Experiencing Presence in a Gaming Activity Improves Mood After a Negative Mood Induction

Research suggests that immersion in computer games is beneficial for recovering from stress and improving mood. However, no study linked explicit measures of presence—individually experienced immersion—to mood enhancement. In the present experiment, immersion of a gaming activity was varied, and levels of presence and enjoyment were measured and connected to mood repair after a stress-induction. The participants (N = 77) played a game in virtual reality (VR; high immersion), on the desktop (medium immersion), or watched a recording of the game (low immersion). Positive emotions were enhanced in the high and medium, but not the low immersion condition. Presence was a significant predictor in the VR condition. Furthermore, an explanatory mediation analysis showed that enjoyment mediated the effect of presence on mood repair. These findings demonstrate positive effects of presence experiences in gaming. Strong presence in VR seems especially helpful for enhancing mood and building up positive emotional resources.

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Negative mood induction effects on problem solving task in women with eating disorders: a multi-method examination

10.1101/467712 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie N. French ◽

Kalina Eneva ◽

Jean M. Arlt ◽

Angelina Yiu ◽

Eunice Y. Chen

Keyword(s):

Eating Disorders ◽

Problem Solving ◽

Binge Eating ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Mood Induction ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Affective State ◽

Health Concern ◽

Sinus Arrhythmia

AbstractEating disorders (EDs) are a serious public health concern, affecting about 5.2% of American women. The effects of negative affect on problem-solving and its psychophysiological correlates are poorly understood in this population. This study examined respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and skin conductance responses of 102 women with EDs (Binge eating disorder [BED]: n = 57, Anorexia nervosa: n = 13, Bulimia nervosa [BN]: n = 32) and 24 healthy controls (HCs) at baseline, and then during: a negative mood induction task, an adapted Means Ends Problem-Solving (MEPS) task and recovery. The MEPS Task included four interpersonal scenarios: 1) binge-eating when sad, 2) job dissatisfaction, 3) feeling rejected by friends, and 4) jealousy in a relationship. ED groups reported more negative and less positive emotions than HCs. After a negative mood induction, women with BED provided significantly less effective problem-solving strategies compared to HCs and women with BN for the binge-eating MEPS scenario. Relative to baseline and the negative mood induction, all participants exhibited significantly higher skin conductance response and skin conductance levels throughout the MEPS scenarios and recovery. BED showed significantly lower RSA levels than individuals with BN and HCs throughout the protocol. The multimethod findings suggest individuals with BED are likely to solve problems by binge-eating when in a negative affective state.

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Why Does Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Improve Mood? A Preliminary Test of Three Hypotheses

Clinical Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/2167702616662270 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 111-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Kathryn R. Fox ◽

Kaitlyn E. Toole ◽

Joseph C. Franklin ◽

Jill M. Hooley

Keyword(s):

Affect Regulation ◽

Mood Induction ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Preliminary Test ◽

Mood Change ◽

Pain Condition ◽

Self Injury ◽

Mood Repair ◽

Shed Light ◽

Nonsuicidal Self Injury

People who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) often state that it helps them feel better. We tested three hypotheses through which this mood modification might occur. Following a negative mood induction, adults reporting past year NSSI were randomized into a control (i.e., sitting alone quietly), mild distraction, or pain condition. All participants completed mood ratings at regular intervals. No mood repair occurred in the control condition. However, distraction improved mood both during and after the activity. Participants who self-administered pain reported no overall mood change, suggesting that contrary to popular NSSI theories, pain likely does not improve mood via distraction. However, as predicted, level of self-criticism moderated mood change during pain. Participants high on self-criticism felt significantly better during pain and participants low on self-criticism felt significantly worse during pain. Findings shed light on how NSSI improves mood by clarifying the circumstances under which different affect regulation processes may operate.

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Gaze-fixation to happy faces predicts mood repair after a negative mood induction.

Emotion ◽

10.1037/a0034500 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 85-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Alvaro Sanchez ◽

Carmelo Vazquez ◽

Diego Gomez ◽

Jutta Joormann

Keyword(s):

Mood Induction ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Gaze Fixation ◽

Mood Repair

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El poder de los extravertidos: Evaluando la regulación de estados de ánimo positivos y negativos

Anales de Psicología ◽

10.6018/analesps.32.3.261641 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 710 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gonzalo Hervás ◽

Irene López-Gómez

Keyword(s):

Positive Affect ◽

Psychological Functioning ◽

Mood Induction ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Positive Mood ◽

Well Being ◽

Mood Regulation ◽

Mood Repair ◽

Happy Mood

<p>Extraversion is a personality trait which has been systematically related to positive affect and well-being. One of the mechanisms that may account for these positive outcomes is the ability to regulate the responses to positive, as well as negative, moods. Prior research has found that extraverts’ higher positive mood maintenance could explain their higher levels of positive affect. However, research exploring differences between extraverts and introverts in negative mood regulation has yielded mixed results. The aim of the current study was explore the role of different facets of mood regulation displayed by extraverts, ambiverts, and introverts. After been exposed to a sad vs. happy mood induction, participants underwent a mood regulation task. Extraverts and ambiverts exhibited higher positive mood regulation than introverts, but similar mood repair. Thus, this research highlights the importance of positive mood regulation in the psychological functioning of extraverts, and opens new conceptualizations for developing interventions for introverts to improve their positive mood regulation and, hence, overall positive affect and well-being.</p>

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Effectiveness of the level of personal relevance of visual autobiographical stimuli in the induction of positive emotions in young and older adults: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-18564/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Dolores Fernandez ◽

Laura Ros ◽

Roberto Sánchez-Reolid ◽

Jorge Javier Ricarte ◽

Jose Miguel Latorre

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Mood Induction ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Protective Factor ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Personal Relevance ◽

Autobiographical Memories ◽

Positive Images

Abstract Background The ability to retrieve specific memories is a cognitive and emotional protective factor. Among the most effective techniques to generate autobiographical memories is the use of audio-visual stimuli, particularly images. Developing and improving techniques that facilitate the generation of such memories could be highly effective in the prevention of depressive symptoms, especially in the elderly population. The aim of the present study is to examine how the level of personal relevance of pictures as autobiographical memory cues to induce positive emotions may affect an individual’s emotion regulation.Methods The participants, 120 older adults aged 65 and over and 120 young adults aged between 18 and 35, of both sexes and without depressive symptoms, will be induced to a negative mood state by means of viewing a film clip. Following the negative mood induction, the participants will be shown positive images according to experimental group to which they were randomly assigned (high personal relevance: personal autobiographical photographs; medium personal relevance: pictures of favourite locations associated with specific positive autobiographical memories; and low personal relevance: positive images from the International Affective Picture System). We will analyse the differences in subjective (responses to questionnaires) and objectives measures (EEG signal, heart rate variability and electrodermal activity) between the groups before and after the induction of negative affect and following the recall of positive memories.Discussion The use of images associated with specific positive autobiographical memories may be an effective input for inducing positive mood states, which has potentially important implications for their use as a cognitive behavioural technique to treat emotional disorders, such as depression, which are highly prevalent among older adults.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04251104. Registered on 30 January 2020, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04251104

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The effects of viewing a winter forest landscape with the ground and trees covered in snow on the psychological relaxation of young Finnish adults: A pilot study

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0244799 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. e0244799

Author(s):

Ernest Bielinis ◽

Emilia Janeczko ◽

Norimasa Takayama ◽

Anna Zawadzka ◽

Alicja Słupska ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Snow Cover ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Preventive Treatment ◽

Relaxation Effect ◽

Subjective Vitality ◽

Forest Environment ◽

Vast Number ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Forest Bathing

Forest bathing is an outdoor activity, and it might be a promising preventive treatment for social problems involving stress. A vast number of studies confirm the positive effects of this activity on people’s health. Nevertheless, little is known about the influence of winter forest bathing when conducted in an environment with snow cover on the ground and trees. Thus, a crossover experiment was designed in this study, with the participation of twenty-two healthy university students from Finland. During the experiment, a short exposition by a forest environment or landscape with buildings (as a control) was applied. Participants self-reported their psychological relaxation before and after the exposition, and the results were analyzed and compared. The mood, emotions, restorativeness, and subjective vitality were recorded as indices reflecting the psychological relaxation effect. The negative mood indices decreased significantly after exposition by the snow-covered environment, but the positive ‘vigor’ indices did not increase or decrease significantly. The level of negative emotions increased after the exposition with the control environment. Likewise, positive emotions decreased after the interaction with the control. Restorativeness was significantly increased after the exposition by the experimental forest but decreased after the viewing of the control buildings. The size of the effect in terms of restorativeness was the highest in this experiment. The subjective vitality was lowered as affected by the control, but it did not increase or decrease after the exposition with the experimental forest. There is probably an effect from the slight interruption in the process from the influence of the forest greens on participants because their vigor and vitality did not increase after the exposition with this environment in the study. However, snow might influence the participants as a calming and emotion-lowering component of the environment, but this idea needs to be further explored with the involvement of participants from other countries who would be viewing forest environments with snow cover and whose psychological relaxation could be measured.

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An fMRI investigation of the effects of a negative mood induction procedure on self-reflection

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e514412014-396 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Bryan T. Denny ◽

William M. Kelley ◽

Joseph M. Moran ◽

Todd F. Heatherton

Keyword(s):

Mood Induction ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Induction Procedure ◽

Self Reflection ◽

Mood Induction Procedure

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Positive Emotion in Borderline Personality Disorder

The Oxford Handbook of Positive Emotion and Psychopathology ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190653200.013.22 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 332-352

Author(s):

Jill M. Hooley ◽

Sara R. Masland

Keyword(s):

Borderline Personality Disorder ◽

Personality Disorder ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Negative Emotions ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Severe Form ◽

Borderline Personality ◽

Negative Emotionality ◽

Personality Pathology ◽

Emotional Experiences

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a severe form of personality pathology characterized by high levels of negative emotionality. Because negative emotions are so central to the clinical presentation of BPD, the issue of how people with this disorder process and experience positive emotional experiences is relatively unexplored. This chapter provides an overview of what is currently known about positive emotions and BPD. Although the literature is characterized by many inconsistencies, our review suggests that people with BPD do indeed experience positive emotions. However, their recall of positive emotional experiences appears to be reduced, perhaps because such experiences are more transient, less stable, and more likely to be quickly replaced by negative emotions. Problems with the identification and accurate differentiation of positive emotions may also play a role. Such difficulties may conspire to create a psychological world for people with BPD that is characterized by a focus on negative mood and negative emotional experiences. In addition to focusing on negative affect, we suggest that it might also be clinically beneficial to make problems with positive affect a specific clinical target.

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Inducing Amusement in the Laboratory and Its Moderation by Experiential Approach

Psychological Reports ◽

10.1177/00332941211007935 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 003329412110079

Author(s):

Danette Abernathy ◽

Robert D. Zettle

Keyword(s):

Emotion Regulation ◽

College Student ◽

Negative Affect ◽

Regression Models ◽

Positive Emotion ◽

Positive Emotions ◽

Negative Mood ◽

Relative Ability ◽

Experiential Approach ◽

Dispositional Differences

The relative ability of four comedic sketches to induce amusement in the laboratory and its moderation by dispositional differences in experiential approach as a form of positive emotion regulation were investigated. College student participants reported significant and equivalent diminished levels of negative affect relative to baseline following each sketch, while the level of positive affect induced by The Office exceeded that elicited by two of the three other sketches as well as by a top-ranked French comedic film clip. Regression models indicated that the two subscales of the Experiential Approach Scale and their interaction accounted for significant variability in negative mood reductions following the sketches. Unexpectedly, college student participants who enjoyed the greatest decrement in negative affect reported a regulation style in which anxiously clinging to positive emotions dominates over sustaining and savoring them. The limitations of this project and implications of its findings for laboratory inductions of amusement, as well as further investigations of its possible moderation by experiential approach as form of positive emotion regulation are discussed.

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