Between-person and within-person approaches to the prediction of ambulatory blood pressure: the role of affective valence and intensity

Abstract

Identifying momentary influences on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) will help explain ABP variability; however, most research only examines aggregate ABP at the between-person level. This study used withinperson methods to examine whether affective dimensions-valence and arousal-differentially predicted momentary ABP levels. A community sample (n = 39) wore an ABP cuff that took BP measurements every 20 min for 24 h. At each measurement, participants reported levels of valence and arousal on electronic diaries. Multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of momentary and person-averaged levels of valence and arousal on ABP. Greater momentary negative valence and arousal predicted higher systolic BP compared to more positive or lower arousal assessments; higher averaged levels of arousal predicted higher DBP. The results suggest the independence of the effects of valence and arousal on BP. These findings have important implications for designing interventions to lower ABP.

Influence of emotional valence on perceived psychological distance depends on emotional intensity

“…In general, people are highly motivated to move closer to positive stimuli (Ritchie et al, ; Sedikides & Strube, ; Skowronski et al, ; Walker et al, ), while opting to distance themselves from negative stimuli (Kross et al, ), which leads to greater perceived psychological distance from negative events with low intensity. In contrast, as high‐intensity negative events signal threats, such events require a readiness for prompt response (Denson, ; Williams & Bargh, ; Zawadzki et al, ), which cancels out the influence of the motivation to maximize positivity, as it, in turn, leads to no difference in perceived psychological distance between positive and negative events.…”

“…Although the interactions of emotional intensity and valence on psychological distance have been ignored in prior studies, abundant evidence demonstrates that intensity-valence interactions exist in other domains (e.g., Basso, Schefft, & Hoffmann, 1994;Cohen & Pressman, 2006;Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985;Kirschenbaum, Tomarken, & Humphrey, 1985;Neumann & Waldstein, 2001;Winston, Gottfried, Kilner, & Dolan, 2005;Zawadzki, Mendiola, Walle, & Gerin, 2016), thus suggesting that people develop various strategies to cope with positive versus negative emotional experiences under different circumstances.…”

“…Negative stimuli, especially those with high intensity, usually indicate salient threats that require immediate reactions (e.g., Vlaeyen & Linton, 2000;Vuilleumier, 2005). Thus, intense negative events cause people to regard the provocations as cognitively salient by ensuring that approach motivation and strong physiological responses are in a vigilant state of readiness (Denson, 2013;Zawadzki et al, 2016), which then reduces the psychological distance from the target. Despite the automatic attention to negative stimuli (West, Anderson, & Pratt, 2009), we are also motivated to avoid them, as being closer to negative stimuli induces a tremendous amount of psychological stress (e.g., Baumeister, Heatherton, & Tice, 1994;Park, Faulkner, & Schaller, 2003;Schlund, Hudgins, & Dymond, 2013).…”

An upward cycle: examining bidirectional relationships between everyday activities and momentary affective well-being in caregivers

“…Participants averaged 51.92 assessments (SD = 9.50, range = 15-56), for a compliance level of 92.7%. With the present paper's focus on withinperson associations, power is determined in part by the number of total assessments across all participants rather than just the number of participants (Bolger & Laurenceau, 2013), and past work has indicated that the number of assessments obtained in the present study is adequate to detect moderate effect sizes (e.g., Zawadzki et al, 2016).…”

Autonomic emotional responses to food: Private label brands versus National Brands

“…Zurawicki (2010) argued that skin conductivity is a sensitive gauge of emotional arousal and Damasio (1994) stated that EDA is able to observe differences in sweat that is an indication of arousal, whether this has a positive or negative valence (see also Kenning & Linzmajer, 2010). Moreover, valence is easily explained and exemplified by sadness involving negative valence, while happiness typically involves positive valence (Zawadzki, Mendiola, Walle, & Gerin, 2016). In addition, Russell and Pratt (1980) and Watson and Tellegen (1985) reported the importance and relevance of studying these two constructs in combination, by defending that emotions are composed of a distinct pattern of both valence and arousal, and therefore should be both examined together.…”