scholarly journals Understanding the Link Between Discrete Negative Emotions and Empathic Accuracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 331-331
Author(s):  
Denis Gerstorf ◽  
Oliver Schilling ◽  
Martin Katzorreck ◽  
Anna Lücke ◽  
Ute Kunzmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Empathic Accuracy ◽  
Discrete Emotions ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Discrete Emotion ◽  
Accuracy Test ◽  
Negative Film

Abstract Extant theories have suggested that negative emotions generally harm cognitive processes. However, adopting a discrete emotion perspective, in this study, we predicted that only anger and fear but not sadness should be negatively associated with empathic accuracy, a process that has been shown to be cognitively highly demanding. Over 100 participants (Mage = 66.66 years, SDage = 1.00) reported their emotional reactions in response to a negative film in the laboratory, documented their everyday momentary emotions six times a day over seven consecutive days, and completed a film-based empathic accuracy test. Initial findings suggest that only fear but not anger or sadness was related to empathic accuracy. More specifically, high levels of fear both in the laboratory and in everyday life predicted low empathic accuracy. This pattern of findings will be discussed in the context of discrete emotions theories.

scholarly journals The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199520
Author(s):  
Gregory John Depow ◽  
Zoë Francis ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Trait Empathy

We used experience sampling to examine perceptions of empathy in the everyday lives of a group of 246 U.S. adults who were quota sampled to represent the population on key demographics. Participants reported an average of about nine opportunities to empathize per day; these experiences were positively associated with prosocial behavior, a relationship not found with trait measures. Although much of the literature focuses on the distress of strangers, in everyday life, people mostly empathize with very close others, and they empathize with positive emotions 3 times as frequently as with negative emotions. Although trait empathy was negatively associated only with well-being, empathy in daily life was generally associated with increased well-being. Theoretically distinct components of empathy—emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion—typically co-occur in everyday empathy experiences. Finally, empathy in everyday life was higher for women and the religious but not significantly lower for conservatives and the wealthy.

scholarly journals The Complex Role of Discrete Emotions in Successful Aging

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 626-626
Author(s):  
Jeremy Hamm ◽  
Carsten Wrosch
Keyword(s):  
Successful Aging ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Empathic Accuracy ◽  
Discrete Emotions ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Positive And Negative Emotions

Abstract Research shows that emotions play an important role in successful aging. However, previous studies have largely focused on the implications of dimensional indicators of emotion, such as positive and negative affect. This approach may fail to capture important distinctions between discrete emotions such as sadness, loneliness, calmness, and empathy that could become more or less adaptive with age. The present studies adopt a discrete emotion perspective to examine age-related changes in the consequences of different positive and negative emotions for successful aging. Drawing from an evolutionary-functionalist perspective, Haase, Wu, Verstaen, and Levenson investigate whether sadness becomes more salient and adaptive in old age using a multi-method approach. Lee, Lay, Mahmood, Graf, and Hoppmann address the seemingly contradictory consequences of loneliness by examining how state- and trait-loneliness interact to predict older adults’ prosocial behaviors. Hamm, Wrosch, Barlow, and Kunzmann use two studies to examine the diverging salience and 10-year health consequences of discrete positive emotions posited to motivate rest and recovery (calmness) or pursuit of novelty and stimulation (excitement). Barlow and Mauss study the co-occurrence of discrete emotions and their age-dependent associations with well-being using an adult lifespan sample. Finally, Wieck, Katzorreck, Gerstorf, Schilling, Lücke, and Kunzmann examine lifespan changes in the adaptive function of empathy by assessing the extent to which empathic accuracy protects against stress-reactivity as people age. This symposium thus integrates new research on the role of discrete positive and negative emotions and will contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between emotions and successful aging.

scholarly journals The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory John Depow ◽  
Zoë Lynn Francis ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Prosocial Behaviour ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Trait Empathy

We used experience-sampling to examine perceptions of empathy in the everyday lives of a group of 246 U.S. adults, quota-sampled to represent the population on key demographics. Participants reported an average of about 9 opportunities to empathize per day, with these experiences being positively associated with prosocial behaviour; a relationship not found with trait measures. While much of the literature focuses on the distress of strangers, in everyday life, people mostly empathize with very close others; and they empathize with positive emotions three times as frequently as with negative emotions. Though trait empathy was only negatively associated with well-being, empathy in daily life was generally associated with increased well-being. Theoretically distinct components of empathy—emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion—typically co-occur in everyday empathy experiences. Finally, empathy in everyday life was higher for women and the religious, but not significantly lower for conservatives or the wealthy.

scholarly journals Linguistic Markers of Processing Trauma Experience in Women’s Written Narratives During Different Breast Cancer Phases: Implications for Clinical Interventions

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 651-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Martino ◽  
Raffaella Onorato ◽  
Maria Francesca Freda
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Expressive Writing ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Biological Therapy ◽  
Therapy Group ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Entire Group ◽  
Linguistic Markers

Research into the change processes underlying the benefits of expressive writing is still incomplete. To fill this gap, we investigated the linguistic markers of change in cognitive and emotional processing among women with breast cancer, highlighting the differences and peculiarities during different treatment phases. A total of 60 writings were collected from 20 women: 10 receiving chemotherapy and 10 receiving biological therapy. We performed a series of repeated measures ANOVA for the most meaningful LIWC linguistic categories, including positive/negative emotions and cognitive processes, to assess change over three sessions. Results demonstrated a significant increase in the positive emotions category for the entire group of women, with particular relevance for the biological therapy group of women, and a marginally significant (p = .07) greater use of words indicating cognitive processes for women receiving biological therapy. For the negative emotions category time was significant for the whole group of women, showing a peak of use in the second session of writing. Peculiar differences in the linguistic markers of processing trauma were observed between the two groups. Although the writing intervention is a support for both groups of women, it seems to be beneficial when there is a large time gap since the administration of chemotherapy and, thus, when the patient can revisit the experience. The relationship of the illness with life can be rearticulated, and the writing becomes a space for resignifying the traumatic cancer experience.

scholarly journals Behind Dislike: Adaptive Purposes for Undergraduates’ Negative Emotions in the Career Decision-Making Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8071
Author(s):  
Keith A. Puffer ◽  
Kris G. Pence
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Career Decision ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Career Decision Making ◽  
Response Options

The first career interest inventory emerged in the late 1920s. The response options for the questions in the Strong Vocational Interest Blank included ‘like’ and ‘dislike.’ Both answers are emotional reactions. Regrettably, clients within the context of vocational counseling often regard negative feelings (e.g., dislikes) as inconsequential. Yet, negative emotionality can be adaptive and feasibly assist career decision-makers. In the literature on college students’ career development and emotional functioning, there is a paucity of information about how negative emotions advance the career decision-making process and how career decision-makers apply such knowledge. Hence, a sample of undergraduates (n = 256) was recruited to ascertain imaginable adaptive career decision-making benefits from negative affect. Employing a Mixed Methods-Grounded Theory methodology, the present study tabulated the negative emotional reactions of college students to vocations that were self- or computer-reported. In addition, their answers to two investigative questions about the selection of their negative emotions were analyzed. From the data, three negative meta-emotions emerged as reactions to participants’ reported occupations; four adaptive purposes for their selected negative affect were also discovered. A theoretical framework and applicative suggestions from the findings are presented.

scholarly journals Emotional Reactions to Human Reproductive Cloning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua May
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Mixed Method Study ◽  
Reproductive Cloning ◽  
Human Reproductive ◽  
Leon Kass ◽  
People’S Attitudes

Background: Extant surveys of people’s attitudes toward human reproductive cloning focus on moral judgments alone, not emotional reactions or sentiments. This is especially important given that some (esp. Leon Kass) have argued against such cloning on the grounds that it engenders widespread negative emotions, like disgust, that provide a moral guide. Objective: To provide some data on emotional reactions to human cloning, with a focus on repugnance, given its prominence in the literature. Methods: This brief mixed-method study measures the self-reported attitudes and emotions (positive or negative) toward cloning from a sample of participants in the United States. Results: Most participants condemned cloning as immoral and said it should be illegal. The most commonly reported positive sentiment was by far interest/curiosity. Negative emotions were much more varied, but anxiety was the most common. Only about a third of participants selected disgust or repugnance as something they felt and an even smaller portion had this emotion come to mind prior to seeing a list of options. Conclusions: Participants felt primarily interested and anxious about human reproductive cloning. They did not primarily feel disgust or repugnance. This provides initial empirical evidence that such a reaction is not appropriately widespread.

scholarly journals Where You End and I Begin: Cognition and Continuity in Experimental Improvised Music and Dance

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Williams ◽  
Martin Sonderkamp
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Inner Ear ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Feedback Loop ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Situated Cognition ◽  
Program Notes ◽  
Improvised Music

When we improvise together in music and dance, our bodies, instruments, and environments not only interact; they become mutually dependent. A bassist's shoulder shifts, bow slides, instrument rings . . . vibrations bounce off the walls, reach the dancer's inner ear, filling the lungs, lunging toward the bassist's shoulder: these sounds, movements, spaces, and perceptions form a real-time feedback loop that blurs where you end and I begin. Recent research in embodied and situated cognition by scholars such as Clark and Chalmers (1998), Gallagher (2005, 2007), Hutchins (1995), Noë (2004), and Suchman (2007) provides a theoretical foundation for formalizing this continuity. This literature has inspired us to reconsider how cognitive processes we tacitly know within a specific aesthetic framework are in fact at work throughout everyday life. In four videos taken from an hour-long studio session recorded in February 2012, we explore these processes once again in our own practice, and offer reflections in the form of program notes that invite the audience to perform these connections themselves.

Cognitive and social mechanisms: the role of emotions in creativity through work-based learning from a functionalist perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Liu ◽  
Jing Wei Li ◽  
Qi Wei Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Employee Creativity ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Chinese Company ◽  
Positive And Negative Emotions

Purpose From a functionalist perspective, this study aims to examine empirically how positive and negative emotions can exert influence on creativity in the workplace. This study built and tested a theoretical framework that delineates the effect of emotions on employee creativity through different learning mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach Field surveys were conducted in a Chinese company and data were collected from 340 employee-supervisor dyads. Findings The results indicate that positive emotions were positively related to task-related learning and interactional learning, both of which promote employee creativity. Task-related learning mediated the association between positive emotions and creativity. Nevertheless, negative emotions hindered employees from interactional learning and were negatively associated with creativity. Interactional learning mediated the association between negative emotions and creativity. Moreover, the interaction between positive and negative emotions was negatively associated with task-related learning. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on emotions and employee learning by demonstrating the value of using a functionalist perspective through different procedural mechanisms for employee outcomes and exploring the mediation effects of different learning behaviors in promoting creativity.

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