Alex J Zautra
Biographic Data
| ID | 4229494 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alex J Zautra |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alex J |
| FAMILY NAME | Zautra |
| SIGNATURE | ZAUTRA A J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Department of Psychology Arizona State University 85287 Tempe Arizona |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 230 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Sharing Positive Experiences Boosts Resilient Thinking: Everyday Benefits of Social Connection and Positive Emotion in a Community Sample
The influence of shared enjoyment and positive affect ( PA ) on resilient thinking was examined in 191 middle‐aged adults (40–65 years), participating in a study of resilience. Participants completed diaries assessing positive events, shared enjoyment, PA , and resilient cognitions ( RC ). Multilevel structural equation modeling was utilized to examine when and who engages in RC . Participants reported more RC on days they experienced more positi…
Emodiversity and biomarkers of inflammation
There is growing evidence that inflammatory responses may help to explain how emotions get "under the skin" to influence disease susceptibility. Moving beyond examination of individuals' average level of emotion, this study examined how the breadth and relative abundance of emotions that individuals experience-emodiversity-is related to systemic inflammation. Using diary data from 175 adults aged 40 to 65 who provided end-of-day reports of their …
Fusing Biodiversity Metrics into Investigations of Daily Life: Illustrations and Recommendations With Emodiversity
This study provides recommendations for the calculation of diversity-type IIV constructs and illustrates the potential for study of emodiversity to contribute to understanding of successful aging
The Psychosocial Context of Financial Stress: Implications for Inflammation and Psychological Health
OBJECTIVE: Psychological distress may contribute to chronic activation of acute-phase inflammation. The current study investigated how financial stressors influence psychosocial functioning and inflammation. This study examined a) the direct relations between financial stress and inflammation; b) whether the relationships between financial stress and inflammation are mediated in part by negative interpersonal events, psychological distress, and p…
Chronic pain and the adaptive significance of positive emotions
The February-March 2014 special issue of the American Psychologist featured articles summarizing select contributions from the field of psychology to the assessment and treatment of chronic pain. The articles examined a range of psychosocial and family factors that influence individual adjustment and contribute to disparities in pain care. The reviews also considered the psychological correlates and neurophysiological mechanisms of specific pain …
Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Conditions
Arthritis and other musculoskeletal conditions collectively represent the most common cause of disability in the United States. The widespread prevalence and disability associated with osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and fibromyalgia (FM) highlight the importance of identifying mechanisms that affect arthritis onset, course, and outcome. To understand the complexity of chronic pain, we apply a biopsychosocial model that simultaneo…
Neighborhood Contexts and the Mediating Role of Neighborhood Social Cohesion on Health and Psychological Distress Among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Residents
BACKGROUND: Neighborhood social cohesion (NSC) may contribute to understanding how neighborhood contexts influence the physical and mental health of residents. PURPOSE: We examined the relation of NSC to self-rated mental and physical health and evaluated the mediating role of NSC on relations between neighborhood socioeconomic status, ethnic composition, and health. METHODS: A sample of 3,098 Hispanic and non-Hispanic residents within 597 census…
Ambulatory Monitoring in the Genetics of Psychosomatic Medicine
Psychosomatic disorders are composed of an array of psychological, biologic, and environmental features. The existing evidence points to a role for genetic factors in explaining individual differences in the development and maintenance of a variety of disorders, but studies to date have not shown consistent and replicable effects. As such, the attempt to uncover individual differences in the expression of psychosomatic disorders as a function of …
Community Gardening: A Parsimonious Path to Individual, Community, and Environmental Resilience
The goal of this paper is to introduce community gardening as a promising method of furthering well-being and resilience on multiple levels: individual, social group, and natural environment. We examine empirical evidence for the benefits of gardening, and we advocate the development and testing of social ecological models of community resilience through examination of the impact of community gardens, especially in urban areas. The definition of …
Social resilience: The value of social fitness with an application to the military
Resilience has been regarded narrowly as a quintessential individual property by most investigators. Social resilience, however, is inherently a multilevel construct, revealed by capacities of individuals, but also groups, to foster, engage in, and sustain positive social relationships and to endure and recover from stressors and social isolation. Emergent levels of organization, ranging from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, …
Childhood Maltreatment and Diurnal Cortisol Patterns in Women With Chronic Pain
OBJECTIVE: To assess whether alleged childhood maltreatment is associated with daily cortisol secretion in women with chronic pain. METHOD: Women with fibromyalgia (FM group, n = 35) or with osteoarthritis only (OA group, n = 35) completed diaries and collected three saliva samples daily for 30 days, with compliance monitored electronically. Childhood abuse and neglect were assessed by self-report (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-short form [CTQ-s…
Daily Affect Relations in Fibromyalgia Patients Reveal Positive Affective Disturbance
OBJECTIVES: To examine daily positive affective disturbance in the context of negative affect (NA) and pain among patients with fibromyalgia (FM) to determine a) if FM patients experience a deficit in daily positive affect (PA) relative to osteoarthritis (OA) patients; b) if FM patients differ from OA patients in the day-to-day relations of PA and NA; and c) if patients diagnosed with both OA and FM differ from patients with either OA-only or FM-…
Resilience: One Part Recovery, Two Parts Sustainability
Fibromyalgia: Evidence for Deficits in Positive Affect Regulation
OBJECTIVE: Fibromyalgia (FMS) is characterized by chronic pain, high psychiatric comorbidity, and the absence of observable pathology. Our objective was to examine positive and negative affective indices, both at the trait and contextual levels, in FMS compared with a chronic pain control group, osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: The sample consisted of 126 female FMS (87) and OA (39) patients from the community. Participants answered a self-report qu…
Dynamic Approaches to Emotions and Stress in Everyday Life: Bolger and Zuckerman Reloaded With Positive as Well as Negative Affects
A decade ago, Bolger and Zuckerman (1995) incorporated personality into the study of daily life events and psychological distress. Their approach put an entirely new cast on research and theorizing in this area. In their work, they focused on the predominantly negative personality trait of Neuroticism. In this article we extend their work to include theory and measurement of positive events and indicators of well‐being. Integrating these research…
Emotions, Personality, and Health: Introduction to the Special Issue
Our intent in this introduction to the special issue on Emotions, Personality, and Health is to alert readers to the logic underlying the editors' choices of topics for the issue and to provide a brief summary of its contents. We discuss how the 10 articles fit together to provide a mosaic of diverse approaches to the study of emotion. Collectively, these articles show ways that emotion research may be integrated with personality theory to inform…
Chronic Pain, Stress, and the Dynamics of Affective Differentiation
We describe a program of research examining how the relationship between positive and negative affect varies both between individuals and within individuals over time. This Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA) proposes that under conditions that promote maximal information processing, positive and negative affective systems function relatively independently. In contrast, under conditions characterized by uncertainty, including pain and stress, the affec…
Impact of Two Types of Expectancy on Recovery From Total Knee Replacement Surgery (TKR) in Adults With Osteoarthritis
This study examines the impact of 2 classes of psychological variables--expectancies for the future and self-efficacy--on recovery of function and reduction in symptomatology among individuals seeking total knee replacement surgery (TKR). The authors collected outcome measures (SF-36, WOMAC, Clinician assessments) prior to surgery, 4-6 weeks after surgery, and 6 months postsurgery for surgery patients and controls. Linear trend analyses by group …
Depression and Reactivity to Stress in Older Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of depressive symptoms in reactivity to stress and pain in older women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Participants were 188 older women with RA (N = 87) and OA (N = 101). They were initially assessed for depressive symptoms and interviewed weekly for 12 to 20 weeks regarding interpersonal stress, arthritis pain, and negative affect. RESULTS: Hierarchica…
The Role of Stressful Events in the Relationship Between Positive and Negative Affects: Evidence From Field and Experimental Studies
Three studies are presented that examine the effects of stress on the relationship between positive and negative affective states. In the first study, recently bereaved and disabled older adults were compared to matched control groups without these recent stressors. Negative affect was inversely correlated with positive affect to a significantly greater extent for the highly stressed groups compared with controls. In a second study, older adults …
Locus of Control Influences Diathesis-Stress Effects in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
Investitations of the ongoing stressful situations among those with chronic illness
This paper examines methods of adaptation among those faced with stress from chronic health problems. Studies of disabled older adults and those with muscular‐skeletal disorders are described with special emphasis on the role of everyday life events, and the threats to well‐being imposed by chronic stressors. Attention is paid not only to psychological distress as outcome of a failure to adapt, but also to indices of psychological well‐being whic…
Major life events and minor stressors: Identifying mediational links in the stress process
Whether the relationship between major life events and distress is mediated through minor stressors was examined in three stress groups: those who (a) experienced the death of a spouse, (b) divorced, or (c) were the parent of a child with asthma. Each of these major stress groups was compared with a control group. Path analyses conducted by aggregating the data cross major stress groups indicated that major life events exert both a direct influen…
Predicting the Everyday Life Events of Older Adults
Predicting the everyday life events of people is a relatively unexplored topic, although several major theoretical approaches deal with related issues. The dispositional approach would assign a causal role to personality, while the situational approach would locate causation in the person's environment. Variations on these two extreme themes invoke an interactionist interpretation. Beyond this, a genuinely transactional approach focuses on the en…
Experimental and Measurement Approaches to Internal Control in At‐Risk Older Adults
Perceived control and similar concepts are of central importance in studies of coping, adjustment, and well‐being; research suggests that these concepts might be usefully considered in a transactional, person‐environment framework. The studies reported here assessed internal‐external control and personal mastery in samples of at‐risk older adults coping with the major life stressors of recent physical disability or conjugal bereavement. These stu…
Coping with a Community Stressor: The Threat of a Hazardous Waste Facility
Wan, Thomas T. H., and Scott J. Soifer 1974 Determinants of physician utilization: A causal analysis. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 15:100-08. Wan, Thomas T. H., and Ann S. Yates 1975 Prediction of dental services utilization: A multivariate approach. Inquiry 12:143-56. Watson, J. B., Susan B. Eve, and Edith M. Reiss 1980 U s e of psychotropic prescription medicines among older adults. Unpublished manuscript presented at the 33rd Annual S…
Community Gardening: A Parsimonious Path to Individual, Community, and Environmental Resilience
The goal of this paper is to introduce community gardening as a promising method of furthering well-being and resilience on multiple levels: individual, social group, and natural environment. We examine empirical evidence for the benefits of gardening, and we advocate the development and testing of social ecological models of community resilience through examination of the impact of community gardens, especially in urban areas. The definition of …
Positive and negative social ties among older adults: Measurement models and the prediction of psychological distress and well‐being
The factor structure of positive and negative social ties was studied among 246 older adults who were either recently physically disabled, recently conjugally bereaved, or matched controls. Covariance structure analyses were carried out on a network measure to determine whether positive and negative social ties represent independent domains of social experience, and to assess the degree to which their structure is invariant across groups undergoi…
Spouse criticism and support: Their association with coping and psychological adjustment among women with rheumatoid arthritis
Examined whether psychological adjustment of women with rheumatoid arthritis would be related to the support and criticism the patient received from the husband. Interviews were conducted with the husbands of 103 women with rheumatoid arthritis. Spouse interviews were content coded for critical remarks. Wives completed a revised version of the Ways of Coping Scale and a scale of the perceived supportiveness of the spouse. Husbands completed ratin…
Social resilience: The value of social fitness with an application to the military
Resilience has been regarded narrowly as a quintessential individual property by most investigators. Social resilience, however, is inherently a multilevel construct, revealed by capacities of individuals, but also groups, to foster, engage in, and sustain positive social relationships and to endure and recover from stressors and social isolation. Emergent levels of organization, ranging from dyads, families, and groups to cities, civilizations, …
Measuring small life events
The development of an inventory to assess small events is described. In the construction of the inventory specific criteria were established and existing event inventories were screened for items and new items written to fit these criteria. The event had to denote an observable change in a person's everyday life, have a discrete beginning, be classifiable as either desirable or undesirable, and be scaled as having an average of 250 Life Change Un…
Social resources and the quality of life
Major life events and minor stressors: Identifying mediational links in the stress process
Whether the relationship between major life events and distress is mediated through minor stressors was examined in three stress groups: those who (a) experienced the death of a spouse, (b) divorced, or (c) were the parent of a child with asthma. Each of these major stress groups was compared with a control group. Path analyses conducted by aggregating the data cross major stress groups indicated that major life events exert both a direct influen…
Fusing Biodiversity Metrics into Investigations of Daily Life: Illustrations and Recommendations With Emodiversity
This study provides recommendations for the calculation of diversity-type IIV constructs and illustrates the potential for study of emodiversity to contribute to understanding of successful aging
Demands and desires in daily life: Some influences on well‐being
Some everyday life consequences of disability and bereavement for older adults
The study analyzed daily event differences between groups experiencing the major stressors of conjugal bereavement and physical disability, and analyzed the association of everyday events with self-reports of mental health for different groups across a 3-month time span. Monthly interviews were conducted with 61 recently conjugally bereaved, 62 recently physically disabled, and 123 matched-comparison older adults between the ages of 60 and 80. Th…
Experimental and Measurement Approaches to Internal Control in At‐Risk Older Adults
Perceived control and similar concepts are of central importance in studies of coping, adjustment, and well‐being; research suggests that these concepts might be usefully considered in a transactional, person‐environment framework. The studies reported here assessed internal‐external control and personal mastery in samples of at‐risk older adults coping with the major life stressors of recent physical disability or conjugal bereavement. These stu…
Coping success and its relationship to psychological distress for older adults
The role of coping success on psychosocial distress was investigated in 147 older adults who experienced a major health problem and 82 older adults who reported a major loss in the past 6 months. Home interviews provided data on satisfaction with coping efforts and negative changes associated with events. Significant predictors of coping success were identified and controlled for in subsequent analyses predicting mental health. Efficacy in coping…
Coping and adaptation to facial pain in contrast to other stressful life events
This article investigates whether coping with chronic pain influences adaptation to other negative life events using data on Temporomandibular Pain and Dysfunction Syndrome (TMPDS) patients (N = 99) and nonpatient controls (N = 98). It is found that cases cope very differently with pain than with other stressful events and that cases and controls do not differ on coping with nonpain events, with 2 exceptions. Cases view nonfateful events as more …
Job stress and task interest: Two factors in work life quality
A study of how stressful job events and task interest are associated with quality of work life was conducted through interviews and questionnaire assessment of 56 members of the nursing staff at a psychiatric hospital. Factor analyses of work life satisfactions revealed two separable factors, one that accounted for satisfaction with the work itself and another that identified level of satisfaction with the work context. As predicted by a two-fact…
Sharing Positive Experiences Boosts Resilient Thinking: Everyday Benefits of Social Connection and Positive Emotion in a Community Sample
The influence of shared enjoyment and positive affect ( PA ) on resilient thinking was examined in 191 middle‐aged adults (40–65 years), participating in a study of resilience. Participants completed diaries assessing positive events, shared enjoyment, PA , and resilient cognitions ( RC ). Multilevel structural equation modeling was utilized to examine when and who engages in RC . Participants reported more RC on days they experienced more positi…
Chronic pain and the adaptive significance of positive emotions
The February-March 2014 special issue of the American Psychologist featured articles summarizing select contributions from the field of psychology to the assessment and treatment of chronic pain. The articles examined a range of psychosocial and family factors that influence individual adjustment and contribute to disparities in pain care. The reviews also considered the psychological correlates and neurophysiological mechanisms of specific pain …
Social resources and the quality of life
Demands and desires in daily life: Some influences on well‐being
Life events and perceptions of life quality: Developments in a two-factor approach
This paper reviews research on how a two-factor model explains relationships between life events and perceptions of life quality. Positive life events were found to have different effects than negative life events. People rated their distress higher after experiencing negative events, but they did not always rate the quality of their daily lives lower. Positive events increased ratings of positive affect but were usually unrelated to psychologica…
Daily event causation: An approach to elderly life quality
A conceptual framework for analyzing the role of daily events in the quality of life (QOL) of the elderly is presented. Concepts involving perceptions of control over the causation of daily events are shown to relate to positive and negative aspects of adjustment. Prior research by the authors has shown the utility of assessing the following event sequence: causation of event, response to event, outcome of event activity. The elements in this seq…
Distortion in control attributions for real life events
Coping with a Community Stressor: The Threat of a Hazardous Waste Facility
Wan, Thomas T. H., and Scott J. Soifer 1974 Determinants of physician utilization: A causal analysis. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 15:100-08. Wan, Thomas T. H., and Ann S. Yates 1975 Prediction of dental services utilization: A multivariate approach. Inquiry 12:143-56. Watson, J. B., Susan B. Eve, and Edith M. Reiss 1980 U s e of psychotropic prescription medicines among older adults. Unpublished manuscript presented at the 33rd Annual S…
Job stress and task interest: Two factors in work life quality
A study of how stressful job events and task interest are associated with quality of work life was conducted through interviews and questionnaire assessment of 56 members of the nursing staff at a psychiatric hospital. Factor analyses of work life satisfactions revealed two separable factors, one that accounted for satisfaction with the work itself and another that identified level of satisfaction with the work context. As predicted by a two-fact…
Measuring small life events
The development of an inventory to assess small events is described. In the construction of the inventory specific criteria were established and existing event inventories were screened for items and new items written to fit these criteria. The event had to denote an observable change in a person's everyday life, have a discrete beginning, be classifiable as either desirable or undesirable, and be scaled as having an average of 250 Life Change Un…
Demands, desires, and well-being: An assessment of events, responses, and outcomes
This project investigated the impact of daily events, varying in source of causation, on reports of physical and mental well-being in a multiple-measurement design (5 days). Subjects responded daily to health and mood instruments and to instruments assessing event occurrence, responses to events, and outcomes of those responses. Events were either environment-initiated “demands” or self-initiated “desires.” Positive and negative components of wel…
Minimizing the negative impact of a planned hazardous waste facility on the surrounding communities
Positive and negative social ties among older adults: Measurement models and the prediction of psychological distress and well‐being
The factor structure of positive and negative social ties was studied among 246 older adults who were either recently physically disabled, recently conjugally bereaved, or matched controls. Covariance structure analyses were carried out on a network measure to determine whether positive and negative social ties represent independent domains of social experience, and to assess the degree to which their structure is invariant across groups undergoi…
Spouse criticism and support: Their association with coping and psychological adjustment among women with rheumatoid arthritis
Examined whether psychological adjustment of women with rheumatoid arthritis would be related to the support and criticism the patient received from the husband. Interviews were conducted with the husbands of 103 women with rheumatoid arthritis. Spouse interviews were content coded for critical remarks. Wives completed a revised version of the Ways of Coping Scale and a scale of the perceived supportiveness of the spouse. Husbands completed ratin…
Some everyday life consequences of disability and bereavement for older adults
The study analyzed daily event differences between groups experiencing the major stressors of conjugal bereavement and physical disability, and analyzed the association of everyday events with self-reports of mental health for different groups across a 3-month time span. Monthly interviews were conducted with 61 recently conjugally bereaved, 62 recently physically disabled, and 123 matched-comparison older adults between the ages of 60 and 80. Th…
Coping and adaptation to facial pain in contrast to other stressful life events
This article investigates whether coping with chronic pain influences adaptation to other negative life events using data on Temporomandibular Pain and Dysfunction Syndrome (TMPDS) patients (N = 99) and nonpatient controls (N = 98). It is found that cases cope very differently with pain than with other stressful events and that cases and controls do not differ on coping with nonpain events, with 2 exceptions. Cases view nonfateful events as more …
Predicting the Everyday Life Events of Older Adults
Predicting the everyday life events of people is a relatively unexplored topic, although several major theoretical approaches deal with related issues. The dispositional approach would assign a causal role to personality, while the situational approach would locate causation in the person's environment. Variations on these two extreme themes invoke an interactionist interpretation. Beyond this, a genuinely transactional approach focuses on the en…
Experimental and Measurement Approaches to Internal Control in At‐Risk Older Adults
Perceived control and similar concepts are of central importance in studies of coping, adjustment, and well‐being; research suggests that these concepts might be usefully considered in a transactional, person‐environment framework. The studies reported here assessed internal‐external control and personal mastery in samples of at‐risk older adults coping with the major life stressors of recent physical disability or conjugal bereavement. These stu…
Coping success and its relationship to psychological distress for older adults
The role of coping success on psychosocial distress was investigated in 147 older adults who experienced a major health problem and 82 older adults who reported a major loss in the past 6 months. Home interviews provided data on satisfaction with coping efforts and negative changes associated with events. Significant predictors of coping success were identified and controlled for in subsequent analyses predicting mental health. Efficacy in coping…
Investitations of the ongoing stressful situations among those with chronic illness
This paper examines methods of adaptation among those faced with stress from chronic health problems. Studies of disabled older adults and those with muscular‐skeletal disorders are described with special emphasis on the role of everyday life events, and the threats to well‐being imposed by chronic stressors. Attention is paid not only to psychological distress as outcome of a failure to adapt, but also to indices of psychological well‐being whic…
Major life events and minor stressors: Identifying mediational links in the stress process
Whether the relationship between major life events and distress is mediated through minor stressors was examined in three stress groups: those who (a) experienced the death of a spouse, (b) divorced, or (c) were the parent of a child with asthma. Each of these major stress groups was compared with a control group. Path analyses conducted by aggregating the data cross major stress groups indicated that major life events exert both a direct influen…
Locus of Control Influences Diathesis-Stress Effects in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
The Role of Stressful Events in the Relationship Between Positive and Negative Affects: Evidence From Field and Experimental Studies
Three studies are presented that examine the effects of stress on the relationship between positive and negative affective states. In the first study, recently bereaved and disabled older adults were compared to matched control groups without these recent stressors. Negative affect was inversely correlated with positive affect to a significantly greater extent for the highly stressed groups compared with controls. In a second study, older adults …
Depression and Reactivity to Stress in Older Women With Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the role of depressive symptoms in reactivity to stress and pain in older women with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Participants were 188 older women with RA (N = 87) and OA (N = 101). They were initially assessed for depressive symptoms and interviewed weekly for 12 to 20 weeks regarding interpersonal stress, arthritis pain, and negative affect. RESULTS: Hierarchica…
Emotions, Personality, and Health: Introduction to the Special Issue
Our intent in this introduction to the special issue on Emotions, Personality, and Health is to alert readers to the logic underlying the editors' choices of topics for the issue and to provide a brief summary of its contents. We discuss how the 10 articles fit together to provide a mosaic of diverse approaches to the study of emotion. Collectively, these articles show ways that emotion research may be integrated with personality theory to inform…
Chronic Pain, Stress, and the Dynamics of Affective Differentiation
We describe a program of research examining how the relationship between positive and negative affect varies both between individuals and within individuals over time. This Dynamic Model of Affect (DMA) proposes that under conditions that promote maximal information processing, positive and negative affective systems function relatively independently. In contrast, under conditions characterized by uncertainty, including pain and stress, the affec…
Impact of Two Types of Expectancy on Recovery From Total Knee Replacement Surgery (TKR) in Adults With Osteoarthritis
This study examines the impact of 2 classes of psychological variables--expectancies for the future and self-efficacy--on recovery of function and reduction in symptomatology among individuals seeking total knee replacement surgery (TKR). The authors collected outcome measures (SF-36, WOMAC, Clinician assessments) prior to surgery, 4-6 weeks after surgery, and 6 months postsurgery for surgery patients and controls. Linear trend analyses by group …
Psychology (37 works) · Medicine (26 works) · Clinical Psychology (21 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Psychiatry (18 works) · Developmental psychology (15 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (10 works) · Psychotherapist (10 works) · Stressor (10 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works)