A new framework for understanding stress and disease: the developmental model of stress as applied to multiple sclerosis.

This paper proposes a new model of stress that integrates earlier models and adds insights from developmental psychology. Previous models describe the behavioral and physical effects of stress events, but have not explained the translation of experiences into stress itself. The Developmental Model of Stress shows how psychosocial developmental challenges in childhood create persistent negative beliefs and behaviors that increase threat perception and maladaptive stress responses. These developmental challenges produce early psychological and physiological predispositions for increased stress responses over time. Ongoing stress leads to dysregulation of physical stress-response systems (allostatic load), which is associated with multiple diseases. High allostatic load provides the necessary preconditions for the diathesis-stress model, which says the addition of an acute stressor to a weakened or predisposed system can lead to disease development. The paper also documents the evolving measurement of stress to better understand the stress-disease relationship, helping to resolve conflicting results between studies. The Developmental Model of Stress was combined with clinician insight and patient reports to build an integrative framework for understanding the role of stress in the development and progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). It includes the first mapping of maladaptive beliefs and behaviors arising from developmental challenges that are common to people with MS. An initial comparison shows these may be distinct from those of people with other chronic diseases. These beliefs and behaviors form the predisposing factors and contribute to the triggering factors, which are the acute stressors triggering disease onset. These often took two forms, a prolonged incident experienced as feeling trapped or stuck, and threat of a breach in a relationship. The reinforcing factors add the stress of a chronic disease with a poor prognosis and seemingly random symptom fluctuation, still managed with the same beliefs and behaviors developed in childhood, increasing physiological dysregulation and symptom severity. A pilot study is described in which these three categories of stress factors in MS were explicitly addressed. This study noted clinically important improvements in physical and mental well-being, providing preliminary support for the Developmental Model. Future research might expand on the pilot using a more robust sample and design.

Understanding Social Media Information Sharing in Individuals with Depression: Insights from the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory.

Purpose: How individuals engage with social media can significantly impact their psychological well-being. This study examines the impact of social media interactions on mental health, grounded in the frameworks of the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Schema Activation Theory. It aims to uncover behavioral differences in information sharing between the general population and individuals with depression, while also elucidating the psychological mechanisms underlying these disparities. Methods: A pre-experiment (N=30) and three experiments (Experiment 1a N=200, Experiment 1b N=180, Experiment 2 N=128) were executed online. These experiments investigated the joint effects of information quality, content valence, self-referential processing, and depression level on the intention to share information. The research design incorporated within-subject and between-subject methods, utilizing SPSS and SPSS Process to conduct independent sample t-tests, two-factor ANOVA analyses, mediation analyses, and moderated mediation analyses to test our hypotheses. Results: Information quality and content valence significantly influence sharing intention. In scenarios involving low-quality information, individuals with depression are more inclined to share negative emotional content compared to the general population, and this tendency intensifies with the severity of depression. Moreover, self-referential processing acts as a mediator between emotional content and intention to share, yet this mediation effect weakens as the severity of depression rises. Conclusion: Our study highlights the importance of promoting viewpoint diversity and breaking the echo chamber effect in social media to improve the mental health of individuals with depression. To achieve this goal, tailoring emotional content on social media could be a practical starting point for practice.

Research on factors affecting serial entrepreneurial intention: An interpretive structure model.

Serial entrepreneurship is a very common phenomenon in the world. Research on serial entrepreneurs is the core of understanding entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs, such as, why entrepreneurs insist on starting businesses many times? What affects the sustainability of entrepreneurship? Based on the interpretive structure model of systems engineering, this study constructs a hierarchical model of the factors affecting serial entrepreneurial intention, which proposed the basic conditions, key factors, and paths affecting serial entrepreneurial intention. Based on this, the hierarchical model of factors affecting serial entrepreneurial intention is also tested through a typical serial entrepreneurial case. The results show that: (1) there are 16 factors affecting serial entrepreneurial intention, and each factor plays a role at a specific level; (2) entrepreneurial expectations and identification and evaluation of opportunities are the key factors affecting serial entrepreneurial intention. We can improve the ability of the identification and evaluation of opportunities through entrepreneurial failure learning, and form reasonable entrepreneurial expectations; (3) entrepreneurial cognitive schema and behavioral addiction tendency directly affect entrepreneurs' identification and evaluation of opportunities; (4) demographic factors, financial conditions, environmental conditions, and entrepreneurial experience are the basic conditions that affect serial entrepreneurial intention indirectly through emotional perception and motivation factors.

Deficient semantic knowledge of the life course-Examining the cultural life script in Alzheimer's disease.

Cultural life scripts are culturally transmitted semantic knowledge of the expected order and timing of major transitional events in a prototypical life course. This cognitive schema has been shown to serve as an important mnemonic template that guides retrieval from autobiographical memory, especially for positive and important life events. Autobiographical memory deficits are one of the earliest and most prominent symptoms in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, no studies have examined cultural life scripts in patients with AD, despite semantic memory impairments being reported even in the early stages of the disease. The aim of the present work was to assess life-script knowledge in older adults diagnosed with AD, particularly in terms of knowledge for the content of life-script events and the timing and temporal order of these events. Twenty-one older adults diagnosed with AD and 22 healthy age-matched controls completed the standard life-script task (Berntsen & Rubin, 2004, Memory & Cognition, 32[3], 427-442). We found that while AD patients produced significantly fewer life-script events, the content of the generated events were quite consistent with those of the controls and the cultural norms. AD patients were particular impaired with regard to the normative timing and order of life-script events, suggesting that these components of the cultural life script are more vulnerable to cognitive decline. The findings are discussed in relation to impaired script knowledge and semantic memory deficits in AD.

Exploration and Analysis of the Aesthetic Cognitive Schema of Contemporary Western Urban Landscapes.

The multidimensional iterative composition of urban landscapes and the formation mechanism of the aesthetic perception dimension are elucidated. The cognitive schema theory aims to reveal the intrinsic mechanism of urban landscape aesthetic activities. Using London as an empirical case to explore the representation and structure of urban landscape aesthetic, a cognitive schema, the cognitive map of its urban landscape, was constructed based on the qualitative analysis of the texts derived from travel notes. Eight aspects of urban landscapes, together with 21 representative concepts of cognitive schema closely related to aesthetic perception, indicate the structures and approaches people perceive in urban landscapes. This article provides experience and reference for urban landscape enhancement and related practices in China by studying the contemporary Western urban landscape.

Stressful life events and depressive symptoms among adolescents in Malaysia: the mediating role of maladaptive cognitive schema.

OBJECTIVES: The present study aimed to examine the mediational role of maladaptive cognitive schema in the association between stressful life events, which are operationalised as major (i. e. negative life events) and minor (i. e. daily hassles) life stressors, and depressive symptoms among adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted to recruit participants across four selected states of Kedah, Kelantan, Melaka and Selangor in Peninsular Malaysia. This study involved a total of 1,032 adolescents from 25 government secondary schools, identified using probability proportional to size cluster sampling technique. Data were collected through a self-report questionnaire. RESULTS: Using structural equation modelling analyses, findings revealed a full mediation effect of maladaptive cognitive schema between negative life events and depressive symptoms, and a partial mediation effect between daily hassles and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided valuable insights about the significance of maladaptive cognitive schema as a mediator in the stress-depression association and advanced the understanding of mechanism underlying development of depressive symptoms among adolescents in Malaysia. Findings also benefit the clinical practice in the development of targeted depression prevention and intervention programs.

Sexual self-schema: a cognitive schema and its relationship to choice of contraceptive method among Polish women.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to examine sexual self-schema in women using different methods of contraception. Methods: Women (N = 560) aged 18-55 years were divided into two groups: those who used hormonal contraception (n = 285) and those who used non-hormonal contraception (n = 275). Participants were assessed using the Sexual Self-Schema Scale (SSSS), the Well-Matched Marriage Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and were also asked to fill in a structured questionnaire, giving information on their socioeconomic status, reproductive and medical history, sexual behaviours, psychosexual orientation, sexual experience and type of contraception used. Results: Women in the hormonal group scored lower on romantic, passionate and direct subscales of the SSSS, compared with women in the non-hormonal group. Of the total sample, 35% were classified as positive schematic. Women in the hormonal group were found to be more negative schematic and aschematic as well as less co-schematic compared with women in the non-hormonal group. Furthermore, women in the hormonal group were significantly less religious and perceived their self-evaluated weight to be higher compared with women in the non-hormonal group. Logistic regression revealed that negative schematic (odds ratio [OR] 6.6) and aschematic women (OR 3.7), as well as women with more deliveries (OR 1.6), were more likely to choose hormonal contraception. Conclusion: A sexual self-schema might be a relevant factor affecting the choice of contraceptive method. All women seeking hormonal contraception who are aschematic or negative schematic should consult with a sexual medicine specialist, because those individuals may have more profound reasons underlying their need for this type of contraception.

Awe or horror: differentiating two emotional responses to schema incongruence.

Experiences that contradict one's core concepts (e.g. of the world, people, the self) elicit intense emotions. Such schema incongruence can elicit awe, wherein experiences that are too vast to understand with existing cognitive schemata cause one to feel that schemata should be updated [i.e. a "need for cognitive accommodation" (NFA); Keltner & Haidt, 2003. Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 17(3), 297-314]. However, other emotional responses to schema incongruence, such as horror, have not been investigated. The current studies compared awe and horror to investigate if they are distinct emotional responses to schema incongruence. Study 1 observed significant differences between awe and horror in cognitive appraisals (e.g. certainty, legitimacy), indicating several areas of dissimilarity. Study 2 found evidence that awe and horror are both responses to schema incongruence, as schema incongruence and NFA were salient in awe and horror, but not a contrast emotion. However, awe and horror were elicited by different types of schema incongruence: awe by spiritual vastness, horror by extremity. Awe-eliciting experiences also appeared to be easier to assimilate than horrifying experiences, as NFA and uncertainty were significantly lower in awe than in horror. Differences in the functions of horror and awe are also discussed.

Concept Animation - a potential instructional scaffolding.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Concept animation - the graphical array of pictures accompanied by text as speech balloons, can help to improve learner's comprehension from basic to advanced levels concepts. When the process of concept comprehension is not facilitated, the learner may come in a transitional state of misperception and understanding, that can restrain their learning to a surface approach. The basic science concepts learned at the inception of a Health Sciences program play a vital role towards the development of higher-order thinking and problem-solving aptitude in the subsequent years. Hence, it is important to facilitate meaningful learning of core concepts and principles in difficult basic science disciplines, like Pharmacology. This work reports our experiences of employing concept animations as a 'visual aid' instructional strategy to simplify pharmacology concepts to undergraduate Optometry students. The fundamental ideas of drug pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and side effects were transformed into concept animations. The effects of these concept animations are explained by using Vygotsky's 'zone of proximal development, Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning and cognitive load theory.

Dismissing Attachment Characteristics Dynamically Modulate Brain Networks Subserving Social Aversion.

Attachment patterns influence actions, thoughts and feeling through a person's "inner working model". Speech charged with attachment-dependent content was proposed to modulate the activation of cognitive-emotional schemata in listeners. We performed a 7 Tesla rest-task-rest functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-experiment, presenting auditory narratives prototypical of dismissing attachment representations to investigate their effect on 23 healthy males. We then examined effects of participants' attachment style and childhood trauma on brain state changes using seed-based functional connectivity (FC) analyses, and finally tested whether subjective differences in responsivity to narratives could be predicted by baseline network states. In comparison to a baseline state, we observed increased FC in a previously described "social aversion network" including dorsal anterior cingulated cortex (dACC) and left anterior middle temporal gyrus (aMTG) specifically after exposure to insecure-dismissing attachment narratives. Increased dACC-seeded FC within the social aversion network was positively related to the participants' avoidant attachment style and presence of a history of childhood trauma. Anxious attachment style on the other hand was positively correlated with FC between the dACC and a region outside of the "social aversion network", namely the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which suggests decreased network segregation as a function of anxious attachment. Finally, the extent of subjective experience of friendliness towards the dismissing narrative was predicted by low baseline FC-values between hippocampus and inferior parietal lobule (IPL). Taken together, our study demonstrates an activation of networks related to social aversion in terms of increased connectivity after listening to insecure-dismissing attachment narratives. A causal interrelation of brain state changes and subsequent changes in social reactivity was further supported by our observation of direct prediction of neuronal responses by individual attachment and trauma characteristics and reversely prediction of subjective experience by intrinsic functional connections. We consider these findings of activation of within-network and between-network connectivity modulated by inter-individual differences as substantial for the understanding of interpersonal processes, particularly in clinical settings.

Six habits to enhance MET performance under stress: A discussion paper reviewing team mechanisms for improved patient outcomes.

Effective team decision making has the potential to improve the quality of health care outcomes. Medical Emergency Teams (METs), a specific type of team led by either critical care nurses or physicians, must respond to and improve the outcomes of deteriorating patients. METs routinely make decisions under conditions of uncertainty and suboptimal care outcomes still occur. In response, the development and use of Shared Mental Models (SMMs), which have been shown to promote higher team performance under stress, may enhance patient outcomes. This discussion paper specifically focuses on the development and use of SMMs in the context of METs. Within this process, the psychological mechanisms promoting enhanced team performance are examined and the utility of this model is discussed through the narrative of six habits applied to MET interactions. A two stage, reciprocal model of both nonanalytic decision making within the acute care environment and analytic decision making during reflective action learning was developed. These habits are explored within the context of a MET, illustrating how applying SMMs and action learning processes may enhance team-based problem solving under stress. Based on this model, we make recommendations to enhance MET decision making under stress. It is suggested that the corresponding habits embedded within this model could be imparted to MET members and tested by health care researchers to assess the efficacy of this integrated decision making approach in respect to enhanced team performance and patient outcomes.

Enmeshment Schema and Quality of Life Deficits: The Mediating Role of Social Anxiety.

Social anxiety is associated with significant functional impairment and poor quality of life. However, there is a paucity of research on how early childhood and family dynamics may be related to social anxiety and its impact on quality of life. We investigated the role of enmeshment schemas, cognitive structures associated with emotional over-involvement with and lack of differentiation from family. Enmeshment is associated with considerable functional impairment, including elevated anxiety and depression and impaired relationship satisfaction. As enmeshment schemas predict withdrawal from stressful social interactions, they may facilitate the development of social anxiety and, through that mechanism, lead to reduced quality of life. Participants completed measures of these constructs. Social anxiety mediated the negative association between enmeshment and quality of life, particularly within the domains of personal growth, social functioning, and achievement. Implications for novel etiological conceptualizations of social anxiety and subsequent treatment interventions are discussed.

Esquemas cognitivos e a análise de obras literárias: o personagem Lourenço Mutarelli / Cognitive schemas and analysis of literary works: the Lourenço Mutarelli character

O presente artigo examina a presença de Esquemas Iniciais Desadaptativos apresentados pelo personagem Lourenço Mutarelli de acordo com Jeffrey Young. Young desenvolveu a Teoria do Esquema elencando cinco domínios correspondentes a cada esquema cognitivo: Desconexão e Rejeição, Autonomia e Desempenho Prejudicados, Limites Prejudicados, Orientação para o outro e Supervigilância e Inibição. Os esquemas cognitivos foram identificados e analisados no material de Lourenço Mutarelli que criou um personagem autobiográfico em seu blog, suas entrevistas na internet, em suas histórias em quadrinhos e romances. Os domínios que prevaleceram dentro do material analisado foram: Desconexão e Rejeição, Autonomia e Desempenho Prejudicados, Orientação para o outro e Supervigilância e Inibição.

This article examines the presence of Early Maladaptive Schemas presented by Lourenço Mutarelli´s character according to Jeffrey Young. Young developed the Schema Theory categorizing five domains corresponding to each cognitive schema: Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, Impaired Limits, Other-Directedness and OverVigilance and Inhibition. The cognitive schemas were identified and analyzed over the Lourenço Mutarelli´s material who created an autobiographical character in his blog, his interviews on the internet, in his comic books and novels. The domains that have prevailed within the material analyzed were: Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, and OverVigilance and Inhibition.

Esquemas cognitivos e a análise de obras literárias: o personagem Lourenço Mutarelli / Cognitive schemas and analysis of literary works: the Lourenço Mutarelli character

O presente artigo examina a presença de Esquemas Iniciais Desadaptativos apresentados pelo personagem Lourenço Mutarelli de acordo com Jeffrey Young. Young desenvolveu a Teoria do Esquema elencando cinco domínios correspondentes a cada esquema cognitivo: Desconexão e Rejeição, Autonomia e Desempenho Prejudicados, Limites Prejudicados, Orientação para o outro e Supervigilância e Inibição. Os esquemas cognitivos foram identificados e analisados no material de Lourenço Mutarelli que criou um personagem autobiográfico em seu blog, suas entrevistas na internet, em suas histórias em quadrinhos e romances. Os domínios que prevaleceram dentro do material analisado foram: Desconexão e Rejeição, Autonomia e Desempenho Prejudicados, Orientação para o outro e Supervigilância e Inibição. (AU)

This article examines the presence of Early Maladaptive Schemas presented by Lourenço Mutarelli´s character according to Jeffrey Young. Young developed the Schema Theory categorizing five domains corresponding to each cognitive schema: Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, Impaired Limits, Other-Directedness and OverVigilance and Inhibition. The cognitive schemas were identified and analyzed over the Lourenço Mutarelli´s material who created an autobiographical character in his blog, his interviews on the internet, in his comic books and novels. The domains that have prevailed within the material analyzed were: Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, and OverVigilance and Inhibition. (AU)