Divergent effects of reappraisal and labeling internal affective feelings on subjective emotional experience

Abstract

Previous experimental studies on the effects of affect labeling have examined labeling of external affective events, primarily. Few studies have examined the consequences of labeling one’s internal affective state. The current study tested the effects of labeling one’s internal affective state in response to negatively valenced images on concurrent reaction time performance, subjective ratings of emotion, and skin conductance responses, compared to a reappraisal instruction and a view instruction. Consistent with prior research, reappraisal resulted in slower reaction times on the concurrent auditory discrimination task and reduced subjective ratings of emotion, compared with the view instruction. In contrast, affect labeling resulted in increased subjective ratings of emotion, but had no effect on reaction times. Skin conductance responses were higher for unpleasant than neutral pictures but did not differ across instruction type. The results suggest further research directly comparing the consequences of labeling internal affective feelings versus labeling external affective events is warranted.