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Emotional reactions to dramatic film stimuli: the influence of cognitive and emotional empathy.

The idea that empathy may best be considered a multidimensional construct, consisting of both cognitive and emotional facets, has recently been gaining in popularity. To date, however, little research explicitly based on such a view has been carried out. We conducted the present experiment to explore the different influences of cognitive and emotional empathy on two types of responses to dramatic stimuli: positive and negative emotional reactions. Consistent with a multidimensional view of empathy, the two types of empathy exhibited different effects; positive emotional reactions were affected primarily by cognitive empathy, and negative emotional reactions were most heavily influenced by emotional empathy. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance to a multidimensional approach to the study of empathic responding.

Cognition↗

Do facial expressions signal specific emotions? Judging emotion from the face in context.

Certain facial expressions have been theorized to be easily recognizable signals of specific emotions. If so, these expressions should override situationally based expectations used by a person in attributing an emotion to another. An alternative account is offered in which the face provides information relevant to emotion but does not signal a specific emotion. Therefore, in specified circumstances, situational rather than facial information was predicted to determine the judged emotion. This prediction was supported in 3 studies--indeed, in each of the 22 cases examined (e.g., a person in a frightening situation but displaying a reported "facial expression of anger" was judged as afraid). Situational information was especially influential when it suggested a nonbasic emotion (e.g., a person in a painful situation but displaying a "facial expression of fear" was judged as in pain).

Adult↗

Alexithymia, memory of emotion, emotional awareness, and perfectionism.

The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; R. M. Bagby, J. D. A. Parker, & G. J. Taylor, 1994) is a self-assessment instrument designed to measure deficits in meta-emotional functioning (e.g., difficulties in identifying and describing emotions). Four studies were carried out to examine the association between the TAS-20 and (a) performance measures of meta-emotional functioning (memory of emotion and emotional awareness; Studies 1-2) and (b) measures of perfectionistic standards that may possibly be involved in the self-assessment of abilities-difficulties (Studies 3-4). The TAS-20 failed to correlate in the predicted direction with the performance measures but showed sizable correlations with measures of perfectionism. Moreover, perfectionism was found to predict TAS-20 scores independent of depression, anxiety, and somatic complaints. The results are discussed in terms of the TAS-20 measuring primarily certain aspects of meta-emotional self-efficacy.

Adolescent↗

The exchange of emotional support with age and its relationship with emotional well-being by age.

This study tested three hypotheses derived from the application of socioemotional selectivity theory and exchange theory to the exchange of emotional support with age and its relationship with positive and negative affect by age. Data are from the Midlife in the United States study of 3,032 U.S. adults between the ages of 25 and 74. The social contact hypothesis predicts that hours of emotional support given and received should decrease with age. The exchange hypothesis predicts that the discrepancy between the hours of emotional support given and received should decrease with age to reflect more balanced exchanges with age. The goal hypothesis predicts that unequal exchanges of support should predict higher negative and lower positive affect with age. Findings supported each hypothesis. Hours of emotional support given and received decreased as chronological age increased. Although adults of all ages gave more support than they received, the discrepancy between hours of emotional support given and received became more balanced with age. Compared with equal exchanges, unequal exchanges predicted worse emotional well-being profiles only among the oldest adults in this study (i.e., those aged 55-64 and 65-74). Findings contribute to the growing literature on the changing nature of the quantity and quality of interpersonal exchanges with age.

Adult↗

Does alcohol affect memory for emotional and non-emotional experiences in different ways?

Alcohol has been shown to have both impairing and facilitating effects on memory, depending on the sequencing of learning and ingestion of the drug. Its effects on memory for emotional material, however, have not been shown reliably. The current experiment sought to investigate the effects of alcohol on later recall of emotional and neutral events experienced before and after alcohol drinking. Using an incidental-learning paradigm, alcohol (0.65 g/kg) or placebo was administered in a double-blind randomized design to 34 participants, between two learning phases in which they viewed and rated positive, negative and neutral images. The drug's effects on memory were assessed in a surprise test of free recall. In addition, impact of alcohol on ratings of mood states, and of valence and arousal that the pictures evoked, was examined. Alcohol facilitated memory for material seen before, and impaired memory for material seen after, its administration. Furthermore, under alcohol, emotional images in the first set were more recalled over neutral than in the second set, indicating a higher retrograde facilitation for emotional than for neutral material. Alcohol improved positive mood states but had no effect on negative mood states. Evaluation of pictures with regard to valence showed an increase of the ratings for the positive and neutral images after alcohol and a decrease after placebo. No drug effects were found for arousal ratings. Whether a picture was likely to be remembered or not (tested only for set 2) was dependent on the intensity of the arousal but not of the valence that the picture evoked in the participants. Pictures that were rated high in arousal were also remembered better, and this effect was irrespective of alcohol or placebo ingestion. These data have shown that alcohol elicits retrograde facilitation and anterograde impairment for emotional materials. Furthermore, these data demonstrate that alcohol selectively facilitates memories for emotional events experienced before administration, and suggest a possible explanation for the reinforcing effects of drinking.

Adolescent↗

Emotions and interpersonal relationships: toward a person-centered conceptualization of emotions and coping.

This essay describes my theory of emotions. I make a case for studying discrete emotions in the context of four processes that represent the central features of my theoretical system: appraising, coping, flow of actions and reactions, and relational meaning. I explain why coping is a key feature of the emotion process, and I discuss issues related to the measurement of coping and the importance of understanding coping processes in the context of personality and situational demands. I make the argument that emotions are best studied as narratives, and I offer one such narrative in the form of a case study to demonstrate how emotions can best be understood in the context of an interpersonal relationship and by considering individual differences, interpersonal transactions, and relational meaning. I conclude this essay with a caution that field specialization may interfere with our understanding of emotions and other psychological phenomena, and I underscore the virtues of ipsative-normative research designs as a way to move closer to a person-centered personality psychology.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Social-emotional predictors of preschoolers' responses to adult negative emotion.

The study examined predictors of children's prosocial responses to adult negative emotions. An adult displayed anger, sadness and pain during play sessions with 39 preschoolers (mean age = 43 months). Older children responded more prosocially to all three emotions, whereas children with greater emotion knowledge responded more prosocially to the adult's sadness. Children who behaved prosocially in response to peers' negative emotions also were prosocial after the adult's negative emotions, even with effects of age and emotion knowledge held constant. Assertive children responded more prosocially to the adult's anger, even with effects of other variables held constant. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Adult↗

Endocrine correlates of personality traits: a comparison between emotionally stable and emotionally labile healthy young men.

An initial sample of 120 healthy young men was screened by a personality questionnaire and 15 subjects each with highest and lowest scores respectively on emotionality (emotionally labile, EL subjects and emotionally stable, ES subjects) were recruited for a study on the relationship between the degree of emotionality and the basal secretion of stress-sensitive hormones during night-time. The nocturnal urinary excretion of cortisol, testosterone, adrenaline, noradrenaline and melatonin was measured over a period of 5 consecutive nights. The average amounts of each hormone excreted per night were not different between the two extreme groups. The variability of the excretion during the 5 nights of cortisol and testosterone, but not of adrenaline, noradrenaline and melatonin, was significantly higher in EL compared to ES subjects. The larger fluctuations in the nocturnal secretion of these two (and no other) hormones in EL subjects indicate that emotional lability is associated with a more labile regulation of cortisol and testosterone secretion. The observed intraindividual variability of basal stress hormone secretion may contribute to the vast interindividual variability noticed in psychoneuroendocrine stress research, especially in emotionally labile subjects.

Adolescent↗

An evaluation of rational-emotive imagery as a component of rational-emotive therapy in the treatment of test anxiety.

This study evaluated the efficacy of rational-emotive imagery as a component of rational-emotive therapy in reduction of college students' test anxiety. 11 volunteers met for 6 1-hr. group treatment sessions over a 3-wk. period. After 2 initial treatment sessions subjects were randomly assigned to groups given either rational-emotive therapy with rational-emotive imagery or rational-emotive therapy without imagery. Contrary to predictions, improvement between groups on self-report and performance measures was nonsignificant. Failure to obtain differences was attributed to similarities in content of treatment sessions and short treatment time. Combined groups reported significant improvement on all dependent measures. Although the study did not yield the predicted benefits of the imagery, results lend further support to the efficacy of rational-emotive therapy procedures in the reduction of test anxiety.

Adolescent↗

Relation of ineffective communication of emotion and children's recognition of emotional expressions.

The relationship of discrepancies found in parents' appraisals of emotion and children's abilities to discriminate emotional expressions was examined among 92 6- to 6 1/2-yr.-old kindergarten girls and their parents. Results supported the supposition that the discrepancies in parents' appraisals of emotion could reflect ineffective communication of emotion within the family. Greater discrepancies of appraisals of emotion noted in parents were associated with weaker recognition of emotional expressions by their daughters. Families present children distorted methods of expressing and interpreting feelings and a model of discrepant and nongenuine social communication.

Child↗

Paying attention to emotion: an fMRI investigation of cognitive and emotional stroop tasks.

In this research, we investigated the degree to which brain systems involved in ignoring emotionally salient information differ from those involved in ignoring nonemotional information. The design allowed examination of regional brain activity, using fMRI during color-word and emotional Stroop tasks. Twelve participants indicated the color of words while ignoring word meaning in conditions in which neutral words were contrasted to emotionally negative, emotionally positive, and incongruent color words. Dorsolateral frontal lobe activity was increased by both negative and incongruent color words, indicating a common system for maintaining an attentional set in the presence of salient distractors. In posterior regions of the brain, activity depended on the nature of the information to be ignored. Ignoring color-incongruent words increased left parietal activity and decreased parahippocampal gyrus activity, whereas ignoring negative emotional words increased bilateral occipito-temporal activity and decreased amygdala activity. The results indicate that emotion and attention are intimately related via a network of regions that monitor for salient information, maintain attention on the task, suppress irrelevant information, and select appropriate responses.

Adult↗

[A developmental study on children's understanding of emotion and emotional self-control].

The present study examined how children understand the processes concerning the strategic control of emotion. There are five components of this emergent metaemotive understanding: the children's knowledge of (1) the cues for identifying emotions, (2) the antecedents of emotions, (3) display rules, (4) the consequence of an emotional response, and (5) the strategies of emotional self-control. Five, seven and nine-year-old children were interviewed regarding their knowledge of these components. The following results were obtained. For identifying emotion, seven-year-olds tended to focus on the situational cues. Nine-year-olds were more likely to focus on the mental cues. The frequency of spontaneous usage of display rules increased with age. Nine-year-olds mentioned the cognitive self-control strategies such as re-directing their thoughts. The results were discussed in terms of developmental perspectives.

Child↗

[Psychophysiological study of the information theory of emotions using the model of positive emotion].

The pattern of inter-hemisphere distribution of EEG amplitude and frequency as a function of the levels of emotional experience and motivation as well as probability of the goal achievement was studied in 20 subjects. An emotional state was evoked by simulating emotionally colored events. A modified test of Prise et al. (1985) was used to evaluate the level of motivation for the simulated event as well as the probability of goal achievement from the lengths of line segments marked by the subjects. Here we studied simulated emotion of joy. The highest correlation coefficients were observed between the awareness and alpha activity in the both hemispheres. The levels of emotional experience and motivation inversely correlated with the delta and theta activity mostly in the left hemisphere. The beta activity correlated with both the emotional and motivation levels.

Adult↗

Emotional intelligence: recognizing and regulating emotions.

Occupational health nurses are in the unique position to influence health in the work force. To maximize this positive health influence, occupational health nurses should develop the skills of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence includes awareness of self and others and empathy. These behaviors are congruent with the mission of nursing because they improve health outcomes. Occupational health nurses who are emotionally intelligent have improved relationships with others, an important aspect of the nursing role. Emotional intelligence can be developed. The process begins with self-awareness, enhanced through self-care behaviors, such as exercise and journaling. Reading popular self-help literature also can improve self-awareness. After a nurse becomes self-aware, the next phase is to develop an awareness of others. This can be learned using the same type of techniques in the self-awareness stage. The final step is the development of empathy. This is the active step using the knowledge developed in the prior two stages. Through discipline and effort, an individual can learn to actively listen to others. This type of listening fosters empathy. By working in a positive, caring environment, personal growth in emotional intelligence can be enhanced (McMullen, 2003). Through the development of emotional intelligence, the nurse can improve personally and professionally, a win-win situation for all involved.

Emotions↗

Measurement of the perception of facially expressed emotions by a computerized device: method of analysis and research for the integration of emotions (MARIE).

Current computerized tools allow detailed exploration of the structure and functioning of the "black box," i.e., human cognitive and affective systems as well as thought. This technology was used to study the visual perception of facially expressed emotions. Morphological transition from one canonical emotion to another led to the creation of a continuum of intermediary pictures, and the identification of perceived emotions by 65 normal subjects was measured. We call this application "MARIE" (in French: Méthode d'Analyse et de Recherche de l'Intégration des Emotions; Method of Study and Analysis of Integration of Emotions). Our study examined the relationship between the quantitative modification of the continuum and the quantitative variation of the responses. Standardization of graphs led to the assessment of the two parameters of a Laplace-Gauss curve, i.e., mean and standard deviation. It is argued that such a tool could be very useful in the clinical assessment of the emotional state of subjects and/or of patients.

Adult↗

Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences.

Theory indicates that resilient individuals "bounce back" from stressful experiences quickly and effectively. Few studies, however, have provided empirical evidence for this theory. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions (B. L. Fredrickson, 1998, 2001) is used as a framework for understanding psychological resilience. The authors used a multimethod approach in 3 studies to predict that resilient people use positive emotions to rebound from, and find positive meaning in, stressful encounters. Mediational analyses revealed that the experience of positive emotions contributed, in part, to participants' abilities to achieve efficient emotion regulation, demonstrated by accelerated cardiovascular recovery from negative emotional arousal (Studies 1 and 2) and by finding positive meaning in negative circumstances (Study 3). Implications for research on resilience and positive emotions are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Independent manipulation of emotion in an emotional stroop task using classical conditioning.

The effects of emotional connotation on emotional Stroop interference in anxiety were examined. First, a classical conditioning paradigm was used in which neutral words and nonwords were paired with either negative or neutral pictures. These conditioned stimuli were then presented in an emotional Stroop paradigm. Finally, participants rated each word and nonword for emotional connotation. The high-anxious group demonstrated significant interference for the nonwords that had been negatively conditioned, and these effects did not dissipate over time. The affective rating data supported the view that nonwords, but not the words had been successfully conditioned in the high-anxious group. This experiment provides evidence for the importance of emotional connotation rather than confounded semantic factors in the emotional Stroop effect.

Adult↗

Motivation to hide emotion and children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotions.

The authors investigated the extent to which children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotions varied according to the motivation to hide emotions. Children, aged 6-7 and 10-11 years, were read stories designed to elicit either prosocial or self-protective motivated display rules and were asked to predict the facial expressions the protagonists would make to hide felt emotions. Children were found to understand the distinction between real and apparent emotions very well, independently of the type of motivation. Contrary to predictions, boys understood this distinction better than did girls when the motivation to hide positive emotions was prosocial. Children perceived neutralization as the most appropriate strategy to hide felt emotions, followed by masking.

Affect↗