Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review.

The study of age-related changes in cognitive processes is flourishing as never before, making the area an exciting one for a growing number of researchers. In addition, cognitive aging research is moving out from its traditional roots in experimental and developmental psychology -- creating increased contact with cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. To reflect these changes in the field, this volume includes chapters on abnormal aging, the neuroscience of aging, and applied cognitive psychology along with the core section on basic cognitive processes. While other recent compilations of research in this area have given relatively brief overviews of the literature, the contributors were given space to review each topic in depth, asked to evaluate the field -- not simply their own contributions -- and to provide critical commentaries from their personal perspectives. Couched most often in terms of cognitive or information-processing models, the general perspective of the contributors is a biologically-based account of aging. This shared viewpoint gives the volume particular coherence in its treatment of theories and data. Topics covered include age differences in attention, perception, memory, knowledge representation, reasoning, and language as well as their neuropsychological and neurological correlates and practical implications.

The handbook of aging and cognition

This meta-analytic review of prospective and experimental studies reveals that several accepted risk factors for eating pathology have not received empirical support (e.g., sexual abuse) or have received contradictory support (e.g.. dieting). There was consistent support for less-accepted risk factors(e.g., thin-ideal internalization) as well as emerging evidence for variables that potentiate and mitigate the effects of risk factors(e.g., social support) and factors that predict eating pathology maintenance(e.g., negative affect). In addition, certain multivariate etiologic and maintenance models received preliminary support. However, the predictive power of individual risk and maintenance factors was limited, suggesting it will be important to search for additional risk and maintenance factors, develop more comprehensive multivariate models, and address methodological limitations that attenuate effects.

http://web4.uwindsor.ca/users/j/jarry/main.nsf/032ecd0df8f83bdf8525699900571a93/aa9ed943e56182bf85256abe005bc3f6/$FILE/Stice%20(2002).pdf

Risk and maintenance factors for eating pathology: a meta-analytic review

The Scope of Body Image Disturbance - the Big Picture An Overview of Assessment and Treatment Strategies Sociocultural Theory - the Media and Society Social Comparison Processes Appearance-Related Feedback Interpersonal Factors Peers, Parents and Perfect Strangers Feminist Perspectives Sexual Abuse and Sexual Harassment Behavioural Aspects of Disturbance - Conditioning, Context and Avoidance Cognitive Processing Models Future Directions - Integrative Theories, Multidimensional Assessment and Multicomponent Interventions

Exacting Beauty: Theory, Assessment, and Treatment of Body Image Disturbance

There are no gender differences in depression rates in prepubescent children, but, after the age of 15, girls and women are about twice as likely to be depressed as boys and men. In this article, three models for how gender differences in depression might develop in early adolescence are described a

The emergence of gender differences in depression during adolescence.

The expression and perception of facial emotion in brain-damaged patients.

This review focuses on facial asymmetries during emotional expression. Facial asymmetry is defined as the expression intensity or muscular involvement on one side of the face ("hemiface") relative to the other side and has been used as a behavioral index of hemispheric specialization for facial emotional expression. This paper presents a history of the neuropsychological study of facial asymmetry, originating with Darwin. Both quantitative and qualitative aspects of asymmetry are addressed. Next, neuroanatomical bases for facial expression are elucidated, separately for posed/voluntary and spontaneous/involuntary elicitation conditions. This is followed by a comprehensive review of 49 experiments of facial asymmetry in the adult literature, oriented around emotional valence (pleasantness/unpleasantness), elicitation condition, facial part, social display rules, and demographic factors. Results of this review indicate that the left hemiface is more involved than the right hemiface in the expression of facial emotion. From a neuropsychological perspective, these findings implicate the right cerebral hemisphere as dominant for the facial expression of emotion. In spite of the compelling evidence for right-hemispheric specialization, some data point to the possibility of differential hemispheric involvement as a function of emotional valence.

Neuropsychological aspects of facial asymmetry during emotional expression: a review of the normal adult literature.

Eighty-two younger and older adults participated in a two-part study of the decoding of emotion through body movements and gestures. In the first part, younger and older adults identified emotions depicted in brief videotaped displays of young adult actors portraying emotional situations. In each display, the actors were silent and their faces were electronically blurred in order to isolate the body cues to emotion. Although both groups made accurate emotion identifications well above chance levels, older adults made more overall errors, and this was especially true for negative emotions. Moreover, their errors were more likely to reflect the misidentification of emotional displays as neutral in content. In the second part, younger and older adults rated the videotaped displays using scales reflecting several movement dimensions (e.g., form, tempo, force, and movement). The ratings of both age groups were in high agreement and provided reliable information about particular body cues to emotion. The errors made by older adults were linked to reactions to exaggerated or ambiguous body cues.

The use of body movements and gestures as cues to emotions in younger and older adults

Body image - the individual, subjective sense of the body - is theorized to be a core component of personality (Freud, 1927). Assumed to be a matter of conscious as well as unconscious apprehension, body image is thought to reflect the combined impact of actual body structure and function, early and continuing body-related experience, lifelong social response to body appearance, and sociocultural values and ideals regarding the body (Fisher, 1990). Body image, thus, is a biopsychosocial construction, partially determined by, but not reducible to, the objective physical body. Because body image has been viewed as fundamental in personality development, variations in body image have been thought to be related to individual differences in broad aspects of personality and self-experience. Peto (1972), for example, theorized that differences in body image were related to different levels of self-esteem, a normally distributed dimension of personality, and varying degrees of depression, a dimension of abnormal personality. Peto (1972) focused on maturity of body image in his consideration of psychological vulnerability to depression. In contrast, most empirical investigations relating body image to self-esteem or depression have focused on the valuative aspect of body image, pertaining to body satisfaction. Studies of late adolescents and adults have reported a significant relationship between lesser body satisfaction and lower self-esteem or higher levels of depressive symptomatology (Abrams, Allen, & Gray, 1993; Denniston, Roth, & Gilroy, 1992; Goldberg & Folkins, 1974; Marsella, Shizura, Brennan, & Kameoka, 1981; McCauley, Mintz, & Glenn, 1988; Noles, Cash, & Winstead, 1985; Silberstein, Striegel-Moore, Timko, & Rodin, 1988; Teri, 1982; Tiggemann, 1994). Further clarification of the relationship between body image and depression seems important for early adolescents, particularly for girls. It is in the early adolescent years that rates of depression increase significantly, with this increase greater for girls than for boys (e.g., Stroufe & Rutter, 1984). Further, not only does the body change dramatically with puberty for both girls and boys (e.g., Lerner, 1987), but for girls it changes away from the cultural ideal of thinness (Faust, 1983): A normal part of girls' pubertal development involves a significant increase in fat, and thus weight (Frisch, 1980; Young, Sipin, & Roe, 1980). Associated with this physical change is the oft-observed decrease in body satisfaction for early adolescent girls (e.g., Koff & Rierdan, 1991), with a prominent focus of this dissatisfaction being weight and parts of the body associated with greater fat deposits (Kirkley & Burge, 1989; Tobin-Richards, Boxer, & Petersen, 1983). This study seeks to clarify hypothesized relationships between weight, weight-related aspects of body image, and depression in early adolescent girls. While empirical findings have confirmed a relationship between global body dissatisfaction and depression among early adolescent girls (Allgood-Merton, Lewinsohn, & Hops, 1990; Alsaker, 1992; Faust, 1987; Hops, Lewinsohn, Andrews & Roberts, 1990; Richards, Casper, & Larson, 1990; Rierdan, Koff, & Stubbs, 1987), it is not yet clear if weight experience per se is related to depressive symptomatology among these girls. Among the few pertinent studies, Kaplan, Busner, and Pollack (1988) related self-perceived classification of weight to depressive symptoms in a group of 11-18-year olds. They did not focus on early adolescents, whose bodies change most dramatically, nor did they measure and control for actual weight. Rosen, Gross, and Vera (1987) did control for objective weight in their study of high school students, and confirmed a relationship between a wish to change weight - presumably a measure of body image dissatisfaction-and depressive symptoms, with this relationship stronger for girls than for boys. …

Weight, weight-related aspects of body image, and depression in early adolescent girls

Objective
Relationships among coping strategies, negative body image, and eating disturbance were studied. Method: Subjects were 128 college women; measures included the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and three indices of negative body image. Results: Higher use of both emotion-oriented coping and avoidance-oriented coping via distraction was associated with higher EAT scores; higher use of emotion-oriented coping also was associated with more negative body image. Findings agree with data associating these coping styles with other measures of psychological distress and psychopathology. Task-oriented coping also was high, but unrelated to negative body image or eating disturbance. Hierarchical regression analysis yielded a significant interaction between emotion-oriented coping and negative body image: The higher the use of emotion-oriented coping, the less the level of negative body image appeared to affect EAT score. Discussion: Both the main effect for coping and the interaction suggest that high use of emotion-oriented coping should be considered a risk factor for eating disturbance. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 22: 51–56, 1997.

Elissa Koff

Papers

The expression and perception of facial emotion in brain-damaged patients.

Neuropsychological aspects of facial asymmetry during emotional expression: a review of the normal adult literature.

The use of body movements and gestures as cues to emotions in younger and older adults

Weight, weight-related aspects of body image, and depression in early adolescent girls

Effects of coping style and negative body image on eating disturbance