Changes In Emotional Experience Research Articles

Mexican validation of the International Affective Digitized Sounds second edition (IADS-2) and additional sounds

Affective stimuli have been extensively used in emotion research for a better understanding of emotion regulation. Sound ratings, specifically non-verbal sounds, are biased by demographic indicators such as sex and nationality. Therefore, it is crucial to characterize sounds prior to their use in emotion research. This study aims to validate the IADS-2 database and additional sounds in a sample from the Mexican population. Three hundred twenty-nine participants born and raised in Mexico remotely listened to 174 sounds in monophonic format. They rated sounds according to the valence-arousal-dominance model using the Self-Assessment Manikin test. Results positively correlated to those of previous studies. Sex differences were observed only in dominance between female and male groups, contrary to the results from Portuguese, American and Japanese validations. Geographic region analysis demonstrated differences in arousal, indicating the need for additional research on occident and south regions. Furthermore, when conducting affective research, headphones and audio quality should be considered, primarily to reduce variability due to audio-related aspects, and to avoid changes in emotional experience. Finally, this study supports the feasibility of remote affective sound experiments over the internet as reported in previous research.

Emotional experience and change in psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy

Emotional experience and change in psychodynamic inpatient psychotherapy Objectives: The subject of the present study is the recording of emotional experience and its change through inpatient psychodynamic psychotherapy, taking into account the factors of age, gender, and traumatic experiences in childhood and adolescence. Methods: The following standardized instruments were used on the clinical sample of 971 patients (413 inpatient, 558 day clinic patients) at the beginning and at the end of the treatment: Questionnaire for the Assessment of Emotional Experience and Emotion Regulation (EER), Childhood-Trauma-Questionnaire (CTQ), Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), Helping Alliance Questionnaire (HAQ), Symptom-Check-List (SCL-90-R). Results: The mean duration of treatment was 66.8 days (SD = 14.1; range 30-96). Younger patients and polytraumatized patients showed a higher expression of negative emotions. At the end of treatment, the whole group of patients showed a change in emotional experience, especially a strong decrease in passive-negative emotions and a decrease in psychological distress. Age represented a significant factor influencing emotional change. Discussion: The results underline the importance of emotional change as a prerequisite for treatment success and confirm the effectiveness of inpatient psychodynamic treatment. A further differentiation of the patients with regard to their emotional responsiveness seems to make sense with regard to the suitability of the therapeutic offers.

The cumulative effect of positive and negative feedback on emotional experience.

The cumulative effect of positive or negative feedback on subsequent emotional experiences remains unclear. Elucidating this effect could help individuals to better understand and accept the change in emotional experience, irrespective of when they or others receive consecutive positive or negative feedback. This study aimed to examine this effect on 37 participants using self-reported pleasantness and event-related potential data as indicators. After completing each trial, the participants received predetermined false feedback; they were then assessed on a nine-point pleasantness scale. There were 12 false feedback conditions categorized into three valence types. The positive type consisted of three consecutive positive feedbacks and a fourth medium feedback; the medium type contained four consecutive medium feedbacks; the negative type consisted of three consecutive negative feedbacks and a fourth medium feedback. We abbreviated medium false feedback after three positive, medium, and negative false feedbacks as 3 pm, 3 mm, and 3 nm, respectively. The results showed that the score of self-reported pleasantness of 3mm was significantly lower than that of 3 pm and higher than that of 3 nm. The feedback-related negativity amplitude of 3 pm was significantly greater than that of 3 mm and 3 nm, and the late-positive potential amplitude of 3 nm was significantly greater than that of 3 pm and 3 mm. We found that individuals experienced medium feedback more positively and negatively after continuous positive and negative feedback, respectively. Our findings suggest that individuals should seek continuous positive feedback and avoid continuous negative feedback; this strategy may contribute to increased positive emotional experiences in the future.

Continuous Emotional Responding to Audio, Video, and Audiovisual Sensory Channels during Television Viewing

An experiment was conducted to examine the independent and interactive influence of the audio and visual channels of information in television on viewers’ emotional experience. Audio-only, video-only, and audiovisual television content was presented as psychological stimuli, while participants completed continuous-response measures (CRMs) to index over-time changes in emotional experience of positive valence, negative valence, and arousal. Positive valence and arousal means were significantly influenced by channel over time. Participants reported the most positive emotional experience during audiovisual exposure. The channel and time interaction did not significantly affect negative valence ratings. However, positive valence, negative valence, and arousal ratings were significantly influenced by the interaction of channel and specific message content.

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

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

Emotions and Steroid Secretion in Aging Men: A Multi-Study Report.

Although aging increases the risk of cognitive and socioemotional deterioration, it has also been shown to be accompanied by an increase in experienced positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions. Steroid hormones and age-related alterations in secretion patterns have been suggested to play a crucial role in these age-related changes in emotional experience. Importantly, previous studies identified effects of neuroactive hormones on age-related alterations in emotional experience, which vary by sex and depression levels. Therefore, in three independent cross-sectional studies including a total of 776 men, we examined age-related differences in emotional experience and subsequently the moderation effect of steroid hormones. Sample one consisted of 271 self-reporting healthy (SRH) men aged between 40 and 75 years, while sample two comprised 121 men in the identical age range but only including vitally exhausted (VE) men. Sample three included 384 men aged between 25 and 78 years who reported having fathered (FA) at least one child. For the SRH men, age was negatively associated with anxiety symptoms and aggression, while negative trends emerged for depressive symptoms. In VE men, age was negatively associated with depressive symptoms and positively associated with aggression and positive emotions. For FA men, anxiety symptoms and aggression were negatively associated with age. Age trends of steroid hormones and identified moderation effects are reported. However, with adjustment for multiple comparisons, most of the significant associations fade and the reported associations need to be regarded as exploratory starting points for the further investigation of age-related alterations in emotional experience and their relation to steroid secretion. Overall, the results indicate that salivary cortisol might be a moderator of the association between age and symptoms of anxiety for SRH and VE men, while salivary testosterone seems to moderate the association between age and symptoms of anxiety or depression in VE and FA men, respectively. Both hair cortisol and progesterone seem to influence age-related alterations in anger experience. Age-related alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis emerge as promising avenues to further investigate the decrease in experienced negative emotions in aging men.

Emotion and self in psychotic disorders: Behavioral evidence from an emotional evaluation task using verbal stimuli varying in emotional valence and self-reference

Background and objectivesPsychotic disorders are accompanied by changes in emotional and self-referential processing. This behavioral study investigates the link between emotional and self-referential processing in 21 psychotic patients with and without symptoms of disordered self-processing and 21 healthy age-matched controls during emotional evaluation of words varying in emotional valence and self-reference. MethodsEmotional and neutral words related to the self of the reader (e.g., “my fear”, “my happiness”, “my books”), to the self of another person, unknown to the reader (e.g., “his fear”, “his happiness”, “his books”) or without person reference (e.g., “the fear”, “the happiness”, “the books”) had to be judged in reference to one's own feelings as positive, negative or neutral. ResultsCompared to healthy controls (HC) psychotic patients with symptoms of self-disorders (PwSD) showed significantly reduced valence congruent judgments in response to self-related (particularly positive and negative) words and no difference between self-, other-, and personally unreferenced positive words. These differences between PwSD and HC were also reflected in post-experimental ratings of subjective experience. Additionally, no reaction time or memory advantage for self-related or emotional words could be found in psychotic patients irrespective of the presence of self-disorders. LimitationsThe results may be preliminary due to the small sample sizes. ConclusionsTaken together, the results argue in favor of a differentiated view regarding changes in emotional experience in psychotic disorders. They provide preliminary evidence that in psychotic disorders changes in emotion and self-processing may be related to the severity of self-disorders thought to underlie disordered thinking and feeling in psychotic patients.

The effect of laughter expression modulation on emotional experience in 4 to 10 year-old children

According to the literature, in adulthood, facial expression control unconsciously generates a congruent change in emotional experience (facial feedback). Although only a few studies have been conducted on this phenomenon with children, it is to be expected that the strength of the link between facial expression and emotional experience will diminish with age, and consequently, that the facial feedback effect will decrease with age. In order to test this hypothesis, we used an emotional induction paradigm (based on funny video-clips) with an expressive change paradigm (i.e., free expression vs. laughter restriction vs. laughter exaggeration). The emotional experience of 4–10-year-old children was assessed a posteriori based on analyses of their narratives about the video-clips. Results indicated that the children benefited from a facial feedback effect on their emotional experiences without an age effect. They are discussed in the light of the literature on emotional regulation and emotional development.

An Age-Related Mechanism of Emotion Regulation: Regulating Sadness Promotes Children's Learning by Broadening Information Processing.

Emotion regulation predicts positive academic outcomes like learning, but little is known about why. Effective emotion regulation likely promotes learning by broadening the scope of what may be attended to after an emotional event. One hundred twenty-six 6- to 13-year-olds' (54% boys) regulation of sadness was examined for changes in emotional experience, information processing, and memory for subsequent neutral information. Instructions to use specific strategies (distancing, positive reappraisal, rumination, or no strategy) predicted changes in sadness and happiness but did not predict information processing or memory. Effective regulation of sadness (regardless of instructions) predicted better memory through the indirect effect of broadened information processing but only for older children. Implications for emotion regulation processes in childhood are discussed.

Emotional and personality changes following brain tumour resection

Psychological distress has a high prevalence in brain tumour patients, and understanding the emotional and personality changes that may follow neurosurgery is important for clinical management of these patients. We aimed to characterise these emotional and personality changes using subjective, observer-rated and clinical measures. We examined subjective changes in emotional experience and observer-rated changes to personality disturbances following neurosurgery for brain tumours (n=44), compared to a control group that had undergone spinal surgery (n=26). Participants completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and a Subjective Emotional Change Questionnaire. Observers who knew the patients well also completed the Iowa Rating Scale of Personality Change. Compared to controls, patients with tumours reported significantly more changes to their subjective experience of emotions following neurosurgery, particularly anger, disgust and sadness. For the observer-ratings, tumour patients were described as having significant changes in the personality disturbances of irritability, impulsivity, moodiness, inflexibility, and being easily overwhelmed. Anxiety and depression were not significantly different between groups. Neurosurgical resection of a brain tumour is a major life event that changes patients’ subjective experiences of different emotions, and leads to observer-rated changes in personality. In this study, these changes were not accompanied by increases in anxiety or depression. We conclude with a discussion of biological and psychosocial mechanisms that can impact emotional functioning and personality in patients with brain tumours.

Reactivity to Social Stress in Subclinical Social Anxiety: Emotional Experience, Cognitive Appraisals, Behavior, and Physiology.

Recent research indicates that subclinical social anxiety is associated with dysfunctions at multiple psychological and biological levels, in a manner that seems reminiscent of social anxiety disorder (SAD). This study aimed to describe multidimensional responses to laboratory-induced social stress in an analog sample selected for social anxiety symptoms. State anxiety, cognitive biases related to negative social evaluation, speech anxiety behaviors, and cortisol reactivity were assessed in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Results showed that social anxiety symptoms were associated with increased state anxiety, biased appraisals related to the probability and cost of negative social evaluations, behavioral changes in facial expression that were consistent with speech anxiety, and lower cortisol reactivity. In addition, multiple interrelations between responses in the TSST were found, with positive associations between subjective experience, cognitive appraisals, and observable behavior, as well as negative associations between each of the former two types of response and cortisol reactivity. These results show that in response to social stressors, subclinical social anxiety is associated with significant changes in emotional experience, cognitive appraisals, behaviors, and physiology that could parallel those previously found in SAD samples.

Arousal in response to neutral pictures is modified in temporal lobe epilepsy

The objectives of the present study were to (i) better characterize visual emotional experience in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), (ii) identify clinical risk factors that might be predictive of a change in emotional experience, and (iii) study the relationships between emotional experience and psychobehavioral/quality-of-life factors. Fifty patients with TLE and fifty matched controls evaluated the emotional content of unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral pictures with respect to their valence (unpleasant-to-pleasant) and arousal (low-to-high) levels. Demographic, cognitive, and psychobehavioral data were recorded for all participants, and clinical data and factors related to quality of life were also collected for patients with TLE. There were no significant differences between the group with TLE and the control group in terms of valence evaluations. However, arousal scores for neutral pictures were significantly higher in patients with TLE than in controls. There was also a nonsignificant trend towards lower arousal scores for pleasant pictures in patients with TLE than in controls. Although none of the recorded clinical factors were found to be related to emotional experience, the level of apathy was predictive of greater arousal experience for neutral pictures in patients with TLE. In conclusion, emotional experience appears to be modified in TLE and might be related to apathy. Changes in emotional experience should be taken into account in studies in which neutral stimuli are used to establish a baseline level when assessing emotional and cognitive processing.

Emotional Experience Across Adulthood

Strength and vulnerability integration (SAVI) is a theoretical model that predicts changes in emotional experience across adulthood. A growing number of studies find that as people age, they become more adept at using thoughts and behaviors to avoid or mitigate exposure to negative experiences. People gradually acquire this expertise over a lifetime of experiences and are more motivated to regulate their emotions because of perceptions of time left to live. SAVI further posits that aging is associated with physiological vulnerabilities that make regulating high levels of emotional arousal more difficult. In situations in which people experience high levels of distress, age differences that normally favor older adults in the use of emotion-regulation strategies will be attenuated (and may even be nullified or reversed), and the physiological consequences of sustained emotional arousal will be more costly for older adults. In this article, we describe SAVI and discuss recent studies supporting its predictions.

Diverse Consequences of Negative Emotional Responses Between High and Low Happiness People

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the differences of emotional modalities which may make a distinction between high and low happy people in social adaptation and mental health. A large number of Literatures have demonstrated that subjective well being correlates closely with genetics and personality (e.g., extraversion and neuroticism) and interacts with social adaptation, psychological functions and mental health broadly. Further, extraversion is related to more positive emotions and approach behaviors. Neuroticism is linked with more negative emotions, behavioral suppression, and physiological activation. The study hypothesized that, as meeting with adverse situation, the happier people linked with higher extraversion and lower neuroticism would have more changes in emotional experience and expressive behaviors, quicker resilience, and weaker physiological activation. The study also predicted to see the difference in emotion regulation which could be helpful to explain the emotional differences between high low happy people. The study was designed to measure the various emotional changes and the regulation strategies in watching a disgust/fear-inducing film clip between high happiness (H_H) and low happiness (L_H) groups. The H_H group (n=32) and the L_H group (n=34) of were selected with positive emotions (e.g., joy and interest) by DES-IV and validated by two measures of life satisfactory. Both groups then were elicited various negative emotions (e.g., disgust, fear, et. al.,) by watching an amputation film clip in a lab environment, and their emotional responses in modalities of subjective experiences, expressive behaviors, physiological responses and regulation strategies were recorded in the meantime. In addition, the personality traits and habitual strategies of emotion regulation were measured with questionnaires of EPQ and ERQ in advance. The results indicated that: (1) Comparing to the L_H group, the H_H one was higher in extraversion, lower in neuroticism, and better in habitual cognitive reappraisal; (2) During and immediately after watching the amputation film, the L_H group exhibited higher sympathetic physiological activation (e.g., more increased in HR and GSR), reported more inhibition in expressive behaviors, but showed more unspecific expression (e.g., body movement and face touch) in the post film period. On the other hand, H_H group was elicited more disgusting expressive behaviors, stronger displeasure, and recovered more quickly in the post film period. The study suggests that the happier people are more vivid in emotional social interaction and also have better resilience as facing with an adverse situation. By comparison, the less happy people are less likely to express their unpleasant emotions but actually they still keep a higher activation in physiology. It also suggests that the happier people would have a healthier regulation by better cognitive reappraisal in generally. The study is implication for understanding of the individual differences between high and low happiness people in social adaptation and mental health from the perspectives of emotional responses, resilience and emotion regulation.

The longitudinal links between shame and increasing hostility during adolescence

Little research has examined changes in emotional experience in adolescents. We hypothesized that the experience of shame would lead adolescents to become increasingly hostile. We report a one-year longitudinal study involving 765 high school students (392 males and 373 females; mean age = 14.41 yrs) in Grade 9 at Time 1 and 670 students (335 males and 335 females) in Grade 10 at Time 2. Shame and hostility showed high levels of stability over one-year. Structural equation modelling showed that higher shame in Grade 9 was predictive of increases in hostility in Grade 10, whereas hostility was not predictive of increases in shame. These results are discussed with reference to the nature of shame and its potential to provoke antisocial behaviour.

Age-Related Change in Emotional Experience in a Sample of Chinese Adults: A Preliminary Study

Age-related change in emotional experience was explored in a Chinese community sample. 968 healthy adults (483 women, 485 men) ranging in age from 18 to 66 years (M = 37.5, SD = 12.3) took part. The frequency of experiencing negative and positive emotion was self-reported on the general dimension scales of Positive and Negative Affect Scale-Expanded Form (PANAS-X). Regression analyses indicated that the frequency of negative affect decreased with age, and the frequency of positive affect was not significantly associated with age. These findings are similar to those found in Western samples, as discussed in relation to socioemotional selectivity theory.

Rapid Emotional Contagion and Expressive Congruence Under Strong Test Conditions

The present research examined whether the observation of emotional expressions rapidly induces congruent emotional experiences and facial responses in observers under strong test conditions. Specifically, participants rated their emotional reactions after (a) single, brief exposures of (b) a range of human emotional facial expressions that included (c) a neutral face comparison using a procedure designed to (d) minimize potential experimental demand. Even with these strong test conditions in place, participants reported discrete expression-congruent changes in emotional experience. Participants’ Corrugator supercilii facial muscle activity immediately following the presentation of an emotional expression appeared to reflect expressive congruence with the observed expression and a response indicative of the amount of cognitive load necessary to interpret the observed expression. The complexity of the C. supercilii response suggests caution in using facial muscle activity as a nonverbal measure of emotional contagion.

Emotional changes in skydivers in relation to experience

The nature of the change in emotional experience from before to after a skydiving jump is examined in relation to the experience of the skydiver. The relationship between emotional experience, personality variables, and an addiction construct, is also examined. The results indicate an experience based shift in the change of emotion from pre-jump to post-jump. Novice skydivers ( N = 29) experience much greater emotional contrast from pre-jump to post-jump than more experienced skydivers ( N = 34) who are much more stable. Skydivers with intermediate experience ( N = 42) lie between these extremes. Greater “addiction” to skydiving is strongly associated with greater experience and is uniquely predicted from a lower level of anxiety before the impending jump. Results are discussed in relation to the findings of Celsi, Rose, and Leigh (1993).

Effects of perceptual isolation on introverts and extraverts

RECENTLY there has been increasing attention directed to “perceptual isolation” or “sensory deprivation” as a stressful condition. Extensive reviews of this literature are available in other sources (SOLOMON, et al.(l)) and will not be repeated here. Within the framework of Jungian theory, sensory deprivation phenomena such as hallucinations and daydreams can be interpreted as concomitant features of the process of introversion. When the environment becomes very stressful by virtue of its ambiguity, there is a turning away from reality to fantasy. If there is no meaningful information in the environment there is no way for the ego to mediate between unconscious forces and external reality. Action and judgment are no longer possibilities, consequently there must be some substitute for action. This substitute is provided by the introverted type of thinking with the ascendance of the “archaic forces of the unconscious” in the form of hallucination, fantasy, changes in affect, daydreams. Out of this formulation arises a question regarding the reactions of the individual whose usual attitude is introversive, in the Jungian sense, to the conditions of perceptual isolation. If introversion refers to a progressive withdrawal from reality, it should be expected that individuals on the extreme end of this dimension would be little affected by sensory alterations and perceptual changes in the environment. It is the purpose of this study to investigate the following hypotheses : 1. Introverts are able to tolerate perceptual isolation better than extraverts. 2. Introverts show smaller changes in emotional experiences as a function of perceptual isolation than do extraverts. For the purposes of this study, a change in emotional experience is defined as a change in ratings of words on the Semantic Differential.