Posttraumatic stress disorder is associated with emotional eating.

Science.gov (United States)

Talbot, Lisa S; Maguen, Shira; Epel, Elissa S; Metzler, Thomas J; Neylan, Thomas C

2013-08-01

The present study investigated the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and emotional eating in a sample of medically healthy and medication-free adults. Participants with PTSD (n = 44) and control participants free of lifetime psychiatric history (n = 49) completed a measure of emotional eating. Emotional eating is the tendency to eat or overeat in response to negative emotions. PTSD participants exhibited greater emotional eating than control participants (η(2)  = .20) and emotional eating increased with higher PTSD symptom severity (R(2)  = .11). Results supported the stress-eating-obesity model whereby emotional eating is a maladaptive response to stressors. Over time, this could lead to weight gain, particularly abdominal stores, and contribute to higher risk for comorbid medical disorders. Findings suggest the importance of future longitudinal research to understand whether emotional eating contributes to the high rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in PTSD. Copyright © 2013 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Emotional Memory Formation Under Lower Versus Higher Stress Conditions

OpenAIRE

Kogan, Inna; Richter-Levin, Gal

2010-01-01

An exposure to stress can enhance memory for emotionally arousing experiences. The phenomenon is suggested to be amygdala-dependent and in accordance with that view the amygdala was found to modulate mnemonic processes in other brain regions. Previously, we illustrated increased amygdala activation and reduced activation of CA1 following spatial learning under higher versus lower stress conditions. When spatial learning was followed by reversal training interference, impaired retention was de...

Emotional intelligence and learning & teaching in higher education : implications for bioscience education

OpenAIRE

Armour, William

2012-01-01

Emotional Intelligence (EI) was popularised in 1990s by Daniel Goleman’s bestselling book of the same name (Goleman 1996). EI has been criticised by scholars in the psychological community for lack of a clear definition or empirical evidence that it is anything more than a combination of already known cognitive and personality factors. Despite this controversy, there are many proponents of EI in higher education who highlight the folly of trying to separate the cognitive from the emotional. T...

Academic Self-Efficacy, Emotional Intelligence, GPA and Academic Procrastination in Higher Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meirav Hen

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students' academic success because it decreases the quality and quantity of learning while increasing the severity of negative outcomes in students’ lives. Research findings suggest that academic procrastination is closely related to motivation variables such as self-efficacy and self-regulated learning, and with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions. It has been found to be associated with academic self-efficacy and a variety of better outcomes, including academic performance. The purpose of the present study was to explore and provide an initial understanding to the relationships between emotional intelligence, academic procrastination and GPA, as mediated by academic selfefficacy. A convenience sampling of 287 college students was collected. Structural equation modeling analysis using AMOS was conducted to examine the mediation role of academic selfefficacy between emotional intelligence, procrastination and GPA. Findings indicated that Emotional intelligence has a negative indirect effect on academic procrastination and a positive indirect effect on academic performance. Further research is needed to explore the effect of emotional intelligence on academic procrastination and performance, and to further understand its implications for academic settings.

Lonely adolescents exhibit heightened sensitivity for facial cues of emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanhalst, Janne; Gibb, Brandon E; Prinstein, Mitchell J

2017-02-01

Contradicting evidence exists regarding the link between loneliness and sensitivity to facial cues of emotion, as loneliness has been related to better but also to worse performance on facial emotion recognition tasks. This study aims to contribute to this debate and extends previous work by (a) focusing on both accuracy and sensitivity to detecting positive and negative expressions, (b) controlling for depressive symptoms and social anxiety, and (c) using an advanced emotion recognition task with videos of neutral adolescent faces gradually morphing into full-intensity expressions. Participants were 170 adolescents (49% boys; M age  = 13.65 years) from rural, low-income schools. Results showed that loneliness was associated with increased sensitivity to happy, sad, and fear faces. When controlling for depressive symptoms and social anxiety, loneliness remained significantly associated with sensitivity to sad and fear faces. Together, these results suggest that lonely adolescents are vigilant to negative facial cues of emotion.

Engaging Students Emotionally: The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Predicting Cognitive and Affective Engagement in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Maguire, Rebecca; Egan, Arlene; Hyland, Philip; Maguire, Phil

2017-01-01

Student engagement is a key predictor of academic performance, persistence and retention in higher education. While many studies have identified how aspects of the college environment influence engagement, fewer have specifically focused on emotional intelligence (EI). In this study, we sought to explore whether EI could predict cognitive and/or…

Emotional preferences and goals and emotion dysregulation in children with Asperger's syndrome and typically developing children.

Science.gov (United States)

López-Pérez, Belén; Ambrona, Tamara; Gummerum, Michaela

2018-02-05

Emotion goals lie at the heart of emotion regulation, as people have to first decide what emotions they want to feel before engaging in emotion regulation. Given that children with Asperger's syndrome (AS) are characterized by exhibiting difficulties in emotion regulation, studying whether they display similar or different emotion goals compared to typically developing (TD) children may provide insightful information. Thirty AS and 30 TD children (10-12 years) reported about their general (i.e., how they want to feel in general) and contextualized (i.e., how they want to feel when confronting vs. collaborating with someone) emotion goals, and about their difficulties in emotion regulation through questionnaires. Results showed that both groups did not differ in their general emotional goals and in their contextualized emotion goals for happiness for collaboration and anger for confrontation. AS children only differed from TD children in a higher preference for sadness for collaboration and happiness for confrontation. These emotion goals predicted their difficulties to engage in goal-directed behaviour. The obtained results support the need to further study emotion goals as an aspect of emotion dysregulation, namely the difficulties to engage in goal-directed behaviour when experiencing different emotions. AS and TD children did not differ in their general emotion goals. AS and TD children did not vary in their preferences for happiness for collaboration and anger for confrontation. AS children only differed in a higher preference for sadness for collaboration and happiness for confrontation. Understanding emotion goals might help practitioners to develop better interventions. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

Mathematical literacy in undergraduates: role of gender, emotional intelligence and emotional self-efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Tariq, Vicki N.; Qualter, Pamela; Roberts, Sian; Appleby, Yvon; Barnes, Lynne

2013-12-01

This empirical study explores the roles that Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Self-Efficacy (ESE) play in undergraduates' mathematical literacy, and the influence of EI and ESE on students' attitudes towards and beliefs about mathematics. A convenience sample of 93 female and 82 male first-year undergraduates completed a test of mathematical literacy, followed by an online survey designed to measure the students' EI, ESE and factors associated with mathematical literacy. Analysis of the data revealed significant gender differences. Males attained a higher mean test score than females and out-performed the females on most of the individual questions and the associated mathematical tasks. Overall, males expressed greater confidence in their mathematical skills, although both males' and females' confidence outweighed their actual mathematical proficiency. Correlation analyses revealed that males and females attaining higher mathematical literacy test scores were more confident and persistent, exhibited lower levels of mathematics anxiety and possessed higher mathematics qualifications. Correlation analyses also revealed that in male students, aspects of ESE were associated with beliefs concerning the learning of mathematics (i.e. that intelligence is malleable and that persistence can facilitate success), but not with confidence or actual performance. Both EI and ESE play a greater role with regard to test performance and attitudes/beliefs regarding mathematics amongst female undergraduates; higher EI and ESE scores were associated with higher test scores, while females exhibiting higher levels of ESE were also more confident and less anxious about mathematics, believed intelligence to be malleable, were more persistent and were learning goal oriented. Moderated regression analyses confirmed mathematics anxiety as a negative predictor of test performance in males and females, but also revealed that in females EI and ESE moderate the effects of anxiety on test

Emotional intelligence in South African women leaders in higher education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claude-Hélène Mayer

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Orientation: This study contributes to an in-depth understanding of emotional intelligence (EI in women leaders in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs in South Africa from an inside perspective. Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore EI in South African women leaders working in HEIs to identify women leader’s strengths, foci and their possible areas of development. The aim is to get deeper insights in EI in women leaders because EI is associated with effective leadership qualities, creativity and innovation, as well as empathetic communication which is needed in the challenging HEI workplaces. Motivation for the study: Emotional intelligence is an important source for women leaders to increase leadership qualities. This study is motivated by a deep interest to explore aspects of EI in women leaders in this specific professional context. Research design, approach and method: The study uses a qualitative research design and an approach based on Dilthey’s modern hermeneutics of ‘Verstehen’ (understanding. Twenty-three women leaders of the Higher Education Research Service (HERS-SA network were interviewed through semi-structured interviews. One researcher observed behaviour in one HEI to support the interpretation of the data. Data were analysed through content analysis. Main findings: Findings show that women leaders mainly refer to intrapersonal emotional quotient (EQ, followed by interpersonal EQ, adaptability, stress management and, finally, general mood. The most highly rated components of EQ are self-regard, followed by interpersonal relationships, problem solving, empathy, emotional self-awareness, assertiveness, impulse control and social responsibility. Findings also provide ideas on what EQ components can be further developed. Practical/managerial implications: New insights are provided on what components of EI should be developed in women leaders to increase overall EI, on cognitive and behavioural levels

Females are sensitive to unpleasant human emotions regardless of the emotional context of photographs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kato, Ryousuke; Takeda, Yuji

2017-06-09

Previous studies have demonstrated that females exhibit higher sensitivity than males to the emotional state of a person in a photograph. The present study examined whether such females' sensitivity to human emotions could be observed even when the background emotional contexts were incongruent with facial expressions. The late positive potential (LPP) was measured while 19-female and 15-male participants viewed a photograph of a face with varied emotional expressions (pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant) superimposed on a background photograph with varied valences (pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant). The results showed that unpleasant background photographs elicited a larger LPP compared to pleasant and neutral background photographs in both female and male participants. In contrast, a larger LPP for the unpleasant face photographs was observed only in female participants. Furthermore, the effect of face photographs did not interact with the effect of background photographs. These results suggest that females are sensitive to human emotions regardless of the emotional context. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fostering Emotional Intelligence in Online Higher Education Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Majeski, Robin A.; Stover, Merrily; Valais, Teresa; Ronch, Judah

2017-01-01

Given the complex challenges organizations face and the importance of emotional intelligence to effective leadership, management education has begun to help adult learners develop emotional intelligence competencies. These include emotional self-control, conflict management, teamwork, cultural awareness, and inspirational leadership, among other…

Socio-emotional conflict in collaborative learning—A process-oriented case study in a higher education context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Näykki, Piia; Järvelä, Sanna; Kirschner, Paul A.; Järvenoja, Hanna

2018-01-01

This case study explores cognitive, motivational and socio-emotional challenges experienced in collaborative learning, how conflict emerges and what students’ emotional reactions and interpretations are. Collaborative work of 22 higher education students was followed during a three-month course.

Positively Biased Processing of Mother's Emotions Predicts Children's Social and Emotional Functioning.

Science.gov (United States)

Donohue, Meghan Rose; Goodman, Sherryl H; Tully, Erin C

Risk for internalizing problems and social skills deficits likely emerges in early childhood when emotion processing and social competencies are developing. Positively biased processing of social information is typical during early childhood and may be protective against poorer psychosocial outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that young children with relatively less positively biased attention to, interpretations of, and attributions for their mother's emotions would exhibit poorer prosocial skills and more internalizing problems. A sample of 4- to 6-year-old children ( N =82) observed their mothers express happiness, sadness and anger during a simulated emotional phone conversation. Children's attention to their mother when she expressed each emotion was rated from video. Immediately following the phone conversation, children were asked questions about the conversation to assess their interpretations of the intensity of mother's emotions and misattributions of personal responsibility for her emotions. Children's prosocial skills and internalizing problems were assessed using mother-report rating scales. Interpretations of mother's positive emotions as relatively less intense than her negative emotions, misattributions of personal responsibility for her negative emotions, and lack of misattributions of personal responsibility for her positive emotions were associated with poorer prosocial skills. Children who attended relatively less to mother's positive than her negative emotions had higher levels of internalizing problems. These findings suggest that children's attention to, interpretations of, and attributions for their mother's emotions may be important targets of early interventions for preventing prosocial skills deficits and internalizing problems.

The Relevance of Emotional Intelligence for Leadership in a Higher Education Context

Science.gov (United States)

Parrish, Dominique Rene

2015-01-01

This paper reports on a case-study research investigation that sought to identify the relevance of emotional intelligence for effective higher education academic leadership. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, pre and post a leadership capacity development intervention, to gather broad data on participants' experiences, insights, and…

Student-Teachers in Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs) Emotional Intelligence and Mathematical Competencies

Science.gov (United States)

Eustaquio, William Rafael

2015-01-01

As manifested by various studies conducted, the present state of Mathematics education in the teaching-learning process is relatively declining and the existing effort to identify emotional intelligence and mathematics competencies of Mathematics major student-teachers at Higher Education Institutions in Isabela is an attempt to help alleviate the…

Interaction between behavioral inhibition and emotional processing in borderline personality disorder using a pictorial emotional go/no-go paradigm.

Science.gov (United States)

Sinke, Christopher; Wollmer, M Axel; Kneer, Jonas; Kahl, Kai G; Kruger, Tillmann H C

2017-10-01

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by difficulties in emotional regulation and impulse control. In this study, we presented a novel picture-based emotional go/no-go task with distracting emotional faces in the background, which was administered to 16 patients with BPD and 16 age-matched healthy controls. The faces displayed different emotional content (angry, neutral, or happy). Results showed differences in sensitivity between patients and the control group, with patients exhibiting less sensitivity in the task, and also showed influences of emotional content represented in the distracting faces in both groups. Specifically, happy faces decreased sensitivity compared to angry faces. It seemed as though processing of a positive emotional stimulus led to a more relaxed state and thereby to decreased sensitivity, while a negative emotional stimulus induced more alertness and tension, leading to higher sensitivity. Thus, this paradigm is suitable to investigate the interplay between emotion processing and impulse control in patients with BPD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Exhibition

CERN Document Server

Staff Association

2017-01-01

A Look of Hope Islam Mahmoud Sweity From 19 to 30 June 2017 CERN Meyrin, Main Building Islam Mahmoud Sweity Islam Mahmoud Sweity was born in 1997 at Beit Awwa, Palestine. She is currently following a course to get an Art diploma of Painting at the college of Fine Arts at An-Najah National University under the supervision of Esmat Al As'aad. Her portraits, landscapes and still life paintings are full of life and shining colours. Charged of emotional empathy they catch the attention of the viewer and are reminding us that life is beautiful and worth living in spite of all difficulties we have to go through. She participated in many exhibitions and has exposed her drawings in 2015 at CERN and in France in the framework of the exhibition "The Origin“, and in 2017 in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Palestina and Jordan. In this exhibition the oil paintings made in the past year will be presented. For more information : staff.association@cern.ch | T&eacu...

Adaptation and Validation of the Basque Version of the Emotional Creativity Inventory in Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Soroa, Goretti; Aritzeta, Aitor; Balluerka, Nekane; Gorostiaga, Arantxa

2016-06-03

Emotional creativity is defined as the ability to feel and express emotions in a new, effective and authentic way. There are currently no Basque-language self-report instruments to provide valid and reliable measures of this construct. Thus, this paper describes the process of adapting and validating the Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI) for the Basque-speaking population. The sample was comprised of 594 higher education students (388 women and 206 men) aged between 18 and 32 years old (Mage = 20.47; SD = 2.48). The Basque version of the ECI was administered along with the TMMS-23, NEO PI-R, and PANAS. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on the Basque ECI corroborated the original scale's three-factor structure (preparedness, novelty, and effectiveness/authenticity). Those dimensions showed acceptable indexes of internal consistency (α = .80, .83, and .83) and temporal stability (r = .70, .69, and .74). The study also provided some evidence of external validity (p emotional creativity and emotional intelligence, personality, affect, and sex. The Basque ECI can be regarded as a useful tool to evaluate perceived emotional creativity during the preparation and verification phases of the creative process.

Amygdala nuclei critical for emotional learning exhibit unique gene expression patterns.

Science.gov (United States)

Partin, Alexander C; Hosek, Matthew P; Luong, Jonathan A; Lella, Srihari K; Sharma, Sachein A R; Ploski, Jonathan E

2013-09-01

The amygdala is a heterogeneous, medial temporal lobe structure that has been implicated in the formation, expression and extinction of emotional memories. This structure is composed of numerous nuclei that vary in cytoarchitectonics and neural connections. In particular the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA), central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), and the basal (B) nucleus contribute an essential role to emotional learning. However, to date it is still unclear to what extent these nuclei differ at the molecular level. Therefore we have performed whole genome gene expression analysis on these nuclei to gain a better understanding of the molecular differences and similarities among these nuclei. Specifically the LA, CeA and B nuclei were laser microdissected from the rat brain, and total RNA was isolated from these nuclei and subjected to RNA amplification. Amplified RNA was analyzed by whole genome microarray analysis which revealed that 129 genes are differentially expressed among these nuclei. Notably gene expression patterns differed between the CeA nucleus and the LA and B nuclei. However gene expression differences were not considerably different between the LA and B nuclei. Secondary confirmation of numerous genes was performed by in situ hybridization to validate the microarray findings, which also revealed that for many genes, expression differences among these nuclei were consistent with the embryological origins of these nuclei. Knowing the stable gene expression differences among these nuclei will provide novel avenues of investigation into how these nuclei contribute to emotional arousal and emotional learning, and potentially offer new genetic targets to manipulate emotional learning and memory. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Attachment's Links With Adolescents' Social Emotions: The Roles of Negative Emotionality and Emotion Regulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Murphy, Tia Panfile; Laible, Deborah J; Augustine, Mairin; Robeson, Lindsay

2015-01-01

Recent research has attempted to explain the mechanisms through which parental attachment affects social and emotional outcomes (e.g., Burnette, Taylor, Worthington, & Forsyth, 2007 ; Panfile & Laible, 2012 ). The authors' goal was to examine negative emotionality and emotion regulation as mediators of the associations that attachment has with empathy, forgiveness, guilt, and jealousy. One hundred forty-eight adolescents reported their parental attachment security, general levels of negative emotionality and abilities to regulate emotional responses, and tendencies to feel empathy, forgiveness, guilt, and jealousy. Results revealed that attachment security was associated with higher levels of empathy, forgiveness, and guilt, but lower levels of jealousy. In addition, emotion regulation mediated the links attachment shared with both empathy and guilt, such that higher levels of attachment security were linked with greater levels of emotion regulation, which led to greater levels of empathy and guilt. Alternatively, negative emotionality mediated the links attachment shared with both forgiveness and jealousy, such that higher levels of attachment security were associated with lower levels of negative emotionality, which in turn was linked to lower levels of forgiveness and higher levels of jealousy. This study provides a general picture of how attachment security may play a role in shaping an individual's levels of social emotions.

Emotional Labour in University Lecturers: Considerations for Higher Education Institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Karen; Cassidy, Simon

2013-01-01

Emotional labour is a state that exists when there is a discrepancy between the emotional demeanour that an individual displays and the genuinely felt emotions that would be inappropriate to display (Mann 1999b).The study examined levels of emotional labour in university lecturers and compared these data to other occupations. Employing a mixed…

Neural correlates of emotional intelligence in a visual emotional oddball task: an ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Raz, Sivan; Dan, Orrie; Zysberg, Leehu

2014-11-01

The present study was aimed at identifying potential behavioral and neural correlates of Emotional Intelligence (EI) by using scalp-recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs). EI levels were defined according to both self-report questionnaire and a performance-based ability test. We identified ERP correlates of emotional processing by using a visual-emotional oddball paradigm, in which subjects were confronted with one frequent standard stimulus (a neutral face) and two deviant stimuli (a happy and an angry face). The effects of these faces were then compared across groups with low and high EI levels. The ERP results indicate that participants with high EI exhibited significantly greater mean amplitudes of the P1, P2, N2, and P3 ERP components in response to emotional and neutral faces, at frontal, posterior-parietal and occipital scalp locations. P1, P2 and N2 are considered indexes of attention-related processes and have been associated with early attention to emotional stimuli. The later P3 component has been thought to reflect more elaborative, top-down, emotional information processing including emotional evaluation and memory encoding and formation. These results may suggest greater recruitment of resources to process all emotional and non-emotional faces at early and late processing stages among individuals with higher EI. The present study underscores the usefulness of ERP methodology as a sensitive measure for the study of emotional stimuli processing in the research field of EI. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression

OpenAIRE

Gruber, June; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher; Johnson, Sheri L.

2011-01-01

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N = 185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experie...

Positively Biased Processing of Mother’s Emotions Predicts Children’s Social and Emotional Functioning

Science.gov (United States)

Donohue, Meghan Rose; Goodman, Sherryl H.; Tully, Erin C.

2016-01-01

Risk for internalizing problems and social skills deficits likely emerges in early childhood when emotion processing and social competencies are developing. Positively biased processing of social information is typical during early childhood and may be protective against poorer psychosocial outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that young children with relatively less positively biased attention to, interpretations of, and attributions for their mother’s emotions would exhibit poorer prosocial skills and more internalizing problems. A sample of 4- to 6-year-old children (N=82) observed their mothers express happiness, sadness and anger during a simulated emotional phone conversation. Children’s attention to their mother when she expressed each emotion was rated from video. Immediately following the phone conversation, children were asked questions about the conversation to assess their interpretations of the intensity of mother’s emotions and misattributions of personal responsibility for her emotions. Children’s prosocial skills and internalizing problems were assessed using mother-report rating scales. Interpretations of mother’s positive emotions as relatively less intense than her negative emotions, misattributions of personal responsibility for her negative emotions, and lack of misattributions of personal responsibility for her positive emotions were associated with poorer prosocial skills. Children who attended relatively less to mother’s positive than her negative emotions had higher levels of internalizing problems. These findings suggest that children’s attention to, interpretations of, and attributions for their mother’s emotions may be important targets of early interventions for preventing prosocial skills deficits and internalizing problems. PMID:28348456

Toddlers with Early Behavioral Problems at Higher Family Demographic Risk Benefit the Most from Maternal Emotion Talk.

Science.gov (United States)

Brophy-Herb, Holly E; Bocknek, Erika London; Vallotton, Claire D; Stansbury, Kathy E; Senehi, Neda; Dalimonte-Merckling, Danielle; Lee, Young-Eun

2015-09-01

To test the hypothesis that toddlers at highest risk for behavioral problems from the most economically vulnerable families will benefit most from maternal talk about emotions. This study included 89 toddlers and mothers from low-income families. Behavioral problems were rated at 2 time points by masters-level trained Early Head Start home visiting specialists. Maternal emotion talk was coded from a wordless book-sharing task. Coding focused on mothers' emotion bridging, which included labeling emotions, explaining the context of emotions, noting the behavioral cues of emotions, and linking emotions to toddlers' own experiences. Maternal demographic risk reflected a composite score of 5 risk factors. A significant 3-way interaction between Time 1 toddler behavior problems, maternal emotion talk, and maternal demographic risk (p = .001) and examination of slope difference tests revealed that when maternal demographic risk was greater, more maternal emotion talk buffered associations between earlier and later behavior problems. Greater demographic risk and lower maternal emotion talk intensified Time 1 behavior problems as a predictor of Time 2 behavior problems. The model explained 54% of the variance in toddlers' Time 2 behavior problems. Analyses controlled for maternal warmth to better examine the unique contributions of emotion bridging to toddlers' behaviors. Toddlers at highest risk, those with more early behavioral problems from higher demographic-risk families, benefit the most from mothers' emotion talk. Informing parents about the use of emotion talk may be a cost-effective, simple strategy to support at-risk toddlers' social-emotional development and reduce behavioral problems.

Sex differences in the time course of emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Gard, Marja Germans; Kring, Ann M

2007-05-01

Conventional wisdom holds that women are more "emotional" than men. However, research evidence suggests that sex differences in emotion are considerably more complex. The authors tested hypotheses about sex differences in the engagement of the approach and avoidance motivational systems thought to underpin emotional responses. The authors measured reported emotional experience and startle response magnitude both during the presentation and after the offset of emotional stimuli that engage these motivational systems to assess whether men and women differ in their patterns of immediate response to emotional stimuli and in their patterns of recovery from these responses. Our findings indicated that women were more experientially reactive to negative, but not positive, emotional pictures compared to men, and that women scored higher than men on measure of aversive motivational system sensitivity. Although both men and women exhibited potentiation of the startle response during the presentation of negative pictures relative to neutral pictures, only women continued to show this relative potentiation during the recovery period, indicating that women were continuing to engage the aversive motivational system after the offset of negative emotional pictures.

Higher emotional intelligence is related to lower test anxiety among students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmadpanah M

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Mohammad Ahmadpanah,1 Mohammadreza Keshavarz,1 Mohammad Haghighi,1 Leila Jahangard,1 Hafez Bajoghli,2 Dena Sadeghi Bahmani,3 Edith Holsboer-Trachsler,3 Serge Brand3,4 1Behavioral Disorders and Substances Abuse, Research Center, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran; 2Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies (INCAS, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High-Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Psychiatric Clinics of the University of Basel, Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders, 4Department of Sport, Exercise and Health Science, Sport Science Section, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland Background: For students attending university courses, experiencing test anxiety (TA dramatically impairs cognitive performance and success at exams. Whereas TA is a specific case of social phobia, emotional intelligence (EI is an umbrella term covering interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, along with positive stress management, adaptability, and mood. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that higher EI and lower TA are associated. Further, sex differences were explored.Method: During an exam week, a total of 200 university students completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, TA, and EI.Results: Higher scores on EI traits were associated with lower TA scores. Relative to male participants, female participants reported higher TA scores, but not EI scores. Intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and mood predicted low TA, while sex, stress management, and adaptability were excluded from the equation.Conclusion: The pattern of results suggests that efforts to improve intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and mood might benefit students with high TA. Specifically, social commitment might counteract TA. Keywords: test anxiety, emotional intelligence, students, interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills

Fear, Sadness and Hope: Which Emotions Maximize Impact of Anti-Tobacco Mass Media Advertisements among Lower and Higher SES Groups?

Science.gov (United States)

Durkin, Sarah; Bayly, Megan; Brennan, Emily; Biener, Lois; Wakefield, Melanie

2018-01-01

Emotive anti-tobacco advertisements can increase quitting. Discrete emotion theories suggest evoking fear may be more effective than sadness; less research has focused on hope. A weekly cross-sectional survey of smokers and recent quitters (N = 7683) measured past-month quit attempts. The main predictor was level of exposure to four different types of anti-tobacco advertisements broadcast in the two months prior to quit attempts: advertisements predominantly evoking fear, sadness, hope, or evoking multiple negative emotions (i.e., fear, guilt, and/or sadness). Greater exposure to fear-evoking advertisements (OR = 2.16, p < .01) increased odds of making a quit attempt and showed similar effectiveness among those in lower and higher SES areas. Greater exposure to advertisements evoking multiple negative emotions increased quit attempts (OR = 1.70, p < .01), but interactions indicated this was driven by those in lower SES, but not higher SES areas. Greater exposure to hope-evoking advertisements enhanced effects of fear-evoking advertisements among those in higher SES, but not lower SES areas. Findings suggest to be maximally effective across the whole population avoid messages evoking sadness and use messages eliciting fear. If the aim is to specifically motivate those living in lower SES areas where smoking rates are higher, multiple negative emotion messages, but not hope-evoking messages, may also be effective.

Academic Self-Efficacy, Emotional Intelligence, GPA and Academic Procrastination in Higher Education

OpenAIRE

Meirav Hen; Marina Goroshit

2014-01-01

Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students' academic success because it decreases the quality and quantity of learning while increasing the severity of negative outcomes in students’ lives. Research findings suggest that academic procrastination is closely related to motivation variables such as self-efficacy and self-regulated learning, and with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional Intelligence is the ability to assess, regulate, an...

Higher Education Teachers and Emotional Labour

Science.gov (United States)

Constanti, Panikkos; Gibbs, Paul

2004-01-01

Service organizations are encouraged to consider the manner in which employees perform at the customer/front-line employee interface, as a means to gain competitive advantage. The employee's behaviour requires "emotional labour" where the front-line employee (academic), has to either conceal or manage actual feelings for the benefit of a…

Emotional Connections in Higher Education Marketing

Science.gov (United States)

Durkin, Mark; McKenna, Seamas; Cummins, Darryl

2012-01-01

Purpose: Through examination of a case study this paper aims to describe a brand re-positioning exercise and explore how an emotionally driven approach to branding can help create meaningful connections with potential undergraduate students and can positively influence choice. Design/methodology/approach: The paper's approach is a case study…

Higher emotional intelligence is related to lower test anxiety among students

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmadpanah, Mohammad; Keshavarz, Mohammadreza; Haghighi, Mohammad; Jahangard, Leila; Bajoghli, Hafez; Sadeghi Bahmani, Dena; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith; Brand, Serge

2016-01-01

Background For students attending university courses, experiencing test anxiety (TA) dramatically impairs cognitive performance and success at exams. Whereas TA is a specific case of social phobia, emotional intelligence (EI) is an umbrella term covering interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, along with positive stress management, adaptability, and mood. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that higher EI and lower TA are associated. Further, sex differences were explored. Method During an exam week, a total of 200 university students completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic information, TA, and EI. Results Higher scores on EI traits were associated with lower TA scores. Relative to male participants, female participants reported higher TA scores, but not EI scores. Intrapersonal and interpersonal skills and mood predicted low TA, while sex, stress management, and adaptability were excluded from the equation. Conclusion The pattern of results suggests that efforts to improve intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, and mood might benefit students with high TA. Specifically, social commitment might counteract TA. PMID:26834474

Emotional intelligence, teamwork effectiveness, and job performance: the moderating role of job context.

Science.gov (United States)

Farh, Crystal I C Chien; Seo, Myeong-Gu; Tesluk, Paul E

2012-07-01

We advance understanding of the role of ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) and its subdimensions in the workplace by examining the mechanisms and context-based boundary conditions of the EI-performance relationship. Using a trait activation framework, we theorize that employees with higher overall EI and emotional perception ability exhibit higher teamwork effectiveness (and subsequent job performance) when working in job contexts characterized by high managerial work demands because such contexts contain salient emotion-based cues that activate employees' emotional capabilities. A sample of 212 professionals from various organizations and industries indicated support for the salutary effect of EI, above and beyond the influence of personality, cognitive ability, emotional labor job demands, job complexity, and demographic control variables. Theoretical and practical implications of the potential value of EI for workplace outcomes under contexts involving managerial complexity are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).

Digital Storytelling: Emotions in Higher Education

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Ribeiro, Sandra; Moreira, António; da Silva, Cristina Pinto

2014-01-01

In tandem with the deep structural changes that have taken place in society, education must also shift towards a teaching approach focused on learning and the overall development of the student. The integration of technology may be the drive to foster the needed changes. We draw on the literature of pertaining to the role of emotions and…

Emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between regional gray matter volume in the bilateral temporal pole and critical thinking disposition.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Xiaonan; Yuan, Shuge; Yang, Wenjing; Chen, Qunlin; Wei, Dongtao; Hou, Yuling; Zhang, Lijie; Qiu, Jiang; Yang, Dong

2018-04-01

Critical thinking enables people to form sound beliefs and provides a basis for emotional life. Research has indicated that individuals with better critical thinking disposition can better recognize and regulate their emotions, though the neuroanatomical mechanisms involved in this process remain to be elucidated. Further, the influence of emotional intelligence on the relationship between brain structure and critical thinking disposition has not been examined. The present study utilized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to investigate the neural structures underlying critical thinking disposition in a large sample of college students (N = 296). Regional gray matter volume (rGMV) in the bilateral temporal pole, which reflects an individual's ability to process social and emotional information, was negatively correlated with critical thinking disposition. In addition, rGMV in bilateral para hippocampal regions -regions involved in contextual association/emotional regulation-exhibited negative correlation with critical thinking disposition. Further analysis revealed that emotional intelligence moderated the relationship between rGMV of the temporal pole and critical thinking disposition. Specifically, critical thinking disposition was associated with decreased GMV of the temporal pole for individuals who have relatively higher emotional intelligence rather than lower emotional intelligence. The results of the present study indicate that people who have higher emotional intelligence exhibit more effective and automatic processing of emotional information and tend to be strong critical thinkers.

Enhancing creativity: Proper body posture meets proper emotion.

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Ning; Xue, Hua; Yuan, Huan; Wang, Qing; Runco, Mark A

2017-02-01

This study tested whether compatibility or incompatibility between body posture and emotion was beneficial for creativity. In Study 1, participants were asked to solve the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) problems when performing open or closed body posture in positive or negative emotional state respectively. The results showed that originality of AUT performance was higher in the compatible conditions (i.e., open-positive and closed-negative) than in the incompatible conditions (i.e., closed-positive and open-negative). In Study 2, the compatibility effect was replicated in both the AUT and the Realistic Presented Problem test (i.e., RPP). Moreover, it was revealed that participants exhibited the highest associative flexibility in the open-positive condition, and the highest persistence in the closed-negative condition. These findings indicate that compatibility between body posture and emotion is beneficial for creativity. This may be because when the implicit emotions elicited by body posture match explicit emotions, the effects of emotions on creativity are enhanced, therefore promoting creativity through the flexibility or the persistence pathway respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotion regulation and the temporal dynamics of emotions: Effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on emotional inertia.

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Koval, Peter; Butler, Emily A; Hollenstein, Tom; Lanteigne, Dianna; Kuppens, Peter

2015-01-01

The tendency for emotions to be predictable over time, labelled emotional inertia, has been linked to low well-being and is thought to reflect impaired emotion regulation. However, almost no studies have examined how emotion regulation relates to emotional inertia. We examined the effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on the inertia of behavioural, subjective and physiological measures of emotion. In Study 1 (N = 111), trait suppression was associated with higher inertia of negative behaviours. We replicated this finding experimentally in Study 2 (N = 186). Furthermore, in Study 2, instructed suppressors and reappraisers both showed higher inertia of positive behaviours, and reappraisers displayed higher inertia of heart rate. Neither suppression nor reappraisal were associated with the inertia of subjective feelings in either study. Thus, the effects of suppression and reappraisal on the temporal dynamics of emotions depend on the valence and emotional response component in question.

Exhibition

CERN Multimedia

Staff Association

2017-01-01

Sintropie Flavio Pellegrini From 13 to 24 March 2017 CERN Meyrin, Main Building Energia imprigionata - Flavio Pellegrini. The exhibition is composed by eleven wood artworks with the expression of movement as theme. The artworks are the result of harmonics math applied to sculpture. The powerful black colour is dominated by the light source, generating reflexes and modulations. The result is a continuous variation of perspective visions. The works generate, at a first approach, an emotion of mystery and incomprehension, only a deeper contemplation lets one discover entangling and mutative details, evidencing the elegance of the lines and letting the meaning emerge. For more information : staff.association@cern.ch | Tél: 022 766 37 38

Origin of Emotion Effects on ERP Correlates of Emotional Word Processing: The Emotion Duality Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Imbir, Kamil Konrad; Jarymowicz, Maria Teresa; Spustek, Tomasz; Kuś, Rafał; Żygierewicz, Jarosław

2015-01-01

We distinguish two evaluative systems which evoke automatic and reflective emotions. Automatic emotions are direct reactions to stimuli whereas reflective emotions are always based on verbalized (and often abstract) criteria of evaluation. We conducted an electroencephalography (EEG) study in which 25 women were required to read and respond to emotional words which engaged either the automatic or reflective system. Stimulus words were emotional (positive or negative) and neutral. We found an effect of valence on an early response with dipolar fronto-occipital topography; positive words evoked a higher amplitude response than negative words. We also found that topographically specific differences in the amplitude of the late positive complex were related to the system involved in processing. Emotional stimuli engaging the automatic system were associated with significantly higher amplitudes in the left-parietal region; the response to neutral words was similar regardless of the system engaged. A different pattern of effects was observed in the central region, neutral stimuli engaging the reflective system evoked a higher amplitudes response whereas there was no system effect for emotional stimuli. These differences could not be reduced to effects of differences between the arousing properties and concreteness of the words used as stimuli.

Emotional memory consolidation under lower versus higher stress conditions

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Inna eKogan

2010-12-01

Full Text Available An exposure to stress can enhance memory for emotionally arousing experiences. The phenomenon is suggested to be amygdala-dependent and in accordance with that view the amygdala was found to modulate mnemonic processes in other brain regions. Previously, we illustrated increased amygdala activation and reduced activation of CA1 following spatial learning under high versus low emotionality conditions. When spatial learning was followed by reversal training interference, impaired retention was detected only under high emotionality conditions. Here we further evaluate the potential implications of the difference in the level of amygdala activation on the quality of the memory formed under these stress conditions. We attempted to affect spatial memory consolidation under low or high stress conditions by either introducing a foot shock interference following massed training in the water maze; by manipulating the threshold for acquisition employing either brief (3 trials or full (12 trials training sessions; or by employing a spaced training (over three days rather than massed training protocol. The current findings reveal that under heightened emotionality, the process of consolidation seems to become less effective and more vulnerable to interference; however, when memory consolidation is not interrupted, retention is improved. These differential effects might underlie the complex interactions of stress, and, particularly, of traumatic stress with memory formation processes.

Biological pacemakers in canines exhibit positive chronotropic response to emotional arousal

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Shlapakova, Iryna N.; Nearing, Bruce D.; Lau, David H.; Boink, Gerard J. J.; Danilo, Peter; Kryukova, Yelena; Robinson, Richard B.; Cohen, Ira S.; Rosen, Michael R.; Verrier, Richard L.

2010-01-01

Biological pacemakers based on the HCN2 channel isoform respond to beta-adrenergic and muscarinic stimulation, suggesting a capacity to respond to autonomic input. The purpose of this study was to investigate autonomic response to emotional arousal in canines implanted with murine HCN2-based

Detrended Fluctuation Analysis of the Human EEG during Listening to Emotional Music

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

无

2007-01-01

A nonlinear method named detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) was utilized to investigate the scaling behavior of the human electroencephalogram (EEG) in three emotional music conditions (fear, happiness, sadness) and a rest condition (eyes-closed). The results showed that the EEG exhibited scaling behavior in two regions with two scaling exponents β1 and β2 which represented the complexity of higher and lower frequency activity besides β band respectively. As the emotional intensity decreased the value of β1 increased and the value of β2 decreased. The change of β1 was weakly correlated with the 'approach-withdrawal' model of emotion and both of fear and sad music made certain differences compared with the eyes-closed rest condition. The study shows that music is a powerful elicitor of emotion and that using nonlinear method can potentially contribute to the investigation of emotion.

Orienting Recovery as Predictor of Higher Emotional Regulation in Soccer Players

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Srilekha Saha

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose of the present study was to extrapolate intricate relationships between autonomic indices of emotionality in predicting changes in transient as well as dispositional emotionality. Performance excellence in sports and games, particularly in soccer has been referred to as resultant of mental toughness or more specifically the aspect of emotional flexibility and hardiness of the athlete. One hundred thirty five high-achiever young-adult male competitive soccer players, who were residents of Kota Bharu region volunteered as participants. All of them were subjected to evaluation of inner psychobiological status (decomposed indices of phasic skin conductance activity – viz. orienting recovery time; rise time and skin conductance adaptation levels; assessment of projective analyses of unconscious core of emotionality (employing Rorschach Ink-Blot Test in the form of evaluation indices of impulsivity, irritability, integrity. Results however revealed corroborative relationships between psychobiological autonomic indices in predicting differential aspects of inner core emotionality. Multiple linear regression analyses were done to identify differential possibilities of direct, inverse, moderating and supportive relationships between decomposition indices of autonomic orienting activity related to cognitive-affective and affective-motivational aspects of sports behaviour. Analyses of autonomic activation and arousal modulation and various indices habituation paradigm indices were found as significant predictors of changes in dispositional emotional constellation observed in the athletes. Orienting latency was observed as the most significant contributor in influencing recovery from autonomic arousal (orienting recovery in predicting changes in emotional hardiness as well as in flexibility.

Collective emotion dynamics in chats with agents, moderators and Bots

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M. Šuvakov

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Using agent-directed simulations, we investigate fluctuations in the collective emotional states on a chat network where agents interchange messages with a fixed number of moderators and emotional Bot. To design a realistic chat system, the interaction rules and some statistical parameters, as well as the agent's attributes, are inferred from the empirical chat channel Ubuntu. In the simulations, the Bot's emotion is fixed; the moderators tune the level of its activity by passing a fraction ε of messages to the Bot. At ε ≥ 0, the collective emotional state matching the Bot's emotion polarity gradually arises; the average growth rate of the dominant emotional charge serves as an order parameter. Due to self-organizing effects, the collective dynamics is more explosive when positive emotions arise by positive Bot than the onset of negative emotions in the presence of negative Bot at the same ε. Furthermore, when the emotions matching the Bot's emotion polarity are spread over the system, the underlying fractal processes exhibit higher persistence and stronger clustering of events than the processes spreading of emotion polarity opposite to the Bot's emotion. On the other hand, the relaxation dynamics is controlled by the external noise; the related nonextensive parameter, estimated from the statistics of returns, is virtually independent of the Bot's activity level and emotion contents.

A discrete emotions approach to positive emotion disturbance in depression.

Science.gov (United States)

Gruber, June; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher; Johnson, Sheri L

2011-01-01

Converging findings suggest that depressed individuals exhibit disturbances in positive emotion. No study, however, has ascertained which specific positive emotions are implicated in depression. We report two studies that compare how depressive symptoms relate to distinct positive emotions at both trait and state levels of assessment. In Study 1 (N=185), we examined associations between depressive symptoms and three trait positive emotions (pride, happy, amusement). Study 2 compared experiential and autonomic reactivity to pride, happy, and amusement film stimuli between depressive (n=24; DS) and non-depressive (n=31; NDS) symptom groups. Results indicate that symptoms of depression were most strongly associated with decreased trait pride and decreased positive emotion experience to pride-eliciting films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for understanding emotion deficits in depression as well as for the general study of positive emotion. © 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

Forgiveness from Emotion Fit: Emotional Frame, Consumer Emotion, and Feeling-Right in Consumer Decision to Forgive

Science.gov (United States)

Ran, Yaxuan; Wei, Haiying; Li, Qing

2016-01-01

Three studies examine an emotion fit effect in the crisis communication, namely, the interaction between emotional frames of guilt and shame and consumer emotions of anger and fear on consumer forgiveness. Guilt-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than shame-framing for angry consumers, whereas shame-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than guilt-framing for fearful consumers. These effects are driven by consumers’ accessible regulatory foci associated with anger/fear and guilt/shame. Specifically, feelings of anger activate a promotion focus that is represented by guilt frames, while feelings of fear activate a prevention focus that is enacted by shame frames. Compared with emotion non-fit (i.e., anger to shame and fear to guilt), emotion fit (i.e., anger to guilt and fear to shame) facilitates greater feeling-right and consumer forgiveness. The findings offer novel insights for extant literature on emotion, crisis communication, and regulatory focus theory, as well as practical suggestions regarding the emotional frames. PMID:27895612

Forgiveness from Emotion Fit: Emotional Frame, Consumer Emotion, and Feeling-Right in Consumer Decision to Forgive.

Science.gov (United States)

Ran, Yaxuan; Wei, Haiying; Li, Qing

2016-01-01

Three studies examine an emotion fit effect in the crisis communication, namely, the interaction between emotional frames of guilt and shame and consumer emotions of anger and fear on consumer forgiveness. Guilt-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than shame-framing for angry consumers, whereas shame-framing communication results in higher forgiveness than guilt-framing for fearful consumers. These effects are driven by consumers' accessible regulatory foci associated with anger/fear and guilt/shame. Specifically, feelings of anger activate a promotion focus that is represented by guilt frames, while feelings of fear activate a prevention focus that is enacted by shame frames. Compared with emotion non-fit (i.e., anger to shame and fear to guilt), emotion fit (i.e., anger to guilt and fear to shame) facilitates greater feeling-right and consumer forgiveness. The findings offer novel insights for extant literature on emotion, crisis communication, and regulatory focus theory, as well as practical suggestions regarding the emotional frames.

Self-referential emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Zinck, Alexandra

2008-06-01

The aim of this paper is to examine a special subgroup of emotion: self-referential emotions such as shame, pride and guilt. Self-referential emotions are usually conceptualized as (i) essentially involving the subject herself and as (ii) having complex conditions such as the capacity to represent others' thoughts. I will show that rather than depending on a fully fledged 'theory of mind' and an explicit language-based self-representation, (i) pre-forms of self-referential emotions appear at early developmental stages already exhibiting their characteristic structure of the intentional object of the emotion being identical with or intricately related to the subject experiencing the emotional state and that (ii) they precede and substantially contribute to the development of more complex representations and to the development of a self-concept, to social interaction and to ways of understanding of other minds.

Emotional Feeding and Emotional Eating: Reciprocal Processes and the Influence of Negative Affectivity

OpenAIRE

Steinsbekk, Silje; Barker, Edward D.; Llewellyn, Clare; Fildes, Alison; Wichstrøm, Lars

2017-01-01

Emotional eating, that is, eating more in response to negative mood, is often seen in children. But the origins of emotional eating remain unclear. In a representative community sample of Norwegian 4-year-olds followed up at ages 6, 8, and 10 years (analysis sample: n = 801), one potential developmental pathway was examined: a reciprocal relation between parental emotional feeding and child emotional eating. The results revealed that higher levels of emotional feeding predicted higher levels ...

A multi-method laboratory investigation of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation abilities in borderline personality disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuo, Janice R; Fitzpatrick, Skye; Metcalfe, Rebecca K; McMain, Shelley

2016-03-01

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is conceptualized as a disorder of heightened emotional reactivity and difficulties with emotion regulation. However, findings regarding emotional reactivity in BPD are mixed and there are limited studies examining emotion regulation capabilities in this population. Twenty-five individuals with BPD and 30 healthy controls (HCs) engaged in a baseline assessment followed by the presentation of neutral and BPD-relevant negative images. Participants were instructed to react as they naturally would to the image, or to use a mindfulness-based or distraction-based strategy to feel less negative. Self-reported and physiological (i.e., heart rate, electrodermal activity, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) measures were collected. Compared with the HCs, the BPD group exhibited elevated heart rate and reduced respiratory sinus arrhythmia at baseline. However, there were no differences in emotional reactivity in self-report or physiological indices between the two groups. In addition, the BPD group did not exhibit deficits in the ability to implement either emotion regulation strategy, with the exception that the BPD group reported less positive emotions while distracting compared with the HCs. This study is limited by a small sample size and the inclusion of a medicated BPD sample. Emotion dysregulation in BPD might be better accounted for by abnormal baseline emotional functioning rather than heightened emotional reactivity or deficits in emotion regulation. Treatments for BPD might be enhanced by directly targeting resting state emotional functioning rather than emotional reactions or regulatory attempts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Recognizing vocal emotions in Mandarin Chinese: a validated database of Chinese vocal emotional stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Pan; Pell, Marc D

2012-12-01

To establish a valid database of vocal emotional stimuli in Mandarin Chinese, a set of Chinese pseudosentences (i.e., semantically meaningless sentences that resembled real Chinese) were produced by four native Mandarin speakers to express seven emotional meanings: anger, disgust, fear, sadness, happiness, pleasant surprise, and neutrality. These expressions were identified by a group of native Mandarin listeners in a seven-alternative forced choice task, and items reaching a recognition rate of at least three times chance performance in the seven-choice task were selected as a valid database and then subjected to acoustic analysis. The results demonstrated expected variations in both perceptual and acoustic patterns of the seven vocal emotions in Mandarin. For instance, fear, anger, sadness, and neutrality were associated with relatively high recognition, whereas happiness, disgust, and pleasant surprise were recognized less accurately. Acoustically, anger and pleasant surprise exhibited relatively high mean f0 values and large variation in f0 and amplitude; in contrast, sadness, disgust, fear, and neutrality exhibited relatively low mean f0 values and small amplitude variations, and happiness exhibited a moderate mean f0 value and f0 variation. Emotional expressions varied systematically in speech rate and harmonics-to-noise ratio values as well. This validated database is available to the research community and will contribute to future studies of emotional prosody for a number of purposes. To access the database, please contact pan.liu@mail.mcgill.ca.

Greek Parents' Perceptions and Experiences regarding Their Children's Learning and Social-Emotional Difficulties

Science.gov (United States)

Adamopoulou, Eirini

2010-01-01

A survey instrument, the Test of Psychosocial Adaptation, originally developed for use with teachers in Greece, was given to 298 Greek parents in Athens and several rural areas. One hundred and five respondents indicated that their children exhibit learning and/or social-emotional learning difficulties. Parents rated higher externalizing behaviors…

SYNDROME OF EMOTIONAL BURNOUT THE TEACHING STAFF OF HIGHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. V. Ponachugin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the problem of psychological health of the faculty of the university, the causes and factors of the syndrome of emotional burnout of teachers are systematized. The signs characterizing the emergence of the syndrome of emotional burnout are revealed. Particular attention is paid to the methodology and results of the empirical study of predisposition to the syndrome. The presence of certain personal characteristics, predisposing to the formation and development of emotional burnout, was traced in the teachers of the university. It was revealed that the syndrome affects not only teachers, but also indirectly on the students of the educational institution. Dependence of the degree of severity of emotional burnout syndrome on age and work experience of the teacher is noted. It is determined that to confront the burnout the teaching staff of the university should possess, with the appropriate resources, internal and external variables that contribute to psychological stability in stressful situations.

The Emotional Stroop as an Emotion Regulation Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Kappes, Cathleen; Bermeitinger, Christina

2016-01-01

The present studies investigate age differences observed when performing the emotional Stroop task considered as an expression of emotion regulation. Previous studies employing this task showed mixed findings regarding age differences, with a lack of evidence for positivity effects. However, moderating factors such as arousal or dispositional (emotion) regulation strategies were mostly not taken into account. Moreover, relations between Stroop effects and emotional reactions were not examined. In two studies (Study 1/2: nyoung = 26/41; nold = 19/39), an emotional Stroop task was employed and valence (negative, neutral, positive [Study 2 only]) and arousal of the word stimuli were varied. Additionally, flexible goal adjustment (FGA), positive and negative affect in the last 12 months, and change in momentary affect (Study 2 only) were measured. Study 1 showed larger emotional Stroop effects (ESE) in older than younger adults with medium arousing negative words. We also found correlations between FGA (positive correlation) as well as negative affect (negative correlation) and the ESE with medium arousing negative words. Study 2 corroborates these findings by exhibiting positive change in momentary affect with larger ESEs for medium arousing negative words in the older age group. The findings emphasize the importance of including arousal level and dispositional regulation measures (such as FGA) as moderating factors in age differences and within-group differences in emotion regulation. Although we did not find evidence for a positivity effect, processing in the emotional Stroop task was related to positive change in momentary affect and less negative affect in the older age group. Taken together, our experiments demonstrate that the emotional Stroop task is suited as a measure for emotion induction and related emotion regulation mechanisms.

Wealth, Poverty, and Happiness: Social Class Is Differentially Associated With Positive Emotions.

Science.gov (United States)

Piff, Paul K; Moskowitz, Jake P

2017-12-18

Is higher social class associated with greater happiness? In a large nationally representative U.S. sample (N = 1,519), we examined the association between social class (household income) and self-reported tendencies to experience 7 distinct positive emotions that are core to happiness: amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, enthusiasm, love, and pride. Consistent with past research indicating that social class underlies differential patterns of attending to the self versus orienting to others, higher social class was associated with greater self-oriented feelings of contentment and pride, and with greater amusement. In contrast, lower social class was associated with more other-oriented feelings of compassion and love, and with greater awe. There were no class differences in enthusiasm. We discuss that individuals from different social class backgrounds may exhibit different patterns of emotional responding due to their distinct social concerns and priorities. Whereas self-oriented emotions may follow from, foster, and reinforce upper class individuals' desire for independence and self-sufficiency, greater other-oriented emotion may enable lower class individuals to form more interdependent bonds to cope with their more threatening environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Abnormal emotional learning in a rat model of autism exposed to valproic acid in utero

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Anwesha eBanerjee

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD are complex neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by repetitive behavior and impaired social communication and interactions. Apart from these core symptoms, a significant number of ASD individuals display higher levels of anxiety and some ASD individuals exhibit impaired emotional learning. We therefore sought to further examine anxiety and emotional learning in an environmentally induced animal model of ASD that utilizes the administration of the known teratogen, valproic acid (VPA during gestation. Specifically we exposed dams to one of two different doses of VPA (500 and 600 mg/kg or vehicle on day 12.5 of gestation and examined the resultant progeny. Our data indicate that animals exposed to VPA in utero exhibit enhanced anxiety in the open field test and normal object recognition memory compared to control animals. Animals exposed to 500 mg/kg of VPA displayed normal acquisition of auditory fear conditioning, and exhibited reduced extinction of fear memory and normal litter survival rates as compared to control animals. We observed that animals exposed to 600 mg/kg of VPA exhibited a significant reduction in the acquisition of fear conditioning, a significant reduction in social interaction and a significant reduction in litter survival rates as compared to control animals. VPA (600 mg/kg exposed animals exhibited similar shock sensitivity and hearing as compared to control animals indicating the fear conditioning deficit observed in these animals was not likely due to sensory deficits, but rather due to deficits in learning or memory retrieval. In conclusion, considering that progeny from dams exposed to rather similar doses of VPA exhibit striking differences in emotional learning, the VPA model may serve as a useful tool to explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms that contribute to not only ASD, but also emotional learning.

Regulatory brain development: balancing emotion and cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Perlman, Susan B; Pelphrey, Kevin A

2010-01-01

Emotion regulation is a critical aspect of children's social development, yet few studies have examined the brain mechanisms involved in its development. Theoretical accounts have conceptualized emotion regulation as relying on prefrontal control of limbic regions, specifying the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a key brain region. Functional magnetic resonance imaging in 5- to 11-year-olds during emotion regulation and processing of emotionally expressive faces revealed that older children preferentially recruited the more dorsal “cognitive” areas of the ACC, while younger children preferentially engaged the more ventral “emotional” areas. Additionally, children with more fearful temperaments exhibited more ventral ACC activity while less fearful children exhibited increased activity in the dorsal ACC. These findings provide insight into a potential neurobiological mechanism underlying well-documented behavioral and cognitive changes from more emotional to more cognitive regulatory strategies with increasing age, as well as individual differences in this developmental process as a function of temperament. Our results hold important implications for our understanding of normal development and should also help to inform our understanding and management of emotional disorders. © 2010 Psychology Press

The relationship between teachers’ leadership behaviours and emotional labour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tuğba HOŞGÖRÜR

2015-12-01

Full Text Available In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between teachers’ leadership and emotional labour behaviours. The study was designed using correlational survey model. The sample of the study consists of 340 teachers working in primary, secondary, high and vocational high schools within the provincial capital of Muğla, Turkey, during the 2014-2015 academic year. The data was collected through application of the ‘Teacher Leadership Scale’ and the ‘Emotional Labour Scale’. For the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were used. According to the results of the study concerning the leadership behaviours, teachers think that the leadership behaviours of teachers are importantly necessary and that they frequently exhibit these behaviours. The results of the study concerning emotional labour indicate that teacher’s exhibit naturally felt emotions dimension the most. This is followed respectively, by deep acting and surface acting dimensions. The views of teachers regarding emotional labour significantly differ according to gender, field and school type variables. Teachers’ exhibition levels of leadership behaviours explain 4% of the total variance of their surface acting and deep acting behaviours, and 6% of their naturally felt emotions.

Positive emotion impedes emotional but not cognitive conflict processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Zinchenko, Artyom; Obermeier, Christian; Kanske, Philipp; Schröger, Erich; Kotz, Sonja A

2017-06-01

Cognitive control enables successful goal-directed behavior by resolving a conflict between opposing action tendencies, while emotional control arises as a consequence of emotional conflict processing such as in irony. While negative emotion facilitates both cognitive and emotional conflict processing, it is unclear how emotional conflict processing is affected by positive emotion (e.g., humor). In 2 EEG experiments, we investigated the role of positive audiovisual target stimuli in cognitive and emotional conflict processing. Participants categorized either spoken vowels (cognitive task) or their emotional valence (emotional task) and ignored the visual stimulus dimension. Behaviorally, a positive target showed no influence on cognitive conflict processing, but impeded emotional conflict processing. In the emotional task, response time conflict costs were higher for positive than for neutral targets. In the EEG, we observed an interaction of emotion by congruence in the P200 and N200 ERP components in emotional but not in cognitive conflict processing. In the emotional conflict task, the P200 and N200 conflict effect was larger for emotional than neutral targets. Thus, our results show that emotion affects conflict processing differently as a function of conflict type and emotional valence. This suggests that there are conflict- and valence-specific mechanisms modulating executive control.

When getting angry is smart: emotional preferences and emotional intelligence.

Science.gov (United States)

Ford, Brett Q; Tamir, Maya

2012-08-01

People who prefer to feel useful emotions, even when they are unpleasant to experience, must understand emotions and seek to regulate them in strategic ways. Such people, therefore, may be more emotionally intelligent compared with people who prefer to feel emotions that may not be useful for the context at hand, even if those emotions are pleasant to experience. We tested this hypothesis by measuring emotional intelligence and preferences to feel pleasant and unpleasant emotions in contexts in which they are likely to be useful or not. We found significant positive associations between emotional intelligence and preferences for useful emotions, even when controlling for trait emotional experiences and cognitive intelligence. People who prefer to feel anger when confronting others tend to be higher in emotional intelligence, whereas people who prefer to feel happiness in such contexts tend to be lower in emotional intelligence. Such findings are consistent with the idea that wanting to feel bad may be good at times, and vice versa.

Perspectives on learning through research on critical issues-based science center exhibitions

Science.gov (United States)

Pedretti, Erminia G.

2004-07-01

Recently, science centers have created issues-based exhibitions as a way of communicating socioscientific subject matter to the public. Research in the last decade has investigated how critical issues-based installations promote more robust views of science, while creating effective learning environments for teaching and learning about science. The focus of this paper is to explore research conducted over a 10-year period that informs our understanding of the nature of learning through these experiences. Two specific exhibitions - Mine Games and A Question of Truth - provide the context for discussing this research. Findings suggest that critical issues-based installations challenge visitors in different ways - intellectually and emotionally. They provide experiences beyond usual phenomenon-based exhibitions and carry the potential to enhance learning by personalizing subject matter, evoking emotion, stimulating dialogue and debate, and promoting reflexivity. Critical issues-based exhibitions serve as excellent environments in which to explore the nature of learning in these nonschool settings.

Speaker-sensitive emotion recognition via ranking: Studies on acted and spontaneous speech☆

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Houwei; Verma, Ragini; Nenkova, Ani

2015-01-01

We introduce a ranking approach for emotion recognition which naturally incorporates information about the general expressivity of speakers. We demonstrate that our approach leads to substantial gains in accuracy compared to conventional approaches. We train ranking SVMs for individual emotions, treating the data from each speaker as a separate query, and combine the predictions from all rankers to perform multi-class prediction. The ranking method provides two natural benefits. It captures speaker specific information even in speaker-independent training/testing conditions. It also incorporates the intuition that each utterance can express a mix of possible emotion and that considering the degree to which each emotion is expressed can be productively exploited to identify the dominant emotion. We compare the performance of the rankers and their combination to standard SVM classification approaches on two publicly available datasets of acted emotional speech, Berlin and LDC, as well as on spontaneous emotional data from the FAU Aibo dataset. On acted data, ranking approaches exhibit significantly better performance compared to SVM classification both in distinguishing a specific emotion from all others and in multi-class prediction. On the spontaneous data, which contains mostly neutral utterances with a relatively small portion of less intense emotional utterances, ranking-based classifiers again achieve much higher precision in identifying emotional utterances than conventional SVM classifiers. In addition, we discuss the complementarity of conventional SVM and ranking-based classifiers. On all three datasets we find dramatically higher accuracy for the test items on whose prediction the two methods agree compared to the accuracy of individual methods. Furthermore on the spontaneous data the ranking and standard classification are complementary and we obtain marked improvement when we combine the two classifiers by late-stage fusion.

On the connection between level of education and the neural circuitry of emotion perception

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liliana Ramona Demenescu

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Through education, a social group transmits accumulated knowledge, skills, customs, and values to its members. So far, to the best of our knowledge, the association between educational attainment and neural correlates of emotion processing has been left unexplored. In a retrospective analysis of the NESDA fMRI study, we compared two groups of fourteen healthy volunteers with intermediate and high educational attainment, matched for age and gender. The data concerned event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging of brain activation during perception of facial emotional expressions. The region of interest analysis showed stronger right amygdala activation to facial expressions in participants with lower relative to higher educational attainment. The psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed that participants with higher educational attainment exhibited stronger right amygdala – right insula connectivity during perception of emotional and neutral facial expressions. This exploratory study suggests the relevance of educational attainment on the neural mechanism of facial expression processing.

Mapping the emotional landscape: The role of specific emotions in conceptual categorization.

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Zhu, Nan; Cai, Yong-hua; Sun, Fa-wei; Yang-yang, Yi-fan

2015-07-01

Although researchers generally subscribe to the opinion that emotions play a critical role in cognition, very few (see Niedenthal, Halberstadt, & Innes-Ker, 1999) have examined the specific interaction between the emotional state of the perceiver and the emotional meaning of stimuli in conceptual categorization - an important aspect of "higher-level" cognition. Niedenthal et al. (1999) advanced a fine-grained theory of emotional response categorization, arguing that emotional states increase the tendency to categorize concepts into a predictable set of emotional response categories characterized by the common, distinct emotional responses elicited by the concepts. Based on the pioneering work of Niedenthal et al., we further argued that (1) the specific emotion experienced by the individual should selectively facilitate the categorization of concepts associated with the same emotion, (2) both in terms of category inclusion and category exclusion, and (3) this facilitation effect should not be contingent on the awareness of the emotional state. In three experiments, participants were induced to experience different emotional states through movies or a facial-feedback manipulation. They judged whether or not a target concept belonged to the same category as the two comparison concepts. Some of the concept triads shared emotional associations, while others didn't. Results showed that emotive participants had a greater tendency than those in a neutral mood to group concepts according to their emotional associations, and to distinguish concepts with different emotional associations. They were also more efficient in categorizing concepts that had specific emotional meaning corresponding to their own emotional state than to other emotional concepts. Furthermore, participants posing a disgust expression without their knowledge showed higher tendency to categorize concepts according to their relevance to disgust. Implications and potential applications of the findings were

Emotional, behavioral, and developmental features indicative of neglect or emotional abuse in preschool children: a systematic review.

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Naughton, Aideen Mary; Maguire, Sabine Ann; Mann, Mala Kanthi; Lumb, Rebecca Caroline; Tempest, Vanessa; Gracias, Shirley; Kemp, Alison Mary

2013-08-01

Early intervention for neglect or emotional abuse in preschoolers may mitigate lifelong consequences, yet practitioners lack confidence in recognizing these children. To define the emotional, behavioral, and developmental features of neglect or emotional abuse in preschoolers. A literature search of 18 databases, 6 websites, and supplementary searching performed from January 1, 1960, to February 1, 2011, identified 22 669 abstracts. Standardized critical appraisal of 164 articles was conducted by 2 independent, trained reviewers. Inclusion criteria were children aged 0 to 6 years with confirmed neglect or emotional abuse who had emotional, behavioral, and developmental features recorded or for whom the carer-child interaction was documented. Twenty-eight case-control (matched for socioeconomic, educational level, and ethnicity), 1 cross-sectional, and 13 cohort studies were included. Key features in the child included the following: aggression (11 studies) exhibited as angry, disruptive behavior, conduct problems, oppositional behavior, and low ego control; withdrawal or passivity (12 studies), including negative self-esteem, anxious or avoidant behavior, poor emotional knowledge, and difficulties in interpreting emotional expressions in others; developmental delay (17 studies), particularly delayed language, cognitive function, and overall development quotient; poor peer interaction (5 studies), showing poor social interactions, unlikely to act to relieve distress in others; and transition (6 studies) from ambivalent to avoidant insecure attachment pattern and from passive to increasingly aggressive behavior and negative self-representation. Emotional knowledge, cognitive function, and language deteriorate without intervention. Poor sensitivity, hostility, criticism, or disinterest characterize maternal-child interactions. Preschool children who have been neglected or emotionally abused exhibit a range of serious emotional and behavioral difficulties and adverse

Perceptions of variability in facial emotion influence beliefs about the stability of psychological characteristics.

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Weisbuch, Max; Grunberg, Rebecca L; Slepian, Michael L; Ambady, Nalini

2016-10-01

Beliefs about the malleability versus stability of traits (incremental vs. entity lay theories) have a profound impact on social cognition and self-regulation, shaping phenomena that range from the fundamental attribution error and group-based stereotyping to academic motivation and achievement. Less is known about the causes than the effects of these lay theories, and in the current work the authors examine the perception of facial emotion as a causal influence on lay theories. Specifically, they hypothesized that (a) within-person variability in facial emotion signals within-person variability in traits and (b) social environments replete with within-person variability in facial emotion encourage perceivers to endorse incremental lay theories. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, Study 1 participants were more likely to attribute dynamic (vs. stable) traits to a person who exhibited several different facial emotions than to a person who exhibited a single facial emotion across multiple images. Hypothesis 2 suggests that social environments support incremental lay theories to the extent that they include many people who exhibit within-person variability in facial emotion. Consistent with Hypothesis 2, participants in Studies 2-4 were more likely to endorse incremental theories of personality, intelligence, and morality after exposure to multiple individuals exhibiting within-person variability in facial emotion than after exposure to multiple individuals exhibiting a single emotion several times. Perceptions of within-person variability in facial emotion-rather than perceptions of simple diversity in facial emotion-were responsible for these effects. Discussion focuses on how social ecologies shape lay theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

[Emotion Regulation and Emotional Vulnerability in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders].

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Zimmermann, Peter; Iwanski, Alexandra; Çelik, Fatma

2015-01-01

From an attachment perspective, insecure attachment patterns in both infancy and adolescence are risk factors for the development of anxiety disorders in adolescence. Dysfunctional emotion regulation and biased social information processing are possible mediating processes. This study examines differences in emotion regulation, emotional vulnerability, and behaviour inhibition in adolescents with clinical diagnosis of anxiety disorder and healthy controls. Adolescents with anxiety disorder reported more maladaptive emotion regulation depending on the specific emotion and a higher incidence of reporting hurt feelings in social interactions. In contrast, behaviour inhibition did not explain additional variance. The results suggest that adolescents with anxiety disorders show a bias in the interpretation of social interactions as frequently emotionally hurting, and the use of dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies that minimize the possibility for effective social emotion regulation by close others or therapists. The results are interpreted within attachment framework.

"Mad Scared" versus "I Was Sad": Emotional expression and response in urban adolescent males.

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Reigeluth, Christopher S; Pollastri, Alisha R; Cardemil, Esteban V; Addis, Michael E

2016-06-01

Decades of masculinity research have concluded that society places higher demands on males to adhere to norms for low emotional expression; yet, countless studies find that emotional expression is integral to well-being. Unfortunately, this contradiction places boys and men in a tenuous position as they must navigate a bombardment of societal messages about the importance of emotional stoicism and invincibility. For urban adolescents, the situation is more complicated as they encounter environmental stressors that place greater emphasis on projecting a tough façade. Thus, our primary aim was to assess to what degree dyads of close adolescent male friends from urban, low-income neighborhoods are able to engage in emotional expression and response and to explore some of the underlying mechanisms and interpersonal processes. Qualitative findings from our sample suggest that urban boys exhibit a wide range of behaviors when participating in dyadic emotional disclosure and response, including being highly emotionally expressive and supportive in the context of close male friendship. Copyright © 2016 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Positive Emotional Engagement and Autism Risk

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Lambert-Brown, Brittany L.; McDonald, Nicole M.; Mattson, Whitney I.; Martin, Katherine B.; Ibañez, Lisa V.; Stone, Wendy L.; Messinger, Daniel S.

2015-01-01

Positive emotional engagement develops in the context of face-to-face interactions during the first 6 months of life. Deficits in emotional engagement are characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may characterize the younger siblings of children with ASD (high-risk siblings). High-risk siblings are likely to exhibit a broad range of…

Subjective experience of emotions and emotional empathy in paranoid schizophrenia.

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Lehmann, Anja; Bahçesular, Katja; Brockmann, Eva-Maria; Biederbick, Sarah-Elisabeth; Dziobek, Isabel; Gallinat, Jürgen; Montag, Christiane

2014-12-30

Unlike the cognitive dimensions, alterations of the affective components of empathy in schizophrenia are less well understood. This study explored cognitive and affective dimensions of empathy in the context of the subjective experience of aspects of emotion processing, including emotion regulation, emotional contagion, and interpersonal distress, in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls. In addition, the predictive value of these parameters on psychosocial function was investigated. Fifty-five patients with paranoid schizophrenia and 55 healthy controls were investigated using the Multifaceted Empathy Test and Interpersonal Reactivity Index, as well as the Subjective Experience of Emotions and Emotional Contagion Scales. Individuals with schizophrenia showed impairments of cognitive empathy, but maintained emotional empathy. They reported significantly more negative emotional contagion, overwhelming emotions, lack of emotions, and symbolization of emotions by imagination, but less self-control of emotional expression than healthy persons. Besides cognitive empathy, the experience of a higher extent of overwhelming emotions and of less interpersonal distress predicted psychosocial function in patients. People with schizophrenia and healthy controls showed diverging patterns of how cognitive and emotional empathy related to the subjective aspects of emotion processing. It can be assumed that variables of emotion processing are important moderators of empathic abilities in schizophrenia. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotion in Schizophrenia: Where Feeling Meets Thinking

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Kring, Ann M.; Caponigro, Janelle M.

2010-01-01

Our understanding of the nature of emotional difficulties in schizophrenia has been greatly enhanced by translational research over the past two decades. By incorporating methods and theories from affective science, researchers have been able to discover that people with schizophrenia exhibit very few outward displays of emotion but report experiencing strong feelings in the presence of emotionally evocative stimuli or events. Recent behavioral, psychophysiological, and brain imaging research...

Optical mapping of prefrontal brain connectivity and activation during emotion anticipation.

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Wang, Meng-Yun; Lu, Feng-Mei; Hu, Zhishan; Zhang, Juan; Yuan, Zhen

2018-09-17

Accumulated neuroimaging evidence shows that the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is activated during emotion anticipation. The aim of this work is to examine the brain connectivity and activation differences in dlPFC between the positive, neutral and negative emotion anticipation by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The hemodynamic responses were first assessed for all subjects during the performance of various emotion anticipation tasks. And then small-world analysis was performed, in which the small-world network indicators including the clustering coefficient, average path length, average node degree, and measure of small-world index were calculated for the functional brain networks associated with the positive, neutral and negative emotion anticipation, respectively. We discovered that compared to negative and neutral emotion anticipation, the positive one exhibited enhanced brain activation in the left dlPFC. Although the functional brain networks for the three emotion anticipation cases manifested the small-world properties regarding the clustering coefficient, average path length, average node degree, and measure of small-world index, the positive one showed significantly higher clustering coefficient and shorter average path length than those from the neutral and negative cases. Consequently, the small-world network indicators and brain activation in dlPPC were able to distinguish well between the positive, neutral and negative emotion anticipation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotions and trait emotional intelligence among ultra-endurance runners.

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Lane, Andrew M; Wilson, Mathew

2011-07-01

The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between trait emotional intelligence and emotional state changes over the course of an ultra-endurance foot race covering a route of approximately 175 miles (282 km) and held in set stages over six days. A repeated measures field design that sought to maintain ecological validity was used. Trait emotional intelligence was defined as a relatively stable concept that should predict adaptive emotional states experienced over the duration of the race and therefore associate with pleasant emotions during a 6-stage endurance event. Thirty-four runners completed a self-report measure of trait emotional intelligence before the event started. Participants reported emotional states before and after each of the six races. Repeated measures ANOVA results showed significant variations in emotions over time and a main effect for trait emotional intelligence. Runners high in self-report trait emotional intelligence also reported higher pleasant and lower unpleasant emotions than runners low in trait emotional intelligence. Findings lend support to the notion that trait emotional intelligence associates with adaptive psychological states, suggesting that it may be a key individual difference that explains why some athletes respond to repeated bouts of hard exercise better than others. Future research should test the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance trait emotional intelligence and examine the attendant impact on emotional responses to intense exercise during multi-stage events. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Emotional intelligence of mental health nurses.

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van Dusseldorp, Loes R L C; van Meijel, Berno K G; Derksen, Jan J L

2011-02-01

The aim of this study is to gain insight into the level of emotional intelligence of mental health nurses in the Netherlands. The focus in research on emotional intelligence to date has been on a variety of professionals. However, little is known about emotional intelligence in mental health nurses. The emotional intelligence of 98 Dutch nurses caring for psychiatric patients is reported. Data were collected with the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory within a cross-sectional research design. The mean level of emotional intelligence of this sample of professionals is statistically significant higher than the emotional intelligence of the general population. Female nurses score significantly higher than men on the subscales Empathy, Social Responsibility, Interpersonal Relationship, Emotional Self-awareness, Self-Actualisation and Assertiveness. No correlations are found between years of experience and age on the one hand and emotional intelligence on the other hand. The results of this study show that nurses in psychiatric care indeed score above average in the emotional intelligence required to cope with the amount of emotional labour involved in daily mental health practice. The ascertained large range in emotional intelligence scores among the mental health nurses challenges us to investigate possible implications which higher or lower emotional intelligence levels may have on the quality of care. For instance, a possible relation between the level of emotional intelligence and the quality of the therapeutic nurse-patient relationship or the relation between the level of emotional intelligence and the manner of coping with situations characterised by a great amount of emotional labour (such as caring for patients who self-harm or are suicidal). © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Father attachment, father emotion expression, and children's attachment to fathers: The role of marital conflict.

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Bi, Shuang; Haak, Eric A; Gilbert, Lauren R; El-Sheikh, Mona; Keller, Peggy S

2018-06-01

The current study examined relations between father attachment to spouses and child attachment to fathers in middle childhood, focusing on father emotion expressions in father-child interactions as mediators and marital conflict as a moderator of relations. Participants were 199 children between 6 and 12 years of age and their fathers. Fathers completed questionnaires about their attachment to their spouses, and both fathers and mothers reported on their marital conflict. Fathers also discussed a difficult topic with their children for 5 min, and fathers' positive and negative emotion expression during the discussions were coded. Children completed questionnaires through an interview about their attachment to their father. Father insecure attachment interacted with marital conflict in predicting more negative emotions and less positive emotions during father-child interactions. Specifically, in the context of higher marital conflict in this community sample, fathers who reported greater preoccupied attachment to their spouses exhibited more negative emotions and less positive emotions when interacting with their children. In turn, more father negative emotions and less positive emotions were associated with children's less secure attachment to fathers. In contrast, father fearful attachment interacted with marital conflict to predict less negative emotion and more positive emotion during interactions with children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

High Self-Control Predicts More Positive Emotions, Better Engagement, and Higher Achievement in School

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King, Ronnel B.; Gaerlan, Marianne Jennifer M.

2014-01-01

The control-value theory of academic emotions has emerged as a useful framework for studying the antecedents and consequences of different emotions in school. This framework focuses on the role of control-related and value-related appraisals as proximal antecedents of emotions. In this study, we take an individual differences approach to examine…

Self-reported emotional dysregulation but no impairment of emotional intelligence in borderline personality disorder: an explorative study.

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Beblo, Thomas; Pastuszak, Anna; Griepenstroh, Julia; Fernando, Silvia; Driessen, Martin; Schütz, Astrid; Rentzsch, Katrin; Schlosser, Nicole

2010-05-01

Emotional dysfunction is a key feature of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) but emotional intelligence (EI) has rarely been investigated in this sample. This study aimed at an investigation of ability EI, general intelligence, and self-reported emotion regulation in BPD. We included 19 patients with BPD and 20 healthy control subjects in the study. EI was assessed by means of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso emotional intelligence test and the test of emotional intelligence. For the assessment of general intelligence, we administered the multidimensional "Leistungsprüfsystem-Kurzversion." The emotion regulation questionnaire and the difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale were used to assess emotion regulation. The patients with BPD did not exhibit impairments of ability EI and general intelligence but reported severe impairments in emotion regulation. Ability EI was related both to general intelligence (patients and controls) and to self-reported emotion regulation (patients). In conclusion, emotional dysfunction in BPD might primarily affect self-perceived behavior rather than abilities. Intense negative emotions in everyday life may trigger dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies in BPD although patients possess sufficient theoretical knowledge about optimal regulation strategies.

Emotional reactivity and emotion regulation among adults with a history of self-harm: laboratory self-report and functional MRI evidence.

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Davis, Tchiki S; Mauss, Iris B; Lumian, Daniel; Troy, Allison S; Shallcross, Amanda J; Zarolia, Paree; Ford, Brett Q; McRae, Kateri

2014-08-01

Intentionally hurting one's body (deliberate self-harm; DSH) is theorized to be associated with high negative emotional reactivity and poor emotion regulation ability. However, little research has assessed the relationship between these potential risk factors and DSH using laboratory measures. Therefore, we conducted 2 studies using laboratory measures of negative emotional reactivity and emotion regulation ability. Study 1 assessed self-reported negative emotions during a sad film clip (reactivity) and during a sad film clip for which participants were instructed to use reappraisal (regulation). Those with a history of DSH were compared with 2 control groups without a history of DSH matched on key demographics: 1 healthy group low in depression and anxiety symptoms and 1 group matched to the DSH group on depression and anxiety symptoms. Study 2 extended Study 1 by assessing neural responding to negative images (reactivity) and negative images for which participants were instructed to use reappraisal (regulation). Those with a history of DSH were compared with a control group matched to the DSH group on demographics, depression, and anxiety symptoms. Compared with control groups, participants with a history of DSH did not exhibit greater negative emotional reactivity but did exhibit lower ability to regulate emotion with reappraisal (greater self-reported negative emotions in Study 1 and greater amygdala activation in Study 2 during regulation). These results suggest that poor emotion regulation ability, but not necessarily greater negative emotional reactivity, is a correlate of and may be a risk factor for DSH, even when controlling for mood disorder symptoms. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

The Role of the Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Schema in Womenn’s Marital Satisfaction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

جعفر حسني

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The present study investigated the role of emotional intelligence and emotional schema in marital satisfaction among women. A sample of 200 married women (100 employed and 100 household women was selected randomly and completed measures of emotional schemas, emotional intelligence, and marital satisfaction. The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that attention and clarity components of emotional intelligence are significant predictors of most marital satisfaction dimensions. Also, blame, agreement, simplistic view of emotions and higher values towards emotional schemas predicted different dimensions of marital satisfaction. Based on the findings it can be concluded that the emotional intelligence and effective emotional schema play a key role in marital satisfaction.

Emotional Inertia is Associated with Lower Well-Being Controlling for Differences in Emotional Context

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Peter eKoval

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Previous studies have linked higher emotional inertia (i.e., a stronger autoregressive slope of emotions with lower well-being. We aimed to replicate these findings, while extending upon previous research by addressing a number of unresolved issues and controlling for potential confounds. Specifically, we report results from two studies (Ns = 100 & 202 examining how emotional inertia, assessed in response to a standardized sequence of emotional stimuli in the lab, correlates with several measures of well-being. The current studies build on previous research by examining how inertia of both positive emotions (PE and negative emotions (NE are related to both positive (e.g., life satisfaction and negative (e.g., depressive symptoms indicators of well-being, while controlling for between-person differences in the mean level and variability of emotions. Our findings replicated previous research and further revealed that a NE inertia was more strongly associated with lower well-being than PE inertia; b emotional inertia correlated more consistently with negative indicators (e.g., depressive symptoms than positive indicators (e.g., life satisfaction of well-being; and c these relationships were independent of individual differences in mean level and variability of emotions. We conclude, in line with recent findings, that higher emotional inertia, particularly of NE, may indicate increased vulnerability to depression.

[Cold-minded thinking? The role of emotional intelligence and emotional stability in Machiavellian decision-making].

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Szíjjártó, Linda; Bereczkei, Tamás

2013-01-01

Previous studies clearly show that Machiavellians' thinking and behavior are characterized by some kind of cold attitude, a tendency to be detached from the emotional features of a particular situation. However, very little is known what this cold-minded attitude means, and the presence or the absence of what abilities can lead to emotional detachment. Surprisingly, our study has shown that Machiavellians - contrary to what others believe - happen to exhibit more emotional instability than others. They experience more negative emotions, lose their peace of mind faster, and have a hard time tolerating psychological distress. However, they try to conceal their emotional worries in two different ways. On the one hand, they cannot express their emotions as subtly and precisely as others, and on the other, they are much worse at identifying and differentiating their own emotional states. Maybe it is just the deficit in evaluating and expressing emotions that enables them to implement the strategy to enforce their self-interest successfully. The weak ability to identify and comprehend their own emotions may help them stay detached from the emotional temperature of a situation, while the difficulties in expressing their emotions enable them to disguise their true intentions from their partners.

Distinct emotion regulation skills explain psychopathology and problems in social relationships following childhood emotional abuse and neglect.

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Berzenski, Sara R

2018-03-22

Efforts to differentiate between the developmental sequelae of childhood emotional abuse and childhood emotional neglect are critical to both research and practice efforts. As an oft-identified mechanism of the effects of child maltreatment on later adjustment, emotion dysregulation represents a key potential pathway. The present study explored a higher order factor model of specific emotion regulation skills, and the extent to which these skill sets would indicate distinct developmental pathways from unique emotional maltreatment experiences to multidomain adjustment. A sample of 500 ethnoracially diverse college students reported on their experiences. A two-factor model of emotion regulation skills based on subscales of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale was revealed. Significant indirect effects of childhood emotional abuse on psychopathology and problems in social relationships were found through response-focused difficulties in emotion regulation, whereas a significant indirect effect of childhood emotional neglect on problems in social relationships was found through antecedent-focused difficulties in emotion regulation. These results are consistent with theoretical models and empirical evidence suggesting differential effects of childhood emotional abuse and emotional neglect, and provide an important indication for developing targeted interventions focusing on specific higher order emotion dysregulation skill clusters.

Personality traits modulate emotional and physiological responses to stress.

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Childs, Emma; White, Tara L; de Wit, Harriet

2014-09-01

An individual's susceptibility to psychological and physical disorders associated with chronic stress exposure, for example, cardiovascular and infectious disease, may also be predicted by their reactivity to acute stress. One factor associated with both stress resilience and health outcomes is personality. An understanding of how personality influences responses to acute stress may shed light upon individual differences in susceptibility to chronic stress-linked disease. This study examined the relationships between personality and acute responses to stress in 125 healthy adults, using hierarchical linear regression. We assessed personality traits using the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ-BF), and responses to acute stress (cortisol, heart rate, blood pressure, mood) using a standardized laboratory psychosocial stress task, the Trier Social Stress Test. Individuals with high Negative Emotionality exhibited greater emotional distress and lower blood pressure responses to the Trier Social Stress Test. Individuals with high agentic Positive Emotionality exhibited prolonged heart rate responses to stress, whereas those with high communal Positive Emotionality exhibited smaller cortisol and blood pressure responses. Separate personality traits differentially predicted emotional, cardiovascular, and cortisol responses to a psychosocial stressor in healthy volunteers. Future research investigating the association of personality with chronic stress-related disease may provide further clues to the relationship between acute stress reactivity and susceptibility to disease.

Emotion regulation, emotional eating and the energy-rich dietary pattern. A population-based study in Chinese adolescents.

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Lu, Qingyun; Tao, Fangbiao; Hou, Fangli; Zhang, Zhaocheng; Ren, Ling-Ling

2016-04-01

Research investigating the influence of emotion regulation (ER) strategies on emotional eating and diet among Chinese adolescents is scarce. The aim of this study was to test associations between two ER strategies (suppression/cognitive reappraisal), emotional eating, and an energy-rich dietary pattern. A total of 4316 adolescents from 10 high schools were surveyed. Dietary patterns were derived using factor analysis. Bivariate correlations were analyzed to examine associations between ER strategies, emotional eating behavior and an energy-rich dietary pattern, by gender. The mediating effect of emotional eating in the relationship between ER and energy-rich food consumption by gender was estimated using structural equation modeling. A higher level of suppression, but no lack of cognitive reappraisal, was associated with emotional eating in boys and girls. A higher level of suppression and lack of cognitive reappraisal were associated with a greater intake of energy-rich foods in girls only. Emotional eating mediated the relationship between a higher level of suppression and a greater intake of energy-rich food in girls. This study revealed significant associations between two ER strategies and an energy-rich dietary pattern in girls, and provided evidence that higher levels of suppression may put girls at risk for emotional eating, potentially affecting the energy-rich dietary pattern. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional Competence and Drop-Out Rates in Higher Education

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Kingston, Emma

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare the emotional competence of first year undergraduates enrolled on a high or low drop-out rate (HDR and LDR, respectively) course, at a newly established university within the UK. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods was…

Emotional Understanding and Color-Emotion Associations in Children Aged 7-8 Years

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Debbie J. Pope

2012-01-01

Full Text Available An understanding of the development of emotional knowledge can help us determine how children perceive and interpret their surroundings and color-emotion associations are one measure of the expression of a child’s emotional interpretations. Emotional understanding and color-emotion associations were examined in a sample of UK school children, aged 7-8 years. Forty primary school children (mean age = 7.38; SD = 0.49 were administered color assessment and emotional understanding tasks, and an expressive vocabulary test. Results identified significant gender differences with girls providing more appropriate and higher quality expressions of emotional understanding than boys. Children were more able to link color to positive rather than negative emotions and significant gender differences in specific color preferences were observed. The implications of adult misinterpretations of color-emotion associations in young children are discussed.

Spontaneous Facial Mimicry Is Enhanced by the Goal of Inferring Emotional States: Evidence for Moderation of "Automatic" Mimicry by Higher Cognitive Processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Murata, Aiko; Saito, Hisamichi; Schug, Joanna; Ogawa, Kenji; Kameda, Tatsuya

2016-01-01

A number of studies have shown that individuals often spontaneously mimic the facial expressions of others, a tendency known as facial mimicry. This tendency has generally been considered a reflex-like "automatic" response, but several recent studies have shown that the degree of mimicry may be moderated by contextual information. However, the cognitive and motivational factors underlying the contextual moderation of facial mimicry require further empirical investigation. In this study, we present evidence that the degree to which participants spontaneously mimic a target's facial expressions depends on whether participants are motivated to infer the target's emotional state. In the first study we show that facial mimicry, assessed by facial electromyography, occurs more frequently when participants are specifically instructed to infer a target's emotional state than when given no instruction. In the second study, we replicate this effect using the Facial Action Coding System to show that participants are more likely to mimic facial expressions of emotion when they are asked to infer the target's emotional state, rather than make inferences about a physical trait unrelated to emotion. These results provide convergent evidence that the explicit goal of understanding a target's emotional state affects the degree of facial mimicry shown by the perceiver, suggesting moderation of reflex-like motor activities by higher cognitive processes.

Mixed Emotions and Coping: The Benefits of Secondary Emotions

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Braniecka, Anna; Trzebińska, Ewa; Dowgiert, Aneta; Wytykowska, Agata

2014-01-01

The existing empirical literature suggests that during difficult situations, the concurrent experience of positive and negative affects may be ideal for ensuring successful adaptation and well-being. However, different patterns of mixed emotions may have different adaptive consequences. The present research tested the proposition that experiencing a pattern of secondary mixed emotion (i.e., secondary emotion that embrace both positive and negative affects) more greatly promotes adaptive coping than experiencing two other patterns of mixed emotional experiences: simultaneous (i.e., two emotions of opposing affects taking place at the same time) and sequential (i.e., two emotions of opposing affects switching back and forth). Support for this hypothesis was obtained from two experiments (Studies 1 and 2) and a longitudinal survey (Study 3). The results revealed that secondary mixed emotions predominate over sequential and simultaneous mixed emotional experiences in promoting adaptive coping through fostering the motivational and informative functions of emotions; this is done by providing solution-oriented actions rather than avoidance, faster decisions regarding coping strategies (Study 1), easier access to self-knowledge, and better narrative organization (Study 2). Furthermore, individuals characterized as being prone to feeling secondary mixed emotions were more resilient to stress caused by transitions than those who were characterized as being prone to feeling opposing emotions separately (Study 3). Taken together, the preliminary results indicate that the pattern of secondary mixed emotion provides individuals with a higher capacity to handle adversity than the other two patterns of mixed emotional experience. PMID:25084461

Emotional Intensity and Emotion Regulation in Response to Autobiographical Memories During Dysphoria

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

del Palacio Gonzalez, Adriana; Berntsen, Dorthe; Watson, Lynn Ann

2017-01-01

Retrieving personal memories may provoke different emotions and a need for emotion regulation. Emotional responses have been studied scarcely in relation to autobiographical memory retrieval. We examined the emotional response to everyday involuntary (spontaneously arising) and voluntary...... (strategically retrieved) memories, and how this response may be different during dysphoria. Participants (20 dysphoric and 23 non-depressed) completed a structured diary where the intensity of basic emotions and regulation strategies employed upon retrieval of memories were rated. Brooding, memory suppression......, and emotional suppression were higher for all individuals’ involuntary memories than voluntary memories. Negative emotions and regulation strategies were greater for dysphoric individuals for both involuntary and voluntary memories after controlling for the valence of the remembered events. The results provide...

Emotion-related hemisphere asymmetry: subjective emotional responses to laterally presented films.

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Wittling, W; Roschmann, R

1993-09-01

To investigate whether the cerebral hemispheres differ in their subjective emotional responses 54 adult subjects were presented two films of different emotion-related qualities (positive and negative film) either to their left or right hemisphere. The films were exposed by means of a technique for the lateralization of visual input that allows prolonged viewing while permitting free ocular scanning. Subjective emotional responses were assessed by means of a continuous rating of emotional arousal experienced during the movie as well as by retrospective ratings of ten different emotional qualities. Presenting both films to the right hemisphere resulted in stronger subjective responses in the continuous emotion rating as well as in some retrospectively assessed ratings compared to left-hemispheric presentation. The effects were more pronounced for the negative film. Taken together, the findings suggest a higher responsiveness of the right hemisphere in subjective emotional experience.

"Opening an emotional dimension in me": changes in emotional reactivity and emotion regulation in a case of executive impairment after left fronto-parietal damage.

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Salas, Christian E; Radovic, Darinka; Yuen, Kenneth S L; Yeates, Giles N; Castro, O; Turnbull, Oliver H

2014-01-01

Dysexecutive impairment is a common problem after brain injury, particularly after damage to the lateral surface of the frontal lobes. There is a large literature describing the cognitive deficits associated with executive impairment after dorsolateral damage; however, little is known about its impact on emotional functioning. This case study describes changes in a 72-year-old man (Professor F) who became markedly dysexecutive after a left fron-to-parietal stroke. Professor F's case is remarkable in that, despite exhibiting typical executive impairments, abstraction and working memory capacities were spared. Such preservation of insight-related capacities allowed him to offer a detailed account of his emotional changes. Quantitative and qualitative tools were used to explore changes in several well-known emotional processes. The results suggest that Professor F's two main emotional changes were in the domain of emotional reactivity (increased experience of both positive and negative emotions) and emotion regulation (down-regulation of sadness). Professor F related both changes to difficulties in his thinking process, especially a difficulty generating and manipulating thoughts during moments of negative arousal. These results are discussed in relation to the literature on executive function and emotion regulation. The relevance of these findings for neuropsychological rehabilitation and for the debate on the neural basis of emotional processes is addressed.

Emotional Inertia is Associated with Lower Well-Being when Controlling for Differences in Emotional Context.

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Koval, Peter; Sütterlin, Stefan; Kuppens, Peter

2015-01-01

Previous studies have linked higher emotional inertia (i.e., a stronger autoregressive slope of emotions) with lower well-being. We aimed to replicate these findings, while extending upon previous research by addressing a number of unresolved issues and controlling for potential confounds. Specifically, we report results from two studies (Ns = 100 and 202) examining how emotional inertia, assessed in response to a standardized sequence of emotional stimuli in the lab, correlates with several measures of well-being. The current studies build on previous research by examining how inertia of both positive emotions (PE) and negative emotions (NE) relates to positive (e.g., life satisfaction) and negative (e.g., depressive symptoms) indicators of well-being, while controlling for between-person differences in the mean level and variability of emotions. Our findings replicated previous research and further revealed that (a) NE inertia was more strongly associated with lower well-being than PE inertia; (b) emotional inertia correlated more consistently with negative indicators (e.g., depressive symptoms) than positive indicators (e.g., life satisfaction) of well-being; and (c) these relationships were independent of individual differences in mean level and variability of emotions. We conclude, in line with recent findings, that higher emotional inertia, particularly of NE, may be an indicator of increased vulnerability to depression.

Emotional Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder

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Suvak, Michael K.; Sege, Christopher T.; Sloan, Denise M.; Shea, M. Tracie; Yen, Shirley; Litz, Brett T.

2014-01-01

This study examined whether individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would exhibit augmented emotional responses to picture stimuli after being challenged with an ideographic interpersonal conflict script. Participants were 24 adults diagnosed with BPD, 23 adults diagnosed with obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), and 28 normal controls. Participants viewed emotionally evocative pictures before and after listening to the interpersonal script while a variety of physiological measures were recorded. Findings indicated that the interpersonal script was effective in eliciting enduring emotional responses from the BPD group relative to the control groups. However, despite the effectiveness of the interpersonal challenge task, there were no group differences in emotional responding to the affect eliciting stimuli. The findings underscore the complexities involved in examining emotional dysregulation in BPD in a laboratory setting. PMID:22449065

Electrophysiological Evidence for Adult Age-Related Sparing and Decrements in Emotion Perception and Attention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joshua W. Pollock

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The present study examined adult age differences in processing emotional faces using a psychological refractory period (PRP paradigm. We used both behavioral and event-related potential (P1 component measures. Task 1 was tone discrimination (fuzzy vs. pure tones and Task 2 was emotional facial discrimination (happy vs. angry faces. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA between the two tasks was 100 ms, 300 ms, and 900 ms. Earlier research observed age deficits in emotional facial discrimination for negative (angry than for positive (happy faces (Baena et al., 2010. Thus, we predicted that older adults would show decreased attentional efficiency in carrying out dual-task processing on the P1 (a component linked to amygdalar modulation of visual perception; Rotshtein et al., 2010. Both younger and older groups showed significantly higher P1 amplitudes at 100- and 300-ms SOAs than at the 900-ms SOA, and this suggests that both age groups could process Task 2 emotions without central attention. Also, younger adults showed significantly higher P1 activations for angry than for happy faces, but older adults showed no difference. These results are consistent with the idea that younger adults exhibited amygdalar modulation of visual perception, but that older adults did not.

Cueing musical emotions: An empirical analysis of 24-piece sets by Bach and Chopin documents parallels with emotional speech.

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Poon, Matthew; Schutz, Michael

2015-01-01

Acoustic cues such as pitch height and timing are effective at communicating emotion in both music and speech. Numerous experiments altering musical passages have shown that higher and faster melodies generally sound "happier" than lower and slower melodies, findings consistent with corpus analyses of emotional speech. However, equivalent corpus analyses of complex time-varying cues in music are less common, due in part to the challenges of assembling an appropriate corpus. Here, we describe a novel, score-based exploration of the use of pitch height and timing in a set of "balanced" major and minor key compositions. Our analysis included all 24 Preludes and 24 Fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (book 1), as well as all 24 of Chopin's Preludes for piano. These three sets are balanced with respect to both modality (major/minor) and key chroma ("A," "B," "C," etc.). Consistent with predictions derived from speech, we found major-key (nominally "happy") pieces to be two semitones higher in pitch height and 29% faster than minor-key (nominally "sad") pieces. This demonstrates that our balanced corpus of major and minor key pieces uses low-level acoustic cues for emotion in a manner consistent with speech. A series of post hoc analyses illustrate interesting trade-offs, with sets featuring greater emphasis on timing distinctions between modalities exhibiting the least pitch distinction, and vice-versa. We discuss these findings in the broader context of speech-music research, as well as recent scholarship exploring the historical evolution of cue use in Western music.

Amygdala and auditory cortex exhibit distinct sensitivity to relevant acoustic features of auditory emotions.

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Pannese, Alessia; Grandjean, Didier; Frühholz, Sascha

2016-12-01

Discriminating between auditory signals of different affective value is critical to successful social interaction. It is commonly held that acoustic decoding of such signals occurs in the auditory system, whereas affective decoding occurs in the amygdala. However, given that the amygdala receives direct subcortical projections that bypass the auditory cortex, it is possible that some acoustic decoding occurs in the amygdala as well, when the acoustic features are relevant for affective discrimination. We tested this hypothesis by combining functional neuroimaging with the neurophysiological phenomena of repetition suppression (RS) and repetition enhancement (RE) in human listeners. Our results show that both amygdala and auditory cortex responded differentially to physical voice features, suggesting that the amygdala and auditory cortex decode the affective quality of the voice not only by processing the emotional content from previously processed acoustic features, but also by processing the acoustic features themselves, when these are relevant to the identification of the voice's affective value. Specifically, we found that the auditory cortex is sensitive to spectral high-frequency voice cues when discriminating vocal anger from vocal fear and joy, whereas the amygdala is sensitive to vocal pitch when discriminating between negative vocal emotions (i.e., anger and fear). Vocal pitch is an instantaneously recognized voice feature, which is potentially transferred to the amygdala by direct subcortical projections. These results together provide evidence that, besides the auditory cortex, the amygdala too processes acoustic information, when this is relevant to the discrimination of auditory emotions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Individual differences in heart rate variability are associated with the avoidance of negative emotional events.

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Katahira, Kentaro; Fujimura, Tomomi; Matsuda, Yoshi-Taka; Okanoya, Kazuo; Okada, Masato

2014-12-01

Although the emotional outcome of a choice generally affects subsequent decisions, humans can inhibit the influence of emotion. Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as an objective measure of individual differences in the capacity for inhibitory control. In the present study, we investigated how individual differences in HRV at rest are associated with the emotional effects of the outcome of a choice on subsequent decision making using a decision-making task in which emotional pictures appeared as decision outcomes. We used a reinforcement learning model to characterize the observed behaviors according to several parameters, namely, the learning rate and the motivational value of positive and negative pictures. Consequently, we found that individuals with a lower resting HRV exhibited a greater negative motivational value in response to negative pictures, suggesting that these individuals tend to avoid negative pictures compared with individuals with a higher resting HRV. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Emotional intelligence and oscillatory responses on the emotional facial expressions].

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Kniazev, G G; Mitrofanova, L G; Bocharov, A V

2013-01-01

Emotional intelligence-related differences in oscillatory responses to emotional facial expressions were investigated in 48 subjects (26 men and 22 women) in age 18-30 years. Participants were instructed to evaluate emotional expression (angry, happy and neutral) of each presented face on an analog scale ranging from -100 (very hostile) to + 100 (very friendly). High emotional intelligence (EI) participants were found to be more sensitive to the emotional content of the stimuli. It showed up both in their subjective evaluation of the stimuli and in a stronger EEG theta synchronization at an earlier (between 100 and 500 ms after face presentation) processing stage. Source localization using sLORETA showed that this effect was localized in the fusiform gyrus upon the presentation of angry faces and in the posterior cingulate gyrus upon the presentation of happy faces. At a later processing stage (500-870 ms) event-related theta synchronization in high emotional intelligence subject was higher in the left prefrontal cortex upon the presentation of happy faces, but it was lower in the anterior cingulate cortex upon presentation of angry faces. This suggests the existence of a mechanism that can be selectively increase the positive emotions and reduce negative emotions.

The contribution of emotional empathy to approachability judgements assigned to emotional faces is context specific

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan L Willis

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Previous research on approachability judgements has indicated that facial expressions modulate how these judgements are made, but the relationship between emotional empathy and context in this decision-making process has not yet been examined. This study examined the contribution of emotional empathy to approachability judgements assigned to emotional faces in different contexts. One hundred and twenty female participants completed the Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy. Participants provided approachability judgements to faces displaying angry, disgusted, fearful, happy, neutral and sad expressions, in three different contexts – when evaluating whether they would approach another individual to: 1 receive help; 2 give help; or 3 when no contextual information was provided. In addition, participants were also required to provide ratings of perceived threat, emotional intensity and label facial expressions. Emotional empathy significantly predicted approachability ratings for specific emotions in each context, over and above the contribution of perceived threat and intensity, which were associated with emotional empathy. Higher emotional empathy predicted less willingness to approach people with angry and disgusted faces to receive help, and a greater willingness to approach people with happy faces to receive help. Higher emotional empathy also predicted a greater willingness to approach people with sad faces to offer help, and more willingness to approach people with happy faces when no contextual information was provided. These results highlight the important contribution of individual differences in emotional empathy in predicting how approachability judgements are assigned to facial expressions in context.

Emotional and behavioral problems among adolescent smokers and their help-seeking behavior.

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Muthupalaniappen, Leelavathi; Omar, Juslina; Omar, Khairani; Iryani, Tuti; Hamid, Siti Norain

2012-09-01

We carried out a cross sectional study to detect emotional and behavioral problems among adolescents who smoke and their help-seeking behavior. This study was conducted in Sarawak, East Malaysia, between July and September 2006. Emotional and behavioral problems were measured using the Youth Self-Report (YSR/11-18) questionnaire; help seeking behavior was assessed using a help-seeking questionnaire. Three hundred ninety-nine students participated in the study; the smoking prevalence was 32.8%. The mean scores for emotional and behavioral problems were higher among smokers than non-smokers in all domains (internalizing, p = 0.028; externalizing, p = 0.001; other behavior, p = 0.001). The majority of students who smoked (94.7%) did not seek help from a primary health care provider for their emotional or behavioral problems. Common barriers to help-seeking were: the perception their problems were trivial (60.3%) and the preference to solve problems on their own (45.8%). Our findings suggest adolescent smokers in Sarawak, East Malaysia were more likely to break rules, exhibit aggressive behavior and have somatic complaints than non-smoking adolescents. Adolescent smokers preferred to seek help for their problems from informal sources. Physicians treating adolescents should inquire about smoking habits, emotional and behavioral problems and offer counseling if required.

Emotional cues, emotional signals, and their contrasting effects on listener valence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Justin

2015-01-01

that are mimetic of emotional cues interact in less clear and less cohesive manners with their corresponding haptic signals. For my investigations, subjects listen to samples from the International Affective Digital Sounds Library[2] and selected musical works on speakers in combination with a tactile transducer...... and of benefit to both the sender and the receiver of the signal, otherwise they would cease to have the intended effect of communication. In contrast with signals, animal cues are much more commonly unimodal as they are unintentional by the sender. In my research, I investigate whether subjects exhibit...... are more emotional cues (e.g. sadness or calmness). My hypothesis is that musical and sound stimuli that are mimetic of emotional signals should combine to elicit a stronger response when presented as a multimodal stimulus as opposed to as a unimodal stimulus, whereas musical or sound stimuli...

Emotion dysregulation and amygdala dopamine D2-type receptor availability in methamphetamine users.

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Okita, Kyoji; Ghahremani, Dara G; Payer, Doris E; Robertson, Chelsea L; Dean, Andy C; Mandelkern, Mark A; London, Edythe D

2016-04-01

Individuals who use methamphetamine chronically exhibit emotional and dopaminergic neurochemical deficits. Although the amygdala has an important role in emotion processing and receives dopaminergic innervation, little is known about how dopamine transmission in this region contributes to emotion regulation. This investigation aimed to evaluate emotion regulation in subjects who met DSM-IV criteria for methamphetamine dependence, and to test for a relationship between self-reports of difficulty in emotion regulation and D2-type dopamine receptor availability in the amygdala. Ninety-four methamphetamine-using and 102 healthy-control subjects completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS); 33 of those who used methamphetamine completed the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). A subset of 27 methamphetamine-group and 20 control-group subjects completed positron emission tomography with [(18)F]fallypride to assay amygdala D2-type dopamine receptor availability, measured as binding potential (BPND). The methamphetamine group scored higher than the control group on the DERS total score (pmethamphetamine group. The DERS total score was positively correlated with amygdala BPND in both groups and the combined group of participants (combined: r=0.331, p=0.02), and the groups did not differ in this relationship. These findings highlight problems with emotion regulation linked to methamphetamine use, possibly contributing to personal and interpersonal behavioral problems. They also suggest that D2-type dopamine receptors in the amygdala contribute to emotion regulation in both healthy and methamphetamine-using subjects. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity

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Deng, Yaling; Chang, Lei; Yang, Meng; Huo, Meng

2016-01-01

The present study investigated gender differences in both emotional experience and expressivity. Heart rate (HR) was recorded as an indicator of emotional experience while the participants watched 16 video clips that induced eight types of emotion (sadness, anger, horror, disgust, neutrality, amusement, surprise, and pleasure). We also asked the participants to report valence, arousal, and motivation as indicators of emotional expressivity. Overall, the results revealed gender differences in emotional experience and emotional expressivity. When watching videos that induced anger, amusement, and pleasure, men showed larger decreases in HR, whereas women reported higher levels of arousal. There was no gender difference in HR when the participants watched videos that induced horror and disgust, but women reported lower valence, higher arousal, and stronger avoidance motivation than did men. Finally, no gender difference was observed in sadness or surprise, although there was one exception—women reported higher arousal when watching videos that induced sadness. The findings suggest that, when watching videos that induce an emotional response, men often have more intense emotional experiences, whereas women have higher emotional expressivity, particularly for negative emotions. In addition, gender differences depend on the specific emotion type but not the valence. PMID:27362361

Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity.

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Yaling; Chang, Lei; Yang, Meng; Huo, Meng; Zhou, Renlai

2016-01-01

The present study investigated gender differences in both emotional experience and expressivity. Heart rate (HR) was recorded as an indicator of emotional experience while the participants watched 16 video clips that induced eight types of emotion (sadness, anger, horror, disgust, neutrality, amusement, surprise, and pleasure). We also asked the participants to report valence, arousal, and motivation as indicators of emotional expressivity. Overall, the results revealed gender differences in emotional experience and emotional expressivity. When watching videos that induced anger, amusement, and pleasure, men showed larger decreases in HR, whereas women reported higher levels of arousal. There was no gender difference in HR when the participants watched videos that induced horror and disgust, but women reported lower valence, higher arousal, and stronger avoidance motivation than did men. Finally, no gender difference was observed in sadness or surprise, although there was one exception-women reported higher arousal when watching videos that induced sadness. The findings suggest that, when watching videos that induce an emotional response, men often have more intense emotional experiences, whereas women have higher emotional expressivity, particularly for negative emotions. In addition, gender differences depend on the specific emotion type but not the valence.

Gender Differences in Emotional Response: Inconsistency between Experience and Expressivity.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaling Deng

Full Text Available The present study investigated gender differences in both emotional experience and expressivity. Heart rate (HR was recorded as an indicator of emotional experience while the participants watched 16 video clips that induced eight types of emotion (sadness, anger, horror, disgust, neutrality, amusement, surprise, and pleasure. We also asked the participants to report valence, arousal, and motivation as indicators of emotional expressivity. Overall, the results revealed gender differences in emotional experience and emotional expressivity. When watching videos that induced anger, amusement, and pleasure, men showed larger decreases in HR, whereas women reported higher levels of arousal. There was no gender difference in HR when the participants watched videos that induced horror and disgust, but women reported lower valence, higher arousal, and stronger avoidance motivation than did men. Finally, no gender difference was observed in sadness or surprise, although there was one exception-women reported higher arousal when watching videos that induced sadness. The findings suggest that, when watching videos that induce an emotional response, men often have more intense emotional experiences, whereas women have higher emotional expressivity, particularly for negative emotions. In addition, gender differences depend on the specific emotion type but not the valence.

[Neural activity related to emotional and empathic deficits in subjects with post-traumatic stress disorder who survived the L'Aquila (Central Italy) 2009 earthquake].

Science.gov (United States)

Mazza, Monica; Pino, Maria Chiara; Tempesta, Daniela; Catalucci, Alessia; Masciocchi, Carlo; Ferrara, Michele

2016-01-01

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a chronic anxiety disorder. The continued efforts to control the distressing memories by traumatized individuals, together with the reduction of responsiveness to the outside world, are called Emotional Numbing (EN). The EN is one of the central symptoms in PTSD and it plays an integral role not only in the development and maintenance of post-traumatic symptomatology, but also in the disability of emotional regulation. This disorder shows an abnormal response of cortical and limbic regions which are normally involved in understanding emotions since the very earliest stages of the development of processing ability. Patients with PTSD exhibit exaggerated brain responses to emotionally negative stimuli. Identifying the neural correlates of emotion regulation in these subjects is important for elucidating the neural circuitry involved in emotional and empathic dysfunction. We showed that PTSD patients, all survivors of the L'Aquila 2009 earthquake, have a higher sensitivity to negative emotion and lower empathy levels. These emotional and empathic deficits are accompanied by neural brain functional correlates. Indeed PTSD subjects exhibit functional abnormalities in brain regions that are involved in stress regulation and emotional responses. The reduced activation of the frontal areas and a stronger activation of the limbic areas when responding to emotional stimuli could lead the subjects to enact coping strategies aimed at protecting themselves from the re-experience of pain related to traumatic events. This would result in a dysfunctional hyperactivation of subcortical areas, which may cause emotional distress and, consequently, impaired social relationships often reported by PTSD patients.

Historical empathy in a museum : Uniting contextualisation and emotional engagement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Savenije, G.M.; de Bruijn, P.

2017-01-01

Museums, memorial centres and other heritage institutions use various strategies to evoke an emotional response that serves to elicit empathy with the historical events and actors that are portrayed in exhibitions. To increase historical understanding, however, both emotional engagement with and

Examining the short term effects of emotion under an Adaptation Level Theory model of tinnitus perception.

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Durai, Mithila; O'Keeffe, Mary G; Searchfield, Grant D

2017-03-01

Existing evidence suggests a strong relationship between tinnitus and emotion. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of short-term emotional changes along valence and arousal dimensions on tinnitus outcomes. Emotional stimuli were presented in two different modalities: auditory and visual. The authors hypothesized that (1) negative valence (unpleasant) stimuli and/or high arousal stimuli will lead to greater tinnitus loudness and annoyance than positive valence and/or low arousal stimuli, and (2) auditory emotional stimuli, which are in the same modality as the tinnitus, will exhibit a greater effect on tinnitus outcome measures than visual stimuli. Auditory and visual emotive stimuli were administered to 22 participants (12 females and 10 males) with chronic tinnitus, recruited via email invitations send out to the University of Auckland Tinnitus Research Volunteer Database. Emotional stimuli used were taken from the International Affective Digital Sounds- Version 2 (IADS-2) and the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) (Bradley and Lang, 2007a, 2007b). The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross and John, 2003) was administered alongside subjective ratings of tinnitus loudness and annoyance, and psychoacoustic sensation level matches to external sounds. Males had significantly different emotional regulation scores than females. Negative valence emotional auditory stimuli led to higher tinnitus loudness ratings in males and females and higher annoyance ratings in males only; loudness matches of tinnitus remained unchanged. The visual stimuli did not have an effect on tinnitus ratings. The results are discussed relative to the Adaptation Level Theory Model of Tinnitus. The results indicate that the negative valence dimension of emotion is associated with increased tinnitus magnitude judgements and gender effects may also be present, but only when the emotional stimulus is in the auditory modality. Sounds with emotional associations may be

Personality and emotional intelligence in teacher burnout.

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Pishghadam, Reza; Sahebjam, Samaneh

2012-03-01

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between teacher's personality types, emotional intelligence and burnout and to predict the burnout levels of 147 teachers in the city of Mashhad (Iran). To this end, we have used three inventories: Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I). We used Homogeneity Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression to analyze the data. The results exhibited a significant relationship between personality types and emotional intelligence and the three dimensions of burnout. It was indicated that the best predictors for emotional exhaustion were neuroticism and extroversion, for depersonalization were intrapersonal scale of emotional intelligence and agreeableness, and for personal accomplishment were interpersonal scale and conscientiousness. Finally, the results were discussed in the context of teacher burnout.

A framework for studying emotions across species.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, David J; Adolphs, Ralph

2014-03-27

Since the 19th century, there has been disagreement over the fundamental question of whether "emotions" are cause or consequence of their associated behaviors. This question of causation is most directly addressable in genetically tractable model organisms, including invertebrates such as Drosophila. Yet there is ongoing debate about whether such species even have "emotions," as emotions are typically defined with reference to human behavior and neuroanatomy. Here, we argue that emotional behaviors are a class of behaviors that express internal emotion states. These emotion states exhibit certain general functional and adaptive properties that apply across any specific human emotions like fear or anger, as well as across phylogeny. These general properties, which can be thought of as "emotion primitives," can be modeled and studied in evolutionarily distant model organisms, allowing functional dissection of their mechanistic bases and tests of their causal relationships to behavior. More generally, our approach not only aims at better integration of such studies in model organisms with studies of emotion in humans, but also suggests a revision of how emotion should be operationalized within psychology and psychiatry. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chinese American immigrant parents' emotional expression in the family: Relations with parents' cultural orientations and children's emotion-related regulation.

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Chen, Stephen H; Zhou, Qing; Main, Alexandra; Lee, Erica H

2015-10-01

The present study examined 2 measures of Chinese American immigrant parents' emotional expression in the family context: self-reported emotional expressivity and observed emotional expression during a parent-child interaction task. Path analyses were conducted to examine the concurrent associations between measures of emotional expression and (a) parents' American and Chinese cultural orientations in language proficiency, media use, and social affiliation domains, and (b) parents' and teachers' ratings of children's emotion-related regulation. Results suggested that cultural orientations were primarily associated with parents' self-reported expressivity (rather than observed emotional expression), such that higher American orientations were generally associated with higher expressivity. Although parents' self-reported expressivity was only related to their own reports of children's regulation, parents' observed emotional expression was related to both parents' and teachers' reports of children's regulation. These results suggest that self-reported expressivity and observed emotional expression reflect different constructs and have differential relations to parents' cultural orientations and children's regulation. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale.

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Meule, Adrian; Reichenberger, Julia; Blechert, Jens

2018-01-01

Existing self-report questionnaires for the assessment of emotional eating do not differentiate between specific types of emotions and between increased or decreased food intake in response to these emotions. Therefore, we developed a new measure of emotional eating-the Salzburg Emotional Eating Scale (SEES)-for which higher scores indicate eating more than usual in response to emotions and lower scores indicate eating less than usual in response to emotions. In study 1, a pool of items describing 40 emotional states was used. Factor analysis yielded four factors, which represented both positive ( happiness subscale) and negative emotions ( sadness, anger , and anxiety subscales). Subsequently, the scale was reduced to 20 items (5 items for each subscale) and its four-factor structure was replicated in studies 2 and 3. In all three studies, internal consistencies of each subscale were α > 0.70 and mean subscale scores significantly differed from each other such that individuals reported the strongest tendency to eat more than usual when being sad and the strongest tendency to eat less than usual when being anxious (sadness > happiness > anger > anxiety). Higher scores on the happiness subscale related to lower scores on the negative emotions subscales, lower body mass index (BMI), and lower eating pathology. In contrast, higher scores on the negative emotions subscales related to lower scores on the happiness subscale, higher BMI, and higher eating pathology. The SEES represents a useful measure for the investigation of emotional eating by increasing both specificity (differentiation between specific emotional states) and breadth (differentiation between increase and decrease of food intake) in the assessment of the emotion-eating relationship.

Emotional awareness in substance-dependent patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Carton, Solange; Bayard, Sophie; Paget, Virginie; Jouanne, Céline; Varescon, Isabelle; Edel, Yves; Detilleux, Michel

2010-06-01

We explored emotional awareness in substance-dependent patients and its relationships to self-reported alexithymia. Sixty-four outpatients with drug dependence or alcohol dependence were evaluated before the beginning of treatment with the Hamilton Depressive Scale and the Covi Anxiety Scale, and they completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). Subjects exhibited low levels of emotional awareness and TAS-20 scores were high. Both measures were not related to depressive and anxious symptomatology. This research is the first to provide LEAS results with substance-dependent patients and highlights their deficits in emotions' differentiation and complexity. The lack of a relationship between LEAS and TAS-20 is discussed from the methodological and theoretical points of view. (c) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotion through locomotion: gender impact.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Krüger

Full Text Available Body language reading is of significance for daily life social cognition and successful social interaction, and constitutes a core component of social competence. Yet it is unclear whether our ability for body language reading is gender specific. In the present work, female and male observers had to visually recognize emotions through point-light human locomotion performed by female and male actors with different emotional expressions. For subtle emotional expressions only, males surpass females in recognition accuracy and readiness to respond to happy walking portrayed by female actors, whereas females exhibit a tendency to be better in recognition of hostile angry locomotion expressed by male actors. In contrast to widespread beliefs about female superiority in social cognition, the findings suggest that gender effects in recognition of emotions from human locomotion are modulated by emotional content of actions and opposite actor gender. In a nutshell, the study makes a further step in elucidation of gender impact on body language reading and on neurodevelopmental and psychiatric deficits in visual social cognition.

Emotion knowledge in young neglected children.

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Sullivan, Margaret W; Bennett, David S; Carpenter, Kim; Lewis, Michael

2008-08-01

Young neglected children may be at risk for emotion knowledge deficits. Children with histories of neglect or with no maltreatment were initially seen at age 4 and again 1 year later to assess their emotion knowledge. Higher IQ was associated with better emotion knowledge, but neglected children had consistently poorer emotion knowledge over time compared to non-neglected children after controlling for IQ. Because both neglected status and IQ may contribute to deficits in emotional knowledge, both should be assessed when evaluating these children to appropriately design and pace emotion knowledge interventions.

Common cues to emotion in the dynamic facial expressions of speech and song.

Science.gov (United States)

Livingstone, Steven R; Thompson, William F; Wanderley, Marcelo M; Palmer, Caroline

2015-01-01

Speech and song are universal forms of vocalization that may share aspects of emotional expression. Research has focused on parallels in acoustic features, overlooking facial cues to emotion. In three experiments, we compared moving facial expressions in speech and song. In Experiment 1, vocalists spoke and sang statements each with five emotions. Vocalists exhibited emotion-dependent movements of the eyebrows and lip corners that transcended speech-song differences. Vocalists' jaw movements were coupled to their acoustic intensity, exhibiting differences across emotion and speech-song. Vocalists' emotional movements extended beyond vocal sound to include large sustained expressions, suggesting a communicative function. In Experiment 2, viewers judged silent videos of vocalists' facial expressions prior to, during, and following vocalization. Emotional intentions were identified accurately for movements during and after vocalization, suggesting that these movements support the acoustic message. Experiment 3 compared emotional identification in voice-only, face-only, and face-and-voice recordings. Emotion judgements for voice-only singing were poorly identified, yet were accurate for all other conditions, confirming that facial expressions conveyed emotion more accurately than the voice in song, yet were equivalent in speech. Collectively, these findings highlight broad commonalities in the facial cues to emotion in speech and song, yet highlight differences in perception and acoustic-motor production.

Emotional reactivity and regulation in preschool-age children who stutter.

Science.gov (United States)

Ntourou, Katerina; Conture, Edward G; Walden, Tedra A

2013-09-01

This study experimentally investigated behavioral correlates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation and their relation to speech (dis)fluency in preschool-age children who do (CWS) and do not (CWNS) stutter during emotion-eliciting conditions. Participants (18 CWS, 14 boys; 18 CWNS, 14 boys) completed two experimental tasks (1) a neutral ("apples and leaves in a transparent box," ALTB) and (2) a frustrating ("attractive toy in a transparent box," ATTB) task, both of which were followed by a narrative task. Dependent measures were emotional reactivity (positive affect, negative affect), emotion regulation (self-speech, distraction) exhibited during the ALTB and the ATTB tasks, percentage of stuttered disfluencies (SDs) and percentage of non-stuttered disfluencies (NSDs) produced during the narratives. Results indicated that preschool-age CWS exhibited significantly more negative emotion and more self-speech than preschool-age CWNS. For CWS only, emotion regulation behaviors (i.e., distraction, self-speech) during the experimental tasks were predictive of stuttered disfluencies during the subsequent narrative tasks. Furthermore, for CWS there was no relation between emotional processes and non-stuttered disfluencies, but CWNS's negative affect was significantly related to nonstuttered disfluencies. In general, present findings support the notion that emotional processes are associated with childhood stuttering. Specifically, findings are consistent with the notion that preschool-age CWS are more emotionally reactive than CWNS and that their self-speech regulatory attempts may be less than effective in modulating their emotions. The reader will be able to: (a) communicate the relevance of studying the role of emotion in developmental stuttering close to the onset of stuttering and (b) describe the main findings of the present study in relation to previous studies that have used different methodologies to investigate the role of emotion in developmental

Emotional intelligence among nursing students: Findings from a cross-sectional study.

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Štiglic, Gregor; Cilar, Leona; Novak, Žiga; Vrbnjak, Dominika; Stenhouse, Rosie; Snowden, Austyn; Pajnkihar, Majda

2018-07-01

Emotional intelligence in nursing is of global interest. International studies identify that emotional intelligence influences nurses' work and relationships with patients. It is associated with compassion and care. Nursing students scored higher on measures of emotional intelligence compared to students of other study programmes. The level of emotional intelligence increases with age and tends to be higher in women. This study aims to measure the differences in emotional intelligence between nursing students with previous caring experience and those without; to examine the effects of gender on emotional intelligence scores; and to test whether nursing students score higher than engineering colleagues on emotional intelligence measures. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used. The study included 113 nursing and 104 engineering students at the beginning of their first year of study at a university in Slovenia. Emotional intelligence was measured using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) and Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SSEIT). Shapiro-Wilk's test of normality was used to test the sample distribution, while the differences in mean values were tested using Student t-test of independent samples. Emotional intelligence was higher in nursing students (n = 113) than engineering students (n = 104) in both measures [TEIQue t = 3.972; p emotional intelligence scores than male students on both measures, the difference was not statistically significant [TEIQue t = -0.839; p = 0.403; SSEIT t = -1.159; p = 0.249]. EI scores in nursing students with previous caring experience were not higher compared to students without such experience for any measure [TEIQue t = -1.633; p = 0.105; SSEIT t = -0.595; p = 0.553]. Emotional intelligence was higher in nursing than engineering students, and slightly higher in women than men. It was not associated with previous caring experience. Copyright

Social anxiety and emotion regulation flexibility: considering emotion intensity and type as contextual factors.

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O'Toole, Mia S; Zachariae, Robert; Mennin, Douglas S

2017-11-01

Individuals with social anxiety disorder have often been considered inflexible in their emotion regulation. The aim of this study was to investigate emotion regulation flexibility in socially anxious individuals in response to two contextual factors, namely different levels of emotion intensity and emotion type. A daily diary approach was employed, investigating emotion regulation (i.e., experiential avoidance, expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal) in college students scoring high (N = 62; HSA) and low (N = 52; LSA) on social anxiety. Results revealed that HSAs were found to use more experiential avoidance than LSAs, especially at higher levels of negative intensity. The use of this emotion regulation strategy appeared to be driven by guilt, nervousness, and sadness. There were no between-group differences concerning the other strategies in response to varying levels of emotional intensity. Together, the results provide evidence for inflexible emotion regulation in HSAs, reflected in an unwillingness to experience negative emotions.

A Framework for Studying Emotions Across Phylogeny

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Anderson, David J.; Adolphs, Ralph

2014-01-01

Since the 19th century, there has been disagreement over the fundamental question of whether “emotions” are cause or consequence of their associated behaviors. This question of causation is most directly addressable in genetically tractable model organisms, including invertebrates such as Drosophila. Yet there is ongoing debate about whether such species even have “emotions,” since emotions are typically defined with reference to human behavior and neuroanatomy. Here we argue that emotional behaviors are a class of behaviors that express internal emotion states. These emotion states exhibit certain general functional and adaptive properties that apply across any specific human emotions like fear or anger, as well as across phylogeny. These general properties, which can be thought of as “emotion primitives”, can be modeled and studied in evolutionarily distant model organisms, allowing functional dissection of their mechanistic bases, and tests of their causal relationships to behavior. More generally, our approach aims not only at better integration of such studies in model organisms with studies of emotion in humans, but also suggests a revision of how emotion should be operationalized within psychology and psychiatry. PMID:24679535

Gender and age differences in parent-child emotion talk.

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Aznar, Ana; Tenenbaum, Harriet R

2015-03-01

This study examined gender differences in emotion word use during mother-child and father-child conversations. Sixty-five Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4- (M = 53.50, SD = 3.54) and 6-year-old (M = 77.07, SD = 3.94) children participated in this study. Emotion talk was examined during a play-related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past experiences). Mothers mentioned a higher proportion of emotion words than did fathers. During the play-related storytelling task, mothers of 4-year-old daughters mentioned a higher proportion of emotion words than did mothers of 4-year-old sons, whereas fathers of 4-year-old daughters directed a higher proportion of emotion words than did fathers of 4-year-old sons during the reminiscence task. No gender differences were found with parents of 6-year-old children. During the reminiscence task daughters mentioned more emotion words with their fathers than with their mothers. Finally, mothers' use of emotion talk was related to whether children used emotion talk in both tasks. Fathers' use of emotion talk was only related to children's emotion talk during the reminiscence task. © 2014 The British Psychological Society.

Empathy costs: Negative emotional bias in high empathisers.

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Chikovani, George; Babuadze, Lasha; Iashvili, Nino; Gvalia, Tamar; Surguladze, Simon

2015-09-30

Excessive empathy has been associated with compassion fatigue in health professionals and caregivers. We investigated an effect of empathy on emotion processing in 137 healthy individuals of both sexes. We tested a hypothesis that high empathy may underlie increased sensitivity to negative emotion recognition which may interact with gender. Facial emotion stimuli comprised happy, angry, fearful, and sad faces presented at different intensities (mild and prototypical) and different durations (500ms and 2000ms). The parameters of emotion processing were represented by discrimination accuracy, response bias and reaction time. We found that higher empathy was associated with better recognition of all emotions. We also demonstrated that higher empathy was associated with response bias towards sad and fearful faces. The reaction time analysis revealed that higher empathy in females was associated with faster (compared with males) recognition of mildly sad faces of brief duration. We conclude that although empathic abilities were providing for advantages in recognition of all facial emotional expressions, the bias towards emotional negativity may potentially carry a risk for empathic distress. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Altered emotional recognition and expression in patients with Parkinson’s disease

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Jin Y

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Yazhou Jin,* Zhiqi Mao,* Zhipei Ling, Xin Xu, Zhiyuan Zhang, Xinguang Yu Department of Neurosurgery, People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD patients exhibit deficits in emotional recognition and expression abilities, including emotional faces and voices. The aim of this study was to explore emotional processing in pre-deep brain stimulation (pre-DBS PD patients using two sensory modalities (visual and auditory. Methods: Fifteen PD patients who needed DBS surgery and 15 healthy, age- and gender-matched controls were recruited as participants. All participants were assessed by the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database 50 Faces Recognition test. Vocal recognition was evaluated by the Montreal Affective Voices database 50 Voices Recognition test. For emotional facial expression, the participants were asked to imitate five basic emotions (neutral, happiness, anger, fear, and sadness. The subjects were required to express nonverbal vocalizations of the five basic emotions. Fifteen Chinese native speakers were recruited as decoders. We recorded the accuracy of the responses, reaction time, and confidence level. Results: For emotional recognition and expression, the PD group scored lower on both facial and vocal emotional processing than did the healthy control group. There were significant differences between the two groups in both reaction time and confidence level. A significant relationship was also found between emotional recognition and emotional expression when considering all participants between the two groups together. Conclusion: The PD group exhibited poorer performance on both the recognition and expression tasks. Facial emotion deficits and vocal emotion abnormalities were associated with each other. In addition, our data allow us to speculate that emotional recognition and expression may share a common

Engagement In Climate Change Awareness Through Art Exhibitions

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Burko, D.

2016-12-01

Artists such as myself can influence the public discourse on climate change through compelling imagery transcending data and language. I will speak specifically to how I communicate scientific research to diverse populations by making those issues personal, visceral, and actionable.I began integrating scientific visual data into my aesthetic practice ten years ago by first utilizing archival evidence in the form of repeats, geological charts of recessional lines, graphs, symbols and Landsat maps. I continue to develop visual strategies delivering information on an emotional/non-verbal level. In the past 4 years, I have added the most dramatic layer to my creative process: bearing witness. I've been to the three largest ice fields in the world: Greenland, Antarctica and Argentina's Patagonia, observing the unprecedented pace of glacial melt. The emotional significance of actually being there as an artist is immense. Those expeditions impact my practice, leading to exhibitions that open a dialog with an audience not initially interested in science. In the past 5 years my work has appeared in 6 solo and 19 group exhibits all devoted to the environment. I make myself present in universities, museums and galleries to explain what the images are about. I require universities to include a public component: an all-college lecture or panel where the geography/environmental/sociology/geology departments participate with broad student involvement. I believe that such endeavors are worthwhile and can be models for further efforts to educate an unsuspecting audience. Artists can bridge the gap communicating to a public of art appreciators, nonscientists - how easy it is to understand geology and global warming. This social engagement can even inspire and result in attitudinal changes. A viewer's initial emotional response to my large paintings and photographs evolves into comprehension as a dialog about their content is revealed. By sharing my personal story about my

Turning energy around: an interactive exhibition experience

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Sarah Kellberg

2018-05-01

Full Text Available A transition from the fossil-fuel driven to a sustainable energy system is an enormous global challenge: climate change and finite resources require countries all over the world to change their way of producing, transporting and using energy. The Energiewende (energy transition will require major changes in the current energy supply system in Germany – but also worldwide. These changes will not only affect the technical sector but will also include ecological questions, social issues and political matters. Whether any transition is going to favour large scale solutions or decentralised technologies depends on local situations and global interconnections, and above all on a democratic process. Hence energy transition succeeds or fails with the acceptance and participation of society. To deal with this overwhelmingly complex topic and its multi-layered dependencies, the Deutsches Museum has designed an exhibition providing visitors with background knowledge about the necessities and challenges of energy transition, unpicking the links between the different technical, economic and social challenges. The exhibition accomplishes the task with an engaging and facilitating approach while taking into account the highly emotive aspects of energy transition as a societal issue. This paper presents the concept of the travelling exhibition energie.wenden, relating it to the Deutsches Museum´s tradition of exhibitions as well as to the challenge of how to deal with socio-scientific topics in scientific exhibitions.

Identification of Individuals with Serious Emotional Disturbance Using the Draw a Person: Screening Procedure for Emotional Disturbance.

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McNeish, Timothy J.; Naglieri, Jack A.

1993-01-01

Regular education students (n=81) and students with serious emotional disturbance (n=81,) were matched on age (7-13), gender, race, and intelligence. They completed drawings which were scored using the "Draw a Person: Screening Procedure for Emotional Disturbance." Students with emotional disturbance scored significantly higher than did…

Confidence in emotion perception in point-light displays varies with the ability to perceive own emotions.

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Lorey, Britta; Kaletsch, Morten; Pilgramm, Sebastian; Bischoff, Matthias; Kindermann, Stefan; Sauerbier, Isabell; Stark, Rudolf; Zentgraf, Karen; Munzert, Jörn

2012-01-01

One central issue in social cognitive neuroscience is that perceiving emotions in others relates to activating the same emotion in oneself. In this study we sought to examine how the ability to perceive own emotions assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale related to both the ability to perceive emotions depicted in point-light displays and the confidence in these perceptions. Participants observed video scenes of human interactions, rated the depicted valence, and judged their confidence in this rating. Results showed that people with higher alexithymia scores were significantly less confident about their decisions, but did not differ from people with lower alexithymia scores in the valence of their ratings. Furthermore, no modulating effect of social context on the effect of higher alexithymia scores was found. It is concluded that the used stimuli are fit to investigate the kinematic aspect of emotion perception and possibly separate people with high and low alexithymia scores via confidence differences. However, a general difference in emotion perception was not detected in the present setting.

Confidence in emotion perception in point-light displays varies with the ability to perceive own emotions.

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Britta Lorey

Full Text Available One central issue in social cognitive neuroscience is that perceiving emotions in others relates to activating the same emotion in oneself. In this study we sought to examine how the ability to perceive own emotions assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale related to both the ability to perceive emotions depicted in point-light displays and the confidence in these perceptions. Participants observed video scenes of human interactions, rated the depicted valence, and judged their confidence in this rating. Results showed that people with higher alexithymia scores were significantly less confident about their decisions, but did not differ from people with lower alexithymia scores in the valence of their ratings. Furthermore, no modulating effect of social context on the effect of higher alexithymia scores was found. It is concluded that the used stimuli are fit to investigate the kinematic aspect of emotion perception and possibly separate people with high and low alexithymia scores via confidence differences. However, a general difference in emotion perception was not detected in the present setting.

The role of instrumental emotion regulation in the emotions-creativity link: how worries render individuals with high neuroticism more creative.

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Leung, Angela K-Y; Liou, Shyhnan; Qiu, Lin; Kwan, Letty Y-Y; Chiu, Chi-Yue; Yong, Jose C

2014-10-01

Based on the instrumental account of emotion regulation (Tamir, 2005), the current research seeks to offer a novel perspective to the emotions-creativity debate by investigating the instrumental value of trait-consistent emotions in creativity. We hypothesize that emotions such as worry (vs. happy) are trait-consistent experiences for individuals higher on trait neuroticism and experiencing these emotions can facilitate performance in a creativity task. In 3 studies, we found support for our hypothesis. First, individuals higher in neuroticism had a greater preference for recalling worrisome (vs. happy) events in anticipation of performing a creativity task (Study 1). Moreover, when induced to recall a worrisome (vs. happy) event, individuals higher in neuroticism came up with more creative design (Study 2) and more flexible uses of a brick (Study 3) when the task was a cognitively demanding one. Further, Study 3 offers preliminary support that increased intrinsic task enjoyment and motivation mediates the relationship between trait-consistent emotion regulation and creative performance. These findings offer a new perspective to the controversy concerning the emotions-creativity relationship and further demonstrate the role of instrumental emotion regulation in the domain of creative performance. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Neural correlates of emotion regulation in patients with schizophrenia and non-affected siblings.

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Lisette van der Meer

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Patients with schizophrenia often experience problems regulating their emotions. Non-affected relatives show similar difficulties, although to a lesser extent, and the neural basis of such difficulties remains to be elucidated. In the current paper we investigated whether schizophrenia patients, non-affected siblings and healthy controls (HC exhibit differences in brain activation during emotion regulation. METHODS: All subjects (n = 20 per group performed an emotion regulation task while they were in an fMRI scanner. The task contained two experimental conditions for the down-regulation of emotions (reappraise and suppress, in which IAPS pictures were used to generate a negative affect. We also assessed whether the groups differed in emotion regulation strategies used in daily life by means of the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ. RESULTS: Though the overall negative affect was higher for patients as well as for siblings compared to HC for all conditions, all groups reported decreased negative affect after both regulation conditions. Nonetheless, neuroimaging results showed hypoactivation relative to HC in VLPFC, insula, middle temporal gyrus, caudate and thalamus for patients when reappraising negative pictures. In siblings, the same pattern was evident as in patients, but only in cortical areas. CONCLUSIONS: Given that all groups performed similarly on the emotion regulation task, but differed in overall negative affect ratings and brain activation, our findings suggest reduced levels of emotion regulation processing in neural circuits in patients with schizophrenia. Notably, this also holds for siblings, albeit to a lesser extent, indicating that it may be part and parcel of a vulnerability for psychosis.

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures

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Sieun An

2017-04-01

Full Text Available We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992 contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion.

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures

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An, Sieun; Ji, Li-Jun; Marks, Michael; Zhang, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992) contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion. PMID:28473791

Two Sides of Emotion: Exploring Positivity and Negativity in Six Basic Emotions across Cultures.

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An, Sieun; Ji, Li-Jun; Marks, Michael; Zhang, Zhiyong

2017-01-01

We employ a novel paradigm to test whether six basic emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, and happiness; Ekman, 1992) contain both negativity and positivity, as opposed to consisting of a single continuum between negative and positive. We examined the perceived negativity and positivity of these emotions in terms of their affective and cognitive components among Korean, Chinese, Canadian, and American students. Assessing each emotion at the cognitive and affective levels cross-culturally provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the positivity and negativity of emotions. Affective components were rated as more divergent than cognitive components. Cross-culturally, Americans and Canadians gave higher valence ratings to the salient valence of each emotion, and lower ratings to the non-salient valence of an emotion, compared to Chinese and Koreans. The results suggest that emotions encompass both positivity and negativity, and there were cross-cultural differences in reported emotions. This paradigm complements existing emotion theories, building on past research and allowing for more parsimonious explanations of cross-cultural research on emotion.

Effects of an Emotion Control Treatment on Academic Emotions, Motivation and Achievement in an Online Mathematics Course

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Kim, ChanMin; Hodges, Charles B.

2012-01-01

We designed and developed an emotion control treatment and investigated its effects on college students' academic emotions, motivation, and achievement in an online remedial mathematics course. The treatment group showed more positive emotions of enjoyment and pride than the control group. The treatment group also showed a higher level of…

Trait anxiety modulates fronto-limbic processing of emotional interference in Borderline Personality Disorder

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Jana eHoltmann

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Previous studies of cognitive alterations in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD have yielded conflicting results. Given that a core feature of BPD is affective instability, which is characterized by emotional hyperreactivity and deficits in emotion regulation, it seems conceivable that short-lasting emotional distress might exert temporary detrimental effects on cognitive performance. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to investigate how task-irrelevant emotional stimuli (fearful faces affect performance and fronto-limbic neural activity patterns during attention-demanding cognitive processing in 16 female, unmedicated BPD patients relative to 24 age-matched healthy controls. In a modified flanker task, emotionally negative, socially salient pictures (fearful versus neutral faces were presented as distracters in the background. Patients, but not controls, showed an atypical response pattern of the right amygdala with increased activation during emotional interference in the (difficult incongruent flanker condition, but emotion-related amygdala deactivation in the congruent condition. A direct comparison of the emotional conditions between the two groups revealed that the strongest diagnosis-related differences could be observed in the dorsal and, to a lesser extent, also in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (dACC, rACC where patients exhibited an increased neural response to emotional relative to neutral distracters. Moreover, in the incongruent condition, both the dACC and rACC fMRI responses during emotional interference were negatively correlated with trait anxiety in the patients, but not in the healthy controls. As higher trait anxiety was also associated with longer reaction times in the BPD patients, we suggest that in BPD patients the ACC might mediate compensatory cognitive processes during emotional interference and that such neurocognitive compensation that can be adversely affected by high levels of

Impact of emotional intelligence on teacher׳s performance in higher education institutions of Pakistan

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Muhammad Asrar-ul-Haq

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This research paper aims at investigating the impact of emotional intelligence on teacher׳s job performance in the education sector of Pakistan. Sample size consists of 166 teachers from universities in the area of central Punjab, Pakistan. Theories of emotional intelligence proposed by Salovey and Mayer (1989–1990 were used as the conceptual framework and its relationship with the job performance of teachers was examined. Reliability and validity of variables was tested through measurement model of PLS-SEM. The result indicated that emotional intelligence has a significant impact on the teacher׳s job performance. Key research finding revealed that emotional self-awareness, self-confidence, achievement, developing others and conflict management have a positive and significant relationship with the teacher׳s job performance. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, Performance, Teachers, Pakistan

The Emotional Lexicon of Individuals Diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder

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Gawda, Barbara

2013-01-01

This study investigated the specific emotional lexicons in narratives created by persons diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) to test the hypothesis that individuals with ASPD exhibit deficiencies in emotional language. Study participants consisted of 60 prison inmates with ASPD, 40 prison inmates without ASPD, and 60 men without…

A comprehensive examination of delayed emotional recovery in borderline personality disorder.

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Fitzpatrick, Skye; Kuo, Janice R

2015-06-01

Despite growing attention to emotion processes in borderline personality disorder (BPD), little research has examined delayed emotional recovery (i.e., long-lasting emotions after the termination of an emotionally evocative stimulus) in this population. The extant data on delayed emotional recovery in BPD are limited by a lack of assessment across a range of indices and emotions. The present study addresses these gaps by comparing emotional recovery between individuals with BPD, social anxiety disorder (SAD), and healthy controls (HCs) using a multi-modal assessment approach. Participants underwent fear, anger, and sadness inductions followed by a 5-min "washout" phase wherein emotional recovery was assessed via self-report, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and skin conductance responses (SCR). After controlling for state dissociation, the BPD and SAD group exhibited decreases in RSA, while the HC group showed no changes in RSA after the anger induction only. Groups did not differ in rate of emotional recovery across self-report, RSA, or SCR after fear and sadness inductions. The present study is limited by a solely female and small sample, and the short time frame in which emotional recovery was assessed. Findings indicate that individuals with BPD generally do not exhibit delayed emotional recovery, but may show decreases in parasympathetic activity during the recovery period after experiencing anger. However, this pattern may not be specific to this disorder. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotion in Schizophrenia: Where Feeling Meets Thinking.

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Kring, Ann M; Caponigro, Janelle M

2010-08-01

Our understanding of the nature of emotional difficulties in schizophrenia has been greatly enhanced by translational research over the past two decades. By incorporating methods and theories from affective science, researchers have been able to discover that people with schizophrenia exhibit very few outward displays of emotion but report experiencing strong feelings in the presence of emotionally evocative stimuli or events. Recent behavioral, psychophysiological, and brain imaging research has pointed to the importance of considering the time course of emotion in schizophrenia. This work has shown that people with schizophrenia have the ability to experience emotion in the moment; however, they appear to have difficulties when anticipating future pleasurable experiences, and this perhaps affects their motivation to have such experiences. While advancements in our understanding of emotional experience and expression in individuals with schizophrenia have been made, these developments have led to a new collection of research questions directed at understanding the time course of emotion in schizophrenia, including the role of memory and anticipation in motivated behavior, translating laboratory findings to the development of new assessment tools and new treatments targeting emotional impairments in people with this disorder.

Emotional facial expressions in European-American, Japanese, and Chinese infants.

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Camras, Linda A; Oster, Harriet; Campos, Joseph J; Bakemand, Roger

2003-12-01

Charles Darwin was among the first to recognize the important contribution that infant studies could make to our understanding of human emotional expression. Noting that infants come to exhibit many emotions, he also observed that at first their repertoire of expression is highly restricted. Today, considerable controversy exists regarding the question of whether infants experience and express discrete emotions. According to one position, discrete emotions emerge during infancy along with their prototypic facial expressions. These expressions closely resemble adult emotional expressions and are invariantly concordant with their corresponding emotions. In contrast, we propose that the relation between expression and emotion during infancy is more complex. Some infant emotions and emotional expressions may not be invariantly concordant. Furthermore, infant emotional expressions may be less differentiated than previously proposed. Together with past developmental studies, recent cross-cultural research supports this view and suggests that negative emotional expression in particular is only partly differentiated towards the end of the first year.

Interpersonal reactivity and the attribution of emotional reactions.

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Haas, Brian W; Anderson, Ian W; Filkowski, Megan M

2015-06-01

The ability to identify the cause of another person's emotional reaction is an important component associated with improved success of social relationships and survival. Although many studies have investigated the mechanisms involved in emotion recognition, very little is currently known regarding the processes involved during emotion attribution decisions. Research on complementary "emotion understanding" mechanisms, including empathy and theory of mind, has demonstrated that emotion understanding decisions are often made through relatively emotion- or cognitive-based processing streams. The current study was designed to investigate the behavioral and brain mechanisms involved in emotion attribution decisions. We predicted that dual processes, emotional and cognitive, are engaged during emotion attribution decisions. Sixteen healthy adults completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to characterize individual differences in tendency to make emotion- versus cognitive-based interpersonal decisions. Participants then underwent functional MRI while making emotion attribution decisions. We found neuroimaging evidence that emotion attribution decisions engage a similar brain network as other forms of emotion understanding. Further, we found evidence in support of a dual processes model involved during emotion attribution decisions. Higher scores of personal distress were associated with quicker emotion attribution decisions and increased anterior insula activity. Conversely, higher scores in perspective taking were associated with delayed emotion attribution decisions and increased prefrontal cortex and premotor activity. These findings indicate that the making of emotion attribution decisions relies on dissociable emotional and cognitive processing streams within the brain. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The Role of Emotional Experience,Emotional Intelligence,and Emotional Attitude：A Longitudinal Study About Emotion Regulation%情绪调节的发展及其与情绪体验、情绪能力、情绪调节态度的关系

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

邓欣媚; 王瑞安; 桑标

2011-01-01

Growing interest in emotion regulation is reflected in the studies of cognitive and social development.However,the extant studies mainly highlight how different emotion regulatory strategies contribute to their related developmental construct and ignore the development of emotion regulation itself.Recent studies suggest that the change of emotional experience,emotional intelligence,and emotional regulation attitude could predict and explain the development of emotional regulation.Based on the framework of the process model proposed by Gross and Levenson,our present study explored the contribution of emotional experience,emotional intelligence, and emotional regulation attitude to emotional regulation in a developmental scope.The adaptive functions of different emotion regulatory strategies were discussed as well. We adopted the longitudinal design and examined 569 junior students（Grade 6 and Grade 8 students from Shanghai junior middle schools） in the first semester of the academic year.After ten months,we examined them again.In the second phase of the study,469 of 569 students（who became Grade 7 and Grade 9 students） participated in the test.In each phase of the study,the students completed the demographic information,Emotion Regulation Questionnaire,Daily Emotion Scale,Traits Meta-Mood Scale,and Emotional Attitude Questionnaire. There are several important results and conclusion.Compared with Phase 2,adolescents experienced more positive emotion,reported a stronger up-and-down-regulation attitude,and up-regulated their emotion habitually when encountering positive emotional episodes in Phase 1.Adolescents who reported higher changes of both positive and negative emotion experience would use more and more up-regulation during the development.Nevertheless,compared with the positive emotion experience,higher changes of down-regulation using were reported by the adolescents who experienced more negative emotion when growing up.Adolescents who reported higher

Emotional foundations of cognitive control

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Inzlicht, Michael; Bartholow, Bruce D.; Hirsh, Jacob B.

2015-01-01

Often seen as the paragon of higher cognition, here we suggest that cognitive control is dependent on emotion. Rather than asking whether control is influenced by emotion, we ask whether control itself can be understood as an emotional process. Reviewing converging evidence from cybernetics, animal research, cognitive neuroscience, and social and personality psychology, we suggest that cognitive control is initiated when goal conflicts evoke phasic changes to emotional primitives that both focus attention on the presence of goal conflicts and energize conflict resolution to support goal-directed behavior. Critically, we propose that emotion is not an inert byproduct of conflict but is instrumental in recruiting control. Appreciating the emotional foundations of control leads to testable predictions that can spur future research. PMID:25659515

Emotional reactivity: Beware its involvement in traffic accidents.

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M'bailara, Katia; Atzeni, Thierry; Contrand, Benjamin; Derguy, Cyrielle; Bouvard, Manuel-Pierre; Lagarde, Emmanuel; Galéra, Cédric

2018-04-01

Reducing risk attributable to traffic accidents is a public health challenge. Research into risk factors in the area is now moving towards identification of the psychological factors involved, particularly emotional states. The aim of this study was to evaluate the link between emotional reactivity and responsibility in road traffic accidents. We hypothesized that the more one's emotional reactivity is disturbed, the greater the likelihood of being responsible for a traffic accident. This case-control study was based on a sample of 955 drivers injured in a motor vehicle crash. Responsibility levels were determined with a standardized method adapted from the quantitative Robertson and Drummer crash responsibility instrument. Emotional reactivity was assessed with the MATHYS. Hierarchical cluster analysis discriminated four distinctive driver's emotional reactivity profiles: basic emotional reactivity (54%), mild emotional hyper-reactivity (29%), emotional hyper-reactivity (11%) and emotional hypo-reactivity (6%). Drivers who demonstrated emotional hypo-reactivity had a 2.3-fold greater risk of being responsible for a traffic accident than those with basic emotional reactivity. Drivers' responsibility in traffic accidents depends on their emotional status. The latter can change the ability of drivers, modifying their behavior and thus increasing their propensity to exhibit risk behavior and to cause traffic accidents. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Growth curves of clients' emotional experience and their association with emotion regulation and symptoms.

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Fisher, Hadar; Atzil-Slonim, Dana; Bar-Kalifa, Eran; Rafaeli, Eshkol; Peri, Tuvia

2017-12-06

Emotional experience during psychotherapy is considered a core mechanism of change. Yet the sheer experience itself may not necessarily be beneficial; instead, the trajectories of emotional experience need to be explored as possible predictors of treatment outcomes. This study investigated whether clients' pre-treatment levels of emotion regulation and symptoms predicted patterns of session-to-session change in emotional experience. We also explored which patterns better predict clients' improvement in emotion regulation and symptoms from pre- to post treatment. One-hundred and seven clients undergoing psychodynamic psychotherapy completed questionnaires on their symptoms and emotion regulation at pre- and post- treatment. They also reported their level of emotional experience at the end of each session. Pre-treatment symptoms and difficulties in emotion regulation predicted greater instability in emotional experience. Higher mean levels of emotional experience during treatment were associated with an improvement in emotion regulation, and greater stability during treatment was associated with improvement in emotion regulation and symptoms. These findings lend weight to the idea that experiencing emotion in the therapeutic environment has significant implications for clients' ability to manage their emotions outside the session. However, emotions experienced in an unstable manner within therapy are associated with poorer outcomes. Clinical and methodological significance of this article: Therapists can benefit from observing the patterns and not only the level of their clients' emotional experiences. The identification of clients' difficulties early in treatment may help therapists guide clients through the delicate process of carefully attending to their emotions.

(How) do medical students regulate their emotions?

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Doulougeri, Karolina; Panagopoulou, Efharis; Montgomery, Anthony

2016-12-12

Medical training can be a challenging and emotionally intense period for medical students. However the emotions experienced by medical students in the face of challenging situations and the emotion regulation strategies they use remains relatively unexplored. The aim of the present study was to explore the emotions elicited by memorable incidents reported by medical students and the associated emotion regulation strategies. Peer interviewing was used to collect medical students' memorable incidents. Medical students at both preclinical and clinical stage of medical school were eligible to participate. In total 104 medical students provided memorable incidents. Only 54 narratives included references to emotions and emotion regulation and thus were further analyzed. The narratives of 47 clinical and 7 preclinical students were further analyzed for their references to emotions and emotion regulation strategies. Forty seven out of 54 incidents described a negative incident associated with negative emotions. The most frequently mentioned emotion was shock and surprise followed by feelings of embarrassment, sadness, anger and tension or anxiety. The most frequent reaction was inaction often associated with emotion regulation strategies such as distraction, focusing on a task, suppression of emotions and reappraisal. When students witnessed mistreatment or disrespect exhibited towards patients, the regulation strategy used involved focusing and comforting the patient. The present study sheds light on the strategies medical students use to deal with intense negative emotions. The vast majority reported inaction in the face of a challenging situation and the use of more subtle strategies to deal with the emotional impact of the incident.

Emotional Expression in Simple Line Drawings of a Robot's Face Leads to Higher Offers in the Ultimatum Game.

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Terada, Kazunori; Takeuchi, Chikara

2017-01-01

In the present study, we investigated whether expressing emotional states using a simple line drawing to represent a robot's face can serve to elicit altruistic behavior from humans. An experimental investigation was conducted in which human participants interacted with a humanoid robot whose facial expression was shown on an LCD monitor that was mounted as its head (Study 1). Participants were asked to play the ultimatum game, which is usually used to measure human altruistic behavior. All participants were assigned to be the proposer and were instructed to decide their offer within 1 min by controlling a slider bar. The corners of the robot's mouth, as indicated by the line drawing, simply moved upward, or downward depending on the position of the slider bar. The results suggest that the change in the facial expression depicted by a simple line drawing of a face significantly affected the participant's final offer in the ultimatum game. The offers were increased by 13% when subjects were shown contingent changes of facial expression. The results were compared with an experiment in a teleoperation setting in which participants interacted with another person through a computer display showing the same line drawings used in Study 1 (Study 2). The results showed that offers were 15% higher if participants were shown a contingent facial expression change. Together, Studies 1 and 2 indicate that emotional expression in simple line drawings of a robot's face elicits the same higher offer from humans as a human telepresence does.

Emotional indicators in children's human figure drawings.

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Catte, M; Cox, M V

1999-06-01

The human figure drawings of a group of emotionally-disturbed boys were compared with those of a group of well-adjusted boys closely matched for chronological age and another for mental age. A comparison based on Koppitz's (1968) original emotional indicators and another, based on new UK norms, showed that the emotionally-disturbed children included significantly more indicators in their drawings than their well-adjusted peers. Although this difference was statistically significant it is actually quite small. In addition, there were no differences among the groups in the kinds of indicators they exhibited. The usefulness of the Koppitz test as a tool for clinical use is questioned.

Short-term memory for emotional faces in dysphoria.

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Noreen, Saima; Ridout, Nathan

2010-07-01

The study aimed to determine if the memory bias for negative faces previously demonstrated in depression and dysphoria generalises from long- to short-term memory. A total of 29 dysphoric (DP) and 22 non-dysphoric (ND) participants were presented with a series of faces and asked to identify the emotion portrayed (happiness, sadness, anger, or neutral affect). Following a delay, four faces were presented (the original plus three distractors) and participants were asked to identify the target face. Half of the trials assessed memory for facial emotion, and the remaining trials examined memory for facial identity. At encoding, no group differences were apparent. At memory testing, relative to ND participants, DP participants exhibited impaired memory for all types of facial emotion and for facial identity when the faces featured happiness, anger, or neutral affect, but not sadness. DP participants exhibited impaired identity memory for happy faces relative to angry, sad, and neutral, whereas ND participants exhibited enhanced facial identity memory when faces were angry. In general, memory for faces was not related to performance at encoding. However, in DP participants only, memory for sad faces was related to sadness recognition at encoding. The results suggest that the negative memory bias for faces in dysphoria does not generalise from long- to short-term memory.

Pleasure Experience and Emotion Expression in Patients with Schizophrenia

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CHU, Min-yi; LI, Xu; LV, Qin-yu; Yl, Zheng-hui; CHEUNG, Eric F. C.; CHAN, Raymond C. K.

2017-01-01

Background Impairments in emotional experience and expression have been observed in patients with schizophrenia. However, most previous studies have been limited to either emotional experience (especially anhedonia) or expression. Few studies have examined both the experience and expression of emotion in schizophrenia patients at the same time. Aims The present study aimed to examine pleasure experience and emotion expression in patients with schizophrenia. In particular, we specifically examined the relationship between emotion impairments (both pleasure experience and expression) and negative symptoms. Methods One hundred and fifty patients completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale and Emotional Expressivity Scale. Results Schizophrenia patients exhibited deficits in experiencing pleasure, but showed intact reported emotion expression. Patients with prominent negative symptoms showed reduced anticipatory pleasure, especially in abstract anticipatory pleasure. Conclusion The present findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have deficits in pleasure experience, while their abilities to express emotion appear intact. Such deficits are more severe in patients with prominent negative symptoms. PMID:29276350

Electroencephalographic brain dynamics of memory encoding in emotionally arousing context

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Carlos Enrique eUribe

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Emotional content/context enhances declarative memory through modulation of encoding and retrieval mechanisms. At encoding, neurophysiological data have consistently demonstrated the subsequent memory effect in theta and gamma oscillations. Yet, the existing studies were focused on the emotional content effect and let the emotional context effect unexplored. We hypothesized that theta and gamma oscillations show higher evoked/induced activity during the encoding of visual stimuli when delivered in an emotionally arousing context. Twenty-five healthy volunteers underwent evoked potentials recordings using a 21 scalp electrodes montage. They attended to an audiovisual test of emotional declarative memory being randomly assigned to either emotionally arousing or neutral context. Visual stimulus presentation was used as the time-locking event. Grand-averages of the evoked potentials and evoked spectral perturbations were calculated for each volunteer. Evoked potentials showed a higher negative deflection from 80 to 140 ms for the emotional condition. Such effect was observed over central, frontal and prefrontal locations bilaterally. Evoked theta power was higher in left parietal, central, frontal and prefrontal electrodes from -50 to 300 ms in the emotional condition. Evoked gamma power was higher in the emotional condition with a spatial distribution that overlapped at some points with the theta topography. The early theta power increase could be related to expectancy induced by auditory information processing that facilitates visual encoding in emotional contexts. Together, our results suggest that declarative memory enhancement for both emotional content and emotional context are supported by similar neural mechanisms at encoding, and offer new evidence about the brain processing of relevant environmental stimuli.

Emotional control in Chinese female cancer survivors.

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Ho, Rainbow T H; Chan, Cecilia L W; Ho, Samuel M Y

2004-11-01

Chinese persons are not known as strong in expressing emotions, especially negative ones. However, being diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment can be an emotionally traumatic experience and cancer patients are supposed to have a stronger need to express these negative feelings. The control of expression of negative emotions such as anger, anxiety and depression in Chinese female cancer survivors (n=139) was examined in the present study using the Chinese version of the Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (CECS). The reliability, internal consistency and validity of the Chinese CECS were comparable to the original English scale. Correlation analyses suggested that cancer survivors with higher emotional control tended to have higher stress, anxiety and depression levels and to adopt negative coping with cancer. Regression analysis showed that emotional control would positively predict stress level even after the effect of depressed mood was under control. Further investigations are suggested in order to elucidate the causal relationships and specific cultural factors affecting emotional control in Chinese cancer survivors and, most importantly, its effect on health outcomes. Copyright (c) 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Impact of Top-Down Prediction on Emotional Face Processing in Social Anxiety

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Guangming Ran

2017-07-01

Full Text Available There is evidence that people with social anxiety show abnormal processing of emotional faces. To investigate the impact of top-down prediction on emotional face processing in social anxiety, brain responses of participants with high and low social anxiety (LSA were recorded, while they performed a variation of the emotional task, using high temporal resolution event-related potential techniques. Behaviorally, we reported an effect of prediction with higher accuracy for predictable than unpredictable faces. Furthermore, we found that participants with high social anxiety (HSA, but not with LSA, recognized angry faces more accurately than happy faces. For the P100 and P200 components, HSA participants showed enhanced brain activity for angry faces compared to happy faces, suggesting a hypervigilance to angry faces. Importantly, HSA participants exhibited larger N170 amplitudes in the right hemisphere electrodes than LSA participants when they observed unpredictable angry faces, but not when the angry faces were predictable. This probably reflects the top-down prediction improving the deficiency at building a holistic face representation in HSA participants.

The Curvilinear Relationship between Age and Emotional Aperture: The Moderating Role of Agreeableness

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Anna Faber

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The capability to correctly recognize collective emotion expressions [i.e., emotional aperture (EA] is crucial for effective social and work-related interactions. Yet, little remains known about the antecedents of this ability. The present study therefore aims to shed new light onto key aspects that may promote or diminish an individual’s EA. We examine the role of age for this ability in an online sample of 181 participants (with an age range of 18–72 years, located in Germany, and we investigate agreeableness as a key contingency factor. Among individuals with lower agreeableness, on the one hand, our results indicate a curvilinear relationship between age and EA, such that EA remains at a relatively high level until these individuals’ middle adulthood (with a slight increase until their late 30s and declines afterward. Individuals with higher agreeableness, on the other hand, exhibit relatively high EA irrespective of their age. Together, these findings offer new insights for the emerging literature on EA, illustrating that specific demographic and personality characteristics may jointly shape such collective emotion recognition.

Emotional foundations of cognitive control.

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Inzlicht, Michael; Bartholow, Bruce D; Hirsh, Jacob B

2015-03-01

Often seen as the paragon of higher cognition, here we suggest that cognitive control is dependent on emotion. Rather than asking whether control is influenced by emotion, we ask whether control itself can be understood as an emotional process. Reviewing converging evidence from cybernetics, animal research, cognitive neuroscience, and social and personality psychology, we suggest that cognitive control is initiated when goal conflicts evoke phasic changes to emotional primitives that both focus attention on the presence of goal conflicts and energize conflict resolution to support goal-directed behavior. Critically, we propose that emotion is not an inert byproduct of conflict but is instrumental in recruiting control. Appreciating the emotional foundations of control leads to testable predictions that can spur future research. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The emotional fundamentals of personality and the higher affective polarities of mind. Comment on "Personality from a cognitive-biological perspective" by Y. Neuman

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Panksepp, Jaak; Davis, Ken

2014-12-01

In brain-based personality theory, two things seem certain: i) the evolved functional organization of our subcortical affective mind, and ii) the diverse potentials for developmental programming of our high cognitive minds (i.e., our initially empty - tabula rasa like - neocortical spaces are largely developmentally programed to manifest higher mental abilities). In considering these two global aspects of brain-mind functions, we can be confident that primal subcortical functions (e.g., the capacity for raw emotions/affects, evident in all vertebrate species) evolved. Indeed, ancient creatures such as lamprey eels, with whom we shared ancestry 560 million years ago, still posses most neural systems that are homologous to those that constitute our own primal affective capacities [1]. Considering that primal emotional affects arise from such systems, there appears to be some remarkable continuity in our primal mental origins. The neural foundations of human emotional feelings, long neglected by academic psychology (for lack of empirical accessibility), may contain the rudimentary neuro-affective substrates of personality [2].

Laterality of Facial Expressions of Emotion: Universal and Culture-Specific Influences

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Manas K. Mandal

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Recent research indicates that (a the perception and expression of facial emotion are lateralized to a great extent in the right hemisphere, and, (b whereas facial expressions of emotion embody universal signals, culture-specific learning moderates the expression and interpretation of these emotions. In the present article, we review the literature on laterality and universality, and propose that, although some components of facial expressions of emotion are governed biologically, others are culturally influenced. We suggest that the left side of the face is more expressive of emotions, is more uninhibited, and displays culture-specific emotional norms. The right side of face, on the other hand, is less susceptible to cultural display norms and exhibits more universal emotional signals.

Laterality of facial expressions of emotion: Universal and culture-specific influences.

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Mandal, Manas K; Ambady, Nalini

2004-01-01

Recent research indicates that (a) the perception and expression of facial emotion are lateralized to a great extent in the right hemisphere, and, (b) whereas facial expressions of emotion embody universal signals, culture-specific learning moderates the expression and interpretation of these emotions. In the present article, we review the literature on laterality and universality, and propose that, although some components of facial expressions of emotion are governed biologically, others are culturally influenced. We suggest that the left side of the face is more expressive of emotions, is more uninhibited, and displays culture-specific emotional norms. The right side of face, on the other hand, is less susceptible to cultural display norms and exhibits more universal emotional signals. Copyright 2004 IOS Press

Electroencephalographic dynamics of musical emotion perception revealed by independent spectral components.

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Lin, Yuan-Pin; Duann, Jeng-Ren; Chen, Jyh-Horng; Jung, Tzyy-Ping

2010-04-21

This study explores the electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of emotional experience during music listening. Independent component analysis and analysis of variance were used to separate statistically independent spectral changes of the EEG in response to music-induced emotional processes. An independent brain process with equivalent dipole located in the fronto-central region exhibited distinct δ-band and θ-band power changes associated with self-reported emotional states. Specifically, the emotional valence was associated with δ-power decreases and θ-power increases in the frontal-central area, whereas the emotional arousal was accompanied by increases in both δ and θ powers. The resultant emotion-related component activations that were less interfered by the activities from other brain processes complement previous EEG studies of emotion perception to music.

Korean Emotional Laborers' Job Stressors and Relievers: Focus on Work Conditions and Emotional Labor Properties.

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Lee, Garam

2015-12-01

The present study aims to investigate job stressors and stress relievers for Korean emotional laborers, specifically focusing on the effects of work conditions and emotional labor properties. Emotional laborers are asked to hide or distort their real emotions in their interaction with clients. They are exposed to high levels of stress in the emotional labor process, which leads to serious mental health risks including burnout, depression, and even suicide impulse. Exploring job stressors and relieving factors would be the first step in seeking alternatives to protect emotional laborers from those mental health risks. Using the third wave data of Korean Working Conditions Survey, logistic regression analysis was conducted for two purposes: to examine the relations of emotional labor and stress, and to find out job stressors and relievers for emotional laborers. The chances of stress arousal are 3.5 times higher for emotional laborers; emotional laborers experience double risk-burden for stress arousal. In addition to general job stressors, emotional laborers need to bear burdens related to emotional labor properties. The effect of social support at the workplace is not significant for stress relief, unlike common assumptions, whereas subjective satisfaction (wage satisfaction and work-life balance) is proven to have relieving effects on emotional laborers' job stress. From the results, the importance of a balanced understanding of emotional labor for establishing effective policies for emotional laborer protection is stressed.

Emotional Intelligence in Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.

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Anderson, Luke B; Paul, Lynn K; Brown, Warren S

2017-05-01

People with agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) with normal general intelligence have deficits in complex cognitive processing, as well as in social cognition. It is uncertain the extent to which impoverished processing of emotions may contribute to social processing deficiencies. We used the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test to clarify the nature of emotional intelligence in 16 adults with AgCC. As hypothesized, persons with AgCC exhibited greater disparities from norms on tests involving more socially complex aspects of emotions. The AgCC group did not differ from norms on the Experiential subscale, but they were significantly below norms on the Strategic subscale. These findings suggest that the corpus callosum is not essential for experiencing and thinking about basic emotions in a "normal" way, but is necessary for more complex processes involving emotions in the context of social interactions. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

When Age Matters: Differences in Facial Mimicry and Autonomic Responses to Peers' Emotions in Teenagers and Adults

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Ardizzi, Martina; Sestito, Mariateresa; Martini, Francesca; Umiltà, Maria Alessandra; Ravera, Roberto; Gallese, Vittorio

2014-01-01

Age-group membership effects on explicit emotional facial expressions recognition have been widely demonstrated. In this study we investigated whether Age-group membership could also affect implicit physiological responses, as facial mimicry and autonomic regulation, to observation of emotional facial expressions. To this aim, facial Electromyography (EMG) and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded from teenager and adult participants during the observation of facial expressions performed by teenager and adult models. Results highlighted that teenagers exhibited greater facial EMG responses to peers' facial expressions, whereas adults showed higher RSA-responses to adult facial expressions. The different physiological modalities through which young and adults respond to peers' emotional expressions are likely to reflect two different ways to engage in social interactions with coetaneous. Findings confirmed that age is an important and powerful social feature that modulates interpersonal interactions by influencing low-level physiological responses. PMID:25337916

Soybean seeds expressing feedback-insensitive cystathionine γ-synthase exhibit a higher content of methionine.

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Song, Shikui; Hou, Wensheng; Godo, Itamar; Wu, Cunxiang; Yu, Yang; Matityahu, Ifat; Hacham, Yael; Sun, Shi; Han, Tianfu; Amir, Rachel

2013-04-01

Soybean seeds provide an excellent source of protein for human and livestock nutrition. However, their nutritional quality is hampered by a low concentration of the essential sulfur amino acid, methionine (Met). In order to study factors that regulate Met synthesis in soybean seeds, this study used the Met-insensitive form of Arabidopsis cystathionine γ-synthase (AtD-CGS), which is the first committed enzyme of Met biosynthesis. This gene was expressed under the control of a seed-specific promoter, legumin B4, and used to transform the soybean cultivar Zigongdongdou (ZD). In three transgenic lines that exhibited the highest expression level of AtD-CGS, the level of soluble Met increased significantly in developing green seeds (3.8-7-fold). These seeds also showed high levels of other amino acids. This phenomenon was more prominent in two transgenic lines, ZD24 and ZD91. The total Met content, which including Met incorporated into proteins, significantly increased in the mature dry seeds of these two transgenic lines by 1.8- and 2.3-fold, respectively. This elevation was accompanied by a higher content of other protein-incorporated amino acids, which led to significantly higher total protein content in the seeds of these two lines. However, in a third transgenic line, ZD01, the level of total Met and the level of other amino acids did not increase significantly in the mature dry seeds. This line also showed no significant change in protein levels. This suggests a positive connection between high Met content and the synthesis of other amino acids that enable the synthesis of more seed proteins.

Emotions and emotion regulation in survivors of childhood sexual abuse: the importance of "disgust" in traumatic stress and psychopathology.

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Coyle, Eimear; Karatzias, Thanos; Summers, Andy; Power, Mick

2014-01-01

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has the potential to compromise socio-emotional development of the survivor resulting in increased vulnerability to difficulties regulating emotions. In turn, emotion regulation is thought to play a key part in a number of psychological disorders which CSA survivors are at increased risk of developing. A better understanding of the basic emotions experienced in this population and emotion regulation strategies will inform current treatment. This paper examines the relationships between type of emotions experienced, emotion regulation strategies, and psychological trauma symptoms in a sample of survivors of CSA. A consecutive case series of CSA survivors (n=109) completed the Basic Emotions Scale (BES)-Weekly, General, and Coping versions; the Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire; the Post-traumatic Stress Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C); and the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure. Significantly higher levels of disgust than other levels of emotions were reported on the weekly version of the BES. In addition, significantly higher levels of disgust and lower levels of happiness were reported on the BES-General subscale. Regression analyses revealed that sadness, fear, disgust, and external dysfunctional coping strategies predicted global post-traumatic stress disorder and re-experiencing symptomatology measured by the PCL-C. Global distress, as measured by CORE, was predicted by the emotions of sadness, disgust, and low happiness, as well as dysfunctional regulatory strategies. In addition, preliminary exploratory factor analyses supported the structure of all three versions of the BES, with disgust explaining the largest percentage of variance, followed by happiness. The findings highlight the utility of profiling basic emotions in understanding the strong associations between emotional phenomena, particularly the emotion of disgust and psychopathology in CSA survivors.

Emotional intelligence in male and female sport climbers

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Milena Marczak

2017-09-01

Conclusions: Male sport climbers used the recognition and understanding of emotional states to solve problems for success in climbing and characterize their higher level of overall emotional intelligence in a better way. Sport climbers of both sexes had average levels of acceptance of emotion and empathy. This means that climbers of both sexes were characterized by low levels of other emotional experiences and the use of emotional experiences in prospective activities.

Facial emotion recognition, socio-occupational functioning and expressed emotions in schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder.

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Thonse, Umesh; Behere, Rishikesh V; Praharaj, Samir Kumar; Sharma, Podila Sathya Venkata Narasimha

2018-06-01

Facial emotion recognition deficits have been consistently demonstrated in patients with severe mental disorders. Expressed emotion is found to be an important predictor of relapse. However, the relationship between facial emotion recognition abilities and expressed emotions and its influence on socio-occupational functioning in schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder has not been studied. In this study we examined 91 patients with schizophrenia and 71 with bipolar disorder for psychopathology, socio occupational functioning and emotion recognition abilities. Primary caregivers of 62 patients with schizophrenia and 49 with bipolar disorder were assessed on Family Attitude Questionnaire to assess their expressed emotions. Patients of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder performed similarly on the emotion recognition task. Patients with schizophrenia group experienced higher critical comments and had a poorer socio-occupational functioning as compared to patients with bipolar disorder. Poorer socio-occupational functioning in patients with schizophrenia was significantly associated with greater dissatisfaction in their caregivers. In patients with bipolar disorder, poorer emotion recognition scores significantly correlated with poorer adaptive living skills and greater hostility and dissatisfaction in their caregivers. The findings of our study suggest that emotion recognition abilities in patients with bipolar disorder are associated with negative expressed emotions leading to problems in adaptive living skills. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thinking style preference, emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness

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Tessie H. Herbst

2008-04-01

Full Text Available In this study, the researchers investigate the relationship between thinking style preference, emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness in an institution of higher education. The measuring instruments used were the Neethling Brain Preference Profle (NBPP and the Mayer, Salovey and Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT, as well as the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI. The sample comprised 138 managers within a higher education institution. The researchers found some evidence to support the relationship between thinking style, emotional intelligence (EI and leadership effectiveness. The researchers concluded that facets of brain dominance and emotional intelligence may be potentially useful predictors of transformational leadership behaviours.

Emotional Expression in Simple Line Drawings of a Robot's Face Leads to Higher Offers in the Ultimatum Game

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Kazunori Terada

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In the present study, we investigated whether expressing emotional states using a simple line drawing to represent a robot's face can serve to elicit altruistic behavior from humans. An experimental investigation was conducted in which human participants interacted with a humanoid robot whose facial expression was shown on an LCD monitor that was mounted as its head (Study 1. Participants were asked to play the ultimatum game, which is usually used to measure human altruistic behavior. All participants were assigned to be the proposer and were instructed to decide their offer within 1 min by controlling a slider bar. The corners of the robot's mouth, as indicated by the line drawing, simply moved upward, or downward depending on the position of the slider bar. The results suggest that the change in the facial expression depicted by a simple line drawing of a face significantly affected the participant's final offer in the ultimatum game. The offers were increased by 13% when subjects were shown contingent changes of facial expression. The results were compared with an experiment in a teleoperation setting in which participants interacted with another person through a computer display showing the same line drawings used in Study 1 (Study 2. The results showed that offers were 15% higher if participants were shown a contingent facial expression change. Together, Studies 1 and 2 indicate that emotional expression in simple line drawings of a robot's face elicits the same higher offer from humans as a human telepresence does.

Alteration of complex negative emotions induced by music in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder.

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Choppin, Sabine; Trost, Wiebke; Dondaine, Thibaut; Millet, Bruno; Drapier, Dominique; Vérin, Marc; Robert, Gabriel; Grandjean, Didier

2016-02-01

Research has shown bipolar disorder to be characterized by dysregulation of emotion processing, including biases in facial expression recognition that is most prevalent during depressive and manic states. Very few studies have examined induced emotions when patients are in a euthymic phase, and there has been no research on complex emotions. We therefore set out to test emotional hyperreactivity in response to musical excerpts inducing complex emotions in bipolar disorder during euthymia. We recruited 21 patients with bipolar disorder (BD) in a euthymic phase and 21 matched healthy controls. Participants first rated their emotional reactivity on two validated self-report scales (ERS and MAThyS). They then rated their music-induced emotions on nine continuous scales. The targeted emotions were wonder, power, melancholy and tension. We used a specific generalized linear mixed model to analyze the behavioral data. We found that participants in the euthymic bipolar group experienced more intense complex negative emotions than controls when the musical excerpts induced wonder. Moreover, patients exhibited greater emotional reactivity in daily life (ERS). Finally, a greater experience of tension while listening to positive music seemed to be mediated by greater emotional reactivity and a deficit in executive functions. The heterogeneity of the BD group in terms of clinical characteristics may have influenced the results. Euthymic patients with bipolar disorder exhibit more complex negative emotions than controls in response to positive music. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Somatosensory Representations Link the Perception of Emotional Expressions and Sensory Experience.

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Kragel, Philip A; LaBar, Kevin S

2016-01-01

Studies of human emotion perception have linked a distributed set of brain regions to the recognition of emotion in facial, vocal, and body expressions. In particular, lesions to somatosensory cortex in the right hemisphere have been shown to impair recognition of facial and vocal expressions of emotion. Although these findings suggest that somatosensory cortex represents body states associated with distinct emotions, such as a furrowed brow or gaping jaw, functional evidence directly linking somatosensory activity and subjective experience during emotion perception is critically lacking. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and multivariate decoding techniques, we show that perceiving vocal and facial expressions of emotion yields hemodynamic activity in right somatosensory cortex that discriminates among emotion categories, exhibits somatotopic organization, and tracks self-reported sensory experience. The findings both support embodied accounts of emotion and provide mechanistic insight into how emotional expressions are capable of biasing subjective experience in those who perceive them.

Major depressive disorder alters perception of emotional body movements

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Morten eKaletsch

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Much recent research has shown an association between mood disorders and an altered emotion perception. However, these studies were conducted mainly with stimuli such as faces. This is the first study to examine possible differences in how people with major depressive disorder (MDD and healthy controls perceive emotions expressed via body movements. 30 patients with MDD and 30 healthy controls observed video scenes of human interactions conveyed by point–light displays (PLDs. They rated the depicted emotions and judged their confidence in their rating. Results showed that patients with MDD rated the depicted interactions more negatively than healthy controls. They also rated interactions with negative emotionality as being more intense and were more confident in their ratings. It is concluded that patients with MDD exhibit an altered emotion perception compared to healthy controls when rating emotions expressed via body movements depicted in PLDs.

Insular networks for emotional processing and social cognition: comparison of two case reports with either cortical or subcortical involvement.

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Couto, Blas; Sedeño, Lucas; Sposato, Luciano A; Sigman, Mariano; Riccio, Patricia M; Salles, Alejo; Lopez, Vladimir; Schroeder, Johannes; Manes, Facundo; Ibanez, Agustin

2013-05-01

The processing of the emotion of disgust is attributed to the insular cortex (IC), which is also responsible for social emotions and higher-cognitive functions. We distinguish the role of the IC from its connections in regard to these functions through the assessment of emotions and social cognition in a double case report. These subjects were very rare cases that included a focal IC lesion and a subcortical focal stroke affecting the connections of the IC with frontotemporal areas. Both patients and a sample of 10 matched controls underwent neuropsychological and affective screening questionnaires, a battery of multimodal basic emotion recognition tests, an emotional inference disambiguation task using social contextual clues, an empathy task and a theory of mind task. The insular lesion (IL) patient showed no impairments in emotion recognition and social emotions and presented with a pattern of delayed reaction times (RTs) in a subset of both groups of tasks. The subcortical lesion (SL) patient was impaired in multimodal aversive emotion recognition, including disgust, and exhibited delayed RTs and a heterogeneous pattern of impairments in subtasks of empathy and in the contextual inference of emotions. Our results suggest that IC related networks, and not the IC itself, are related to negative emotional processing and social emotions. We discuss these results with respect to theoretical approaches of insular involvement in emotional and social processing and propose that IC connectivity with frontotemporal and subcortical regions might be relevant for contextual emotional processing and social cognition. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dealing with feelings: characterization of trait alexithymia on emotion regulation strategies and cognitive-emotional processing.

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Marte Swart

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Alexithymia, or "no words for feelings", is a personality trait which is associated with difficulties in emotion recognition and regulation. It is unknown whether this deficit is due primarily to regulation, perception, or mentalizing of emotions. In order to shed light on the core deficit, we tested our subjects on a wide range of emotional tasks. We expected the high alexithymics to underperform on all tasks. METHOD: Two groups of healthy individuals, high and low scoring on the cognitive component of the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire, completed questionnaires of emotion regulation and performed several emotion processing tasks including a micro expression recognition task, recognition of emotional prosody and semantics in spoken sentences, an emotional and identity learning task and a conflicting beliefs and emotions task (emotional mentalizing. RESULTS: The two groups differed on the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire and Empathy Quotient. Specifically, the Emotion Regulation Quotient showed that alexithymic individuals used more suppressive and less reappraisal strategies. On the behavioral tasks, as expected, alexithymics performed worse on recognition of micro expressions and emotional mentalizing. Surprisingly, groups did not differ on tasks of emotional semantics and prosody and associative emotional-learning. CONCLUSION: Individuals scoring high on the cognitive component of alexithymia are more prone to suppressive emotion regulation strategies rather than reappraisal strategies. Regarding emotional information processing, alexithymia is associated with reduced performance on measures of early processing as well as higher order mentalizing. However, difficulties in the processing of emotional language were not a core deficit in our alexithymic group.

Pigeons exhibit higher accuracy for chosen memory tests than for forced memory tests in duration matching-to-sample.

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Adams, Allison; Santi, Angelo

2011-03-01

Following training to match 2- and 8-sec durations of feederlight to red and green comparisons with a 0-sec baseline delay, pigeons were allowed to choose to take a memory test or to escape the memory test. The effects of sample omission, increases in retention interval, and variation in trial spacing on selection of the escape option and accuracy were studied. During initial testing, escaping the test did not increase as the task became more difficult, and there was no difference in accuracy between chosen and forced memory tests. However, with extended training, accuracy for chosen tests was significantly greater than for forced tests. In addition, two pigeons exhibited higher accuracy on chosen tests than on forced tests at the short retention interval and greater escape rates at the long retention interval. These results have not been obtained in previous studies with pigeons when the choice to take the test or to escape the test is given before test stimuli are presented. It appears that task-specific methodological factors may determine whether a particular species will exhibit the two behavioral effects that were initially proposed as potentially indicative of metacognition.

The role of Trait Emotional Intelligence and social and emotional skills in students’ emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties: A study of Greek adolescents’ perceptions.

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Maria S. Poulou

2010-11-01

Full Text Available The emergence of the Trait Emotional Intelligence construct shifted the interest in personality research to the investigation of the effect of global personality characteristics on behaviour. A second body of research in applied settings, the Social and Emotional Learning movement, emphasized the cultivation of emotional and social skills for positive relationships in a school environment. In this paper we investigate the role of both personality traits and social and emotional skills, in the occurrence of emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties, according to adolescent students’ self-perceptions. Five hundred and fifty-nine students from state secondary schools in Greece, aged 12-14 years old, completed The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Adolescent Short Form, The Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters, and The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. It was found that students with higher Trait Emotional Intelligence and stronger social and emotional skills were less likely to present emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and peer difficulties and more likely to present prosocial behaviour. Gender was a significant factor for emotional difficulties and grade for peer difficulties. The paper describes the underlying mechanisms of students’ emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties, and provides practical implications for educators to improve the quality of students’ lives in schools.

Personality Influences the Relationship Between Primary Emotions and Religious/Spiritual Well-Being

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Hiebler-Ragger, Michaela; Fuchshuber, Jürgen; Dröscher, Heidrun; Vajda, Christian; Fink, Andreas; Unterrainer, Human F.

2018-01-01

The study of human emotions and personality provides valuable insights into the parameters of mental health and well-being. Affective neuroscience proposes that several levels of emotions – ranging from primary ones such as LUST or FEAR up to higher emotions such as spirituality – interact on a neural level. The present study aimed to further explore this theory. Furthermore, we hypothesized that personality – formed by bottom-up primary emotions and cortical top-down regulation – might act as a link between primary emotions and religious/spiritual well-being. A total sample of 167 (78% female) student participants completed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (primary emotions), the Big Five Personality Inventory and the Multidimensional Inventory of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (higher emotions). Correlation analyses confirmed the link between primary and higher emotions as well as their relation to personality. Further regression analyses indicated that personality dimensions mediate the relationship between primary and higher emotions. A substantial interaction between primary emotions, personality dimensions, and religious/spiritual well-being could be confirmed. From a developmental perspective, cortical top-down regulation might influence religious/spiritual well-being by forming relevant personality dimensions. Hence, CARE as well as Agreeableness seem of special importance. Future studies might focus on implications for clinical groups. PMID:29615950

Personality Influences the Relationship Between Primary Emotions and Religious/Spiritual Well-Being.

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Hiebler-Ragger, Michaela; Fuchshuber, Jürgen; Dröscher, Heidrun; Vajda, Christian; Fink, Andreas; Unterrainer, Human F

2018-01-01

The study of human emotions and personality provides valuable insights into the parameters of mental health and well-being. Affective neuroscience proposes that several levels of emotions - ranging from primary ones such as LUST or FEAR up to higher emotions such as spirituality - interact on a neural level. The present study aimed to further explore this theory. Furthermore, we hypothesized that personality - formed by bottom-up primary emotions and cortical top-down regulation - might act as a link between primary emotions and religious/spiritual well-being. A total sample of 167 (78% female) student participants completed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (primary emotions), the Big Five Personality Inventory and the Multidimensional Inventory of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (higher emotions). Correlation analyses confirmed the link between primary and higher emotions as well as their relation to personality. Further regression analyses indicated that personality dimensions mediate the relationship between primary and higher emotions. A substantial interaction between primary emotions, personality dimensions, and religious/spiritual well-being could be confirmed. From a developmental perspective, cortical top-down regulation might influence religious/spiritual well-being by forming relevant personality dimensions. Hence, CARE as well as Agreeableness seem of special importance. Future studies might focus on implications for clinical groups.

Personality Influences the Relationship Between Primary Emotions and Religious/Spiritual Well-Being

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Michaela Hiebler-Ragger

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The study of human emotions and personality provides valuable insights into the parameters of mental health and well-being. Affective neuroscience proposes that several levels of emotions – ranging from primary ones such as LUST or FEAR up to higher emotions such as spirituality – interact on a neural level. The present study aimed to further explore this theory. Furthermore, we hypothesized that personality – formed by bottom-up primary emotions and cortical top-down regulation – might act as a link between primary emotions and religious/spiritual well-being. A total sample of 167 (78% female student participants completed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (primary emotions, the Big Five Personality Inventory and the Multidimensional Inventory of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (higher emotions. Correlation analyses confirmed the link between primary and higher emotions as well as their relation to personality. Further regression analyses indicated that personality dimensions mediate the relationship between primary and higher emotions. A substantial interaction between primary emotions, personality dimensions, and religious/spiritual well-being could be confirmed. From a developmental perspective, cortical top-down regulation might influence religious/spiritual well-being by forming relevant personality dimensions. Hence, CARE as well as Agreeableness seem of special importance. Future studies might focus on implications for clinical groups.

An emotional processing writing intervention and heart rate variability: the role of emotional approach.

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Seeley, Saren H; Yanez, Betina; Stanton, Annette L; Hoyt, Michael A

2017-08-01

Expressing and understanding one's own emotional responses to negative events, particularly those that challenge the attainment of important life goals, is thought to confer physiological benefit. Individual preferences and/or abilities in approaching emotions might condition the efficacy of interventions designed to encourage written emotional processing (EP). This study examines the physiological impact (as indexed by heart rate variability (HRV)) of an emotional processing writing (EPW) task as well as the moderating influence of a dispositional preference for coping through emotional approach (EP and emotional expression (EE)), in response to a laboratory stress task designed to challenge an important life goal. Participants (n = 98) were randomly assigned to either EPW or fact control writing (FCW) following the stress task. Regression analyses revealed a significant dispositional EP by condition interaction, such that high EP participants in the EPW condition demonstrated higher HRV after writing compared to low EP participants. No significant main effects of condition or EE coping were observed. These findings suggest that EPW interventions may be best suited for those with preference or ability to process emotions related to a stressor or might require adaptation for those who less often cope through emotional approach.

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

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Quarto, Tiziana; Blasi, Giuseppe; Maddalena, Chiara; Viscanti, Giovanna; Lanciano, Tiziana; Soleti, Emanuela; Mangiulli, Ivan; Taurisano, Paolo; Fazio, Leonardo; Bertolino, Alessandro; Curci, Antonietta

2016-01-01

The human ability of identifying, processing and regulating emotions from social stimuli is generally referred as Emotional Intelligence (EI). Within EI, Ability EI identifies a performance measure assessing individual skills at perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Previous models suggest that a brain "somatic marker circuitry" (SMC) sustains emotional sub-processes included in EI. Three primary brain regions are included: the amygdala, the insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Here, our aim was to investigate the relationship between Ability EI scores and SMC activity during social judgment of emotional faces. Sixty-three healthy subjects completed a test measuring Ability EI and underwent fMRI during a social decision task (i.e. approach or avoid) about emotional faces with different facial expressions. Imaging data revealed that EI scores are associated with left insula activity during social judgment of emotional faces as a function of facial expression. Specifically, higher EI scores are associated with greater left insula activity during social judgment of fearful faces but also with lower activity of this region during social judgment of angry faces. These findings indicate that the association between Ability EI and the SMC activity during social behavior is region- and emotion-specific.

Emotion episodes during psychotherapy sessions among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancers.

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Myers Virtue, Shannon; Manne, Sharon L; Darabos, Kathleen; Heckman, Carolyn J; Ozga, Melissa; Kissane, David; Rubin, Stephen; Rosenblum, Norman

2015-09-01

The aim of this study was to describe emotion episodes during early and late psychotherapy sessions among women newly diagnosed with gynecological cancer and to examine whether the total number of emotion episodes during early and later sessions was associated with baseline psychological distress, dispositional emotion expressivity, and patient-rated therapeutic progress. The study utilized data from an ongoing study examining the efficacy of two psychotherapy interventions, a coping and communication intervention and a supportive counseling intervention, for women diagnosed with gynecological cancer. Emotion episode coding was completed for the first and sixth psychotherapy sessions for each patient randomized to receive psychotherapy (N = 173). Patients completed baseline survey measures of psychological distress and dispositional emotional expressivity and post-session ratings of therapeutic progress. The average number of emotion episodes was 7.4 in the first session and 5.2 episodes in the sixth session. In both sessions, the majority of emotion episodes contained only negative emotions and focused on a cancer-related topic. A higher number of emotion episodes in the first session was associated with higher psychological distress reported in the baseline survey (p = 0.02). A higher number of emotion episodes in the sixth session was associated with a higher number of emotion episodes in the first session (p psychotherapy among women diagnosed with gynecological cancer. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Neurocognitive correlates of the effects of yoga meditation practice on emotion and cognition: A Pilot Study

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Brett eFroeliger

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Mindfulness meditation involves attending to emotions without cognitive fixation of emotional experience. Over time, this practice is held to promote alterations in trait affectivity and attentional control with resultant effects on well-being and cognition. However, relatively little is known regarding the neural substrates of meditation effects on emotion and cognition. The present study investigated the neurocognitive correlates of emotion interference on cognition in Yoga practitioners and a matched control group underwent fMRI while performing an event-related affective Stroop task. The task includes image viewing trials and Stroop trials bracketed by neutral or negative emotional distractors. During image viewing trials, Yoga practitioners exhibited less reactivity in right dlPFC to negative as compared to neutral images; whereas the control group had the opposite pattern. A main effect of valence (negative > neutral was observed in limbic regions (e.g. amygdala, of which the magnitude was inversely related to dlPFC activation. Exploratory analyses revealed that the magnitude of amygdala activation predicted decreased self-reported positive affect in the Control group, but not among Yoga practitioners. During Stroop trials, Yoga practitioners had greater activation in vlPFC during Stroop trials when negative, compared to neutral, emotional distractor were presented; the control group exhibited the opposite pattern. Taken together, these data suggest that though Yoga practitioners exhibit limbic reactivity to negative emotional stimuli, such reactivity does not have downstream effects on later mood state. This uncoupling of viewing negative emotional images and affect among Yoga practitioners may be occasioned by their selective implementation of frontal executive-dependent strategies to reduce emotional interference during competing cognitive demands and not during emotional processing per se.

Individual Differences in Automatic Emotion Regulation Interact with Primed Emotion Regulation during an Anger Provocation

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Ping Hu

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The current study investigated the interactive effects of individual differences in automatic emotion regulation (AER and primed emotion regulation strategy on skin conductance level (SCL and heart rate during provoked anger. The study was a 2 × 2 [AER tendency (expression vs. control × priming (expression vs. control] between subject design. Participants were assigned to two groups according to their performance on an emotion regulation-IAT (differentiating automatic emotion control tendency and automatic emotion expression tendency. Then participants of the two groups were randomly assigned to two emotion regulation priming conditions (emotion control priming or emotion expression priming. Anger was provoked by blaming participants for slow performance during a subsequent backward subtraction task. In anger provocation, SCL of individuals with automatic emotion control tendencies in the control priming condition was lower than of those with automatic emotion control tendencies in the expression priming condition. However, SCL of individuals with automatic emotion expression tendencies did no differ in the automatic emotion control priming or the automatic emotion expression priming condition. Heart rate during anger provocation was higher in individuals with automatic emotion expression tendencies than in individuals with automatic emotion control tendencies regardless of priming condition. This pattern indicates an interactive effect of individual differences in AER and emotion regulation priming on SCL, which is an index of emotional arousal. Heart rate was only sensitive to the individual differences in AER, and did not reflect this interaction. This finding has implications for clinical studies of the use of emotion regulation strategy training suggesting that different practices are optimal for individuals who differ in AER tendencies.

Parameters of Emotional Processing in Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Conceptual Issues and a Battery of Tests.

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Borod, Joan C.; And Others

1990-01-01

Components of emotional processing (communication channel, processing mode, and emotional valence) were examined in psychiatric and neurological populations, using an experimental affect battery. The test battery exhibited good psychometric properties and discriminated among diagnostic groups. (Author/JDD)

Emotionally intelligent nurse leadership: a literature review study.

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Akerjordet, Kristin; Severinsson, Elisabeth

2008-07-01

To establish a synthesis of the literature on the theoretical and empirical basis of emotional intelligence and it's linkage to nurse leadership, focusing on subjective well-being and professional development. Emotional intelligence has been acknowledged in the literature as supporting nurse leadership that fosters a healthy work environment, creating inspiring relationships based on mutual trust. Nurse leaders who exhibit characteristics of emotional intelligence enhance organizational, staff and patient outcomes. A literature search was undertaken using international data bases covering the period January 1997 to December 2007. Eighteen articles were included in this integrative review and were thoroughly reviewed by both authors. Emotional intelligence was associated with positive empowerment processes as well as positive organizational outcomes. Emotionally intelligent nurse leadership characterized by self-awareness and supervisory skills highlights positive empowerment processes, creating a favourable work climate characterized by resilience, innovation and change. Emotional intelligence cannot be considered a general panacea, but it may offer new ways of thinking and being for nurse leaders, as it takes the intelligence of feelings more seriously by continually reflecting, evaluating and improving leadership and supervisory skills.

Hormonal contraception use alters stress responses and emotional memory.

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Nielsen, Shawn E; Segal, Sabrina K; Worden, Ian V; Yim, Ilona S; Cahill, Larry

2013-02-01

Emotionally arousing material is typically better remembered than neutral material. Since norepinephrine and cortisol interact to modulate emotional memory, sex-related influences on stress responses may be related to sex differences in emotional memory. Two groups of healthy women - one naturally cycling (NC women, n=42) and one using hormonal contraceptives (HC women, n=36) - viewed emotionally arousing and neutral images. Immediately after, they were assigned to Cold Pressor Stress (CPS) or a control procedure. One week later, participants received a surprise free recall test. Saliva samples were collected and later assayed for salivary alpha-amylase (biomarker for norepinephrine) and cortisol. Compared to NC women, HC women exhibited significantly blunted stress hormone responses to the images and CPS. Recall of emotional images differed between HC and NC women depending on noradrenergic and cortisol responses. These findings may have important implications for understanding the neurobiology of emotional memory disorders, especially those that disproportionately affect women. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Emotional collectives: How groups shape emotions and emotions shape groups.

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van Kleef, Gerben A; Fischer, Agneta H

2016-01-01

Group settings are epicentres of emotional activity. Yet, the role of emotions in groups is poorly understood. How do group-level phenomena shape group members' emotional experience and expression? How are emotional expressions recognised, interpreted and shared in group settings? And how do such expressions influence the emotions, cognitions and behaviours of fellow group members and outside observers? To answer these and other questions, we draw on relevant theoretical perspectives (e.g., intergroup emotions theory, social appraisal theory and emotions as social information theory) and recent empirical findings regarding the role of emotions in groups. We organise our review according to two overarching themes: how groups shape emotions and how emotions shape groups. We show how novel empirical approaches break important new ground in uncovering the role of emotions in groups. Research on emotional collectives is thriving and constitutes a key to understanding the social nature of emotions.

Emotion regulation in children with behavior problems: linking behavioral and brain processes.

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Granic, Isabela; Meusel, Liesel-Ann; Lamm, Connie; Woltering, Steven; Lewis, Marc D

2012-08-01

Past studies have shown that aggressive children exhibit rigid (rather than flexible) parent-child interactions; these rigid repertoires may provide the context through which children fail to acquire emotion-regulation skills. Difficulties in regulating emotion are associated with minimal activity in dorsal systems in the cerebral cortex, for example, the anterior cingulate cortex. The current study aimed to integrate parent-child and neurocognitive indices of emotion regulation and examine their associations for the first time. Sixty children (8-12 years old) referred for treatment for aggression underwent two assessments. Brain processes related to emotion regulation were assessed using dense-array EEG with a computerized go/no-go task. The N2 amplitudes thought to tap inhibitory control were recorded, and a source analysis was conducted. In the second assessment, parents and children were videotaped while trying to solve a conflict topic. State space grids were used to derive two dynamic flexibility parameters from the coded videotapes: (a) the number of transitions between emotional states and (b) the dispersion of emotional states, based on proportional durations in each state. The regression results showed that flexibility measures were not related to N2 amplitudes. However, flexibility measures were significantly associated with the ratio of dorsal to ventral source activation: for transitions, ΔR 2 = .27, F (1, 34) = 13.13, p = .001; for dispersion, ΔR 2 = .29, F (1, 35) = 14.76, p < .001. Thus, in support of our main hypothesis, greater dyadic flexibility was associated with a higher ratio of dorsomedial to ventral activation, suggesting that children with more flexible parent-child interactions are able to recruit relatively more dorsomedial activity in challenging situations.

Social anxiety and emotion regulation flexibility

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

O'Toole, Mia S.; Zachariae, Robert; Mennin, Douglas S.

2017-01-01

Abstract BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Individuals with social anxiety disorder have often been considered inflexible in their emotion regulation. The aim of this study was to investigate emotion regulation flexibility in socially anxious individuals in response to two contextual factors, namely...... different levels of emotion intensity and emotion type. METHODS: A daily diary approach was employed, investigating emotion regulation (i.e., experiential avoidance, expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal) in college students scoring high (N = 62; HSA) and low (N = 52; LSA) on social anxiety....... RESULTS: Results revealed that HSAs were found to use more experiential avoidance than LSAs, especially at higher levels of negative intensity. The use of this emotion regulation strategy appeared to be driven by guilt, nervousness, and sadness. There were no between-group differences concerning the other...

Poor Sleep Is Related to Lower Emotional Competence Among Adolescents.

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Brand, Serge; Kirov, Roumen; Kalak, Nadeem; Gerber, Markus; Schmidt, Norman B; Lemola, Sakari; Correll, Christoph U; Holsboer-Trachsler, Edith

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to explore the association between subjective insomnia and self-reported emotional competence in areas such as regulating and perceiving one's own emotions and empathy, in a sample of adolescents. Gender differences were also explored. 366 adolescents in 10th to 12th grade (mean age: M = 16.9 years) took part in this cross-sectional study. They completed questionnaires related to emotional competencies, empathy, and sleep. Higher scores for insomnia were associated with lower scores for some aspects of emotional competence and empathy. Compared to males, females generally had higher scores for emotional competence. Poor sleep as subjectively experienced among adolescents is associated with specific impairments in emotional competence and empathy. Gender-related patterns were also observed.

Nuanced aesthetic emotions: emotion differentiation is related to knowledge of the arts and curiosity.

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Fayn, Kirill; Silvia, Paul J; Erbas, Yasemin; Tiliopoulos, Niko; Kuppens, Peter

2018-05-01

The ability to distinguish between emotions is considered indicative of well-being, but does emotion differentiation (ED) in an aesthetic context also reflect deeper and more knowledgeable aesthetic experiences? Here we examine whether positive and negative ED in response to artistic stimuli reflects higher fluency in an aesthetic domain. Particularly, we test whether knowledge of the arts and curiosity are associated with more fine-grained positive and negative aesthetic experiences. A sample of 214 people rated their positive and negative feelings in response to various artworks including positive and negative themes. Positive ED was associated with the embracing sub-trait of curiosity that reflects engagement and enjoyment of novelty and complexity, but was unrelated to artistic knowledge and perceived comprehension. Negative ED was associated with higher curiosity and particularly more knowledge of the arts. This relationship was mediated by appraised comprehension suggesting that deeper engagement with art, by those with more art knowledge, is associated with more fine-grained emotional experiences. This finding extends ED beyond well-being research and suggests that more nuanced emotional experiences are more likely for those with expertise in the arts and motivation for exploration.

Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling Human Emotions through Biosignals

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van den Broek, Egon L.; Lisý, Viliam; Janssen, Joris H.; Westerink, Joyce H. D. M.; Schut, Marleen H.; Tuinenbreijer, Kees

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological proce-sses, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and, as such, can serve as an advanced man-machine interface (MMI) for empathic consumer products. However, such a MMI requires the correct classification of biosignals to emotion classes. This chapter starts with an introduction on biosignals for emotion detection. Next, a state-of-the-art review is presented on automatic emotion classification. Moreover, guidelines are presented for affective MMI. Subsequently, a research is presented that explores the use of EDA and three facial EMG signals to determine neutral, positive, negative, and mixed emotions, using recordings of 21 people. A range of techniques is tested, which resulted in a generic framework for automated emotion classification with up to 61.31% correct classification of the four emotion classes, without the need of personal profiles. Among various other directives for future research, the results emphasize the need for parallel processing of multiple biosignals.

More Pronounced Deficits in Facial Emotion Recognition for Schizophrenia than Bipolar Disorder

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Goghari, Vina M; Sponheim, Scott R

2012-01-01

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are typically separated in diagnostic systems. Behavioural, cognitive, and brain abnormalities associated with each disorder nonetheless overlap. We evaluated the diagnostic specificity of facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to determine whether select aspects of emotion recognition differed for the two disorders. The investigation used an experimental task that included the same facial images in an emotion recognition condition and an age recognition condition (to control for processes associated with general face recognition) in 27 schizophrenia patients, 16 bipolar I patients, and 30 controls. Schizophrenia and bipolar patients exhibited both shared and distinct aspects of facial emotion recognition deficits. Schizophrenia patients had deficits in recognizing angry facial expressions compared to healthy controls and bipolar patients. Compared to control participants, both schizophrenia and bipolar patients were more likely to mislabel facial expressions of anger as fear. Given that schizophrenia patients exhibited a deficit in emotion recognition for angry faces, which did not appear due to generalized perceptual and cognitive dysfunction, improving recognition of threat-related expression may be an important intervention target to improve social functioning in schizophrenia. PMID:23218816

Are alexithymia and emotional characteristics of disclosure associated with blood pressure reactivity and psychological distress following written emotional disclosure?

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O'Connor, Daryl B; Ashley, Laura

2008-09-01

This study had three aims: 1) to investigate whether cardiovascular responses to laboratory stress and levels of emotional distress were attenuated following written emotional disclosure; 2) to test, in addition to the potential main effects, whether levels of alexithymia moderated the impact of writing; and 3) to examine whether alexithymics who successfully disclosed emotion in their essays would experience positive effects following writing. Eighty-seven participants wrote about their most stressful life experience or about a non-stressful experience, for 15 minutes, over 3 consecutive days. Two weeks later, blood pressure (BP) responses to laboratory stress and levels of emotional distress were assessed. Emotional characteristics of the disclosure essays were analysed with the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count programme and alexithymia was assessed at baseline using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. Analyses found no evidence in support of the main effects of disclosure on cardiovascular responses to stress or on emotional distress. However, alexithymia was found to moderate the impact of writing such that non-alexithymic participants in the experimental condition reported significantly lower emotional distress 2 weeks later. In addition, alexithymic participants who disclosed a greater number of negative when compared with positive emotion words exhibited reduced systolic and diastolic responses to stress. Conversely, non-alexithymic participants who disclosed more positive and less negative emotion words displayed attenuated BP reactivity to stress. The results of this exploratory study are important as they highlighted, in the absence of main effects, the importance of examining potential moderators of the emotional writing process. These findings may have implications for the development of cardiovascular health interventions.

The cognitive costs of the counter-stereotypic: gender, emotion, and social presence.

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McCarty, Megan K; Kelly, Janice R; Williams, Kipling D

2014-01-01

We explored the concurrent and subsequent cognitive consequences of the experience of gender counter-stereotypic emotions. Participants experiencing gender counter-stereotypic emotions were expected to display less emotional expression and demonstrate poorer cognitive performance when in the public condition than when in the private condition. Seventy-one women and 66 men completed an anger- or sadness-inducing task privately or publicly. Participants completed two cognitive tasks: one during and one after the emotion-induction task. Participants exhibited poorer performance during and following gender counter-stereotypic emotions only in the public condition. Direct evidence for greater suppression of gender counter-stereotypic emotions in the public conditions was not obtained. These results suggest that the same public emotional events may be differentially cognitively depleting depending on one's gender, potentially contributing to the perpetuation of stereotypes.

Gender Differences in the Recognition of Vocal Emotions

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Adi Lausen

2018-06-01

Full Text Available The conflicting findings from the few studies conducted with regard to gender differences in the recognition of vocal expressions of emotion have left the exact nature of these differences unclear. Several investigators have argued that a comprehensive understanding of gender differences in vocal emotion recognition can only be achieved by replicating these studies while accounting for influential factors such as stimulus type, gender-balanced samples, number of encoders, decoders, and emotional categories. This study aimed to account for these factors by investigating whether emotion recognition from vocal expressions differs as a function of both listeners' and speakers' gender. A total of N = 290 participants were randomly and equally allocated to two groups. One group listened to words and pseudo-words, while the other group listened to sentences and affect bursts. Participants were asked to categorize the stimuli with respect to the expressed emotions in a fixed-choice response format. Overall, females were more accurate than males when decoding vocal emotions, however, when testing for specific emotions these differences were small in magnitude. Speakers' gender had a significant impact on how listeners' judged emotions from the voice. The group listening to words and pseudo-words had higher identification rates for emotions spoken by male than by female actors, whereas in the group listening to sentences and affect bursts the identification rates were higher when emotions were uttered by female than male actors. The mixed pattern for emotion-specific effects, however, indicates that, in the vocal channel, the reliability of emotion judgments is not systematically influenced by speakers' gender and the related stereotypes of emotional expressivity. Together, these results extend previous findings by showing effects of listeners' and speakers' gender on the recognition of vocal emotions. They stress the importance of distinguishing these

Gender Differences in the Recognition of Vocal Emotions

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Lausen, Adi; Schacht, Annekathrin

2018-01-01

The conflicting findings from the few studies conducted with regard to gender differences in the recognition of vocal expressions of emotion have left the exact nature of these differences unclear. Several investigators have argued that a comprehensive understanding of gender differences in vocal emotion recognition can only be achieved by replicating these studies while accounting for influential factors such as stimulus type, gender-balanced samples, number of encoders, decoders, and emotional categories. This study aimed to account for these factors by investigating whether emotion recognition from vocal expressions differs as a function of both listeners' and speakers' gender. A total of N = 290 participants were randomly and equally allocated to two groups. One group listened to words and pseudo-words, while the other group listened to sentences and affect bursts. Participants were asked to categorize the stimuli with respect to the expressed emotions in a fixed-choice response format. Overall, females were more accurate than males when decoding vocal emotions, however, when testing for specific emotions these differences were small in magnitude. Speakers' gender had a significant impact on how listeners' judged emotions from the voice. The group listening to words and pseudo-words had higher identification rates for emotions spoken by male than by female actors, whereas in the group listening to sentences and affect bursts the identification rates were higher when emotions were uttered by female than male actors. The mixed pattern for emotion-specific effects, however, indicates that, in the vocal channel, the reliability of emotion judgments is not systematically influenced by speakers' gender and the related stereotypes of emotional expressivity. Together, these results extend previous findings by showing effects of listeners' and speakers' gender on the recognition of vocal emotions. They stress the importance of distinguishing these factors to explain

The Effect of Emotional Intelligence on Student Success

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Chapin, Krysta

2015-01-01

Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to recognize, assess, and control one's emotions, as well as the emotions of others, and even groups. It also allows people to handle added pressures, as they often experience in higher education. Occasionally clinicians report a small number of senior veterinary medicine students lack the ability to…

Association between Ability Emotional Intelligence and Left Insula during Social Judgment of Facial Emotions.

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Tiziana Quarto

Full Text Available The human ability of identifying, processing and regulating emotions from social stimuli is generally referred as Emotional Intelligence (EI. Within EI, Ability EI identifies a performance measure assessing individual skills at perceiving, using, understanding and managing emotions. Previous models suggest that a brain "somatic marker circuitry" (SMC sustains emotional sub-processes included in EI. Three primary brain regions are included: the amygdala, the insula and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC. Here, our aim was to investigate the relationship between Ability EI scores and SMC activity during social judgment of emotional faces. Sixty-three healthy subjects completed a test measuring Ability EI and underwent fMRI during a social decision task (i.e. approach or avoid about emotional faces with different facial expressions. Imaging data revealed that EI scores are associated with left insula activity during social judgment of emotional faces as a function of facial expression. Specifically, higher EI scores are associated with greater left insula activity during social judgment of fearful faces but also with lower activity of this region during social judgment of angry faces. These findings indicate that the association between Ability EI and the SMC activity during social behavior is region- and emotion-specific.

Emotional Meaning in Context in Relation to Hypomanic Personality Traits: An ERP Study.

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Terrien, Sarah; Gobin, Pamela; Coutté, Alexandre; Thuaire, Flavien; Iakimova, Galina; Mazzola-Pomietto, Pascale; Besche-Richard, Chrystel

2015-01-01

The ability to integrate contextual information is important for the comprehension of emotional and social situations. While some studies have shown that emotional processes and social cognition are impaired in people with hypomanic personality trait, no results have been reported concerning the neurophysiological processes mediating the processing of emotional information during the integration of contextual social information in this population. We therefore chose to conduct an ERP study dealing with the integration of emotional information in a population with hypomanic personality trait. Healthy participants were evaluated using the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS), and ERPs were recorded during a linguistic task in which participants silently read sentence pairs describing short social situations. The first sentence implicitly conveyed the positive or negative emotional state of a character. The second sentence was emotionally congruent or incongruent with the first sentence. We analyzed the difference in the modulation of two components (N400 and LPC) in response to the emotional word present at the end of the "target" sentences as a function of the HPS score and the emotional valence of the context. Our results showed a possible modulation of the N400 component in response to both positive and negative context among the participants who scored high on the Mood Volatility subscale of the Hypomanic Personality Scale. These results seem to indicate that the participants with hypomanic personality traits exhibited specificities in the integration of emotions at the level of the early-mobilized neurocognitive processes (N400). Participants with hypomanic personality traits found it difficult to integrate negative emotional contexts, while simultaneously exhibiting an enhanced integration of positive emotional contexts.

A Novel Educational Game for teaching Emotion Identification Skills to Preschoolers with Autism Diagnosis

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Christinaki, Eirini; Vidakis, Nikolaos; Triantafyllidis, George

2014-01-01

Emotion recognition is essential in human communication and social interaction. Children with autism have been reported to exhibit deficits in understanding and expressing emotions. Those deficits seem to be rather permanent so intervention tools for improving those impairments are desirable...

A gesture-controlled Serious Game for teaching emotion recognition skills to preschoolers with autism

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christinaki, Eirini; Triantafyllidis, Georgios; Vidakis, Nikolaos

The recognition of facial expressions is important for the perception of emotions. Understanding emotions is essential in human communication and social interaction. Children with autism have been reported to exhibit deficits in the recognition of affective expressions. With the appropriate...

Emotional Considerations in Spasmodic Dysphonia: Psychometric Quantification.

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Cannito, Michael P.

1991-01-01

This study examined emotional characteristics of 18 female spasmodic dysphonic subjects in comparison to matched normal controls across psychometric measures of depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints. Statistically significant differences were noted between groups for all measures and over half of the dysphonic subjects exhibited clinically…

Implicit theories and ability emotional intelligence

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Cabello, Rosario; Fernández-Berrocal, Pablo

2015-01-01

Previous research has shown that people differ in their implicit theories about the essential characteristics of intelligence and emotions. Some people believe these characteristics to be predetermined and immutable (entity theorists), whereas others believe that these characteristics can be changed through learning and behavior training (incremental theorists). The present study provides evidence that in healthy adults (N = 688), implicit beliefs about emotions and emotional intelligence (EI) may influence performance on the ability-based Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). Adults in our sample with incremental theories about emotions and EI scored higher on the MSCEIT than entity theorists, with implicit theories about EI showing a stronger relationship to scores than theories about emotions. Although our participants perceived both emotion and EI as malleable, they viewed emotions as more malleable than EI. Women and young adults in general were more likely to be incremental theorists than men and older adults. Furthermore, we found that emotion and EI theories mediated the relationship of gender and age with ability EI. Our findings suggest that people’s implicit theories about EI may influence their emotional abilities, which may have important consequences for personal and professional EI training. PMID:26052309

Implicit theories and ability emotional intelligence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ROSARIO eCABELLO

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Previous research has shown that people differ in their implicit theories about the essential characteristics of intelligence and emotions. Some people believe these characteristics to be predetermined and immutable (entity theorists, whereas others believe that these characteristics can be changed through learning and behavior training (incremental theorists. The present study provides evidence that in healthy adults (N = 688, implicit beliefs about emotions and emotional intelligence (EI may influence performance on the ability-based Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT. Adults in our sample with incremental theories about emotions and EI scored higher on the MSCEIT than entity theorists, with implicit theories about EI showing a stronger relationship to scores than theories about emotions. Although our participants perceived both emotion and EI as malleable, they viewed emotions as more malleable than EI. Women and young adults in general were more likely to be incremental theorists than men and older adults. Furthermore, we found that emotion and EI theories mediated the relationship of gender and age with ability EI. Our findings suggest that people’s implicit theories about EI may influence their emotional abilities, which may have important consequences for personal and professional EI training.

EEG Correlates of Ten Positive Emotions.

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Hu, Xin; Yu, Jianwen; Song, Mengdi; Yu, Chun; Wang, Fei; Sun, Pei; Wang, Daifa; Zhang, Dan

2017-01-01

Compared with the well documented neurophysiological findings on negative emotions, much less is known about positive emotions. In the present study, we explored the EEG correlates of ten different positive emotions (joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love). A group of 20 participants were invited to watch 30 short film clips with their EEGs simultaneously recorded. Distinct topographical patterns for different positive emotions were found for the correlation coefficients between the subjective ratings on the ten positive emotions per film clip and the corresponding EEG spectral powers in different frequency bands. Based on the similarities of the participants' ratings on the ten positive emotions, these emotions were further clustered into three representative clusters, as 'encouragement' for awe, gratitude, hope, inspiration, pride, 'playfulness' for amusement, joy, interest, and 'harmony' for love, serenity. Using the EEG spectral powers as features, both the binary classification on the higher and lower ratings on these positive emotions and the binary classification between the three positive emotion clusters, achieved accuracies of approximately 80% and above. To our knowledge, our study provides the first piece of evidence on the EEG correlates of different positive emotions.

The Glass Half Empty: How Emotional Exhaustion Affects the State-Trait Discrepancy in Self-Reports of Teaching Emotions.

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Goetz, Thomas; Becker, Eva S; Bieg, Madeleine; Keller, Melanie M; Frenzel, Anne C; Hall, Nathan C

2015-01-01

Following from previous research on intensity bias and the accessibility model of emotional self-report, the present study examined the role of emotional exhaustion in explaining the discrepancy in teachers' reports of their trait (habitual) versus state (momentary, "real") emotions. Trait reports (habitual emotions, exhaustion) were assessed via trait questionnaires, and state reports (momentary emotions) were assessed in real time via the experience sampling method by using personal digital assistants (N = 69 high school teachers; 1,089 measures within teachers). In line with our assumptions, multi-level analyses showed that, as compared to the state assessment, teachers reported higher levels of habitual teaching-related emotions of anger, anxiety, shame, boredom, enjoyment, and pride. Additionally, the state-trait discrepancy in self-reports of negative emotions was accounted for by teachers' emotional exhaustion, with high exhaustion levels corresponding with a greater state-trait discrepancy. Exhaustion levels did not moderate the state-trait discrepancy in positive emotions indicating that perceived emotional exhaustion may reflect identity-related cognitions specific to the negative belief system. Implications for research and educational practice are discussed.

The Glass Half Empty: How Emotional Exhaustion Affects the State-Trait Discrepancy in Self-Reports of Teaching Emotions

Science.gov (United States)

Goetz, Thomas; Becker, Eva S.; Bieg, Madeleine; Keller, Melanie M.; Frenzel, Anne C.; Hall, Nathan C.

2015-01-01

Following from previous research on intensity bias and the accessibility model of emotional self-report, the present study examined the role of emotional exhaustion in explaining the discrepancy in teachers’ reports of their trait (habitual) versus state (momentary, “real”) emotions. Trait reports (habitual emotions, exhaustion) were assessed via trait questionnaires, and state reports (momentary emotions) were assessed in real time via the experience sampling method by using personal digital assistants (N = 69 high school teachers; 1,089 measures within teachers). In line with our assumptions, multi-level analyses showed that, as compared to the state assessment, teachers reported higher levels of habitual teaching-related emotions of anger, anxiety, shame, boredom, enjoyment, and pride. Additionally, the state-trait discrepancy in self-reports of negative emotions was accounted for by teachers’ emotional exhaustion, with high exhaustion levels corresponding with a greater state-trait discrepancy. Exhaustion levels did not moderate the state-trait discrepancy in positive emotions indicating that perceived emotional exhaustion may reflect identity-related cognitions specific to the negative belief system. Implications for research and educational practice are discussed. PMID:26368911

Emotional and neutral scenes in competition: orienting, efficiency, and identification.

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Calvo, Manuel G; Nummenmaa, Lauri; Hyönä, Jukka

2007-12-01

To investigate preferential processing of emotional scenes competing for limited attentional resources with neutral scenes, prime pictures were presented briefly (450 ms), peripherally (5.2 degrees away from fixation), and simultaneously (one emotional and one neutral scene) versus singly. Primes were followed by a mask and a probe for recognition. Hit rate was higher for emotional than for neutral scenes in the dual- but not in the single-prime condition, and A' sensitivity decreased for neutral but not for emotional scenes in the dual-prime condition. This preferential processing involved both selective orienting and efficient encoding, as revealed, respectively, by a higher probability of first fixation on--and shorter saccade latencies to--emotional scenes and by shorter fixation time needed to accurately identify emotional scenes, in comparison with neutral scenes.

[Is emotional dysregulation a component of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?].

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Villemonteix, T; Purper-Ouakil, D; Romo, L

2015-04-01

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurodevelopmental disorder in children and adolescents. It is characterized by age-inappropriate inattention/impulsiveness and/or hyperactivity symptoms. ADHD shows a high comorbidity with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), a disorder that features symptoms of emotional lability. Due to this comorbidity, emotional lability was long considered a secondary consequence of ADHD, which could arise under the influence of environmental factors such as inefficient parenting practices, as part of an ODD diagnosis. In this model of heterotypic continuity, emotional lability was considered not to play any causal role regarding ADHD symptomatology. As opposed to this view, it is now well established that a large number of children with ADHD and without any comorbid disorder exhibit symptoms of emotional lability. Furthermore, recent studies have found that negative emotionality accounts for significant unique variance in ADHD symptom severity, along with motor-perceptual and executive function deficits. Barkley proposed that ADHD is characterized by deficits of executive functions, and that a deficiency in the executive control of emotions is a necessary component of ADHD. According to this theory, the extent to which an individual with ADHD displays a deficiency in behavioral inhibition is the extent to which he or she will automatically display an equivalent degree of deficiency in emotional inhibition. However, not all children with ADHD exhibit symptoms of emotional lability, and studies have found that the association between emotional lability and ADHD was not mediated by executive function or motivational deficits. Task-based and resting state neuroimaging studies have disclosed an altered effective connectivity between regions dedicated to emotional regulation in children with ADHD when compared to typically developing children, notably between the amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus and

Borderline personality disorder and emotional intelligence.

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Peter, Mathell; Schuurmans, Hanneke; Vingerhoets, Ad J J M; Smeets, Guus; Verkoeijen, Peter; Arntz, Arnoud

2013-02-01

The present study investigated emotional intelligence (EI) in borderline personality disorder (BPD). It was hypothesized that patients with BPD (n = 61) compared with patients with other personality disorders (PDs; n = 69) and nonpatients (n = 248) would show higher scores on the ability to perceive emotions and impairments in the ability to regulate emotions. EI was assessed with the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso [New York: MHS, 2002]). As compared with the PD group and the nonpatient group, the patients with BPD displayed the anticipated deficits in their ability to understand, whereas no differences emerged with respect to their ability to perceive, use, and regulate emotions. In addition, a negative relationship was found between the severity of BPD and total EI score. However, this relationship disappeared when intelligence quotient was partialled out. These results suggest that BPD is associated with emotion understanding deficits, whereas temporary severity of BPD is associated with emotion regulation deficits.

Investigating Patterns for Self-Induced Emotion Recognition from EEG Signals

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Zeng, Ying; Yang, Kai; Tong, Li; Yan, Bin

2018-01-01

Most current approaches to emotion recognition are based on neural signals elicited by affective materials such as images, sounds and videos. However, the application of neural patterns in the recognition of self-induced emotions remains uninvestigated. In this study we inferred the patterns and neural signatures of self-induced emotions from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The EEG signals of 30 participants were recorded while they watched 18 Chinese movie clips which were intended to elicit six discrete emotions, including joy, neutrality, sadness, disgust, anger and fear. After watching each movie clip the participants were asked to self-induce emotions by recalling a specific scene from each movie. We analyzed the important features, electrode distribution and average neural patterns of different self-induced emotions. Results demonstrated that features related to high-frequency rhythm of EEG signals from electrodes distributed in the bilateral temporal, prefrontal and occipital lobes have outstanding performance in the discrimination of emotions. Moreover, the six discrete categories of self-induced emotion exhibit specific neural patterns and brain topography distributions. We achieved an average accuracy of 87.36% in the discrimination of positive from negative self-induced emotions and 54.52% in the classification of emotions into six discrete categories. Our research will help promote the development of comprehensive endogenous emotion recognition methods. PMID:29534515

Investigating Patterns for Self-Induced Emotion Recognition from EEG Signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhuang, Ning; Zeng, Ying; Yang, Kai; Zhang, Chi; Tong, Li; Yan, Bin

2018-03-12

Most current approaches to emotion recognition are based on neural signals elicited by affective materials such as images, sounds and videos. However, the application of neural patterns in the recognition of self-induced emotions remains uninvestigated. In this study we inferred the patterns and neural signatures of self-induced emotions from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The EEG signals of 30 participants were recorded while they watched 18 Chinese movie clips which were intended to elicit six discrete emotions, including joy, neutrality, sadness, disgust, anger and fear. After watching each movie clip the participants were asked to self-induce emotions by recalling a specific scene from each movie. We analyzed the important features, electrode distribution and average neural patterns of different self-induced emotions. Results demonstrated that features related to high-frequency rhythm of EEG signals from electrodes distributed in the bilateral temporal, prefrontal and occipital lobes have outstanding performance in the discrimination of emotions. Moreover, the six discrete categories of self-induced emotion exhibit specific neural patterns and brain topography distributions. We achieved an average accuracy of 87.36% in the discrimination of positive from negative self-induced emotions and 54.52% in the classification of emotions into six discrete categories. Our research will help promote the development of comprehensive endogenous emotion recognition methods.

Emotional intelligence and social interaction.

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Lopes, Paulo N; Brackett, Marc A; Nezlek, John B; Schütz, Astrid; Sellin, Ina; Salovey, Peter

2004-08-01

Two studies found positive relationships between the ability to manage emotions and the quality of social interactions, supporting the predictive and incremental validity of an ability measure of emotional intelligence, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). In a sample of 118 American college students (Study 1), higher scores on the managing emotions subscale of the MSCEIT were positively related to the quality of interactions with friends, evaluated separately by participants and two friends. In a diary study of social interaction with 103 German college students (Study 2), managing emotions scores were positively related to the perceived quality of interactions with opposite sex individuals. Scores on this subscale were also positively related to perceived success in impression management in social interactions with individuals of the opposite sex. In both studies, the main findings remained statistically significant after controlling for Big Five personality traits.

Emotional intelligence, performance, and retention in clinical staff nurses.

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Codier, Estelle; Kamikawa, Cindy; Kooker, Barbara M; Shoultz, Jan

2009-01-01

Emotional intelligence has been correlated with performance, retention, and organizational commitment in professions other than nursing. A 2006 pilot study provided the first evidence of a correlation between emotional intelligence and performance in clinical staff nurses. A follow-up study was completed, the purpose of which was to explore emotional intelligence, performance level, organizational commitment, and retention. A convenience sample of 350 nurses in a large medical center in urban Hawaii participated in this study. This article reports the findings pertaining to the subset of 193 clinical staff nurses who responded. The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test instrument was used to measure emotional intelligence abilities. Performance was defined as ranking on a clinical ladder. Commitment was scored on a Likert scale. The following variables measured retention: total years in nursing, years in current job, total years anticipated in current job, and total anticipated career length. Emotional intelligence scores in clinical staff nurses correlated positively with both performance level and retention variables. Clinical staff nurses with higher emotional intelligence scores demonstrated higher performance, had longer careers, and greater job retention.

Low empathy-like behaviour in male mice associates with impaired sociability, emotional memory, physiological stress reactivity and variations in neurobiological regulations.

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Laviola, Giovanni; Zoratto, Francesca; Ingiosi, Danilo; Carito, Valentina; Huzard, Damien; Fiore, Marco; Macrì, Simone

2017-01-01

Deficits in empathy have been proposed to constitute a hallmark of several psychiatric disturbances like conduct disorder, antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders. Limited sensitivity to punishment, shallow or deficient affect and reduced physiological reactivity to environmental stressors have been often reported to co-occur with limited empathy and contribute to the onset of antisocial phenotypes. Empathy in its simplest form (i.e. emotional contagion) is addressed in preclinical models through the evaluation of the social transmission of emotional states: mice exposed to a painful stimulus display a higher response if in the presence of a familiar individual experiencing a higher degree of discomfort, than in isolation. In the present study, we investigated whether a reduction of emotional contagion can be considered a predictor of reduced sociality, sensitivity to punishment and physiological stress reactivity. To this aim, we first evaluated emotional contagion in a group of Balb/cJ mice and then discretised their values in four quartiles. The upper (i.e. Emotional Contagion Prone, ECP) and the lower (i.e. Emotional Contagion Resistant, ECR) quartiles constituted the experimental groups. Our results indicate that mice in the lower quartile are characterized by reduced sociability, impaired memory of negative events and dampened hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical reactivity to external stressors. Furthermore, in the absence of changes in oxytocin receptor density, we show that these mice exhibit elevated concentrations of oxytocin and vasopressin and reduced density of BDNF receptors in behaviourally-relevant brain areas. Thus, not only do present results translate to the preclinical investigation of psychiatric disturbances, but also they can contribute to the study of emotional contagion in terms of its adaptive significance.

Low empathy-like behaviour in male mice associates with impaired sociability, emotional memory, physiological stress reactivity and variations in neurobiological regulations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Laviola

Full Text Available Deficits in empathy have been proposed to constitute a hallmark of several psychiatric disturbances like conduct disorder, antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders. Limited sensitivity to punishment, shallow or deficient affect and reduced physiological reactivity to environmental stressors have been often reported to co-occur with limited empathy and contribute to the onset of antisocial phenotypes. Empathy in its simplest form (i.e. emotional contagion is addressed in preclinical models through the evaluation of the social transmission of emotional states: mice exposed to a painful stimulus display a higher response if in the presence of a familiar individual experiencing a higher degree of discomfort, than in isolation. In the present study, we investigated whether a reduction of emotional contagion can be considered a predictor of reduced sociality, sensitivity to punishment and physiological stress reactivity. To this aim, we first evaluated emotional contagion in a group of Balb/cJ mice and then discretised their values in four quartiles. The upper (i.e. Emotional Contagion Prone, ECP and the lower (i.e. Emotional Contagion Resistant, ECR quartiles constituted the experimental groups. Our results indicate that mice in the lower quartile are characterized by reduced sociability, impaired memory of negative events and dampened hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical reactivity to external stressors. Furthermore, in the absence of changes in oxytocin receptor density, we show that these mice exhibit elevated concentrations of oxytocin and vasopressin and reduced density of BDNF receptors in behaviourally-relevant brain areas. Thus, not only do present results translate to the preclinical investigation of psychiatric disturbances, but also they can contribute to the study of emotional contagion in terms of its adaptive significance.

Emotion, gender and genre

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Agger, Gunhild

2011-01-01

Traditionally, Scandinavian TV crime fiction has been regarded as a public arena for critical exhibition of and debate about salient features in contemporary social development. To explain the acknowledged impact of this kind of crime fiction, it is necessary to involve the notions of emotion...... and gender in combination with the mixing of genres, as especially the thriller and the melodrama have invaded the police procedural. This is demonstrated in an analysis of The Killing....

Biased emotional recognition in depression: perception of emotions in music by depressed patients.

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Punkanen, Marko; Eerola, Tuomas; Erkkilä, Jaakko

2011-04-01

Depression is a highly prevalent mood disorder, that impairs a person's social skills and also their quality of life. Populations affected with depression also suffer from a higher mortality rate. Depression affects person's ability to recognize emotions. We designed a novel experiment to test the hypothesis that depressed patients show a judgment bias towards negative emotions. To investigate how depressed patients differ in their perception of emotions conveyed by musical examples, both healthy (n=30) and depressed (n=79) participants were presented with a set of 30 musical excerpts, representing one of five basic target emotions, and asked to rate each excerpt using five Likert scales that represented the amount of each one of those same emotions perceived in the example. Depressed patients showed moderate but consistent negative self-report biases both in the overall use of the scales and their particular application to certain target emotions, when compared to healthy controls. Also, the severity of the clinical state (depression, anxiety and alexithymia) had an effect on the self-report biases for both positive and negative emotion ratings, particularly depression and alexithymia. Only musical stimuli were used, and they were all clear examples of one of the basic emotions of happiness, sadness, fear, anger and tenderness. No neutral or ambiguous excerpts were included. Depressed patients' negative emotional bias was demonstrated using musical stimuli. This suggests that the evaluation of emotional qualities in music could become a means to discriminate between depressed and non-depressed subjects. The practical implications of the present study relate both to diagnostic uses of such perceptual evaluations, as well as a better understanding of the emotional regulation strategies of the patients. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sex differences in brain activation to emotional stimuli: a meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies.

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Stevens, Jennifer S; Hamann, Stephan

2012-06-01

Substantial sex differences in emotional responses and perception have been reported in previous psychological and psychophysiological studies. For example, women have been found to respond more strongly to negative emotional stimuli, a sex difference that has been linked to an increased risk of depression and anxiety disorders. The extent to which such sex differences are reflected in corresponding differences in regional brain activation remains a largely unresolved issue, however, in part because relatively few neuroimaging studies have addressed this issue. Here, by conducting a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies, we were able to substantially increase statistical power to detect sex differences relative to prior studies, by combining emotion studies which explicitly examined sex differences with the much larger number of studies that examined only women or men. We used an activation likelihood estimation approach to characterize sex differences in the likelihood of regional brain activation elicited by emotional stimuli relative to non-emotional stimuli. We examined sex differences separately for negative and positive emotions, in addition to examining all emotions combined. Sex differences varied markedly between negative and positive emotion studies. The majority of sex differences favoring women were observed for negative emotion, whereas the majority of the sex differences favoring men were observed for positive emotion. This valence-specificity was particularly evident for the amygdala. For negative emotion, women exhibited greater activation than men in the left amygdala, as well as in other regions including the left thalamus, hypothalamus, mammillary bodies, left caudate, and medial prefrontal cortex. In contrast, for positive emotion, men exhibited greater activation than women in the left amygdala, as well as greater activation in other regions including the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and right fusiform gyrus. These meta

Neurophysiological correlates of emotional directed-forgetting in persons with Schizophrenia: An event-related brain potential study.

Science.gov (United States)

Patrick, Regan E; Kiang, Michael; Christensen, Bruce K

2015-12-01

Recent research has shown that patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit reduced directed forgetting (DF) for negative words, suggesting impaired ability to instantiate goal-directed inhibition in order to suppress a competing, emotion-driven responses (i.e., emotional memory enhancement). However, disrupted inhibition is not the only possible mechanism by which patients could manifest reduced emotional DF. Therefore, the primary objective of the current study was to use event-related brain potential (ERP) recordings to investigate alternative hypotheses. ERPs were recorded while patients and controls completed an item-method DF paradigm using negative and neutral words. The N2 indexed goal-directed inhibition of to-be-forgotten items. The late positive potential (LPP) indexed emotional memory enhancement for negative study items. The P300 indexed selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. The SCZ group exhibited a reduced DF effect overall, but this was not modulated by emotion. N2 amplitude at anterior sites was larger for forget versus remember cues in the control group only, but this effect was not modulated by emotion. LPP amplitude was greater for negative versus neutral words in both groups, independent of region. P300 amplitude at posterior sites was greater for remember versus forget cues in the control group only. These data suggest that reduced DF in SCZ may be due, in part, to both diminished goal-directed inhibition of to-be-forgotten items and reduced selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered items. However, these data do not support the hypothesis that goal-directed, inhibitory processes are disrupted by competing, emotion-driven processes in SCZ. Patients' ERP data also suggested that they did not exhibit disproportionately heightened encoding of emotional stimuli, nor did they have deficient selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered emotional items. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Gender Differences in Emotional Language in Children's Picture Books.

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Tepper, Clary A.; Cassidy, Kimberly Wright

1999-01-01

Examined gender differences in emotional language in children's picture books, using 178 books read to or by preschool children. Males had higher representations on titles, pictures, and central roles, but males and females were associated with equal amounts of emotional language and similar types of emotional words. (SLD)

Brain circuitries involved in semantic interference by demands of emotional and non-emotional distractors.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Natalia Chechko

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Previous studies have indicated that the processes leading to the resolution of emotional and non-emotional interference conflicts are unrelated, involving separate networks. It is also known that conflict resolution itself suggests a considerable overlap of the networks. Our study is an attempt to examine how these findings may be related. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to study neural responses of 24 healthy subjects to emotional and non-emotional conflict paradigms involving the presentation of congruent and incongruent word-face pairs based on semantic incompatibility between targets and distractors. In the emotional task, the behavioral interference conflict was greater (compared to the non-emotional task and was paralleled by involvement of the extrastriate visual and posterodorsal medial frontal cortices. In both tasks, we also observed a common network including the dorsal anterior cingulate, the supplemental motor area, the anterior insula and the inferior prefrontal cortex, indicating that these brain structures are markers of experienced conflict. However, the emotional task involved conflict-triggered networks to a considerably higher degree. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings indicate that responses to emotional and non-emotional distractors involve the same systems, which are capable of flexible adjustments based on conflict demands. The function of systems related to conflict resolution is likely to be adjusted on the basis of an evaluation process that primarily involves the extrastriate visual cortex, with target playing a significant role.

Cognitive, emotional and social markers of serial murdering.

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Angrilli, Alessandro; Sartori, Giuseppe; Donzella, Giovanna

2013-01-01

Although criminal psychopathy is starting to be relatively well described, our knowledge of the characteristics and scientific markers of serial murdering is still very poor. A serial killer who murdered more than five people, KT, was administered a battery of standardized tests aimed at measuring neuropsychological impairment and social/emotional cognition deficits. KT exhibited a striking dissociation between a high level of emotional detachment and a low score on the antisocial behavior scale on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 showed a normal pattern with the psychotic triad at borderline level. KT had a high intelligence score and showed almost no impairment in cognitive tests sensitive to frontal lobe dysfunction (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Theory of Mind, Tower of London, this latter evidenced a mild impairment in planning performance). In the tests on moral, emotional and social cognition, his patterns of response differed from matched controls and from past reports on criminal psychopaths as, unlike these individuals, KT exhibited normal recognition of fear and a relatively intact knowledge of moral rules but he was impaired in the recognition of anger, embarrassment and conventional social rules. The overall picture of KT suggests that serial killing may be closer to normality than psychopathy defined according to either the DSM IV or the PCL-R, and it would be characterized by a relatively spared moral cognition and selective deficits in social and emotional cognition domains.

Is the emotion-health connection a "first-world problem"?

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Pressman, Sarah D; Gallagher, Matthew W; Lopez, Shane J

2013-04-01

Emotions have been shown to play a critical role in health outcomes, but research on this topic has been limited to studies in industrialized countries, which prevents broad generalizations. This study assessed whether emotion-health connections persist across various regions, including less-developed countries, where the degree to which people's fundamental needs are met might be a better predictor of physical well-being. Individuals from 142 countries (N = 150,048) were surveyed about their emotions, health, hunger, shelter, and threats to safety. Both positive and negative emotions exhibited unique, moderate effects on self-reported health, and together, they accounted for 46.1% of the variance. These associations were stronger than the relative impact of hunger, homelessness, and threats to safety and were not simply attributable to countries' gross domestic products (GDPs). Furthermore, connections between positive emotion and health were stronger in low-GDP countries than in high-GDP countries. Our findings suggest that emotion matters for health around the globe and may in fact be more critical in less-developed areas.

Emotion Recognition of Weblog Sentences Based on an Ensemble Algorithm of Multi-label Classification and Word Emotions

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Li, Ji; Ren, Fuji

Weblogs have greatly changed the communication ways of mankind. Affective analysis of blog posts is found valuable for many applications such as text-to-speech synthesis or computer-assisted recommendation. Traditional emotion recognition in text based on single-label classification can not satisfy higher requirements of affective computing. In this paper, the automatic identification of sentence emotion in weblogs is modeled as a multi-label text categorization task. Experiments are carried out on 12273 blog sentences from the Chinese emotion corpus Ren_CECps with 8-dimension emotion annotation. An ensemble algorithm RAKEL is used to recognize dominant emotions from the writer's perspective. Our emotion feature using detailed intensity representation for word emotions outperforms the other main features such as the word frequency feature and the traditional lexicon-based feature. In order to deal with relatively complex sentences, we integrate grammatical characteristics of punctuations, disjunctive connectives, modification relations and negation into features. It achieves 13.51% and 12.49% increases for Micro-averaged F1 and Macro-averaged F1 respectively compared to the traditional lexicon-based feature. Result shows that multiple-dimension emotion representation with grammatical features can efficiently classify sentence emotion in a multi-label problem.

Survey the role of emotions in information retrieval

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Hassan Behzadi

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The present study was conducted to identify the users' emotion in various stages of information retrieval based on the information retrieval model in web.From the methodological perspective, the present study is experimental, and the type of study is practical. The society comprised all MA students majoring in different humanistic science branches and studying at Imam Reza international university. The sample society of this research consisted of 30 participants. The sample size was determined through stratified random sampling via G*power software. Data collection was carried out by using: demographic and prior experience of using internet questionnaire, post search questionnaire and recorded videos of users' faces. The findings of the study demonstrated that: 1 during the initial stages of searching, the frequency of emotion of apprehension, and in general during the link tracking stage, the negative emotions with the overall 49/3 percent are more frequent than the other emotions in browsing and differentiation stages, the emotion of happy was more frequent than the other emotions. 2 These variances resulted in significant relations among different emotions of the users throughout the four stages of information retrieval. 3 In simple search, the respondents displayed the emotion of happy most frequently and the emotion of aversion least frequently. On the other hand, in complicated search, apprehension and aversion were the most and the least frequently-cited emotions, respectively. Overall, the negative emotions were reported more frequently in complicated search in comparison with the simple search. This demonstrated that any change in the difficulty level of search undertaking would cause users to exhibit different types of emotions.

The emotional cerebellum.

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Strata, Piergiorgio

2015-10-01

Great attention has been given so far to cerebellar control of posture and of skilled movements despite the well-demonstrated interconnections between the cerebellum and the autonomic nervous system. Here is a review of the link between these two structures and a report on the recently acquired evidence for its involvement in the world of emotions. In rodents, the reversible inactivation of the vermis during the consolidation or the reconsolidation period hampers the retention of the fear memory trace. In this region, there is a long-term potentiation of both the excitatory synapses between the parallel fibres and the Purkinje cells and of the feed-forward inhibition mediated by molecular layer interneurons. This concomitant potentiation ensures the temporal fidelity of the system. Additional contacts between mossy fibre terminals and Golgi cells provide morphological evidence of the potentiation of another feed-forward inhibition in the granular layer. Imaging experiments show that also in humans the cerebellum is activated during mental recall of emotional personal episodes and during learning of a conditioned or unconditioned association involving emotions. The vermis participates in fear learning and memory mechanisms related to the expression of autonomic and motor responses of emotions. In humans, the cerebellar hemispheres are also involved at a higher emotional level. The importance of these findings is evident when considering the cerebellar malfunctioning in psychiatric diseases like autism and schizophrenia which are characterized behaviourally by emotion processing impairments.

Quantitative analysis of bloggers' collective behavior powered by emotions

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Mitrović, Marija; Paltoglou, Georgios; Tadić, Bosiljka

2011-02-01

Large-scale data resulting from users' online interactions provide the ultimate source of information to study emergent social phenomena on the Web. From individual actions of users to observable collective behaviors, different mechanisms involving emotions expressed in the posted text play a role. Here we combine approaches of statistical physics with machine-learning methods of text analysis to study the emergence of emotional behavior among Web users. Mapping the high-resolution data from digg.com onto bipartite networks of users and their comments onto posted stories, we identify user communities centered around certain popular posts and determine emotional contents of the related comments by the emotion classifier developed for this type of text. Applied over different time periods, this framework reveals strong correlations between the excess of negative emotions and the evolution of communities. We observe avalanches of emotional comments exhibiting significant self-organized critical behavior and temporal correlations. To explore the robustness of these critical states, we design a network-automaton model on realistic network connections and several control parameters, which can be inferred from the dataset. Dissemination of emotions by a small fraction of very active users appears to critically tune the collective states.

Selling Sentiment: The Commodification of Emotion in Victorian Visual Culture

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Sonia Solicari

2007-04-01

Full Text Available This essay argues that the Victorian sentimental impulse was motivated by the sharing of emotion and the dynamics of communal and interactive feeling. Integral to the popularity of sentiment was its recognition factor by means of established tropes and conventions. Arguably, the same familiarity that made narrative art accessible also made advertising successful and many of the same motifs ran from exhibition watercolours to book illustration to posters. Works of sentiment operated as emotional souvenirs so that material proof of feeling could be easily digested, displayed and revisited. The essay looks closer at the investment of emotion in ephemeral images, such as music-sheet covers, and the ways in which forms of feeling were standardised and reproduced in keeping with a new art-buying public and the possibilities of wider image dissemination. Focusing upon issues raised during the curation of a current exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum ( 'A Show of Emotion: Victorian Sentiment in Prints and Drawings', 7 Dec 2006 – 10 Sep 2007 this essay explores the ways in which the sentimental pervaded nineteenth-century visual culture and how, in the cut-throat commercial world of image production, sentiment became manifest and identifiable if only as a notional phenomenon.

Emotional blunting with antidepressant treatments: A survey among depressed patients.

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Goodwin, G M; Price, J; De Bodinat, C; Laredo, J

2017-10-15

Emotional blunting is regularly reported in depressed patients on antidepressant treatment but its actual frequency is poorly understood. We have previously used qualitative methods to develop an appropriate scale, the Oxford Questionnaire on the Emotional Side-Effects of Antidepressants (OQESA). Six hundred and sixty nine depressed patients on treatment and 150 recovered (formerly depressed) controls (aged ≥18 years) participated in this internet-based survey. The rate of emotional blunting in treated depressed patients was 46%, slightly more frequent in men than women (52% versus 44%) and in those with higher Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale scores. There was no difference according to antidepressant agent, though it appeared less frequent with bupropion. Depressed patients with emotional blunting had much higher total blunting scores on OQESA than controls (42.83 ± 14.73 versus 25.73 ± 15.00, p 7 (n = 170) had a higher total questionnaire score, 49.23±12.03, than those with HAD-D score ≤7 (n = 140), 35.07 ± 13.98, and the difference between the two groups was highly significant. However, patients with HAD-D score ≤7 (n = 140) had a higher total score (35.07 ± 13.98) than the recovered controls (n = 150) (25.73 ± 15.00), and the difference between the two groups was significant. Among the patients with emotional blunting, 37% had a negative perception of their condition and 38% positive. Men reported a more negative perception than women (p=0.008), and patients with a negative perception were more likely to have higher HAD scores. Higher levels of emotional blunting are associated with a more negative perception of it by the patient (r = -0.423). Include self-evaluation and the modest size of the sample for detection of differences between antidepressants. Emotional blunting is reported by nearly half of depressed patients on antidepressants. It appears to be common to all monoaminergic antidepressants. The OQESA scores are highly

Negative emotions can attenuate the influence of beliefs on logical reasoning.

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Goel, Vinod; Vartanian, Oshin

2011-01-01

Although the influence of beliefs on logical reasoning is well documented, how emotions modulate the effect of beliefs during reasoning remains unexamined. We instructed participants to reason about syllogisms involving neutral or emotionally charged content. We also manipulated the consistency of beliefs with logical validity. When content was neutral, participants exhibited the belief-bias effect observed in previous studies of reasoning. In contrast, when confronted with emotionally charged content participants were less likely to be influenced by their beliefs. Our results suggest that under certain conditions negative emotions can attenuate the influence of beliefs during logical reasoning. Drawing on the affect infusion model, we attribute this effect to a more vigilant, systematic scrutiny of beliefs in the presence of negative emotions. © 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

The effect of personality on daily life emotional processes.

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Komulainen, Emma; Meskanen, Katarina; Lipsanen, Jari; Lahti, Jari Marko; Jylhä, Pekka; Melartin, Tarja; Wichers, Marieke; Isometsä, Erkki; Ekelund, Jesper

2014-01-01

Personality features are associated with individual differences in daily emotional life, such as negative and positive affectivity, affect variability and affect reactivity. The existing literature is somewhat mixed and inconclusive about the nature of these associations. The aim of this study was to shed light on what personality features represent in daily life by investigating the effect of the Five Factor traits on different daily emotional processes using an ecologically valid method. The Experience Sampling Method was used to collect repeated reports of daily affect and experiences from 104 healthy university students during one week of their normal lives. Personality traits of the Five Factor model were assessed using NEO Five Factor Inventory. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the effect of the personality traits on daily emotional processes. Neuroticism predicted higher negative and lower positive affect, higher affect variability, more negative subjective evaluations of daily incidents, and higher reactivity to stressors. Conscientiousness, by contrast, predicted lower average level, variability, and reactivity of negative affect. Agreeableness was associated with higher positive and lower negative affect, lower variability of sadness, and more positive subjective evaluations of daily incidents. Extraversion predicted higher positive affect and more positive subjective evaluations of daily activities. Openness had no effect on average level of affect, but predicted higher reactivity to daily stressors. The results show that the personality features independently predict different aspects of daily emotional processes. Neuroticism was associated with all of the processes. Identifying these processes can help us to better understand individual differences in daily emotional life.

Independent and Collaborative Contributions of the Cerebral Hemispheres to Emotional Processing

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Shobe, Elizabeth R.

2014-01-01

Presented is a model suggesting that the right hemisphere (RH) directly mediates the identification and comprehension of positive and negative emotional stimuli, whereas the left hemisphere (LH) contributes to higher level processing of emotional information that has been shared via the corpus callosum. RH subcortical connections provide initial processing of emotional stimuli, and their innervation to cortical structures provides a secondary pathway by which the hemispheres process emotional information more fully. It is suggested that the LH contribution to emotion processing is in emotional regulation, social well-being, and adaptation, and transforming the RH emotional experience into propositional and verbal codes. Lastly, it is proposed that the LH has little ability at the level of emotion identification, having a default positive bias and no ability to identify a stimulus as negative. Instead, the LH must rely on the transfer of emotional information from the RH to engage higher-order emotional processing. As such, either hemisphere can identify positive emotions, but they must collaborate for complete processing of negative emotions. Evidence presented draws from behavioral, neurological, and clinical research, including discussions of subcortical and cortical pathways, callosal agenesis, commissurotomy, emotion regulation, mood disorders, interpersonal interaction, language, and handedness. Directions for future research are offered. PMID:24795597

Gender-specific effects of emotional modulation on visual temporal order thresholds.

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Liang, Wei; Zhang, Jiyuan; Bao, Yan

2015-09-01

Emotions affect temporal information processing in the low-frequency time window of a few seconds, but little is known about their effect in the high-frequency domain of some tens of milliseconds. The present study aims to investigate whether negative and positive emotional states influence the ability to discriminate the temporal order of visual stimuli, and whether gender plays a role in temporal processing. Due to the hemispheric lateralization of emotion, a hemispheric asymmetry between the left and the right visual field might be expected. Using a block design, subjects were primed with neutral, negative and positive emotional pictures before performing temporal order judgment tasks. Results showed that male subjects exhibited similarly reduced order thresholds under negative and positive emotional states, while female subjects demonstrated increased threshold under positive emotional state and reduced threshold under negative emotional state. Besides, emotions influenced female subjects more intensely than male subjects, and no hemispheric lateralization was observed. These observations indicate an influence of emotional states on temporal order processing of visual stimuli, and they suggest a gender difference, which is possibly associated with a different emotional stability.

Emotional regulation difficulties and premenstrual symptoms among Israeli students.

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Reuveni, Inbal; Dan, Rotem; Segman, Ronen; Evron, Ron; Laufer, Sofia; Goelman, Gadi; Bonne, Omer; Canetti, Laura

2016-12-01

Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) reported to affect 3-8 % of women of reproductive age and resulting in marked emotional and occupational impairment. Despite its prevalence, the etiology of PMDD is largely unknown, and patients remain mostly undiagnosed and poorly treated. It has been suggested that PMDD is a manifestation of underlying depressive disorder which is associated with the inability to regulate emotions in an adaptive manner. Therefore, we hypothesized that women with PMDD would exhibit increased difficulty with emotional regulation. A total of 648 female Israeli college students were assessed by the Premenstrual Symptoms Screening Tool (PSST) and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Of these women, 166 (25.6 %) met the criteria for PMS. Sixty-four (9.9 %) suffered from PMDD. More emotion regulation deficits were observed in the PMDD and PMS groups compared to the control group. Furthermore, there were more emotional regulation deficits among the predominantly psychological and mixed symptom subtype compared to the predominantly physical symptom subtype group. This is the first study to report an association between emotional dysregulation and PMDD. These findings may lead to development of more individually tailored treatment protocols focused on improving emotional regulation techniques.

Emotional Profile of Women Victims of Domestic Violence.

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Avdibegovic, Esmina; Brkic, Maja; Sinanovic, Osman

2017-06-01

Research indicates that women victims of domestic violence show significant cognitive changes, emotional numbing, and avoidance of interpersonal relationships. The aim of this research was to analyze emotional profile of women victims of domestic violence, and to determine the relationship between dimensions of emotions and frequency of women exposure to domestic violence. The research was conducted on the sample of 169 women, 111 were victims of domestic violence and 58 were women who did not experience domestic violence. Plutchik's Emotions Profile Index (EPI) was used for measuring of the emotion profile, and the Modified Inventory of Domestic Violence for measuring experiences of different types of violence. Basic socio-demographic data were also collected. Significant differences between women victims of domestic violence and women who did not experience domestic violence were found in a few dimensions of emotional profile. Women victims of domestic violence had higher results in the dimensions of deprivation/depression and aggression/destruction, while women who did not experience domestic violence had higher results in dimensions of reproduction and incorporation. Aggression was in significant negative correlation with reproduction, incorporation and self protection, whereas it was significant positive correlation with deprivation and opposition. There were significant and positive correlation between the dimensions of aggression and deprivation and frequency of all three forms of domestic violence and age of women. According to results obtained in this research, it can be concluded that women victims of domestic violence have significantly more intensive negative emotional dimensions in comparison to women who were not abused. Women victims of domestic violence with higher frequency of abuse describe themselves as more sad, apathetic, lonely, angry, quarrelsome and less sociable. Prominence of negative emotions, deprivation and aggression, can be factor of

Hormonal contraception usage is associated with altered memory for an emotional story.

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Nielsen, Shawn E; Ertman, Nicole; Lakhani, Yasmeen S; Cahill, Larry

2011-09-01

Substantial evidence now documents sex-related influences on the neurobiology of emotional memory. Robust sex influences exist, for example, on the amygdala's role in emotional memory formation, as well as on retention of central information (gist) and detail for an emotional event. Evidence also suggests that the well-documented effects of stress hormones on memory depend upon sex hormone levels. Since hormonal contraception alters sex hormone levels, and must by extension alter sex/stress hormone interactions in memory, we examined whether the use of hormonal contraception also alters memory for an emotional story. Two groups of healthy female subjects--one naturally cycling, one using hormonal contraception--viewed either a brief, emotionally arousing story, or a closely matched, but more emotionally neutral story. Each subject's eye movements and pupil dilation changes were recorded as they viewed the story. Additionally, saliva samples were taken throughout the experimental session to examine salivary alpha-amylase, a biomarker for norepinephrine. A surprise free recall test one week later measured story memory in all subjects. Naturally cycling women exhibited enhanced memory of story details, but not of central information (gist), in the emotional compared with neutral story conditions. In contrast, women using hormonal contraception exhibited enhanced memory of gist, but not story details, in the emotional compared with neutral story conditions. Analysis of eye movements made while watching the stories indicated that the differences in memory could not be attributed either to a differential attention focus or to the degree of arousal induced by the stories in the two groups. These findings suggest that the use of hormonal contraception alters memory for an emotional event, perhaps by altering sex/stress hormone interactions in memory formation. They also suggest that further investigation of the mnemonic effects of these very widely used treatments is

Autonomic and subjective responsivity to emotional images in people with dissociative seizures.

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Pick, Susannah; Mellers, John D C; Goldstein, Laura H

2018-06-01

People with dissociative seizures (DS) report a range of difficulties in emotional functioning and exhibit altered responding to emotional facial expressions in experimental tasks. We extended this research by investigating subjective and autonomic reactivity (ratings of emotional valence, arousal and skin conductance responses [SCRs]) to general emotional images in 39 people with DS relative to 42 healthy control participants, whilst controlling for anxiety, depression, cognitive functioning and, where relevant, medication use. It was predicted that greater subjective negativity and arousal and increased SCRs in response to the affective pictures would be observed in the DS group. The DS group as a whole did not differ from controls in their subjective responses of valence and arousal. However, SCR amplitudes were greater in 'autonomic responders' with DS relative to 'autonomic responders' in the control group. A positive correlation was also observed between SCRs for highly arousing negative pictures and self-reported ictal autonomic arousal, in DS 'autonomic responders'. In the DS subgroup of autonomic 'non-responders', differences in subjective responses were observed for some conditions, compared to control 'non-responders'. The findings indicate unaffected subjective responses to emotional images in people with DS overall. However, within the group of people with DS, there may be subgroups characterized by differences in emotional responding. One subgroup (i.e., 'autonomic responders') exhibit heightened autonomic responses but intact subjective emotional experience, whilst another subgroup (i.e., 'autonomic non-responders') seem to experience greater subjective negativity and arousal for some emotional stimuli, despite less frequent autonomic reactions. The current results suggest that therapeutic interventions targeting awareness and regulation of physiological arousal and subjective emotional experience could be of value in some people with this disorder

Emotion models for textual emotion classification

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Bruna, O.; Avetisyan, H.; Holub, J.

2016-11-01

This paper deals with textual emotion classification which gained attention in recent years. Emotion classification is used in user experience, product evaluation, national security, and tutoring applications. It attempts to detect the emotional content in the input text and based on different approaches establish what kind of emotional content is present, if any. Textual emotion classification is the most difficult to handle, since it relies mainly on linguistic resources and it introduces many challenges to assignment of text to emotion represented by a proper model. A crucial part of each emotion detector is emotion model. Focus of this paper is to introduce emotion models used for classification. Categorical and dimensional models of emotion are explained and some more advanced approaches are mentioned.

Temporal lobe structures and facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia patients and nonpsychotic relatives.

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Goghari, Vina M; Macdonald, Angus W; Sponheim, Scott R

2011-11-01

Temporal lobe abnormalities and emotion recognition deficits are prominent features of schizophrenia and appear related to the diathesis of the disorder. This study investigated whether temporal lobe structural abnormalities were associated with facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and related to genetic liability for the disorder. Twenty-seven schizophrenia patients, 23 biological family members, and 36 controls participated. Several temporal lobe regions (fusiform, superior temporal, middle temporal, amygdala, and hippocampus) previously associated with face recognition in normative samples and found to be abnormal in schizophrenia were evaluated using volumetric analyses. Participants completed a facial emotion recognition task and an age recognition control task under time-limited and self-paced conditions. Temporal lobe volumes were tested for associations with task performance. Group status explained 23% of the variance in temporal lobe volume. Left fusiform gray matter volume was decreased by 11% in patients and 7% in relatives compared with controls. Schizophrenia patients additionally exhibited smaller hippocampal and middle temporal volumes. Patients were unable to improve facial emotion recognition performance with unlimited time to make a judgment but were able to improve age recognition performance. Patients additionally showed a relationship between reduced temporal lobe gray matter and poor facial emotion recognition. For the middle temporal lobe region, the relationship between greater volume and better task performance was specific to facial emotion recognition and not age recognition. Because schizophrenia patients exhibited a specific deficit in emotion recognition not attributable to a generalized impairment in face perception, impaired emotion recognition may serve as a target for interventions.

Family emotional expressiveness and family structure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Čotar-Konrad Sonja

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The present paper scrutinizes the relationship between family emotional expressiveness (i.e., the tendency to express dominant and/or submissive positive and negative emotions and components of family structure as proposed in Olson’s Circumplex model (i.e., cohesion and flexibility, family communication, and satisfaction in families with adolescents. The study was conducted on a sample of 514 Slovenian adolescents, who filled out two questionnaires: the Slovenian version of Family Emotional Expressiveness - FEQ and FACES IV. The results revealed that all four basic dimensions of family functioning were significantly associated with higher/more frequent expressions of positive submissive emotions, as well as with lower/less frequent expressions of negative dominant emotions. Moreover, expressions of negative submissive emotions explained a small, but significant amount of variance in three out of four family functioning variables (satisfaction, flexibility, and communication. The importance of particular aspects of emotional expressiveness for family cohesion, flexibility, communication, and satisfaction is discussed, and the relevance of present findings for family counselling is outlined.

Emotions and Values: A Sentimentalist Approach

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Leonardo de Mello Ribeiro

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper, a qualified sentimentalist thesis is put forward to explain the relation between emotion and value, in special the acquisition of concepts and evaluative competences. This thesis advocates, on the one hand, that feelings are the essential elements for the characterization of emotions and, on the other hand, that values should be understood by reference to emotions. Two objections are considered: the circularity and the recalcitrance objections. To answer these, the idea that feelings can have intentional objects will be defended, along with the idea that evaluative concepts are higher-order concepts about adequacy conditions of evaluative emotional experiences. As for the recalcitrance objection specifically, we will argue that the sentimentalist thesis is in a better position than its main rival, the judgmentalist thesis. Lastly, we will show how the sentimentalist can explain levels of complexity among emotions and values. The final result is an attempt to show how a sentimentalist thesis may be coherent about the relation between emotion and value.

Bidirectional associations between emotions and school adjustment.

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Hernández, Maciel M; Eisenberg, Nancy; Valiente, Carlos; Spinrad, Tracy L; Berger, Rebecca H; VanSchyndel, Sarah K; Silva, Kassondra M; Diaz, Anjolii; Thompson, Marilyn S; Gal, Diana E; Southworth, Jody

2017-11-24

We examined the relations of children's (N = 301) observed expression of negative and positive emotion in classes or nonclassroom school contexts (i.e., lunch and recess) to school adjustment from kindergarten to first grade. Naturalistic observations of children's emotional expressivity were collected, as were teachers' reports of children's school engagement and relationship quality with teachers and peers. In longitudinal panel models, greater teacher-student conflict and lower student engagement in kindergarten predicted greater negative expressivity in both school contexts. School engagement and peer acceptance in kindergarten positively predicted first grade positive emotion in the classroom. Suggestive of possible bidirectional relations, there was also small unique prediction (near significant) from negative expressivity at lunch and recess to higher teacher-student conflict, from negative expressivity in the classroom to low peer acceptance, and from positive expressivity in the classroom to higher peer acceptance. The pattern of findings suggests that the quality of experience at school uniquely predicts children's emotional expressivity at school more consistently than vice versa-a finding that highlights the important role of school context in young children's emotionality at school. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How group-based emotions are shaped by collective emotions: evidence for emotional transfer and emotional burden.

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Goldenberg, Amit; Saguy, Tamar; Halperin, Eran

2014-10-01

Extensive research has established the pivotal role that group-based emotions play in shaping intergroup processes. The underlying implicit assumption in previous work has been that these emotions reflect what the rest of the group feels (i.e., collective emotions). However, one can experience an emotion in the name of her or his group, which is inconsistent with what the collective feels. The current research investigated this phenomenon of emotional nonconformity. Particularly, we proposed that when a certain emotional reaction is perceived as appropriate, but the collective is perceived as not experiencing this emotion, people would experience stronger levels of group-based emotion, placing their emotional experience farther away from that of the collective. We provided evidence for this process across 2 different emotions: group-based guilt and group-based anger (Studies 1 and 2) and across different intergroup contexts (Israeli-Palestinian relations in Israel, and Black-White relations in the United States). In Studies 3 and 4, we demonstrate that this process is moderated by the perceived appropriateness of the collective emotional response. Studies 4 and 5 further provided evidence for the mechanisms underlying this effect, pointing to a process of emotional burden (i.e., feeling responsible for carrying the emotion in the name of the group) and of emotional transfer (i.e., transferring negative feelings one has toward the ingroup, toward the event itself). This work brings to light processes that were yet to be studied regarding the relationship between group members, their perception of their group, and the emotional processes that connect them. 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Emotional Strategies and Their Relationship to Complaints of Psychosomatic and Neurotic Symptoms.

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Ogden, Jenni A.; Von Sturmer, Guy

1984-01-01

Examined the emotional strategies people use and their psychological consequences. Adults (N=270 and 329) were classified into emotional strategy groups. Suppressed emotives had a significantly higher score on the Complaint Questionnaire than emotive and nonemotive groups, suggesting neurotic tendencies. (JAC)

[Emotional stress psychotherapy].

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Rozhnov, V E

1989-01-01

The concept of emotional stress psychotherapy (ESP) is based on the theoretical understanding of mental process as a system of cross-potentiating synergism of consciousness and the unconscious. Therefore, one can regard this kind of treatment as an appeal to the spiritual components of personality arousing its need of self-perfectioning. Owing to this, ESP turns the demands and higher interests creating a personality dominant to oppose the illness with ensuing depression and apathy. In a sense, this method is a qualitative contrast to S. Freud's psychoanalysis digging in the dark compartments of the soul. As a result of treatment of thousands of neurotic patients and those with psychosomatic disorders and alcoholism, the following techniques of ESP were elaborated: rational, shaped as a socratic dialogue; hypnosuggestive comprising individual or collective hypnosis, extremely loaded with emotions; autosuggestive like mental self-regulation and autogenic training filled with specific emotions.

[Impact of Emotion Regulation and Emotional Arousal on Quality of Life and Adherence of Couples after Kidney Transplantation].

Science.gov (United States)

Peters, Luisa; Franke, Laura; Tkachenko, Daria; Schiffer, Mario; Zimmermann, Tanja

2018-05-01

Nonadherence to immunosuppressive medication increases the risk of graft failure. Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (ERS) seem to be a risk factor for nonadherence, whereas for patients in relationships spousal support appears as a protective resource. Emotional arousal, objectively measured by the fundamental frequency (f 0 ) during spousal supportive communication is associated with supportive behavior. This study examined the relationship between beliefs about immunosuppressive medication, quality of life, ERS, emotions and emotional arousal, assessed during social support interactions of both spouses of N=50 couples after kidney transplantation. Maladaptive ERS of the transplant recipient were associated with lower mental quality of life of the partner, marginally higher own negative affect and lower beliefs about medication. Maladaptive ERS of the partner showed negative correlations with own mental quality of life. Regarding f 0 , gender differences were found. Higher f 0 of the male transplant recipient were associated with more maladaptive ERS of the female partner. Marginally significate correlations were found with lower own beliefs about medication. Higher f 0 of the wife of the male transplant recipient showed correlations with lower own positive affect, more negative affect of the male patient and lower beliefs about medication. Higher f 0 of female transplant recipients were associated with lower own maladaptive ERS and lower maladaptive ERS of the husband. The findings support the relevance of early interventions focusing on identifying and modifying maladaptive ERS for both the patient and partner. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Diminished facial emotion expression and associated clinical characteristics in Anorexia Nervosa.

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Lang, Katie; Larsson, Emma E C; Mavromara, Liza; Simic, Mima; Treasure, Janet; Tchanturia, Kate

2016-02-28

This study aimed to investigate emotion expression in a large group of children, adolescents and adults with Anorexia Nervosa (AN), and investigate the associated clinical correlates. One hundred and forty-one participants (AN=66, HC= 75) were recruited and positive and negative film clips were used to elicit emotion expressions. The Facial Activation Coding system (FACES) was used to code emotion expression. Subjective ratings of emotion were collected. Individuals with AN displayed less positive emotions during the positive film clip compared to healthy controls (HC). There was no significant difference between the groups on the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). The AN group displayed emotional incongruence (reporting a different emotion to what would be expected given the stimuli, with limited facial affect to signal the emotion experienced), whereby they reported feeling significantly higher rates of negative emotion during the positive clip. There were no differences in emotion expression between the groups during the negative film clip. Despite this individuals with AN reported feeling significantly higher levels of negative emotions during the negative clip. Diminished positive emotion expression was associated with more severe clinical symptoms, which could suggest that these individuals represent a group with serious social difficulties, which may require specific attention in treatment. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Positivity bias in judging ingroup members' emotional expressions.

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Lazerus, Talya; Ingbretsen, Zachary A; Stolier, Ryan M; Freeman, Jonathan B; Cikara, Mina

2016-12-01

We investigated how group membership impacts valence judgments of ingroup and outgroup members' emotional expressions. In Experiment 1, participants, randomized into 2 novel, competitive groups, rated the valence of in- and outgroup members' facial expressions (e.g., fearful, happy, neutral) using a circumplex affect grid. Across all emotions, participants judged ingroup members' expressions as more positive than outgroup members' expressions. In Experiment 2, participants categorized fearful and happy expressions as being either positive or negative using a mouse-tracking paradigm. Participants exhibited the most direct trajectories toward the "positive" label for ingroup happy expressions and an initial attraction toward positive for ingroup expressions of fear, with outgroup emotion trajectories falling in between. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 and demonstrated that the effect could not be accounted for by targets' gaze direction. Overall, people judged ingroup faces as more positive, regardless of emotion, both in deliberate and implicit judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining speed of processing of facial emotion recognition in individuals at ultra-high risk for psychosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Glenthøj, Louise Birkedal; Fagerlund, Birgitte; Bak, Nikolaj

2018-01-01

Emotion recognition is an aspect of social cognition that may be a key predictor of functioning and transition to psychosis in individuals at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis ( Allott et al., 2014 ). UHR individuals exhibit deficits in accurately identifying facial emotions ( van Donkersgoed et...... al., 2015 ), but other potential anomalies in facial emotion recognition are largely unexplored. This study aimed to extend current knowledge on emotion recognition deficits in UHR individuals by examining: 1) whether UHR would display significantly slower facial emotion recognition than healthy...... controls, 2) whether an association between emotion recognition accuracy and emotion recognition latency is present in UHR, 3) the relationships between emotion recognition accuracy, neurocognition and psychopathology in UHR....

Validation and psychometric properties of the Alcohol Positive and Negative Affect Schedule: Are drinking emotions distinct from general emotions?

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Lac, Andrew; Donaldson, Candice D

2018-02-01

People vary in experiences of positive and negative emotions from consuming alcohol, but no validated measurement instrument exclusively devoted to assessing drinking emotions exists in the literature. The current research validated and evaluated the psychometric properties of an alcohol affect scale based on adjectives from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and tested the extent that emotions incurred from drinking were distinct from general trait-based emotions. Three studies tested independent samples of adult alcohol users. In Study 1 (N = 494), exploratory factor analyses of the Alcohol PANAS revealed that both the 20-item model and the 9-parcel model (represented by similar mood content) supported the 2-factor dimensionality of alcohol positive and negative affect. In Study 2 (N = 302), confirmatory factor analyses corroborated the measurement structure of alcohol positive and negative affect, and both constructs evidenced statistical independence from general positive and negative affect. In Study 3 (N = 452), alcohol positive and negative affect exhibited discriminant, convergent, and criterion validity with established alcohol scales. Incremental validity tests demonstrated that alcohol positive and negative affect uniquely contributed (beyond general positive and negative affect) to alcohol expectancies, use, and problems. Findings support that alcohol emotions are conceptually distinct from trait emotions, and underscore the necessity of an assessment instrument tailored to the former to examine associations with alcohol beliefs and behaviors. The Alcohol PANAS confers theoretical and practical applications to understand the emotional consequences of drinking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

ROLE AND CONSEQUENCES OF EMOTIONAL LABOR IN THE WORKPLACE

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Andreea Fortuna SCHIOPU

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The use of emotions in the workplace has begun to be increasingly studied by theorists and researchers in organizational behavior. One essential construct in the literature is the emotional labor which is perceived to be the management of feelings to express organizationally desired emotions. This article aims to review existing perspectives on emotional labor, to differentiate the concepts of emotional labor and emotional dissonance, to analyze emotion regulation strategies, and to discuss the consequences of emotional labor in the workplace. These clarifications with regard to the emotional labor and its mechanisms can help manage their associated negative outcomes (such as emotional exhaustion, lower job satisfaction, higher levels of burnout, and intentions to quit the job and sustain their possible positive outcomes (such as feelings of accomplishment and enhanced identification with the work role.

Gender role conflict and emotional approach coping in men with cancer.

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Hoyt, Michael A

2009-10-01

The utility of emotional approach coping (EAC), or expressing and processing emotions, has been equivocal for men. Gender role conflict, or the negative cognitive, emotional and behavioural consequences associated with male gender role socialisation, likely shape coping responses and may negatively affect the efficacy of men's emotion-directed coping efforts and adjustment to cancer. Perceptions of receptiveness of one's interpersonal environment may be particularly important to the effectiveness of EAC. This study examined the relationships among EAC, gender role conflict, and distress in a group of 183 men with cancer. Structural equation modelling revealed that higher gender role conflict was associated with lower emotional expression, which in turn was associated with greater distress. Gender role conflict was not related to emotional processing. Higher gender role conflict also was associated directly with more distress. In subsequent analyses, social constraints and age were examined as possible moderators of EAC. Emotional expression was related to more psychological distress for those in highly constrained environments; and emotional processing was associated with more distress with younger age. Emotional expression may be particularly affected by social influences related to gender and social receptivity. More research is needed to better distinguish constructive and unconstructive emotional processing.

Risk for mania and positive emotional responding: too much of a good thing?

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Gruber, June; Johnson, Sheri L; Oveis, Christopher; Keltner, Dacher

2008-02-01

Although positive emotion research has begun to flourish, the extremes of positive emotion remain understudied. The present research used a multimethod approach to examine positive emotional disturbance by comparing participants at high and low risk for episodes of mania, which involves elevations in positive emotionality. Ninety participants were recruited into a high or low mania risk group according to responses on the Hypomanic Personality Scale. Participants' subjective, expressive, and physiological emotional responses were gathered while they watched two positive, two negative, and one neutral film clip. Results suggested that participants at high risk for mania reported elevated positive emotion and irritability and also exhibited elevated cardiac vagal tone across positive, negative, and neutral films. Discussion focuses on the implications these findings have for the diagnosis and prevention of bipolar disorder, as well as for the general study of positive emotion.

EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES OF THE FORTHCOMING PHYSIOTHERAPISTS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS

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Anna Romanowska-Tolloczko

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Purpose. Defining the level of emotional intelligence of students - prospective physiotherapists and physical education teachers. Material and method. The study was conducted amongst students of University School of Physical Education in Wrocław: There were 134 students from Physiotherapy Department and 254 students of Physical Education Department tested. In the research the tool to diagnose emotional intelligence was used: Emotional Intelligence Scale by Matczak et al. Results. In assessing the level of emotional intelligence the differences between students groups were pointed out due to their field of study and gender. Average emotional intelligence for all groups was at the moderate level although prospective teachers reached higher scores. Students of Physiotherapy and subjects constituting the control group showed lower level of studies parameter and the results were similar. Different levels of emotional intelligence are also visible in the results obtained by women and men. Women in each group receive higher scores than men. Conclusions. Emotional competencies of the subjects are at the moderate and low level, which is not a satisfactory result. Higher predispositions should be expected of people who choose teaching or physiotherapist professions, because it is required by specificity of the work they intend to carry on. Therefore, it seems necessary to pay special attention to the development of these competencies in the course of the study.

Brain network dysregulation, emotion, and complaints after mild traumatic brain injury.

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van der Horn, Harm J; Liemburg, Edith J; Scheenen, Myrthe E; de Koning, Myrthe E; Marsman, Jan-Bernard C; Spikman, Jacoba M; van der Naalt, Joukje

2016-04-01

To assess the role of brain networks in emotion regulation and post-traumatic complaints in the sub-acute phase after non-complicated mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Fifty-four patients with mTBI (34 with and 20 without complaints) and 20 healthy controls (group-matched for age, sex, education, and handedness) were included. Resting-state fMRI was performed at four weeks post-injury. Static and dynamic functional connectivity were studied within and between the default mode, executive (frontoparietal and bilateral frontal network), and salience network. The hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) was used to measure anxiety (HADS-A) and depression (HADS-D). Regarding within-network functional connectivity, none of the selected brain networks were different between groups. Regarding between-network interactions, patients with complaints exhibited lower functional connectivity between the bilateral frontal and salience network compared to patients without complaints. In the total patient group, higher HADS-D scores were related to lower functional connectivity between the bilateral frontal network and both the right frontoparietal and salience network, and to higher connectivity between the right frontoparietal and salience network. Furthermore, whereas higher HADS-D scores were associated with lower connectivity within the parietal midline areas of the bilateral frontal network, higher HADS-A scores were related to lower connectivity within medial prefrontal areas of the bilateral frontal network. Functional interactions of the executive and salience networks were related to emotion regulation and complaints after mTBI, with a key role for the bilateral frontal network. These findings may have implications for future studies on the effect of psychological interventions. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotion processing in the aging brain is modulated by semantic elaboration

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Ritchey, Maureen; Bessette-Symons, Brandy; Hayes, Scott M.; Cabeza, Roberto

2010-01-01

The neural correlates of emotion processing have been shown to vary with age: older adults (OAs) exhibit increased frontal activations and, under some circumstances, decreased amygdala activations relative to young adults (YAs) during emotion processing. Some of these differences are additionally modulated by valence, with age-related biases toward positive versus negative stimuli, and are thought to depend on OAs’ capacity for controlled elaboration. However, the role of semantic elaboration...

Sex differences in emotional contexts modulation on response inhibition.

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Ramos-Loyo, Julieta; Angulo-Chavira, Armando; Llamas-Alonso, Luis A; González-Garrido, Andrés A

2016-10-01

The aim of the present study was to explore sex differences in the effects that emotional contexts exert on the temporal course of response inhibition using event-related potentials (ERP). Participants performed a Go-NoGo response inhibition task under 3 context conditions: with 1) neutral background stimuli, and 2) pleasant, and 3) unpleasant emotional contexts. No sex differences were found in relation to accuracy. Women showed higher N2NoGo amplitudes than men in both emotional contexts; whereas during inhibition men tended to show higher P3NoGo amplitudes than women in the unpleasant context. Both groups experienced a relevant effect of the presence of the unpleasant context during inhibition processing, as shown by the enhancement of the N2NoGo amplitudes in frontal regions compared to results from the neutral and pleasant conditions. In addition, women showed differences between the pleasant and unpleasant contexts, with the latter inducing higher amplitude values. Only in men did inhibition accuracy correlate with higher N2NoGo and lower P3NoGo amplitudes in the emotional context conditions. These findings suggest that when an inhibition task is performed in an emotionally-neutral background context no sex differences are observed in either accuracy or ERP components. However, when the emotional context was introduced -especially the unpleasant one- some gender differences did become evident. The higher N2NoGo amplitude at the presence of the unpleasant context may reflect an effect on attention and conflict monitoring. In addition, results suggest that during earlier processing stages, women invested more resources to process inhibition than men. Furthermore, men who invested more neural resources during earlier stages showed better response inhibition than those who did it during later processing stages, more closely-related to cognitive and motor inhibition processes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre.

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Samothrakis, Spyridon; Fasli, Maria

2015-01-01

Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman's model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear.

Emotional Creativity as predictor of intrinsic motivation and academic engagement in university students: The mediating role of positive emotions

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ALBERTO AMUTIO

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Objective: Emotional creativity implies experiencing a complex emotional life, which is becoming increasingly necessary in societies that demand innovation and constant changes. This research studies the relation of emotional creativity as a dispositional trait with intrinsic motivation and academic engagement.Methods: A sample of 428 university Chilean students, 36.5% men and 63.5% women, with ages from 18 to 45 years old (M = 20,37 DT = 2,71. Additionally, the mediating function of class-related positive emotions in this relation is explored.Results: The obtained data indicate that developing high levels of dispositional emotional creativity enhances the activation of positive emotions, such as gratitude, love and hope, in the classroom. Furthermore, emotional creativity predicts intrinsic motivation and academic engagement of university students by the experience of positive emotions. Conclusion: These results compel us to be aware of the importance that university students in their early years can understand the complexity of the emotional processes they undergo. A greater control of these emotions would allow students to maintain higher levels of interest in their studies at the different educational stages and to avoid the risk of school failure.

Emotional intelligence and psychological health in a sample of Kuwaiti college students.

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Alkhadher, Othman

2007-06-01

This summary investigated correlations between emotional intelligence and psychological health amongst 191 Kuwaiti undergraduate students in psychology, 98 men and 93 women (M age=20.6 yr., SD=2.8). There were two measures of emotional intelligence, one based on the ability model, the Arabic Test for Emotional Intelligence, and the other on the mixed model, the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. Participants' psychological health was assessed using scales from the Personality Assessment Inventory. A weak relationship between the two types of emotional intelligence was found. A correlation for scores on the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire with the Personality Assessment Inventory was found but not with those of the Arabic Test for Emotional Intelligence. Regression analysis indicated scores on Managing Emotions and Self-awareness accounted for most of the variance in the association with the Personality Assessment Inventory. Significant sex differences were found only on the Arabic Test for Emotional Intelligence; women scored higher than men. On Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire measures, men had significantly higher means on Managing Emotions and Self-motivation. However, no significant differences were found between the sexes on the Total Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire scores.

Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling human emotions through biosignals

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van den Broek, Egon; Lisy, Viliam; Janssen, Joris H.; Westerink, Joyce H.D.M.; Schut, Marleen H.; Tuinenbreijer, Kees; Fred, A.; Filipe, J.; Gamboa, H.

2010-01-01

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological processes, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and,

Emotional Self-Efficacy, Emotional Empathy and Emotional Approach Coping as Sources of Happiness

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Tarık Totan

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Among the many variables affecting happiness, there are those that arise from emotional factors. In this study, the hypothesis stating that happiness is affected by emotional self-efficacy, emotional empathy and emotional approach coping has been examined using the path model. A total of 334 university students participated in this study, 229 of whom were females and 105 being males. Oxford Happiness Questionnaire-Short Form, Emotional Self-efficacy Scale, Multi-Dimensional Emotional Empathy Scale, The Emotional Approach Coping Scale and personal information form have been used as data acquisition tools. As a result of path analysis, it was determined that the predicted path from emotional empathy to emotional approach coping was insignificant and thus it was taken out of the model. According to the modified path model, it was determined that there is a positive relationship between emotional self- efficacy and emotional empathy, that emotional self-efficacy positively affects emotional approach coping and happiness, that emotional empathy also positively affects happiness and that emotional approach coping also positively affects happiness.

Profiles of children's social–emotional health at school entry and associated income, gender and language inequalities: a cross-sectional population-based study in British Columbia, Canada

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Guhn, Martin; Richardson, Chris G; Ark, Tavinder K; Shoveller, Jean

2017-01-01

Objectives Early identification of distinct patterns of child social–emotional strengths and vulnerabilities has the potential to improve our understanding of child mental health and well-being; however, few studies have explored natural groupings of indicators of child vulnerability and strengths at a population level. The purpose of this study was to examine heterogeneity in the patterns of young children's social and emotional health and investigate the extent to which sociodemographic characteristics were associated. Design Cross-sectional study based on a population-level cohort. Setting All kindergarten children attending public schools between 2004 and 2007 in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Participants 35 818 kindergarten children (age of 5 years) with available linked data from the Early Development Instrument (EDI), BC Ministry of Health and BC Ministry of Education. Outcome measure We used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify distinct profiles of social–emotional health according to children's mean scores across eight social–emotional subscales on the EDI, a teacher-rated measure of children's early development. Subscales measured children's overall social competence, responsibility and respect, approaches to learning, readiness to explore, prosocial behaviour, anxiety, aggression and hyperactivity. Results Six social–emotional profiles were identified: (1) overall high social–emotional functioning, (2) inhibited-adaptive (3) uninhibited-adaptive, (4) inhibited-disengaged, (5) uninhibited-aggressive/hyperactive and (6) overall low social–emotional functioning. Boys, children with English as a second language (ESL) status and children with lower household income had higher odds of membership to the lower social–emotional functioning groups; however, this association was less negative among boys with ESL status. Conclusions Over 40% of children exhibited some vulnerability in early social–emotional health, and profiles were

Profiles of children's social-emotional health at school entry and associated income, gender and language inequalities: a cross-sectional population-based study in British Columbia, Canada.

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Thomson, Kimberly C; Guhn, Martin; Richardson, Chris G; Ark, Tavinder K; Shoveller, Jean

2017-07-26

Early identification of distinct patterns of child social-emotional strengths and vulnerabilities has the potential to improve our understanding of child mental health and well-being; however, few studies have explored natural groupings of indicators of child vulnerability and strengths at a population level. The purpose of this study was to examine heterogeneity in the patterns of young children's social and emotional health and investigate the extent to which sociodemographic characteristics were associated. Cross-sectional study based on a population-level cohort. All kindergarten children attending public schools between 2004 and 2007 in British Columbia (BC), Canada. 35 818 kindergarten children (age of 5 years) with available linked data from the Early Development Instrument (EDI), BC Ministry of Health and BC Ministry of Education. We used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify distinct profiles of social-emotional health according to children's mean scores across eight social-emotional subscales on the EDI, a teacher-rated measure of children's early development. Subscales measured children's overall social competence, responsibility and respect, approaches to learning, readiness to explore, prosocial behaviour, anxiety, aggression and hyperactivity. Six social-emotional profiles were identified: (1) overall high social-emotional functioning, (2) inhibited-adaptive (3) uninhibited-adaptive, (4) inhibited-disengaged, (5) uninhibited-aggressive/hyperactive and (6) overall low social-emotional functioning. Boys, children with English as a second language (ESL) status and children with lower household income had higher odds of membership to the lower social-emotional functioning groups; however, this association was less negative among boys with ESL status. Over 40% of children exhibited some vulnerability in early social-emotional health, and profiles were associated with sociodemographic factors. Approximately 9% of children exhibited multiple co

Mothering, fathering, and the regulation of negative and positive emotions in high-functioning preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder.

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Hirschler-Guttenberg, Yael; Golan, Ofer; Ostfeld-Etzion, Sharon; Feldman, Ruth

2015-05-01

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit difficulties in regulating emotions and authors have called to study the specific processes underpinning emotion regulation (ER) in ASD. Yet, little observational research examined the strategies preschoolers with ASD use to regulate negative and positive emotions in the presence of their mothers and fathers. Forty preschoolers with ASD and 40 matched typically developing children and their mothers and fathers participated. Families were visited twice for identical battery of paradigms with mother or father. Parent-child interactions were coded for parent and child behaviors and children engaged in ER paradigms eliciting negative (fear) and positive (joy) emotions with each parent. ER paradigms were microcoded for negative and positive emotionality, ER strategies, and parent regulation facilitation. During free play, mothers' and fathers' sensitivity and warm discipline were comparable across groups; however, children with ASD displayed lower positive engagement and higher withdrawal. During ER paradigms, children with ASD expressed less positive emotionality overall and more negative emotionality during fear with father. Children with ASD used more simple self-regulatory strategies, particularly during fear, but expressed comparable levels of assistance seeking behavior toward mother and father in negative and positive contexts. Parents of children with ASD used less complex regulation facilitation strategies, including cognitive reappraisal and emotional reframing, and employed simple tactics, such as physical comforting to manage fear and social gaze to maintain joy. Findings describe general and parent- and emotion-specific processes of child ER and parent regulation facilitation in preschoolers with ASD. Results underscore the ability of such children to seek parental assistance during moments of high arousal and the parents' sensitive adaptation to their children's needs. Reduced positive emotionality

Pubertal changes in emotional information processing: pupillary, behavioral, and subjective evidence during emotional word identification.

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Silk, Jennifer S; Siegle, Greg J; Whalen, Diana J; Ostapenko, Laura J; Ladouceur, Cecile D; Dahl, Ronald E

2009-01-01

This study investigated pupillary and behavioral responses to an emotional word valence identification paradigm among 32 pre-/early pubertal and 34 mid-/late pubertal typically developing children and adolescents. Participants were asked to identify the valence of positive, negative, and neutral words while pupil dilation was assessed using an eyetracker. Mid-/late pubertal children showed greater peak pupillary reactivity to words presented during the emotional word identification task than pre-/early pubertal children, regardless of word valence. Mid-/late pubertal children also showed smaller sustained pupil dilation than pre-/early pubertal children after the word was no longer on screen. These findings were replicated controlling for participants' age. In addition, mid-/late pubertal children had faster reaction times to all words, and rated themselves as more emotional during their laboratory visit compared to pre-/early pubertal children. Greater recall of emotional words following the task was associated with mid-/late pubertal status, and greater recall of emotional words was also associated with higher peak pupil dilation. These results provide physiological, behavioral, and subjective evidence consistent with a model of puberty-specific changes in neurobehavioral systems underpinning emotional reactivity.

Collective Emotions Online and Their Influence on Community Life

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Chmiel, Anna; Sienkiewicz, Julian; Thelwall, Mike; Paltoglou, Georgios; Buckley, Kevan; Kappas, Arvid; Hołyst, Janusz A.

2011-01-01

Background E-communities, social groups interacting online, have recently become an object of interdisciplinary research. As with face-to-face meetings, Internet exchanges may not only include factual information but also emotional information – how participants feel about the subject discussed or other group members. Emotions in turn are known to be important in affecting interaction partners in offline communication in many ways. Could emotions in Internet exchanges affect others and systematically influence quantitative and qualitative aspects of the trajectory of e-communities? The development of automatic sentiment analysis has made large scale emotion detection and analysis possible using text messages collected from the web. However, it is not clear if emotions in e-communities primarily derive from individual group members' personalities or if they result from intra-group interactions, and whether they influence group activities. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, for the first time, we show the collective character of affective phenomena on a large scale as observed in four million posts downloaded from Blogs, Digg and BBC forums. To test whether the emotions of a community member may influence the emotions of others, posts were grouped into clusters of messages with similar emotional valences. The frequency of long clusters was much higher than it would be if emotions occurred at random. Distributions for cluster lengths can be explained by preferential processes because conditional probabilities for consecutive messages grow as a power law with cluster length. For BBC forum threads, average discussion lengths were higher for larger values of absolute average emotional valence in the first ten comments and the average amount of emotion in messages fell during discussions. Conclusions/Significance Overall, our results prove that collective emotional states can be created and modulated via Internet communication and that emotional expressiveness is the

Cultural differences and similarities in beliefs, practices, and neural mechanisms of emotion regulation.

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Qu, Yang; Telzer, Eva H

2017-01-01

The current research examined whether culture shapes the beliefs, practices, and neural basis of emotion regulation. Twenty-nine American and Chinese participants reported their implicit theory of emotion and frequency of reappraisal use. They also underwent an fMRI scan while completing an emotion regulation task. Chinese (vs. American) participants reported more frequent use of reappraisal, which was mediated by their higher incremental theory of emotion (i.e., believing that emotion is changeable through effort). Although there were some cultural similarities in neural activation during emotion regulation, Chinese participants showed less ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) activation than American participants when regulating negative emotions. Lower VLPFC activation was associated with higher incremental theory of emotion and more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal. Findings suggest that culture may shape how individuals perceive and engage in emotion regulation, and ultimately, the neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion-motion interactions in conversion disorder: an FMRI study.

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Aybek, Selma; Nicholson, Timothy R; O'Daly, Owen; Zelaya, Fernando; Kanaan, Richard A; David, Anthony S

2015-01-01

To evaluate the neural correlates of implicit processing of negative emotions in motor conversion disorder (CD) patients. An event related fMRI task was completed by 12 motor CD patients and 14 matched healthy controls using standardised stimuli of faces with fearful and sad emotional expressions in comparison to faces with neutral expressions. Temporal changes in the sensitivity to stimuli were also modelled and tested in the two groups. We found increased amygdala activation to negative emotions in CD compared to healthy controls in region of interest analyses, which persisted over time consistent with previous findings using emotional paradigms. Furthermore during whole brain analyses we found significantly increased activation in CD patients in areas involved in the 'freeze response' to fear (periaqueductal grey matter), and areas involved in self-awareness and motor control (cingulate gyrus and supplementary motor area). In contrast to healthy controls, CD patients exhibited increased response amplitude to fearful stimuli over time, suggesting abnormal emotional regulation (failure of habituation / sensitization). Patients with CD also activated midbrain and frontal structures that could reflect an abnormal behavioral-motor response to negative including threatening stimuli. This suggests a mechanism linking emotions to motor dysfunction in CD.

Emotional competence and online game use in adolescents.

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Seo, Mia; Kang, Hee Sun; Chae, Sun-Mi

2012-12-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the relations between emotional competence and online game use in adolescents. This study is a cross-sectional descriptive survey using a convenience sample. The participants were 2199 adolescents in South Korea. Online game use and emotional competence including positive emotion, emotional expression, and emotional intelligence were measured. The study results indicated that emotional competence was negatively correlated with excessive online game use. All variables of emotional competence were significantly lower in high-risk users compared with general users. In addition, female adolescents were rated significantly higher in emotional competence among general users, but there were no significant gender differences among high-risk users. The results of our study imply that high-risk game users have lower levels of emotional intelligence than general users do. The results of this study suggest that emotion is an important factor to which practitioners in psychomedical fields and nursing should pay attention. Therefore, nurses in schools and communities should regularly screen the emotions of adolescents who habitually play online games and develop a program to enhance emotional competence associated with online games.

Features of Emotional Experiences in Individuals with Personality Disorders

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Trzebińska Ewa

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Personality disorders (PDs are marked by significant disturbances in the way of experiencing oneself, others and the world around. Yet there is paucity of research on the nature of emotional experiences in these disorders. The aim of this study was to examine whether and how emotional experience of individuals with ten distinct forms of PDs distinguished in DSM differs from those without PDs. The study was conducted via the Internet on a large nonclinical sample (N = 3509. Participants were administered a PDs measure and a performance task assessing three features of emotional experiences: emotional sensitivity, the valence of experienced emotions and the profile of five components constituting an emotion. As predicted, PDs sufferers experienced emotions differently from controls. Results demonstrated that individuals with all PDs were more receptive to emotional elicitation and displayed higher negative emotionality and a deficiency in the affective component of experienced emotions.

Sympathetic- and parasympathetic-linked cardiac function and prediction of externalizing behavior, emotion regulation, and prosocial behavior among preschoolers treated for ADHD.

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Beauchaine, Theodore P; Gatzke-Kopp, Lisa; Neuhaus, Emily; Chipman, Jane; Reid, M Jamila; Webster-Stratton, Carolyn

2013-06-01

To evaluate measures of cardiac activity and reactivity as prospective biomarkers of treatment response to an empirically supported behavioral intervention for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Cardiac preejection period (PEP), an index of sympathetic-linked cardiac activity, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic-linked cardiac activity, were assessed among 99 preschool children (ages 4-6 years) with ADHD both at rest and in response to behavioral challenge, before participants and their parents completed 1 of 2 versions of the Incredible Years parent and child interventions. Main effects of PEP activity and reactivity and of RSA activity and reactivity were found. Although samplewide improvements in behavior were observed at posttreatment, those who exhibited lengthened cardiac PEP at rest and reduced PEP reactivity to incentives scored higher on measures of conduct problems and aggression both before and after treatment. In contrast, children who exhibited lower baseline RSA and greater RSA withdrawal scored lower on prosocial behavior before and after treatment. Finally, children who exhibited greater RSA withdrawal scored lower on emotion regulation before and after treatment. We discuss these findings in terms of (a) individual differences in underlying neurobiological systems subserving appetitive (i.e., approach) motivation, emotion regulation, and social affiliation and (b) the need to develop more intensive interventions targeting neurobiologically vulnerable children.

Disentangling brain activity related to the processing of emotional visual information and emotional arousal.

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Kuniecki, Michał; Wołoszyn, Kinga; Domagalik, Aleksandra; Pilarczyk, Joanna

2018-05-01

Processing of emotional visual information engages cognitive functions and induces arousal. We aimed to examine the modulatory role of emotional valence on brain activations linked to the processing of visual information and those linked to arousal. Participants were scanned and their pupil size was measured while viewing negative and neutral images. The visual noise was added to the images in various proportions to parametrically manipulate the amount of visual information. Pupil size was used as an index of physiological arousal. We show that arousal induced by the negative images, as compared to the neutral ones, is primarily related to greater amygdala activity while increasing visibility of negative content to enhanced activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC). We argue that more intense visual processing of negative scenes can occur irrespective of the level of arousal. It may suggest that higher areas of the visual stream are fine-tuned to process emotionally relevant objects. Both arousal and processing of emotional visual information modulated activity within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Overlapping activations within the vmPFC may reflect the integration of these aspects of emotional processing. Additionally, we show that emotionally-evoked pupil dilations are related to activations in the amygdala, vmPFC, and LOC.

Reef Sharks Exhibit Site-Fidelity and Higher Relative Abundance in Marine Reserves on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef

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Bond, Mark E.; Babcock, Elizabeth A.; Pikitch, Ellen K.; Abercrombie, Debra L.; Lamb, Norlan F.; Chapman, Demian D.

2012-01-01

Carcharhinid sharks can make up a large fraction of the top predators inhabiting tropical marine ecosystems and have declined in many regions due to intense fishing pressure. There is some support for the hypothesis that carcharhinid species that complete their life-cycle within coral reef ecosystems, hereafter referred to as “reef sharks”, are more abundant inside no-take marine reserves due to a reduction in fishing pressure (i.e., they benefit from marine reserves). Key predictions of this hypothesis are that (a) individual reef sharks exhibit high site-fidelity to these protected areas and (b) their relative abundance will generally be higher in these areas compared to fished reefs. To test this hypothesis for the first time in Caribbean coral reef ecosystems we combined acoustic monitoring and baited remote underwater video (BRUV) surveys to measure reef shark site-fidelity and relative abundance, respectively. We focused on the Caribbean reef shark (Carcharhinus perezi), the most common reef shark in the Western Atlantic, at Glover's Reef Marine Reserve (GRMR), Belize. Acoustically tagged sharks (N = 34) were detected throughout the year at this location and exhibited strong site-fidelity. Shark presence or absence on 200 BRUVs deployed at GRMR and three other sites (another reserve site and two fished reefs) showed that the factor “marine reserve” had a significant positive effect on reef shark presence. We rejected environmental factors or site-environment interactions as predominant drivers of this pattern. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that marine reserves can benefit reef shark populations and we suggest new hypotheses to determine the underlying mechanism(s) involved: reduced fishing mortality or enhanced prey availability. PMID:22412965

Emotional lability and affective synchrony in borderline personality disorder.

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Schoenleber, Michelle; Berghoff, Christopher R; Tull, Matthew T; DiLillo, David; Messman-Moore, Terri; Gratz, Kim L

2016-07-01

Extant research on emotional lability in borderline personality disorder (BPD) has focused almost exclusively on lability of individual emotions or emotion types, with limited research considering how different types of emotions shift together over time. Thus, this study examined the temporal dynamics of emotion in BPD at the level of both individual emotions (i.e., self-conscious emotions [SCE], anger, and anxiety) and mixed emotions (i.e., synchrony between emotions). One hundred forty-four women from the community completed a diagnostic interview and laboratory study involving 5 emotion induction tasks (each of which was preceded and followed by a 5-min resting period or neutral task). State ratings of SCE, anger, and anxiety were provided at 14 time points (before and after each laboratory task and resting period). Hierarchical linear modeling results indicate that women with BPD reported greater mean levels of SCE and Anxiety (but not Anger), and greater lability of Anxiety. Women with BPD also exhibited greater variability in lability of all 3 emotions (suggestive of within-group differences in the relevance of lability to BPD). Results also revealed synchrony (i.e., positive relations) between each possible pair of emotions, regardless of BPD status. Follow-up regression analyses suggest the importance of accounting for lability when examining the role of synchrony in BPD, as the relation of SCE-Anger synchrony to BPD symptom severity was moderated by Anger and SCE lability. Specifically, synchronous changes in SCE and Anger were associated with greater BPD symptom severity when large shifts in SCE were paired with minor shifts in Anger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Beyond Emotion Regulation: Emotion Utilization and Adaptive Functioning

OpenAIRE

Izard, Carroll; Stark, Kevin; Trentacosta, Christopher; Schultz, David

2008-01-01

Recent research indicates that emotionality, emotion information processing, emotion knowledge, and discrete emotion experiences may influence and interact with emotion utilization, that is, the effective use of the inherently adaptive and motivational functions of emotions. Strategies individuals learn for emotion modulation and emotion utilization become stabilized in emerging affective-cognitive structures, or emotion schemas. In these emotion schemas, the feeling/motivational component of...

Emotional reactions and needs of family members of ICU patients.

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Płaszewska-Żywko, Lucyna; Gazda, Dorota

2012-01-01

The aim of the study was to determine emotional reactions and needs of families of ICU patients. The study group included 60 relatives of ICU patients, aged 18-80 years. The diagnostic questionnaire-based survey was conducted. The questionnaire contained questions regarding demographic data, emotions and needs as well as the Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (CECS). The major emotions of patients' families on ICU admission were anxiety, uncertainty, fear, depression, and nervousness (particularly among parents and adult offsprings). On second-third day of hospitalisation, the emotions became less severe (P emotional reactions were better controlled by men (P emotions (P emotions of ICU patients' relatives were highly intense, especially amongst parents and adult children. Women were characterised by higher levels of emotions and needs compared to men.

The Influence of Agreeableness and Ego Depletion on Emotional Responding.

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Finley, Anna J; Crowell, Adrienne L; Harmon-Jones, Eddie; Schmeichel, Brandon J

2017-10-01

Agreeable individuals report more intense withdrawal-oriented negative emotions across aversive situations. Two studies tested the hypothesis that self-regulatory depletion (i.e., ego depletion) moderates the relationship between trait Agreeableness and negative emotional responding. Ego depletion was manipulated using a writing task. Emotional responding was measured with startle eye-blink responses (Study 1, N = 71) and self-reported valence, arousal, and empathic concern (Study 2, N = 256) during emotional picture viewing. Trait Agreeableness was measured using a questionnaire. In Study 1, Agreeableness predicted especially large startle responses during aversive images and especially small startles during appetitive images. After exercising self-control, the relationship between startle magnitudes and Agreeableness decreased. In Study 2, Agreeableness predicted more empathic concern for aversive images, which in turn predicted heightened self-reported negative emotions. After exercising self-control, the relationship between Agreeableness and empathic concern decreased. Agreeable individuals exhibit heightened negative emotional responding. Ego depletion reduced the link between Agreeableness and negative emotional responding in Study 1 and moderated the indirect effect of Agreeableness on negative emotional responding via empathic concern in Study 2. Empathic concern appears to be a resource-intensive process underlying heightened responding to aversive stimuli among agreeable persons. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emotional eating and temperamental traits in Eating Disorders: A dimensional approach.

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Rotella, Francesco; Mannucci, Edoardo; Gemignani, Sara; Lazzeretti, Lisa; Fioravanti, Giulia; Ricca, Valdo

2018-03-23

Growing evidence shows that temperamental features and emotional dysregulation are linked to Eating Disorders (EDs). Aim of this study was to explore the possible relationship between temperament and emotional eating (EE) from a dimensional standpoint, and the association of specific temperamental dimensions with overeating triggered by specific emotions. We enrolled 253 women with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. Of those, 189 (74.7%), 73 (28.8%), and 80 (31.6%) reported binge eating, purging, or restrictive behaviors, respectively (the categories are not mutually exclusive). Participants completed the Emotional Eating Scale (EES), the Temperament and Character Inventory, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Higher Persistence scores were found in the Restriction group, while the Binge group reported lower Persistence and higher Novelty Seeking scores. The Purge group showed lower Reward Dependence, Self Directedness and Cooperativeness scores. Patients with Purge also reported lower BMI and higher scores on EDE-Q restriction and eating concern subscales as well as higher scores for all SCL 90-R subscales. Patterns of association between temperamental traits and specific emotions were found in each group. Therefore, some temperamental features could be considered predictors of specific associations between emotions and the tendency to eat. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre.

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Spyridon Samothrakis

Full Text Available Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman's model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear.

Emotional Sentence Annotation Helps Predict Fiction Genre

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Samothrakis, Spyridon; Fasli, Maria

2015-01-01

Fiction, a prime form of entertainment, has evolved into multiple genres which one can broadly attribute to different forms of stories. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that works of fiction can be characterised by the emotions they portray. To investigate this hypothesis, we use the work of fictions in the Project Gutenberg and we attribute basic emotional content to each individual sentence using Ekman’s model. A time-smoothed version of the emotional content for each basic emotion is used to train extremely randomized trees. We show through 10-fold Cross-Validation that the emotional content of each work of fiction can help identify each genre with significantly higher probability than random. We also show that the most important differentiator between genre novels is fear. PMID:26524352

Emotion and Cognition: An Intricately Bound Developmental Process

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Bell, Martha Ann; Wolfe, Christy D.

2004-01-01

Regulatory aspects of development can best be understood by research that conceptualizes relations between cognition and emotion. The neural mechanisms associated with regulatory processes may be the same as those associated with higher order cognitive processes. Thus, from a developmental cognitive neuroscience perspective, emotion and cognition…

Impact of Emotional Intelligence on Academic Achievement and Leadership

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Beena Johnson

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, appraise and control one's emotions. It is the ability to motivate oneself even in stressful situations, to control impulsive behaviour and to manage feelings in perfect way. Emotional intelligence can be considered as a set of skills which contribute to the proper assessment and regulation of emotions, and the utilization of feelings for best achievement in academics, profession and life. Emotional Intelligence is an important predictor of success in life and has significant role in stress management and academic achievement. Students who are high academic performers, usually have higher emotional intelligence scores compared with children with scholastic backwardness. Individuals with high emotional intelligence will correctly understand emotional issues, manage stressful situations successfully and regulate emotions in the best way. They are balanced, empathetic, self-aware and sociable. They have very strong will-power and are intrinsically motivated. Emotional intelligence is also a crucial factor needed for successful leadership. It has significant role in academic and organizational success.

What makes an art expert? Emotion and evaluation in art appreciation.

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Leder, Helmut; Gerger, Gernot; Brieber, David; Schwarz, Norbert

2014-01-01

Why do some people like negative, or even disgusting and provocative artworks? Art expertise, believed to influence the interplay among cognitive and emotional processing underlying aesthetic experience, could be the answer. We studied how art expertise modulates the effect of positive-and negative-valenced artworks on aesthetic and emotional responses, measured with self-reports and facial electromyography (EMG). Unsurprisingly, emotionally-valenced art evoked coherent valence as well as corrugator supercilii and zygamoticus major activations. However, compared to non-experts, experts showed attenuated reactions, with less extreme valence ratings and corrugator supercilii activations and they liked negative art more. This pattern was also observed for a control set of International Affective Picture System (IAPS) pictures suggesting that art experts show general processing differences for visual stimuli. Thus, much in line with the Kantian notion that an aesthetic stance is emotionally distanced, art experts exhibited a distinct pattern of attenuated emotional responses.

Rationality and emotionality: serotonin transporter genotype influences reasoning bias.

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Stollstorff, Melanie; Bean, Stephanie E; Anderson, Lindsay M; Devaney, Joseph M; Vaidya, Chandan J

2013-04-01

Reasoning often occurs under emotionally charged, opinion-laden circumstances. The belief-bias effect indexes the extent to which reasoning is based upon beliefs rather than logical structure. We examined whether emotional content increases this effect, particularly for adults genetically predisposed to be more emotionally reactive. SS/SL(G) carriers of the serotonin transporter genotype (5-HTTLPR) were less accurate selectively for evaluating emotional relational reasoning problems with belief-logic conflict relative to L(A)L(A) carriers. Trait anxiety was positively associated with emotional belief-bias, and the 5-HTTLPR genotype significantly accounted for the variance in this association. Thus, deductive reasoning, a higher cognitive ability, is sensitive to differences in emotionality rooted in serotonin neurotransmitter function.

Emotional Intelligence, Physical Activity and Coping with Stress in Adolescents

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Ali Aziz Dawood A L S U D A N I

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Participation in physical activity seems to be connected with better coping with stress and higher level emotional intelligence. The aim of the study is to check if there are any significant correlations between emotional intelligence, physical activity and style focused on the task in coping with stress. The sample was made by 90 adolesc ents, aged from 19 - 21 from Psychology department at University of Szczecin. To check the level of emotional inteligence was used polish version of Emotional Intelligence Questionaire. To check te level of physical activity was used s hort form of Internati onal Physical Activity Questionaire. To find out what kind of style is used by adolescents with coping with stress was used Polish version of Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. There were signifficant correlations between physical activity an d task oriented coping, avoidance, social diversion, emotional intelligence (p<0.05. Regression analyses showed that task oriented coping and social diversion are predictors of physical activity. Results of one way Anova showed that the task - oriented copi ng, social diversion, walking, moderate and vigorous intensity physical activity, physical actrivity (in MET/min, emotional intelligence, identifying emotions and using emotions in practice of the high PA group were significantly higher (p<0.05 than in t he low PA group.

A socio-cultural instrumental approach to emotion regulation: Culture and the regulation of positive emotions.

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Ma, Xiaoming; Tamir, Maya; Miyamoto, Yuri

2018-02-01

We propose a sociocultural instrumental approach to emotion regulation. According to this approach, cultural differences in the tendency to savor rather than dampen positive emotions should be more pronounced when people are actively pursuing goals (i.e., contexts requiring higher cognitive effort) than when they are not (i.e., contexts requiring lower cognitive efforts), because cultural beliefs about the utility of positive emotions should become most relevant when people are engaging in active goal pursuit. Four studies provided support for our theory. First, European Americans perceived more utility and less harm of positive emotions than Japanese did (Study 1). Second, European Americans reported a stronger relative preference for positive emotions than Asians, but this cultural difference was larger in high cognitive effort contexts than in moderate or low cognitive effort contexts (Study 2). Third, European Americans reported trying to savor rather than dampen positive emotions more than Asians did when preparing to take an exam, a typical high cognitive effort context (Studies 3-4), but these cultural differences were attenuated when an exam was not expected (Study 3) and disappeared when participants expected to interact with a stranger (Study 4). These findings suggest that cultural backgrounds and situational demands interact to shape how people regulate positive emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Dialectical behavior therapy alters emotion regulation and amygdala activity in patients with borderline personality disorder.

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Goodman, Marianne; Carpenter, David; Tang, Cheuk Y; Goldstein, Kim E; Avedon, Jennifer; Fernandez, Nicolas; Mascitelli, Kathryn A; Blair, Nicholas J; New, Antonia S; Triebwasser, Joseph; Siever, Larry J; Hazlett, Erin A

2014-10-01

Siever and Davis' (1991) psychobiological framework of borderline personality disorder (BPD) identifies affective instability (AI) as a core dimension characterized by prolonged and intense emotional reactivity. Recently, deficient amygdala habituation, defined as a change in response to repeated relative to novel unpleasant pictures within a session, has emerged as a biological correlate of AI in BPD. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), an evidence-based treatment, targets AI by teaching emotion-regulation skills. This study tested the hypothesis that BPD patients would exhibit decreased amygdala activation and improved habituation, as well as improved emotion regulation with standard 12-month DBT. Event-related fMRI was obtained pre- and post-12-months of standard-DBT in unmedicated BPD patients. Healthy controls (HCs) were studied as a benchmark for normal amygdala activity and change over time (n = 11 per diagnostic-group). During each scan, participants viewed an intermixed series of unpleasant, neutral and pleasant pictures presented twice (novel, repeat). Change in emotion regulation was measured with the Difficulty in Emotion Regulation (DERS) scale. fMRI results showed the predicted Group × Time interaction: compared with HCs, BPD patients exhibited decreased amygdala activation with treatment. This post-treatment amygdala reduction in BPD was observed for all three pictures types, but particularly marked in the left hemisphere and during repeated-emotional pictures. Emotion regulation measured with the DERS significantly improved with DBT in BPD patients. Improved amygdala habituation to repeated-unpleasant pictures in patients was associated with improved overall emotional regulation measured by the DERS (total score and emotion regulation strategy use subscale). These findings have promising treatment implications and support the notion that DBT targets amygdala hyperactivity-part of the disturbed neural circuitry underlying emotional dysregulation

Emotion-induced loss aversion and striatal-amygdala coupling in low-anxious individuals.

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Charpentier, Caroline J; De Martino, Benedetto; Sim, Alena L; Sharot, Tali; Roiser, Jonathan P

2016-04-01

Adapting behavior to changes in the environment is a crucial ability for survival but such adaptation varies widely across individuals. Here, we asked how humans alter their economic decision-making in response to emotional cues, and whether this is related to trait anxiety. Developing an emotional decision-making task for functional magnetic resonance imaging, in which gambling decisions were preceded by emotional and non-emotional primes, we assessed emotional influences on loss aversion, the tendency to overweigh potential monetary losses relative to gains. Our behavioral results revealed that only low-anxious individuals exhibited increased loss aversion under emotional conditions. This emotional modulation of decision-making was accompanied by a corresponding emotion-elicited increase in amygdala-striatal functional connectivity, which correlated with the behavioral effect across participants. Consistent with prior reports of 'neural loss aversion', both amygdala and ventral striatum tracked losses more strongly than gains, and amygdala loss aversion signals were exaggerated by emotion, suggesting a potential role for this structure in integrating value and emotion cues. Increased loss aversion and striatal-amygdala coupling induced by emotional cues may reflect the engagement of adaptive harm-avoidance mechanisms in low-anxious individuals, possibly promoting resilience to psychopathology. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press.

How is emotional awareness related to emotion regulation strategies and self-reported negative affect in the general population?

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Subic-Wrana, Claudia; Beutel, Manfred E; Brähler, Elmar; Stöbel-Richter, Yve; Knebel, Achim; Lane, Richard D; Wiltink, Jörg

2014-01-01

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS) as a performance task discriminates between implicit or subconscious and explicit or conscious levels of emotional awareness. An impaired awareness of one's feeling states may influence emotion regulation strategies and self-reports of negative emotions. To determine this influence, we applied the LEAS and self-report measures for emotion regulation strategies and negative affect in a representative sample of the German general population. A short version of the LEAS, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), assessing reappraisal and suppression as emotion regulation strategies, were presented to N = 2524 participants of a representative German community study. The questionnaire data were analyzed with regard to the level of emotional awareness. LEAS scores were independent from depression, but related to self-reported anxiety. Although of small or medium effect size, different correlational patters between emotion regulation strategies and negative affectivity were related to implict and explict levels of emotional awareness. In participants with implicit emotional awareness, suppression was related to higher anxiety and depression, whereas in participants with explicit emotional awareness, in addition to a positive relationship of suppression and depression, we found a negative relationship of reappraisal to depression. These findings were independent of age. In women high use of suppression and little use of reappraisal were more strongly related to negative affect than in men. Our first findings suggest that conscious awareness of emotions may be a precondition for the use of reappraisal as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy. They encourage further research in the relation between subconsious and conscious emotional awareness and the prefarance of adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation strategies The correlational trends found in a representative

Emotion and Prejudice: Specific Emotions Toward Outgroups

OpenAIRE

2007-01-01

Abstract This research draws on ideas about emotion-related appraisal tendencies to generate and test novel propositions about intergroup emotions. First, emotion elicited by outgroup category activation can be transferred to an unrelated stimulus (incidental emotion effects). Second, people predisposed toward an emotion are more prejudiced toward groups that are likely to be associated with that emotion. D...

Cocaine users manifest impaired prosodic and cross-modal emotion processing

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Lea M Hulka

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Background: A small number of previous studies have provided evidence that cocaine users exhibit impairments in complex social cognition tasks, while the more basic facial emotion recognition is widely unaffected. However, prosody and cross-modal emotion processing has not been systematically investigated in cocaine users so far. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess complex multisensory emotion processing in cocaine users in comparison to controls and to examine a potential association with drug use patterns.Method: The abbreviated version of the Comprehensive Affect Testing System (CATS-A was used to measure emotion perception across the three channels of facial affect, prosody, and semantic content in 58 cocaine users and 48 healthy control subjects who were matched for age, sex, verbal intelligence, and years of education.Results: Cocaine users had significantly lower scores than controls in the quotient scales of Emotion Recognition and Prosody Recognition and the subtests Conflicting Prosody/Meaning – Attend to Prosody and Match Emotional Prosody to Emotional Face either requiring to attend to prosody or to integrate cross-modal information. In contrast, no group difference emerged for the Affect Recognition Quotient. Cumulative cocaine doses and duration of cocaine use correlated negatively with emotion processing.Conclusion: Cocaine users show impaired cross-modal integration of different emotion processing channels particularly with regard to prosody, whereas more basic aspects of emotion processing such as facial affect perception are comparable to the performance of healthy controls.

Helping yourself helps others: Linking children's emotion regulation to prosocial behavior through sympathy and trust.

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Song, Ju-Hyun; Colasante, Tyler; Malti, Tina

2018-06-01

Although emotionally well-regulated children are more likely to behave prosocially, the psychological processes that connect their emotion regulation abilities and prosocial behavior are less clear. We tested if other-oriented sympathy and trust mediated the links between emotion regulation capacities (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], negative emotional intensity, and sadness regulation) and prosocial behavior in an ethnically diverse sample of 4- and 8-year-olds (N = 131; 49% girls). Resting RSA was calculated from children's electrocardiogram data in response to a nondescript video. Sympathy was child and caregiver reported, whereas negative emotional intensity, sadness regulation, trust, and prosocial behavior were caregiver reported. Regardless of age, higher resting RSA was linked to higher sympathy, which was associated with higher prosocial behavior. The positive link between sadness regulation and prosocial behavior was mediated by higher sympathy and trust. Children's other-oriented psychological processes may play important roles in translating certain emotion regulation capacities into prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotional Interdependence and Well-Being in Close Relationships

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Sels, Laura; Ceulemans, Eva; Bulteel, Kirsten; Kuppens, Peter

2016-01-01

Emotional interdependence—here defined as partners’ emotions being linked to each other across time—is often considered a key characteristic of healthy romantic relationships. But is this actually the case? We conducted an experience-sampling study with 50 couples indicating their feelings 10 times a day for 7 days and modeled emotional interdependence for each couple separately taking a dyadographic approach. The majority of couples (64%) did not demonstrate strong signs of emotional interdependence, and couples that did, showed great inter-dyad differences in their specific patterns. Individuals from emotionally more interdependent couples reported higher individual well-being than individuals from more independent couples in terms of life satisfaction but not depression. Relational well-being was not (relationship satisfaction) or even negatively (empathic concern) related to the degree of emotional interdependence. Especially driving the emotions of the partner (i.e., sender effects) accounted for these associations, opposed to following the emotions of the partner (i.e., receiver effects). Additionally, assessing emotional interdependence for positive and negative emotions separately elucidated that primarily emotional interdependence for positive emotions predicted more self-reported life satisfaction and less empathic concern. These findings highlight the existence of large inter-dyad differences, explore relationships between emotional interdependence and key well-being variables, and demonstrate differential correlates for sending and receiving emotions. PMID:27014114

Emotional interdependence and well-being in close relationships

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Laura eSels

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Emotional interdependence—here defined as partners’ emotions being linked to each other across time—is often considered a key characteristic of healthy romantic relationships. But is this actually the case? We conducted an experience-sampling study with 50 couples indicating their feelings 10 times a day for 7 days and modeled emotional interdependence for each couple separately taking a dyadographic approach. The majority of couples (64% did not demonstrate strong signs of emotional interdependence, and couples that did, showed great inter-dyad differences in their specific patterns. Individuals from emotionally more interdependent couples reported higher individual well-being than individuals from more independent couples in terms of life satisfaction but not depression. Relational well-being was not (relationship satisfaction or even negatively (empathic concern related to the degree of emotional interdependence. Especially driving the emotions of the partner (i.e., sender effects accounted for these associations, opposed to following the emotions of the partner (i.e., receiver effects. Additionally, assessing emotional interdependence for positive and negative emotions separately elucidated that primarily emotional interdependence for positive emotions predicted more self-reported life satisfaction and less empathic concern. These findings highlight the existence of large inter-dyad differences, explore relationships between emotional interdependence and key well-being variables, and demonstrate differential correlates for sending and receiving emotions.

Difficulties in emotion regulation and risky driving among Lithuanian drivers.

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Šeibokaitė, Laura; Endriulaitienė, Auksė; Sullman, Mark J M; Markšaitytė, Rasa; Žardeckaitė-Matulaitienė, Kristina

2017-10-03

Risky driving is a common cause of traffic accidents and injuries. However, there is no clear evidence of how difficulties in emotion regulation contribute to risky driving behavior, particularly in small post-Soviet countries. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between difficulties in emotion regulation and self-reported risky driving behavior in a sample of Lithuanian drivers. A total of 246 nonprofessional Lithuanian drivers participated in a cross-sectional survey. Difficulties in emotion regulation were assessed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer 2004), and risky driving behavior was assessed using the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ; Lajunen et al. 2004). Males scored higher than females in aggressive violations and ordinary violations. Females scored higher for the nonacceptance of emotional responses, whereas males had more difficulties with emotional awareness than females. More difficulties in emotion regulation were positively correlated with driving errors, lapses, aggressive violations, and ordinary violations for both males and females. Structural equation modeling showed that difficulties in emotion regulation explained aggressive and ordinary violations more clearly than lapses and errors. When controlling for interactions among the distinct regulation difficulties, difficulties with impulse control and difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior predicted risky driving. Furthermore, nonacceptance of emotional responses and limited access to emotion regulation strategies were related to less violations and more driving errors. Emotion regulation difficulties were associated with the self-reported risky driving behaviors of Lithuanian drivers. This provides useful hints for improving driver training programs in order to prevent traffic injuries.

Adult age-differences in subjective impression of emotional faces are reflected in emotion-related attention and memory tasks

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Joakim eSvard

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Although younger and older adults appear to attend to and remember emotional faces differently, less is known about age-related differences in the subjective emotional impression (arousal, potency, and valence of emotional faces and how these differences, in turn, are reflected in age differences in various emotional tasks. In the current study, we used the same facial emotional stimuli (angry and happy faces in four tasks: emotional rating, attention, categorical perception, and visual short-term memory (VSTM. The aim of this study was to investigate effects of age on the subjective emotional impression of angry and happy faces and to examine whether any age differences were mirrored in measures of emotional behavior (attention, categorical perception, and memory.In addition, regression analyses were used to further study impression-behavior associations. Forty younger adults (range 20-30 years and thirty-nine older adults (range 65-75 years participated in the experiment. The emotional rating task showed that older adults perceived less arousal, potency, and valence than younger adults and that the difference was more pronounced for angry than happy faces. Similarly, the results of the attention and memory tasks demonstrated interaction effects between emotion and age, and age differences on these measures were larger for angry than for happy faces. Regression analyses confirmed that in both age groups, higher potency ratings predicted both visual search and visual short-term memory efficiency. Future studies should consider the possibility that age differences in the subjective emotional impression of facial emotional stimuli may explain age differences in attention to and memory of such stimuli.

Emotional Creativity as Predictor of Intrinsic Motivation and Academic Engagement in University Students: The Mediating Role of Positive Emotions.

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Oriol, Xavier; Amutio, Alberto; Mendoza, Michelle; Da Costa, Silvia; Miranda, Rafael

2016-01-01

Emotional creativity (EC) implies experiencing a complex emotional life, which is becoming increasingly necessary in societies that demand innovation and constant changes. This research studies the relation of EC as a dispositional trait with intrinsic motivation (IM) and academic engagement (AE). A sample of 428 university Chilean students, 36.5% men and 63.5% women, with ages from 18 to 45 years-old (M = 20.37; DT = 2.71). Additionally, the mediating function of class-related positive emotions in this relation is explored. The obtained data indicate that developing high levels of dispositional EC enhances the activation of positive emotions, such as gratitude, love and hope, in the classroom. Furthermore, EC predicts IM and AE of university students by the experience of positive emotions. These results compel us to be aware of the importance that university students can understand the complexity of the emotional processes they undergo. A greater control of these emotions would allow students to maintain higher levels of interest in their studies at the different educational stages and to avoid the risk of school failure.

Emotion, directed forgetting, and source memory.

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Otani, Hajime; Libkuman, Terry M; Goernert, Phillip N; Kato, Koichi; Migita, Mai; Freehafer, Sarah E; Landow, Michael P

2012-08-01

We investigated the role of emotion on item and source memory using the item method of directed forgetting (DF) paradigm. We predicted that emotion would produce source memory impairment because emotion would make it more difficult to distinguish between to-be-remembered (R items) and to-be-forgotten items (F items) by making memory strength of R and F items similar to each other. Participants were presented with negatively arousing, positively arousing, and neutral pictures. After each picture, they received an instruction to remember or forget the picture. At retrieval, participants were asked to recall both R and F items and indicate whether each item was an R or F item. Recall was higher for the negatively arousing than for the positively arousing or neutral pictures. Further, DF occurred for the positively arousing and neutral pictures, whereas DF was not significant for the negatively arousing pictures. More importantly, the negatively arousing pictures, particularly the ones with violent content, showed a higher tendency of producing misattribution errors than the other picture types, supporting the notion that negative emotion may produce source memory impairment, even though it is still not clear whether the impairment occurs at encoding or retrieval. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

Capturing Physiology of Emotion along Facial Muscles: A Method of Distinguishing Feigned from Involuntary Expressions

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Khan, Masood Mehmood; Ward, Robert D.; Ingleby, Michael

The ability to distinguish feigned from involuntary expressions of emotions could help in the investigation and treatment of neuropsychiatric and affective disorders and in the detection of malingering. This work investigates differences in emotion-specific patterns of thermal variations along the major facial muscles. Using experimental data extracted from 156 images, we attempted to classify patterns of emotion-specific thermal variations into neutral, and voluntary and involuntary expressions of positive and negative emotive states. Initial results suggest (i) each facial muscle exhibits a unique thermal response to various emotive states; (ii) the pattern of thermal variances along the facial muscles may assist in classifying voluntary and involuntary facial expressions; and (iii) facial skin temperature measurements along the major facial muscles may be used in automated emotion assessment.

Memories of social interactions: age differences in emotional intensity.

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Charles, Susan Turk; Piazza, Jennifer R

2007-06-01

The current study examined age differences in the intensity of emotions experienced during social interactions. Because emotions are felt most intensely in situations central to motivational goals, age differences in emotional intensity may exist in social situations that meet the goals for one age group more than the other. Guided by theories of emotional intensity and socioemotional selectivity, it was hypothesized that social partner type would elicit different affective responses by age. Younger (n = 71) and older (n = 71) adults recalled experiences of positive and negative emotions with new friends, established friends, and family members from the prior week. Compared with younger adults, older adults reported lower intensity positive emotions with new friends, similarly intense positive emotions with established friends, and higher intensity positive emotions with family members. Older adults reported lower intensity negative emotions for all social partners than did younger adults, but this difference was most pronounced for interactions with new friends. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

Do people essentialize emotions? Individual differences in emotion essentialism and emotional experience.

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Lindquist, Kristen A; Gendron, Maria; Oosterwijk, Suzanne; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

2013-08-01

Many scientific models of emotion assume that emotion categories are natural kinds that carve nature at its joints. These beliefs remain strong, despite the fact that the empirical record on the issue has remained equivocal for over a century. In this research, the authors examined one reason for this situation: People essentialize emotion categories by assuming that members of the same category (e.g., fear) have a shared metaphysical essence (i.e., a common causal mechanism). In Study 1, the authors found that lay people essentialize emotions by assuming that instances of the same emotion category have a shared essence that defines them, even when their surface features differ. Study 2 extended these findings, demonstrating that lay people tend to essentialize categories the more a category is of the body (vs. the mind). In Study 3, we examined the links between emotion essentialism and the complexity of actual emotional experiences. In particular, we predicted and found that individuals who hold essentialist beliefs about emotions describe themselves as experiencing highly differentiated emotional experiences but do not show evidence of stronger emotional differentiation in their momentary ratings of experience in everyday life. Implications for the science of emotion are discussed. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.

Encoding conditions affect recognition of vocally expressed emotions across cultures.

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Jürgens, Rebecca; Drolet, Matthis; Pirow, Ralph; Scheiner, Elisabeth; Fischer, Julia

2013-01-01

Although the expression of emotions in humans is considered to be largely universal, cultural effects contribute to both emotion expression and recognition. To disentangle the interplay between these factors, play-acted and authentic (non-instructed) vocal expressions of emotions were used, on the assumption that cultural effects may contribute differentially to the recognition of staged and spontaneous emotions. Speech tokens depicting four emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear) were obtained from German radio archives and re-enacted by professional actors, and presented to 120 participants from Germany, Romania, and Indonesia. Participants in all three countries were poor at distinguishing between play-acted and spontaneous emotional utterances (58.73% correct on average with only marginal cultural differences). Nevertheless, authenticity influenced emotion recognition: across cultures, anger was recognized more accurately when play-acted (z = 15.06, p emotions, indicating a moderate in-group advantage. There was no difference between Romanian and Indonesian subjects in the overall emotion recognition. Differential cultural effects became particularly apparent in terms of differential biases in emotion attribution. While all participants labeled play-acted expressions as anger more frequently than expected, German participants exhibited a further bias toward choosing anger for spontaneous stimuli. In contrast to the German sample, Romanian and Indonesian participants were biased toward choosing sadness. These results support the view that emotion recognition rests on a complex interaction of human universals and cultural specificities. Whether and in which way the observed biases are linked to cultural differences in self-construal remains an issue for further investigation.

Dissociation between Emotional Remapping of Fear and Disgust in Alexithymia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristina Scarpazza

Full Text Available There is growing evidence that individuals are able to understand others' emotions because they "embody" them, i.e., re-experience them by activating a representation of the observed emotion within their own body. One way to study emotion embodiment is provided by a multisensory stimulation paradigm called emotional visual remapping of touch (eVRT, in which the degree of embodiment/remapping of emotions is measured as enhanced detection of near-threshold tactile stimuli on one's own face while viewing different emotional facial expressions. Here, we measured remapping of fear and disgust in participants with low (LA and high (HA levels of alexithymia, a personality trait characterized by a difficulty in recognizing emotions. The results showed that fear is remapped in LA but not in HA participants, while disgust is remapped in HA but not in LA participants. To investigate the hypothesis that HA might exhibit increased responses to emotional stimuli producing a heightened physical and visceral sensations, i.e., disgust, in a second experiment we investigated participants' interoceptive abilities and the link between interoception and emotional modulations of VRT. The results showed that participants' disgust modulations of VRT correlated with their ability to perceive bodily signals. We suggest that the emotional profile of HA individuals on the eVRT task could be related to their abnormal tendency to be focalized on their internal bodily signals, and to experience emotions in a "physical" way. Finally, we speculated that these results in HA could be due to a enhancement of insular activity during the perception of disgusted faces.

Adult attachment, emotion dysregulation, and symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder.

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Marganska, Anna; Gallagher, Michelle; Miranda, Regina

2013-01-01

Differences in attachment style have been linked to both emotion regulation and psychological functioning, but the emotion regulatory mechanism through which attachment style might impact symptoms of depression and anxiety is unclear. The present study examined the explanatory role of emotion dysregulation in the relation between adult attachment style and symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in a sample of 284 adults. Secure attachment was associated with lower depression and GAD symptoms and lower emotion dysregulation, whereas insecure attachment styles were generally associated with higher depression and GAD scores and higher emotion dysregulation. Perceived inability to generate effective emotion regulation strategies mediated the relation between insecure attachment and both depression and GAD symptoms. Nonacceptance of negative emotions and inability to control impulsive behaviors emerged as additional mediators of the relation between insecure attachment styles and GAD symptoms. The differential contribution of attachment style and emotion regulation to the prediction of depression and GAD symptoms may reflect differences in vulnerability to depression and GAD. © 2013 American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Disentangling cognition and emotion in older adults: the role of cognitive control and mental health in emotional conflict adaptation.

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Hantke, Nathan C; Gyurak, Anett; Van Moorleghem, Katie; Waring, Jill D; Adamson, Maheen M; O'Hara, Ruth; Beaudreau, Sherry A

2017-08-01

Recent research suggests cognition has a bidirectional relationship with emotional processing in older adults, yet the relationship is still poorly understood. We aimed to examine a potential relationship between late-life cognitive function, mental health symptoms, and emotional conflict adaptation. We hypothesized that worse cognitive control abilities would be associated with poorer emotional conflict adaptation. We further hypothesized that a higher severity of mental health symptoms would be associated with poorer emotional conflict adaptation. Participants included 83 cognitively normal community-dwelling older adults who completed a targeted mental health and cognitive battery, and emotion and gender conflict-adaptation tasks. Consistent with our hypothesis, poorer performance on components of cognitive control, specifically attention and working memory, was associated with poorer emotional conflict adaptation. This association with attention and working memory was not observed in the non-affective-based gender conflict adaptation task. Mental health symptoms did not predict emotional conflict adaptation, nor did performance on other cognitive measures. Our findings suggest that emotion conflict adaptation is disrupted in older individuals who have poorer attention and working memory. Components of cognitive control may therefore be an important potential source of inter-individual differences in late-life emotion regulation and cognitive affective deficits. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Creativity, Psychopathology, and Emotion Processing: A Liberal Response Bias for Remembering Negative Information Is Associated with Higher Creativity

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Drus, Marina; Kozbelt, Aaron; Hughes, Robert R.

2014-01-01

To what extent do more creative people process emotional information differently than less creative people? This study examined the role of emotion processing in creativity and its implications for the creativity-psychopathology association. A total of 117 participants performed a memory recognition task for negative, positive, and neutral words;…

Emotional Intelligence and Graduates - Employers' Perspectives

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Jameson, Ailish; Carthy, Aiden; McGuinness, Colm; McSweeney, Fiona

2016-01-01

Research has demonstrated that employers favour graduates who possess higher levels of emotional intelligence. Many initiatives to increase students’ levels of EI have involved ‘whole school’ approaches, whereby generic EI skills programmes are delivered to all students in a third level institute. This paper details an initial survey of employers’ (n = 500) opinions on the importance and current level of graduates’ social and emotional competencies. The survey was completed across fi...

Examination of emotion-induced changes in eating: A latent profile analysis of the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire.

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Bourdier, L; Morvan, Y; Kotbagi, G; Kern, L; Romo, L; Berthoz, S

2018-04-01

It is now recognized that emotions can influence food intake. While some people report eating less when distressed, others report either no change of eating or eating more in the same condition. The question whether this interindividual variability also occurs in response to positive emotions has been overlooked in most studies on Emotional Eating (EE). Using the Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ) and Latent Profile Analysis, this study aimed to examine the existence of latent emotion-induced changes in eating profiles, and explore how these profiles differ by testing their relations with 1) age and sex, 2) BMI and risk for eating disorders (ED) and 3) factors that are known to be associated with EE such as perceived positive/negative feelings, depression, anxiety, stress symptoms and impulsivity. Among 401 university students (245 females) who completed the EMAQ, 3 profiles emerged (P1:11.2%, P2:60.1%, P3:28.7%), with distinct patterns of eating behaviors in response to negative emotions and situations but few differences regarding positive ones. Negative emotional overeaters (P1) and negative emotional undereaters (P3) reported similar levels of emotional distress and positive feelings, and were at greater risk for ED. However, the people in the former profile i) reported decreasing their food intake in a positive context, ii) were in majority females, iii) had higher BMI and iv) were more prone to report acting rashly when experiencing negative emotions. Our findings suggest that a person-centred analysis of the EMAQ scores offers a promising way to capture the inter-individual variability of emotionally-driven eating behaviors. These observations also add to the growing literature underscoring the importance of further investigating the role of different facets of impulsivity in triggering overeating and to develop more targeted interventions of EE. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural Signaling of Food Healthiness Associated with Emotion Processing.

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Herwig, Uwe; Dhum, Matthias; Hittmeyer, Anna; Opialla, Sarah; Scherpiet, Sigrid; Keller, Carmen; Brühl, Annette B; Siegrist, Michael

2016-01-01

The ability to differentiate healthy from unhealthy foods is important in order to promote good health. Food, however, may have an emotional connotation, which could be inversely related to healthiness. The neurobiological background of differentiating healthy and unhealthy food and its relations to emotion processing are not yet well understood. We addressed the neural activations, particularly considering the single subject level, when one evaluates a food item to be of a higher, compared to a lower grade of healthiness with a particular view on emotion processing brain regions. Thirty-seven healthy subjects underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while evaluating the healthiness of food presented as photographs with a subsequent rating on a visual analog scale. We compared individual evaluations of high and low healthiness of food items and also considered gender differences. We found increased activation when food was evaluated to be healthy in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and precuneus in whole brain analyses. In ROI analyses, perceived and rated higher healthiness was associated with lower amygdala activity and higher ventral striatal and orbitofrontal cortex activity. Females exerted a higher activation in midbrain areas when rating food items as being healthy. Our results underline the close relationship between food and emotion processing, which makes sense considering evolutionary aspects. Actively evaluating and deciding whether food is healthy is accompanied by neural signaling associated with reward and self-relevance, which could promote salutary nutrition behavior. The involved brain regions may be amenable to mechanisms of emotion regulation in the context of psychotherapeutic regulation of food intake.

The two sides of adversity: the effect of distant versus recent adversity on updating emotional content in working memory.

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Levens, Sara M; Armstrong, Laura Marie; Orejuela-Dávila, Ana I; Alverio, Tabitha

2017-09-01

Previous research suggests that adversity can have both adaptive and maladaptive effects, yet the emotional and working memory processes that contribute to more or less adaptive outcomes are unclear. The present study sought to investigate how updating emotional content differs in adolescents who have experienced past, recent, or no adversity. Participants who had experienced distant adversity (N = 53), no adversity (N = 58), or recent adversity only (N = 20) performed an emotion n-back task with emotional facial expressions. Results revealed that the distant adversity group exhibited significantly faster reaction times (RTs) than the no adversity and recent adversity only groups. In contrast, the recent adversity only group exhibited significantly slower RTs and more errors than the distant adversity and no adversity groups. These results suggest an emotion and executive control pathway by which both the benefits and negative effects of adversity may be conferred. Results also highlight the importance of time in assessing the impact of adversity.

The effect of emotion on articulation rate in persistence and recovery of childhood stuttering.

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Erdemir, Aysu; Walden, Tedra A; Jefferson, Caswell M; Choi, Dahye; Jones, Robin M

2018-06-01

This study investigated the possible association of emotional processes and articulation rate in pre-school age children who stutter and persist (persisting), children who stutter and recover (recovered) and children who do not stutter (nonstuttering). The participants were ten persisting, ten recovered, and ten nonstuttering children between the ages of 3-5 years; who were classified as persisting, recovered, or nonstuttering approximately 2-2.5 years after the experimental testing took place. The children were exposed to three emotionally-arousing video clips (baseline, positive and negative) and produced a narrative based on a text-free storybook following each video clip. From the audio-recordings of these narratives, individual utterances were transcribed and articulation rates were calculated. Results indicated that persisting children exhibited significantly slower articulation rates following the negative emotion condition, unlike recovered and nonstuttering children whose articulation rates were not affected by either of the two emotion-inducing conditions. Moreover, all stuttering children displayed faster rates during fluent compared to stuttered speech; however, the recovered children were significantly faster than the persisting children during fluent speech. Negative emotion plays a detrimental role on the speech-motor control processes of children who persist, whereas children who eventually recover seem to exhibit a relatively more stable and mature speech-motor system. This suggests that complex interactions between speech-motor and emotional processes are at play in stuttering recovery and persistency; and articulation rates following negative emotion or during stuttered versus fluent speech might be considered as potential factors to prospectively predict persistence and recovery from stuttering. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Appetitive Motivation and Negative Emotion Reactivity among Remitted Depressed Youth

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Hankin, Benjamin L.; Wetter, Emily K.; Flory, Kate

2012-01-01

Depression has been characterized as involving altered appetitive motivation and emotional reactivity. Yet no study has examined objective indices of emotional reactivity when the appetitive/approach system is suppressed in response to failure to attain a self-relevant goal and desired reward. Three groups of youth (N = 98, ages 9–15; remitted depressed, n = 34; externalizing disordered without depression, n = 30, and healthy controls, n = 34) participated in a novel reward striving task designed to activate the appetitive/approach motivation system. Objective facial expressions of emotion were videotaped and coded throughout both failure (i.e., nonreward) and control (success and reward) conditions. Observational coding of facial expressions as well as youths’ subjective emotion reports showed that the remitted depressed youth specifically exhibited more negative emotional reactivity to failure in the reward striving task, but not the control condition. Neither externalizing disordered (i.e., ADHD, CD, and/ or ODD) nor control youth displayed greater negative emotional reactivity in either the failure or control condition. Findings suggest that depression among youth is related to dysregulated appetitive motivation and associated negative emotional reactivity after failing to achieve an important, self-relevant goal and not attaining reward. These deficits in reward processing appear to be specific to depression as externalizing disordered youth did not display negative emotional reactivity to failure after their appetitive motivation system was activated. PMID:22901275

Cortical associates of emotional reactivity and regulation in childhood stuttering.

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Zengin-Bolatkale, Hatun; Conture, Edward G; Key, Alexandra P; Walden, Tedra A; Jones, Robin M

2018-06-01

This study sought to determine the cortical associates of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation (as indexed by the amplitude of evoked response potentials [ERP]) in young children who do and do not stutter during passive viewing of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral pictures. Participants were 17 young children who stutter and 22 young children who do not stutter (between 4 years 0 months to 6 years 11 months). The dependent measures were (1) mean amplitude of late positive potential (LPP, an ERP sensitive to emotional stimuli) during passive (i.e., no response required) picture viewing and directed reappraisal tasks and (2) emotional reactivity and regulation related scores on caregiver reports of young children's temperament (Children's Behavior Questionnaire, CBQ). Young CWS, when compared to CWNS, exhibited significantly greater LPP amplitudes when viewing unpleasant pictures, but no significant between-group difference when viewing pleasant pictures and during the emotion regulation condition. There were, however, for CWS, but not CWNS, significant correlations between temperament-related measures of emotion and cortical measures of emotional reactivity and regulation. Findings provide further empirical support for the notion that emotional processes are associated with childhood stuttering, and that CWS's inherent temperamental proclivities need to be taken into account when empirically studying or theorizing about this association. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Are only Emotional Strengths Emotional? Character Strengths and Disposition to Positive Emotions.

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Güsewell, Angelika; Ruch, Willibald

2012-07-01

This study aimed to examine the relations between character strengths and dispositional positive emotions (i.e. joy, contentment, pride, love, compassion, amusement, and awe). A sample of 574 German-speaking adults filled in the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scales (DPES; Shiota, Keltner, & John, 2006), and the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS; Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005). The factorial structure of the DPES was examined on item level. Joy and contentment could not be clearly separated; the items of the other five emotions loaded on separate factors. A confirmatory factor analysis assuming two latent factors (self-oriented and object/situation specific) was computed on scale level. Results confirmed the existence of these factors, but also indicated that the seven emotions did not split up into two clearly separable families. Correlations between dispositional positive emotions and character strengths were positive and generally low to moderate; a few theoretically meaningful strengths-emotions pairs yielded coefficients>.40. Finally, the link between five character strengths factors (i.e. emotional strengths, interpersonal strengths, strengths of restraint, intellectual strengths, and theological strengths) and the emotional dispositions was examined. Each of the factors displayed a distinctive "emotional pattern"; emotional strengths evidenced the most numerous and strongest links to emotional dispositions. © 2012 The Authors. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being © 2012 The International Association of Applied Psychology.

On the Assessment of Emotions and Emotional Competencies

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Johnny J.R Fontaine

2011-11-01

Full Text Available The idea to devote a special issue on the Assessment of Emotional Functioning and Emotional Competence arose during the preparation of the 10th European Conference on Psychological Assessment that took place from the 16th until 19th September 2009 in Ghent. The conference theme was "The assessment of emotions and emotional competencies". Emotions have become a cross-cutting theme of research across theoretical and applied domains in psychology. The academic interest is especially voiced by scientific journals focusing on emotion, such as 'Motivation and Emotion', 'Cognition and Emotion', and more recently 'Emotion'. Moreover, there has been a long-standing interest in emotions in the applied domains, especially in clinical psychology.

The relationship of positive and negative expressiveness to the processing of emotion information.

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Knyazev, Gennady G; Barchard, Kimberly A; Razumnikova, Olga M; Mitrofanova, Larisa G

2012-06-01

The tendency to express emotions non-verbally is positively related to perception of emotions in oneself. This study examined its relationship to perception of emotions in others. In 40 healthy adults, EEG theta synchronization was used to indicate emotion processing following presentation of happy, angry, and neutral faces. Both positive and negative expressiveness were associated with higher emotional sensitivity, as shown by cortical responses to facial expressions during the early, unconscious processing stage. At the late, conscious processing stage, positive expressiveness was associated with higher sensitivity to happy faces but lower sensitivity to angry faces. Thus, positive expressiveness predisposes people to allocate fewer attentional resources for conscious perception of angry faces. In contrast, negative expressiveness was consistently associated with higher sensitivity. The effects of positive expressiveness occurred in cortical areas that deal with emotions, but the effects of negative expressiveness occurred in areas engaged in self-referential processes in the context of social relationships. © 2012 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2012 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

Physiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation in early adolescents.

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Latham, Melissa D; Cook, Nina; Simmons, Julian G; Byrne, Michelle L; Kettle, Jonathan W L; Schwartz, Orli; Vijayakumar, Nandita; Whittle, Sarah; Allen, Nicholas B

2017-07-01

Few studies have examined physiological correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation in adolescents, despite the occurrence in this group of significant developmental changes in emotional functioning. The current study employed multiple physiological measures (i.e., startle-elicited eyeblink and ERP, skin conductance, facial EMG) to assess the emotional reactivity and regulation of 113 early adolescents in response to valenced images. Reactivity was measured while participants viewed images, and regulation was measured when they were asked to discontinue or maintain their emotional reactions to the images. Adolescent participants did not exhibit fear-potentiated startle blink. However, they did display affect-consistent zygomatic and corrugator activity during reactivity, as well as inhibition of some of these facial patterns during regulation. Skin conductance demonstrated arousal dependent activity during reactivity, and overall decreases during regulation. These findings suggest that early adolescents display reactivity to valenced pictures, but not to startle probes. Psychophysiological patterns during emotion regulation indicate additional effort and/or attention during the regulation process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Emotion Recognition in Face and Body Motion in Bulimia Nervosa.

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Dapelo, Marcela Marin; Surguladze, Simon; Morris, Robin; Tchanturia, Kate

2017-11-01

Social cognition has been studied extensively in anorexia nervosa (AN), but there are few studies in bulimia nervosa (BN). This study investigated the ability of people with BN to recognise emotions in ambiguous facial expressions and in body movement. Participants were 26 women with BN, who were compared with 35 with AN, and 42 healthy controls. Participants completed an emotion recognition task by using faces portraying blended emotions, along with a body emotion recognition task by using videos of point-light walkers. The results indicated that BN participants exhibited difficulties recognising disgust in less-ambiguous facial expressions, and a tendency to interpret non-angry faces as anger, compared with healthy controls. These difficulties were similar to those found in AN. There were no significant differences amongst the groups in body motion emotion recognition. The findings suggest that difficulties with disgust and anger recognition in facial expressions may be shared transdiagnostically in people with eating disorders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Emotional Self-Efficacy, Emotional Empathy and Emotional Approach Coping as Sources of Happiness

OpenAIRE

Tarık Totan; Tayfun Doğan; Fatma Sapmaz

2013-01-01

Among the many variables affecting happiness, there are those that arise from emotional factors. In this study, the hypothesis stating that happiness is affected by emotional self-efficacy, emotional empathy and emotional approach coping has been examined using the path model. A total of 334 university students participated in this study, 229 of whom were females and 105 being males. Oxford Happiness Questionnaire-Short Form, Emotional Self-efficacy Scale, Multi-Dimensional Emotional Empathy ...

Gender, Emotion Work, and Relationship Quality: A Daily Diary Study

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Curran, Melissa A.; McDaniel, Brandon T.; Pollitt, Amanda M.; Totenhagen, Casey J.

2015-01-01

We use the gender relations perspective from feminist theorizing to investigate how gender and daily emotion work predict daily relationship quality in 74 couples (148 individuals in dating, cohabiting, or married relationships) primarily from the southwest U.S. Emotion work is characterized by activities that enhance others’ emotional well-being. We examined emotion work two ways: trait (individuals’ average levels) and state (individuals’ daily fluctuations). We examined actor and partner effects of emotion work and tested for gender differences. As outcome variables, we included six types of daily relationship quality: love, commitment, satisfaction, closeness, ambivalence, and conflict. This approach allowed us to predict three aspects of relationship quality: average levels, daily fluctuations, and volatility (overall daily variability across a week). Three patterns emerged. First, emotion work predicted relationship quality in this diverse set of couples. Second, gender differences were minimal for fixed effects: Trait and state emotion work predicted higher average scores on, and positive daily increases in, individuals’ own positive relationship quality and lower average ambivalence. Third, gender differences were more robust for volatility: For partner effects, having a partner who reported higher average emotion work predicted lower volatility in love, satisfaction, and closeness for women versus greater volatility in love and commitment for men. Neither gender nor emotion work predicted average levels, daily fluctuations, or volatility in conflict. We discuss implications and future directions pertaining to the unique role of gender in understanding the associations between daily emotion work and volatility in daily relationship quality for relational partners. PMID:26508808

Do different fairness contexts and facial emotions motivate 'irrational' social decision-making in major depression? An exploratory patient study.

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Radke, Sina; Schäfer, Ina C; Müller, Bernhard W; de Bruijn, Ellen R A

2013-12-15

Although 'irrational' decision-making has been linked to depression, the contribution of biases in information processing to these findings remains unknown. To investigate the impact of cognitive biases and aberrant processing of facial emotions on social decision-making, we manipulated both context-related and emotion-related information in a modified Ultimatum Game. Unfair offers were (1) paired with different unselected alternatives, establishing the context in which an offer was made, and (2) accompanied by emotional facial expressions of proposers. Responder behavior was assessed in patients with major depressive disorder and healthy controls. In both groups alike, rejection rates were highest following unambiguous signals of unfairness, i.e. an angry proposer face or when an unfair distribution had deliberately been chosen over an equal split. However, depressed patients showed overall higher rejection rates than healthy volunteers, without exhibiting differential processing biases. This suggests that depressed patients were, as healthy individuals, basing their decisions on informative, salient features and differentiating between (i) fair and unfair offers, (ii) alternatives to unfair offers and (iii) proposers' facial emotions. Although more fundamental processes, e.g. reduced reward sensitivity, might underlie increased rejection in depression, the current study provides insight into mechanisms that shape fairness considerations in both depressed and healthy individuals. © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Process Model of Group-Based Emotion: Integrating Intergroup Emotion and Emotion Regulation Perspectives.

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Goldenberg, Amit; Halperin, Eran; van Zomeren, Martijn; Gross, James J

2016-05-01

Scholars interested in emotion regulation have documented the different goals and strategies individuals have for regulating their emotions. However, little attention has been paid to the regulation of group-based emotions, which are based on individuals' self-categorization as a group member and occur in response to situations perceived as relevant for that group. We propose a model for examining group-based emotion regulation that integrates intergroup emotions theory and the process model of emotion regulation. This synergy expands intergroup emotion theory by facilitating further investigation of different goals (i.e., hedonic or instrumental) and strategies (e.g., situation selection and modification strategies) used to regulate group-based emotions. It also expands emotion regulation research by emphasizing the role of self-categorization (e.g., as an individual or a group member) in the emotional process. Finally, we discuss the promise of this theoretical synergy and suggest several directions for future research on group-based emotion regulation. © 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Emotional eating and Pavlovian learning: evidence for conditioned appetitive responding to negative emotional states.

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Bongers, Peggy; Jansen, Anita

2017-02-01

Appetitive learning has been demonstrated several times using neutral cues or contexts as a predictor of food intake and it has been shown that humans easily learn cued desires for foods. It has, however, never been studied whether internal cues are also capable of appetitive conditioning. In this study, we tested whether humans can learn cued eating desires to negative moods as conditioned stimuli (CS), thereby offering a potential explanation of emotional eating (EE). Female participants were randomly presented with 10 different stimuli eliciting either negative or neutral emotional states, with one of these states paired with eating chocolate. Expectancy to eat, desire to eat, salivation, and unpleasantness of experiencing negative emotions were assessed. After conditioning, participants were brought into a negative emotional state and were asked to choose between money and chocolate. Data showed differential conditioned responding on the expectancy and desire measures, but not on salivation. Specific conditioned effects were obtained for participants with a higher BMI (body mass index) on the choice task, and for participants high on EE on the unpleasantness ratings. These findings provide the first experimental evidence for the idea that negative emotions can act as conditioned stimuli, and might suggest that classical conditioning is involved in EE.

The Affective Consequences of Service Work: Managing Emotions on the Job.

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Wharton, Amy S.

1993-01-01

Data from 622 workers (83% in hospitals, 17% banks) showed that workers who perform emotional labor (requiring public contact and production of emotional state in customers) are no more likely to suffer emotional exhaustion, especially those with higher job autonomy. Women and those with high autonomy express more job satisfaction. Self-selection…

Emotional distress in women presenting for breast imaging

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gupta, R.; Roy, S.; Nayak, Madhabika B.; Khoursheed, M.

1999-01-01

The aim of this study was to assess anxiety and depression in a sample of women presenting for imaging of breast following a clinical referral. Emotional distress in the women was also assessed in relation to demographic factors, reason for referral, presence for breast symptoms, type of imaging procedure performed and self-reported pain and discomfort during imaging. The study comprised 167 patients. The Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) and a discomfort rating scale were used to assess emotional distress and discomfort or pain experienced during the imaging. While less than 10% of all subjects scored above psychiatric cut-off points for anxiety and depression, 25% and 20% reported significant distress associated with anxiety and depression symptoms respectively. Education alone was associated with higher anxiety scores, while the presence of breast symptoms significantly increased depression scores and reports of specific nonsomatic symptoms of depression. Higher anxiety and depression scores were also associated with pain experienced during the imaging procedure. Emotional distress may negatively impact women's experience of breast imaging. Screening for emotional distress is important within the context of breast imaging. (author)

Food-Induced Emotional Resonance Improves Emotion Recognition.

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Pandolfi, Elisa; Sacripante, Riccardo; Cardini, Flavia

2016-01-01

The effect of food substances on emotional states has been widely investigated, showing, for example, that eating chocolate is able to reduce negative mood. Here, for the first time, we have shown that the consumption of specific food substances is not only able to induce particular emotional states, but more importantly, to facilitate recognition of corresponding emotional facial expressions in others. Participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task before and after eating either a piece of chocolate or a small amount of fish sauce-which we expected to induce happiness or disgust, respectively. Our results showed that being in a specific emotional state improves recognition of the corresponding emotional facial expression. Indeed, eating chocolate improved recognition of happy faces, while disgusted expressions were more readily recognized after eating fish sauce. In line with the embodied account of emotion understanding, we suggest that people are better at inferring the emotional state of others when their own emotional state resonates with the observed one.

Food-Induced Emotional Resonance Improves Emotion Recognition

Science.gov (United States)

Pandolfi, Elisa; Sacripante, Riccardo; Cardini, Flavia

2016-01-01

The effect of food substances on emotional states has been widely investigated, showing, for example, that eating chocolate is able to reduce negative mood. Here, for the first time, we have shown that the consumption of specific food substances is not only able to induce particular emotional states, but more importantly, to facilitate recognition of corresponding emotional facial expressions in others. Participants were asked to perform an emotion recognition task before and after eating either a piece of chocolate or a small amount of fish sauce—which we expected to induce happiness or disgust, respectively. Our results showed that being in a specific emotional state improves recognition of the corresponding emotional facial expression. Indeed, eating chocolate improved recognition of happy faces, while disgusted expressions were more readily recognized after eating fish sauce. In line with the embodied account of emotion understanding, we suggest that people are better at inferring the emotional state of others when their own emotional state resonates with the observed one. PMID:27973559

Immediacy Bias in Emotion Perception: Current Emotions Seem More Intense than Previous Emotions

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Van Boven, Leaf; White, Katherine; Huber, Michaela

2009-01-01

People tend to perceive immediate emotions as more intense than previous emotions. This "immediacy bias" in emotion perception occurred for exposure to emotional but not neutral stimuli (Study 1), when emotional stimuli were separated by both shorter (2 s; Studies 1 and 2) and longer (20 min; Studies 3, 4, and 5) delays, and for emotional…

Jealousy and emotion: how partners react to infidelity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jesús M. Canto Ortiz

2009-05-01

Full Text Available This present study explores the differences between women's and men's responses to (hypothetical infidelity,  and how these responses are influenced by the  characteristics of the couple's relationship. 372 subjects completed questionnaires (a itemising their jealous reaction to a partner´s hypothetical infidelity (emotional or sexual; and (b the state of their relationship. A survey of 250 women and 122 men revealed that the women reported higher intensity of emotional distress than the men. in regard to both emotional and sexual infidelity. There were no significant differences between men and women in their reports of which infidelity troubled them more: both genders are troubled more by emotional infidelity. We also report the influence that the type of relationship has on the emotions provoked by the infidelity.

Quality of childcare influences children's attentiveness and emotional regulation at school entry.

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Gialamas, Angela; Sawyer, Alyssa C P; Mittinty, Murthy N; Zubrick, Stephen R; Sawyer, Michael G; Lynch, John

2014-10-01

To examine the association between domain-specific qualities of formal childcare at age 2-3 years and children's task attentiveness and emotional regulation at age 4-5 and 6-7 years. We used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 1038). Three domain-specific aspects of childcare quality were assessed: provider and program characteristics of care, activities in childcare, and carer-child relationship. Two self-regulatory abilities were considered: task attentiveness and emotional regulation. Associations between domain-specific qualities of childcare and self-regulation were investigated in linear regression analyses adjusted for confounding, with imputation for missing data. There was no association between any provider or program characteristics of care and children's task attentiveness and emotional regulation. The quality of activities in childcare were associated only with higher levels of emotional regulation at age 4-5 years (β = 0.24; 95% CI, 0.03-0.44) and 6-7 years (β = 0.26; 95% CI, 0.04-0.48). Higher-quality carer-child relationships were associated with higher levels of task attentiveness (β = 0.20; 95% CI, 0.05-0.36) and emotional regulation at age 4-5 years (β = 0.19; 95% CI, 0.04-0.34) that persisted to age 6-7 years (β = 0.26; 95% CI, 0.10-0.42; β = 0.31; 95% CI, 0.16-0.47). Among children using formal childcare, those who experienced higher-quality relationships were better able to regulate their attention and emotions as they started school. Higher emotional regulation was also observed for children engaged in more activities in childcare. Beneficial effects were stable over time. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Emotion Knowledge and Attentional Differences in Preschoolers Showing Context-Inappropriate Anger.

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Locke, Robin L; Lang, Nichole J

2016-08-01

Some children show anger inappropriate for the situation based on the predominant incentives, which is called context-inappropriate anger. Children need to attend to and interpret situational incentives for appropriate emotional responses. We examined associations of context-inappropriate anger with emotion recognition and attention problems in 43 preschoolers (42% male; M age = 55.1 months, SD = 4.1). Parents rated context-inappropriate anger across situations. Teachers rated attention problems using the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form. Emotion recognition was ability to recognize emotional faces using the Emotion Matching Test. Anger perception bias was indicated by anger to non-anger situations using an adapted Affect Knowledge Test. 28% of children showed context-inappropriate anger, which correlated with lower emotion recognition (β = -.28) and higher attention problems (β = .36). Higher attention problems correlated with more anger perception bias (β = .32). This cross-sectional, correlational study provides preliminary findings that children with context-inappropriate anger showed more attention problems, which suggests that both "problems" tend to covary and associate with deficits or biases in emotion knowledge. © The Author(s) 2016.

Neural correlates of emotional personality: a structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

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Stefan Koelsch

Full Text Available Studies addressing brain correlates of emotional personality have remained sparse, despite the involvement of emotional personality in health and well-being. This study investigates structural and functional brain correlates of psychological and physiological measures related to emotional personality. Psychological measures included neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness scores, as assessed using a standard personality questionnaire. As a physiological measure we used a cardiac amplitude signature, the so-called E κ value (computed from the electrocardiogram which has previously been related to tender emotionality. Questionnaire scores and E κ values were related to both functional (eigenvector centrality mapping, ECM and structural (voxel-based morphometry, VBM neuroimaging data. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI data were obtained from 22 individuals (12 females while listening to music (joy, fear, or neutral music. ECM results showed that agreeableness scores correlated with centrality values in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens. Individuals with higher E κ values (indexing higher tender emotionality showed higher centrality values in the subiculum of the right hippocampal formation. Structural MRI data from an independent sample of 59 individuals (34 females showed that neuroticism scores correlated with volume of the left amygdaloid complex. In addition, individuals with higher E κ showed larger gray matter volume in the same portion of the subiculum in which individuals with higher E κ showed higher centrality values. Our results highlight a role of the amygdala in neuroticism. Moreover, they indicate that a cardiac signature related to emotionality (E κ correlates with both function (increased network centrality and structure (grey matter volume of the subiculum of the hippocampal formation, suggesting a role of the hippocampal formation for

Neural correlates of emotional personality: a structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

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Koelsch, Stefan; Skouras, Stavros; Jentschke, Sebastian

2013-01-01

Studies addressing brain correlates of emotional personality have remained sparse, despite the involvement of emotional personality in health and well-being. This study investigates structural and functional brain correlates of psychological and physiological measures related to emotional personality. Psychological measures included neuroticism, extraversion, and agreeableness scores, as assessed using a standard personality questionnaire. As a physiological measure we used a cardiac amplitude signature, the so-called E κ value (computed from the electrocardiogram) which has previously been related to tender emotionality. Questionnaire scores and E κ values were related to both functional (eigenvector centrality mapping, ECM) and structural (voxel-based morphometry, VBM) neuroimaging data. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were obtained from 22 individuals (12 females) while listening to music (joy, fear, or neutral music). ECM results showed that agreeableness scores correlated with centrality values in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens). Individuals with higher E κ values (indexing higher tender emotionality) showed higher centrality values in the subiculum of the right hippocampal formation. Structural MRI data from an independent sample of 59 individuals (34 females) showed that neuroticism scores correlated with volume of the left amygdaloid complex. In addition, individuals with higher E κ showed larger gray matter volume in the same portion of the subiculum in which individuals with higher E κ showed higher centrality values. Our results highlight a role of the amygdala in neuroticism. Moreover, they indicate that a cardiac signature related to emotionality (E κ) correlates with both function (increased network centrality) and structure (grey matter volume) of the subiculum of the hippocampal formation, suggesting a role of the hippocampal formation for

Psychosocial effects of perceived emotional synchrony in collective gatherings.

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Páez, Dario; Rimé, Bernard; Basabe, Nekane; Wlodarczyk, Anna; Zumeta, Larraitz

2015-05-01

In a classic theory, Durkheim (1912) predicted that because of the social sharing of emotion they generate, collective gatherings bring participants to a stage of collective effervescence in which they experience a sense of union with others and a feeling of empowerment accompanied by positive affect. This would lead them to leave the collective situation with a renewed sense of confidence in life and in social institutions. A century after Durkheim's predictions of these effects, though, they remained untested as a whole. This article reports 4 studies, 2 correlational, 1 semilongitudinal, and 1 experimental, assessing the positive effects of participation in either positively valenced (folkloric marches) or negatively valenced (protest demonstrations) collective gatherings. Results confirmed that collective gatherings consistently strengthened collective identity, identity fusion, and social integration, as well as enhancing personal and collective self-esteem and efficacy, positive affect, and positive social beliefs among participants. In line with a central tenet of the theory, emotional communion, or perceived emotional synchrony with others mediated these effects. Higher perceived emotional synchrony was associated with stronger emotional reactions, stronger social support, and higher endorsement of social beliefs and values. Participation in symbolic collective gatherings also particularly reinforced identity fusion when perceived emotional synchrony was high. The respective contributions of perceived emotional synchrony and flow, or optimal experience, were also assessed. Whereas perceived emotional synchrony emerged as strongly related to the various social outcomes, flow was observed to be related first to collective efficacy and self-esteem, and thus, to encompass mainly empowerment effects. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Fictional Emotions within Emotion Driven Design

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knutz, Eva

2012-01-01

The aim of this paper is to address imaginative experiences of emotions by drawing Kendall Walton’s theory of make-believe. Moreover, we use a design case as means for investigating how a child’s felt emotions towards a hospital situation relates to his or her imaginative experiences of emotions...... towards a fictive character in a computer game simulating the real-world situation. In so doing, we contribute with new insights to existing theories of emotions in design, which tend to focus narrowly on felt and measurable emotions....

Negative Emotions Predict Elevated Interleukin-6 in the United States but not in Japan

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Miyamoto, Yuri; Boylan, Jennifer Morozink; Coe, Christopher L.; Curhan, Katherine B.; Levine, Cynthia S.; Markus, Hazel Rose; Park, Jiyoung; Kitayama, Shinobu; Kawakami, Norito; Karasawa, Mayumi; Love, Gayle D.; Ryff, Carol D.

2013-01-01

Previous studies conducted in Western cultures have shown that negative emotions predict higher levels of pro-inflammatory biomarkers, specifically interleukin-6 (IL-6). This link between negative emotions and IL-6 may be specific to Western cultures where negative emotions are perceived to be problematic and thus may not extend to Eastern cultures where negative emotions are seen as acceptable and normal. Using samples of 1044 American and 382 Japanese middle-aged and older adults, we investigated whether the relationship between negative emotions and IL-6 varies by cultural context. Negative emotions predicted higher IL-6 among American adults, whereas no association was evident among Japanese adults. Furthermore, the interaction between culture and negative emotions remained even after controlling for demographic variables, psychological factors (positive emotions, neuroticism, extraversion), health behaviors (smoking status, alcohol consumption), and health status (chronic conditions, BMI). These findings highlight the role of cultural context in shaping how negative emotions affect inflammatory physiology and underscore the importance of cultural ideas and practices relevant to negative emotions for understanding of the interplay between psychology, physiology, and health. PMID:23911591

Short-term verbal memory and psychophysiological response to emotion-related words in children who stutter

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Stokić Miodrag

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Emotions play a significant role in fluency disorders. In this research we wanted to examine immediate and delayed verbal recall for auditory presented words that carry information about different emotional state (emotion-related words and emotionally neutral words in children who stutter (N=35 and their peers (N=35. Using only word semantics, we wanted to eliminate emotional verbal expression of words as a factor that can influence memory abilities. In addition, we also wanted to examine skin conductance measure as an indicator of autonomic nervous system arousal during short-term memory task for emotion-related and emotionally neutral words. Parental questionnaire (Stuttering Intensity in Children Who Stutter in Positive and Negative Emotion-Related Everyday Situations was given to parents of children who stutter in order to collect data regarding stuttering severity in emotionally arousing situations in everyday life. Differences between the experimental and the control group in global memory capacity are highest in immediate recall (p=0,01 with the tendency for lowering statistical significance with prolongation of retention interval. According to the questionnaire results, children who stutter show a higher degree of stuttering in situations with positive emotional valence (p< 0.00. Skin conductance measurements showed higher autonomic nervous system arousal during perception and free recall of positive emotion-related words in children who stutter when compared to negative and emotionally neutral words. The results indicate higher emotional arousal to positive emotions in children who stutter (p=0.02, leading to either less fluent speech or suppression of verbal short-term memory capacity.

Encoding conditions affect recognition of vocally expressed emotions across cultures

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Rebecca eJürgens

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Although the expression of emotions in humans is considered to be largely universal, cultural effects contribute to both emotion expression and recognition. To disentangle the interplay between these factors, play-acted and authentic (non-instructed vocal expressions of emotions were used, on the assumption that cultural effects may contribute differentially to the recognition of staged and spontaneous emotions. Speech tokens depicting four emotions (anger, sadness, joy, fear were obtained from German radio archives and reenacted by professional actors, and presented to 120 participants from Germany, Romania, and Indonesia. Participants in all three countries were poor at distinguishing between play-acted and spontaneous emotional utterances (58.73% correct on average with only marginal cultural differences. Nevertheless, authenticity influenced emotion recognition: across cultures, anger was recognized more accurately when play-acted (z = 15.06, p < .001 and sadness when authentic (z = 6.63, p < .001, replicating previous findings from German populations. German subjects revealed a slight advantage in recognizing emotions, indicating a moderate in-group advantage. There was no difference between Romanian and Indonesian subjects in the overall emotion recognition. Differential cultural effects became particularly apparent in terms of differential biases in emotion attribution. While all participants labeled play-acted expressions as anger more frequently than expected, German participants exhibited a further bias towards choosing anger for spontaneous stimuli. In contrast to the German sample, Romanian and Indonesian participants were biased towards choosing sadness. These results support the view that emotion recognition rests on a complex interaction of human universals and cultural specificities. Whether and in which way the observed biases are linked to cultural differences in self-construal remains an issue for further investigation.

Powerful and Powerless Emotions in Partner Conflicts: Gender Differences

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Inmaculada Valor-Segura

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Conflict is inherent in all types of interpersonal relationships. It has especially important consequences in relationships involving high levels of interdependence, such as intimate relationships. Emotions are important to understand how people behave in their interpersonal relationships. Results from other studies suggest that women express powerless emotions like guilt, sadness or fear, and men express powerful emotions like anger or contempt. The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of emotions that men and women feel when in conflictive situations with their partner. In addition, we examined the effect of emotions on the prevalence of partner conflicts. A total of 142 undergraduate students participated in our study. We used a mixed factorial design with 5 different types of interpersonal conflicts as a within participants variable, and sex as a between-participants variable. Participants then rated the emotions felt in each conflictive situation, as well as the frequency of partner conflicts. Results showed sex differences in emotions in each conflictive situation. Women felt all emotions more intensely. In men, however, powerful emotions predicted a higher prevalence of partner conflicts.

Emotional Granularity Effects on Event-Related Brain Potentials during Affective Picture Processing.

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Lee, Ja Y; Lindquist, Kristen A; Nam, Chang S

2017-01-01

There is debate about whether emotional granularity , the tendency to label emotions in a nuanced and specific manner, is merely a product of labeling abilities, or a systematic difference in the experience of emotion during emotionally evocative events. According to the Conceptual Act Theory of Emotion (CAT) (Barrett, 2006), emotional granularity is due to the latter and is a product of on-going temporal differences in how individuals categorize and thus make meaning of their affective states. To address this question, the present study investigated the effects of individual differences in emotional granularity on electroencephalography-based brain activity during the experience of emotion in response to affective images. Event-related potentials (ERP) and event-related desynchronization and synchronization (ERD/ERS) analysis techniques were used. We found that ERP responses during the very early (60-90 ms), middle (270-300 ms), and later (540-570 ms) moments of stimulus presentation were associated with individuals' level of granularity. We also observed that highly granular individuals, compared to lowly granular individuals, exhibited relatively stable desynchronization of alpha power (8-12 Hz) and synchronization of gamma power (30-50 Hz) during the 3 s of stimulus presentation. Overall, our results suggest that emotional granularity is related to differences in neural processing throughout emotional experiences and that high granularity could be associated with access to executive control resources and a more habitual processing of affective stimuli, or a kind of "emotional complexity." Implications for models of emotion are also discussed.

Perception of emotional facial expressions in individuals with high Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ

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Ervin Poljac

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Autism is characterized by difficulties in social interaction, communication, restrictive and repetitive behaviours and specific impairments in emotional processing. The present study employed The Autism Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al. 2006 to quantify autistic traits in a group of 260 healthy individuals and to investigate whether this measure is related to the perception of facial emotional expressions. The emotional processing of twelve participants that scored significantly higher than the average on the AQ was compared to twelve participants with significantly lower AQ scores. Perception of emotional expressions was estimated by The Facial Recognition Task (Montagne et al. 2007. There were significant differences between the two groups with regard to accuracy and sensitivity of the perception of emotional facial expressions. Specifically, the group with high AQ score was less accurate and needed higher emotional content to recognize emotions of anger, disgust, happiness and sadness. This result implies a selective impairment that might be helpful in understanding the psychopathology of autism spectrum disorders.

Emotional and Physiological Desensitization to Real-Life and Movie Violence

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Mrug, Sylvie; Madan, Anjana; Cook, Edwin W.; Wright, Rex A.

2014-01-01

Youth are exposed to large amounts of violence in real life and media, which may lead to desensitization. Given evidence of curvilinear associations between exposure to violence and emotional distress, we examined linear and curvilinear associations of exposure to real-life and movie violence with PTSD symptoms, empathy, and physiological arousal, as well emotional and physiological reactivity to movie violence. College students (N=209; mean age=18.74) reported on their exposure to real-life and televised violence, PTSD symptoms, and empathy. Then, students were randomly assigned to view a series of violent or nonviolent high-action movie scenes, providing ratings of emotional distress after each clip. Blood pressure was measured at rest and during video viewing. Results showed that with increasing exposure to real-life violence, youth reported more PTSD symptoms and greater identification with fictional characters. Cognitive and emotional empathy increased from low to medium levels of exposure to violence, but declined at higher levels. For males, exposure to higher levels of real-life violence was associated with diminishing (vs. increasing) emotional distress when viewing violent videos. Exposure to televised violence was generally unrelated to emotional functioning. However, those with medium levels of exposure to TV/movie violence experienced lower elevations of blood pressure when viewing violent videos compared to those with low exposure, and those with higher levels of exposure evidenced rapid increase in blood pressure that quickly declined over time. The results point to diminished empathy and reduced emotional reactivity to violence as key aspects of desensitization to real-life violence, and more limited evidence of physiological desensitization to movie violence among those exposed to high levels of televised violence. PMID:25326900

The relationships between HIV stigma, emotional status, and emotional regulation among HIV-affected children in rural China.

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Wei, Wei; Li, Xiaoming; Harrison, Sayward; Zhao, Junfeng; Zhao, Guoxiang

2016-03-01

Children affected by HIV/AIDS have unique psychosocial needs that often go unaddressed in traditional treatment approaches. They are more likely than unaffected peers to encounter stigma, including overt discriminatory behaviors, as well as stereotyped attitudes. In addition, HIV-affected children are at risk for experiencing negative affect, including sadness and depression. Previous studies have identified a link between HIV stigma and the subsequent emotional status of children affected by HIV/AIDS. However, limited data are available regarding protective psychological factors that can mitigate the effects of HIV stigma and thus promote resiliency for this vulnerable population. Utilizing data from 790 children aged 6-17 years affected by parental HIV in rural central China this study aims to examine the association between HIV stigma, including both enacted and perceived stigma, and emotional status among HIV-affected children, as well as to evaluate the mediating effects of emotional regulation on the relationship between HIV stigma and emotional status. In addition, the moderating role of age is tested. Multiple regression was conducted to test the mediation model. We found that the experience of HIV stigma had a direct positive effect on negative emotions among children affected by HIV. Emotional regulation offers a level of protection, as it mediated the impact of HIV stigma on negative emotions. Moreover, age was found to moderate the relationship between perceived stigma and negative emotions. A significant interaction between perceived stigma and age suggested that negative emotions increase with age among those who perceived a higher level of stigmatization. Results suggest that children affected by HIV may benefit from interventions designed to enhance their capacity to regulate emotions and that health professionals should be aware of the link between stigma and negative emotion in childhood and adolescence and use the knowledge to inform their

Academic procrastination, emotional intelligence, academic self-efficacy, and GPA: a comparison between students with and without learning disabilities.

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Hen, Meirav; Goroshit, Marina

2014-01-01

Academic procrastination has been seen as an impediment to students' academic success. Research findings suggest that it is related to lower levels of self-regulated learning and academic self-efficacy and associated with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to assess, regulate, and utilize emotions and has been found to be associated with academic self-efficacy and a variety of better outcomes, including academic performance. Students with learning disabilities (LD) are well acquainted with academic difficulty and maladaptive academic behavior. In comparison to students without LD, they exhibit high levels of learned helplessness, including diminished persistence, lower academic expectations, and negative affect. This study examined the relationships among academic procrastination, EI, and academic performance as mediated by academic self-efficacy in 287 LD and non-LD students. Results indicated that the indirect effect of EI on academic procrastination and GPA was stronger in LD students than in non-LD students. In addition, results indicated that LD students scored lower than non-LD students on both EI and academic self-efficacy and higher on academic procrastination. No difference was found in GPA.

Emotional Intelligence Abilities and Traits in Different Career Paths

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Kafetsios, Konstantinos; Maridaki-Kassotaki, Aikaterini; Zammuner, Vanda L.; Zampetakis, Leonidas A.; Vouzas, Fotios

2009-01-01

Two studies tested hypotheses about differences in emotional intelligence (EI) abilities and traits between followers of different career paths. Compared to their social science peers, science students had higher scores in adaptability and general mood traits measured with the Emotion Quotient Inventory, but lower scores in strategic EI abilities…

Proficiency in positive vs. negative emotion identification and subjective well-being among long-term married elderly couples.

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Petrican, Raluca; Moscovitch, Morris; Grady, Cheryl

2014-01-01

Evidence is accruing that positive emotions play a crucial role in shaping a healthy interpersonal climate. Inspired by this research, the current investigation sought to shed light on the link between proficiency in identifying positive vs. negative emotions and a close partner's well-being. To this end, we conducted two studies with neurologically intact elderly married couples (Study 1) and an age-matched clinical sample, comprising married couples in which one spouse had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (Study 2), which tends to hinder emotional expressivity. To assess proficiency in identifying emotions from whole body postures, we had participants in both studies complete a pointlight walker task, featuring four actors (two male, two female) expressing one positive (i.e., happiness) and three negative (i.e., sadness, anger, fear) basic emotions. Participants also filled out measures of subjective well-being. Among Study 1's neurologically intact spouses, greater expertise in identifying positive (but not negative) emotions was linked to greater partner life satisfaction (but not hedonic balance). Spouses of PD patients exhibited increased proficiency in identifying positive emotions relative to controls, possibly reflective of compensatory mechanisms. Complementarily, relative to controls, spouses of PD patients exhibited reduced proficiency in identifying negative emotions and a tendency to underestimate their intensity. Importantly, all of these effects attenuated with longer years from PD onset. Finally, there was evidence that it was increased partner expertise in identifying negative (rather than positive) emotional states that predicted greater life satisfaction levels among the PD patients and their spouses. Our results thus suggest that positive vs. negative emotions may play distinct roles in close relationship dynamics as a function of neurological status and disability trajectory.

Age and gender modulate the neural circuitry supporting facial emotion processing in adults with major depressive disorder.

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Briceño, Emily M; Rapport, Lisa J; Kassel, Michelle T; Bieliauskas, Linas A; Zubieta, Jon-Kar; Weisenbach, Sara L; Langenecker, Scott A

2015-03-01

Emotion processing, supported by frontolimbic circuitry known to be sensitive to the effects of aging, is a relatively understudied cognitive-emotional domain in geriatric depression. Some evidence suggests that the neurophysiological disruption observed in emotion processing among adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) may be modulated by both gender and age. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of gender and age on the neural circuitry supporting emotion processing in MDD. Cross-sectional comparison of fMRI signal during performance of an emotion processing task. Outpatient university setting. One hundred adults recruited by MDD status, gender, and age. Participants underwent fMRI while completing the Facial Emotion Perception Test. They viewed photographs of faces and categorized the emotion perceived. Contrast for fMRI was of face perception minus animal identification blocks. Effects of depression were observed in precuneus and effects of age in a number of frontolimbic regions. Three-way interactions were present between MDD status, gender, and age in regions pertinent to emotion processing, including frontal, limbic, and basal ganglia. Young women with MDD and older men with MDD exhibited hyperactivation in these regions compared with their respective same-gender healthy comparison (HC) counterparts. In contrast, older women and younger men with MDD exhibited hypoactivation compared to their respective same-gender HC counterparts. This the first study to report gender- and age-specific differences in emotion processing circuitry in MDD. Gender-differential mechanisms may underlie cognitive-emotional disruption in older adults with MDD. The present findings have implications for improved probes into the heterogeneity of the MDD syndrome. Copyright © 2015 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Managing emotions - an ability of emotional intelligence.

OpenAIRE

Correia, Ana Almeida; Veiga-Branco, Augusta

2011-01-01

This study focuses on the concept Managing Emotions from Emotional Intelligence (I.E.), (Mayer-Salovey, 1990, 1997, Goleman, 1995), also identified as Emotional Regulation (Bisquerra, 2000), to obtain recognition and practical use of this concept, through the use of Emotional Fitness charts (Bimbela-Pedrola, 2008), to develop these abilities and manage emotions in contexts of practical life. Objective: To train preschool teachers, as well as primary and lower secondary sc...

Harnessing happiness? Uncontrollable positive emotion in bipolar disorder, major depression, and healthy adults.

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Kang, Yoona; Gruber, June

2013-04-01

The ability to adaptively exert control over negative emotions is associated with beneficial mental health outcomes. Less is known about the associated emotional sequelae surrounding controllable versus uncontrollable positive emotional experiences. The ability to harness positive emotions is of particular importance in populations involving disrupted positive emotion functioning. In the present study, participants engaged in a relived memory task in which they recalled either a controllable or uncontrollable past positive emotional experience in counterbalanced order, while concurrent experiential and autonomic responses were measured. Participants included adults with bipolar I disorder (BD; n = 32), major depression (MDD; n = 32), and or nonpsychiatric controls (CTLs; n = 31). Across all participants, reliving a controllable positive emotion experience was associated with exhibited increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an autonomic marker of regulatory control. Interestingly, only the MDD group reported increased positive emotion and decreased cardiovascular arousal when reliving an event involving uncontrollable positive emotion, compared to the BD and CTL groups. No other group differences emerged. These findings suggest that although controllable positive emotion experiences may be adaptive for most, individuals with a history of restricted affect and depressed mood may actually derive more pleasure from times of unharnessed happiness. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.