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A Neurobehavioral Model of Affiliative Bonding: Implications for Conceptualizing a Human Trait of Affiliation
Abstract
Because little is known about the human trait of affiliation, we provide a novel neurobehavioral model of affiliative bonding. Discussion is organized around processes of reward and memory formation that occur during approach and consummatory phases of affiliation. Appetitive and consummatory reward processes are mediated independently by the activity of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA)-nucleus accumbens shell (NAS) pathway and the central corticolimbic projections of the u-opiate system of the medial basal arcuate nucleus, respectively, although these two projection systems functionally interact across time. We next explicate the manner in which DA and glutamate interact in both the VTA and NAS to form incentive-encoded contextual memory ensembles that are predictive of reward derived from affiliative objects. Affiliative stimuli, in particular, are incorporated within contextual ensembles predictive of affiliative reward via: (a) the binding of affiliative stimuli in the rostral circuit of the medial extended amygdala and subsequent transmission to the NAS shell; (b) affiliative stimulus-induced opiate potentiation of DA processes in the VTA and NAS; and (c) permissive or facilitatory effects of gonadal steroids, oxytocin (in interaction with DA), and vasopressin on (i) sensory, perceptual, and attentional processing of affiliative stimuli and (ii) formation of social memories. Among these various processes, we propose that the capacity to experience affiliative reward via opiate functioning has a disproportionate weight in determining individual differences in affiliation. We delineate sources of these individual differences, and provide the first human data that support an association between opiate functioning and variation in trait affiliation.
... The phenomenon, moreover, in a more pronounced form, is known as separation distress or separation anxiety. It reflects a basic neurobehavioral anxiety system that acts as a motivator to restore the distress of social isolation, rejection, and psychic pain via reintegration into a social group (Depue et al. 2005;Eisenberger et al., 2003). ...
... Tactile stimulation seems to be particularly effective in activating affiliative reward processes through the release of some sociosexually-related hormones. Light and pleasant touch, as in caresses and skin-to-skin contact between individuals, is transmitted by slow-conducting unmyelinated tactile afferent nerves (C-afferent nerves), to the insular cortex, which is a paralimbic region that integrates several sensory modalities to characterize the emotional nature of sensory input (Depue et al. 2005). Skin-to-skin care, therefore, seems to be the most optimal, appropriate, and physiologically stabilizing environment for the newborn infant. ...
... It should be seen as a means for affiliative bonding, which can be broken down into three core processes, namely the appetitive and consummatory phases of reward processes, and the formation of affiliative memories as the outcome of the reward processes. (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005). The underlying neurochemistry of the first processes, in particular, is quite revealing, with a major role for dopamine in the appetitive phase, and the release of endogenous opiates (endogenous Bendorphin) as part of the consummatory phase of affiliation. ...
The metaphor of being touched by music is widespread and almost universal. The tactile experience, moreover, has received growing interest in recent years. There is, however, a need to go beyond a mere metaphorical use of the term, by positioning the tactile experience within the broader frame of embodied cognition and the experiential turn in cognitive science. This article explores the possible contribution of a science of touch by defining music as a vibrational art that impinges upon the body and the senses. It takes as a starting point the clinical findings on the psychological and physiological value of tender touch with a special focus on the method of kangaroo mother care, which is a method for holding the baby against the chest of the mother, skin-to-skin. It is seen as one of the most basic affiliative bonding with stimuli that elicit reward. Via an extensive review of the research literature, it is questioned to what extent this rationale can be translated to the realm of music. There are, in fact, many analogies, but a comprehensive theoretical framework is still lacking. This article aims at providing at least some preparatory groundwork to fuel more theorizing about listening and its relation to the sense of touch.
... A secure attachment results from consecutive interactions where the parent/caregiver meets the child's needs in an appropriate manner, resulting in a reduction of distress and feelings of relief (Cyr et al., 2010). When these interactions occur in a safe environment based in warmth, safeness, and proximity, in which verbal and non-verbal signs of interest, care, kindness, and feelings of belonging are expressed, they have soothing properties and the child is reassured (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2010). Comparatively, when children are exposed to neglectful and abusive environments, where the parent/caregiver denotes insensitivity, intrusion, or rejection in relation to the child's needs, it may result in an insecure or disorganized attachment, impacting on children's healthy development and compromising their capacity to regulate affect and to form supportive relationships, showing greater risk for psychopathology (Cyr et al., 2010;Sellers et al., 2020). ...
... Based on neuroscience research and attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969;Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005), Gilbert (2010Gilbert ( , 2014 proposed that early interpersonal experiences influence the development of three evolved interacting systems responsible for affect regulation: the threat, the drive, and the soothing systems. With the function of selfprotection, the threat system evolved to respond to signals of threat, activating negative affect (such as fear, anger, or disgust) that alerts the body to defend against potential threats, giving rise to fight, flight, freeze or submissive behaviors. ...
... The drive system triggers high-arousal positive affect (such as enthusiasm, excitement), to engage the individual in rewards/resources seeking to accomplish the satisfaction of biological needs and achievement of goals. The soothing system evolved to respond to signals of affiliation, and it triggers a different kind of positive affect (such as safeness, warmth, calmness) associated with well-being, as well as prosocial and non-search behaviors, which promotes the individual's reassurance (Armstrong et al., 2021;Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2020). When these systems are unbalanced, emotion dysregulation and mental health difficulties may arise (Gilbert, 2015). ...
Research has shown that social and contextual factors, such as climate in Residential Youth Care (RYC), are key protective factors for better outcomes in youth who experienced maltreatment. Even if increasing attention has been given to residential climate as a therapeutic tool, available measures are still scarce and revealed some limitations. This study aims to adapt and validate a brief self-report measure to assess the emotional climate of residential care homes as perceived by youth who live there: the Emotional Climate in Residential Care Scale for youth (ECRC-Y). Participants were 372 youth (61.8% girls), aged between 12 and 24 years old, living in 33 Portuguese residential care facilities. The ECRC-Y was adapted from the Emotional Climate in the Classroom Scale, which is a 15-item measure based on an evolutionary approach, assessing the emotional climate according to three affect regulation systems: threat, drive, and soothing systems. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed, and measurement invariance was tested for sex. The CFA indicated a trifactorial measurement model, in agreement with the theoretically proposed model. The ECRC-Y showed adequate internal consistency and construct validity in relation to external variables. Measurement invariance was supported for the ECRC-Y. Girls presented higher levels of threat related emotions, when compared with boys. Overall, the ECRC-Y is an appropriate self-report measure that may be useful for research and practice purposes within RYC settings, giving information about the emotional climate of residential care homes as perceived by youth in care.
... The drive system is linked to motivation and rewards. It serves the function of energizing and pursuing resources that are essential to survival, encompassing activating positive emotions (e.g., excitement, joy, pleasure) and congruent behaviours (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2017). The soothing system is linked to the mammalian evolution of attachment. ...
... It was designed to detect and respond to signs of affiliation (e.g., care, kind attention, hug), and it triggers a different kind of positive affect, such as warmth (i.e., positive and mild emotion involving physiological heat and comfort) and social safeness (i.e., feeling reassured, connected, safe), that ease calming, settling, peacefulness, and openness. The positive and calm affect from the soothing system has been demonstrated to play a key role in down regulating negative affect, reducing psychological distress, and enhancing well-being (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2015). The soothing system is developed through a secure attachment with significant caregivers, who calm down the child in face of distress. ...
... Safe relationships are not simply related with the absence of threat. They are characterized by affiliative signals of warmth, kindness, and proximity, in which verbal and non-verbal signs of interest and care are expressed, offering a sense of safeness and providing children and young people a secure base and a safe haven to deal with adversities (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2015). A safe and positive climate (i.e., how the environment of the organization is perceived by those who live or work there and it impacts their affective response; Glisson, 2007) comprises high levels of support and autonomy, low levels of repression, and a safe and structured environment, based in warmth, affection, and closeness with caregivers (Leipoldt et al., 2019). ...
Background: Affiliation has a positive role on well-being and human development. Most children and youth living in residential youth care (RYC) experienced maltreatment from significant others, becoming a particularly vulnerable group. Their complex needs require well trained caregivers who help them to heal and thrive.
Objective: This cluster randomized trial sought to test the Compassionate Mind Training program for Caregivers (CMT-Care Homes) effectiveness on affiliative outcomes across time.
Participants and setting: A sample of 127 professional caregivers and 154 youth from 12 Portuguese residential care homes (RCH) participated on this study. Methods: RCHs were randomized to treatment (n = 6) and control (n = 6) groups. Caregivers and youth completed self-report measures at baseline, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up on social safeness and emotional climate. Caregivers were also evaluated on compassion outcomes.
Results: MANCOVA indicated large multivariate time X group effects. Univariate results suggested that caregivers from the treatment group showed improvements in compassion towards others and in self-compassion across time, while the control group gradually deteriorated in both variables. Youth and caregivers from the treatment group noticed a more soothing and safer RCH emotional climate, as well as feeling safer within relationships. At 6-month follow-up, improvements were retained by caregivers, but not by youth.
Conclusions: The CMT-Care Homes brings a new model to RYC, that represents a promising approach in promoting safe relationships and affiliative environments in RCHs. Supervision should be provided to monitor care practices and sustain change across time.
... Of note, the threat system is often deeply and intricately associated with what Gilbert 10,76 refers to as the drive-excitement (or incentive-and resource-seeking) system. This positive affect regulation system incorporates the desire and pursuit of survival-relevant needs, rewards and resources (such as material and financial resources or social status) 82 . ...
... The drive system is mediated by neurophysiological structures of the'reward system', including the nucleus accumbens, sympathetic activity, and multiple neuromodulators that influence pleasure and motivation 10,82 , such as dopamine, opioids and cannabinoids 83,84 . The potential role of the drive system in people with fibromyalgia is less clear than the roles of the threat and soothing systems and, therefore, is in need of further study. ...
... The soothing, contentment and safeness (or affiliative-focused) system, as conceptualized by Gilbert, is considered an endogenous regulator of threat-related neurophysiological and emotional arousal 10,76,85,86 . The soothing-affiliative system is responsive to caring and affiliative cues 82 , and is associated with positive affect states such as equanimity, warmth, kindness, compassion and social connectedness 76 . These systems are also associated with safeness, which is more than just safety. ...
Fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances and other symptoms, and has a substantial socioeconomic impact. Current biomedical and psychosocial treatments are unsatisfactory for many patients, and treatment progress has been hindered by the lack of a clear understanding of the pathogenesis of fibromyalgia. We present here a model of fibromyalgia that integrates current psychosocial and neurophysiological observations. We propose that an imbalance in emotion regulation, reflected by an overactive ‘threat’ system and underactive ‘soothing’ system, might keep the ‘salience network’ (also known as the midcingulo-insular network) in continuous alert mode, and this hyperactivation, in conjunction with other mechanisms, contributes to fibromyalgia. This proposed integrative model, which we term the Fibromyalgia: Imbalance of Threat and Soothing Systems (FITSS) model, should be viewed as a working hypothesis with limited supporting evidence available. We hope, however, that this model will shed new light on existing psychosocial and biological observations, and inspire future research to address the many gaps in our knowledge about fibromyalgia, ultimately stimulating the development of novel therapeutic interventions. In this Perspective, the authors propose a model in which an imbalance of threat and soothing systems leads to hyperactivation of the brain’s salience network, which, in conjunction with other mechanisms, contributes to fibromyalgia.
... construct of doing good (George and Brief, 1992;Tappin and Capraro, 2018). Affiliative behavior is an important component of doing good and is defined as a positively interpreted action that facilitates peaceful and friendly interactions (Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005). Doing good is often accompanied by the concept of doing good deeds (Gray, 2011a,b). ...
... When accounting for the recipients of good deeds, research demonstrates that there are increases in positive mood and nonverbal cues such as smiling, which enhances the supporting nature of connections with groups (Gray, 2011a,b;Pressman et al., 2015). Doing good also influences the perceived impact of good behaviors and facilitates perceptions of self-efficacy, which in turn influences human agency and further actions (Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Bandura, 2006;Grant, 2007;Hawkley et al., 2007). Doing good for others fosters positive perceptions by others, which also contributes to feelings of agency, and positively influences human capabilities (Gray, 2011a,b). ...
The focus on the negative side of technology has become a prominent factor in the understanding of the interactions between humans and technology. However, there is a positive side to technology use that has been less investigated in scientific research. Well-being researchers have determined that it is not just the absence of negative emotions or experiences, but rather the presence and frequency of positive ones that matter most. Therefore, despite the scarcity of research on the positive side of technology, the present conceptual paper focuses on how technology may be used for the good to produce psychological benefits (e.g., greater happiness, lower loneliness, higher peer endorsement). Based on existing literature, we posit at least three directions for good interactions with technology: (1) "seeing good" by focusing on positive visual cues through technology use; (2) "feeling good" by focusing on good feelings that arise from technology use; and (3) "doing good" by focusing on positive actions that can be enacted via technology use. Based on the synthesis of these three components, we propose a framework for technology laden engagement in the good, dubbed as, the Engagement in the Good with Technology (EGT) Framework. Through this framework, we explain how these three distinct aspects of seeing, feeling, and doing good can co-occur and be interrelated, and in turn potentially lead to upward spirals of positive outcomes.
... In light of the previous literature on changes in diurnal cortisol after mindfulness-based training, we expected to find evidence for decreased diurnal cortisol levels after the attention-based Presence Module. We originally assumed that the compassion-based Affect Module would be another candidate for efficient stress-reduction, due to the activation of oxytocin-and opiate-modulated affiliative systems (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Nelson & Panksepp, 1998), which mediate stress-reducing and anxiolytic effects (Carter, 2014;Drolet et al., 2001). Our previous ReSource findings of acute stress reduction following Affect and Perspective modules are in line with this assumption (Engert et al., 2017). ...
... Also, the established increase in CAR after Presence training was reliably seen in both major training cohorts (TC1 and TC2) (Engert et al., 2017), and reduced systemic cortisol levels measured in hair (Puhlmann et al., 2021), both also following the Affect Module. From a mechanistic perspective, we suggest that Affect training stimulates care-and affiliation-based systems that are associated with positive affect (Klimecki et al., 2013;McCall & Singer, 2012), and modulated by oxytocin and opiates (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Nelson & Panksepp, 1998). Because these neuropeptides are additionally involved in stress regulation (Carter, 2014;Drolet et al., 2001), they are prime candidates to mediate stress reduction following compassion-based practice. ...
Objectives
Psychosocial stress is an inherent part of modern lifestyle, and many suffer from chronic stress exposure and the subsequent development of stress-related diseases. In searching for efficient low-cost interventions to reduce stress, we investigated the effects of regular contemplative mental practice on diurnal cortisol activity as an indicator of the basal, everyday stress load.
Method
Data were collected in the context of the ReSource Project , an open-label efficacy trial comprising three distinct 3-month training modules targeting attention and interoception (Presence Module), socio-affective (Affect Module) or socio-cognitive abilities (Perspective Module) through dyadic exercises and secularized meditation practices. Diurnal cortisol activity was assayed at four time points: pre-training and after 3, 6, and 9 months. As outcome measures, the cortisol awakening response (CAR), cortisol slope over the course of the day, and total daily cortisol output were computed.
Results
Analyses revealed a stable reduction in CAR specifically after the compassion- and care-based Affect Module, contrasted by a CAR increase following the attention- and interoception-based Presence training. Cortisol slope over the day and total daily cortisol output were unaffected by any of the mental trainings.
Conclusions
These findings emphasize the necessity for a more granular approach in the investigation of contemplative mental training effects. Not all types of training can be expected to equally beneficial for all types of hardship. Specifically, with regard to the CAR, which represents the anticipatory stress response to the upcoming day, compassion- and care-based qualities rather than bare attention or meta-cognitive skills seem to drive stress reduction.
Preregistration
This study is not preregistered.
... Además, Hirsh y Peterson (2009) mostraron que mayores niveles de la faceta de entusiasmo de la extraversión puede aumentar la cooperación. Este resultado coincide con un hallazgo frecuente en la literatura en la que un aumento de la extraversión suele estar vinculado con relaciones interpersonales positivas (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005). ...
... Esto estaría en consonancia con los resultados mencionados en la literatura cuando se considera que la asertividad tiene una relación negativa con el neuroticismo y una relación positiva con la extraversión y la responsabilidad (Bagherian & Mojambari, 2016). En este sentido, la investigación puede sugerir que la extraversión, la cordialidad y la apertura a la experiencia parecen afectar positivamente a los comportamientos altruistas en los juegos (Becker et al, 2012;Brandstätter et al, 1999;Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Hirsh & Peterson, 2009;Kaltwasser et al, 2016;Müller & Schwieren, 2020;Volk et al, 2011;Zhao & Smillie, 2014). Además, la responsabilidad y el neuroticismo han demostrado en ocasiones ser positivos (Hirsh & Peterson, 2009;Kaltwasser et al, 2016), aunque otros estudios sugieren que podrían ser negativos (Becker et al, 2012;Kaltwasser et al, 2016;Kurzban & Houser, 2001;Müller & Schwieren, 2020). ...
El análisis de la personalidad de los miembros de una organización puede ser un elemento clave en la gestión empresarial. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo estudiar los incentivos de cooperación a través de la existencia de un fondo. Para ello, se examinó los rasgos de personalidad que pueden inferirse a partir del comportamiento en los juegos económicos, empleando dos juegos: bienes públicos y ultimátum, y se midió la personalidad de los participantes con el modelo de los Cinco Grandes. Se realizó un análisis estadístico de los datos recogidos en una población de estudiantes universitarios españoles. Los resultados sugieren que los más extravertidos recibirán un menor beneficio en la segunda ronda y que el aprendizaje producido entre las dos rondas podría deberse al rasgo de apertura a la experiencia. Este rasgo parece estar relacionado con la oferta realizada y las cantidades que los jugadores estaban dispuestos a aceptar. Los hallazgos pueden ser de interés en diversas áreas de la gerencia empresarial, tales como gestión de equipos o negociación. Se concluye la posibilidad de perfilar indirectamente determinados rasgos de personalidad a través del comportamiento en los juegos económicos.
... Guided by evolutionary insights, CFT suggests that most clients can experience difficulties in accessing one specific emotion regulation system: the soothing-affiliative system (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2009;Panksepp, 1998). This is sometimes known as the "rest and digest" system and is linked to part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which originally evolved to serve the key functions of helping the body downregulate, recuperate, and repair. ...
... In light of CFT, the soothing-affiliative system is one of three basic emotion regulation systems, the other two being the threat and the drive systems (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2009;Panksepp, 1998), all of which evolved to serve key functions for our survival. The threat system evolved to help us detect and respond to threats. ...
Experiential practices are a core component of compassion focused therapy (CFT). Throughout the treatment process, the client's engagement with these practices may become blocked, resulting in a rupture in the therapeutic relationship. In these instances, the interplay between these experiential practices and the therapeutic relationship becomes an essential focus of therapy to repair the rupture, re‐engage the client in the therapeutic process, and proceed with the CFT treatment plan. This paper presents the case of a man diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, with the presence of shame‐based self‐criticism, treated via 12 sessions of CFT. CFT was proceeding well until certain embodiment practices and chair work were introduced, at which point the client refused to continue and became disengaged in the session. The process of repair and re‐engagement will be discussed from the perspective of this interplay between experiential exercises and therapeutic relationships. Implications for CFT practice and clinical recommendations will be provided.
... Such people doubt the genuineness of interpersonal warmth and friendliness, which thus provoke an avoidance or fear response (Gilbert and Mascaro, 2017). This tendency has been conceptualized as a maladaptive strategy aimed at defending people from a social world perceived as threating and unsafe (Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2020;Gilbert et al., 2011;Schore, 2021). At the extremes, the failure to accurately apprehend social dynamics may lead to paranoid distortions of others' benign behavior and the perception of interpersonal threat that triggers or precipitates severe distress and other symptoms (Arieti, 1974;Harrop and Trower, 2001;Lysaker et al., 2005;Pinto-Gouveia et al., 2013). ...
Psychoticism is a multidimensional personality construct involving odd or eccentric behavior, quasi-psychotic experiences, mistrust, interpersonal detachment, and liability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, as well as significant distress. Recent advances suggest it can be understood as a dimension that is continuously distributed in the population, leading to questions about factors that contribute to distress and dysfunction among people with a schizotypal liability. We investigated in a large nonclinical sample of young adults whether associations between psychoticism and psychological distress would increase in the presence of threatening beliefs. In our study ( N = 2127), we found that the association between psychoticism and psychological distress is moderated by threatening beliefs including self-criticism, fear of compassion, and socially prescribed perfectionism. These results suggest that distress increases among people with schizotypal traits in the context of negative beliefs about self and others. We discuss implications for clinical practice and directions for further research.
... Indeed, adolescence is marked by multiple pivotal points, both with regard to the development of the prefrontal cortex and limbic system that is known to underpin CU traits (e.g. Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005a;Waller & Wagner, 2019), but also with regard to the development of social-and self-cognitions, including selfawareness, self-agency, self-continuity, self-appraisals and selfesteem (e.g. Harter, 2012). ...
In explaining the “parenting – callous-unemotional traits – antisocial behavior” axis, recent theoretical advances postulate a critical role for affiliative reward. Existing empirical studies focus on early childhood and the appetitive phase of the reward process (i.e. affiliation-seeking behavior) rather than the consummatory phase (i.e. affective rewards). This study focuses on experienced affiliative reward (i.e. companionship, intimacy, affection, and worth) in relation to parents and best friends in early adolescence. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, Network of Relationships Inventory, Inventory of Callous and Unemotional Traits, and Youth Self Report were completed by 1132 12-year-olds and analyzed via structural equation models. In this cross-sectional sample, parent-related affiliative reward mediated the path from perceived parenting practices to callousness and further to aggression and rule-breaking. Parent-related affiliative reward was also related to uncaring traits and further to aggression and rule-breaking. In contrast, friend-related affiliative reward was not a mediator in this theoretical causal chain and largely not related to perceived parenting practices or CU traits. Low parent-related experienced affiliative reward is a mechanism through which corporal punishment, poor monitoring, and low involvement translate into callousness, and therefore to aggression and rule-breaking. Friend-related affiliative reward does not yet play a role in early adolescence.
... Social interactions are assumed to be strongly influenced by individual traits, such as social motivation, perspective-taking or empathy (Geen, 1991;Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Frith and Frith, 2006;Blanke and Riediger, 2019). Empirical findings reveal modest links between social cognitive traits and outcomes such as relationship quality and maintenance (Gleason et al., 2009;Lecce et al., 2017;Nilsen and Bacso, 2017;Sened et al., 2017). ...
Social interactions are a ubiquitous part of engaging in the world around us, and determining what makes an interaction successful is necessary for social well-being. This study examined the separate contributions of individual social cognitive ability and partner similarity toward social interaction success among strangers, measured by a cooperative communication task and self-reported interaction quality. Sixty participants engaged in a one-hour virtual social interaction with an unfamiliar partner (a lab confederate) including a 30-minute cooperative “mind-reading” game, and then completed several individual tasks and surveys. They then underwent a separate fMRI session in which they passively viewed video clips that varied in content. The neural responses to these videos were correlated with those of their confederate interaction partners to yield a measure of pairwise neural similarity. We found that trait empathy (assessed by the interpersonal reactivity index) and neural similarity to partner both predicted communication success in the mind-reading game. In contrast, perceived similarity to partner and (to a much lesser extent) trait mind-reading motivation predicted self-reported interaction quality. These results highlight the importance of sharing perspectives in successful communication, as well as differences between neurobiological similarity and perceived similarity in supporting different types of interaction success.
... According to prominent social neuroscience models, social behavior is evident across humans and non-human animals, including the tendency to seek out, engage in, and maintain close bonds with conspecifics (18)(19)(20). Such models posit that a social motivation system promotes social engagement, bonding, and attachment (21,22). ...
Background:
Individuals with psychosis spectrum disorders (PSD) have difficulty developing social relationships. This difficulty may reflect reduced response to social feedback involving functional alterations in brain regions that support the social motivation system: ventral striatum, orbital frontal cortex, insula, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala. Whether these alterations span PSD is unknown.
Methods:
71 individuals with PSD, 27 unaffected siblings, and 37 control participants completed a team-based fMRI task. After each trial, participants received performance feedback paired with the expressive face of a teammate or opponent. A 2 × 2 (win versus loss outcome x teammate versus opponent) repeated measures ANOVA by group was performed on activation in the five key regions of interest during receipt of feedback.
Results:
Across groups, three social motivation regions, ventral striatum, orbital frontal cortex, and amygdala, showed sensitivity to feedback (significant main effect of outcome), with greater activation during win versus loss trials, regardless of whether the feedback was from a teammate or opponent. In PSD, ventral striatum and orbital frontal cortex activation to win feedback was negatively correlated with social anhedonia scores.
Conclusions:
Patterns of neural activation during social feedback were similar in PSD, their unaffected siblings, and healthy controls. Across the psychosis spectrum, activity in key social motivation regions during social feedback was associated with individual differences in social anhedonia.
... In primates, social grooming is the central behavioural mechanism that creates social bonding 12 . The sweeping hand movements used in grooming are the preferred stimulus to activate the receptors of cutaneous CLTM neurons 1,4,13 , and neurobiological experiments confirm that these movements trigger an endorphin response in the brain in both primates 14-17 and humans 7,18 , playing a central role in driving the reward associated with close physical contact, thereby enhancing social bonding [19][20][21][22] . A recent rodent study reported that daily stroking, specifically targeted to activate CLTMs, also confers resilience against established markers of chronic unpredictable mild stress 10 . ...
... Thus, IE principles acted as a means to relate the individual to his or her inner self and to stimulate his or her feelings of body appreciation, security and safety, which ideally should enhance SC (46,47) . This is also confirmed by studies suggesting that SC influences brain centers related to threat, feeling and behaviors (46)(47)(48)(49) . Such messages are in line with the SC interventions provided by the literature. ...
Unlabelled:
Intuitive eating (IE) is a concept based on mind-body integration of instinct, emotion and rational thought, to improve eating behaviors, physical and mental health. Several attempts were developed to teach IE principles including text-messaging interventions given that they are easy to implement and low-cost.
Objective:
The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a five-week text-message-based IE intervention on IE, while correcting for perceived stress (PS) and self-compassion (SC).
Design:
A randomized control trial.
Setting:
Online, in Lebanon.
Participants:
Adults (n=195) were randomized into one of three groups: the active IE group receiving IE-related messages with a practice exercise, the passive IE group receiving only IE-related messages and the control group receiving general health-related tips. Ten messages were delivered over five weeks. Two follow-ups were made: directly post-intervention and five weeks later. Baseline data and follow-ups included demographics, nutrition-related variables and measures of IE, SC and PS.
Results:
Results indicated improvements in IE scores in the two intervention groups (p=0.05), with the passive IE group showing the most improvement. Also, a significant improvement in SC (Λ= 0.88, F (2, 63)=4.40, p=0.01), and reduction in PS (Λ= 0.86, F (2, 63)=5.21, p=0.008) were observed in the active IE group.
Conclusion:
Text-messaging interventions might be efficient in enhancing IE. Results shed light on the need for further large-scale interventions that use visual aids and provide practical guidance to teach IE, while further characterizing the relation between IE, SC and stress.
... Feelings of social connectedness and safeness appear to be linked with the soothing-affiliation system, which plays a vital role in affect regulation, having the highest negative correlations with depression, anxiety, and stress (Gilbert, 2009(Gilbert, , 2015. This social perception of safeness activates psychological (e.g., compassionate mentalities and caring motives) and physiological (e.g., increased activity of vagus nerve, heightened heart rate variability, higher levels of oxytocin) mechanisms that are linked with soothing emotions (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2020). ...
The restrictions imposed to control the COVID-19 pandemic had significant negative effects on the mental health of the general population, and particularly in nurses as frontline healthcare workers. The main goal of the present study was to analyze the direct and indirect effects, via social connectedness, of centrality of the COVID-19 outbreak on depressive symptoms. Furthermore, it is explored whether this association varied by group (nurses versus general population). The global sample included 326 individuals from the community and 316 nurses, who were administered self-reported questionnaires. Results revealed that event centrality of COVID-19 outbreak was linked to depressive symptoms, both directly and through the deterioration of social connectedness; moreover, this indirect effect was significant for both subsamples. Interventions aimed at preventing the deterioration of social connectedness may facilitate the decrease of depressive symptoms in the aftermath of the pandemic, particularly for nurses.
... In primates, in particular, an underlying caregiving system orchestrates complex and prolonged nurturing behaviors towards offspring. This system has extended functions in humans, enabling care-giving to be expressed towards individuals outside the immediate kinship group [1]. The 'extended caregiving system' is also thought to underlie a sensitivity to the suffering of others, as well as the uniquely human capacity for, and motivation to, alleviate this suffering [2]. ...
Background:
The vagus nerve (VN) is a neural nexus between the brain and body, enabling bidirectional regulation of mental functioning and peripheral physiology. Some limited correlational findings suggest an association between VN activation and a particular form of self-regulation: compassionate responding. Interventions that are geared towards strengthening self-compassion in particular, can serve as an antidote to toxic shame and self-criticism and improve psychological health.
Objective:
We describe a protocol for examining the role of VN activation on 'state' self-compassion, self-criticism, and related outcomes. By combining transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) with a brief imagery-based self-compassion intervention, we aim to preliminarily test additivity versus synergy between these distinct bottom-up and top-down methods for putatively regulating vagal activity. We also test whether the effects of VN stimulation accumulate with daily stimulation and daily compassionate imagery practice.
Methods:
Using a randomized 2 x 2 factorial (stimulation x imagery condition) design, healthy volunteers (n = 120) receive active (tragus) or sham (earlobe) tVNS plus standardized (audio-recorded) self-compassionate or sham mental imagery instructions. These interventions are delivered in a university-based psychological laboratory in two sessions, one week apart, as well as being self-administered between sessions by participants at home. Pre-stimulation, peri-stimulation and post-imagery measures of state self-compassion, self-criticism and related self-report outcomes are assessed in two lab sessions, separated by a week (Days 1 and 8). Heart rate variability is used as a physiological metric of vagal activity and an eye-tracking task assesses attentional bias to compassionate faces during the two lab sessions. On Days 2-7, participants continue their randomly assigned stimulation and imagery tasks at home, and complete state measures at the end of each remote session.
Discussion:
Demonstrating modulation of compassionate responding using tVNS would support a causal link between VN activation and compassion. This would provide a basis for future studies of bioelectronic approaches to augmenting therapeutic contemplative techniques.
Clinical trials registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier: NCT05441774 (Date: July 1st 2022).
Osf registration:
https://osf.io/4t9ha.
... Empathic abilities and dyadic relationship quality have been associated with variation in the β-endorphin receptor gene, OPMR1 12 . Opioids seem to play an important role in the evolution of primate sociality and social bonding (e.g., 39,40 ). Β-endorphin, the most potent endogenous opioid peptide with a high affinity for the μ-opioid receptor, is primarily implicated in regulating both physical and emotional pain and stress 41,42 . ...
Seminal studies suggest that being mimicked increases experienced social closeness and prosocial behavior to a mimicking confederate (i.e., interaction partner). Here we reexamine these results by considering the role of empathy-related traits, an indirect proxy for endorphin uptake, and their combined effects as an explanation for these results. 180 female participants were mimicked or anti-mimicked in an interaction with a confederate. The effects of being mimicked versus anti-mimicked in relation to empathy-related traits and endorphin release (assessed indirectly via pain tolerance) on experienced closeness and prosocial behavior were assessed using Bayesian analyses. Our results suggest that high individual empathy-related traits increase social closeness to the anti-mimicking and mimicking confederate and to one’s romantic partner, as compared to mimicry alone. Results furthermore strongly suggest that high individual empathy-related traits increase prosocial behavior (donations and willingness to help) as compared to mimicry alone. These findings extend previous work by highlighting that empathy-related traits are more influential in creating positive effects on social closeness and prosocial behavior than a one-shot mimicking encounter.
... Thus, we cannot at this point derive a consistent pattern of how mental training influences different indices of cortisol activity, yet we do find a consistent change in CA1-3 following social-affective mental training, and observe domain-general patterns of change associations between CA1-3 and cortisol markers. From a mechanistic viewpoint, we hypothesize that Affect training stimulates emotion-motivational (reward) systems associated with positive affect (75,76), and regulated by oxytocin and opiates (100,101). Since these neuropeptides are also involved in stress regulation (102,103), they could be considered to provide a double hit, and prime candidates to mediate hippocampal volume increase and stress reduction in particular following compassion-based practice, yet also present following other practices. ...
The hippocampus forms a central modulator of the HPA-axis, impacting the regulation of stress on brain structure, function, and behavior. The current study assessed whether three different types of 3-months mental training modules geared towards nurturing a) attention-based mindfulness, b) socio-affective skills, or c) socio-cognitive abilities may impact hippocampal integrity by reducing stress. We evaluated mental training-induced changes in hippocampal subfield volume and intrinsic functional connectivity, based on resting-state fMRI connectivity analysis in a group of healthy adults (N=332). We then related these changes to changes in diurnal and chronic cortisol levels. We observed increases in bilateral cornu ammonis volume (CA1-3) following the 3-months compassion-based module targeting socio-affective skills (Affect module), as compared to socio-cognitive skills (Perspective module) or a waitlist cohort that did not undergo an intervention. Structural changes were paralleled by increases in functional connectivity of CA1-3 when fostering socio-affective as compared to socio-cognitive skills. Moreover, training-related changes in CA1-3 structure and function consistently correlated with reduction in cortisol output. In sum, we provide a link between socio-emotional behavioral intervention, CA1-3 structure and function, and cortisol reductions in healthy adults.
... Fear of compassion from oneself, from others, and for others are separate but related constructs that have been strongly linked to self-criticism, depression, anxiety, and stress in the college student population (Gilbert et al., 2012;Gilbert, McEwan, Matos, & Rivis, 2011). Despite the importance of affection, care, and warmth for physical and mental health (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2009), individuals fearing compassion may have aversive reactions to compassion (Gilbert, 2000), leading them to actively resist feeling, providing, or receiving it. Reasons for fearing compassion include fears of making oneself vulnerable to emotional pain and rejection, fears of losing one's motivation or competitive edge, fears of becoming too dependent on compassion, fears of losing an important aspect of one's identity, fears of losing an oft used coping strategy, fears of becoming less likeable, and feelings of inadequacy, shame, and unworthiness (Gilbert et al., 2011). ...
Compassion and self-compassion have significant benefits for well-being and mental health. Recent literature has demonstrated that some individuals experience fear when receiving compassion from oneself or others. Fear of compassion from oneself, from others, and for others are separate but related constructs that have been strongly linked to self-criticism, depression, anxiety, and stress among college students. The present study examines how fears of compassion (measured by the Fear of Compassion scales) relate to Big Five personality traits (measured by the NEO Five Factor Inventory; Costa & McCrae, 1992) in college students. Bivariate correlational analyses revealed fear of compassion to be correlated positively with neuroticism and negatively with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These findings add to the literature in understanding which individuals harbor fear of compassion. Clinical implications and recommendations are discussed.
... Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) considers that the human mind has evolved to help individuals adapt to their environments, by regulating their emotions and motivating their behaviors based on the joint action of three basic systems: the threat and protection system that focuses on early detection of threats (including social threats) and elicits negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and anger) in an attempt to keep the individual safe from harm; the drive system that prompts the individual to act to obtain relevant rewards and resources for survival (e.g., food, sexual partner, social status), through positive activating emotions (e.g., excitement and pleasure); and the soothing system that is activated when individuals do not have to deal with threats or look for resources, triggering feelings of contentment, safeness, calmness, connection and affiliation with others (Gilbert, 2010(Gilbert, , 2017a. Each system plays an evolved function and is linked to specific emotions and physiological correlates (Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005). However, when the threat or drive systems get overactivated, mental health issues may arise. ...
Este trabalho investigou a eficácia da Terapia Focada na Compaixão (TFC) nos sintomas da perturbação de ansiedade social (PAS) na adolescência, com base em dados recolhidos ao longo da intervenção. A TFC contribuiu para o bem-estar psicológico em várias populações, mas é escassa a evidência sobre a sua eficácia no tratamento da PAS em adolescentes. Vinte e um adolescentes (57.1% raparigas; 15-18 anos) com PAS receberam tratamento online. A intervenção CFT@TeenSAD foi organizada em quatro módulos sequenciais: A mente de acordo com a TFC, Promoção do eu-compassivo e de competências para uma mente compassiva, Prática de comportamento compassivo, Últimas notas e continuar numa viagem compassiva. Antes de cada sessão, os adolescentes reportaram mudança percebida na gravidade dos sintomas e os clínicos fizeram essa avaliação no final de cada sessão. Tanto os adolescentes (F (1.540) = 32.271, p<0.0005, ηp2 = 0.63) como os clínicos (F (1.528) = 24.783, p< 0.0005, ηp2= 0.57) relataram melhoria continuada ao longo do tratamento, com mudança significativa ao longo dos quatro módulos. As trajetórias de mudança foram semelhantes para rapazes e raparigas. A TFC surge como uma abordagem promissora na PAS em adolescentes, contribuindo para a diminuição contínua da gravidade dos sintomas.
... It is linked to emotional regulation and the behavioral inhibition system (DeYoung, 2015;Smits & Boeck, 2006). Neuroscientific findings suggest that the two aspects have distinct neurobiological links to dopamine (compassion; Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;DeYoung, 2013) and serotonin (politeness;DeYoung et al., 2007;Wright et al., 2019), which may partly explain their respective approach-versus-avoidance functions. Finally, the trust facet is a better marker of global Agreeableness than either aspect. ...
... In identifying factors that may account for the relation between BPD pathology and ineffective strategies for managing conflict in romantic relationships, the fear of compassion from and for others warrants particular consideration. Theorized to motivate evolutionarily-adaptive cooperative and caring behaviors in the context of relationships [46], compassion may be defined as "a sensitivity to suffering in self and others with a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent it" [47]. Although considered adaptive for interpersonal relationships (as well as one's relationship to the self ) [47,48], individuals vary in their ability and motivation to develop compassion, with some individuals experiencing fears of compassion both received from others (and directed toward the self ) and felt for others [48]. ...
Background
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) pathology is common among patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) and associated with a variety of negative outcomes, including worse SUD outcomes. One particularly relevant outcome with links to substance use problems that is likely to be elevated among SUD patients with BPD symptoms is ineffective conflict resolution strategies in romantic relationships. However, no research to date has examined the relation of BPD pathology to strategies for managing conflict in romantic relationships among patients with SUDs, or the factors that may increase the use of ineffective strategies within this population. Thus, this study examined the relations of BPD symptoms to ineffective responses to romantic relationship conflict surrounding substance use among residential patients with SUDs, as well as the explanatory roles of fear of compassion from and for others in these relations.
Methods
Patients in a community-based correctional SUD residential treatment facility (N = 93) completed questionnaires, including a measure of BPD symptoms, fear of compassion from and for others, and strategies for responding to conflict surrounding substance use in romantic relationships.
Results
Fear of compassion from others accounted for significant variance in the relations of BPD symptoms to the ineffective conflict resolution strategies of reactivity, domination, and submission, whereas fear of compassion for others only accounted for significant variance in the relation between BPD symptoms and the strategy of separation (which is not always ineffective).
Conclusions
Together, findings suggest that it is fear of compassion from others (vs. fear of compassion for others) that explains the relation between BPD symptoms and ineffective responses to romantic relationship conflict surrounding substance use among SUD patients. Findings highlight the potential utility of interventions aimed at reducing fears of compassion and increasing comfort with and tolerance of compassion from both others and oneself among SUD patients with BPD symptoms in order to strengthen relationships and reduce risk for relapse.
... For example, teammates' approval promotes the appropriate expression of emotions, global selfworth, and motivation to perform pro-social behaviours (Harter, 1999). According to the evolutionary perspective, these positive social interactions seem to stimulate the affiliation system, promoting feelings of connectedness, sense of soothing, and social safeness (e.g., Depue & Morrone-Strupinsky, 2005;Gilbert, 2010). ...
Literature has highlighted that it is important to explore factors that may contribute to athletes’ well-being and also to sports performance, especially in young athletes. This study aimed to test a model that hypothesized that athlete-related social safeness (feelings of belonging to the team) has an effect on the psychological well-being and performance through self-criticism.This study sample comprised 164 Portuguese adolescent athletes of both genders, who practiced different sports.The path analysis results confirmed the proposed model’s adequacy, which explained 52% and 28% of the variance of the psychological well-being and performance, respectively. Results demonstrated that athletes who presented higher social safeness levels tend to reveal higher levels of psychological well-being and perceived performance through lower levels of self-criticism.These novel findings suggest the importance of adopting supportive and safe relationships between teammates due to their positive association with athletes’ mental health and performance.
... These tasks are thought to produce distinct types of affects: the first generating negative affect (NA) deriving from the threat and defense system, and the latter two promoting different types of positive affect (PA) [4][5][6][7]. An initial distinction between two different types of PA was made by Depue and Morreone-Strupinsky [8], describing a dopamine-linked PA associated with drive and arousal and a second PA linked to endogenous opiates and oxytocin and associated with contentment and feelings of well-being. Looking further into different types of PA, three distinct factors have been identified: feeling energized and excited, feeling relaxed and calm, and feeling safe and content [6]. ...
Background
Social safeness and pleasure refer to the extent to which people experience their world as safe, warm, and soothing. Difficulties in achieving social safeness have been identified as a transdiagnostic vulnerability factor for developing and maintaining psychopathology and for feeling less contentment and self-compassion. The study aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale (SSPS).
Methods
The SSPS was evaluated in a non-clinical sample of 407 participants. The internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the SSPS were explored and a confirmatory factor analysis was performed. Convergent validity was studied based on the assumption of negative correlations with the personality traits detachment and mistrust, derived from the Swedish Universities Scale of Personality. Divergent validity was studied based on the assumption of no or small correlations with impulsiveness and adventure-seeking—personality traits not assumed to be related to social safeness. Validity was also investigated by comparing the SSPS results in the non-clinical sample with those in two clinical groups of patients diagnosed with either borderline personality disorder (BPD; n = 58) or eating disorders (n = 103), recruited from two psychiatric outpatient clinics.
Results
Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a one-factor structure. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.95 and test–retest reliability was 0.92. Validity was supported by moderate to strong negative correlations between the SSPS and the detachment and mistrust scales and no or small correlations with the impulsiveness and adventure-seeking scales in a personality questionnaire. Finally, we found significantly lower mean values on the SSPS in the clinical groups compared with the non-clinical group, with the lowest mean in the BPD sample.
Conclusions
The results showed good to excellent psychometric properties for the Swedish version of the SSPS, supporting its use in both clinical practice and research. Future research could use the SSPS when evaluating interventions aimed at improving the ability to develop social safeness, such as compassion-focused therapy or radically open dialectical behavior therapy, interventions that may be particularly important in BPD patients.
... Self-compassion is defined as individuals focusing on their inner self while in a stress event, and it consists of 3 main components: self-kindness, a sense of common humanity, and mindfulness (Neff and Germer 2013). According to the 3-circle model of emotion, there are at least 3 types of emotion regulation systems, namely threat and protection systems, drive resource seeking and excitement systems, and soothing and safeness systems (Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky 2005;Gilbert 2014). Compassion is linked with attachment theory and plays a key role in soothing and safeness systems, helping individuals to maintain emotional balance even when facing stressful events (Gilbert 2009(Gilbert , 2014. ...
Objectives:
This study examined the effects of compassion-based intervention on mental health in cancer patients by using systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Methods:
Eleven bibliographic databases were searched from their earliest data available date up to March 1, 2022. The databases were PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, WOS, Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations, Airiti Library, and the National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan.
Results:
Ten studies from 2015 to 2021 were included with a total of 771 cancer patients. Most were targeted at women with breast cancer. Brief compassion-based interventions of approximately 30 minutes were conducted by audio file, paper, and web-based self-guided writing prompts. Most were conducted after the completion of active treatment. Anxiety was the most measured outcome. Constructive compassion-based interventions with 4- to 12-week sessions were conducted by a trained facilitator. Most were conducted for patients who had undergone treatment, and depression was the most measured outcome. The meta-analysis indicated that compassion-based interventions had a significant effect of reducing depression and increasing self-compassion. Moderation analysis indicated that constructive intervention showed more benefits of increased self-compassion than brief intervention. Both face-to-face and non-face-to-face web-delivered formats had benefits for increasing self-compassion compared with the control condition.
Significance of results:
Compassion-based interventions might provide an effective strategy for improving self-compassion and depression among patients with breast cancer. Suggestions for further research and health-care providers follow.
... or different across the two therapeutic tasks of compassion and relaxation. CFI has been hypothesized to specifically activate care-based motivation of compassion, rooted in evolutionarily developed brain systems that humans share with other mammals and linked to the myelinated vagus nerve [67,68], which in turn inhibits sympathetically driven threat-defensive behaviours (e.g., fight/flight) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity [14,15]. In comparison, relaxation does not necessarily comprise elements of affiliation and caring. ...
Compassion-focused imagery (CFI) can be an effective emotion-regulation technique but can create threat-focused responses in some individuals. However, these findings have been based on tasks involving receiving compassion from others. This study sought to examine whether CFI involving self -compassion is less threatening than relaxation and whether any threat-responses decrease with practice.
Method: 25 participants with high self-criticism and/or low self-compassion completed self-report measures of symptoms of depression and anxiety, then engaged in three tasks (control task, relaxation imagery, and CFI) three or four times every three days. Heart-rate variability (HRV) was collected during each task and clinically significant change was calculated between baseline and CFI scores, and between baseline and relaxation.
Results: Across all participants, HRV was significantly higher during CFI than during relaxation. More individuals had a clinically significant increase in HRV in response to CFI (56%) than in response to relaxation (44%), and fewer had a clinically significant decrease in HRV during CFI (16%) than during relaxation (28%). Repeated trials did not improve responses to CFI.
Conclusions: Even in high self-critics with clinical levels of symptoms, self-compassionate imagery may soothe physiological arousal without prior groundwork and is less likely to be aversive than standard relaxation tasks. For those who are not benefiting, practice alone is not sufficient to improve response.
In today's fast-paced world of online education, faculty are under immense pressure to achieve high levels of academic success in their classrooms. However, in the pursuit of academic achievement, the psychological well-being of faculty and students is often overlooked. Compassion-focused social-emotional learning (CFSEL) can support online teaching faculty in cultivating and transmitting a compassionate mindset, which can help them create a supportive, relational, and nurturing learning environment. This chapter provides educators with a comprehensive guide to implementing CFSEL strategies in the milieu of online education with a focus on compassion-based practices and strategies. This chapter explores the benefits of CFSEL for students and educators. The chapter provides practical strategies for (a) integrating CFSEL practices into the classroom, (b) creating a more dynamic and relational online learning environment, and (c) addressing common challenges within this medium.
Emotion recognition is the identification of emotions usually through verbal communication and facial expressions such as happy, angry, sad, etc. Not only on the basis of a wide spectrum of moods, but different emotions can also be recognized in order to track mental health of as many people as possible for societal well being. Inside positive it detects specific emotions like happiness, satisfaction, or excitement -depending on how it’s configured. The main principles involved in the implementation of our sentiment recognition system that identifies various emotions: anger, happiness, depression, neutral, etc. are audio content and identification of the emotion associated with it. The application developed takes audio input, applies Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) algorithm on it, compares them with those of the content of the existing audio file database depicting various human sentiments, and presents output in the text the emotion expressed by the user. The input from testing was gathered and meaningful spectral coefficients were extracted and stored in a database for comparison with future audio samples. The application extracts the coefficients of the external audio sample and matches it with those present in the database. MFCC algorithm is used to extract the spectral coefficients which are good and can be used for feature matching purposes discarding any static and background noise if present. We have done comparative analysis on our models for their performance evaluation, using four classification metrics and also presented the confusion matrix for better understanding.
Awareness of mental health has been increasing rapidly worldwide in recent years, and even more so since the outbreak of COVID-19. Depression is now regarded as one of the most debilitating diseases, and wellbeing is incorporated into the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In order for all of us to have a happy life, mental health cannot be ignored. As announced by the UK government, our health cannot be achieved without good mental health. Likewise, in Asia, the word ‘health (健康)’ in Chinese and Japanese encompasses both a healthy body and a calm mind. The Japanese government has implemented a work-style reform to protect employees’mental health. While these movements suggest the importance of mental health worldwide, a universal definition of mental health remains to be defined. This is partly attributed to a lack of understanding of mental health from different cultures. How an individual regards mental health can differ significantly according to their culture. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to address this problem by introducing alternative views to mental health through discussion of cross-cultural psychiatric matters.
Drawing upon social comparison theory, we investigated the influencing mechanism between relational job crafting and workplace loneliness and its boundary condition. A multiple‐source, multi‐wave field study was conducted with data collected from 267 employee–peer dyads in three Chinese firms. The results showed that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between promotion‐oriented relational crafting and loneliness via peer social undermining. Meanwhile, prevention‐oriented relational crafting is positively related to loneliness through peer social undermining. Moreover, impression management motive moderates the inverted U‐shaped relationship between promotion‐oriented relational crafting and peer social undermining. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Human touch has an enormous power to engender and mediate meaning in the human mind, from the emotional to the pragmatic, and from the linguistic to the symbolic. Can a functional-neuroanatomical perspective on social touch contribute to a general understanding of the biological workings of such meaning-making? I argue here that it can, and that the ways the brain accomplishes this are manifold. I identify and explore three main neural subsystems which operate in concert to generate the emotional and semantic complexion of social touch. These subsystems underlie how humans: 1) touch to connect with others; 2) explore the physical and social worlds; and 3) explain the significance of a touch within our own knowledge and experience, especially with regard to the way we interpret the world through language and culture. I therefore propose that what makes social touch meaningful has much to do with the functional and evolutionary roots of these brain subsystems. Although they can be distinguished and analyzed, in the “wild” human brain these subsystems are functionally intertwined, and their processes are integrated to generate a unified subjective experience of social touch. This view also acknowledges the intertwined nature of the embodied individual within society, thus carrying potential implications for theoretical analysis in such terms.
Test anxiety (TA) is one of the most common difficulties for secondary school students, with a negative impact in performance, mental health and well-being, and involving high levels of shame, self-criticism, and experiential avoidance. TA may also be conceptualized through an evolutionary and contextual approach to human suffering. To the best of our knowledge, no study has covered this conceptualization, nor has any previous TA treatment been simultaneously manualized, psychotherapeutic, and co-integrated compassion, acceptance and mindfulness-based practices. Moreover, studies on the efficacy of individual treatments directed to TA in adolescents are scarce, and case studies provide a comprehensive, detailed, and useful input about new models and treatments to both researchers and practitioners. The AcAdeMiC Program (Acting with Acceptance, Mindfulness and Compassion to overcome Test/Exam Anxiety) is a manualized 12-session online individual psychotherapeutic intervention, aiming to decrease test anxiety and boost well-being, compassion, acceptance and mindfulness. This is the first study presenting the treatment of an adolescent with high levels of test anxiety using this program. The Reliable Change Index (RCI) showed improvement, and maintenance or increase of gains over time, across all targeted symptoms and processes. The AcAdeMiC was also qualitatively and quantitatively perceived as useful and effective at posttreatment. This clinical case study provides a first glance at the conceptualization and treatment of TA with the new AcAdeMiC program.
According to compassion-focused therapy (CFT), in psychosis there would be an imbalance in the affect regulation systems. Threat activation arising from several internal and external sources creating an overly stimulated threat system would be combined with few sources of soothing and safeness. This chapter presents the therapeutic process and evolution of a 22-year-old, male, patient, following the first episode of psychosis. The three parts of the therapeutic plan are detailed: individual therapy (Part 1) and group therapy (Part 2), both based on Compassion-focused Therapy, and relapse prevention (Part 3). Compassion-based psychotherapeutic intervention can help people with psychosis develop a more balanced, wise, strong, and care-focused mind state (as opposed to a threat-focused mind), that constitutes as a secure base from which they can thrive, live meaningful lives, while taking care of themselves in moments of suffering.KeywordsCompassion-focused therapyCompassionate mind trainingPsychosis
I argue the impulse to form a dyadic love bond and not the desire for sexual release accounts for the formation of a universality of the pair bond. This impulse is not recent but has been a pervasive force throughout human history. Recently, a reversionist position has argued we are more of a hybrid species that easily and readily shifts between a pair bond and a plural partner family arrangement. Although most humans live out their lives in a sexually monogamous union, it is not something that comes easily or naturally. Sexual monogamy requires adopting an ethical stance and personal dedication to maintain it. This raises the question: if humans need to be vigilant in their moral commitment to remain sexually faithful, does this vigilance extend also to the domain of love? Is it possible to find greater contentment and life-satisfaction in forming simultaneously sexual and emotional unions with a variety of individuals. This is the central question that lies at the core of the pair bond deniers who insist humans are not a pair bond species and can find fulfilment in a pluralistic love bond. I probe (below) the social and emotional nuances associated with what it means to be in an enduring love bond through exploring the social and psychological complexities often associated with being in love. I will then discuss efforts by groups and individuals who have sought to establish social bonds not organised around an exclusive pair bond, and what their efforts reveal about underlying human psychology. My analysis concludes with rendering an assessment of the relative success of the social and personal experiments in the search to find a more fulfilling arena for love.
Objective:
There is an ongoing debate in personality research whether the common core of aversive ("dark") traits can be approximated by or even considered equivalent to one of the constructs that have been labeled "Agreeableness". In particular, it has been suggested that the low pole of (what we term) AG+, a broad blend of Big Five Agreeableness and the HEXACO factors Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Altruism, is essentially equivalent to the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Based on theoretical differences, we herein test empirically whether D and AG+ are isomorphic.
Methods:
Self-report data on D, AG+, and eight criterion measures reflecting justifying beliefs, inflicting disutility on others, and affiliative tendencies were collected in a pre-registered study (N = 1156) and analyzed via confirmatory factor modeling.
Results:
Results speak against unity of D and AG+ (35% shared variance) and support the notion that D subsumes a broader range of aversive content (i.e., justifying beliefs and inflicting disutility on others) than AG+, which, in turn, subsumes a slightly broader range of non-aversive, affiliative tendencies.
Conclusion:
We conclude that AG+ is non-equivalent to the common core of aversive traits, D.
Individuals differ in the tendency to derive pleasure out of motive-specific incentives, such as being socially included or attaining power. Multiple theoretical approaches have proposed that such motive-specific positive affective contingencies (PACs) are central building blocks of motive dispositions and personality more broadly. In the current research, we put this claim to test and investigated individual differences with regard to motive-specific PACs in the affiliation and power domains. We measured PACs via spontaneous emotional reactions to motive-specific cues, as assessed by affect ratings and electromyographic (EMG) recordings of smile responses. Both of these PAC operationalizations were highly internally consistent and moderately to highly stable across time. Furthermore, motive-specific PACs were linked in a manner consistent with theory to measures of motive dispositions and to personality traits with motivational underpinnings (i.e., extraversion, agreeableness, and narcissism). Finally, in the affiliation domain, motive-specific PACs were linked to objectively assessed, key motivational outcomes (i.e., attentional orientation, behavior in daily life, and in the laboratory). Taken together, the findings underscore the relevance of affective contingencies for the understanding of personality and motivated behavior.
Artykuł poglądowy/Review article S t r e s z c z e n i e Jednym z procesów psychologicznych odpowiedzial-nych za funkcjonowanie społeczne jest motywacja społeczna (social motivation). Jest ona rozumiana jako szereg zachowań i predyspozycji psychologicznych skłaniających jednostkę do poszukiwania i utrzymania interakcji społecznych, które mają wartość nagradzają-cą. Wskazuje się, że mózgowym podłożem motywacji społecznej jest układ nagrody, a zaburzenie jego funk-cjonowania prowadzi m.in. do braku odczuwania przy-jemności z kontaktów społecznych i/lub ograniczonej potrzeby dążenia do nich. Badania prowadzone w obszarze motywacji społecznej obejmują analizę różnych jej komponentów, które odno-szą się m.in. do poszczególnych etapów przetwarzania nagrody. Wyróżnia się takie komponenty, jak podążanie za nagrodą (tzw. zbliżanie-unikanie; social approach and avoidance motivation), oczekiwanie na nagrodę (tzw. pra-gnienie nagrody; wanting) oraz reaktywność na nagrodę (tzw. lubienie; liking). Badanym komponentem jest tak-że zaufanie do innych osób (tzw. zaufanie; trust). Deficyty motywacji społecznej wskazuje się jako wła-ściwość wielu chorób psychicznych, w tym zaburzeń ze spektrum autyzmu (autism spectrum disorder-ASD) i schizofrenii. Przeprowadzona w artykule analiza do-stępnych badań behawioralnych i neuroobrazowych (fMRI) wykazała, że w ASD zaburzenia motywacji spo-łecznej wynikają przede wszystkim z trudności w prze-widywaniu wartości nagradzającej, jaką może nieść kontakt społeczny. W przypadku schizofrenii kluczowe dla wystąpienia deficytów motywacji społecznej wydaje się ograniczone zaufanie do innych. Chociaż problema-tyka roli motywacji społecznej w zaburzeniach psy-chicznych stanowi stosunkowo nowy obszar badań, to wg badaczy tematu może prowadzić do opracowania nowych programów terapeutycznych dla poszczegól-nych grup pacjentów. Słowa kluczowe: motywacja społeczna, zaburzenia ze spektrum autyzmu, schizofrenia, układ nagrody, funk-cjonowanie społeczne. A b s t r a c t Social motivation is one of the psychological processes which underlie social functioning. Social motivation is understood as a set of behavior and predispositions that drive people to search for social interactions, and create and maintain social bonds. The components of social motivation are subserved by the reward system in the brain, and it is found that disrupted functioning of the system leads to a failure to experience pleasure from social interactions and/or decreased need to anticipate/ initiate them. Studies on social motivation encompass the components which are linked with the stages of reward processing. Reward processing is dissected into the approach behavior in response to rewarding stimuli (social approach and avoidance motivation), anticipating the reward (wanting) and reaction on reward (lik-ing). The other component of social motivation which is investigated is trust in others (trust). Deficits of social motivation, including disrupted anticipation of social reward, are found to be crucial in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in schizophrenia. The review of behavioral and neuroimaging studies on social motivation in ASD and in schizophrenia, including behavioral research and neuroimaging (fMRI), showed that disrupted social motivation in ASD is caused by decreased capacity for anticipating the rewarding value of social stimuli which occurred during social interaction. In schizophrenia the key factor of deficit in social motivation is limited trust in others. Although research on the role of social motivation in psychiatric disorders is a relatively new area, the results derived from studies on social motivation could bring inspiration for new therapeutic programs for patients with particular disorders.
The role of compassion in healthcare has become increasingly important, especially since it is now considered one of the six “Core Values” in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service [1]. This chapter will present a psychological theory and approach which places building compassion (for self and others) at the heart of its aims: Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) [2, 3]. The role of building compassion for people living with HIV and health professionals working in this field will be explored.KeywordsHIVCompassionPsychological distressHealth outcomesStaff self-careCompassion fatigueShame
Influential learning-based accounts of substance addictions posit the attribution of incentive salience to drug-associated cues, and its escalation by the direct dopaminergic effects of drugs. In translating this account to disordered gambling, we have noted how the intermittent nature of monetary rewards in gambling (i.e. the variable ratio) may allow for analogous learning processes, via effects on dopaminergic signalling. The aim of the present article is to consider how multiple sources of reward variability operate within modern gambling products, and how similar sources of variability, as well as some novel sources of variability, also apply to other digital products implicated in behavioural addictions, including gaming, shopping, social media and online pornography. Online access to these activities facilitates not only unparalleled accessibility but also introduces novel forms of reward variability, as seen in the effects of infinite scrolls and personalized recommendations. We use the term uncertainty to refer to the subjective experience of reward variability. We further highlight two psychological factors that appear to moderate the effects of uncertainty: 1) the timecourse of uncertainty, especially with regard to its resolution, 2) the frequency of exposure, allowing temporal compression. Collectively, the evidence illustrates how qualitative and quantitative variability of reward can confer addictive potential to non-drug reinforcers by exploiting the psychological and neural processes that rely on predictability to guide reward seeking behaviour.
This paper presents reflections upon working with individuals diagnosed with young-onset dementia in the context of older people’s services. Paul Gilbert’s compassion-focused therapy is proposed as a useful approach towards improving service provision for these individuals and their unique needs.
Empathy is a fundamental component of our social-emotional experience. Over the last decade, there has been increased interest in understanding the effects of acute stress on empathy. We provide a first comprehensive—and systematic—overview identifying emerging patterns and gaps in this literature. Regarding affective empathy, there is abundant evidence for stress contagion—the ‘spillover’ of stress from a stressed target to an unstressed perceiver. We highlight contextual factors that can facilitate and/or undermine these effects. Fewer studies have investigated the effects of acute stress on affective empathy, revealing a nuanced picture, some evidence suggests acute stress can block contagion of other’s emotions; but again contextual differences need to be considered. Regarding cognitive empathy, most studies find no conclusive effects for simplistic measures of emotion recognition; however, studies using more complex empathy tasks find that acute stress might affect cognitive empathy differentially for men and women. This review provides an important first step towards understanding how acute stress can impact social-togetherness, and aims to aid future research by highlighting (in)congruencies and outstanding questions.
Group-living is one of the six major evolutionary transitions. However, group-living creates stresses that naturally cause group fragmentation, and hence loss of the benefits that group living provides. How species that live in large groups counteract these forces is not well understood. I analyse comparative data on grooming networks from a large sample of primate species and show that two different social grades can be differentiated in terms of network size and structure. I show that living in large, stable groups involves a combination of increase in bonding behaviours (made possible by a dietary adjustment) and the evolution of neuronally expensive cognitive skills of the kind known to underpin social relationships in humans. The first allows the stresses created by these relationships to be defused; the second allows large numbers of weak relationships to be managed, creating a form of multilevel sociality based on strong versus weak ties similar to that found in human social networks.
Scott O. Lilienfeld maintained an intense and probing interest in the interface of personality and psychopathology. He was especially intrigued by the personality systems subserving the clinical construct/disorder of psychopathy. Each of us knew Lilienfeld at various junctures in his academic career, and here we celebrate his scientific interest in this substantive area of clinical psychological science. We share our intellectual and theoretical forays in the challenging terrain of the personality–psychopathology interface through brief overviews of our respective contributions and models on this topic. We share our perspectives, which at times are overlapping and at times divergent, with reference to the corpus of published work that each of us has produced through our respective research programs. We invite the reader to sample our different perspectives, to engage with this fascinating area, and, in doing so, to implicitly embrace Lilienfeld’s scientific passion for this developing area of personality and psychopathology science.
The concept and benefits of practicing compassion have been recognised and discussed in the contemplative traditions for thousands of years. However, it is within the last two to three decades, that research and psychotherapy have shown an increased interest in integrating compassion for addressing mental health difficulties and increased well-being. Although heavily influenced by Buddhist philosophy and Eastern traditions, compassion related studies and interventions are mostly developed and applied in the Western communities. In fact, compassion-based studies are particularly scarce in the Asian context. Therefore, whilst briefly outlining the theories and existing compassion-based interventions, this thesis explored the cross-cultural applicability of compassion-based interventions in the Asian communities. A rigorous qualitative investigation discussed that compassion is a culturally embraced concept in Sri Lanka, a Buddhist influenced, collectivistic Asian community, and discussed the challenges Sri Lankan participants (n = 10) experience when practicing compassion. Participants discussed that showing compassion to others was easier than showing compassion to themselves, whilst religion, society, and upbringing influenced these experiences. To understand whether these compassionate experiences are similar across cultures, a cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted among Sri Lankan (n = 149) and UK (n = 300) participants. This study indicated that some similarities (e.g., compassion to and from others, depression, anxiety) and some differences (e.g., self-compassion and self-reassurance, fears of compassion and external shame were higher in the Sri Lankan group, and social safeness was higher in the UK group) existed in the levels of compassion, and facilitators and inhibitors of compassion across the two samples. Therefore, it was important to note that the impact of compassion-based interventions might have cross-cultural differences. To test this, a longitudinal Compassionate Mind Training was implemented among Sri Lankan (n = 21) and UK participants (n = 73), which produced promising results towards increasing compassion for the self and others, along with significant reductions in distress and improvements in well-being in participants across both countries. Thus, this thesis suggests that although research is limited in exploring the cross-cultural applicability of compassion, compassion-based interventions can be used effectively in the Asian communities.
This volume presents up-to-date, comprehensive and high quality reviews of the psychopharmacological evidence-base for each of the major psychiatric disorders, written by expert psychopharmacologists from around the world. Building on the success of the first edition, the volume summarizes the wealth of new developments in the field and sets them within the context of day-to-day clinical practice. All chapters have been fully updated and new contributions on personality disorders and substance dependence added. Each chapter provides information about optimal first line pharmacological interventions, maintenance pharmacotherapy and the management of treatment-refractory patients. The content is organized according to the DSM-V listing of psychiatric disorders, and covers all major conditions including schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and Alzheimer's disorder. These issues lie at the heart of clinical psychopharmacology, making this book invaluable to all practising and trainee clinicians, in a mental health setting or a less specialised environment.
Ten-day-old rats, for whom an orange scent predicted morphine injections at 5 days of age, exhibited a marked preference for orange that was fully naltrexone reversible. Moreover, such rats, when smelling orange during a heat-escape task, exhibited a higher pain threshold than control rats. Together, these findings suggest that the orange odor in conditioned rats caused a release of endogenous opioids that both sustained choice behavior and modulated pain systems.