Low Negative Emotionality Research Articles

Temperament and a Story-Telling Measure of Self-Regulation

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the temperament trait of negative emotionality and the qualities of internalized self-regulatory structures as measured by a projective story-telling task. A deliberately biased sample of 120 children aged 8-12 was selected from a larger group to ensure that the full range of negative emotionality was represented. Children were selected on the basis of high, medium, or low negative emotionality scores derived through factor analysis of items on relevant dimensions of three temperament measures (DOTS-R, MCTQ, and EAS). Self-regulation was assessed with stories told to Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stimuli. A measure of distractibility was also included. Multiple regression analysis indicated that higher negative emotionality was associated with lower self-regulation scores after removal of the variance associated with Age, Gender, and Race. Distractibility made a unique contribution at the last step indicating that higher distractibility was associated with lower self-regulation.

When avoiding unpleasant emotions might not be such a bad thing: verbal-autonomic response dissociation and midlife conjugal bereavement.

It has been widely assumed that emotional avoidance during bereavement leads to either prolonged grief, delayed grief, or delayed somatic symptoms. To test this view, as well as a contrasting adaptive hypothesis, emotional avoidance was measured 6 months after a conjugal loss as negative verbal-autonomic response dissociation (low self-rated negative emotion coupled with heightened cardiovascular activity) and compared with grief measured at 6 and 14 months. The negative dissociation score evidenced reliability and validity but did not evidence the assumed link to severe grief. Rather, consistent with the adaptive hypothesis, negative dissociation at 6 months was associated with minimal grief symptoms across 14 months. Negative dissociation scores were also linked to initially high levels of somatic symptoms, which dropped to a low level by 14 months. Possible explanations for the initial cost and long-term adaptive quality of emotional avoidance during bereavement, as well as implications and limitations of the findings, are discussed.

Relations of shyness and low sociability to regulation and emotionality.

The relations of shyness and low sociability (i.e., the nonfearful preference to be alone) to measures of regulation and emotionality were examined. College students and (for some variables) friends reported on their relevant dispositional characteristics. In general, shyness was associated with low regulation and high negative emotionality (including intensity, negative affectivity, and personal distress), low positive affect, and low constructive coping. In contrast, low sociability was unrelated to negative emotionality; associated with low positive emotional intensity, low physiological reactivity, and high inhibition control; and correlated with low seeking of social support as a means of coping. The findings are considered within a heuristic model in which emotional reactivity and regulation are proposed as predictors of social responding.