Intense Emotional Responses Research Articles

Why Psychotherapy Exposure is Relevant for Medical Students

Why Psychotherapy Exposure is Relevant for Medical Students

Anger Expression: A Study on Gender Differences

Anger or wrath is an intense emotional response. It is a normal emotion that involves a strong uncomfortable and emotional response to a perceived provocation. Often it indicates when one’s personal boundaries are violated. Some have a learned tendency to react to anger through retaliation. Anger may be utilized effectively by setting boundaries or escaping from dangerous situations. The present study investigates the gender differences in anger expression. This study investigates that which of the gender express their anger much? For this purpose Spielberger Anger Expression inventory was used. Data was collected from 50 subjects (25 males and 25 females).

Indian Womens’ Emotional Responses to Physical Disability: A Survey Study

To compare women’s emotional responses with that of men’s with disability 2. To identify various factors as precursors/reasons of the emotional responses. A prospective survey study was conducted on a convenience sample of persons with disabilities attending various departments of NIOH. Both male and female patients were interviewed and The Loss Inventory was used to identify the emotional responses. T-test was done to know the difference between the emotional responses of men and women patients. There was a statistically significant difference (p-0.002) between the Loss Inventory score of the male and female participants in the study. Women participants endorsed few items of Loss Inventory Questionnaire more than the men participants with disability. Through the interview and the reports of the patient various factors like inability to fulfill the role of a homemaker, difficulty maintaining marriage, poverty, altered body image, are identified to be the precursors/reasons for the emotional responses of women with physical disability. The result of the study showed that both men and women showed varying intensities of emotional responses to physical disability. Women showed more intensity of emotional responses in comparison to men with physical disability. The result of the study may enhance the rehabilitation professional awareness regarding the emotional problems of women with physical disability and thus increasing the sensitivity while diagnosing and treating women with disability.

Differences in Emotion Regulation along the Eating Disorder Spectrum: Cross Sectional Study in Adolescents out Patient Care

Background: Emotion-regulation (ER) difficulties among individuals with eating disorders (EDs) are thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Aims: The present study explores the differences in ER difficulties along the eating disorders spectrum, to reveal the basing emotional mechanism in each subtype. Method: In this case-control study, 91 girls, aged 11–18, diagnosed with eating disorders (EDs) according to DSM-V (35 ANRT, 29 ANBP, and 27 BN) were compared to 41 age-matched healthy controls (HC). Comparisons between the following ER dimensions were performed: alexithymia, anxiety, depression, DERS’s components (awareness and clarity of emotional states), acceptance of emotional distress; ability to engage in goal-directed behavior and refrain from impulsive behavior as well as access to appropriate strategies that are perceived as effective to modulate the duration and/or intensity of emotional responses. Results: The overall level of eating pathology was similar in BN and ANBP and higher than the ANRT group (p<0.001). The ANBP group reported significant higher level of alexithymia and depressive symptoms than the ANRT group and similar to the BN group (p<0.001). The anxiety levels of all patient groups were similar and higher in comparison to the HC (p<0.001). ANRT group presented significantly higher levels of alexithymia, depressive symptoms, anxiety and impulse control in comparison to HC (p<0.001) and significantly lower levels of alexithymia, depressive symptoms, and impulse control in comparison to ANBP (p<0.001). ANBP reported greater ER significant difficulties than ANRT (p<0.001) indicated by greater DERS total scores and DERS subscale scores non-acceptance, clarity and impulse control. ANBP and BN did not differ from each other on the DERS total score. Conclusion: ANBP and BN seem to be originated from combination of defects in the emotional regulation as well as the impulse regulation system and both should be targeted during treatment.

The Observing Facet of Trait Mindfulness Predicts Frequency of Aesthetic Experiences Evoked by the Arts

Mindfulness can foster an enhanced sensitivity to internal and external impressions, which could result in heightened subjective responses to works of art. So far though, very little is known about the connection between mindfulness and aesthetic responses to the arts, therefore the current study aimed to investigate whether there was an association between trait mindfulness and how often people report aesthetic experiences. We hypothesized that the Observing facet of mindfulness would positively predict the self-reported frequency of aesthetic experiences (aesthetic chills, feeling touched, and absorption). Participants in an online study (N = 207) completed the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire, an Aesthetic Experiences scale in relation to the area of the arts a participant encountered most frequently in their daily life, and a measure of aesthetic expertise. Controlling for aesthetic expertise and sex, linear regression revealed that the Observing facet of mindfulness was positively associated with aesthetic experience, as predicted. Non-reactivity positively predicted aesthetic experience, while Non-judging was negatively associated with aesthetic experience. Potential explanations for the association between these three facets of trait mindfulness and aesthetic responses are discussed in relation to information-processing models of aesthetic experience. The findings provide preliminary support for the premise that levels of dispositional mindfulness are associated with the frequency of intense emotional responses to the arts, and recommendations for further research studies are outlined.

Cutting, Sticking, and Material Meaning in a Book of Passion Cycle Engravings

This essay focuses on an engraved Passion cycle originally designed by Marten de Vos in the 1580s. What makes this particular example exceptional is that parts of the black-and-white engravings have been painstakingly removed and the gaps filled with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century fabrics, creating a sumptuous mosaic of color. Thus augmented and annotated, the cycle records and provokes intense intellectual, emotional, and physical responses which evoke the rituals of late medieval devotion. At the same time, the cycle is the product of an international print industry and combines the mass-produced with the handmade. The cutting and sticking in this volume create a palimpsest of times, places, bibliographical traditions, and interpretive practices. These engravings vibrantly enhanced with fabric challenge divisions set up between disciplines and the bases of scholarly value judgments, as they focus attention on the materiality of meaning, offering an unexpected perspective on the way books are consumed, defined, and catalogued.

In the aftermath of medical error: caring for patients, family, and the healthcare workers involved

Medical errors, in particular those resulting in harm, pose a serious situation for patients ("first victims") and the healthcare workers involved ("second victims") and can have long-lasting and distressing consequences. To prevent a second traumatization, appropriate and empathic interaction with all persons involved is essential besides error analysis. Patients share a nearly universal, broad preference for a complete disclosure of incidents, regardless of age, gender, or education. This includes the personal, timely and unambiguous disclosure of the adverse event, information relating to the event, its causes and consequences, and an apology and sincere expression of regret. While the majority of healthcare professionals generally support and honest and open disclosure of adverse events, they also face various barriers which impede the disclosure (e.g., fear of legal consequences). Despite its essential importance, disclosure of adverse events in practice occurs in ways that are rarely acceptable to patients and their families. The staff involved often experiences acute distress and an intense emotional response to the event, which may become chronic and increase the risk of depression, burnout and post-traumatic stress disorders. Communication with peers is vital for people to be able to cope constructively and protectively with harmful errors. Survey studies among healthcare workers show, however, that they often do not receive sufficient individual and institutional support. Healthcare organizations should prepare for medical errors and harmful events and implement a communication plan and a support system that covers the requirements and different needs of patients and the staff involved.

The Effect of Personality on Psychological Responses Induced by Emotional Stimuli for Children

Objective: The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between personality and psychological responses induced by emotional stimuli (happiness, sadness, anger, boring and stress) for children.<BR><BR> Background: Many researches are interested in assertion that there is close correlation between personality and emotion. The relationship between personality and emotion needs to be studied in view of the extended integration, not in view of respective property, because personality is deeply ingrained, and the relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior and emotion can take advantage of individual differences in sensitivities to situational cues and predispositions to emotional state. In particular, studies on the personality and emotion for children are necessary in that childhood is an important period for formation of their personality and emotion expression and regulation.<BR><BR> Method: Prior to the experiment, we made parents of 94 children rate personalities of their children, based on Korean Personality Inventory for Children (K-PIC). Results of 64 children without missing answers to all questions were analyzed. 64 children were exposed to five emotional stimuli and were asked to report the classification and intensity of their experienced emotion.<BR><BR> Results: Children were classified into two groups of the lower 25% and higher 25% scores in twenty sub-scales of K-PIC, and psychological responses to five emotional stimuli between two groups were compared. Accuracy of emotion experienced by emotional stimuli showed a significant difference between the two groups, the lower and higher scores in Hyperactivity and Adjustment. Also, there was a significant difference in the intensity of experienced emotions between the two groups in Intellectual Screening and Psychosis.<BR><BR> Conclusion: Our result has shown that hyperactivity, adjustment, intellectual screening and psychosis influence the accuracy and intensity of emotional responses. <BR><BR> Application: This study can offer a guideline to overcome methodological limitation of emotion studies for children and help researcher basically understand and recognize human emotion in HCI.

Researcher or nurse? Difficulties of undertaking semi-structured interviews on sensitive topics.

To reflect on the author's personal and professional journey when undertaking semi-structured interviews on sensitive topics with potentially vulnerable people. When discussing care at the end of life, researchers must accept that some participants may become distressed or emotional, depending on their previous experiences. Interviews that involve sensitive topics require careful planning. The semi-structured interviews were conducted as part of the author's PhD study examining the experiences of advance care planning among family caregivers of people with advanced dementia. A reflection on my personal and professional journey when undertaking semi-structured interviews on sensitive topics with potentially vulnerable people. The frustration and tragedy of dementia, as experienced by the family caregivers, were powerful and required the author to exert self-control to avoid being overly sympathetic and offering words of reassurance, agreement and comfort. This blurring of roles between researcher and nurse has implications for all nurse researchers who undertake qualitative interviews, particularly when an intense emotional response is likely. Nurse researchers should plan and prepare for potential blurring of roles during emotional interviews and should never automatically assume that they are sufficiently prepared as a result of their previous experience and nurse training.

Thrills, chills, frissons, and skin orgasms: toward an integrative model of transcendent psychophysiological experiences in music.

Music has a unique power to elicit moments of intense emotional and psychophysiological response. These moments – termed “chills,” “thrills”, “frissons,” etc. – are subjects of introspection and philosophical debate, as well as scientific study in music perception and cognition. The present article integrates the existing multidisciplinary literature in an attempt to define a comprehensive, testable, and ecologically valid model of transcendent psychophysiological moments in music.

Reappraising suppression: subjective and physiological correlates of experiential suppression in healthy adults.

Background: Emotion regulation strategies based on suppressing behavioral expressions of emotion have been considered maladaptive. However, this may not apply to suppressing the emotional experience (experiential suppression). The aim of this study was to define the effect of experiential suppression on subjective and physiological emotional responses.Methods: Healthy adults (N = 101) were characterized in terms of the temperament, personality, and hedonic capacity using the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Fawcett–Clark Pleasure Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Participants were shown positive, negative, and neutral pictures from the International Affective Picture System under two conditions, passive viewing, and experiential suppression. During both conditions, subjective ratings of the intensity and duration of emotional responses and physiological measures of skin conductance (SC) and cardiac inter-beat interval (IBI) to each picture were recorded.Results: Negative pictures elicited the most intense physiological and emotional responses regardless of experimental condition. Ratings of emotional intensity were not affected by condition. In contrast, experiential suppression, compared to passive viewing, was associated with decreased duration of the emotional response, reduced maximum SC amplitude and longer IBIs independent of age, picture valence, personality traits, hedonic capacity, and anxiety.Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that experiential suppression may represent an adaptive emotion regulation mechanism associated with reduced arousal and cardiovascular activation.

Emotional and Developmental Repair through Psychodrama: Floortime for Grown-Ups

Emotional and Developmental Repair through Psychodrama: Floortime for Grown-Ups

Affect intensity measure in bipolar disorders: A multidimensional approach

BackgroundEmotional dysregulation, characterized by high levels of both arousal and intensity of emotional responses, is a core feature of bipolar disorders (BDs). In non-clinical populations, the 40-item Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) can be used to assess the different dimensions of emotional reactivity. MethodsWe analyzed the factor structure of the AIM in a sample of 310 euthymic patients with BD using Principal Component Analysis and examined associations between AIM sub-scale scores and demographic and illness characteristics. ResultsThe French translation of the AIM demonstrated good reliability. A four-factor solution similar to that reported in non-clinical samples (Positive Affectivity, Unpeacefulness [lack of Serenity], Negative Reactivity, Negative Intensity), explained 47% of the total variance. Age and gender were associated with Unpeacefulness and Negative reactivity respectively. ‘Unpeacefulness’ was also positively associated with psychotic symptoms at onset (p=0.0006), but negatively associated with co-morbid substance misuse (p=0.008). Negative Intensity was positively associated with social phobia (p=0.0005). LimitationsWe cannot definitively exclude a lack of statistical power to classify all AIM items. Euthymia was carefully defined, but a degree of ‘contamination’ of the self-reported levels of emotion reactivity may occur because of subsyndromal BD symptoms. It was not feasible to control for the possible impact of on-going treatments. ConclusionsThe AIM scale appears to be a useful measure of emotional reactivity and intensity in a clinical sample of patients with BD, suggesting it can be used in addition to other markers of BD characteristics and sub-types.

Quantification of Happy Emotion: Proportionality Relationship to Gain/Loss

Toward understanding the role of emotion played in cognitive processing, an emotional model has been proposed to quantify the computation involved in assessing the disparity between the expected and the actual outcomes. This study provides the experimental evidence to validate the above emotional model. In this model, emotion serves as an internal feedback to assess the disparity between the internal predicted outcomes and the actual (external) outcomes in reality. It predicts that emotion provides a feedback to reduce the discrepancy between the expected (subjective) reality and actual (objective) reality. The hypothesis for this model is that the intensity of emotional response is proportional to the disparity between the expected outcome and the actual outcome (i.e., gain/loss magnitude). Happiness is an emotional feedback that indicates the congruency between the predicted and actual outcomes. In order to validate this theoretical model of emotion, the classical Ultimatum Game (UG) is used as an experimental paradigm to elicit self-generated (endogenous) emotions in response to a monetary offer, so that the emotional responses with respect to the perceived monetary gain/loss can be assessed by the stimulus-response function. The results showed that the self-reported happiness intensity is directly proportional to the magnitude of the desirable monetary gain. An empirically derived emotion stimulus-response function is shown to quantify the specific emotional biases graphically by the emotional-disparity graph. The results validated the hypothesis that the intensity of self-reported happy emotion is directly proportional to the monetary gain. The analysis also showed that the happy emotional sensitivity is also changed by the perception of fairness (whether the offer is fair or unfair), which can be represented graphically by the emotional-disparity graph

Positive affect and learning: exploring the “Eureka Effect” in dogs

Animals may experience positive affective states in response to their own achievements. We investigated emotional responses to problem-solving in dogs, separating these from reactions to rewards per se using a yoked control design. We also questioned whether the intensity of reaction would vary with reward type. We examined the response (behavior and heart rate) of dogs as they learned to gain access to different rewards: (1) food (2) human contact, and (3) dog contact. Twelve beagles were assigned to matched pairs, and each dog served as both an experimental and a control animal during different stages of the experiment. We trained all dogs to perform distinct operant tasks and exposed them to additional devices to which they were not trained. Later, dogs were tested in a new context. When acting as an experimental dog, access to the reward was granted immediately upon completion of trained operant tasks. When acting as a control, access to the reward was independent of the dog's actions and was instead granted after a delay equal to their matched partner's latency to complete their task. Thus, differences between the two situations could be attributed to experimental dogs having the opportunity to learn to control access to the reward. Experimental dogs showed signs of excitement (e.g., increased tail wagging and activity) in response to their achievements, whereas controls showed signs of frustration (e.g., chewing of the operant device) in response to the unpredictability of the situation. The intensity of emotional response in experimental dogs was influenced by the reward type, i.e., greatest response to food and least to another dog. Our results suggest that dogs react emotionally to problem-solving opportunities and that tail wagging may be a useful indicator of positive affective states in dogs.

Childbirth and criteria for traumatic events

Objectivefor some women childbirth is physically and psychologically traumatic and meets Criterion A1 (threat) and A2 (intense emotional response) for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV).This study differentiates Criterion A1 and A2 to explore their individual relationship to prevalence rates for posttraumatic stress, each other, and associated factors for childbirth trauma. Design and settingwomen were recruited at three hospitals from October 2008 to October 2009. Questionnaires were completed at recruitment and at 14 days post partum. Participantswomen in the third trimester of pregnancy (n=890) were recruited by a research midwife while waiting for their antenatal clinic appointment. Participants were over 17 years of age, expected to give birth to a live infant, not undergoing psychological treatment, and able to complete questionnaires in English. Findingsthis study found 14.3% of women met criteria for a traumatic childbirth. When the condition of A2 was removed, the prevalence rate doubled to 29.4%. Approximately half the women who perceived threat in childbirth did not have an intense negative emotional response. Predictors of finding childbirth traumatic were pre-existing psychiatric morbidity, being a first time mother and experiencing an emergency caesarean section. Key conclusionsthe fear response is an important diagnostic criterion for assessing psychologically traumatic childbirth. The identification of risk factors may inform maternity service delivery to prevent traumatic birth and postpartum approaches to care to address long-term negative consequences. Implications for practiceprevention and treatment of traumatic childbirth are improved through knowledge of potential risk factors and understanding the woman's subjective experience.

Commentary on behavioral price research: the role of subjective experiences in price cognition

The author argues that subjective feelings, both mild cognitive feelings such as processing fluency and the feeling of knowing, as well as more intense emotional responses such as the pain of paying, play important roles in price psychology. Theoretical frameworks or models that do not incorporate the effects of such subjective feelings are likely to lack descriptive validity.

Commentary on Behavioral Price Research: The Role of Subjective Experiences in Price Cognition

The author argues that subjective feelings, both mild cognitive feelings such as processing fluency and the feeling of knowing, as well as more intense emotional responses such as the pain of paying, play important roles in price psychology. Theoretical frameworks or models that do not incorporate the effects of such subjective feelings are likely to lack descriptive validity.

A longitudinal study on illness perceptions in hemodialysis patients: changes over time

IntroductionSelf-regulatory theory explains how patients’ illness representations influence self-management behavior. The aim of this study was to examine the changes that occur in disease perceptions after 6 years in hemodialysis patients.Material and methodsA total of 81 clinically stable patients (53.6% males, meanage 54 ±12.54 years, mean hemoglobin level 11 ±1.52 g/dl, mean Kt/V 1.49 ±0.21) who were treated with hemodialysis three times weekly completed questionnaires on illness representations in 2005, and then at follow-up, in December 2011, 47 patients. IPQ-R (Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-Revised) was used to assess patients’ illness perceptions.ResultsAfter a long period of years (6 years), patients had a stronger perception of a chronic course of the disease (timeline; p < 0.001), considered hemodialysis more efficient in controlling end stage renal disease (ESRD) (treatment control; p < 0.05), considered that their disease had less serious consequences for their life (consequences; p < 0.05), and also registered a less intense emotional response to their illness (emotional representation; p < 0.05). Two of the seven components of illness representations (personal control, cyclical symptoms) remained unchanged. Treatment control perceptions were also predictive of mortality after controlling for covariates (age, gender, dialysis vintage, blood hemoglobin level and Kt/V) (HR = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.02–0.75, p = 0.022).ConclusionsOur results show that patients’ illness perceptions vary over a significantly long follow-up period, in the sense of having more optimistic views towards their illness perceptions.

Affect at the margins: Alternative empathies in A Small Place

Against the contemporary universalist injunction to ‘be empathetic’, this paper explores the possibilities of what I call ‘alternative empathies’ in the aftermath of the Atlantic slave trade and European colonialism. Offering an affective reading of Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place (1988/2000), it examines how empathy expressed at the margins of postcolonial imaginaries might disrupt or refigure some of the dominant ways that affect is thought and mobilised in pervasive Euro-American liberal and neoliberal discourses. As a powerful commentary on the cultural, political, economic and affective links between slavery, colonialism, and contemporary practices of tourism in the Caribbean that has provoked intense emotional responses among its readers, A Small Place offers a pertinent site through which to consider how history, power and violence shape the meanings and effects of empathy. It illustrates how the affective afterlives of decolonisation shape contemporary subjectivities in ways that are not easy to penetrate, nor possible to undo, through the power of empathetic will alone. Yet it also points to the role that alternative empathies can play in interrogating ideas of time as linear and universal and space as self-contained, revealing how we live affectively through different temporalities and spatialities – with varying implications for our senses of possibility in and for the world. I thus argue that exploring alternative empathies might open out to affective politics which do not view emotions instrumentally as sources of – or solutions to – complex social and political problems, but rather examine diverse and shifting relations of feeling for what they might tell us about the affective workings of power in a transnational world.