Wendy Berry Mendes
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 1751983 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Wendy Berry Mendes |
| PRENOMES | Wendy Berry |
| SOBRENOME | Mendes |
| ASSINATURA | MENDES W B |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of California, San Francisco |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4453-1201 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 55 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 472 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 55 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1999 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 12 |
Working through emotions
We investigated whether sadness leaves an "emotional residue" by inducing sadness in one individual and testing its transfer to an unaware new acquaintance. Participants ( N = 230; 115 dyads) completed cooperative tasks in same-gender dyads. Before meeting, participants recalled a personal event. In half the dyads, one participant (sad actor) recalled a sad event, while their partner (sad-paired partner) recalled a neutral event. In control dyads…
A randomized controlled pilot trial of low and high arousal resilience interventions for depressive symptoms
BACKGROUND: To cope with chronic stress, which can contribute to depression, humans often pursue arousal-reducing activities. Yet, hormetic stressors (intermittent, acute stressors) might also reduce chronic stress. PURPOSE: We compared the effects of arousal-reducing and arousal-enhancing interventions on depressive symptoms and perceived stress. METHODS: Female adults (N = 141; predominantly White, 63%, and Asian, 34%) reporting high perceived …
Contextualizing cognition
Income and education show distinct links to health and happiness in daily life
The Good, the Bad, and the Variable
Social relationships influence physical health, yet questions remain regarding the nature of this association. For instance, when it comes to predicting health-relevant processes in daily life, few studies have examined (a) the relative importance of both positive and negative relational experiences, and (b) variability in relational experiences (in addition to mean levels). To address these gaps, we conducted a daily study ( N = 4,005; ~ 30,000 …
A cluster randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of the ‘Caring for Providers to Improve Patient Experience’ (CPIPE) intervention in Kenya and Ghana
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT06085105. Protocol version and date: v2-11-07-23
Acute and Chronic Stress Associations With Blood Pressure
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the within- and between-person associations of acute and chronic stress with blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) using an app-based research platform. METHODS: We examined data from 31,964 adults (aged 18-90 years) in an app-based ecological momentary assessment study that used a research-validated optic sensor to measure BP. RESULTS: Within-person associations revealed that moments with (versus without) acute s…
Improving the Language Specificity of Stress in Psychological and Population Health Science
Emotional Empathy in the Social Regulation of Distress
Although research suggests distressed individuals benefit from others’ empathy, it is unclear how an individual’s level of empathy influences dyadic responses during emotional situations. In the current study, female participants ( N = 140; 70 dyads) were paired with a stranger. One member of each dyad (the experiencer) was randomly assigned to undergo a stressful task and disclose negative personal experiences to their partner (the listener). Ex…
Comparing daily physiological and psychological benefits of gratitude and optimism using a digital platform
Gratitude and optimism are positive psychological dispositions associated with beneficial outcomes. To examine their associations with physiological and psychological experiences in daily life, we examined data from an Ecological Momentary Assessment study ( N = 4,825), including blood pressure, heart rate, and reports of stress, health behaviors, and thoughts. Trait gratitude and trait optimism both predicted lower heart rate and blood pressure,…
Is vicarious stress functionally adaptive? Perspective-taking modulates the effects of vicarious stress on future firsthand stress
Mere observation of others experiencing stress is often sufficient to evoke stress vicariously, especially when people try to understand the situation from the viewpoint of others. Here, we tested whether and how the experience of vicarious stress, facilitated by perspective-taking, would influence individuals' affective and motivational reactions to an upcoming experience of firsthand stress-when they themselves encounter the same stressor in th…
Psychological and physiological stress and burnout among maternity providers in a rural county in Kenya
Most providers experienced moderate to high levels of stress and burnout. Individuals who were more driven to work excessively were particularly at risk for higher stress and burnout. Higher HRV of support staff and providers under age 30 suggest their more adaptive autonomic nervous system response to stress. Given its impact on provider wellbeing and quality of care, interventions to help providers manage stress are critical
Understanding disparities in person-centred maternity care
Studies in low-resource settings have highlighted disparities in person-centred maternity care (PCMC)—respectful and responsive care during childbirth—based on women’s socioeconomic status (SES) and other characteristics. Yet few studies have explored factors that may underlie these disparities. In this study, we examined implicit and explicit SES bias in providers’ perceptions of women’s expectations and behaviours, as well as providers’ general…
Bidirectional Links Between Social Rejection and Sleep
OBJECTIVE: This set of studies examines the bidirectional links between social rejection and poor sleep, a ubiquitous and increasingly problematic health behavior. METHODS: In study 1, a multiday field experiment, 43 participants completed a neutral task just before sleep on night 1 and a social rejection task on night 2. Objective and subjective sleep, postrejection affect, and physiological responses were measured. In study 2, 338 participants …
Influencing the physiology and decisions of groups
Many of the most important decisions in our society are made within groups, yet we know little about how the physiological responses of group members predict the decisions that groups make. In the current work, we examine whether physiological linkage from “senders” to “receivers”—which occurs when a sender’s physiological response predicts a receiver’s physiological response—is associated with senders’ success at persuading the group to make a d…
A consensus-based transparency checklist
We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository
Author Correction
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
More than a feeling
Stress can influence health throughout the lifespan, yet there is little agreement about what types and aspects of stress matter most for human health and disease. This is in part because "stress" is not a monolithic concept but rather, an emergent process that involves interactions between individual and environmental factors, historical and current events, allostatic states, and psychological and physiological reactivity. Many of these processe…
Cardiac vagal flexibility and accurate personality impressions
OBJECTIVE: Research has long sought to identify which individuals are best at accurately perceiving others' personalities or are good judges, yet consistent predictors of this ability have been difficult to find. In the current studies, we revisit this question by examining a novel physiological correlate of social sensitivity, cardiac vagal flexibility, which reflects dynamic modulation of cardiac vagal control. METHOD: We examined whether great…
Not in front of the kids
Parents often try to hide their negative emotions from their kids, hoping to protect them from experiencing adverse responses. However, suppression has been linked with poor social interactions. Suppression may be particularly damaging in the context of parent-child relationships because it may hinder parents' ability to support children's emotion regulation. Immediately after completing a stressful task, 109 parents of 7 to 11 year olds were ran…
When anger expression might be beneficial for African Americans
These findings suggest that anger expression, when coupled with low levels of chronic discrimination, is associated with adaptive patterns of physiologic responses among African Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record
Effects of oxytocin administration on receiving help
Receiving help can be a "mixed blessing." Despite the many psychosocial benefits it can carry, it sometimes has negative psychological consequences, such as loss in self-esteem or enhanced guilt. It is, therefore, important to understand the factors that modify responses to receiving help from others. We explored the role of the hormone oxytocin (OT) on affective and social responses to receiving help, given the putative role of OT in social bond…
A multi-method investigation of the association between emotional clarity and empathy
Higher emotional clarity, the extent to which people unambiguously identify, label, and describe their own emotions, is related to a host of positive intrapersonal factors but its relation to interpersonal factors is unexplored. We hypothesized that emotional clarity would be related to cognitive empathy (i.e., perceiving others' emotions) and to accurately understanding others' negative affect (NA), but not positive affect (PA), in the context o…
Interactive Effects Between Extraversion and Oxytocin Administration
Intranasal administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) appears to have positive social consequences, but these effects are often highly context- and person-specific. The present research examined whether the core personality trait of extraversion may be one important person-specific factor that plays a role in these associations. Across two double-blind randomized placebo-controlled studies (total ns: Study 1 = 121; Study 2 = 112), we observ…
Suspicion of motives predicts minorities' responses to positive feedback in interracial interactions
Discrimination and the Stress Response
This study shows that merely anticipating prejudice leads to both psychological and cardiovascular stress responses. These results are consistent with the conceptualization of anticipated discrimination as a stressor and suggest that vigilance for prejudice may be a contributing factor to racial/ethnic health disparities in the United States
Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others
The extent to which stigmatized interaction partners engender perceivers' threat reactions (i.e., stigma-threat hypothesis) was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 included the manipulation of stigma using facial birthmarks. Experiment 3 included manipulations of race and socioeconomic status. Threat responses were measured physiologically, behaviorally, and subjectively. Perceivers interacting with stigmatized partners exhibited cardiovascular reactiv…
How attributional ambiguity shapes physiological and emotional responses to social rejection and acceptance
The authors examined White and Black participants' emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to same-race or different-race evaluators, following rejecting social feedback or accepting social feedback. As expected, in ingroup interactions, the authors observed deleterious responses to social rejection and benign responses to social acceptance. Deleterious responses included cardiovascular (CV) reactivity consistent with threat states and…
Experiencing Discrimination Increases Risk Taking
Prior research has revealed racial disparities in health outcomes and health-compromising behaviors, such as smoking and drug abuse. It has been suggested that discrimination contributes to such disparities, but the mechanisms through which this might occur are not well understood. In the research reported here, we examined whether the experience of discrimination affects acute physiological stress responses and increases risk-taking behavior. Bl…
Threatened by the unexpected
Individuals who violate expectations increase uncertainty during social interactions. Three experiments explored whether expectancy-violating partners engender "threat" responses in perceivers. Participants interacted with confederates who violated or confirmed expectations while multiple measures were assessed, including cardiovascular reactivity, task performance, appraisals, and behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants interacted with Wh…
Turning the knots in your stomach into bows
Stress and Coping in Interracial Contexts
We examined the interplay of psychosocial risk and protective factors in daily experiences of health. In Study 1, the tendency to anxiously expect rejection from racial outgroup members, termed race-based rejection sensitivity (RS-race), was cross-sectionally related to greater stress-symptoms among Black adults who reported fewer cross-race friends but not among participants who had more cross-race friends. In Study 2, we experimentally manipula…
Social "facilitation" as challenge and threat
The authors conducted an experiment to test a theoretical explanation of social facilitation based on the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. Participants mastered 1 of 2 tasks and subsequently performed either the mastered (i.e., well-learned) or the unlearned task either alone or with an audience while cardiovascular responses were recorded. Cardiovascular responses of participants performing a well-learned task in the presence of ot…
Suspicion of motives predicts minorities' responses to positive feedback in interracial interactions
Intergroup contact facilitates physiological recovery following stressful intergroup interactions
The costs of caring
Challenge and threat responses during downward and upward social comparisons
We examined cardiovascular responses indicating challenge and threat during social comparisons. Experiment 1 manipulated comparison direction (i.e. upward/downward) within a cooperative social interaction, during which we measured cardiovascular responses, evaluations of demands and resources, and self‐reports. Participants interacting with upward comparison partners evaluated the task as more ‘threatening’ (demands relative to resources) than pa…
Implementing Social and Environmental Policies in Cities
Recent years have seen the appearance on urban agendas of social and environmental issues not conventionally understood as municipal concerns. Often framed as policy areas that promote sustainability, quality of life or social inclusion, these new arrivals are complex not only because they are often cross-sectoral, but equally because there are few regulatory tools and resources to support their implementation. This trend has resulted in a growin…
Influencing the World Versus Adjusting to Constraints
Although higher social class carries mental and physical health benefits, these advantages are less robust among members of racial and ethnic minority groups than among European Americans. We explore whether differential reactions to discrimination may be a factor in explaining why. Working-class and middle-class Latino American women engaged in an evaluative interaction with a European American woman who rejected them and held either prejudiced …
Can the absence of prejudice be more threatening than its presence? It depends on one's worldview
The present research used validated cardiovascular measures to examine threat reactions among members of stigmatized groups when interacting with members of nonstigmatized groups who were, or were not, prejudiced against their group. The authors hypothesized that people's beliefs about the fairness of the status system would moderate their experience of threat during intergroup interactions. The authors predicted that for members of stigmatized g…
Cardiovascular correlates of emotional expression and suppression
Three studies examined cardiovascular (CV) responses during emotional expression with empathically responsive strangers. Study 1 demonstrated that self-relevant emotional expression fostered CV reactivity consistent with challenge. Study 2 manipulated content of discussion by assigning participants to 1 of 4 conditions: emotional, nonemotional, emotional suppression, nonemotional suppression. In same-sex dyads. emotional expression elicited CV ch…
Implicit and explicit emotional reactions to witnessing prejudice
The present study examined how individual differences in motivation to respond without prejudice predict self-reported negative affect and physiological responses to the prejudicial acts of others. One hundred and one White participants were paired with a Black "partner" and together they watched two White men on film having either a pro- or antidiversity discussion. The higher participants were on internal motivation to respond without prejudice…
Vagal flexibility
This research explores vagal flexibility--dynamic modulation of cardiac vagal control--as an individual-level physiological index of social sensitivity. In 4 studies, we test the hypothesis that individuals with greater cardiac vagal flexibility, operationalized as higher cardiac vagal tone at rest and greater cardiac vagal withdrawal (indexed by a decrease in respiratory sinus arrhythmia) during cognitive or attentional demand, perceive social-e…
A consensus-based transparency checklist
We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository
Negotiating a Place for ‘Sustainability’ Policies in Municipal Planning and Governance
The widespread adoption of sustainability agendas in urban contexts has opened a now well-recognised ‘policy space’ linking sustainability principles with urban development and local politics. Central to these enquiries is a focus on the need to spatialise debates on sustainable urban development by examining the scales at which locally grounded tensions are resolved. Using a case study set in the City of Vancouver, Canada, this article shows how…
Income and education show distinct links to health and happiness in daily life
When anger expression might be beneficial for African Americans
These findings suggest that anger expression, when coupled with low levels of chronic discrimination, is associated with adaptive patterns of physiologic responses among African Americans. (PsycINFO Database Record
Influencing the physiology and decisions of groups
Many of the most important decisions in our society are made within groups, yet we know little about how the physiological responses of group members predict the decisions that groups make. In the current work, we examine whether physiological linkage from “senders” to “receivers”—which occurs when a sender’s physiological response predicts a receiver’s physiological response—is associated with senders’ success at persuading the group to make a d…
Community–university research partnerships
Community-university research partnerships (CURPs) are increasingly common, yet much of the existing research documents the experiences of individual projects or analyzes research methodologies associated with CURPs. Comparatively little is known about the role of university research centers in the design and implementation of CURPs. Even less is known about the role that interdisciplinarity (as a de facto characteristic of research centers) may …
Social "facilitation" as challenge and threat
The authors conducted an experiment to test a theoretical explanation of social facilitation based on the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat. Participants mastered 1 of 2 tasks and subsequently performed either the mastered (i.e., well-learned) or the unlearned task either alone or with an audience while cardiovascular responses were recorded. Cardiovascular responses of participants performing a well-learned task in the presence of ot…
Challenge and threat responses during downward and upward social comparisons
We examined cardiovascular responses indicating challenge and threat during social comparisons. Experiment 1 manipulated comparison direction (i.e. upward/downward) within a cooperative social interaction, during which we measured cardiovascular responses, evaluations of demands and resources, and self‐reports. Participants interacting with upward comparison partners evaluated the task as more ‘threatening’ (demands relative to resources) than pa…
Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others
The extent to which stigmatized interaction partners engender perceivers' threat reactions (i.e., stigma-threat hypothesis) was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 included the manipulation of stigma using facial birthmarks. Experiment 3 included manipulations of race and socioeconomic status. Threat responses were measured physiologically, behaviorally, and subjectively. Perceivers interacting with stigmatized partners exhibited cardiovascular reactiv…
Cardiovascular Reactivity and the Presence of Pets, Friends, and Spouses
Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the presence of friends, spouses, and pets on cardiovascular reactivity to psychological and physical stress. Methods Cardiovascular reactivity was examined among 240 married couples, half of whom owned a pet. Mental arithmetic and cold pressor were performed in one of four randomly assigned social support conditions: alone, with pet or friend (friend present for non-pet owners), w…
Cardiovascular correlates of emotional expression and suppression
Three studies examined cardiovascular (CV) responses during emotional expression with empathically responsive strangers. Study 1 demonstrated that self-relevant emotional expression fostered CV reactivity consistent with challenge. Study 2 manipulated content of discussion by assigning participants to 1 of 4 conditions: emotional, nonemotional, emotional suppression, nonemotional suppression. In same-sex dyads. emotional expression elicited CV ch…
Negotiating a Place for ‘Sustainability’ Policies in Municipal Planning and Governance
The widespread adoption of sustainability agendas in urban contexts has opened a now well-recognised ‘policy space’ linking sustainability principles with urban development and local politics. Central to these enquiries is a focus on the need to spatialise debates on sustainable urban development by examining the scales at which locally grounded tensions are resolved. Using a case study set in the City of Vancouver, Canada, this article shows how…
Threatened by the unexpected
Individuals who violate expectations increase uncertainty during social interactions. Three experiments explored whether expectancy-violating partners engender "threat" responses in perceivers. Participants interacted with confederates who violated or confirmed expectations while multiple measures were assessed, including cardiovascular reactivity, task performance, appraisals, and behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants interacted with Wh…
Big tales and cool heads
Students who exaggerate their current grade point averages (GPAs) report positive emotional and motivational orientations toward academics (Gramzow & Willard, 2006; Willard & Gramzow, 2007). It is conceivable, however, that these self-reports mask underlying anxieties. The current study examined cardiovascular reactivity during an academic interview in order to determine whether exaggerators respond with a pattern suggestive of anxiety or, altern…
How attributional ambiguity shapes physiological and emotional responses to social rejection and acceptance
The authors examined White and Black participants' emotional, physiological, and behavioral responses to same-race or different-race evaluators, following rejecting social feedback or accepting social feedback. As expected, in ingroup interactions, the authors observed deleterious responses to social rejection and benign responses to social acceptance. Deleterious responses included cardiovascular (CV) reactivity consistent with threat states and…
Implementing Social and Environmental Policies in Cities
Recent years have seen the appearance on urban agendas of social and environmental issues not conventionally understood as municipal concerns. Often framed as policy areas that promote sustainability, quality of life or social inclusion, these new arrivals are complex not only because they are often cross-sectoral, but equally because there are few regulatory tools and resources to support their implementation. This trend has resulted in a growin…
Protocol for an experimental investigation of the roles of oxytocin and social support in neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and subjective responses to stress across age and gender
Understanding the determinants of healthy aging is a major public health priority and identifying effective measures to prevent or delay the onset of chronic diseases is an important goal. Experimental research on oxytocin, social relationships, and health in adulthood will contribute to the scientific knowledge base for maximizing active life and health expectancy. At conclusion of the study we will have solid evidence concerning the effects of …
The costs of caring
Turning the knots in your stomach into bows
Social Psychophysiology and Embodiment
6.1 Roots of Social Psychophysiology and Embodiment 6.2 Neurophysiological Systems 6.3 Relative Advantages of Peripheral and Central Neurophysiological Indexes for Social Psychology 6.4 Peripheral Neurophysiological Indexes 6.5 Evolution of Social Psychophysiological Theories 6.6 Uses of Peripheral Neurophysiological Indexes in Social Psychology 6.7 Summary
Intergroup contact facilitates physiological recovery following stressful intergroup interactions
Can the absence of prejudice be more threatening than its presence? It depends on one's worldview
The present research used validated cardiovascular measures to examine threat reactions among members of stigmatized groups when interacting with members of nonstigmatized groups who were, or were not, prejudiced against their group. The authors hypothesized that people's beliefs about the fairness of the status system would moderate their experience of threat during intergroup interactions. The authors predicted that for members of stigmatized g…
Simulating murder
Diverse lines of evidence point to a basic human aversion to physically harming others. First, we demonstrate that unwillingness to endorse harm in a moral dilemma is predicted by individual differences in aversive reactivity, as indexed by peripheral vasoconstriction. Next, we tested the specific factors that elicit the aversive response to harm. Participants performed actions such as discharging a fake gun into the face of the experimenter, ful…
Implicit and explicit emotional reactions to witnessing prejudice
The present study examined how individual differences in motivation to respond without prejudice predict self-reported negative affect and physiological responses to the prejudicial acts of others. One hundred and one White participants were paired with a Black "partner" and together they watched two White men on film having either a pro- or antidiversity discussion. The higher participants were on internal motivation to respond without prejudice…
Experiencing Discrimination Increases Risk Taking
Prior research has revealed racial disparities in health outcomes and health-compromising behaviors, such as smoking and drug abuse. It has been suggested that discrimination contributes to such disparities, but the mechanisms through which this might occur are not well understood. In the research reported here, we examined whether the experience of discrimination affects acute physiological stress responses and increases risk-taking behavior. Bl…
Discrimination and the Stress Response
This study shows that merely anticipating prejudice leads to both psychological and cardiovascular stress responses. These results are consistent with the conceptualization of anticipated discrimination as a stressor and suggest that vigilance for prejudice may be a contributing factor to racial/ethnic health disparities in the United States
Municipal Food Strategies and Integrated Approaches to Urban Agriculture
At a time when the majority of world's population live in urban areas, the role of cities in addressing food system vulnerabilities is vital. One response has been a renewed focus by local governments in the global north on a host of individual food system issues. Still lacking are comprehensive municipal food strategies that take a coordinated approach to the food system as a whole. A municipal food strategy is an official plan or road map that …
Intergroup relations and health disparities
OBJECTIVE: This article considers how the social psychology of intergroup processes helps to explain the presence and persistence of health disparities between members of socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups. METHOD: Social psychological theory and research on intergroup relations, including prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, stigma, prejudice concerns, social identity threat, and the dynamics of intergroup interactions, is reviewed…
Consistency Over Flattery
Negative social feedback is often a source of distress. However, self-verification theory provides the counterintuitive explanation that negative feedback leads to less distress when it is consistent with chronic self-views. Drawing from this work, the present study examined the impact of receiving self-verifying feedback on outcomes largely neglected in prior research: implicit responses (i.e., physiological reactivity, facial expressions) that …
Aiming for the stomach and hitting the heart
Disgust reactions can be elicited using stimuli that engender orogastric rejection (e.g., pus and vomit; core disgust stimuli) but also using images of bloody injuries or medical procedures (e.g., surgeries; blood [body] boundary violation [B-BV] disgust stimuli). These two types of disgust reaction are presumed to be connected by a common evolutionary function of avoiding either food- or blood-borne contaminants. However, reactions to bloody inj…
Influencing the World Versus Adjusting to Constraints
Although higher social class carries mental and physical health benefits, these advantages are less robust among members of racial and ethnic minority groups than among European Americans. We explore whether differential reactions to discrimination may be a factor in explaining why. Working-class and middle-class Latino American women engaged in an evaluative interaction with a European American woman who rejected them and held either prejudiced …
Psychology (45 obras) · Social Psychology (36 obras) · Developmental psychology (32 obras) · Clinical Psychology (21 obras) · Social Psychology (20 obras) · Medicine (18 obras) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (17 obras) · Clinical Psychology (15 obras) · Cognitive psychology (13 obras) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (10 obras)