Cargando…

Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons

Social and personality psychology have been criticized for overreliance on potentially biased self-report variables. In well-being science, researchers have called for more “objective” physiological and cognitive measures to evaluate the efficacy of well-being-increasing interventions. This may now...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yetton, Benjamin D., Revord, Julia, Margolis, Seth, Lyubomirsky, Sonja, Seitz, Aaron R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6640165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31354601
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01630
_version_ 1783436592812130304
author Yetton, Benjamin D.
Revord, Julia
Margolis, Seth
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
Seitz, Aaron R.
author_facet Yetton, Benjamin D.
Revord, Julia
Margolis, Seth
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
Seitz, Aaron R.
author_sort Yetton, Benjamin D.
collection PubMed
description Social and personality psychology have been criticized for overreliance on potentially biased self-report variables. In well-being science, researchers have called for more “objective” physiological and cognitive measures to evaluate the efficacy of well-being-increasing interventions. This may now be possible with the recent rise of cost-effective, commercially available wireless physiological recording devices and smartphone-based cognitive testing. We sought to determine whether cognitive and physiological measures, coupled with machine learning methods, could quantify the effects of positive interventions. The current 2-part study used a college sample (N = 245) to contrast the cognitive (memory, attention, construal) and physiological (autonomic, electroencephalogram) effects of engaging in one of two randomly assigned writing activities (i.e., prosocial or “antisocial”). In the prosocial condition, participants described an interaction when they acted in a kind way, then described an interaction when they received kindness. In the “antisocial” condition, participants wrote instead about an interaction when they acted in an unkind way and received unkindness, respectively. Our study replicated previous research on the beneficial effects of recalling prosocial experiences as assessed by self-report. However, we did not detect an effect of the positive or negative activity intervention on either cognitive or physiological measures. More research is needed to investigate under what conditions cognitive and physiological measures may be applicable, but our findings lead us to conclude that they should not be unilaterally favored over the traditional self-report approach.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6640165
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-66401652019-07-26 Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons Yetton, Benjamin D. Revord, Julia Margolis, Seth Lyubomirsky, Sonja Seitz, Aaron R. Front Psychol Psychology Social and personality psychology have been criticized for overreliance on potentially biased self-report variables. In well-being science, researchers have called for more “objective” physiological and cognitive measures to evaluate the efficacy of well-being-increasing interventions. This may now be possible with the recent rise of cost-effective, commercially available wireless physiological recording devices and smartphone-based cognitive testing. We sought to determine whether cognitive and physiological measures, coupled with machine learning methods, could quantify the effects of positive interventions. The current 2-part study used a college sample (N = 245) to contrast the cognitive (memory, attention, construal) and physiological (autonomic, electroencephalogram) effects of engaging in one of two randomly assigned writing activities (i.e., prosocial or “antisocial”). In the prosocial condition, participants described an interaction when they acted in a kind way, then described an interaction when they received kindness. In the “antisocial” condition, participants wrote instead about an interaction when they acted in an unkind way and received unkindness, respectively. Our study replicated previous research on the beneficial effects of recalling prosocial experiences as assessed by self-report. However, we did not detect an effect of the positive or negative activity intervention on either cognitive or physiological measures. More research is needed to investigate under what conditions cognitive and physiological measures may be applicable, but our findings lead us to conclude that they should not be unilaterally favored over the traditional self-report approach. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6640165/ /pubmed/31354601 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01630 Text en Copyright © 2019 Yetton, Revord, Margolis, Lyubomirsky and Seitz. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Yetton, Benjamin D.
Revord, Julia
Margolis, Seth
Lyubomirsky, Sonja
Seitz, Aaron R.
Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons
title Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons
title_full Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons
title_fullStr Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons
title_full_unstemmed Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons
title_short Cognitive and Physiological Measures in Well-Being Science: Limitations and Lessons
title_sort cognitive and physiological measures in well-being science: limitations and lessons
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6640165/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31354601
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01630
work_keys_str_mv AT yettonbenjamind cognitiveandphysiologicalmeasuresinwellbeingsciencelimitationsandlessons
AT revordjulia cognitiveandphysiologicalmeasuresinwellbeingsciencelimitationsandlessons
AT margolisseth cognitiveandphysiologicalmeasuresinwellbeingsciencelimitationsandlessons
AT lyubomirskysonja cognitiveandphysiologicalmeasuresinwellbeingsciencelimitationsandlessons
AT seitzaaronr cognitiveandphysiologicalmeasuresinwellbeingsciencelimitationsandlessons