Showing papers in "Cognition & Emotion in 2002"
TL;DR: Three new experiments suggesting that the valence of a face cue can influence attentional effects in a cueing paradigm suggest attentional bias in anxiety may reflect a difficulty in disengaging from threat-related and emotional stimuli, and threat- related and ambiguous cues can influence the magnitude of the IOR effect.
Abstract: The present paper reports three new experiments suggesting that the valence of a face cue can influence attentional effects in a cueing paradigm. Moreover, heightened trait anxiety resulted in increased attentional dwell-time on emotional facial stimuli, relative to neutral faces. Experiment 1 presented a cueing task, in which the cue was either an "angry", "happy", or "neutral" facial expression. Targets could appear either in the same location as the face (valid trials) or in a different location to the face (invalid trials). Participants did not show significant variations across the different cue types (angry, happy, neutral) in responding to a target on valid trials. However, the valence of the face did affect response times on invalid trials. Specifically, participants took longer to respond to a target when the face cue was "angry" or "happy" relative to neutral. In Experiment 2, the cue-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) was increased and an overall inhibition of return (IOR) effect was found (i.e., slower responses on valid trials). However, the "angry" face cue eliminated the IOR effect for both high and low trait anxious groups. In Experiment 3, threat-related and jumbled facial stimuli reduced the magnitude of IOR for high, but not for low, trait-anxious participants.These results suggest that: (i) attentional bias in anxiety may reflect a difficulty in disengaging from threat-related and emotional stimuli, and (ii) threat-related and ambiguous cues can influence the magnitude of the IOR effect.
930 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that emotional processing biases can be readily induced in the laboratory, and that these biases exert effects on the processing of new information and cause congruent changes in state anxiety when they influence how emotionally significant information is encoded.
Abstract: After briefly describing the nature of emotional processing biases associated with vulnerability to anxiety, and a model of how they may be produced, we review new data on the experimental induction of attentional and interpretative biases. We show that these biases can be readily induced in the laboratory, in the absence of mood changes. However, induced biases exert effects on the processing of new information and cause congruent changes in state anxiety when they influence how emotionally significant information is encoded. We can therefore conclude that biases have causal effects on vulnerability to anxiety via their influence on how significant events are processed. Finally, we discuss how our model might account for the acquisition of processing bias and for when they can influence anxiety.
622 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the role of emotional intelligence in mood and self-esteem regulation, and found that individuals with higher emotional intelligence showed less of a decrease in positive mood after a negative state induction using the Velten method, and showed more of an increase in positive m...
Abstract: Both theory and previous research suggest a link between emotional intelligence and emotional well-being. Emotional intelligence includes the ability to understand and regulate emotions; emotional well-being includes positive mood and high self-esteem. Two studies investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and mood, and between emotional intelligence and self-esteem. The results of these studies indicated that higher emotional intelligence was associated with characteristically positive mood and higher self-esteem. The results of a third study indicated that higher emotional intelligence was associated with a higher positive mood state and greater state self-esteem. The third study also investigated the role of emotional intelligence in mood and self-esteem regulation and found that individuals with higher emotional intelligence showed less of a decrease in positive mood and self-esteem after a negative state induction using the Velten method, and showed more of an increase in positive m...
458 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore whether spontaneously evoked facial reactions can be evaluated in terms of criteria for what characterises an automatic process, based on a model in which the facial muscles can be both automatically/ involuntarily controlled and voluntarily controlled by conscious processes.
Abstract: Based on a model in which the facial muscles can be both automatically/ involuntarily controlled and voluntarily controlled by conscious processes, we explore whether spontaneously evoked facial reactions can be evaluated in terms of criteria for what characterises an automatic process. In three experiments subjects were instructed to not react with their facial muscles, or to react as quickly as possible by wrinkling the eyebrows (frowning) or elevating the cheeks (smiling) when exposed to pictures of negative or positive emotional stimuli, while EMG activity was measured from the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major muscle regions. Consistent with the proposition that facial reactions are automatically controlled, the results showed that the corrugator muscle reaction was facilitated to negative stimuli and the zygomatic muscle reaction was facilitated to positive stimuli. The results further showed that, despite the fact that subjects were required to not react with their facial muscles at all, they could not avoid producing a facial reaction that corresponded to the negative and positive stimuli.
328 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated the ways in which individuals differ in their experience of emotion and found that intensity, attention, expression, and clarity were associated with positive well-being and negative well being.
Abstract: In two samples of college students (Ns = 116 and 141), this research investigated the ways in which individuals differ in their experience of emotion. Four latent traits emerged from scales assessing such differences—Intensity, Attention, Expression, and Clarity. In both samples, these latent traits were found to be involved in reports of personality, well-being, coping, and explanatory style. Clarity was positively associated with measures of positive well-being and negatively associated with measures of negative well-being. Individuals who experience intense emotions (Intensity), who attend to them often (Attention), or who notably express them (Expression), reported coping by focusing on and venting their emotions and by seeking social support. Individuals who are adept at identifying their emotions (Clarity) reported engaging in active, planful coping and in positive reinterpretations of events. Individuals high on Clarity made self-affirming attributions for good events.
309 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined correlations between frequency estimates of pleasant emotions (FPE) and frequency estimate of unpleasant emotions (FUE) in Asian, non-Asian collectivistic, and Western cultures and found that FPE-FUE correlations were less negative in Asian cultures than in other cultures.
Abstract: The present study examined the hypothesis that Asian cultures' dialectical way of thinking influences emotion reports. A dialectical way of thinking sees emotions of the opposite valence (e.g., happy, sad) as compatible with each other. In contrast, Western philosophy considers these emotions to be in conflict with each other. We examined correlations between frequency estimates of pleasant emotions (FPE) and frequency estimates of unpleasant emotions (FUE) in Asian, non-Asian collectivistic, and Western cultures. As predicted, FPE-FUE correlations were less negative in Asian cultures than in other cultures. We also observed a tendency for the culture effect to be moderated by gender. The strongest negative correlation was obtained for women in non-Asian cultures.
303 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the theoretical versus the lay meaning of disgust, and found that the common understanding of the word disgust reflects a combination of the conceptual meanings of disgust and anger whereas the slang term grossed out more closely captures the theoretical construct of disgust.
Abstract: Appraisal research based on participants' self-report of emotional experiences is predicated on the assumption that the academic community and the lay public share comparable meanings of the emotion terms used. However, this can be a risky assumption to make, as in the case of the emotion disgust which appears in common usage to reflect irritation, or anger, as often as repulsion. To examine the theoretical versus the lay meaning of disgust, 140 undergraduates were asked to recall a time when they felt either angry, disgust, disgusted, revulsion, or grossed out. Analysis of event recall responses and emotional experience measures suggests that the common understanding of the word disgust reflects a combination of the conceptual meanings of disgust and anger whereas the slang term grossed out more closely captures the theoretical construct of disgust. Implications of these findings for emotion research based on self-report are discussed.
271 citations
TL;DR: This paper investigated the role of honour concerns in mediating the effect of nationality and gender on the reported intensity of anger and shame in reaction to insult vignettes and found that Spanish participants responded especially intensely to insults that threaten family honour.
Abstract: We investigated the role of honour concerns in mediating the effect of nationality and gender on the reported intensity of anger and shame in reaction to insult vignettes. Spain, an honour culture, and The Netherlands, where honour is of less central significance, were selected for comparison. A total of 260 (125 Dutch, 135 Spanish) persons participated in the research. Participants completed a measure of honour concerns and answered questions about emotional reactions of anger and shame to vignettes depicting insults in which type of threat was manipulated. It was found that Spanish participants responded especially intensely to insults that threaten family honour, and that this effect of nationality on emotional reactions to threats to family honour was mediated by individual differences in concern for family honour.
238 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between emotional feelings and respiration was investigated and the results revealed that breathing patterns reported during voluntary production of emotion were comparable to those objectively recorded in psychophysiological experiments on emotion arousal, consistently similar across individuals, and clearly differentiated among joy, anger, fear, and sadness.
Abstract: This article reports two studies investigating the relationship between emotional feelings and respiration. In the first study, participants were asked to produce an emotion of either joy, anger, fear or sadness and to describe the breathing pattern that fit best with the generated emotion. Results revealed that breathing patterns reported during voluntary production of emotion were (a) comparable to those objectively recorded in psychophysiological experiments on emotion arousal, (b) consistently similar across individuals, and (c) clearly differentiated among joy, anger, fear, and sadness. A second study used breathing instructions based on Study 1's results to investigate the impact of the manipulation of respiration on emotional feeling state. A cover story was used so that participants could not guess the actual purpose of the study. This manipulation produced significant emotional feeling states that were differentiated according to the type of breathing pattern. The implications of these findings f...
226 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the Scrambled Sentences Test (SST), a measure of processing bias, was administered to a large sample of undergraduates to investigate the possible relationship between negative processing biases and subsequent depression.
Abstract: This study investigated the possible relationship between negative processing biases and subsequent depression. The Scrambled Sentences Test (SST), a measure of processing bias, was administered to a large sample of undergraduates. Participants also completed self-report measures of thought suppression tendencies, current level of depression, and lifetime worst-depression symptoms. High scores on the SST, reflecting a negative processing bias, predicted depression symptoms measured 4 to 6 weeks later, even after controlling for concurrent and past depression. The SST was administered both with and without cognitive load to all participants. The SST with load predicted subsequent depression for both men and women. The SST without load predicted depression for women only. The SST difference score, a measure of the change in scores between the no-load and load conditions, was a significant predictor of subsequent depression for men but not women. Among men, the combination of high thought suppression with either high SST-load scores or high SST difference scores proved to be a particularly strong indicator of vulnerability to subsequent depression.
221 citations
TL;DR: Men and women have confronted different adaptive problems over evolutionary history associated with different forms of infidelity, and as discussed by the authors found that men are more likely to forgive a sexual infidelity than an emotional infidelity.
Abstract: Infidelities--sexual, emotional, or both--afflict many long-term romantic relationships. When a person discovers a partner's betrayal, a major decision faced is to forgive the partner and remain together or to terminate the relationship. Because men and women have confronted different adaptive problems over evolutionary history associated with different forms of infidelity, we hypothesised the existence of sex differences in which aspects of infidelity would affect the likelihood of forgiveness or breakup. We tested this hypothesis using forced-choice dilemmas in which participants (N = 256) indicated how difficult it would be to forgive the partner and how likely they would be to break up with the partner, depending on the nature of the infidelity. Results support the hypothesis that men, relative to women: (a) find it more difficult to forgive a sexual infidelity than an emotional infidelity; and (b) are more likely to terminate a current relationship following a partner's sexual infidelity than an emot...
TL;DR: This article found that the dimension of emotional pleasantness (unpleasant-pleasant) was predicted better by interdependent than independent concerns in the Japanese groups, but this was not the case in the American group where the variance predicted by the interdependent and independent concerns did not significantly differ.
Abstract: Cultural differences in daily emotions were investigated by administering emotion questionnaires four times a day throughout a one-week period. Respondents were American students, Japanese students living in the United States, and Japanese students living in Japan. Americans rated their emotional lives as more pleasant than did the Japanese groups. The dimension of emotional pleasantness (unpleasant-pleasant) was predicted better by interdependent than independent concerns in the Japanese groups, but this was not the case in the American group where the variance predicted by interdependent and independent concerns did not significantly differ. It is argued that cultural differences in the concerns most strongly associated with pleasantness are related to differences in ideals, norms, and practices of what it means to be a person. Cultural differences in the concerns are assumed to implicate differences in the nature of emotional experience.
TL;DR: In this article, a Stroop-like response conflict mechanism was proposed to facilitate non-affective semantic processing of affectively congruent targets, and the results showed that affective priming in the affective categorisation task is primarily due to the operation of a StroOP-like Response Conflict mechanism.
Abstract: Fazio, Sanbonmatsu Powell, & Kardes, (1986) demonstrated that less time is needed to affectively categorise a target as positive or negative when it is preceded by a prime with the same valence (e.g., summer-honest) compared to when the target is preceded by a prime with a different valence (e.g., cancer-honest). Such effects could be due to spreading of activation within a semantic network and/or to Stroop-like response conflicts. If a spreading of activation mechanism operates in priming tasks, primes should also facilitate nonaffective semantic processing of affectively congruent targets. In Experiment 1, we failed to observe affective priming when participants responded on the basis of whether the target referred to a person or animal. Experiment 2 revealed significant affective priming when participants responded on the basis of the valence of the targets but not when the semantic category of the targets (person or object) was relevant, despite the fact that apart from the task, both conditions were identical. The present results suggest that affective priming in the affective categorisation task is primarily due to the operation of a Stroop-like response conflict mechanism.
TL;DR: This article found that processing systems brought to bear on comprehension of emotional speech are attuned primarily to word evaluation in a low-context culture and language (i.e., in English), but they are not attuned to vocal emotion in a high-context (e.g., in Japanese).
Abstract: Adopting a modified Stroop task, the authors tested the hypothesis that processing systems brought to bear on comprehension of emotional speech are attuned primarily to word evaluation in a low-context culture and language (i.e., in English), but they are attuned primarily to vocal emotion in a high-context culture and language (i.e., in Japanese). Native Japanese (Studies 1 and 2) and English speakers (Study 3) made a judgement of either vocal emotion or word evaluation of an emotionally spoken evaluative word. Word evaluations and vocal emotions were comparable in extremity in the two languages. In support of the hypothesis, an interference effect by competing word evaluation in the vocal emotion judgement was significantly stronger in English than in Japanese. In contrast, an interference effect by competing vocal emotion in the word evaluation judgement was stronger in Japanese than in English. Implications for the cultural grounding of communication, emotion, and cognition are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined physiological and self-reported emotional responses in response to scenarios that varied in emotional content and whether they involved interacting with a Black or a white person.
Abstract: Cardiovascular responses, skin conductance, corrugator ("frown"), and zygomaticus ("smile") electromyographic activity, and self-reported emotional responses were examined in response to scenarios that varied in emotional content and whether they involved interacting with a Black or White person. Black (33 women, 25 men) and White (28 women, 26 men) students imagined joy, neutral, fear, and anger situations. Emotional contents replicated patterns of physiological and self-reported emotion found in other studies, although gender differences in emotion found in other studies were evident only in White participants. Blacks exhibited more positive facial expressions, while Whites were more negatively expressive. Blacks, and particularly Black men, exhibited greater blood pressure reactivity to the emotional contexts. For both White and Black participants, imagined interactions with Blacks increased both positive and negative facial expression. Results suggest that, compared to Whites, Blacks are both more aut...
TL;DR: For example, the authors found that high trait anxious individuals averted their gaze from angry faces more than they did from happy faces for 0-1000 ms and for 2000-3000 ms, respectively.
Abstract: Several experiments have shown that anxious individuals have an attentional bias towards threat cues. It is also known, however, that exposure to a subjectively threatening but relatively harmless stimulus tends to lead to a reduction in fear. Accordingly, some authors have hypothesised that high trait anxious individuals have a vigilant-avoidant pattern of visual attention to threatening stimuli. In the present study, 52 high trait anxious and 48 low trait anxious subjects were shown pairs of emotional faces, while their direction of gaze was continuously monitored. For 0-1000 ms, both groups were found to view angry faces more than happy faces. For 2000-3000 ms, however, only high trait anxious subjects averted their gaze from angry faces more than they did from happy faces.
TL;DR: This article investigated the cognitive structure of emotions in Indonesia and The Netherlands in a series of three studies and found that a three-dimensional (evaluation, arousal, dominance) and a four-cluster (positive emotion, sadness, fear, anger) structure was found in each group.
Abstract: We investigated the cognitive structure of emotions in Indonesia and The Netherlands in a series of three studies. Sets of 120 emotion terms were selected based on local ratings of prototypicality for "emotion". With similarity sortings a three-dimensional (evaluation, arousal, dominance) and a four-cluster (positive emotion, sadness, fear, anger) structure was found in each group. Of 50 pairs of translation-equivalent terms, 42 pairs were also found to be cognitively equivalent. With these equivalent terms a good fit of a common cognitive emotion structure was demonstrated in both countries. In a fourth and final study, the location of two social emotions, "shame" and "guilt", in the common structure was found to be closer to "fear" and somewhat further away from "anger" in Indonesia than in the Netherlands.
TL;DR: This paper found that when judging emotion categories in low-intensity expressions, American and Japanese judges see the emotion intended at above-chance rates, albeit lower than when judging high intensity faces.
Abstract: Although research has generated a wealth of information on cultural influences on emotion judgements, the information we have to date is limited in several ways. This study extends this literature in two ways, first by obtaining judgements from people in two cultures of expressions portrayed at different intensity levels, and second by incorporating individual level measures of culture to examine their contribution to observed differences. When judging emotion categories in low intensity expressions, American and Japanese judges see the emotion intended at above-chance rates, albeit lower than when judging high intensity faces. Also, American and Japanese intensity ratings of external displays and internal experiences differ dramatically for low intensity expressions compared to high intensity faces. Finally, the two cultural dimensions measured in this study—individualism versus collectivism (IC) and status differentiation (SD)—accounted for almost all of the variance in the observed differences. These f...
TL;DR: A meta-analysis of these collective level cross-cultural studies showed that individualism correlates positively with affect balance and subjective well-being, controlling for socioeconomic development, cultural femininity, power-distance, uncertainty avoidance, and climate as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A research synthesis was conducted with four studies which correlated national mean self-ratings of affect balance (positive minus negative affect) and subjective well-being with the nations' cultural characteristics (individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and power-distance national scores on Hofstede's dimensions), socioeconomic development (Human Development Index), and climate (absolute latitude). A meta-analysis of these collective level cross-cultural studies shows that individualism correlates positively with affect balance and subjective well-being, controlling for socioeconomic development, cultural femininity, power-distance, uncertainty avoidance, and climate. Similar results were found for individual-level data. The meaning of collective-level or national means of individual self-reports of affect balance is discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the intersections of self-focused attention and emotional experience are discussed, and it is shown that high self-awareness can dampen the intensity of emotional experience in the absence of this confound.
Abstract: Does self-awareness amplify or dampen the intensity of emotional experience? Early research argued that self-awareness makes emotional states salient, resulting in greater emotional intensity. But these studies induced a standard for emotional intensity, confounding the salience of the emotional state with the self-regulation effects of self-awareness. Three experiments suggest high self-awareness can dampen the intensity of emotional experience in the absence of this confound. In Study 1, participants were led to feel sad in the presence or absence of a mirror; a standard for emotionality was or was not induced. High self-awareness amplified sadness when there was a standard for emotionality; it dampened sadness when there was no standard. Additional experiments using a self-novelty writing task (Study 2) and a mirror (Study 3) showed that self-awareness can also dampen positive affect. A fourth study found that trait private self-consciousness did not affect emotional intensity after controlling for the effects of neuroticism. The intersections of self-focused attention and emotional experience are discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the hypothesis that stress shrinks affective space, increasing the inverse correlation between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and found that the degree to which PA and NA are inversely related varies with the level of stress.
Abstract: This paper examines the proposition that stress shrinks affective space, increasing the inverse correlation between positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). The experience sampling method was used to record the levels of PA and NA and stress reported by white-collar employees 10 times a day for 5 days. These data were subjected to hierarchical linear modelling to determine whether the relationship between affective states becomes increasingly inverse as a function of stress, as predicted by Zautra, Potter, and Reich (1997). Caution was taken to address measurement issues that have been raised in recent debates over the independence of PA and NA, and a contingency analysis was also used to supplement the linear modelling approach. Both types of analyses revealed evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the degree to which PA and NA are inversely related varies with the level of stress.
TL;DR: It is concluded that conceptual processing is necessary, but is not sufficient for demonstrating implicit memory bias in depression, and future studies should investigate specific components of conceptual elaboration that support implicit memory biases in depression.
Abstract: In this review I describe research conducted in my laboratory concerning implicit mood-congruent memory (MCM) bias in clinical depression. MCM is the tendency for depressed individuals to retrieve more unpleasant information from memory than nondepressed controls, and may be an important maintenance mechanism in depression. MCM has been studied frequently with explicit memory tests, but relatively few studies have investigated MCM using implicit memory tests. I describe several implicit memory studies which show that: (a) an implicit MCM bias does not appear to exist when perceptually driven tests are used; (b) implicit memory bias can be found when conceptually driven tests are used, but (c) not all conceptually driven tests show implicit MCM bias. I conclude that conceptual processing is necessary, but is not sufficient for demonstrating implicit memory bias in depression. Future studies should investigate specific components of conceptual elaboration that support implicit memory bias in depression.
TL;DR: In this article, positive and negative emotional states were elicited by exposing the participants to the experience of success or failure in a demanding cognitive task, and positive mood elicited an external focus of attention whereas negative mood induced selffocus.
Abstract: Attention deployment and generating specific types of cognitions are central cognitive mechanisms of emotion regulation. Two groups of hypotheses make contradicting predictions about the emotion-cognition relationship. The moodcongruency hypothesis expects the emergence of mood-congruent cognitions (i.e., negative mood leads to negative and positive mood to positive cognitions). Similarly, a substantial body of research suggests that negative mood induces selffocus, whereas positive mood elicits an external focus of attention. The moodrepair hypothesis, on the other hand, assumes that persons in a negative mood state summon thoughts incongruent with that state and divert attention away from the self. However, the temporal sequence of cognitions assessed as well as coping dispositions, such as vigilance and cognitive avoidance, may moderate these relationships. Positive and negative emotional states were elicited by exposing the participants to the experience of success or failure in a demanding cognitive ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the emotion word "disappointment" refers to two different emotional experiences, namely, outcome-related disappointment and person related disappointment, and they support this distinction by showing that these two types of disappointment differ from each other.
Abstract: Empirical research on the emotion disappointment has focused uniquely on disappointments produced by outcomes that are worse than expectations. Introspection suggests that in many cases persons instead of outcomes cause the disappointment. In the present study we therefore argue that the emotion word “disappointment” refers to two different emotional experiences, namely, outcome-related disappointment and person-related disappointment. Results from an empirical study support this distinction by showing that these two types of disappointment differ from each other and from anger and sadness with respect to appraisals and response types.
TL;DR: In this paper, college students listed activities that they found pleasurable, and provided ratings of the degree to which those activities led them to feel each of 12 different joy-related pleasurable feelings.
Abstract: College students (N = 162) listed activities that they found pleasurable, and provided ratings of the degree to which those activities led them to feel each of 12 different joy-related pleasurable feelings. A factor analysis revealed three types of pleasurable feelings: cheerfulness, contentment, and enchantment. Participants also completed a personality inventory, the NEO-FFI, and a questionnaire developed for this study to measure pleasure elicited by three types of activities: social, intellectual, and basic needs (e.g., eating and sleeping). Different types of pleasure-eliciting activities were associated with different types of pleasurable experience, and the different types of pleasure-eliciting activities and pleasurable experiences were associated with different personality dimensions. For example, social activities were differentially associated with cheerfulness, and both social activities and cheerfulness were associated with extraversion; intellectual activities were differentially associated ...
TL;DR: In this article, a study was designed to determine the influence of crying-related variables and country characteristics on mood change after crying and found that mood improvement would be positively associated with crying frequency, individualism-collectivism, and the extent of gender empowerment in a country.
Abstract: This study was designed to determine the influence of crying-related variables and country characteristics on mood change after crying. It was hypothesized that mood improvement would be positively associated to crying frequency, Individualism-Collectivism, and the extent of gender empowerment in a country. Masculinity-Femininity and shame were expected to have a negative relation with mood change. Self-report data were collected in 30 countries (1680 male and 2323 female students). Although bivariate associations yielded inconsistent results, in a regression analysis Masculinity-Femininity, national income, shame, and crying frequency emerged as significant predictors of mood change, all in the anticipated direction. The results suggest that how one feels after a crying episode depends on how common crying is in one's culture and on general feelings of shame over crying. It also seems that (perceptions of) role patterns may play an important part in the experience of mood change.
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that the linguistic representation of emotions and events giving rise to them is influenced by the cultural regulation of the relationship between a person and others, and that such cultural variations are expected to be reflected in how emotions and emotion events are represented in language.
Abstract: It is argued that the linguistic representation of emotions and events giving rise to them is influenced by the cultural regulation of the relationship between a person and others. Such cultural variations are expected to be reflected in how emotions and emotion events are represented in language. The two studies provide support for the hypothesis that in a culture where relationships and interdependence are valued emotion terms function as relationship-markers and emotion events are represented by the use of concrete linguistic terms when compared with cultures that emphasise the value of the individual. Moreover, we also found support for the argument that emotion terms function predominantly as self-markers in cultures that value individuality and that they are represented by more abstract terms (adjectives, nouns). The implications of these findings are discussed.
TL;DR: This article found that a lack of positive experiences and positive expectancies mediated the relationship between the Behavioral Activation System (BAS) and anhedonic symptoms of depression among an undergraduate sample (N = 171).
Abstract: The anhedonic symptoms of depression have been linked to a lack of incentive responsiveness, which is a function of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS). Using structural equation modeling within the context of a cross-sectional design, we found that a lack of positive experiences and positive expectancies mediated the BAS-depression link among an undergraduate sample (N = 171). We tested the specificity of this model across four alternative models substituting negative experiences, negative expectancies, threat sensitivity, and symptoms of anxiety for their theoretical counterparts in the original model. In each case, the alternative model did not fit the data as well as our original model. This pattern of results is consistent with the position that a lack of positive experiences and positive expectancies uniquely mediate the relationship between the BAS and anhedonic symptoms of depression.
TL;DR: In this paper, two studies investigated informational effects of mood on effort-related cardiovascular response and found that subjective demand and cardiovascular response were both higher in a negative mood than in a positive mood and the mood effect on cardiovascular response diminished after statistically controlling for the demand appraisals.
Abstract: Drawing on the mood-behaviour model (Gendolla, 2000), two studies investigated informational effects of mood on effort-related cardiovascular response. Experiment 1 manipulated mood state (positive, negative) and task difficulty (easy, difficult, extremely difficult). Effects on cardiovascular reactivity were as expected: On the easy level, reactivity was weak in a positive mood, but strong in a negative mood; on the difficult level, reactivity was strong in a positive mood, but weak in a negative mood; on the extremely difficulty level mood had no effect. Experiment 2 manipulated mood only. As predicted, subjective demand and cardiovascular response were both higher in a negative mood than in a positive mood and the mood effect on cardiovascular response diminished after statistically controlling for the demand appraisals. Neither study revealed any mood effects on cardiovascular response during the mood inductions.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined disgust and fear responses to spiders in spider-distressed and non-discerning individuals and found that spiders have a specific disgust-evoking status in both distres...
Abstract: We examined disgust and fear responses to spiders in spider-distressed and nondistressed individuals. Undergraduate participants (N = 134) completed questionnaires concerning responses to spiders and other potentially aversive stimuli, as well as measures of disgust sensitivity, anxious arousal, worry, and anhedonic depression. In addition, we obtained self-report and facial expressions of disgust and fear while participants were exposed to a live tarantula. Both spider distressed and nondistressed individuals reported disgust and exhibited disgust facial expressions in response to a tarantula. Disgust in response to spiders was not found to be part of a general disgust response to all negative stimuli, nor was it due to a general negative emotional response to spiders. Emotional responses to spiders were differentially associated with scores on personality and psychological functioning measures. The results of this study provide evidence that spiders have a specific disgust-evoking status in both distres...