although onset is later and clinical course is more persistent in lower-income countries. Lifetime comorbidity is high (81.9% [0.7%]), particularly with mood (63.0% [0.9%]) and other anxiety (51.7% [0.9%]) disorders. Severe role impairment is common across life domains (50.6% [1.2%]), particularly in high-income countries. Treatment is sought by approximately half of affected individuals (49.2% [1.2%]), especially those with severe role impairment (59.4% [1.8%]) or comorbid disorders (55.8% [1.4%]) and those living in high-income countries (59.0% [1.3%]).
Conclusions and Relevance: The findings of this study show that DSM-5 GAD is more prevalent than DSM-IV GAD and is associated with substantial role impairment. The disorder is especially common and impairing in high-income countries despite a negative association between GAD and socioeconomic status within countries. These results underscore the public health significance of GAD across the globe while uncovering cross-national differences in prevalence, course, and impairment that require further investigation.
Abstract
Background and Objectives
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a trans-diagnostic construct involved in anxiety and related disorders. Research focused on cross-sectional reporting, manipulating attitudes toward objective and impersonal events or on treatments designed to reduce IU in clinical populations. The current paper presents an experimental procedure for laboratory manipulations of IU and tests mediation hypotheses following the Intolerance of Uncertainty Model.
Methods
On pre-test, undergraduate volunteers (Study 1, n = 43;68% women. Study 2, n = 169;83.8% women) were asked to provide an idiosyncratic future negative life event. State-IU, Worry, Positive and Negative Affect were assessed after that a standardized procedure was used to identify event’s potential negative consequences. The same variables were assessed on post-test, after that participants were asked to read-through increasing and decreasing IU statements.
Results
Temporary changes on IU were consistently reproduced in both studies. Participants receiving increasing IU instructions reported greater state-IU, Worry and Negative Affect than those receiving decreasing IU instructions. However, this latter condition was not different from a control one (Study 2). Both studies revealed significant indirect effects of IU induction instructions on Worry and Negative Affect through state-IU.
Limitations
Both studies used undergraduate psychology students samples, younger than average population and predominantly female. Experimental manipulation and outcome measures belongs to the same semantic domain, uncertainty, potentially limiting generalizability.
Conclusions
Results supported the feasibility and efficacy of the proposed IU manipulation for non-clinical sample. Findings parallel clinical research showing that state-IU preceded Worry and Negative Affect states.
Throughout my career, I have pursued three theories related to intergroup prejudice-each with a different mentor. Each theory and its supporting research help us to understand prejudice and ways to ameliorate the problem. This autobiographical review article summarizes some of the advances in these three areas during the past six decades. For authoritarianism, the article advocates removing political content from its measurement, linking it with threat and dismissive-avoidant attachment, and studying how authoritarians avoid intergroup contact. Increased work on relative deprivation made possible an extensive meta-analysis that shows the theory, when appropriately measured, has far broader effects than previously thought. Increased research attention to intergroup contact similarly made possible a meta-analysis that established the pervasive effectiveness of intergroup contact to reduce prejudice under a wide range of conditions. The article closes by demonstrating how the three theories relate to each other and contribute to our understanding of prejudice and its reduction. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 67 is January 03, 2016. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pubdates.aspx for revised estimates.
Lower subjective socioeconomic status (SSS) and higher personal relative deprivation (PRD) relate to poorer health. Both constructs concern people's perceived relative social position, but they differ in their emphasis on the reference groups people use to determine their comparative disadvantage (national population vs. similar others) and the importance of resentment that may arise from such adverse comparisons. We investigated the relative utility of SSS and PRD as predictors of self-rated physical and mental health (e.g., self-rated health, stress, health complaints). Across six studies, self-rated physical and mental health were on the whole better predicted by measures of PRD than by SSS while controlling for objective socioeconomic status (SES), with SSS rarely contributing unique variance over and above PRD and SES. Studies 4–6 discount the possibility that the superiority of PRD over SSS in predicting health is due to psychometric differences (e.g., reliability) or response biases between the measures.
Are more equal societies ‘better’ societies? This article addresses the question as to whether and why income inequality lowers
the degree of Europeans’ subjective well-being. While in broad international comparisons typically no clear-cut link between
income inequality and (un)happiness exists, we can demonstrate that Europeans are somewhat less happy in more unequal places. We further discuss and empirically test three explanations as to why Europeans are inequality-averse, namely (dis)trust, status anxiety, and perceived conflicts. Each of these three potential
mediators is hypothesized to be shaped by the extent of a nation’s income inequality, and in turn to result in lower subjective
well-being. A multilevel mediation analysis with data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2007 for 30 countries reveals
that distrust and status anxiety are important mediators of inequality aversion, whereas perceived conflict is not. We can
further show that trust is the crucial mediator among affluent societies, whereas status anxiety is crucial among the less
affluent societies. The results are discussed with reference to the Spirit Level theory developed by Richard Wilkinson and
Kate Pickett.
Although income and inequality (objective measures of deprivation and the distribution of income within a defined area, respectively) predict people's self-appraisals, the psychological mechanisms underlying these relationships are largely unknown. We address this oversight by predicting that feeling individually deprived (individual-based relative deprivation [IRD])—a self-focused appraisal—mediates the relationship between these two objective measures and self-esteem. Conversely, believing that one's group is deprived (group-based relative deprivation [GRD])—a group-focused appraisal—mediates the relationship between these two objective measures and ethnic identity centrality. We examined these predictions in a national sample of New Zealand adults (N = 6349). As expected, income negatively correlated with IRD and GRD, which, in turn, negatively correlated with self-esteem and ethnic identity centrality, respectively. Moreover, after accounting for between-level variability in income, neighbourhood-level inequality had indirect effects on self-esteem and ethnic identity centrality through IRD and GRD, respectively. Thus, income and inequality independently predicted self-esteem and strength of ingroup identification through distinct mechanisms. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The focus of this special issue is relative deprivation (RD): the judgment that one or one’s group is worse off compared to some standard accompanied by feelings of anger and resentment. This collection of seven papers demonstrates the range of the new thinking and research about RD, and they include data from an impressive variety of participants—including Canadians (both French- and English-speakers), Dutch, the Maoris of New Zealand, Mongols, Singaporeans, and South Africans (both Blacks and Whites). These seven papers show that if RD, and its counterpart, relative gratification, are defined carefully, at the right level of analysis and employed within larger theoretical models, the concept offers invaluable insight to how people respond to often dramatic changes in their objective circumstances.
Importance
The inverse social gradient in mental disorders is a well-established research finding with important implications for causal models and policy. This research has used traditional objective social status (OSS) measures, such as educational level, income, and occupation. Recently, subjective social status (SSS) measurement has been advocated to capture the perception of relative social status, but to our knowledge, there have been no studies of associations between SSS and mental disorders.Objectives
To estimate associations of SSS with DSM-IV mental disorders in multiple countries and to investigate whether the associations persist after comprehensive adjustment of OSS.Design, Setting, and Participants
Face-to-face cross-sectional household surveys of community-dwelling adults in 18 countries in Asia, South Pacific, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East (N = 56 085). Subjective social status was assessed with a self-anchoring scale reflecting respondent evaluations of their place in the social hierarchies of their countries in terms of income, educational level, and occupation. Scores on the 1 to 10 SSS scale were categorized into 4 categories: low (scores 1-3), low-mid (scores 4-5), high-mid (scores 6-7), and high (scores 8-10). Objective social status was assessed with a wide range of fine-grained objective indicators of income, educational level, and occupation.Main Outcomes and Measures
The Composite International Diagnostic Interview assessed the 12-month prevalence of 16 DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and impulse control disorders.Results
The weighted mean survey response rate was 75.2% (range, 55.1%-97.2%). Graded inverse associations were found between SSS and all 16 mental disorders. Gross odds ratios (lowest vs highest SSS categories) in the range of 1.8 to 9.0 were attenuated but remained significant for all 16 disorders (odds ratio, 1.4-4.9) after adjusting for OSS indicators. This pattern of inverse association between SSS and mental disorders was significant in 14 of 18 individual countries, and in low-, middle-, and high-income country groups but was significantly stronger in high- vs lower-income countries.Conclusions and Relevance
Significant inverse associations between SSS and numerous DSM-IV mental disorders exist across a wide range of countries even after comprehensive adjustment for OSS. Although it is unclear whether these associations are the result of social selection, social causation, or both, these results document clearly that research relying exclusively on standard OSS measures underestimates the steepness of the social gradient in mental disorders.
People with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) hold both positive and negative beliefs about worry. Dugas and Koerner (2005) view positive beliefs as one of the maintaining factors in GAD. Wells (2005) argues that the positive beliefs regarding worry are not unique to GAD and that it is the negative beliefs about worry that maintain GAD. Ruscio and Borkovec (2004) found that the negative beliefs that worry is uncontrollable and dangerous differentiated individuals with GAD and individuals who were high worriers without GAD. The current study aimed to extend the findings of Ruscio and Borkovec (2004) through the use of a mediation model in a nonclinical sample (N = 230). Using subscales from the Why Worry−II (Holowka, Dugas, Francis, & Laugesen, 2000) and the Metacognitions Questionnaire−30 (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004), the results confirmed that both positive and negative beliefs about worry were correlated with GAD symptoms and trait worrying. However, using sequential regression, only the negative beliefs that worry is uncontrollable and dangerous and that thoughts should be controlled predicted GAD symptoms after controlling for trait worrying. These beliefs, particularly the beliefs that worry is uncontrollable and dangerous, were found to mediate the relationship between trait worrying and GAD symptoms. Implications for models of the development of GAD are discussed.
The 62-item Multidimensional Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (MEAQ) was recently developed to assess a broad range of experiential avoidance (EA) content. However, practical clinical and research considerations made a briefer measure of EA desirable. Using items from the original 62-item MEAQ, a 15-item scale was created that tapped content from each of the MEAQ's six dimensions. Items were selected on the basis of their performance in 3 samples: undergraduates (n = 363), psychiatric outpatients (n = 265), and community adults (n = 215). These items were then evaluated using 2 additional samples (314 undergraduates and 201 psychiatric outpatients) and cross-validated in 2 new, independent samples (283 undergraduates and 295 community adults). The resulting measure (Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire; BEAQ) demonstrated good internal consistency. It also exhibited strong convergence with respect to each of the MEAQ's 6 dimensions. The BEAQ demonstrated expected associations with measures of avoidance, psychopathology, and quality of life and was distinguishable from negative affectivity and neuroticism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Mechanical Turk (MTurk), an online labor system run by Amazon.com, provides quick, easy, and inexpensive access to online research participants. As use of MTurk has grown, so have questions from behavioral researchers about its participants, reliability, and low compen-sation. In this article, we review recent research about MTurk and compare MTurk participants with community and student samples on a set of personality dimensions and classic decision-making biases. Across two studies, we find many similarities between MTurk participants and traditional samples, but we also find important differences. For instance, MTurk participants are less likely to pay attention to experimental materials, reducing statistical power. They are more likely to use the Internet to find answers, even with no incentive for correct responses. MTurk participants have attitudes about money that are different from a community sample's attitudes but similar to students' attitudes. Finally, MTurk participants are less extraverted and have lower self-esteem than other participants, presenting challenges for some research domains. Despite these differences, MTurk participants produce reliable results consistent with standard decision-making biases: they are pres-ent biased, risk-averse for gains, risk-seeking for losses, show delay/expedite asymmetries, and show the certainty effect—with almost no significant differences in effect sizes from other samples. We conclude that MTurk offers a highly valuable opportunity for data collection and recommend that researchers using MTurk (1) include screening questions that gauge attention and language comprehension; (2) avoid questions with factual answers; and (3) consider how individual differences in financial and social domains may influence results.
Test the original income inequality theory, by analysing its association with depression, anxiety and any mental disorders.
We analysed a sample of 3542 individuals aged 18 years and older selected through a stratified, multistage area probability sample of households from the São Paulo Metropolitan Area. Mental disorder symptoms were assessed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria. Bayesian multilevel logistic models were performed.
Living in areas with medium and high-income inequality was statistically associated with increased risk of depression, relative to low-inequality areas (OR 1.76; 95% CI 1.21 to 2.55, and 1.53; 95% CI 1.07 to 2.19, respectively). The same was not true for anxiety (OR 1.25; 95% CI 0.90 to 1.73, and OR 1.07; 95% CI 0.79 to 1.46). In the case of any mental disorder, results were mixed.
In general, our findings were consistent with the income inequality theory, that is, people living in places with higher income inequality had an overall higher odd of mental disorders, albeit not always statistically significant. The fact that depression, but not anxiety, was statistically significant could indicate a pathway by which inequality influences health.
The theory of relative deprivation (RD) distinguishes between personal and group RD, and links the two to personal and group identity. Models linking RD and identity suggest that identity causally precedes RD. These models are extended in the present study to allow for causal effects of RD on personal and group esteem. An experiment is reported which was designed to examine the causal effects of personal and group RD on personal self-esteem and collective self-esteem. It was predicted that experiencing personal RD would lower personal self-esteem but would not affect collective self-esteem, and, conversely, that experiencing group RD would lower collective self-esteem but would not affect personal self-esteem. The results of a 2 (sex of subject) X 2 (sex of others in group: either 3 males or 3 females) X 2 (reward condition: fair or unfair) experiment supported this prediction for personal self-esteem, but only partially supported the prediction for collective self-esteem. The implications of the results for understanding the failure of RD to translate into action, and the usefulness of the experimental paradigm for inducing personal or group RD are briefly discussed.
This article examines the test–retest reliability and predictive utility of a new self-report measure of subjective socioeconomic status (SES) with a large, multiethnic national sample. The measure showed adequate test–retest reliability, and was associated with self-reported health even after controlling for traditional measures of SES. Negative affect did not appear to confound the association between subjective status and health, but may operate as a mediating factor which explains the link between subjective status and health. Future studies on social class disparities in health should consider how subjective perceptions of SES influence health, and explore psychological processes mediating subjective beliefs about status and health outcomes.
Examines a theory of relative deprivation which states that objective and subjective well-being are not isomorphically related, so that sometimes the better off one is, the worse off one feels subjectively. After a brief review of work in the area of relative deprivation, a formal model is developed. It is argued that an individual feels resentment about failure to possess something (X) only when he sees that similar others possess X, he wants X, he feels entitled to possess X, he thinks that possession of X is feasible, and he does not blame himself for his failure to possess X. The antecedents of these conditions are explored, and the consequences of the emotion of relative deprivation are studied. Empirical evidence relating to and supporting the model is briefly discussed. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
General self-efficacy (GSE), individuals' belief in their ability to perform well in a vari-ety of situations, has been the subject of increasing research attention. However, the psychometric properties (e.g., reliability, validity) associated with the scores on GSE measures have been criticized, which has hindered efforts to further establish the con-struct of GSE. This study examines the reliability of responses to the items, as well as the item parameters of three GSE measures using item response theory. Contrary to the criti-cisms, the responses to the items on all three measures of GSE demonstrate acceptable psychometric properties, especially at lower levels of GSE. The results indicate that the New General Self-Efficacy Scale has a slight advantage over the other measures exam-ined in this study in terms of the item discrimination, item information, and relative effi-ciency of the test information function. Implications for GSE research are discussed. O ver the past 20 years, self-efficacy has become one of the most widely studied variables in the educational, psychological, and organizational sciences. Self-efficacy is an individual's belief in his or her capacity to muster the cognitive, moti-vational, and behavioral resources required to perform in a given situation (Bandura, 1997). That is, self-efficacy is a situation-specific competence belief. Its popularity rests on the research that has found that self-efficacy is related to a number of educa-tionally and organizationally relevant variables (e.g., academic and job perfor-mance; Robbins et al., 2004; Stajkovic & Luthans, 1998). Despite its popularity, the history of self-efficacy has been marked by numerous controversies and debates 1047
The theory of relative deprivation (RD) offers an instructive special case of Tajfel's CIC theory. Six focal issues characterize the current state of RD theory: (1) the egoistic–fraternalistic distinction, (2) measurement level, (3) the cognitive–affective distinction, (4) the absolute–relative distinction, (5) specification of the referent, and (6) specification of the compared dimensions. Each issue is discussed and possible resolutions suggested.
Researchers have suggested that general self-efficacy (GSE) can substantially contribute to organizational theory, research, and practice. Unfortunately, the limited construct validity work conducted on commonly used GSE measures has highlighted such potential problems as low content validity and multidimensionality. The authors developed a new GSE (NGSE) scale and compared its psychometric properties and validity to that of the Sherer et al. General Self-Efficacy Scale (SGSE). Studies in two countries found that the NGSE scale has higher construct validity than the SGSE scale. Although shorter than the SGSE scale, the NGSE scale demonstrated high reliability, predicted specific self-efficacy (SSE) for a variety of tasks in various contexts, and moderated the influence of previous performance on subsequent SSE formation. Implications, limitations, and directions for future organizational research are discussed.
Low self-esteem and depression are strongly related, but there is not yet consistent evidence on the nature of the relation. Whereas the vulnerability model states that low self-esteem contributes to depression, the scar model states that depression erodes self-esteem. Furthermore, it is unknown whether the models are specific for depression or whether they are also valid for anxiety. We evaluated the vulnerability and scar models of low self-esteem and depression, and low self-esteem and anxiety, by meta-analyzing the available longitudinal data (covering 77 studies on depression and 18 studies on anxiety). The mean age of the samples ranged from childhood to old age. In the analyses, we used a random-effects model and examined prospective effects between the variables, controlling for prior levels of the predicted variables. For depression, the findings supported the vulnerability model: The effect of self-esteem on depression (β = -.16) was significantly stronger than the effect of depression on self-esteem (β = -.08). In contrast, the effects between low self-esteem and anxiety were relatively balanced: Self-esteem predicted anxiety with β = -.10, and anxiety predicted self-esteem with β = -.08. Moderator analyses were conducted for the effect of low self-esteem on depression; these suggested that the effect is not significantly influenced by gender, age, measures of self-esteem and depression, or time lag between assessments. If future research supports the hypothesized causality of the vulnerability effect of low self-esteem on depression, interventions aimed at increasing self-esteem might be useful in reducing the risk of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
Baron and Kenny's procedure for determining if an independent variable affects a dependent variable through some mediator is so well known that it is used by authors and requested by reviewers almost reflexively. Many research projects have been terminated early in a research program or later in the review process because the data did not conform to Baron and Kenny's criteria, impeding theoretical development. While the technical literature has disputed some of Baron and Kenny's tests, this literature has not diffused to practicing researchers. We present a nontechnical summary of the flaws in the Baron and Kenny logic, some of which have not been previously noted. We provide a decision tree and a step-by-step procedure for testing mediation, classifying its type, and interpreting the implications of findings for theory building and future research. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
Integrative conceptualizations like that proposed by Roemer and Orsillo provide exciting new directions for understanding and treating generalized anxiety disorder (CAD). However, these approaches may be further strengthened by adoption of an emotion regulation perspective. Persons with CAD may have difficulty understanding their emotional experience and may possess few skills to modulate their emotions. They may experience emotions as subjectively aversive and use worry and maladaptive interpersonal behaviors as defensive strategies to control, avoid, or blunt emotional experience. An emotion regulation perspective suggests adding treatment components to help clients become more comfortable with arousing emotional experience, more able to access and utilize emotional information in adaptive problem solving, and better able to modulate emotional experience and expression according to contextual demands.
Evidence has linked subjective feelings of personal relative deprivation with general gambling involvement and problem gambling tendencies. In turn, problem gambling tendencies have been linked with a wide array of damaging physical and mental health consequences. It has been theorized that the deleterious effects of perceived inequality on mental and physical health operate at the individual level through the experience of personal relative deprivation leading to psychosocial stress. We empirically examined whether the experience of perceived stress contributes to explaining the deprivation-gambling link using cross-sectional, self-reported survey data collected from a crowdsourced population of adults (n = 565). Results indicate that personal relative deprivation is associated with problem gambling tendencies (but not general gambling involvement) and that this association is mediated by perceived stress. These associations were particularly strong among participants who reported non-zero levels of problem gambling tendencies. Together, our results further emphasize the importance of individual-level social comparison reactions in the context of health.
Individual differences in the habitual use of emotion regulation strategies may play a critical role in understanding psychological and biological stress reactivity and recovery in depression and anxiety. This study investigated the relation between the habitual use of different emotion regulation strategies and cortisol reactivity and recovery in healthy control individuals (CTL; n = 33) and in individuals diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 41). The tendency to worry was associated with increased cortisol reactivity to a stressor across the full sample. Rumination was not associated with cortisol reactivity, despite its oft-reported similarities to worry. Worry and rumination, however, were associated with increased cortisol during recovery from the stressor. The only difference between CTL and SAD participants was observed for reappraisal. In the CTL but not in the SAD group, reappraisal predicted recovery, such that an increased tendency to reappraise was associated with greater cortisol recovery. These results suggest an important role of the habitual use of emotion regulation strategies in understanding biological stress reactivity and recovery.
In this paper, we review and integrate the contemporary literature on the societal effects of income inequality, drawing on social, personality, developmental, and organizational psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and public health. Living in highly unequal regimes is associated with both increased mistrust and increased anxiety about social status; these psychological mechanisms help explain some of the negative outcomes associated with income inequality, such as lower happiness, lower social cohesion, weaker morality, higher mortality, worse health, and weaker governance.
Substantial evidence has linked depressive symptoms to various indices of societal-level inequality and relative deprivation. A larger literature has also addressed cognitive vulnerability and correlates of depression. Despite this evidence, little research to date has examined the relationship of depressive symptoms with such downstream individual-level consequences of inequality as subjective relative deprivation, or whether relative deprivation is associated with cognitive vulnerability in depression. We conducted two investigations among four separate samples (total N = 2999) to examine associations between subjective relative deprivation and depressive symptoms and cognitions. Across our studies and four different self-report measures of depressive symptoms, we found consistent significant positive associations between subjective relative deprivation and depression symptoms. Further, we found that subjective relative deprivation was predictive of depressive symptoms over and above other known vulnerability factors. Finally, we found that the relationship between subjective relative deprivation and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by negative automatic thoughts about self. These results provide further evidence of the importance of subjective deprivation in maintaining negative mental health outcomes.
We examined age-related differences in social comparison orientation and personal relative deprivation (PRD). In Study 1, participants (N = 1290) reported their tendencies to engage in social comparisons and PRD. Older adults reported lower levels of social comparison tendency and PRD, and social comparison tendency mediated the relation between age and PRD. The findings reported in Study 1 were replicated in Study 2 using a sample of participants between the ages of 18 to 30 (n = 180) and 60 + years old (n = 176). Our findings provide evidence that older adults report lower levels of social comparison tendency that, in turn, relate to lower levels of PRD.
This study aims to systematically review all published quantitative studies examining the direct association between social capital and common mental disorders (CMD). Social capital has potential value for the promotion and prevention of CMD. The association between different types of social capital (individual cognitive and structural, and ecological cognitive and structural) and CMD must be explored to obtain conclusive evidence regarding the association, and to ascertain a direction of causality.
10 electronic databases were searched to find studies examining the association between social capital and CMD published before July 2014. The effect estimates and sample sizes for each type of social capital were separately analysed for cross-sectional and cohort studies. From 1857 studies retrieved, 39 were selected for inclusion: 31 cross-sectional and 8 cohort studies. 39 effect estimates were found for individual level cognitive, 31 for individual level structural, 9 for ecological level cognitive and 11 for ecological level structural social capital.
This review provides evidence that individual cognitive social capital is protective against developing CMD. Ecological cognitive social capital is also associated with reduced risk of CMD, though the included studies were cross-sectional. For structural social capital there was overall no association at either the individual or ecological levels. Two cross-sectional studies found that in low-income settings, a mother's participation in civic activities is associated with an increased risk of CMD.
There is now sufficient evidence to design and evaluate individual and ecological cognitive social capital interventions to promote mental well-being and prevent CMD.
Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
In an attempt to replicate previous findings, the role of fear and avoidance of emotional experiences in problematic worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was investigated. Moreover, this study extended previous research by contrasting the relationship between fear and avoidance of emotional responding and excessive worry with constructs already linked to worry and GAD, such as intolerance of uncertainty. Findings from a nonclinical sample indicated that fear of anxiety, experiential avoidance, and intolerance of uncertainty all were significantly related to excessive worry and GAD diagnostic criteria. Additional analyses revealed that fear of anxiety, experiential avoidance, and intolerance of uncertainty made significant and unique contributions to the prediction of worry. These findings add to a growing body of research that suggests that fear and avoidance of emotional responding may play a role in problematic worry and GAD.
One psychosocial factor that has been identified to motivate gambling is personal relative deprivation (PRD), which refers to resentment stemming from the belief that one is deprived of a desired and deserved outcome compared to some referent. Although several lines of evidence point to a positive association between PRD and the urge to gamble, the factors that might moderate this relation have yet to be investigated. Through a quantitative research synthesis, we sought to test (a) the overall relation between PRD and gambling urges among people reporting recent gambling experience, and (b) whether this relation is moderated by problem gambling severity. Meta-analysis revealed that, overall, higher self-reported PRD was associated with stronger urges to gamble (r = .26). A meta-regression revealed that, across studies, the strength of this relation depended on problem gambling severity, such that the relation between PRD and gambling urges was stronger among samples higher in average problem gambling severity. This pattern was corroborated by an analysis of the aggregated individual participant data (N = 857), such that PRD predicted gambling urges only among participants higher in problem gambling severity. The potential practical implications and limitations of these results are discussed.
Anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (MDD) often co-occur and share a broad range of risk factors. The goal of this study was to examine whether the co-occurrence of anxiety disorders and MDD could be explained by an underlying latent factor and whether the risk factors exert their effect exclusively through this factor, directly on each disorder, or through a combination of effects at both levels.
Data were drawn from a large, nationally representative sample. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to identify the latent structure of anxiety disorders. A multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) approach was used to assess the common and specific effects of risk factors for anxiety disorders.
A one-factor model provided a good fit to the co-occurrence of anxiety disorders. Low self-esteem, family history of depression, female sex, childhood sexual abuse, White race, years of education, number of traumatic experiences, and disturbed family environment increased the risk of anxiety disorders and MDD through their effect on the latent factor. There were also several direct effects of the covariates on the disorders, indicating that the effect of the covariates differed across disorders.
Risk for anxiety disorders and MDD appears to be mediated partially by a latent variable underlying anxiety disorders and MDD, and partially by disorder-specific effects. These findings may contribute to account for the high rates of comorbidity among disorders, identify commonalities in the etiologies of these disorders, and provide clues for the development of unified preventive interventions.
Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of "regular" Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to "build a better America" by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality. First, respondents dramatically underestimated the current level of wealth inequality. Second, respondents constructed ideal wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution. Most important from a policy perspective, we observed a surprising level of consensus: All demographic groups-even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy-desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo.
© The Author(s) 2011.
A study of a sample of unemployed people is reported in which survey interview data were used to examine the differential effects of different forms of deprivation. Two outcome variables were operationalized: the number of stress symptoms reported by the respondents and the respondents' orientation to social protest. Two different measures of egoistic deprivation (the perceived gap between personal expectations and attainments) and two different measures of fraternalistic deprivation (the perceived gap between ingroup and outgroup attainment) were also obtained. It was hypothesized that the measures of egoistic relative deprivation would predict the number of stress symptoms reported better than would measures of fraternalistic relative deprivation. Conversely, fraternalistic relative deprivation measures were hypothesized to predict protest orientation better than would the egoistic relative deprivation measures. Multiple regression analyses bore out these hypotheses. The results underline the importance of the conceptual distinction between egoistic and fraternalistic relative deprivation for explaining the social behavior of the deprived.
Relative deprivation theory centers around the proposition that the negative affect associated with judgments of one's own status is not simply a function of one's objective status. Instead, resentment, anger, dissatisfaction and other deprivation-related emotions vary with the subjective assessment of one's status. In the present experiment, subjects read vignettes in which the hypothesized preconditions of felt deprivation were manipulated. They then indicated the degree of perceived resentment and related cognitive-emotional factors attributed to the story characters. Perceptions of deprivation become more prevalent when an individual who lacks a desired outcome (X) (a) compares with another who does possess X, (b) feels entitled to X, (c) feels it was once feasible to attain X, and (d) feels it is not feasible to attain X in the future. The results also suggest that certain preconditions, such as the presence of a comparison other and entitlement, act conjunctively in affecting judgments of felt deprivation. Finally, personal control over desired outcomes appears to be important for relative deprivation theory.
Background: The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) is a practical self-report anxiety questionnaire that proved valid in primary care. However, the GAD-7 was not yet validated in the general population and thus far, normative data are not available.
Objectives: To investigate reliability, construct validity, and factorial validity of the GAD-7 in the general population and to generate normative data.
Research Design: Nationally representative face-to-face household survey conducted in Germany between May 5 and June 8, 2006.
Subjects: Five thousand thirty subjects (53.6% female) with a mean age (SD) of 48.4 (18.0) years.
Measures: The survey questionnaire included the GAD-7, the 2-item depression module from the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and demographic characteristics.
Results: Confirmatory factor analyses substantiated the 1-dimensional structure of the GAD-7 and its factorial invariance for gender and age. Internal consistency was identical across all subgroups (α = 0.89). Intercorrelations with the PHQ-2 and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were r = 0.64 (P < 0.001) and r = -0.43 (P < 0.001), respectively. As expected, women had significantly higher mean (SD) GAD-7 anxiety scores compared with men [3.2 (3.5) vs. 2.7 (3.2); P < 0.001]. Normative data for the GAD-7 were generated for both genders and different age levels. Approximately 5% of subjects had GAD-7 scores of 10 or greater, and 1% had GAD-7 scores of 15 or greater.
Conclusions: Evidence supports reliability and validity of the GAD-7 as a measure of anxiety in the general population. The normative data provided in this study can be used to compare a subject's GAD-7 score with those determined from a general population reference group.
The tendency to fear and avoid internal experiences may be an important characteristic of individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We review here theory and research suggesting that individuals with GAD may be experientially avoidant, and present preliminary evidence to support this model. Findings from both a non-clinical and clinical sample suggest that worry and generalized anxiety disorder may be associated with a tendency to try to avoid or control (versus accept) internal experiences, as well as a tendency to fear losing control over ones own emotional responses (particularly anxiety). The clinical implications of these findings, along with directions for future research, are discussed.
The metacognitive model of GAD places negative metacognitive beliefs and meta-worry as central in the development and maintenance of disorder. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Meta-worry Questionnaire (MWQ) and used it to test hypotheses derived from the metacognitive model in the context of DSM-IV GAD. The MWQ was found to possess very good internal reliability, and both frequency and belief scales were found to consist of single factors. The scales correlated meaningfully with existing measures of worry and metacognition. Consistent with hypotheses individuals meeting criteria for GAD showed significantly higher meta-worry frequency scores than individuals classified as somatic anxiety or no anxiety. Meta-worry belief distinguished the GAD group from the non-anxious group but not the somatic anxiety group. These effects remained when Type 1 worry (social and health worry) was controlled. The results provide further support for the metacognitive model. Relationship between meta-worry frequency, belief, and GAD status was explored using path analysis. The relationship between meta-worry belief and GAD classification was dependent on meta-worry frequency.
The metacognitions questionnaire 30 (MCQ-30) by Wells and Cartwright-Hatton (2004) represents a unique measure of individual differences in metacognitive beliefs, judgements and monitoring tendencies considered to be crucial in the metacognitive theory (Wells, 2000) of psychological disturbances. However, the psychometric properties of this measure have not yet been exhaustively investigated. In this study we assessed 1304 participants from the general population. The relative independence of the five factors constituting the MCQ-30 was confirmed and reliability was satisfactory. A sub-sample of 399 participants was also investigated to verify whether previously observed associations between dimensions of metacognition and emotional distress (anxiety and depression) could be replicated. Structural equation modeling revealed that dimensions of metacognition contributed to both anxiety and depression providing further support for the validity of the measure. These findings, taken together, confirm that the MCQ-30 is a valuable tool for the assessment of metacognition.
The present study examined relationships between self-efficacy and symptoms of affective disorders in a large sample of normal adolescents (n=596). Participants completed the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children and scales measuring trait anxiety/neuroticism, and symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression. Results showed that low levels of self-efficacy generally were accompanied by high levels of trait anxiety/neuroticism, anxiety disorders symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, some support was found for the notion that specific domains of self-efficacy are especially associated with particular types of anxiety problems. That is, social self-efficacy was most strongly connected to social phobia, academic self-efficacy to school phobia, and emotional self-efficacy to generalised anxiety and panic/somatic. Finally, when controlling for trait anxiety/neuroticism, self-efficacy still accounted for a small but significant proportion of the variance of symptoms of anxiety disorders and depression. The role of self-efficacy in the aetiology and maintenance of childhood affective disorders and directions for future research are briefly discussed.
Previous work has highlighted the importance of uncertainty in motivating social comparison. We extended this approach by focusing on the frequency of social comparisons and four uncertainty-related constructs, namely, self-concept clarity, intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety, and depression. Participants were 166 undergraduates who completed measures for each construct, as well as measures of their own frequency of general, upward, and downward social comparisons. Initial correlational analyses indicated that higher self-concept clarity was related to a lower frequency of general and upward social comparisons; whereas higher intolerance of uncertainty was related to a higher frequency of general, upward, and downward social comparisons. Depression and anxiety were also related to increased general and upward comparisons. Of particular interest, however, were the findings associated with two path analyses. The first analysis indicated that when all four uncertainty-related constructs were considered together, intolerance of uncertainty emerged as the most important predictor of general, upward, and downward comparisons. In contrast, lower self-concept clarity and increased depression played a much more limited role, and anxiety was not a significant predictor. In turn, the second analysis showed that self-concept clarity and intolerance of uncertainty fully mediated the relationships between depression, anxiety, and general and upward social comparison.
Over the last few years there has been increased interest in worry. Most assessment up until now has been concerned with what people worry about and how much they worry rather than exploring reasons for worrying. Two questionnaires were developed to go beyond the content and intensity of worry. The first questionnaire, Why Worry?, contains 20 items and assesses reasons why people say they worry. Two types of reasons were found. First, subjects believe that worrying can prevent negative outcomes from happening, minimize the effects of negative events by decreasing guilt, avoiding disappointment, or provide distraction from thinking about things that are even worse. Second, people believe worrying has positive effects such as finding a better way of doing things, increasing control, and finding solutions. The second questionnaire, Intolerance of Uncertainty, consists of 27 items that assesses emotional, cognitive and behavioral reactions to ambiguous situations, implications of being uncertain, and attempts to control the future. The second study demonstrates the instruments' properties by distinguishing between levels of worry, by factor analysis describing the dimensions underlying the constructs, and by establishing appropriate relationships with measures of worry and emotional distress. The implications for current models of worry are discussed.
Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) - a dispositional characteristic resulting from negative beliefs about uncertainty and its implications - may be an important construct in anxiety disorders and depression. Despite the potential importance of IU, clinical data on the construct remains relatively scant and focused on generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The present study systematically investigated IU, as measured by the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12 (IUS-12), across groups diagnosed with anxiety disorders (i.e., social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder) or depression (clinical sample: n=376; 61% women), as well as undergraduate (n=428; 76% women) and community samples (n=571; 67% women). Analysis of variance revealed only one statistically significant difference in IUS-12 scores across diagnostic groups in the clinical sample; specifically, people with social anxiety disorder reported higher scores (p<.01; η(2)=.03) than people with panic disorder. People diagnosed with an anxiety disorder or depression reported significantly and substantially higher IUS-12 scores relative to community and undergraduate samples. Furthermore, IUS-12 score distributions were similar across diagnostic groups as demonstrated by Kernel density estimations, with the exception of panic disorder, which may have a relatively flat distribution of IU. Response patterns were invariant across diagnostic groups as demonstrated by multi-group confirmatory factor analyses, but varied between clinical and nonclinical samples. Overall, the findings suggest IU may serve as an important transdiagnostic feature across anxiety disorders and depression. In addition, robust support was found for the proposed 2-factor model of the IUS-12. Comprehensive findings, implications, and future research directions are discussed.