The Role of Distress Disclosure Tendencies in the Experience and Expression of Laboratory-Induced Sadness

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey H. Kahn ◽  
Daniel W. Cox ◽  
A. Myfanwy Bakker ◽  
Julia I. O’Loughlin ◽  
Agnieszka M. Kotlarczyk

Abstract. The benefits of talking with others about unpleasant emotions have been thoroughly investigated, but individual differences in distress disclosure tendencies have not been adequately integrated within theoretical models of emotion. The purpose of this laboratory research was to determine whether distress disclosure tendencies stem from differences in emotional reactivity or differences in emotion regulation. After completing measures of distress disclosure tendencies, social desirability, and positive and negative affect, 84 participants (74% women) were video recorded while viewing a sadness-inducing film clip. Participants completed post-film measures of affect and were then interviewed about their reactions to the film; these interviews were audio recorded for later coding and computerized text analysis. Distress disclosure tendencies were not predictive of the subjective experience of emotion, but they were positively related to facial expressions of sadness and happiness. Distress disclosure tendencies also predicted judges’ ratings of the verbal disclosure of emotion during the interview, but self-reported disclosure and use of positive and negative emotion words were not associated with distress disclosure tendencies. The authors present implications of this research for integrating individual differences in distress disclosure with models of emotion.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siobhán M Griffin ◽  
Siobhán Howard

Instructed use of reappraisal to regulate stress in the laboratory is typically associated with a more adaptive cardiovascular response to stress, indexed by either: (i) lower cardiovascular reactivity (CVR; e.g., lower blood pressure); or (ii) a challenge-oriented response profile (i.e., greater cardiac output paired with lower total peripheral resistance). In contrast, instructed use of suppression is associated with exaggerated CVR (e.g., greater heart rate, blood pressure). Despite this, few studies have examined if the habitual use of these strategies are related to cardiovascular responding during stress. The current study examined the relationship between cardiovascular responses to acute stress and individual differences in emotion regulation style: trait reappraisal, suppression, and emotion regulation difficulties. Forty-eight participants (25 women, 23 men) completed a standardised laboratory stress paradigm incorporating a 20-minute acclimatization period, a 10-minute baseline, and two 5-minute speech tasks separated by a 10-minute inter-task rest period. The emotional valence of the speech task was examined as a potential moderating factor; participants spoke about a block of negative-emotion words and a block of neutral-emotion words. Cardiovascular parameters were measured using the Finometer Pro. Greater habitual use of suppression was associated with exaggerated blood pressure responding to both tasks. However, only in response to the negative-emotion task was greater use of reappraisal associated with a challenge-oriented cardiovascular response. The findings suggest that individual differences in emotion regulation translate to differing patterns of CVR to stress, but the emotional valence of the stressor may play a role.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Young ◽  
Christina Sandman ◽  
Michelle Craske

Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews the current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological, and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of altered neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Approaches to improve treatments based on empirical evidence of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescents are also discussed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.


Behaviour ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 148 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Smith

AbstractTerritorial animals sometimes use conspicuous natural landmarks as boundaries to their territories. The utilization of territory-demarcating landmarks may have evolved to limit the costs of territorial defence, since the adoption of clearly defined boundaries by opponents in adjacent territories can reduce the overall rate of aggressive encounters, which can be energetically expensive or might result in injury. Here the role of artificial landmarks as boundaries was tested in territorial male rose bitterling (Rhodeus ocellatus), a fish with a resourcebased mating system. Pairs of size-matched territorial males were permitted to interact for short periods in an otherwise featureless aquarium with an obvious landmark at the shared boundary of their territory either present or absent. The presence of the territory-demarcating landmark significantly reduced both the frequency of territorial incursions by males into adjacent territories and the rate of territorial displays. Males showed individual differences in their propensity to enter the territory of a rival, irrespective of the presence of a territorydemarcating landmark. These results suggest that the cost of defence of a territory may be reduced by utilizing territory-demarcating landmarks, in accordance with the predictions of theoretical models.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Seaton Young ◽  
Christina F Sandman ◽  
Michelle G. Craske

Emotion regulation skills develop substantially across adolescence, a period characterized by emotional challenges and developing regulatory neural circuitry. Adolescence is also a risk period for the new onset of anxiety and depressive disorders, psychopathologies which have long been associated with disruptions in regulation of positive and negative emotions. This paper reviews current understanding of the role of disrupted emotion regulation in adolescent anxiety and depression, describing findings from self-report, behavioral, peripheral psychophysiological and neural measures. Self-report studies robustly identified associations between emotion dysregulation and adolescent anxiety and depression. Findings from behavioral and psychophysiological studies are mixed, with some suggestion of specific impairments in reappraisal in anxiety. Results from neuroimaging studies broadly implicate altered functioning of amygdala-prefrontal cortical circuitries, although again, findings are mixed regarding specific patterns of neural functioning. Future work may benefit from focusing on designs that contrast effects of specific regulatory strategies, and isolate changes in emotional regulation from emotional reactivity. Greater integration of multiple measures within the same study would also facilitate more reliable evidence of effects observed. Future intervention studies might consider training and measurement of specific strategies in adolescents to better understand the role of emotion regulation as a treatment mechanism.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412198929
Author(s):  
Chad Newton ◽  
Richard Perlow

Although researchers have documented relations between abusive supervision and subordinate counterproductive work behavior (CWB), might CWB result from non-abusive treatment? We address the question by examining the relation between leader-member relations (LMX) and CWB as well as potential mediators and moderators of that relation. One hundred and eighty subordinates completed surveys assessing their LMX quality, entitlement, negative emotions, self-control, and CWB. Twenty-six supervisors also provided CWB data on 88 of those subordinates. We found that subordinates reporting lower quality relations with their supervisors were more likely to experience CWB than other subordinates and that anger mediated that relation. There was some support for the moderating effect of self-control on the negative emotion – CWB relation. Entitlement did not moderate the LMX – anger relation as hypothesized. One implication is that supervisors do not have to treat their subordinates poorly for the subordinates to react negatively and engage in behavior detrimental to their organization.


Author(s):  
Øistein Anmarkrud ◽  
Ivar Bråten ◽  
Elena Florit ◽  
Lucia Mason

AbstractThis article reviews how individual differences have been conceptualized and researched within the area of multiple document literacy, in particular the extent to which proposed relationships between individual differences and the multiple document literacy process of sourcing have been supported by the empirical research. The findings showed that although the majority of the individual differences included in theoretical models of multiple document literacy have been researched, the empirical backing of proposed relationships is rather ambiguous. Still, in-depth analyses of the most researched individual differences in relation to sourcing revealed some interesting and interpretable patterns. Further, the review suggested that relationships between individual differences and sourcing may vary not only with the way sourcing is measured but also with the domain or topic addressed in the reading materials. We discuss the current status of research on individual differences in the context of multiple document literacy with a focus on sourcing and suggest potential avenues for further clarifications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Hernández-Rivero ◽  
Jens Blechert ◽  
Laura Miccoli ◽  
Katharina Naomi Eichin ◽  
M. Carmen Fernández-Santaella ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Studies on food cue reactivity have documented that altered responses to high-calorie food are associated with bulimic symptomatology, however, alterations in sexual motivations and behaviors are also associated clinical features for this population, which justify their inclusion as a research target. Here, we study responses to erotic cues – alongside neutral and aversive cues – to gain an understanding of specificity to food vs. a generalized sensitivity to primary reinforcers. Methods: We recorded peripheral psychophysiological indices –the startle reflex, zygomaticus, and corrugator responses– and self-reported emotional responses (valence, arousal, and dominance) in 75 women that were presented with the Spanish version of the Bulimia Test-Revised (BULIT-R). Multiple regression analysis tested whether BULIT-R symptoms were predicted by self-reported and psychophysiological responses to food vs. neutral and erotic vs. neutral images. Results: The results showed that individuals with higher bulimic symptoms were characterized by potentiated eye blink startle response during binge food (vs. neutral images) and more positive valence ratings during erotic (vs. neutral) cues. Conclusions: The results highlight the negative emotional reactivity of individuals with elevated bulimic symptoms toward food cues, which could be related to the risk of progression to full bulimia nervosa and thereby addressed in prevention efforts. Results also point to the potential role of reactivity to erotic content, at least on a subjective level. Theoretical models of eating disorders should widen their conceptual scope to consider reactivity to a broader spectrum of primary reinforcers, which would have implications for cue exposure-based treatments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux

AbstractIntuitions guide decision-making, and looking to the evolutionary history of humans illuminates why some behavioral responses are more intuitive than others. Yet a place remains for cognitive processes to second-guess intuitive responses – that is, to be reflective – and individual differences abound in automatic, intuitive processing as well.


2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Botella ◽  
María José Contreras ◽  
Pei-Chun Shih ◽  
Víctor Rubio

Summary: Deterioration in performance associated with decreased ability to sustain attention may be found in long and tedious task sessions. The necessity for assessing a number of psychological dimensions in a single session often demands “short” tests capable of assessing individual differences in abilities such as vigilance and maintenance of high performance levels. In the present paper two tasks were selected as candidates for playing this role, the Abbreviated Vigilance Task (AVT) by Temple, Warm, Dember, LaGrange and Matthews (1996) and the Continuous Attention Test (CAT) by Tiplady (1992) . However, when applied to a sample of 829 candidates in a job-selection process for air-traffic controllers, neither of them showed discriminative capacity. In a second study, an extended version of the CAT was applied to a similar sample of 667 subjects, but also proved incapable of properly detecting individual differences. In short, at least in a selection context such as that studied here, neither of the tasks appeared appropriate for playing the role of a “short” test for discriminating individual differences in performance deterioration in sustained attention.


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