Emotion Context Insensitivity Research Articles

Emotion Context Insensitivity is generalized in individuals with major depressive disorder but not in those with subclinical depression

BackgroundDepressed individuals experience deficits in emotional reactivity. One well-established theory is the Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI) theory. To better understand impairments in emotional reactivity, we investigated whether the ECI theory is applicable to anticipatory, consummatory, and remembered affect, in both clinical and subclinical depression. MethodsParticipants were divided into four groups: Major Depressive Disorder Group (MDD, N = 60), Control Group for MDD (ControlMDD, N = 50), Subclinical Depression Group (SD, N = 56), and Control Group for SD (ControlSD, N = 56). The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory were used to assess the severity of depression and anhedonia symptoms. The Monetary Incentive Delay Task evaluated participants' affective responses towards monetary stimuli. ResultsThe MDD group was more insensitive to both monetary reward and loss across most types of affect than was the control group. Compared with the controls, the SD group exhibited lower reactivity in anticipatory positive affect but enhanced reactivity in consummatory positive, anticipatory, and remembered negative affect. LimitationsEmotional affect was evaluated by subjective ratings, which may lack objectivity. Additionally, laboratory settings and monetary rewards used in this study may cause the results less generalized to daily life and to other types of rewards. ConclusionThe pattern of emotional reactivity in the MDD group was partly consistent with the ECI theory, whereas the SD group showed greater arousal and instability of emotional reactions. These different patterns could facilitate the understanding of emotional reactivity and develop further treatments across the course of depression.

Emotion context insensitivity in depression: Toward an integrated and contextualized approach.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by pervasive mood disturbance as well as deficits in emotional processing, reactivity, and regulation. There is accumulating evidence that MDD is characterized by emotional patterns consistent with environmental disengagement, as reflected in attenuated positive and negative emotional reactivity, consistent with Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI) theory. However, MDD individuals vary considerably in the extent to which they exhibit specific alterations in patterns of emotional responding. Emotions are complex, multicomponent processes that invoke responses across multiple functional domains and levels of analysis, including subjective experience, behavior, autonomic regulation, cognition, and neural processing. In this article, I review the current state of the literature on emotional responding and MDD from the lens of ECI. I focus on the importance of assessing emotional indices from multiple levels of analysis across development and contexts. I also discuss methodological and measurement issues that may contribute to inconsistent findings. In particular, I emphasize how psychophysiological measures can help elucidate emotional processes that underlie the pathophysiology of MDD as part of an integrated and contextualized approach.

Self‐referential processing and emotion context insensitivity in major depressive disorder

We examined whether differential self-perception influences the salience of emotional stimuli in depressive disorders, using a perceptual matching task in which geometric shapes were arbitrarily assigned to the self and an unknown other. Participants associated shapes with personal labels (e.g. "self" or "other"). Each geometric shape additionally contained a happy, sad or neutral line drawing of a face. Participants then judged whether shape-label pairs were as originally shown or re-paired, whilst facial emotion was task-irrelevant. The results showed biased responses to self-relevant stimuli compared to other-relevant stimuli, regardless of facial emotion, for both control and depressed participants. This was reflected in sensitivity (d') and drift rate (v) measures, suggesting that self-bias and a bias towards emotion may reflect different underlying processes. We further computed bias scores by subtracting the "neutral" value of each measure (acting as baseline) from the "happy" and "sad" values of each measure, indexing an "emotional bias" (EB) score for "self" and "other" separately. Compared to control participants, depressed participants exhibited reduced "happy" and "sad" emotional biases, regardless of the self-relevance of stimuli. This finding indicates that depressed participants may exhibit generalised Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI), characterised by hyopoattention to both positive and negative information, at short stimulus presentations. The implications of this are discussed.

Women with Major Depressive Disorder, Irrespective of Comorbid Anxiety Disorders, Show Blunted Bilateral Frontal Responses during Win and Loss Anticipation

BackgroundElectroencephalography (EEG) studies suggest that major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with lower left than right frontal brain activity (asymmetry), a pattern appearing stronger in women than men, and when elicited during emotionally-relevant paradigms versus an uncontrolled resting state. However, it is unclear whether this asymmetry pattern generalizes to the common presentation of MDD with co-occurring anxiety. Moreover, asymmetry may differ for anxiety subtypes, wherein anxious apprehension (AnxApp: worry characteristic of generalized anxiety disorder) appears left-lateralized, but anxious arousal (AnxAro: panic characteristic of social anxiety, posttraumatic stress, and panic disorders) may be right-lateralized. MethodsThis analysis attempted to replicate frontal EEG asymmetry patterns using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants completed clinical interviews and a monetary incentive delay (MID) task during fMRI recording. We compared five groups of right-handed women from the Tulsa 1000 study, MDD (n=40), MDD-AnxApp (n=26), MDD-AnxAro (n=34), MDD-Both (with AnxApp and AnxAro; n=26), and healthy controls (CTL; n=24), as a function of MID anticipation condition (no win/loss, win, loss) and hemisphere on frontal blood oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal. ResultsCTL exhibited higher bilateral superior, middle, and inferior middle frontal gyrus BOLD signal than the four MDD groups for high arousal (win and loss) conditions. However, frontal attenuations were unrelated to current depression/anxiety symptoms, suggestive of a trait as opposed to a state marker. LimitationsThis was a cross-sectional analysis restricted to women. ConclusionsReduced prefrontal cortex recruitment during processing of both positively and negatively valenced stimuli is consistent with the emotion context insensitivity theory of MDD.

Insensitivity to Success and Failure: An Experimental Study of Performance-Based Feedback in Depression.

ObjectiveThis experimental study set out to examine the effects of performance feedback (success or failure) on depressed emotions and self-serving attribution bias in inpatients suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD).MethodsThe study was based on a 2 × 2 experimental design in which 71 MDD patients and 59 healthy controls participated. Both groups (MDD and controls) were randomly assigned to two conditions: success or failure in the performance feedback. A section of Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) was used as a bogus test of the participants’ reasoning abilities, and the Core Depressive Factor of the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale was used to measure changes in depressed emotion in the subjects following the performance feedback. Participants then rated the accuracy of the SPM as a measure of their reasoning capacity.ResultsThe levels of depressed emotions in patients with MDD did not differ significantly under the two feedback conditions. In contrast, depressed emotion levels increased significantly in healthy individuals in response to failure feedback but did not change in response to success feedback. With regard to the ratings of SPM accuracy, there was no significant difference across the two feedback conditions for depressed patients; however, the accuracy ratings were higher in the success condition than in the failure condition for the controls.ConclusionIndividuals with MDD exhibit blunted emotional reactivity when experiencing new positive or negative social stimuli, supporting the theory of Emotion Context Insensitivity. In addition, self-serving attribution bias does not occur in MDD, which is consistent with the theory of learned helplessness in depression.

Reduced accuracy accompanied by reduced neural activity during the performance of an emotional conflict task by unmedicated patients with major depression: A CAN-BIND fMRI study

MethodsWe studied 48 MDD and 30 HC who performed an emotional conflict task in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. ResultsOn the emotional conflict task, MDD and HC demonstrated a robust emotional Stroop effect in reaction time and accuracy. Overall, accuracy was lower in MDD compared to HC with no significant reaction time differences. The fMRI data indicated lower BOLD activation in MDD compared to HC on comparisons of all trials, congruent, incongruent, and incongruent > congruent trials in regions including right inferior temporal gyrus, lateral occipital cortex, and occipital fusiform gyrus. Behavioural and neuroimaging data indicated no group differences in fearful versus happy face processing. LimitationsInclusion of a neutral condition may have provided a valuable contrast to how MDD and HC process stimuli without emotional valence compared to stimuli with a strong emotional valence. ConclusionsMDD and HC demonstrated a robust emotional Stroop effect. Compared to HC, MDD demonstrated an overall reduced accuracy on the emotional conflict task and reduced BOLD activity in regions important for face perception and emotion information processing, with no differences in responding to fearful versus happy faces. These findings provide support for the theory of emotion context insensitivity in individuals with depression.

INDIVIDUAL BALANCE OF DEFENSIVE AND APPETITIVE MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEMS OF THE BRAIN AS A LIKELY NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL ENDOPHENOTYPE OF DEPRESSION IN THE METRIC OF COGNITIVE EVOKED POTENTIALS

The aim of the study was to investigate the characteristics of the individual balance of the activity of brain defensive and reinforcing systems in patients with major depressive disorder. Material and methods . In 41 patients with major depressive disorder and 32 healthy subjects, we investigated visual evoked potentials in the emotional Oddball paradigm in perception of high and low arousal motivational signals of reward and threat. Results and discussion . It was established that reduced amplitude of the neuronal response in the per ception of high arousal motivational signals of reward and, in a less degree, threat, is associated with an indicator of the clinical severity of depression. It supports the model of emotion context insensitivity in depression. However, a more pronounced reduce in the neuronal response to stimuli of reward may indicate a prevailing deficiency of the reinforcement system. Thus, the late positive potential magnitude of visual evoked potentials for high arousal motivational signals of reward and threat can be viewed as a promising objective neurobiological marker for monitoring the dynamics of the disturbed individual balance of the defensive and reinforcing brain systems in major depressive disorder patients which can become an important tool of personalized prevention and treatment strategy.

Behavioral and brain oscillatory correlates of affective processing in subclinical depression

ABSTRACTNamed among the most dangerous diseases of the modern era, depression is characterized primarily by distortions in the affective sphere. Despite extensive investigations of underlying the neural background, mechanisms of the distortion still remain unknown. The current study analyzed brain oscillatory dynamics in different frequencies during resting state and presentation of affective stimuli in nonclinical individuals with high Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI–II) scores (HB) versus controls. Both behavioral and electrocortical “markers” of clinical depression were apparent at subclinical level. A resting-state electroencephalogram (EEG) of HB revealed increased power in low frequencies, predominantly in the frontal cortical areas, that is in accordance with a “spatio-temporal dysfunction” model of depression. Related to that, transition from an eyes-closed to eyes-open condition was associated with diminished alpha blockade in HB, suggesting difficulties with the relocation of attention focus from inner processes toward environmental stimuli. Subsequently, independently of a sign of emotion, five out of six discrete emotions were evaluated as less valenced and four out of six as less intense by HB than by controls, corroborating the view of emotion context insensitivity (ECI) associated with depression. Underlying brain oscillatory dynamics revealed that depression was associated with deficits in the early, implicit, processing stages of emotional stimuli. Later processing stages were characterized by prominent power surges in low and alpha frequencies, presumably indicating emotion upregulation processes and increased engagement of cognitive mechanisms in affective tasks. The study provides brain oscillatory-based mechanisms of emotion processing distortions associated with depression.

Reduced positive emotion and underarousal are uniquely associated with subclinical depression symptoms: Evidence from psychophysiology, self‐report, and symptom clusters

Multiple models of aberrant emotional processing in depression have been advanced. However, it is unclear which of these models best applies to emotional disturbances in subclinical depressive symptoms. The current study employed a battery of psychophysiological measures and emotional ratings in a picture-viewing paradigm to examine whether the underarousal, low positive emotion, heightened negative emotion, or emotion context insensitivity model of emotional dysfunction in subclinical depressive symptoms received greatest support. Postauricular reflex and skin conductance response potentiation for pleasant minus neutral pictures (measuring low positive emotion), overall skin conductance magnitude and late positive potential (LPP) amplitude (measuring underarousal), and pleasant minus aversive valence ratings (measuring emotion context insensitivity) and aversive minus neutral arousal ratings (measuring heightened negative emotionality) were all negatively related to depressive symptomatology. Of these, postauricular reflex potentiation and overall LPP amplitude were incrementally associated with depressive symptoms over the other measures. Postauricular reflex potentiation, overall skin conductance magnitude, and aversive minus neutral arousal ratings were incrementally associated with depressive symptomatology after controlling for other symptoms of internalizing disorders. Though no model was unequivocally superior, the low positive emotion and underarousal models received the most support from physiological measures and symptom reports, with self-report data matching patterns consistent with the emotion context insensitivity model.

No praise, please: Depressive symptoms, reactivity to positive social interaction, and fear of positive evaluation

BackgroundDepression is characterized by depressed mood and loss of interest or pleasure. Resulting alterations in emotional reactivity have been explained by three different accounts: ‘positive attenuation’, ‘negative potentiation’, and ‘emotion context insensitivity’. Despite the importance of depression-related emotional alteration in social interactions, research with naturalistic interpersonal stimuli is scarce and underlying mechanisms largely unknown. MethodsHence, the present study examined subjective emotional reactivity to brief negative, positive, and neutral social-evaluative videos as a function of depressive symptoms in an adult sample (N = 84). Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) and fear of negative evaluation (FNE), often conceptualized as cognitive components of social anxiety, were examined as possible mediators. ResultsResults revealed that more depression symptoms were related to diminished pleasantness responses to both positive and neutral videos. When considering all three video conditions simultaneously, only responses to positive videos remained significantly related to depression scores, supporting the ‘positive attenuation’ account. Moreover, FPE was found to uniquely mediate the relationship between depressive symptoms and pleasantness responses to positive videos. ConclusionsResults indicate that emotional reactivity to positive interpersonal stimuli is relevant for theoretical and clinical considerations of depression. This research underlines the importance of FPE not only for understanding social anxiety but also depression.

Reduced striatal activation in females with major depression during the processing of affective stimuli

The extent to which affective reactivity and associated neural underpinnings are altered by depression remains equivocal. This study assessed striatal activation in fifty-one unmedicated female participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 61 age-matched healthy females (HC) aged 17–63 years. Participants completed an affective reactivity functional magnetic resonance imaging task. Data were preprocessed using SPM8, and region-of-interest analyses were completed using MarsBaR to extract caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation. General linear repeated measure ANOVAs were used to assess group differences and correlational analyses were used to measure the association between activation, depression severity, and anhedonia. Main effects of hemisphere, valence, and group status were observed, with MDD participants demonstrating decreased striatal activation compared with HC. Across groups and valence types, the left hemisphere demonstrated greater activation than the right hemisphere in the putamen and nucleus accumbens, whereas the right hemisphere demonstrated greater activation than the left in the caudate. Additionally, unpleasant stimuli elicited greater activation than pleasant and neutral stimuli in the caudate and putamen, and unpleasant stimuli elicited greater activation than neutral stimuli in the NAcc. There were no significant associations between activation, depression severity, and anhedonia. Overall, depression was characterized by reduced affective reactivity in the striatum, regardless of stimuli valence, supporting the emotion context insensitivity model of depression.

The Temporal Dynamics of Cognitive Reactivity and Their Association with the Depression Risk: An Exploratory Study

Background: Cognitive reactivity is the change in depressive thinking in response to negative mood. Previous research indicates that cognitive reactivity is an important variable in the etiology and course of depression. The present study tested which time interval after a negative mood induction is critical for the prediction of the depression risk. Methods: Participants suffering from a major depressive disorder were recruited when entering inpatient treatment. At the end of inpatient treatment they completed an experimental procedure to assess their depressive thinking once before and twice after a negative mood induction. Subsequently, patients were followed up for 26 weeks. Results: The immediate change in depressive thinking in response to the negative mood induction was negatively associated with future depression. The delayed change did not predict the depression risk. Conclusion: The negative association between the immediate change in depressive thinking and the depression risk is not in line with results from previous studies on cognitive reactivity. Previous research on emotion context insensitivity and the avoidance of negative thoughts offers hypotheses which could account for this result. Further research is needed to shed light on the processes underlying cognitive reactivity.

Parental Depression Risk and Reduced Physiological Responses During a Valence Identification Task

Examining pupillary motility as a psychophysiological measure of cognitive-affective processing, the current study aimed to elucidate psychophysiological correlates of early resilience to parental depression risk. Forty-one never-depressed female college students were categorized based on presence or absence of parental depression history. Participants completed an emotional valence identification task, while pupil data were gathered to examine whether correlates consistent with negative potentiated processing and emotion context insensitivity might precede first onsets. Instead, results showed that having formerly depressed parents (higher risk) corresponded with decreased early pupil dilation in response to negative, neutral, and positive words. Results suggest that early resilience to parental depression risk can be expressed by decreased neurocognitive reactivity to lexical information during a valence identification task. Given that participants navigated childhood without depression, this pattern could reflect decreased emotional engagement with this task as an indicator of relative resilience to inherited risk.

High Positive Affect Shortly After Missile Attacks and the Heightened Risk of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Israeli Adolescents

Previous research has demonstrated that positive emotions help build psychological resources and facilitate adaptation to stress, yet few studies have considered the possible negative effects of positive emotions on stress. This study examined the relationship between high arousal, positive and negative affect, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among 503 Israeli adolescents following a period of escalated missile attacks on their city. Our findings revealed that not only negative affect, but also positive affect at very high levels exhibited 2 weeks following missile attacks were independently associated with PTSD symptoms 2½ months later (η(2) = .09, η(2) = .02, respectively). Although the literature recognizes the risk factor of negative affect on the development of PTSD, we suggest that also positive affect at high levels immediately after such experiences may be a case of emotion context insensitivity and thus a maladaptive response to trauma. Further research should examine the mechanisms associated with positive emotions and PTSD.

P.2.b.033 A randomized study of escitalopram and paroxetine controlled-release in the treatment of Japanese patients with major depressive disorder

The extent to which affective reactivity and associated neural underpinnings are altered by depression remains equivocal. This study assessed striatal activation in fifty-one unmedicated female participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and 61 age-matched healthy females (HC) aged 17–63 years. Participants completed an affective reactivity functional magnetic resonance imaging task. Data were preprocessed using SPM8, and region-of-interest analyses were completed using MarsBaR to extract caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activation. General linear repeated measure ANOVAs were used to assess group differences and correlational analyses were used to measure the association between activation, depression severity, and anhedonia. Main effects of hemisphere, valence, and group status were observed, with MDD participants demonstrating decreased striatal activation compared with HC. Across groups and valence types, the left hemisphere demonstrated greater activation than the right hemisphere in the putamen and nucleus accumbens, whereas the right hemisphere demonstrated greater activation than the left in the caudate. Additionally, unpleasant stimuli elicited greater activation than pleasant and neutral stimuli in the caudate and putamen, and unpleasant stimuli elicited greater activation than neutral stimuli in the NAcc. There were no significant associations between activation, depression severity, and anhedonia. Overall, depression was characterized by reduced affective reactivity in the striatum, regardless of stimuli valence, supporting the emotion context insensitivity model of depression.

Major depression is not associated with blunting of aversive responses; evidence for enhanced anxious anticipation.

According to the emotion-context insensitivity (ECI) hypothesis, major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a diminished ability to react emotionally to positive stimuli and with blunting of defensive responses to threat. That defensive responses are blunted in MDD seems inconsistent with the conceptualization and diagnostic nosology of MDD. The present study tested the ECI hypothesis in MDD using a threat of shock paradigm. Twenty-eight patients with MDD (35.5±10.4 years) were compared with 28 controls (35.1±7.4 years). Participants were exposed to three conditions: no shock, predictable shock, and unpredictable shock. Startle magnitude was used to assess defensive responses. Inconsistent with the ECI hypothesis, startle potentiation to predictable and unpredictable shock was not reduced in the MDD group. Rather, MDD patients showed elevated startle throughout testing as well as increased contextual anxiety during the placement of the shock electrodes and in the predictable condition. A regression analysis indicated that illness duration and Beck depression inventory scores explained 37% (p<.005) of the variance in patients’ startle reactivity. MDD is not associated with emotional blunting but rather enhanced defensive reactivity during anticipation of harm. These results do not support a strong version of the ECI hypothesis. Understanding the nature of stimuli or situations that lead to blunted or enhanced defensive reactivity will provide better insight into dysfunctional emotional experience in MDD.

Emotional responding in depression: Distinctions in the time course of emotion

The current studies were designed to investigate if the emotion context insensitivity hypothesis (ECI; Rottenberg & Gotlib, 2004) is applicable across the time course of emotion. Recent affective science research has pointed to the importance of considering anticipation and maintenance of emotion. In the current studies, we assessed emotion responses among college students with depression symptoms in anticipation of, during, and after an emotional picture using the emotion modulated startle paradigm. People with and without depression symptoms did not differ in blink magnitude in anticipation of emotional pictures suggesting that some anticipatory processes may not be impaired by depression symptoms. In contrast, individuals with depression symptoms did not exhibit blink magnitudes that varied by valence, either during viewing or after the pictures were removed from view. These findings suggest that ECI is relevant not only for those diagnosed with major depressive disorder, but also for people with depression symptoms that may not cross the diagnostic threshold. These data also point to the importance of considering the time course of emotion to better understand emotional deficits in individuals with differing levels of depression symptoms. Identifying where emotion goes awry across the time course of emotion can help inform treatment development.

Individual differences in depressive symptoms are associated with impaired incentive, but not aversive motivation

The emotion context insensitivity model asserts that depression is associated with deficits in emotional reactivity to positive and negative emotion cues. Although there is support for this formulation, discrepant findings have prioritized the identification of factors that lend themselves to greater or lesser model support. One such factor may be the measure used to index emotional reactivity. The current study hypothesized a specific pattern of divergence from model predictions when emotion modulated startle was used to index emotional reactivity. Forty-one undergraduates viewed a series of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral pictures while the startle reflex was periodically elicited. Controlling for sex and trait anxiety, CES-D depression scores were unrelated to startle reactivity during viewing of unpleasant pictures (attack: r = −.01; contamination: r = .06), but positively correlated with startle reactivity during viewing of pleasant pictures (erotica: r = .33). These patterns represent intact reactivity to unpleasant emotion cues, but impaired reactivity to incentive-laden erotic cues, among individuals highest in depressive symptoms. Identical findings emerged when “depressed” and “nondepressed” groups, formed on the basis of CES-D clinical cutoffs, were examined. Results sharpen the theoretical utility of the ECI model and underscore the impairments in incentive motivation that characterize depressed mood.

Reduced electrocortical response to threatening faces in major depressive disorder

There is growing support for the emotion context insensitivity hypothesis, which states that major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a deficit in emotional reactivity. Under this hypothesis, depressed individuals exhibit reduced behavioral and physiological responses to both appetitive and aversive stimuli. We sought to examine this possibility using the late positive potential, a neural response sensitive to aversive and threatening stimuli. Forty-seven individuals participated in the study, 22 of whom met criteria for current MDD and 25 with no history of depression or other Axis I disorders. All individuals passively viewed emotional faces while event-related potentials were recorded. The vertex positive potential was significantly increased in response to fearful and angry faces across the entire sample. The late positive potential was also increased in response to threatening faces, but only among never-depressed individuals. In the MDD group, this electrocortical response to emotional faces was absent. This study provides neural evidence in support of the view that MDD is associated with blunted emotional reactivity to negative stimuli, which until now has been examined primarily with measures of behavior, self-report, and peripheral physiology. These results are also consistent with two prior studies showing reduced amygdala activation in response to fearful faces among depressed individuals. It remains to be determined whether abnormal activity in response to emotional stimuli is associated with trait risk for MDD or results from MDD.

Emotional dysregulation in dysphoria: Support for emotion context insensitivity in response to performance-based feedback

The Emotion Context Insensitivity (ECI) hypothesis predicts that individuals experiencing a sad mood will show diminished reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli and will not differentiate emotional responses across contexts. Previous work has primarily been limited to studying depressed individuals' emotional responses to film clips, images, and autobiographical memories. The current study builds upon this work by examining emotional reactivity of dysphoric ( n = 47) and non-dysphoric ( n = 54) individuals to positive and negative feedback about their performance on a task they were led to believe measured social intelligence. Overall, dysphoric individuals reported higher negative emotion and lower positive emotion than non-dysphoric individuals before, during, and after feedback. However, consistent with ECI, dysphoric individuals displayed attenuated emotional reactivity to negative feedback compared to controls. Further, dysphoric individuals' emotional response did not differ to positive and negative feedback, whereas the non-dysphoric group appropriately differentiated their emotional response across these contexts. Findings support the ECI hypothesis and broaden its scope to include emotional reactivity to self-relevant performance feedback.