scholarly journals Cognitive and affective empathy relate differentially to emotion regulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M Thompson ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum ◽  
Bhismadev Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Emotional Interference ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Component Processes ◽  
The Relationship

The constructs of empathy (i.e. understanding/sharing another’s emotion) and emotion regulation (i.e. the processes by which one manages emotions) have largely been studied in relative isolation of one another. To better understand the interrelationships between their various component processes, this manuscript reports two studies that examined the relationship between empathy and emotion regulation using a combination of self-report and task measures. In study 1 (N=137), trait cognitive and affective empathy were found to share divergent relationships with self-reported emotion dysregulation. Emotion dysregulation was negatively related to cognitive empathy but showed no relationship with affective empathy. In the second study (N=92), the magnitude of emotion interference effects (i.e. the extent to which inhibitory control was impacted by emotional relative to neutral stimuli) in variants of a Go/NoGo and Stroop task were used as proxy measures of implicit emotion regulation abilities. Trait cognitive and affective empathy were found to share different relationships with both task metrics. Higher affective empathy was associated with increased emotional interference in the Emotional Go/NoGo; no such relationship was observed for trait cognitive empathy. In the Emotional Stroop, higher cognitive empathy was associated with reduced emotional interference, but no such relationship was observed for affective empathy. Together, these studies demonstrate that greater cognitive empathy was broadly associated with improved emotion regulation abilities, while greater affective empathy was typically associated with increased difficulties with emotion regulation. This finding points to the need for assessing the different components of empathy in psychopathological conditions marked by difficulties in emotion regulation.

scholarly journals Cognitive and Affective Empathy Relate Differentially to Emotion Regulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas M. Thompson ◽  
Carien M. van Reekum ◽  
Bhismadev Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Stroop Task ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Emotional Stroop Task ◽  
Emotional Interference ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Component Processes

AbstractThe constructs of empathy (i.e., understanding and/or sharing another’s emotion) and emotion regulation (i.e., the processes by which one manages emotions) have largely been studied in relative isolation of one another. To better understand the interrelationships between their various component processes, this manuscript reports two studies that examined the relationship between empathy and emotion regulation using a combination of self-report and task measures. In study 1 (N = 137), trait cognitive empathy and affective empathy were found to share divergent relationships with self-reported emotion dysregulation. Trait emotion dysregulation was negatively related to cognitive empathy but did not show a significant relationship with affective empathy. In the second study (N = 92), the magnitude of emotion interference effects (i.e., the extent to which inhibitory control was impacted by emotional relative to neutral stimuli) in variants of a Go/NoGo and Stroop task were used as proxy measures of implicit emotion regulation abilities. Trait cognitive and affective empathy were differentially related to both task metrics. Higher affective empathy was associated with increased emotional interference in the Emotional Go/NoGo task; no such relationship was observed for trait cognitive empathy. In the Emotional Stroop task, higher cognitive empathy was associated with reduced emotional interference; no such relationship was observed for affective empathy. Together, these studies demonstrate that greater cognitive empathy was broadly associated with improved emotion regulation abilities, while greater affective empathy was typically associated with increased difficulties with emotion regulation. These findings point to the need for assessing the different components of empathy in psychopathological conditions marked by difficulties in emotion regulation.

scholarly journals Psychopathy and Aggression: The Role of Emotion Dysregulation

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626051990094 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Garofalo ◽  
Craig S. Neumann ◽  
Patrizia Velotti
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
Verbal Aggression ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Shared Variance ◽  
Reactive And Proactive Aggression

The importance of psychopathy in the forensic and criminal justice domains is largely due to its robust associations with aggression and violent behavior. Hence, investigators have increasingly been interested in elucidating potential mechanisms linking psychopathy and aggression. Recent research highlighted previously overlooked associations between psychopathy and difficulties in emotion regulation, the process responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and managing one’s emotional experience, as well as for guiding behavior under intense emotional arousal. Yet, it remains unclear whether emotion dysregulation may be helpful to explain well-documented associations between psychopathy and aggression. The present study examined whether emotion dysregulation mediated associations (i.e., explained a significant portion of the shared variance) between psychopathy and aggression across community ( N = 521) and offender ( N = 268) samples. Participants completed self-report measures of psychopathy, emotion dysregulation, trait aggressiveness (i.e., anger, hostility, physical and verbal aggression), as well as reactive and proactive aggression. Across both samples, psychopathy had significant indirect effect on all indices of aggression through emotion dysregulation, with the exception of verbal aggression. These findings support the relevance of emotion regulation for the construct of psychopathy and its maladaptive correlates and highlight the potential relevance of focusing on emotion regulation as a possible target for interventions aimed at reducing aggression among individuals with psychopathic traits.

scholarly journals The cost of empathy: Parent-adolescent conflict predicts emotion dysregulation for highly empathic youth

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caspar J. Van Lissa ◽  
Skyler T. Hawk ◽  
Hans M. Koot ◽  
Susan Branje ◽  
Wim H. J. Meeus
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Consolidation Process ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Mood Variability ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Adolescent Parent ◽  
Parent Conflict ◽  
Over Time

Empathy plays a key role in maintaining close relationships and promoting pro-social conflict resolution. However, research has not addressed the potential emotional cost of adolescents’ high empathy, particularly when relationships are characterized by more frequent conflict. The present six-year longitudinal study (N = 467) investigated whether conflict with parents predicted emotion dysregulation more strongly for high-empathy adolescents than for lower-empathy adolescents. Emotion dysregulation was operationalized at both the experiential level, using mood diary data collected for three weeks each year, and at the dispositional level, using annual self-report measures. In line with predictions, we found that more frequent adolescent-parent conflict predicted greater day-to-day mood variability and dispositional difficulties in emotion regulation for high-empathy adolescents, but not for average- and low-empathy adolescents. Mood variability and difficulties in emotion regulation, in turn, also predicted increased conflict with parents. These links were not moderated by empathy. Moreover, our research allowed for a novel investigation of the interplay between experiential and dispositional emotion dysregulation. Day-to-day mood variability predicted increasing dispositional difficulties in emotion regulation over time, which suggests that experiential dysregulation becomes consolidated into dispositional difficulties in emotion regulation. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that, for high-empathy adolescents, conflict was a driver of this dysregulation consolidation process. Finally, emotion dysregulation played a role in over-time conflict maintenance for high-empathy adolescents. This suggests that, through emotion dysregulation, high empathy may paradoxically also contribute to maintaining negative adolescent-parent interactions. Our research indicates that high empathy comes at a cost when adolescent-parent relationships are characterized by greater negativity.

Not just ‘callous-unemotional’: Psychopathic traits are associated with emotion dysregulation dimensions

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S181-S181
Author(s):  
P. Velotti ◽  
M. D’aguanno ◽  
C. Garofalo ◽  
G. Rogier
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Psychopathic Traits ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Male Offenders ◽  
Callous Unemotional ◽  
Callous Unemotional Traits ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Competing Interest

IntroductionHistorically, psychopathic individuals have mainly been described as characterized by pervasive callous-unemotional traits, with dramatic implications for clinical and forensic practices – such as the tendency to deem psychopathic individuals as untreatable. However, recent evidence with community samples have highlighted that psychopathic traits may be in fact related to emotion dysregulation rather than being the mere reflection of an underlying ‘unemotionality’. Yet, it is no clear if this association extends to populations with more severe forms of psychopathy (i.e., offenders).ObjectivesWe wanted to replicate previous evidence of an association between emotion dysregulation and psychopathic traits in a sample of incarcerated offenders.AimsTo investigate the associations among emotion dysregulation dimensions and psychopathic traits, exploring similarities and differences between the Interpersonal-Affective and the Antisocial-Lifestyle facets of psychopathy.MethodsA sample of male offenders incarcerated in Italian jails completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP-4; Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, 2015) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004).ResultsIn line with the expectations, emotion dysregulation dimensions did predict higher levels of psychopathic traits. Structural Equation Modelling revealed that selected dimensions of emotion dysregulation were associated with different facets of psychopathy.ConclusionsBased on our findings, we argue that psychopathic traits may be associated to a certain extent with emotion dysregulation, and thus a focus on improving emotion regulation skills may hold the promise to dampen the therapeutic pessimism when dealing with psychopathic offenders.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Empathy mediates the relationship between nature connectedness and both callous and uncaring traits

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Fido ◽  
Miles Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Online Survey ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cognitive Empathy ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Empathy ◽  
Affective Component ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Nature Connectedness ◽  
Callous Traits ◽  
The Relationship

Across the world and time, humans share an innate affinity with nature. In addition to its benefits for mental well-being, the psychological construct of nature connectedness has been associated with several psychopathy-relevant traits including agreeableness, perspective-taking, and empathic concern. This study is the first of its kind to investigate whether nature connectedness is associated with indices of psychopathy, specifically, and whether these associations are further mediated by individual variation in cognitive and affective empathy; traits long-considered to be deficient in psychopathy. One hundred and ninety-five participants completed an online survey whereby they were asked to self-report nature connectedness, empathy, and callous, uncaring, and unemotional traits - proxy measures for the affective component of psychopathy in community samples. Nature connectedness was positively associated with cognitive and affective empathy, and inversely associated with callous and uncaring, but not unemotional facets of personality. Furthermore, whereas cognitive empathy mediated the relationship between nature connectedness and both callous and uncaring traits, affective empathy only mediated the relationship between nature connectedness and callous traits. These findings provide evidence that broadens our understanding of the potential benefits of nature connectedness in general, and how subsequently increasing one’s nature connectedness and associated ability to take the perspective of another might impact psychopathy, more specifically. As such, this study establishes the groundwork for future investigation and intervention in forensic populations.

The Role of Self-Criticism and Shame in Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviour Symptoms

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
S. Houazene ◽  
F. Aardema ◽  
J. B. Leclerc ◽  
K. O'Connor
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Cognitive Emotion Regulation ◽  
Repetitive Behaviour ◽  
Nail Biting ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs), such as hair-pulling, skin-picking, and nail-biting, are non-functional habits associated with difficulties in emotion regulation. Although several models have been developed to explain the difficulties experienced by people suffering from BFRBs, a number of cognitive and emotional processes have yet to be explored. This study sought to investigate the psychological characteristics involved in the development and maintenance of BFRB symptoms. In particular, we aimed to evaluate the relationship of self-criticism, shame, and maladaptive cognitive emotion strategies with symptoms and examine if the relationship between perfectionism and symptoms was mediated by self-criticism and shame. Seventy-six participants from a community sample completed a number of self-report measures. Findings from our multivariate linear regression model supported that shame and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies significantly predicted BFRB symptoms. Results of our mediational analyses revealed that shame significantly mediated the relationship between perfectionism and BFRB symptoms. Interventions that target shame may be beneficial for treating these conditions. Future studies should replicate these findings with clinical populations and other BFRB subtypes.

Mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being: the mediating roles of rumination and emotion dysregulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Somboon Jarukasemthawee ◽  
Kullaya Pisitsungkagarn
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Western Psychology ◽  
Direct Association ◽  
Eastern Cultures ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Mindfulness has been widely studied in Western psychology for reducing psychological distress. However, several scholars noted that in the East, where the concept originated, mindfulness may be understood differently. In Eastern cultures such as Thailand, mindfulness is not only employed to deal with suffering but also to promote well-being. To the best of our knowledge, no studies have been undertaken to evaluate the relationship between traditional mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being in Eastern contexts. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between mindfulness and eudaimonic well-being in Thai contexts. We also explored the mediating roles of rumination and emotion dysregulation on this relationship. Data were collected from 312 Thai undergraduates who completed a measure of Eudaimonic Well-Being, the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, the Rumination–Reflection Questionnaire, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Results largely supported our hypotheses. Mindfulness was found to have a positive and direct association with eudaimonic well-being. Rumination and emotion dysregulation partially mediated this association. Additionally, both rumination and emotion dysregulation had negative and direct association with eudaimonic well-being. The findings highlight the positive influences of mindfulness on well-being. The benefits of mindfulness for improvement of eudaimonic well-being through reducing rumination and emotion dysfunction are discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms: Indirect Effects Through Negative and Positive Emotion Dysregulation

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110063
Author(s):  
Lauren E. Simpson ◽  
Alexa M. Raudales ◽  
Miranda E. Reyes ◽  
Tami P. Sullivan ◽  
Nicole H. Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Positive Emotion ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation

Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) are at heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress (PTS). Emotion dysregulation has been linked to both IPV and PTS, separately, however, unknown is the role of emotion dysregulation in the relation of IPV to PTS among women who experience IPV. Moreover, existing investigations in this area have been limited in their focus on negative emotion dysregulation. Extending prior research, this study investigated whether physical, sexual, and psychological IPV were indirectly associated with PTS symptom severity through negative and positive emotion dysregulation. Participants were 354 women who reported a history of IPV recruited from Amazon’s MTurk platform ( Mage = 36.52, 79.9% white). Participants completed self-report measures assessing physical (Conflict Tactics Scale), sexual (Sexual Experiences Scale), and psychological (Psychological Maltreatment of Women) IPV; negative (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale) and positive (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale-Positive) emotion dysregulation; and PTS symptom severity (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5) via an online survey. Pearson’s correlation coefficients examined intercorrelations among the primary study variables. Indirect effect analyses were conducted to determine if negative and positive emotion dysregulation explained the relations between physical, sexual, and psychological IPV and PTS symptom severity. Physical, sexual, and psychological IPV were significantly positively associated with both negative and positive emotion dysregulation as well as PTS symptom severity, with the exception that psychological IPV was not significantly associated with positive emotion dysregulation. Moreover, negative and positive emotion dysregulation accounted for the relationships between all three IPV types and PTS symptom severity, with the exception of positive emotion dysregulation and psychological IPV. Our findings provide support for the potential underlying role of both negative and positive emotion dysregulation in the associations of IPV types to PTS symptom severity. Negative and positive emotion dysregulation may be important factors to integrate into interventions for PTS among women who experience IPV.

Dysregulation of emotions among pathological gamblers: The role of savoring

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S394-S394
Author(s):  
G. Rogier ◽  
P. Velotti
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Pathological Gambling ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Pathological Gamblers ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Regulation Strategies

IntroductionTheories have conceptualized pathological gambling as an attempt to cope with emotional states. However, there is a lack of research about emotion dysregulation in this population. In a similar way, few is known about the nature of emotion regulation strategies used by pathological gamblers. Furthermore, it is not clear if pathological gamblers have difficulties to regulate negative emotions (as sadness) or positive ones (as excitement).ObjectivesWe sought to explore the associations among pathological gambling, emotion dysregulation and different types of emotion regulation strategies, comparing a clinical sample with community participants.AimsTo highlight similarities and differences in emotion dysregulation between pathological gamblers and healthy participants.MethodsA sample of pathological gamblers and a sample of healthy men, were administered the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Difficulties in Emotion regulation Scale-Positive (DERS-P), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Ways of Savoring Checklist (WOSC).ResultsAs expected, both levels of emotion dysregulation and suppression were significantly higher in the clinical sample while levels of savoring and reappraisal were significantly higher in the community sample.ConclusionsSuch results confirm the theorization of pathological gambling as a dysfunctional response to emotional states and underline the role of positive emotions. Specifically, pathological gamblers may be prone to suppress negative emotions instead to engage in functional strategies as reappraisal. Gamblers also fail to regulate positive emotions showing a poor capacity of savoring positive moments.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Take my advice: Intrinsic emotion regulation is more effective under external guidance.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Ngombe ◽  
Klaus Kessler ◽  
Daniel J Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Affective Reactions ◽  
Subjective Ratings ◽  
Potential Therapeutic Application ◽  
Within Subjects

Traditionally, research into emotion regulation (ER) has focused primarily on the intra-personal processes through which we regulate our own emotions intrinsically. More recently, however, studies have begun to explore the inter-personal nature of intrinsic ER – that is, how we regulate our emotions under the guidance of others. Preliminary evidence suggests that the ER is more effective when implemented inter- rather than intra-personally, but these findings are based exclusively on subjective ratings that capture only the experience of emotions. The current study therefore investigated whether this apparent superiority of inter-personal intrinsic ER could be replicated and extended to physiological measures of affective reactions – namely, metrics of electrodermal activity. In addition, we administered several self-report instruments to measure behavioural phenotypes associated with individual differences in intrinsic ER to identify groups that might benefit maximally from inter-personal guidance. In a within-subjects design, a large sample (N=146) were required to down-regulate their emotional reactions to negatively valenced images using an ER strategy they had chosen themselves intra-personally or one that had been recommended to them inter-personally. Subjective ratings and physiological responses converged to demonstrate the greater effectiveness of inter- over intra-personal ER in decreasing negative affective reactions, illustrating its potential therapeutic application for conditions characterised by emotion dysregulation. Interestingly, though, data from the self-report instruments did not reveal patterns of behaviour associated with its efficacy, and so it remains to be seen if and how the benefits of inter-personal ER extend to clinical populations.

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