Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Expressed Emotion”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A Portuguese/Brazilian study of Expressed Emotion.

Expressed Emotion is a measure of family interaction, widely used in studies around the world to predict relapse in severe psychiatric disorders. The instrument was originally developed in London. It depends on subtle vocal nuances emerging in the course of the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI). The extent to which these can be picked up in different languages and different cultures is an interesting question. This paper presents the results of a study of EE from Brazil. The two raters achieved good reliability with master tapes in English, and the CFI was then translated into Portuguese. The raters also showed good reliability in Portuguese. This is at least consistent with the idea that similar behaviours can be picked up in different languages and cultures. Twenty nine relatives of 24 patients with schizophrenia were interviewed using the CFI. It was predicted that high Expressed Emotion would be rare in Brazil, a developing country. In fact, 59% of relatives were rated as high EE. Unlike studies from fully industrialized nations this high level of high EE was largely due to over-involvement. Our findings suggest both contextual and cultural influences on the relative salience of the different components of EE, a theme worth pursuing.

Adult↗

The structure of emotional expressivity: each emotion counts.

Several models of the dimensionality of emotional expressivity were examined in a multitrait-multimethod study. Targets and peer raters completed measures of the target's emotional expressivity (Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire. BEQ; J. J. Gross & O. P. John, 1995; and a measure of emotion-specific expression) and the Big 5 personality dimensions. The results of structural equation modeling and analysis of variance revealed that an emotion-specific model was superior to models of valence-specific or unidimensional expressivity. The distinct emotions differed in their relations with the dimensions of the 5-factor model. These results were corroborated by self- and other reports. Finally, the degree of convergence between self- and other ratings differed between emotions, demonstrating the multidimensional character of emotional expressivity.

Adult↗

Written emotional expression and emotional well-being: the moderating role of fear of rejection.

Empirical research shows that individuals high in fear of rejection typically report low levels of perceived social support and are more vulnerable to stressful experiences. At the same time, writing about stressful experiences in an emotional way seems to help people adapt to current stressors and not-yet-assimilated stressful experiences. Therefore, the authors suggest that written emotional expression may be a particularly effective strategy to manage negative emotions for individuals high in fear of rejection. Three studies were conducted to test these assumptions. Study 1 found that high fear of rejection is linked to a lack of perceived social support. Longitudinal Studies 2 and 3 supported our main hypothesis, demonstrating that written emotional expression is linked to lower levels of negative mood among individuals high (but not among individuals low) in fear of rejection.

Adult↗

Lithium prophylaxis and expressed emotion.

Expressed emotion (EE) in key relatives of 21 patients with bipolar affective or schizoaffective psychoses was assessed by the CFI. All patients had been on prophylactic lithium for at least three years and were without psychotic symptoms at interview. The relationship between relatives' EE status and patients' course of illness was studied both retrospectively and prospectively. Two critical remarks designated high EE. The relatives' EE status was not related to number of hospital admissions or to severity and length of recurrences if the entire period of lithium treatment is considered as a whole. However, patients living with high-EE relatives showed a significantly poorer response during the three years before interview, and an even poorer response in the nine-month follow-up.

Adult↗

Personality and expressed emotion.

Expressed emotion (EE) is an established psychosocial predictor of relapse in patients with schizophrenia and mood disorders; however, nothing is currently known about the personality characteristics of high- and low-EE relatives. A total of 45 relatives of schizophrenia patients completed the California Psychological Inventory, a widely used measure of common personality traits. Compared with low-EE relatives, high-EE relatives were more conventional in their behavior (higher norm-favoring) and less satisfied with themselves and their lives (lower self-realization). High-EE relatives were also less flexible, tolerant, and lower in empathy and achievement via independence than were low-EE relatives. Even with statistical control of potential demographic confounds, flexibility remained a significant predictor of EE status.

Adult↗

The specificity of infant emotional expression for emotion perception.

Attachment theory emphasizes the role of negative emotional expression in infancy for establishing proximity to and care of the caregiver. According to Lang's biphasic model of emotions protective reflexes (e.g. startle response) are primed if a defensive motivational set is activated. The aim of the study was to examine whether the perception of an infant emotional expression can prime such defensive behavior. The sample consisted of 48 university students. Startle reflex, corrugator and zygomatic EMG activity and subjective ratings of valence and arousal were assessed as a response to presentation of pictures of different emotional valence. Affective startle modulation was obtained when probes were presented during pictures of the International Affective Pictures System replicating previous findings. By contrast, negative infant emotion pictures did not prompt an augmentation of the startle response, although both the subjective ratings and the mimic EMG activity indicated a clear differentiation between negative and positive infant pictures. This pattern of findings was found only in a between-subject design, but not when the two picture sets were presented in the same session, indicating an interference of contrasting content of pictures.

Adult↗

Parent-child interactions in relation to critical and emotionally overinvolved expressed emotion (EE): is EE a proxy for behavior?

Expressed emotion measures, encompassing dimensions of criticism (CRIT), and emotional overinvolvement (EOI) are increasingly being used to assess the parent-child relationship in child clinical populations, despite the lack of studies assessing their validity. We examined the correspondence between CRIT, EOI, and parent-child interactions as observed by neutral coders in a sample of 252 clinic-referred children and adolescents, ages 7-17 years. We found support for the validity of the CRIT code, with high critical parents showing more antagonism, negativity, disgust, harshness, and less responsiveness, compared to parents who scored in the low or borderline ranges. In contrast, none of the observed behaviors were found to correspond with parental EOI, suggesting either that this construct lacks validity with juvenile samples or that behaviors that correspond to EOI are difficult to observe. We conclude that high parental CRIT can be used as an index of problematic parent-child interactions.

Adolescent↗

Social anxiety and romantic relationships: the costs and benefits of negative emotion expression are context-dependent.

In general, expressing emotions is beneficial and withholding emotions has personal and social costs. Yet, to serve social functions there are situations when emotions are withheld strategically. We examined whether social anxiety influenced when and how emotion expressiveness influences interpersonal closeness in existing romantic relationships. For people with greater social anxiety, withholding the expression of negative emotions was proposed to preserve romantic relationships and their benefits. We examined whether social anxiety and emotion expressiveness interacted to predict prospective changes in romantic relationship closeness over a 12-week period. For people with less social anxiety, relationship closeness was enhanced over time when negative emotions were openly expressed whereas relationship deterioration was found for those more likely to withhold emotions. The reverse pattern was found for people with greater social anxiety such that relationship closeness was enhanced over time for those more likely to withhold negative emotions. Related social anxiety findings were found for discrepancies between desired and actual feelings of closeness over time. Findings were not attributable to depressive symptoms. These results suggest that the costs and benefits of emotion expression are influenced by a person's degree of social anxiety.

Adolescent↗

Sex differences in the preattentive processing of vocal emotional expressions.

Emotional tone of voice indicates the significance of a spoken utterance. We asked whether listeners recognize this significance even when attending to something else and whether men and women differ in this regard. To answer these questions, we presented emotionally or neutrally spoken syllables as standards and deviants in a mismatch negativity paradigm. Independent of the listeners' sex, deviants elicited a mismatch negativity in the scalp-recorded event-related potential as an indicator of preattentive acoustic change detection. Only women, however, showed a larger mismatch negativity to emotional than to neutral deviants. Thus, even though both sexes detect change in voice preattentively, only women recruit additional processing resources when the change in voice is one of emotional valence.

Adult↗

[Update on "expressed emotions"].

The present article is meant to sum up the current state of scientific knowledge with regard to the concept of "Emotional Expression" and its very implementation in the clinical and therapeutical field which are well-known in anglo-saxon countries but very little applied and known in France. "Emotional Expression" (EE), which came out of research and studies undertaken by Brown (1959) and later on, Vaughn and Leff (1976), defines interaction between a schizophrenic patient and his close environment according to 3 criterium: judgmental comments and criticism, hostility, emotional over-involvement. Family surroundings are characterized by strong EE or weak EE according to the frequency and the quantity of the measures during a typical standard family-interview: the Camberwell Family Interview (CFI). A strong EE is considered as being a non-specific factor. "Emotional Expression" proves to be a predictable indication for relapse in terms of psychiatric affluence (positive symptoms), hospitalization rate and psycho-social adjustment process. The possibilities of forecasting do not concern specifically schizophrenia as the relation between family climate and relapse can be observed in other mental pathology as well. The psycho-educational approach which is induced by this research trend is based on a concept of a partnership between the patients's family and the patient. The purpose in fact is to bring about changes within the relationship of the patient and his environment so as to reduce judgmental criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement (information programs concerning etiology, therapeutical strategies in view of improving understanding of the illness and to reorganize proper family relationship). The advantage of such a concept which is well-known lies in the fact that it helps to find out those family surroundings with strong EE who represent factors of relapse for psychiatric patients and to suggest therefore therapeutical treatment, the purpose of which should be defined together with all those concerned namely, the patient, the family, the therapeutist so as to intervene during the evolution of the illness. The literary bibliographical review which we have made lead us to find the existence of a wide field of research with results showing clearly the predictable aspects of EE in the illness process. In this way, new approaches in the "intake" of schizophrenic patients and their families are clearly defined.

Expressed Emotion↗

Ambivalence over emotional expression and reading emotions in situations and faces.

Three studies explored the relation of ambivalence over emotional expression (AE) and emotional expressiveness (EE) to reading the emotions of others. In Study 1 (N = 340, 110 men), AE positively correlated and EE negatively correlated with self-reported confusion in reading others' emotions. In Studies 2 and 3, participants wrote descriptions of the emotions likely to be felt by a person in an emotional scenario or in a slide of a universal facial expression. Descriptions were content analyzed for emotion words. Results revealed significant AE x EE interactions. In both studies, inexpressive ambivalent individuals used emotion words of the opposite valence of that implied in the scenes or expressions. Implications for social relationships are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Do facial movements express emotions or communicate motives?

This article addresses the debate between emotion-expression and motive-communication approaches to facial movements, focusing on Ekman's (1972) and Fridlund's (1994) contrasting models and their historical antecedents. Available evidence suggests that the presence of others either reduces or increases facial responses, depending on the quality and strength of the emotional manipulation and on the nature of the relationship between interactants. Although both display rules and social motives provide viable explanations of audience "inhibition" effects, some audience facilitation effects are less easily accommodated within an emotion-expression perspective. In particular, emotion is not a sufficient condition for a corresponding "expression," even discounting explicit regulation, and, apparently, "spontaneous" facial movements may be facilitated by the presence of others. Further, there is no direct evidence that any particular facial movement provides an unambiguous expression of a specific emotion. However, information communicated by facial movements is not necessarily extrinsic to emotion. Facial movements not only transmit emotion-relevant information but also contribute to ongoing processes of emotional action in accordance with pragmatic theories.

Adaptation, Physiological↗

The Level of Expressed Emotion Scale: a new measure of expressed emotion.

The Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE) scale was developed to provide an index of the perceived emotional climate in a person's influential relationships. Unlike existing measures, the scale was constructed on the basis of a conceptual framework described by expressed emotion theorists. In addition to providing an overall score, the 60-item scale assesses the following four characteristic attitudes or response styles of significant others: Intrusiveness, emotional response, attitude toward illness, and tolerance/expectations. The scale underwent extensive psychometric development procedures: (1) theoretically based item generation; (2) pilot testing with normal and psychiatric populations to select the final items; and (3) construct validation within a schizophrenic population. The results were quite favorable and indicate that the LEE scale has sound psychometric properties of internal consistency; reliability; independence from sex, age, and amount of contacts; and construct validity.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Randomized, controlled trial of written emotional expression and benefit finding in breast cancer patients.

PURPOSE: Expressing emotions and finding benefits regarding stressful experiences have been associated in correlational research with positive adjustment. A randomized trial was performed to compare effects of experimentally induced written emotional disclosure and benefit finding with a control condition on physical and psychological adjustment to breast cancer and to test whether outcomes varied as a function of participants' cancer-related avoidance. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Early-stage breast cancer patients completing medical treatment were assigned randomly to write over four sessions about (1) their deepest thoughts and feelings regarding breast cancer (EMO group; n = 21), (2) positive thoughts and feelings regarding their experience with breast cancer (POS group; n = 21), or (3) facts of their breast cancer experience (CTL group; n = 18). Psychological (eg, distress) and physical (perceived somatic symptoms and medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities) outcomes were assessed at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. RESULTS: A significant condition x cancer-related avoidance interaction emerged on psychological outcomes; EMO writing was relatively effective for women low in avoidance, and induced POS writing was more useful for women high in avoidance. Significant effects of experimental condition emerged on self-reported somatic symptoms (P =.0183) and medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities (P =.0069). Compared with CTL participants at 3 months, the EMO group reported significantly decreased physical symptoms, and EMO and POS participants had significantly fewer medical appointments for cancer-related morbidities. CONCLUSION: Experimentally induced emotional expression and benefit finding regarding early-stage breast cancer reduced medical visits for cancer-related morbidities. Effects on psychological outcomes varied as a function of cancer-related avoidance.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The measurement of expressed emotion in the families of psychiatric patients.

In a series of studies of the influence of family life on the course of an established schizophrenic illness, it has been shown that the level of emotion expressed by relatives shortly after a schizophrenic patient is admitted to hospital is strongly associated with symptomatic relapse during the nine months following discharge (Brown et al., 1962, 1972). This paper states the case for an abbreviated version of the primary research instrument used in these studies, the Camberwell Family Interview Schedule. In the 1972 study the single most important measure contributing to the overall expressed emotion index proved to be the number of critical remarks made about the patient by the relative when interviewed alone. An analysis of 15 tape-recorded interviews from this study showed that the majority of critical comments were produced within the first hour and there was virtually no relationship between total number of critical comments and length of interview (r = 0.08). This analysis supported the use of a shortened interview in which the areas most likely to produce any criticism were given priority in the sequence of questioning. This abbreviated version has been used successfully in a replication and extension of the 1972 study. A group of 37 schizophrenic patients is being compared with a group of 31 depressed neurotic patients. Patterns of emotional response of these patients' relatives are discussed.

Child↗

Factor analysis of the level of expressed emotion scale, a questionnaire intended to measure 'perceived expressed emotion'.

When the factor structure and psychometric qualities of the Level of Expressed Emotion scale, an instrument intended to assess patient's perceptions of expressed emotion, were evaluated, three moderately intercorrelated factors emerged, with good internal consistency; these were lack of emotional support, intrusiveness/control, and irritability. This did not quite correspond to the a priori scales described in the original version. As in the original LEE, the three factors add to a total score intended to measure 'perceived expressed emotion'.

Adolescent↗

Probing the psychophysiology of the airways: physical activity, experienced emotion, and facially expressed emotion.

This article reviews research on airway reactivity in health and asthma within a psychophysiological context, including the effects of physical activity, emotion induction, and manipulation of facial expression of emotion. Skeletal muscle activation leads to airway dilation, with vagal withdrawal being the most likely mechanism. Emotional arousal, in particular negative affect, leads to airway constriction, with evidence for a vagal pathway in depressive states and ventilatory contributions in positive affect. Laboratory-induced airway responses covary with reports of emotion-induced asthma and with lung function decline during negative mood in the field. Like physical activity, facial expression of emotion leads to airway dilation. However, these effects are small and less consistent in posed emotional expressions. The mechanisms of emotion-induced airway responses and potential benefits of emotional expression in asthma deserve further study.

Animals↗

Maternal expressed emotion as a predictor of emotional and behavioral problems in low birth weight children.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which maternal emotions expressed toward low birth weight infants (<2500 gm) at six months of age predicted emotional and behavioral problems at two years of age. With a sample of 83 mother-infant dyads, a Revised Five Minute Speech Sample (R-FMSS) was used to measure the Expressed Emotion (EE) constructs of Negative EE (criticism, hostility), Positive EE (positive remarks, warmth) and Overinvolved EE. Problem behaviors were measured at two years of the child's age utilizing the Child Behavior Checklist/2-3. Infant temperament was controlled for using the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire. While temperament contributed the most variance to the development of emotional and behavioral problems, results indicated that Negative EE was a significant predictor of internalizing problems such as anxiety and withdrawal. The detrimental impact of Negative EE was most substantial for infants who adapted less readily to the demands of their environments and who had more difficulty persisting with a task or activity. Although Positive EE did not influence the incidence of problems for children in general, it did appear to reduce the likelihood of developing internalizing problems for more persistent children. Overinvolved EE showed no relationship to the incidence of problems reported for a child. Nurses are in the prime position to identify negative maternal-infant interactions during the first year of life that may place the low birth weight infant at risk for poor mental health outcomes.

Adaptation, Psychological↗