Reappraisal-related downregulation of amygdala BOLD activation occurs only during the late trial window

During cognitive reappraisal, an individual reinterprets the meaning of an emotional stimulus to regulate the intensity of their emotional response. Prefrontal cortex activity has been found to support reappraisal and is putatively thought to downregulate the amygdala response to these stimuli. The timing of these regulation-related responses during the course of a trial, however, remains poorly understood. In the current fMRI study, participants were instructed to view or reappraise negative images and then rate how negative they felt following each image. The hemodynamic response function was estimated in 11 regions of interest for the entire time course of the trial including image viewing and rating. Notably, within the amygdala there was no evidence of downregulation in the early (picture viewing) window of the trial, only in the late (rating) window, which also correlated with a behavioral measure of reappraisal success. With respect to the prefrontal regions, some (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus) showed reappraisal-related activation in the early window, whereas others (e.g., middle frontal gyrus) showed increased activation primarily in the late window. These results highlight the temporal dynamics of different brain regions during emotion regulation and suggest that the amygdala response to negative images need not be immediately dampened to achieve successful cognitive reappraisal.

STRATEGI REGULASI EMOSI DAN RESILIENSI PADA IBU YANG MENDAMPINGI ANAK STUDY FROM HOME (SFH) DI MASA PANDEMI COVID-19

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui dan menguji secara empiris hubungan antara strategi regulasi emosi terhadap resiliensi pada Ibu yang sedang mendampingi anak Study from Home (SFH) di masa pandemi Covid-19. Hipotesis dari penelitian ini adalah adanya perbedaan tingkat resiliensi Ibu yang mendampingi anak SFH ditinjau dari strategi regulasi emosi yang dimiliki. Alat ukur yang digunakan adalah skala strategi regulasi emosi sejumlah 10 aitem yang mengacu pada teori Gross (2002) dengan dua dimensi, yaitu Suppression dan Cognitive Reappraisal. Kemudian skala yang kedua adalah skala resiliensi sebanyak 47 aitem yang mengacu pada aspek resiliensi dari teori Reivich & Shatte (2002) dengan tujuh dimensi, yaitu : emotion regulation, impulse control, optimism, causal analysis, empathy, self efficacy, dan reaching out. Pemilihan subjek dilakukan dengan cara purposive sampling, yaitu teknik penentuan sampel dengan pertimbangan tertentu yang diterapkan berdasarkan tujuan dari penelitian. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah Ibu yang sedang mendampingi anak belajar dari rumah (Study from Home) di masa pandemi Covid-19, baik itu Ibu yang bekerja maupun yang Ibu yang tidak bekerja atau Ibu Rumah Tangga. Berdasarkan analisis One Way Anova, hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa adanya perbedaan tingkat resiliensi ditinjau dari strategi regulasi emosi yang dimiliki oleh ibu yang mendampingi anak SFH dengan nilai signifikansi sebesar 0,002 (p < 0,05) dengan nilai F hitung 7,349.

Role of Emotion Regulation as a Buffer against Workplace Stress among Nurses during COVID-19

The present study examined the relationship between workplace stress and job satisfaction among nurses along with exploring the moderating role of emotional regulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 120 (n=60 male, n=60 female) nurses were approached from different public and private hospitals of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The Workplace Stress Scale, The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire-Short Form, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used to assess workplace stress, job satisfaction, and emotion regulation abilities among nurses. Pearson product-moment correlation and Linear regression analysis were carried out to measure the relationship of workplace stress with job satisfaction and the moderating effect of emotion regulation, respectively. Findings of the study revealed that workplace stress is negatively associated with job satisfaction among nurses. Moreover, moderation analysis indicated that cognitive reappraisal significantly moderated the relationship between workplace stress and job satisfaction. Other key findings of the study indicated that female nurses were higher on workplace stress and used cognitive reappraisal as compared to male nurses who used expressive suppression. Moreover, married nurses were higher on workplace stress as compared to unmarried nurses. Public sector nurses were higher on job satisfaction. The findings of the study suggest that there is a strong need to reduce workplace stress by developing healthy emotion regulation strategies to increase the level of job satisfaction among nurses, especially during this pandemic environment.

Negative Emotions in Chinese Frontline Medical Staff During the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Epidemic: Status, Trend, and Influential Pathways Based on a National Investigation

Objective: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), declared as a major public health emergency, has had profound effects on public mental health especially emotional status. Due to professional requirements, medical staff are at a higher risk of infection, which might induce stronger negative emotions. This study aims to reveal the emotional status of Chinese frontline medical staff in the early epidemic period to better maintain their mental health, and provide adequate psychological support for them.Methods: A national online survey was carried out in China at the early stage of the COVID-19 epidemic. In total, 3025 Chinese frontline medical staff took part in this investigation which utilized a general information questionnaire, the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire (BEQ).Results: At the early stage of COVID-19, anxiety was the most common negative emotion of Chinese medical staff, followed by sadness, fear, and anger, mainly at a mild degree, which declined gradually over time. Nurses had the highest level of negative emotions compared with doctors and other healthcare workers. Women experienced more fear than men, younger and unmarried medical staff had more anxiety and fear compared with elders and married ones. Risk perception and emotional expressivity increased negative emotions, cognitive reappraisal reduced negative emotions, while negative emotions led to more avoidant behavior and more physical health disturbances, in which negative emotions mediated the effect of risk perception on avoidant behavior tendency in the model test.Conclusion: Chinese frontline medical staff experienced a mild level of negative emotions at the early stage of COVID-19, which decreased gradually over time. The findings suggest that during the epidemic, nurses' mental health should be extensively attended to, as well as women, younger, and unmarried medical staff. To better ensure their mental health, reducing risk perception and improving cognitive reappraisal might be important, which are potentially valuable to form targeted psychological interventions and emotional guidance under crisis in the future.

Are Emotion Regulation Strategies Associated With Visual Attentional Breadth for Emotional Information in Youth?

Attentional deployment is currently considered as one of the most central mechanisms in emotion regulation (ER) as it is assumed to be a crucial first step in the selection of emotional information. According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions are associated with attentional broadening and negative emotions with attentional narrowing toward emotional information. Given that ER strategies relying on attentional deployment (i.e., rumination, cognitive reappraisal and distraction) have the possibility to influence positive and negative emotions by (re)directing one’s attention, there could be an association with one’s attentional scope. The current study investigated the association between the general (trait) use of three specific ER strategies and visual attentional breadth for positive, negative, and neutral information in a selected sample of 56 adolescents (M = 12.54, SD = 1.72; 49% girls) at risk for developing psychopathology. First, participants self-reported on their overall use of different ER strategies. Next, the previously validated Attentional Breadth Task (ABT) was used to measure visual attention breadth toward emotional information. No evidence was found for the relationship between 2 specific ER strategies (i.e., cognitive reappraisal and rumination) and visual attentional breadth for neutral, positive and negative emotional information. Surprisingly, “distraction” was associated with visual attentional narrowing, which was unrelated to the valence of the emotion. These unexpected results indicate the multifaceted relationship between trait ER, distraction specifically, and visual attentional breadth for emotional information. Future research, especially in younger age groups, could further elaborate on this research domain.

Impact of psychological contract breach on police corruption in Nigeria: The moderating role of emotion regulation strategies

Using insight from social exchange and conservation of resources theories, the present study address the void in the literature on the relationship between psychological contract breach (PCB) and police corruption, and investigates the moderating role of emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in the relationship. Data were collected from 391 (198 male and 193 female) police personnel in various police divisions in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. The results of moderated hierarchical regression analysis showed that PCB ( β = .17, p < .05) and expressive suppression ( β = .22, p < .01) were positively related to police corruption. However, cognitive reappraisal ( β = −.26, p < .05) was negatively associated with police corruption. Finally, whereas cognitive reappraisal ( β = −.10, p < .05) buffers the positive relationship between PCB and police corruption, expressive suppression exacerbates this relationship ( β = .19 , p < .01). These findings suggest the need for cognitive reappraisal training for police personnel.