Sara H. Konrath
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Using mobile technology for psychosocial interventions
Mobile phones are a common mode of connecting with people in the digital age. Every day, young Americans on average send and receive 130 text messages and spend over nine hours using their mobile phones. Parents, educators, and social critics worry that at best, this displaces our deepest social connections—and at worst, it promotes bullying, sexting, and privacy abuses. And there is reason for such concerns. Professor Sara Konrath’s research has found recent declines in empathy among young Americans since the late 1970s. Fortunately, research also ¬finds that empathy can be taught and learned. Konrath is currently working with a multidisciplinary group of collaborators to develop theoretically-based mobile interventions to help increase empathy and prosocial behavior—thereby reducing bullying, aggression, and violence. Her mobile program, Text to Connect, sends daily text reminders that encourage users to think about and care for others. The program increases participants’ prosocial motives and behaviors—compared to control messages—with effects lasting up to six months. Konrath is also developing a fun empathy-building app named Random App of Kindness, which provides games based on scientific principles of empathy development. Professor Konrath sees the larger potential of mobile-based interventions in other psychosocial interventions, including those aimed at increasing mental health and well-being. Professor Konrath’s work to create tools to address declining empathy among younger generations is another example of how IUPUI faculty are TRANSLATING RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.
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Item Synergies(2002) Ross, Michael; Konrath, Sara H.Item Our glories, our shames: Expanding the self in temporal self appraisal theory(2003) Konrath, Sara H.; Ross, MichaelItem A Reply to Rose, Livengood, Sytsma, and Machery(2011) Sripada, Chandra; Gonzalez, Richard; Kessler, Daniel; Laber, Eric; Konrath, Sara H.; Nair, VijayItem A Century of Self-Esteem(2011) Konrath, Sara H.; Anderson, Paul A.Google n-grams can be used by researchers to track changes across time in the use of specific words and phrases. N-grams includes a corpus of approximately 15 million published books (in various languages). In this chapter we use google n-grams to illustrate temporal trends in the use of the word “self-esteem” in English-language books published from 1900-2000. We first review past research on temporal trends in selfesteem and related traits. Next, we discuss some limitations of this research, and how ngrams can help to address such limitations. Finally, we use the “self-esteem” n-gram data to conduct a quantitative sociohistorical analysis of three potential factors that are hypothesized to cause societal-level shifts in self-esteem. These factors are derived from ecological models of human development (e.g. Bronfenbrenner, 1979), and range from the immediate everyday social context of individuals (e.g. family, school), to a mid-level context (e.g. community), to the broader cultural context (e.g. general political and economic environment). We present evidence for these potential causes of changes in the importance of self-esteem. Based on this evidence, we make recommendations as to the best focus of efforts to quell the rising tide of unrealistic self-esteem.Item Abuse-Related Post-Traumatic Stress, Coping, and Tobacco Use in Pregnancy(2011-07-01) Lopez, William D.; Konrath, Sara H.; Seng, Julia S.Objective: To examine the relationship between trauma history, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), coping, and smoking in a diverse sample of pregnant women, some of whom are active smokers. Design: Secondary analysis from a prospective study on PTSD and pregnancy outcomes. Setting: Maternity clinics at three health systems in the midwestern United States. Participants: Women age 18 or older (1,547) interviewed at gestational age fewer than 28 weeks. Methods: Participants were classified at nonsmokers, quitters (stopped smoking during pregnancy), and pregnancy smokers. Demographic, trauma, and pregnancy factors, substance use, and use of tobacco to cope were compared across groups. Logistic regression assessed the influence of these factors on being a smoker versus a nonsmoker and a quitter versus a pregnancy smoker. Results: Smokers differed from nonsmokers on all demographic risk factors (being African American, being pregnant as a teen, having lower income and less education, and living in high-crime areas), had higher rates of current and lifetime PTSD, and were more likely to report abuse as their worst trauma. Pregnancy smokers had lower levels of education, were more likely to classify their worst trauma as “extremely troubling,” and were more likely to exhibit PTSD hyperarousal symptoms. In regression models, smoking “to cope with emotions and problems” doubled the odds of continuing to smoke while pregnant even after accounting for several relevant risk factors. Conclusion: Smoking behavior in pregnancy may be influenced by the need to cope with abuse-related PTSD symptoms. Clinicians should consider using trauma-informed interventions when working with tobacco-using pregnant women.Item Expensive Egos: Narcissistic Males Have Higher Cortisol(PLOS, 2012-01-23) Reinhard, David A.; Konrath, Sara H.; Lopez, William D.; Cameron, Heather G.Background Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, low empathy, and entitlement. There has been limited research regarding the hormonal correlates of narcissism, despite the potential health implications. This study examined the role of participant narcissism and sex on basal cortisol concentrations in an undergraduate population. Methods and Findings Participants were 106 undergraduate students (79 females, 27 males, mean age 20.1 years) from one Midwestern and one Southwestern American university. Narcissism was assessed using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and basal cortisol concentrations were collected from saliva samples in a laboratory setting. Regression analyses examined the effect of narcissism and sex on cortisol (log). There were no sex differences in basal cortisol, F (1,97) = .20, p = .65, and narcissism scores, F (1,97) = .00, p = .99. Stepwise linear regression models of sex and narcissism and their interaction predicting cortisol concentrations showed no main effects when including covariates, but a significant interaction, β = .27, p = .04. Narcissism was not related to cortisol in females, but significantly predicted cortisol in males. Examining the effect of unhealthy versus healthy narcissism on cortisol found that unhealthy narcissism was marginally related to cortisol in females, β = .27, p = .06, but significantly predicted higher basal cortisol in males, β = .72, p = .01, even when controlling for potential confounds. No relationship was found between sex, narcissism, or their interaction on self-reported stress. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the HPA axis is chronically activated in males with unhealthy narcissism. This constant activation of the HPA axis may have important health implications.Item Parenting and Beyond: Common Neurocircuits Underlying Parental and Altruistic Caregiving(2012-04-01) Swain, James E.; Konrath, Sara H.; Brown, Stephanie L.; Finegood, Eric D.; Akce, Leyla B.; Dayton, Carolyn J.; Ho, S. ShaunInterpersonal relationships constitute the foundation on which human society is based. The infant–caregiver bond is the earliest and most influential of these relationships. Driven by evolutionary pressure for survival, parents feel compelled to provide care to their biological offspring. However, compassion for non-kin is also ubiquitous in human societies, motivating individuals to suppress their own self-interests to promote the well-being of non-kin members of the society. We argue that the process of early kinship-selective parental care provides the foundation for non-exclusive altruism via the activation of a general Caregiving System that regulates compassion in any of its forms. We propose a tripartite structure of this system that includes (1) the perception of need in another, (2) a caring motivational or feeling state, and (3) the delivery of a helping response to the individual in need. Findings from human and animal research point to specific neurobiological mechanisms including activation of the insula and the secretion of oxytocin that support the adaptive functioning of this Caregiving System.Item Is the relationship between alexithymia and aggression context-dependent? Impact of group membership and belief similarity(2012-08) Konrath, Sara H.; Novin, Sheida; Li, TaoPrevious research finds positive relationships between alexithymia and aggression. This study examined potential interpersonal factors that might elicit aggressiveness among people with high levels of alexithymia. College student participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale online prior to interacting with their partners in the laboratory. Participants interacted with a partner who (i) was from their in-group versus out-group, and (ii) held similar versus different beliefs on an important topic. Results show that compared to low-alexithymic individuals, individuals with high levels of alexithymia reported increased anger after interacting with out-group members. This corresponded to increased trait aggressiveness when interacting with out-group members. No differences emerged regarding behavioral aggression. Implications for the association between alexithymia and aggression are discussed.Item Investigating the Link Between Liking Versus Wanting Self-Esteem and Depression in a Nationally Representative Sample of American Adults(Wiley, 2012-10-01) Bushman, Brad J.; Moeller, Scott J.; Konrath, Sara H.; Crocker, JenniferThe self-esteem movement has been around since the 1970s, and may have influenced how much value people place on self-esteem. We predicted a negative relationship between age and the amount of value placed on self-esteem boosts. We also investigated the correlates of liking versus wanting self-esteem boosts (and other pleasant rewards) on depression. A nationally representative sample of American adults (N = 867) indicated how much they liked and wanted several pleasant rewards (i.e., sex, food, alcohol, money, friendship, self-esteem boost). They also completed a standardized measure of depressive symptoms. As expected, there was a negative relationship between age and valuing self-esteem boosts, sex, and alcohol. People with depressive symptoms wanted self-esteem boosts, even though they did not like them very much. Similar effects were obtained for depressive symptoms and alcohol and friendship. This is the first research to show that self-esteem boosts are more valued among a nationally representative sample of younger American adults. It also is the first research to explore the association between depression and the motivation to boost self-esteem. People with depressive symptoms want self-esteem, and may pursue it, but this pursuit may feel unrewarding because they do not derive pleasure from it.Item The Right Angle: Visual Portrayal of Products Affects Observers’ Impressions of Owners(2012-10-01) Schuldt, Jonathon P.; Konrath, Sara H.; Schwarz, NorbertConsumer products have long been known to influence observers’ impressions of product owners. The angle at which products are visually portrayed in advertisements, however, may be an overlooked factor in these effects. We hypothesize and find that portrayals of the same product from different viewpoints can prime different associations that color impressions of product and owner in parallel ways. In Study 1, automobiles were rated higher on status- and power-related traits (e.g., dominant, powerful) when portrayed head-on versus in side profile, an effect found for sport utility vehicles (SUVs)—a category with a reputation for dominance—but not sedans. In Study 2, these portrayal-based associations influenced the impressions formed about the product's owner: a target person was rated higher on status- and power-related traits when his SUV was portrayed head-on versus in side profile. These results suggest that the influence of visual portrayal extends beyond general evaluations of products to affect more specific impressions of products and owners alike, and highlight that primed traits are likely to influence impressions when compatible with other knowledge about the target.