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Below is a list of some of the ways you may have felt or behaved. Please indicate how often you have felt this way during the past week: (circle one number on each line) Rarely or Some or a Occasionally or All of none of little of a moderate the time During the past week... the time the time amount of time (less than 1 day) (1-2 days) (3-4 days) (5-7days)

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This paper examines the concept of emotional inertia to capture a fundamental property of the emotion dynamics that may characterize psychological maladjustment. Emotional inertia simply refers to the degree to which emotional states are resistant to change. As psychological maladjustment has been associated with both emotional underreactivity and ineffective emotion regulation skills, we hypothesized that its overall emotion dynamics would be characterized by high levels of inertia. Using different methods, we provide evidence from two naturalistic studies that the emotional fluctuations of individuals suffering from low self-esteem (Study 1) and depression (Study 2) are indeed characterized by higher levels of emotional inertia in both positive and negative emotions than those of their counterparts. We discuss the usefulness of the concept of emotional inertia as a hallmark feature of maladaptive emotion dynamics. Keywordsemotion; psychological adjustment; emotional inertia; emotional variability Feelings change. Our emotional lives are characterized by ups and downs, changes and fluctuations following the ebb and flow of daily life. Studying the patterns and characteristics of these changes gives researchers insight into the dynamics of emotions and how people regulate their emotions, for better or for worse. In this paper we examine the concept of "emotional inertia" as a fundamental feature of the dynamics of emotional experience, and study its relationship to psychological maladjustment. Emotional variability and adjustmentOne of the most pervasive findings in the study of emotion dynamics is that high levels of emotional variability are associated with maladaptive psychological functioning. Individuals who display large emotional variability over time (expressed as for instance the standard deviation of repeated emotion assessments across time) are characterized by higher levels of depression, neuroticism, and lower self-esteem, among others (e.g., Eid & Diener, 1999; Kuppens, Van Mechelen, Nezlek, Dossche, & Timmermans, 2008).This line of research could be interpreted as showing that psychological maladjustment is characterized by greater emotional reactivity (Kuppens, et al., 2008 with the demands and threats in the environment (Frijda, 2007;Izard, 2009). Anger motivates antagonism and the removal of the object of frustration, fear motivates avoiding or fleeing a threatening environment, happiness signals that things are going well and promotes further approach. In sum, the adaptive value of emotions lies in their capacity to be mobilized in response to (internal or external) events. It therefore seems contradictory that emotional reactivity per se would be maladaptive. Experiencing changing emotions should be generally functional and adaptive (depending on how attuned these emotional changes are to environmental contingencies), and lack of emotional responsiveness may be a sign that emotional responses have become decoupled from environmental or psychological demands, and thus, may be indicati...

BackgroundWe now know that depression is associated with a chronic, low-grade inflammatory response and activation of cell-mediated immunity, as well as activation of the compensatory anti-inflammatory reflex system. It is similarly accompanied by increased oxidative and nitrosative stress (O&NS), which contribute to neuroprogression in the disorder. The obvious question this poses is ‘what is the source of this chronic low-grade inflammation?’DiscussionThis review explores the role of inflammation and oxidative and nitrosative stress as possible mediators of known environmental risk factors in depression, and discusses potential implications of these findings. A range of factors appear to increase the risk for the development of depression, and seem to be associated with systemic inflammation; these include psychosocial stressors, poor diet, physical inactivity, obesity, smoking, altered gut permeability, atopy, dental cares, sleep and vitamin D deficiency.SummaryThe identification of known sources of inflammation provides support for inflammation as a mediating pathway to both risk and neuroprogression in depression. Critically, most of these factors are plastic, and potentially amenable to therapeutic and preventative interventions. Most, but not all, of the above mentioned sources of inflammation may play a role in other psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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To evaluate the impact of an intensive period of mindfulness meditation training on cognitive and affective function, a non-clinical group of 20 novice meditators were tested before and after participation in a 10-day intensive mindfulness meditation retreat. They were evaluated with self-report scales measuring mindfulness, rumination and affect, as well as performance tasks assessing working memory, sustained attention, and attention switching. Results indicated that those completing the mindfulness training demonstrated significant improvements in self-reported mindfulness, depressive symptoms, rumination, and performance measures of working memory and sustained attention, relative to a comparison group who did not undergo any meditation training. This study suggests future directions for the elucidation of the critical processes that underlie the therapeutic benefits of mindfulness-based interventions.

Gender differences in anxiety were examined in a large sample of adolescents that included 1,079 who had never met criteria for any disorder, 95 who had recovered from an anxiety disorder, and 47 who had a current anxiety disorder. Participants were examined on a wide array of psychosocial measures. There was a preponderance of females among current and recovered anxiety disorder cases, but not among those who had never experienced an anxiety disorder. The female preponderance emerges early in life, and retrospective data indicate that at age 6, females are already twice as likely to have experienced an anxiety disorder than are males. Psychosocial variables that were correlated with both anxiety and gender were identified. Statistically controlling for these variables did not eliminate the gender differences in prevalence or anxiety symptom means.