Anja S. Göritz’s research while affiliated with Universität Augsburg and other places

Computer mouse tracking is a simple and cost-efficient way to gather continuous behavioral data. As theory suggests a relationship between affect and sensorimotor processes, the computer mouse might be usable for affect sensing. However, the processes underlying a connection between mouse usage and affect are complex, hitherto empirical evidence is ambiguous, and the research area lacks longitudinal studies. The present work brings forward a longitudinal field study in which 179 participants hourly self-reported their affect while their mouse usage was tracked both during their self-directed, contextless as well as task-bound computer use over the course of 14 days, resulting in a dataset comprising 10,760 instances of data collection. Extensive statistical analysis using null hypothesis significance testing and machine learning reveal weak and sporadic relationships between mouse usage and longitudinal self-reported affect at best. The results of this study challenge the immediate use of computer mouse tracking for longitudinal affect sensing and point to a necessity for more research.

Zusammenfassung Die durch Digitalisierung gesteigerte Flexibilität und Effizienz im Beruf haben ihren Preis in Form digitalen Stresses, welcher u.a. durch ständige Erreichbarkeit und eine stetige Anpassung an den Stand der Technik entsteht. In ihrer Doppelgesichtigkeit ist die Digitalisierung zugleich Quelle gesteigerter und verminderter Resilienz von Arbeitenden. Digitale Resilienztrainings stärken individuelle Resilienz, indem sie über das WWW, per App oder in anderen virtuellen Umgebungen psychische Fertigkeiten und Haltungen der Arbeitnehmenden wie Achtsamkeit, Optimismus und Selbstwirksamkeit schulen. Der Beitrag bespricht exemplarisch ein auf Optimismus abzielendes digitales Resilienztraining, das in einem Unternehmen durchgeführt und evaluiert wurde, und setzt es mit den Grenzen und Herausforderungen digitaler Resilienztrainings allgemein in Beziehung.

Imaginal retraining (IR) is an approach‐avoidance procedure that has shown promising results in previous studies. The aim of the present study was to dismantle the efficacy of IR's components in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). We conducted a RCT with nine conditions comprising eight intervention groups and a waitlist control group (WLC). Alcohol craving (primary outcome), consumption, depressive symptoms, quality of life, subjective appraisal, and side effects were assessed online at baseline, post intervention (6 weeks), and follow‐up (12 weeks). The sample consisted of 426 participants (age: M = 47.22, SD = 11.82, women: 50.5%). The intervention groups received instructions for four different components of IR (mood induction, mental avoidance of unhealthy stimuli, motor avoidance of unhealthy stimuli, approach to healthy stimuli) that were each conveyed with or without prior psychoeducation (PE). The intervention was delivered online. At total of 163 individuals (42.9%) used the intervention at least once. No group differences were found for any primary or secondary outcome after Šidák correction. Uncorrected statistics showed effects of significantly decreased alcohol consumption for the approach + PE group in the intention‐to‐treat and the merged motor avoidance group in the per‐protocol analyses at post assessment compared with the WLC. Exploratory moderation analyses revealed that individuals with high visualization skills benefited most. The authors conclude that visualization training and motivational components may increase the efficacy and adherence of IR.

Based on the job-demands resources theory, we examine whether leadership behavior affects followers' work engagement in the context of remote work during times of crisis, and how this effect can be explained. We focus on consideration leadership and its impact on followers' engagement under conditions of enforced remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therein, we examine the role of optimism as a potential mediator. To better understand how the impact of consideration leadership behavior unfolds during crises, we examine whether being new to remote work and feeling personally impacted by COVID-19 amplified the proposed relationship between consideration leadership and followers' engagement. A sample of 729 German employees participated in a three-wave study across 6 weeks in May and June 2020. Longitudinal structural equation modeling uncovered direct positive effects of consideration leadership on changes in followers' work engagement in the second time lag (T2 to T3), while optimism did not mediate this effect. Multigroup comparisons revealed that employees who worked from home were particularly responsive to consideration leadership. No moderating effects were found for whether the COVID-19 pandemic personally impacted employees. The discussion highlights the critical role of leadership in followers' motivation and wellbeing in times of crisis and remote work.

Increased hygiene behavior may be a factor in the development of contamination-related obsessive-compulsive symptoms (C-OCS). We aimed at investigating (1) the course of C-OCS over 1 year after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) the effects of changes in hand hygiene (i.e., duration and frequency of handwashing) and related distress regulation on the long-term course of C-OCS. In a longitudinal study, we assessed 1,220 individuals from the German general population at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (t1), 3 months later (t2), and 12 months later (t3). Pre-pandemic data were available in a subsample from 2014 (n = 430). A decrease in C-OCS over the first year of the pandemic emerged with a small effect size. Thirty-six percent of the participants scored above the clinical cut-off score at t1, 31% at t2, and 27% at t3. In 2014, only 11% scored above the clinical cut-off score. Hierarchical regression showed that C-OCS at t1 was the strongest predictor of a long-term increase in C-OCS. With small effect sizes, change in the duration (not frequency) of handwashing from t1 to t2, as well as the distress-reducing effect of handwashing served as additional predictors. Implications for information on hand hygiene guidelines are discussed.

The diagnosis of a nightmare disorder is based on clinically significant distress caused by the nightmares, e.g., sleep or mood disturbances. In order to understand nightmare etiology better empirical research should focus on studying factors that affect nightmare distress in addition to nightmare frequency. Overall, 2492 persons (1437 woman, 1055 men) completed the online survey. Nightmare frequency, global nightmare distress, and personality traits were measured. The findings indicate that in addition to nightmare frequency heightened emotional reactivity measured as neuroticism contribute to global nightmare distress and, thus, supporting the neurocognitive model of Levin and Nielsen (2007). Moreover, the recurring nightmares that relate to a waking-life event were associated with higher nightmare distress. From a clinical viewpoint, it would be desirable to carry out similar surveys using diagnostic interviews in order to determine the presence of a nightmare disorder and study the variables that are related to that diagnosis.

Resilience can be viewed as trajectory of stable good mental health or the quick recovery of mental health during or after stressor exposure. Resilience factors (RFs) are psychological resources that buffer the potentially negative effects of stress on mental health. A problem of resilience research is the large number of conceptually overlapping RFs complicating their understanding. The current study sheds light on the interrelations of RFs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic as a use case for major disruptions. The non-preregistered prospective study assessed a sample of 1275 German-speaking people from February 2020 to March 2021 at seven timepoints. We measured coping, hardiness, control beliefs, optimism, self-efficacy, sense of coherence (SOC), sense of mastery, social support and dispositional resilience as RFs in February 2020, and mental health (i.e., psychopathological symptoms, COVID-19-related rumination, stress-related growth) at all timepoints. Analyses used partial correlation network models and latent growth mixture modeling (LGMM). Pre-pandemic RFs were strongly interrelated, with SOC being the most central node. The strongest associations emerged between coping using emotional support and social support, SOC and sense of mastery, and dispositional resilience and self-efficacy. SOC and active coping were negatively linked. When we examined RFs as predictors of mental health trajectories, SOC was the strongest predictor of psychopathological symptoms and rumination, while trajectories of stress-related growth were predicted by optimism. Subsequent network analyses, including individual intercepts and slopes from LGMM, showed that RFs had small to moderate associations with intercepts but were unrelated to slopes. Our findings provide evidence for SOC playing an important role in mental distress and suggest further examining SOC’s incremental validity. However, our results also propose that RFs might be more important for stable levels of mental health than for adaptation processes over time. The differential associations for negative and positive outcomes support the use of multidimensional outcomes in resilience research.