IntroductionStress de ned in terms of perceptions of uncontrollability and unpredictability has been one of the central issues in behavioural medicine, partly because of its negative impact on physical and mental health [1]. Though recent studies have underlined the e ects of stress on brain functioning, stress-related changes in cognitive processes of emotion regulation have been under-investigated [2].Emotion regulation has been de ned as the physiological, motivational, behavioural, and cognitive processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions in order to accomplish one's goals [3], and has been considered to be important for understanding the onset, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety disorders (see [4] for review).Cognitive regulation of emotion refers to conscious cognitive methods of emotion regulation including attentional and evaluative processes [5,6]. A possible way to characterize cognitive strategies of emotion regulation is in terms of the involvement of the executive functions [7,8]. Executive cognitive emotion regulation, e.g. reappraisal, implies the use of higher cognitive processes such as mental set-shifting, evaluation, planning, working memory, and information updating and monitoring, whereas non-executive cognitive strategies, such as rumination, are associated with deficits in executive functions, e.g. attentional in exibility or inhibitory de cits [8]. For example, reappraisal was shown to be associated with enhanced a ective exibility [9], interference resolution [10], and working memory capacity [11], while rumination was associated with decreased cognitive exibility [12] and internal shifting impairments in working memory [13].Converging results have revealed that negative emotional states are strongly related to the excessive use of non-executive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, particularly rumination, catastrophizing, and self-blame.Low use of executive strategies, such as positive reappraisal, has also been found to be connected to psychopathology [e.g. 14-17], as well as to negative emotional states such as irritability and anger [18].Executive functions depend on the structural and functional integrity of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) [19], which guides emotions and behaviour through projections to subcortical regions like the hypothalamus and the amygdala [20]. Under safe conditions, the amygdala, which has been suggested to serve as a rapid detector of potential threats, is under tonic inhibitory control by the PFC.Under stressful conditions, critical areas of the PFC become hypoactive, resulting in a hyperactivation of the amygdala, which leads to the evocation of adaptive fear responses, but might also lead to chronic threat perception and sustained fear in unpredictable conditions (see [21] for review). Recent research in animal modelsdemonstrates that exposure to stress is regulation has yet to be investigated. The present study explores the possible role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in mediating the well-establishe...

Mentalizing or Theory of Mind (ToM) deficits in schizophrenia have been studied to great extent, but studies involving samples of trait schizotypy yield ambiguous results. Executive functions like cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and agency are all prerequisites of mentalizing, and it is assumed that the impairment of these functions contributes to ToM deficits in schizophrenia. Whether these impairments influence the ToM performance of people with high trait schizotypy remains unclear. Although impaired self-agency has repeatedly been identified in people with schizotypy, its role in mentalizing is yet to be investigated. The main aim of this study was to explore whether deficits in cognitive and affective ToM can be found in high trait schizotypy, and to identify in what way these deficits are related to the positive and negative dimensions of schizotypy. The secondary aim was to examine whether these deficits correlate with executive functions. Based on the dimensional view of the schizophrenia spectrum, an extreme-group design was applied to non-clinical volunteers demonstrating high (N = 39) and low (N = 47) trait schizotypy. Affective and cognitive ToM were investigated using the Movie for Assessment of Social Cognition, a sensitive and video-based measurement. Cognitive inhibition was assessed using the Stroop Test, and cognitive flexibility was analyzed using the Trail-Making Test. Agency was measured using a computerized self-agency paradigm. Participants in the high-schizotypy group performed significantly worse in the affective ToM task (d = 0.79), and their overall ToM performance was significantly impaired (d = 0.60). No between-group differences were found with regards to cognitive ToM, executive functions, and self-agency. Cognitive flexibility correlated negatively with positive schizotypy, and contributed to a worse overall and affective ToM. Impaired cognitive inhibition contributed to undermentalizing-type errors. It was found that non-clinical participants with high trait (positive) schizotypy – especially those with slight executive-function deficits – may have difficulties in understanding the emotional state of others and consequently in functioning in social situations.

The aims of this study were to gain a better understanding of adverse life events connected with the development of schizotypal personality traits and, also, to examine whether subclinical schizotypy has a relationship with vulnerability to traumatic intrusions and avoidance. In a cross-sectional design, 198 undergraduate students completed the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE), the Impact of Event Scale (IES), and Paykel's Life Events Scale, together with other relevant scales. The number of adverse life events was significantly related to overall schizotypy measured by O-LIFE scores and positive schizotypy measured by the Unusual Experiences (UnEx) subscale. The subjective severity of life events was significantly related to Cognitive Disorganization (CogDis). Measures of positive schizotypy (UnEx and CogDis) were significantly related to the scores on the IES and on the intrusion and avoidance subscales, too. Adverse life events are associated with schizotypal personality traits, which contribute to a tendency for traumatic intrusions, even in a nonpatient sample.

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BackgroundThe initial preference task (IPT) is an implicit measure that has featured prominently in the literature and enjoys high popularity because it offers to provide an unobtrusive and objective assessment of self-esteem that is easy to administer. However, its use for self-esteem assessment may be limited because of weak associations with direct personality measures. Moreover, moderator effects of sample- and study-related variables need investigation to determine the value of IPT-based assessments of self-esteem.MethodsConventional and grey-literature database searches, as well as screening of reference lists of obtained articles, yielded a total of 105 independent healthy adult samples (N = 17,777) originating from 60 studies. Summary effect estimates and subgroup analyses for potential effect moderators (e.g., administration order, algorithm, rating type) were calculated by means of meta-analytic random- and mixed-effects models. Moreover, we accounted for potential influences of publication year, publication status (published vs. not), and participant sex in a weighted stepwise hierarchical multiple meta-regression. We tested for dissemination bias through six methods.ResultsThere was no noteworthy correlation between IPT-based implicit and explicit self-esteem (r = .102), indicating conceptual independence of these two constructs. Effects were stronger when the B-algorithm was used for calculation of IPT-scores and the IPT was administered only once, whilst all other moderators did not show significant influences. Regression analyses revealed a somewhat stronger (albeit non-significant) effect for men. Moreover, there was no evidence for dissemination bias or a decline effect, although effects from published studies were numerically somewhat stronger than unpublished effects.DiscussionWe show that there is no noteworthy association between IPT-based implicit and explicit self-esteem, which is broadly consistent with dual-process models of implicit and explicit evaluations on the one hand, but also casts doubt on the suitability of the IPT for the assessment of implicit self-esteem on the other hand.