Heart rate variability and psychological health: The key role of trait emotional awareness.

Studies have shown that Trait Emotional Awareness (TEA) - the ability to recognize one's emotions - and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) are both negatively associated with psychological disorders. Although these studies imply that TEA is related to HRV and may explain the association between HRV and psychological disorders, there is limited research investigating this implication. Such investigation is essential to illuminate the psychophysiological processes linked to psychological disorders. The present study aims to investigate a) the association between TEA and HRV, b) the association between HRV and psychological disorders, and c) whether TEA explains the association between HRV and psychological disorders. A sample of 41 German students completed self-report questionnaires as indicators of psychological disorders, including the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Snaith & Zigmond, 1983) for anxiousness and depressiveness, as well as the somatization scale of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL; Derogatis et al., 1976) for physical complaints. HRV was measured at baseline (resting HRV) and during exposure to a fear-provoking movie clip (reactive HRV). As hypothesized, a) TEA showed a positive association with reactive HRV, b) HRV showed negative associations with anxiousness and physical complaints, and c) TEA explained the relationships between reactive HRV and anxiousness, as well as physical complaints. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find any association between HRV and depressiveness. We discussed the contribution of TEA to psychophysiological health, limited generalizability of the current study, and direct future research to explore the underlying mechanisms linking TEA to health.

The Role of Death-Anxiety-Induced Fear of COVID-19 in Compliance With and Acceptance of Government-Issued COVID-19 Regulations.

The present research was conducted to empirically examine whether death anxiety is the fundamental fear that feeds people's fear of COVID-19 and leads to increased behavioral compliance with and acceptance of COVID-19 regulations. Results from an online survey of 313 participants from New York City show that death anxiety was, indeed, positively associated with behavioral compliance with, but not acceptance of, COVID-19 regulations via an increased fear of COVID-19. Hence, media campaigns that are designed to increase people's compliance with restrictive COVID-19 measures by stirring up their death anxiety are likely to meet their target, but they do not necessarily lead to increased public acceptance of the measures taken.

Misattribution of duties as free choices: The role of emotional awareness in self-infiltration.

Individuals sometimes mistake others' expectations or imposed duties for self-chosen goals, even though they are not congruent with their emotional preferences or integrated values-a phenomenon coined as self-infiltration. Previous studies demonstrated that self-infiltration is more likely to occur in individuals with reduced self-regulation abilities. Here, we investigated in a sample of 250 students whether this association may be mediated by trait emotional awareness, the ability to recognize and understand one's emotions. This mediation hypothesis could be confirmed. We discuss our findings with respect to their potential relevance for research on motivated goal pursuit and health and practical applications.

Corrigendum: Effortless Willpower? The Integrative Self and Self-Determined Goal Pursuit.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.653458.].