The relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms in FGID patients and D-type personality and emotion regulation strategies

This study examines the relationship between gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) and type D personality traits, as well as emotion regulation strategies. Analyzing a diverse group of FGID patients, we uncover significant effects of gender and age on gastrointestinal symptoms. Negative Affectivity emerges as a key predictor, positively associated with symptom severity, whereas Social Inhibition correlates negatively with Abdominal Pain. Additionally, our findings suggest that the expressive suppression strategy predicts heightened gastrointestinal symptoms, whereas cognitive reappraisal predicts lower levels of certain symptoms. These findings provide valuable insights for precise diagnosis and tailored treatments of FGIDs. Further research is warranted to explore underlying mechanisms and inform evidence-based interventions.

A Daily Diary Investigation of the Fear of Missing Out and Diminishing Daily Emotional Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Reappraisal

With modern societies becoming ever-increasingly interconnected due to technology and media, we have gained unprecedented access and exposure to other people's lives. This has resulted in a greater desire to constantly be socially connected with the activities of others, or the fear of missing out (FoMO). While much of the present available research has established the association between FoMO and diminished emotional well-being, little has been done to identify protective factors that can help one cope with the negative psychological consequences of FoMO. Utilizing data from a 7-day diary study of a large sample of young adults (N = 261), the current study aimed to examine the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal in attenuating diminished emotional well-being associated with FoMO. Multilevel modeling showed that cognitive reappraisal attenuated the day-to-day within-person associations between daily FoMO and indicators of daily emotional well-being such as negative affectivity, anxiety, and depressive symptoms.

Which emotion regulation strategy is efficient for whom? Reappraisal and suppression efficiency for adaptive and maladaptive personality profiles

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to explore the efficiency of different emotion regulation strategies, specifically reappraisal and suppression, in relation to adaptive and maladaptive personality profiles.

BACKGROUND

Personality conditions emotions and influences emotion regulation. Of the available regulation strategies, reappraisal (reinterpreting the situation) is described as an efficient strategy, whereas suppression (not displaying the experienced emotion) carries higher physiological and cognitive costs. Little is known, however, about the influence of personality on these efficiencies.

METHOD

We tested the personality structure of 102 participants (Meanage = 20.75, SDage = 2.15), based on the Five-Factor Model and the Maladaptive Personality Trait Model. Experience, expressivity, and physiological arousal were recorded during the viewing of emotionally charged positive and negative images while participants reappraised, suppressed, or viewed the images without regulating their emotions.

RESULTS

We identified two clusters for adaptive personality ("Adaptive Resilient" and "Anti-resilient") and two for maladaptive personality ("Maladaptive Resilient" and "Under-controlled"). The major finding was for emotional experience in maladaptive personalities, where reappraisal was efficient in the Maladaptive Resilient profile, while none of the strategies brought relief in the Under-controlled profile.

CONCLUSION

This study, which systematically contrasts personality and efficiency of emotion regulation strategies, is one of the first attempts to refine the understanding of how personality influences the emotional regulation process.

Behavioural and ERP evidence of a contrary effect between active and passive suppression of facial expressions

There has been disagreement regarding the relationship among the three components (subjective experience, external performance, and physiological response) of emotional responses. To investigate this issue further, this study compared the effects of active and passive suppression of facial expressions on subjective experiences and event-related potentials (ERPs) through two experiments. The two methods of expression suppression produced opposite patterns of ERPs for negative emotional stimuli: compared with the free-viewing condition, active suppression of expression decreased, while passive suppression increased the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) when viewing negative emotional stimuli. Further, while active suppression had no effect on participants' emotional experience, passive suppression enhanced their emotional experience. Among the three components of emotional responses, facial expressions are more closely related to the physiological response of the brain than to subjective experience, and whether the suppression was initiated by participants determines the decrease or increase in physiological response of the brain (i.e. LPP). The findings revealed the important role of individual subjective initiative in modulating the relationship among the components of emotional response, which provides new insights into effectively emotional regulation.

Quantitative versus qualitative emotion regulation goals: Differential effects on emotional responses

Emotion regulation (ER) involves both a goal (e.g., to feel less emotion) and a strategy (e.g., reappraisal). To clarify the impact of ER goals on emotional responding, we conducted a within-participant study (N = 156) in which we held the strategy constant (reappraisal) to isolate the impact of regulation goals. We compared the impact of a quantitative goal (changing emotion quantity/intensity) with that of a qualitative goal (changing emotion quality/type) on emotional responses to negative and positive pictures. We manipulated ER goals by cuing participants to continue viewing the picture (unregulated/no ER goal) or to reappraise it to decrease its predominant affective impact (quantitative goal) or increase its opposite-valence impact (qualitative goal). We assessed emotional responses through self-reported feelings and facial expressions (corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major electromyography). Our findings suggest that the type of regulation goal has a differential effect on emotional responses, with qualitative goals being more effective in modulating both negative and positive emotions. For negative stimuli, attempts to use a quantitative goal decreased negative but not positive emotional responses (uncoupled negative deactivation). Conversely, attempts to use a qualitative goal decreased negative and increased positive emotional responses (reciprocal positive activation). For positive stimuli, the quantitative goal generated uncoupled positive deactivation, while the qualitative goal produced reciprocal negative activation. Results highlight the importance of considering specific regulation goals in shaping emotional responses. Future research in the field of ER may benefit from identifying and manipulating different goals and strategies to understand how to effectively regulate emotions.

Unpacking Chinese EFL Students' Academic Engagement and Psychological Well-Being: The Roles of Language Teachers' Affective Scaffolding

Over the past decade, there has appeared a surge of research interest in language learners' academic engagement and psychological well-being as important factors in improving the quality of education. However, research on the roles of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' affective scaffolding in enhancing the academic engagement and psychological well-being of their students is relatively scant. Inspired by this gap, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of Chinese EFL teachers' affective scaffolding on their learners' academic engagement and psychological well-being. To this end, a total number of 1968 Chinese EFL learners participated in this questionnaire survey. The results of the study showed that EFL teachers' affective scaffolding positively and significantly predicted students' academic engagement and psychological well-being. More specifically, it was found that teachers' affective scaffolding explained about 73% and 65% of variances in EFL students' academic engagement and psychological well-being. Moreover, it was found that psychological well-being and academic engagement were positively correlated and predicted 56% of each other's variances. In accordance with these findings, educators are recommended to build up a harmonious teacher-student relationship to foster students' psych-emotional development.

Reappraisal capacity is unrelated to depressive and anxiety symptoms

Research suggests affective symptoms are associated with reduced habitual use of reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in individuals with mental health problems. Less is known, however, about whether mental health problems are related to reduced reappraisal capacity per se. The current study investigates this question using a film-based emotion regulation task that required participants to use reappraisal to downregulate their emotional response to highly evocative real-life film footage. We pooled data (N = 512, age: 18-89 years, 54% female) from 6 independent studies using this task. In contrast to our predictions, symptoms of depression and anxiety were unrelated to self-reported negative affect after reappraisal or to emotional reactivity to negative films. Implications for the measurement of reappraisal as well as future directions for research in the field of emotion regulation are discussed.

Investigation of global brain dynamics depending on emotion regulation strategies indicated by graph theoretical brain network measures at system level

In the present study, new findings reveal the close association between graph theoretic global brain connectivity measures and cognitive abilities the ability to manage and regulate negative emotions in healthy adults. Functional brain connectivity measures have been estimated from both eyes-opened and eyes-closed resting-state EEG recordings in four groups including individuals who use opposite Emotion Regulation Strategies (ERS) as follow: While 20 individuals who frequently use two opposing strategies, such as rumination and cognitive distraction, are included in 1st group, 20 individuals who don't use these cognitive strategies are included in 2nd group. In 3rd and 4th groups, there are matched individuals who use both Expressive Suppression and Cognitive Reappraisal strategies together frequently and never use them, respectively. EEG measurements and psychometric scores of individuals were both downloaded from a public dataset LEMON. Since it is not sensitive to volume conduction, Directed Transfer Function has been applied to 62-channel recordings to obtain cortical connectivity estimations across the whole cortex. Regarding well defined threshold, connectivity estimations have been transformed into binary numbers for implementation of Brain Connectivity Toolbox. The groups are compared to each other through both statistical logistic regression models and deep learning models driven by frequency band specific network measures referring segregation, integration and modularity of the brain. Overall results show that high classification accuracies of 96.05% (1st vs 2nd) and 89.66% (3rd vs 4th) are obtained in analyzing full-band ( 0.5 - 45 H z ) EEG. In conclusion, negative strategies may upset the balance between segregation and integration. In particular, graphical results show that frequent use of rumination induces the decrease in assortativity referring network resilience. The psychometric scores are found to be highly correlated with brain network measures of global efficiency, local efficiency, clustering coefficient, transitivity and assortativity in even resting-state.

Positive emotions and their upregulation increase willingness to consume healthy foods

While highly relevant for everyday life, it is unclear whether experiencing incidental positive or negative emotional states, and active emotion regulation, influence the weighting of perceived taste and health in food choices. In Experiment 1, we examined two emotion regulation strategies, reappraisal and distraction, used to decrease negative emotions. Participants were cued to experience or decrease their emotional response for either neutral or negative incidental emotion-inducing images. They subsequently rated their willingness to consume foods, which varied in their taste and health attributes. Mixed-effects model analysis showed that compared to neutral, negative emotions decreased willingness to consume, regardless of perceived taste and health, but neither emotion regulation strategy had a significant effect. Experiment 2 used images inducing incidental positive emotions in combination with three emotion regulation strategies: reappraisal, distraction, and increasing positive emotions. Experiencing positive emotions generally increased willingness to consume, with stronger effects for tasty and healthy foods. Decreasing positive emotions via reappraisal decreased willingness to consume, particularly for healthy foods. Increasing positive emotion intensity further increased willingness to consume, with stronger effects for healthy foods. The results suggest that experiencing positive emotions increases desire particularly strongly for healthy foods, which can additionally be modulated via emotion regulation. This has important implications for designing health-related interventions targeting mood improvement.

The link between emotion regulation and size estimation of spiders pictures among women with fear of spiders

Introduction

Fear is associated with perceptual biases. People who are afraid of spiders perceive spiders as larger than people without this fear. It is yet unclear, however, whether this effect can be influenced by using implicit (non-deliberate) emotion regulation (ER) processes and explicit (deliberate) ER strategies, such as reappraisal and suppression.

Method

This study examined the link between implicit and explicit ER and size estimation among women afraid of spiders. After performing an implicit ER (cognitive control) task, participants rated the size and valence of spiders, wasps and butterflies shown in pictures. Participants' tendency to use reappraisal and suppression was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

Results

Results showed no effect of implicit ER on size and valence ratings. A greater tendency to use reappraisal was linked to reduced negative feelings on seeing the pictures of spiders. Greater use of suppression, however, was linked to increased size estimation of the spider stimuli.

Discussion

These results highlight the role of ER in perceptual biases and offer avenues for future ER-based treatments for specific phobias.

Successful emotion regulation via cognitive reappraisal in authentic pride: Behavioral and event-related potential evidence

The present study explored whether authentic pride (AP) and hubristic pride (HP) were differently associated with cognitive reappraisal strategy. In study 1, undergraduates (n = 235) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires, including the Authentic and Hubristic Pride-Proneness Scale (AHPPS), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and emotion regulation questionnaire (ERP-R). The results showed that AP significantly predicted successful down-regulation of negative emotions via a spontaneous cognitive reappraisal strategy. However, hubristic pride (HP) was negatively associated with spontaneous cognitive reappraisal. In study 2, participants with trait AP (n = 31) and trait HP (n = 29) undergoing continuous electroencephalogram (EEG) recording were required to reinterpret emotional pictures to down-regulate/up-regulate their negative/positive emotional reactions. The results showed that individuals with AP reported lower levels of emotional arousal and lower amplitudes of late positive potentials (LPPs) than did individuals with HP in response to negative pictures during the down-regulation of negative emotions, but not during passive viewing or up-regulation of positive emotions. Across two studies, these findings showed that individuals with AP could utilize the cognitive reappraisal strategy (spontaneously in daily life and under experimental instructions) to down-regulate negative emotions more successfully relative to individuals with HP.

Dealing with COVID-19 stressful events, stress and anxiety: the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies in Italian women

BACKGROUND

This study aims to better understand the causal relationship between COVID-19 stressful events, perceived stress, emotion regulation strategies and anxiety symptoms in Italian women. Specifically, we assumed that: (i) different COVID-19 stressful events can directly or indirectly influence the manifestation of anxiety symptoms; (ii) perceived stress and emotion regulation strategies can mediate the relationship between COVID-19 stressful events and anxiety symptoms.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

An online survey was distributed during the Italian mandatory lockdown - between 18th and 28th April 2020 - across the national territory. The final sample was composed of 1132 women living in different Italian regions (North 63.30%, Centre 14.20%, South 18.50%, Islands 4.00%) with a mean age of 40.19 years, ranging from 19 to 83 years (SD = 12.87). Participants filled out the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) X1/R, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ-10), five dichotomous questions assessing the COVID-19 stressful events and a demographic form. Pearson correlation analyses were performed to examine whether associations between factors conformed to the prerequisites for path analysis. Path analysis was conducted to test the model.

RESULTS

"Having contracted the flu during the COVID-19 pandemic" and "having a family member infected by COVID-19" have a direct effect on the level of perceived stress and an indirect effect on the manifestation of anxiety symptoms. Finally, we found that emotion regulation strategies mediate the relationship between perceived stress and state anxiety symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results allow one to select the stressful events to which, in the pandemic era, it is necessary to pay particular attention in a clinical setting and suggest the implementation of psychological interventions that make emotion regulation an essential direct target of treatment in chronic stress-related pathology such as anxiety disorders.

Social Support Predicts Differential Use, but not Differential Effectiveness, of Expressive Suppression and Social Sharing in Daily Life

While emotion regulation often happens in the presence of others, little is known about how social context shapes regulatory efforts and outcomes. One key element of the social context is social support. In two experience sampling studies (Ns = 179 and 123), we examined how the use and affective consequences of two fundamentally social emotion-regulation strategies-social sharing and expressive suppression-vary as a function of perceived social support. Across both studies, we found evidence that social support was associated with variation in people's use of these strategies, such that when people perceived their environments as being higher (vs. lower) in social support, they engaged in more sharing and less suppression. However, we found only limited and inconsistent support for context-dependent affective outcomes of suppression and sharing: suppression was associated with better affective consequences in the context of higher perceived social support in Study 1, but this effect did not replicate in Study 2. Taken together, these findings suggest that the use of social emotion-regulation strategies may depend on contextual variability in social support, whereas their effectiveness does not. Future research is needed to better understand the circumstances in which context-dependent use of emotion regulation may have emotional benefits, accounting for personal, situational, and cultural factors.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00123-8.

When We're Asked to Change: The Role of Suppression and Reappraisal in Partner Change Outcomes

Receiving a request to change from a romantic partner can evoke intense emotional responses that hinder change progress and conflict resolution. As such, investigating how those being asked to change (i.e., change targets) regulate their emotions through key intrapersonal strategies (i.e., suppression and reappraisal) will lend crucial insight into promoting change success. Utilizing laboratory-interaction (Study 1; N = 111 couples) and experience-sampling methods (Study 2; N = 2178 weekly reports from an 8-week diary), we assessed targets' regulation strategies, change progress, and the extent to which they met their partner's ideals. Preregistered analyses demonstrated that targets' use of suppression was not linked to better or worse change outcomes. However, targets' use of reappraisal was linked to better change outcomes as rated by both partners. Additional analyses revealed that targets' suppression was linked to targets meeting their partner's ideals more in the short term but less over time, whereas targets' reappraisal was linked to targets meeting their partner's ideals more in both the short term and over time. These findings highlight reappraisal as a key strategy for promoting successful partner change.

Cross-validated Adaboost Classification of Emotion Regulation Strategies Identified by Spectral Coherence in Resting-State

In the present study, quantitative relations between Cognitive Emotion Regulation strategies (CERs) and EEG synchronization levels have been investigated for the first time. For this purpose, spectral coherence (COH), phase locking value and mutual information have been applied to short segments of 62-channel resting state eyes-opened EEG data collected from healthy adults who use contrasting emotion regulation strategies (frequently and rarely use of rumination&distraction, frequently and rarely use of suppression&reappraisal). In tests, the individuals are grouped depending on their self-responses to both emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ) and cognitive ERQ. Experimental data are downloaded from publicly available data-base, LEMON. Regarding EEG electrode pairs that placed on right and left cortical regions, inter-hemispheric dependency measures are computed for non-overlapped short segments of 2 sec at 2 min duration trials. In addition to full-band EEG analysis, dependency metrics are also obtained for both alpha and beta sub-bands. The contrasting groups are discriminated from each other with respect to the corresponding features using cross-validated adaboost classifiers. High classification accuracies (CA) of 99.44% and 98.33% have been obtained through instant classification driven by full-band COH estimations. Considering regional features that provide the high CA, CERs are found to be highly relevant with associative memory functions and cognition. The new findings may indicate the close relation between neuroplasticity and cognitive skills.

The neural bases of expressive suppression: A systematic review of functional neuroimaging studies

Expressive suppression refers to the inhibition of emotion-expressive behavior (e.g., facial expressions of emotion). Although it is a commonly used emotion regulation strategy with well-documented consequences for well-being, little is known about its underlying mechanisms. In this systematic review, we for the first time synthesize functional neuroimaging studies on the neural bases of expressive suppression in non-clinical populations. The 12 studies included in this review contrasted the use of expressive suppression to simply watching emotional stimuli. Results showed that expressive suppression consistently increased activation of frontoparietal regions, especially the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices and inferior parietal cortex, but decreased activation in temporo-occipital areas. Results regarding the involvement of the insula and amygdala were inconsistent with studies showing increased, decreased, or no changes in activation. These mixed findings underscore the importance of distinguishing expressive suppression from other forms of suppression and highlight the need to pay more attention to experimental design and neuroimaging data analysis procedures. We discuss these conceptual and methodological issues and provide suggestions for future research.

Emotion Appraisals and Coping with Secrets

Secrecy is both common and consequential. Recent work suggests that personal experiences with secrets (i.e., mind-wandering to them outside of concealment contexts), rather than concealment (within conversations), can explain the harms of secrecy. Recent work has also demonstrated that secrecy is associated with emotions that center on self-evaluation-shame and guilt. These emotions may help explain the harms of secrecy and provide a point of intervention to improve coping with secrecy. Four studies with 800 participants keeping over 10,500 secrets found that shame surrounding a secret is associated with lower perceived coping efficacy and reduced well-being. Moreover, shifting appraisals away from shame improved perceptions of efficacy in coping with secrets, which was linked with higher well-being. These studies suggest that emotions surrounding secrets can harm well-being and highlight avenues for intervention.

Experiential, expressive, and physiological effects of positive and negative emotion regulation goals while reappraising amusing stimuli

We examined whether positive and negative emotion regulation (ER) goals while cognitively reappraising amusing stimuli differentially engage positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) systems. Forty-eight women watched 20-30s amusing film clips. They were instructed to either respond naturally (no ER goal) or emphasize the film clips' positive (positive ER goal) or negative (negative ER goal) aspects in their interpretation. We measured PA and NA system activity on experiential, expressive, and physiological response channels through self-reported amusement and disgust, electromyography of zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii, and autonomic nervous system reactivity from respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and pre-ejection period (PEP). Natural viewing (no ER goal) of amusing clips increased self-reported amusement (and to a lesser degree disgust), zygomaticus reactivity, and RSA. Compared to no and negative ER goals, reappraising the amusing clips with a positive ER goal decreased corrugator reactivity, decreasing negative emotional expression. Compared to no and positive ER goals, reappraising the amusing clips with a negative ER goal decreased self-reported amusement and zygomaticus reactivity and increased self-reported disgust and corrugator reactivity, decreasing positive and increasing negative emotional experience and expression. We conclude that positive and negative ER goals while reappraising amusing stimuli differentially engaged PA and NA systems: The positive ER goal engaged withdrawal of the expressive NA system, whereas the negative ER goal engaged reciprocal NA-PA system activation on experiential and expressive response channels.

Modulation of Conflict Processing by Reappraisal: An Experimental Investigation

Negative affect facilitates conflict processing. Here we sought to assess whether symmetrically, its downregulation by means of reappraisal could lower it. To this end, 105 participants performed the confound-minimized Stroop task eliciting negative affect that was followed by a simple reward-related visual discrimination task. Conflict processing was induced with the former task. Half of them (experimental group) were instructed to use this second task to downregulate negative affect arising from the Stroop task. The other half (control group) did not receive these appraisal-related instructions. Group comparisons showed that negative affect and the conflict effect were similar for these two groups. However, when we added and modeled the subjective ratings related to emotion regulation, we found that conflict processing significantly improved for participants who reported using reappraisal spontaneously, and this gain occurred irrespective of negative affect. These results suggest that reappraisal can influence conflict processing but this change does not depend on negative affect.

Stress appraisal as a mediator between the sense of coherence and the frequency of stress coping strategies in women and men during COVID-19 lockdown

The COVID‐19 lockdown experience is a unique and unexpected stressful life situation. In our research project, we explored gender differences in the mean level of stress appraisal (SAQ), the frequency of stress coping strategies (COPE), and the sense of coherence (SOC), as well as gender differences in the strength of the relationships between SAQ, COPE, and SOC during the COVID‐19 lockdown. Finally, we tested if stressor appraisal (as a threat, harm/loss, or challenge) mediates the relationship between SOC and COPE in women and men respectively. Data were collected during the first wave of the COVID‐19 lockdown in Poland in 2020. An online survey was conducted among 326 adults aged between 18 and 72. We observed gender differences in the level of SAQ, COPE, and SOC and gender differences in the significance and strength of the correlations between these variables. SOC had a twofold effect on COPE in men: direct and indirect through SOC‐threat and SOC‐harm/loss. In women, SOC did not directly predict COPE frequency but affected COPE in an indirect way through SAQ. SAQ is an important factor that modifies the strength of the SOC effect on COPE in women and men during the lockdown.

Shades of Rage: Applying the Process Model of Emotion Regulation to Managing Anger After Brain Injury

Uncontrollable anger is common following an acquired brain injury (ABI), with impaired emotion regulation (ER) being one of the main contributors. Existing psychological interventions appear moderately effective, though studies typically include limitations such as small sample sizes, issues of long-term efficacy, and standardization of content. While ER has been a popular research field, the study of ER for anger management after ABI is less well investigated, and contains few interventions based on the widely used Process Model of ER. This review surveys the efficacy of ER strategies in individuals with ABI, and proposes a novel research design for future interventions. Recommendations are made about: strategy number and type, shared decision-making, approaches to data analysis, and mode of delivery.

Communicating emotional distress experienced by adolescents between adolescents and their mothers: Patterns and links with adolescents' emotional distress

This research proposes the construct of Communication Patterns of adolescents' emotional distress (CPAED) between adolescents and their parents, describing situations in which open or defective dialog about adolescents' emotions following distressful events are formed between adolescents and their parents. By addressing adolescents' perceptions of CPAED in adolescents and their mothers, we developed a valid and reliable scale to assess the hypothesized CPAED theoretical framework. Factor analyses in Study 1 (EFA; N = 257, M_age = 15.66 years old, SD = 0.35) and Study 2 (CFA; initial N = 684; M_age = 14.08, SD = 0.45) suggested three factors: a) Active and Reactive Emotion Sharing (ARES), referring to adolescents' active sharing of emotion or reactive sharing in the face of maternal inquiry; b) Lack of Solicitation by mothers (LS), tracking mothers' avoidance of communication; and c) Lack of Response by adolescents (LR), describing adolescents' avoidance of communication even when asked by mothers. Moreover, Study 2 documented that CPAED were linked to maternal emotion socialization practices (i.e., emotion expressivity and responses to adolescents' negative emotions) and adolescents' negative emotion expression. Study 2 found that ARES predicted decreased emotional distress in adolescents, whereas LS and LR predicted increased emotional distress accordingly; and the three factors of CPAED incrementally predicted adolescents' emotional distress over and beyond other theoretically relevant predictors.

Positive rumination can (also) interfere with sleep: A study in a non-clinical sample

It is postulated that negative ruminations perpetuate insomnia symptoms by increasing arousal. Less is known about the role of positive rumination. In this study, we set out to test the association between positive and negative ruminations and insomnia symptoms in a non-clinical sample, asking whether reappraisal and suppression moderate the relationship between rumination types and symptoms of insomnia.

METHODS

A convenience sample of 354 participants (59% women), ages 18-50, responded to online questionnaires regarding symptoms of insomnia (Insomnia Severity Index [ISI]), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire that provides separate scales for Reappraisal and Suppression, Negative Rumination (Ruminative Response Scale), Positive Rumination and Dampening (Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire), and general health and demographics.

RESULTS

About 30% of respondents had moderate to severe symptoms of insomnia according to the ISI. The primary hypothesis was tested using three moderation models, where rumination type, emotion regulation styles, and interaction terms were predictors, and ISI scores were the outcome variable. Negative rumination positively predicted ISI (β = 0.56, p < 0.001), while the interaction terms with Reappraisal (β = 0.02, p = 0.575) and Suppression (β = 0.07, p = 0.092) were not significant. Dampening also positively predicted ISI (β = 0.56, p < 0.001), with the interaction term with Reappraisal nearly significant (β = -0.09, p = 0.060), but not with Suppression (β = 0.08, p =0.098). Positive rumination negatively predicted ISI (β = -0.12, p = 0.021), this relationship was reversed with emotion regulation factors in the model (β = 0.11, p = 0.094), where the interaction with Reappraisal (β = 0.13, p = 0.020) and Suppression (β = -0.13, p = 0.024) were both significant.

DISCUSSION

Positive Rumination weakly and negatively correlated with ISI, but the combination with Reappraisal was associated with more insomnia symptoms. By contrast, Dampening was associated with more insomnia symptoms, with minimal to no moderating effects. These observations are interpreted in the context of the role of emotion regulation strategies and sleep, and their potential clinical implications.

The Predictability of Chinese English as a Foreign Language Students' Willingness to Communicate Through Teachers' Immediacy and Teacher-Student Rapport

The teacher-learner relationship is not just a simple action and reaction on both sides of the relationship but a complete exchange that takes shape in the context of the factors that affect it. To understand the factors affecting this relationship, the present study investigated the predictability of Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' willingness to communicate (WTC) through teachers' immediacy and teacher-student rapport. To conduct the study, 858 EFL students from Xinyang Normal University in Henan province of China were invited to participate in the study. To collect the required data, the researcher employed the Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire, Verbal and Nonverbal Immediacy Questionnaire, and Professor-Student Rapport Scale. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that there was a strong positive relationship between teacher immediacy and teacher-student rapport and learners' willingness to communicate. The findings also demonstrated that teachers' immediacy and teacher-student rapport were positive predictors of learners' willingness to communicate. The paper argues that teachers need to enhance their interpersonal relations with their students to make them willing to communicate in their classes.

Motivated to express: Salience of oppression toward other women encourages women’s self-expression

Women’s oppression undermines and inhibits women but may also prompt an enterprising reaction. In this paper, three studies explored the extent to which women respond to awareness of the oppression of other women with an increased desire for self-expression, a reactive but constructive response. Study 1 explored reactions to two forms of other women’s oppression: restricted self-expression and restricted economic opportunities. Women reported an increased desire to self-express after exposure to either form of oppression, as compared to a control group. Study 2 compared British women’s reactions to stories of a woman versus a man being oppressed, finding the former group wrote more words about an unrelated, but timely and consequential topic (Brexit). Finally, Study 3 replicated the effect of greater self-expression after being exposed to women’s oppression, and furthermore identified an indirect effect through reactance. Findings are discussed in relation to identity, constructive forms of reactance, and implications for current women’s rights movements.

Examining Facets of Mindfulness in the Relationship Between Invalidating Childhood Environments and Emotion Regulation

Research has shown that growing up in an environment in which emotions are invalidated (i.e., ignored or responded to negatively) by parents is associated with later difficulties regulating emotions. Meanwhile, dispositional mindfulness has been shown to engender a greater capacity for emotion regulation, through use of adaptive strategies like cognitive reframing and minimizing use of maladaptive strategies like expressive suppression. The current study aimed to explore the role of invalidating childhood environments on use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression as emotion regulation skills and to investigate the role of mindfulness in this relationship. Participants were recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 1094, M_age = 58.3% women) and completed self-report measures assessing perceptions of maternal invalidation, mindfulness, and emotion regulation. Results demonstrated that the mindfulness facets of describing, non-judging, and non-reactivity partially mediated the relationship between perception of maternal invalidation and expressive suppression. Awareness and non-reactivity were found to mediate the relationship between perception of maternal invalidation and cognitive reappraisal. Clinical implications are discussed.

Sex-Specific Relationships Between Interoceptive Accuracy and Emotion Regulation

Over the last years, there has been a resurge in the interest to study the relationship between interoception and emotion. By now, it is well established that interoception contributes to the experience of emotions. However, it may also be possible that interoception contributes to the regulation of emotions. To test this possibility, we studied the relationship between interoception and emotion regulation in a sample of healthy individuals (n = 84). We used a similar heartbeat detection task and a similar self-report questionnaire for the assessment of interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation as in previous studies. In contrast to previous studies, we differentiated between male and female individuals in our analyses and controlled our analyses for individual characteristics that may affect the relationship between interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation. We found sex-differences in interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation that amounted to a sex-specific relationship between interoceptive accuracy and emotion regulation: Whereas interoceptive accuracy was related to reappraisal but not to suppression in male individuals, interoceptive accuracy was unrelated to reappraisal and suppression in female individuals. These findings indicate that the relationship between interoception and emotion regulation is far more complex than has been suggested by previous findings. However, these findings nonetheless support the view that interoception is essential for both, the regulation and experience of emotions.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury-Related Differences in the Experience of Negative and Positive Emotion

OBJECTIVE

Emotional experience is argued to contribute to the initiation and maintenance of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). We investigated whether individuals with/without a history of NSSI differed in their dispositional experience of negative and positive emotion, as well as their state responses to negatively and positively valenced movie clips.

METHOD

Undergraduates (n = 214, M_age  = 21.33, 73.8% female, 35.5% reporting NSSI) completed measures of NSSI and dispositional emotional experience. Participants also viewed a sad and amusing movie clip and provided sadness/amusement ratings at seven time-points.

RESULTS

Relative to participants with no history of self-injury, participants reporting NSSI indicated more reactivity, intensity, and perseveration of dispositional negative emotion; however, differences were negated after adjusting for mental illness. Unexpectedly, individuals with a history of NSSI responded less intensely to the sad clip, although they demonstrated perseveration of sadness over time. Participants reporting NSSI also indicated less reactivity, intensity, and perseveration of dispositional positive emotion and, in response to the amusing film, reported less amusement at all time-points.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering different dimensions of negative and positive emotion may enhance understanding of NSSI. Future research should disentangle which dimensions of emotional experience are unique to NSSI and which are shared with mental illness more generally.

Individual differences in neuroticism personality trait in emotion regulation

BACKGROUND

Higher neuroticism personality trait individuals have more negative mood states, more sensitive to negative information, and higher risk of mental illness. Good emotion regulation ability play an important role in healthy psychological, social and physical outcomes. Previous studies have suggested that higher neuroticism individuals have a diminished ability to regulate emotion regulation. Up to now, few studies investigate the neural basis between neuroticism and emotion regulation.

METHOD

In present study, we want to explore the neuroticism and the activity of some brain regions and functional amygdala connectivity (psycho-physiological interaction [PPI]) in a cognitive reappraisal task. Thus, 160 healthy young participants were scanned during a cognitive reappraisal task.

RESULTS

The results revealed that neuroticism scores showed a significant negative association with the activity of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), inferior frontal cortex and middle frontal cortex in regulation of negative emotion. PPI analyses revealed that neuroticism scores were negatively associated with amygdala-dmPFC connectivity in regulation of negative emotion.

LIMITATION

Only cognitive reappraisal were investigated in this study. Other emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression need to be explored in the future study.

CONCLUSION

These results may suggest that highly neurotic participants display diminished cognitive reappraisal and diminished control function of the dmPFC over the amygdala in regulation of negative emotion.

Emotion Regulation, Subjective Well-Being, and Perceived Stress in Daily Life of Geriatric Nurses

This daily diary study examined the within-person coupling between four emotion regulation strategies and both subjective well-being and perceived stress in daily life of geriatric nurses. Participants (N = 89) described how they regulated their emotions in terms of cognitive reappraisal and suppression. They also indicated their subjective well-being and level of perceived stress each day over 3 weeks. At the within-person level, cognitive reappraisal intended to increase positive emotions was positively associated with higher subjective well-being and negatively associated with perceived stress. Suppression of the expression of positive emotions was negatively associated with subjective well-being and positively associated with perceived stress. However, cognitive reappraisal intended to down-regulate negative emotions and suppression as a strategy to inhibit the expression of negative emotions were not associated with daily well-being or perceived stress. Off-days were rated as days with higher subjective well-being and lower perceived stress in contrast to working days. At the between-person level, individuals who reported more daily negative affect reported increased suppression of positive emotions, corroborating the within-person findings. Moreover, findings indicated that nurses with more years of experience in the job reported higher subjective well-being and less perceived stress. These results provide insights into important daily emotional processes of geriatric nurses, both at workdays and in their leisure time.

Contextual factors influence the selection of specific and broad types of emotion regulation strategies

An emerging focus in the emotion regulation (ER) literature is to consider the importance of context for people's ER strategy choice, given that ER responses that adapt to situational demands have been found to be highly beneficial. However, it remains unclear what (and in what way) contextual factors impact people's ER strategy selections. Also, only a limited number of ER strategies have been extensively studied and little is known about people's selection of broad ER strategy categories (we focus on covert vs. overt ER strategies based on Aldao & Dixon-Gordon's [2014] conceptualization). In the current study, 203 participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk to imagine experiencing either positive or negative emotion in various contextual settings (location: home, social, vs. professional setting × social context: alone vs. with others) and to identify from 16 ER strategies the ones that they would in general deem applicable for each context. Results showed that the aforementioned factors, in various ways, uniquely or interactively predicted the selection of specific and broad ER strategies. Furthermore, personality (neuroticism and extraversion) also influenced participants' ER strategy selection. Overall, this study underscores the importance of including diverse strategies and considering context in the study of ER strategy choices.

Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event

In everyday life, people often combine strategies to regulate their emotions. However, to date, most research has investigated emotion regulation strategies as if they occur independently from one another. The current study aims to better understand the sequential interplay between strategies by investigating how reappraisal and rumination interact to affect anger experience. After participants (N = 156) recalled a recent anger-provoking event, they were instructed to either a) reappraise the event twice, b) reappraise the event, and then ruminate about the event, c) ruminate about the event, and then reappraise the event, or d) ruminate twice about the event. The effects of the first strategy used replicated a large body of research: reappraisal was associated with a decrease in anger, but rumination was associated with no change in anger. There was a small interactive effect of the combination of the two strategies, such that those who ruminated and then reappraised showed a larger decrease in anger than those who reappraised and then ruminated. There were no other differences between groups. This suggests that the second strategy does have an effect over and beyond the first strategy, but this effect is small in size, highlighting the importance of the initial emotion regulation strategy used.

Regulating for a reason: Emotion regulation goals are linked to spontaneous strategy use

OBJECTIVE

We investigated how individual differences in emotion regulation goals predict emotion regulation strategy use in daily life.

METHOD

Across three studies, we assessed two common types of emotion regulation goals (hedonic, social) and strategies spanning the entire process model of emotion regulation. We conducted two studies using global measures with undergraduates (N = 394; 18-25 years; 69% female; 56% European American) and community members (N = 302; 19-74 years; 50% female; 75% European American), and a nine-day daily diary study with another community sample (N = 272; 23-85 years; 50% female; 84% European American).

RESULTS

Globally and in daily life, pro-hedonic goals were positively associated with all antecedent-focused strategies (situation selection, situation modification, distraction, and reappraisal), pro-social goals were positively linked to reappraisal, and impression management goals positively predicted suppression. Contra-hedonic goals were negatively associated with reappraisal and positively associated with suppression in some studies.

CONCLUSIONS

The reasons why people regulate their emotions are predictive of the strategies they use in daily life. These links may be functional, such that people typically use strategies that are suitable for their goals. These findings demonstrate the value of an individual difference approach and highlight the motivational component of emotion regulation.

Psychological Antecedents of Retirement Planning: A Systematic Review

As workforce aging continues through the next decade, the number of persons who will retire from long-held jobs and careers will increase. In recent years, researchers across disciplines of psychology have focused attention on the impact of the retirement process on post-retirement adjustment and well-being. The objective of the current review is twofold. The first goal is to review the literature on retirement planning with attention to past conceptualizations and current theoretical specifications. Second, empirical work investigating the psychological antecedents of retirement planning is reviewed. The primary conclusion reached from this review is that, conceptually, retirement planning continues to be poorly delineated and, thereby, narrowly investigated. Empirically, cognitive antecedents of retirement planning continue to figure prominently in both workplace and retirement researches. The boundary conditions of retirement planning, as well as alternative mechanisms for adult wellbeing, are discussed. Specifically, retirement planning's meaning amidst increasing job mobility and longer life expectancies are identified as two complementary areas for future empirical integration of work-retirement research domains.

Downregulation of Anger by Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII)

As anger can lead to aggressive behavior aiming at intentionally hurting somebody, the prevention of its destructive consequences with effective emotion regulation strategies is crucial. Two studies tested the idea that mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) interventions would be effective in down-regulating anger. In Study 1, participants who adopted the self-regulation strategy of MCII showed significantly less anger-related negative affect after the anger induction than participants in a control condition, with positive affect staying unaffected. Results from a second study with a control condition plus three self-regulation conditions - a reappraisal, a MCII, and a reappraisal + MCII condition - suggest that participants using MCII were effective in down-regulating anger, irrespective of whether it was supplemented by reappraisal or not. The present research contributes to emotion regulation research by introducing MCII as an effective strategy that can be tailored to satisfy individual emotion regulation demands, such as dealing with experienced anger.

Cerebral processing of facial emotions in bipolar I and II disorders: An event-related potential study

BACKGROUND

Behavioral results have shown that bipolar disorder patients have impaired recognition of facial emotions, but the detailed information processing of facial emotions in patients with bipolar I (BD I) and II (BD II) disorders remain unknown.

METHODS

We tested the cerebral event-related potentials to the static facial expressions of Neutral, Happiness, Anger and Sadness in 39 adult patients with BD I, 22 BD II, and 54 healthy volunteers. Participants' affective states were measured with the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, the Hypomania Checklist-32, and the Plutchik-van Praag Depression Inventory.

RESULTS

Over-processed right occipitotemporal cortex during N1 time window to Neutral and Happiness, and during P3b window to Sadness were found in BD I; prolonged N1 latencies to Neutral and Happiness, declined P3b amplitude to Sadness, negative correlation between P3b latency to Sadness and depression, and attenuated superior frontal activity during P3b window to Sadness were found in BD II; and the right-side dominance during facial emotion processing were found in both BD I and BD II.

LIMITATIONS

We didn't record the personality traits or medication used in patients, nor included other facial emotions such as fear and disgust.

CONCLUSIONS

When responding to facial emotions, both BD I and BD II showed a right-side processing dominance; BD I displayed enhanced processing in the right occipitotemporal cortex during structural encoding and categorical processing of facial emotions; while BD II displayed generalized impairments, less involvement of superior frontal cortex to negative emotions, and reduced ability to process negative emotions which was associated with depression.

The Intersection of Goals to Experience and Express Emotion

Experience and expression are orthogonal emotion dimensions: we do not always show what we feel, nor do we always feel what we show. However, the experience and expression dimensions of emotion are rarely considered simultaneously. We propose a model outlining the intersection of goals for emotion experience and expression. We suggest that these goals may be aligned (e.g., feeling and showing) or misaligned (e.g., feeling but not showing). Our model posits these states can be separated into goals to (a) experience and express, (b) experience but not express, (c) express but not experience, or (d) neither experience nor express positive and negative emotion. We contend that considering intersections between experience and expression goals will advance understanding of emotion regulation choice and success.

Exploring daily affective changes in university students with a mindful positive reappraisal intervention: A daily diary randomized controlled trial

Brief and cost-effective interventions focused on emotion regulation techniques can buffer against stress and foster positive functioning. Mindfulness and positive reappraisal are two techniques that can mutually enhance one another to promote well-being. However, research testing the effectiveness of interventions combining mindfulness and reappraisal is lacking. The current pilot examined the effect of a combined mindful-reappraisal intervention on daily affect in a 5-day diary study with 106 university students. Participants were randomized to a mindful-reappraisal intervention (n = 36), a reappraisal-only intervention (n = 34), or an active control activity (n = 36). All participants described a negative event each day but only reappraised the event in the intervention conditions. Using multilevel growth modelling, results indicated that negative affect in both interventions declined over 5 days compared to the control; however, there were no differences in the growth of positive affect. Compared to reappraisal-only, the mindful-reappraisal group reported overall lower daily negative affect and marginally higher daily positive affect over the 5-day intervention. These findings suggest that brief daily practice combining mindfulness and positive reappraisal can be trained as a self-regulatory resource to promote positive affect and buffer negative affect above and beyond reappraisal practice alone.

Emerging Directions in Emotional Episodic Memory

Building upon the existing literature on emotional memory, the present review examines emerging evidence from brain imaging investigations regarding four research directions: (1) Social Emotional Memory, (2) The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Impact of Emotion on Memory, (3) The Impact of Emotion on Associative or Relational Memory, and (4) The Role of Individual Differences in Emotional Memory. Across these four domains, available evidence demonstrates that emotion- and memory-related medial temporal lobe brain regions (amygdala and hippocampus, respectively), together with prefrontal cortical regions, play a pivotal role during both encoding and retrieval of emotional episodic memories. This evidence sheds light on the neural mechanisms of emotional memories in healthy functioning, and has important implications for understanding clinical conditions that are associated with negative affective biases in encoding and retrieving emotional memories.

Distraction and Expressive Suppression Strategies in Regulation of High- and Low-Intensity Negative Emotions

The current study compared the effectiveness of distraction, an antecedent-focused strategy that involves diverting an individual’s attention away from affective terms, and expressive suppression, a response-focused strategy that involves inhibiting conscious emotion-expressive behavior during an emotionally aroused state, in the regulation of high- and low-intensity unpleasant stimuli, using event-related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen participants completed an emotion regulation experiment in which they passively viewed high- or low-intensity unpleasant images (view), solved a mathematical equation presented on high- or low-intensity negative images (distraction), or suppressed their emotional expression in response to high- or low-intensity unpleasant images (suppression). Their negative experiences after implementation of these strategies were rated by participants on a 1–9 scale. We mainly found that compared with expressive suppression, distraction yielded greater attenuation of the early phase of centro-parietal LPP when the participants responded to high-intensity stimuli. In the low-intensity condition, distraction, but not expressive suppression, effectively decreased the early phase of LPP. The findings suggest that expressive suppression works as early as distraction in the high-intensity condition; more importantly, distraction is superior to expressive suppression in regulating negative emotion, which is influenced by emotional intensity.