Individual differences in situational preference amongst smokers

A smoking questionnaire containing 26 items covering a range of stressful and nonstressful situations was administered to a sample of 60 light and medium cigarette smokers. Principal component analysis revealed two main factors relating to high and low emotional and attentional stress. Sex and personality differences were found in extent of desire on these factors. Introverts tended to have high desire in selective attentional situations and females had higher desire in situations of emotional stress. Differences in inhalation patterns and length of habit were also related to sex and extraversion.It is proposed that differences in smoking behaviour and the apparent paradoxical effects of smoking may reflect the use of smoking as a rewarding distraction from, rather than contribution to, current stressful activity. Predictions concerning the nature of a smoker's habit may thus be aided by considering individual differences in attentional as well as emotional styles.     

Individual differences in anger and displaced aggression: The role of metacognitive beliefs and anger rumination

Metacognitive model is a theoretical approach aimed to explain emotion dysregulation and others emotion-related issues, such anger, and aggressive behavior. From this model, people having higher maladaptive metacognitive beliefs (e.g., “I can't control my thoughts”) are more likely to activate and maintain anger rumination and, in turn, to experience higher levels of anger and to act aggressively. Preliminary evidence shows the role of metacognitive beliefs on anger rumination and anger levels, whereas no studies have examined its association with aggressive behavior. This study first examined the associations between metacognitive beliefs, anger rumination, anger levels, and the propensity to engage in displaced aggression, and second, the mediation role of anger rumination in the relations among metacognitive beliefs and anger and displaced aggression. Participants were 947 students and non-students from general population recruited in two different countries (Australia and Spain). Correlational analyses revealed a similar pattern of results in the Australian and Spanish sample, with participants having dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs also showing higher anger rumination, higher levels of anger and a higher tendency to act aggressively. Structural equation analyses revealed the associations of metacognitive beliefs with anger levels and displaced aggression was fully mediated by anger rumination in both samples. These results suggest that metacognitive beliefs should be considered in comprehensive models and in the therapy of anger problems and aggression.     

Gender differences in anger and fear as a function of situational context

Gender differences in the reported intensity of anger and fear toward hypothetical males and females were explored in three age groups (6–12 year olds, 14–16 year olds, and adults over 30) located in two different geographic areas. The samples were primarily Caucasian and included a wide range of socioeconomic groups. Subjects reported on the intensity of feelings elicited by characters in an emotion story task in which three aspects of situational context were varied: the gender of the story characters eliciting the feeling (all situations), the stereotypic gender-typed or cross-gender behavior of the eliciting character (four situations), and the affective quality of the situations (four situations). Across all three age groups, situations that were frightening, anger-provoking, or that depicted stereotypic male-negative behavior elicited the most consistent subject gender and character gender differences in reported fear and anger. Relative to males, females of all ages reported more fear in frightening, anger-producing, and male-negative stereotypic situations. Males were reported to be more frightening and anger-producing than were females in those same situations. The data also suggested that with development, females reported less intense fear of females, while males reported less intense fear of males.This research was supported by a Gender Roles grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. We appreciate their support. We would also like to thank the public school systems of Milton, Norwood, and Watertown, Massachusetts, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Finally, we would like to thank Lance Davidow, John Houlihan, and Theodore Cross for statistical consultation and/or computer programming, as well as all the parents, children, and adolescents who participated in the study.     

The experience of anger and sadness in everyday problems impacts age differences in emotion regulation

The authors examined regulation of the discrete emotions anger and sadness in adolescents through older adults in the context of describing everyday problem situations. The results support previous work; in comparison to younger age groups, older adults reported that they experienced less anger and reported that they used more passive and fewer proactive emotion-regulation strategies in interpersonal situations. The experience of anger partially mediated age differences in the use of proactive emotion regulation. This suggests that at least part of the reason why older adults use fewer proactive emotion-regulation strategies is their decreased experience of anger. Results are discussed in the context of lifespan theories of emotional development.     

Unresolved anger and sadness: Identifying vocal acoustical correlates

The authors conducted 2 studies to identify the vocal acoustical correlates of unresolved anger and sadness among women reporting unresolved anger toward an attachment figure. In Study 1, participants (N = 17) were induced to experience and express anger then sadness or sadness then anger. In Study 2, a 2nd group of participants (N = 22) underwent a relationship-oriented, emotion-focused analogue therapy session. Results from both studies showed that, relative to emotionally neutral speech, anger evoked an increase in articulation rate and in mean fundamental frequency (F0) and F0-range, whereas sadness evoked an increase in F0-perturbation. Both F0 and F0-range were larger for anger than for sadness. In addition, results from the mood-induction-procedure study revealed 2 Emotion×Order interactions. Whereas variations in amplitude range suggested that anger evoked less physiological activation when induced after sadness, variations in F0-perturbation suggested that sadness evoked more physiological activation when induced after anger. These findings illustrate the feasibility of using acoustical measures to identify clients' personally and clinically meaningful emotional experiences, and shifts between such emotional experiences, in the context of psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).     

Effect of regulating anger and sadness on decision-making

The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination for regulating anger and sadness on decision-making. Participants (N = 165) were asked to recall two autobiographical events in which they felt intense anger and sadness, respectively. Participants were then instructed to reappraise, accept, ruminate, or not use any strategies to regulate their feelings of anger and sadness. Following this manipulation, risk aversion, and decision-making strategies were measured using a computer-based measure of risk-taking and a simulated real-life decision-making task. Participants who were instructed to reappraise their emotions showed the least anger and sadness, the most adaptive decision-making strategies, but the least risk aversion as compared to the participants in the other conditions. These findings suggest that emotion regulation strategies of negative affective states have an immediate effect on decision-making and risk-taking behaviors.     

Individual differences in emotional complexity: their psychological implications

Two studies explored the nature and psychological implications of individual differences in emotional complexity, defined as having emotional experiences that are broad in range and well differentiated. Emotional complexity was predicted to be associated with private self-consciousness, openness to experience, empathic tendencies, cognitive complexity, ability to differentiate among named emotions, range of emotions experienced daily, and interpersonal adaptability. The Range and Differentiation of Emotional Experience Scale (RDEES) was developed to test these hypotheses. In Study 1 (N=1,129) students completed questionnaire packets containing the RDEES and various outcome measures. Study 2 (N=95) included the RDEES and non-self-report measures such as peer reports, complexity of representations of the emotion domain, and level of ego development measured by a sentence completion test. Results supported all of the hypotheses, providing extensive evidence for the RDEES's construct validity. Findings were discussed in terms of the role of emotional complexity in ego maturity and interpersonal adaptability.     

White matter microstructure predicts individual differences in infant fear (But not anger and sadness)

We examine neural correlates of discrete expressions of negative emotionality in infants to determine whether the microstructure of white matter tracts at 1 month of age foreshadows the expression of specific negative emotions later in infancy. Infants (n = 103) underwent neuroimaging at 1-month, and mothers reported on infant fear, sadness, and anger at 6, 12, and 18 months using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised. Levels and developmental change in fear, sadness, and anger were estimated from mother reports. Relations between MRI and infant emotion indicated that 1-month white matter microstructure was differentially associated with level and change in infant fear, but not anger or sadness, in the left stria terminalis (p < 0.05, corrected), a tract that connects frontal and tempo-parietal regions and has been implicated in emerging psychopathology in adults. More relaxed constraints on significance (p < 0.10, corrected) revealed that fear was associated with lower white matter microstructure bilaterally in the inferior portion of the stria terminalis and regions within the sagittal stratum. Results suggest the neurobehavioral uniqueness of fear as early as 1 month of age in regions that are associated with potential longer-term outcomes. This work highlights the early neural precursors of fearfulness, adding to literature explaining the psychobiological accounts of affective development.

Highlights

• Expressions of infant fear and anger, but not sadness, increase from 6 to 18 months of age.
• Early neural architecture in the stria terminalis is related to higher initial levels and increasing fear in infancy.
• After accounting for fear, anger and sadness do not appear to be associated with differences in early white matter microstructure.
• This work identifies early neural precursors of fearfulness as early as 1-month of age.

     

Individual differences in visual comparison processes

Two experiments are reported in which subjects compared the shape of two successively presented random visual forms. The first stimulus in the pair was one of five “standard” shapes, and the second stimulus was either the same as the standard or different by virtue of a perturbation in shape or an overall reflection. Marked individual differences were found in reaction time for the same-different comparison. For one type of subject “same” responses were faster than “different” responses, speed of “different” responses was unaffected by similarity of the test shape to the standard, and error rates and reaction times were not systematically related. For the other type of subject, “different” responses were generally faster than “same” responses, “different” reaction time decreased as the standard shape and the test shape became increasingly dissimilar, and error rates and reaction times were positively correlated. Implications of these individual differences for models of the same-different comparison process are discussed.     

Individual differences in bridging inference processes

The role of individual differences in bridging-inference processing was studied. Students (n = 135) read passages of short to moderate length. After each one, they answered corresponding questions about inferences that bridged causally related ideas that were either near or far apart in the text. The main hypothesis was that local bridging-inference processing is facilitated by the reader's predisposition to access pertinent knowledge during comprehension. Regression analyses provided support for this proposal and indicated that greater working-memory capacity and vocabulary knowledge promote inference processing. The following relationships between the predictors and inference processing were proposed: Knowledge access promotes the co-occurrence in working memory of the text ideas and knowledge needed to compute the bridge. Working-memory capacity enhances the likelihood that needed antecedent ideas will be available to the bridging processes. Vocabulary knowledge may promote inference processing because unfamiliar word meanings place more demands on working-memory resources than do familiar meanings.     

Regulating anger and sadness: an exploration of discrete emotions in emotion regulation

Do emotion regulation processes vary as a function of discrete emotions? Focusing on anger and sadness, this study examined: (a) the strategies that men and women use to regulate each emotion, (b) the extent to which strategies differ in their use and effectiveness, and (c) the relationship between effective regulation of these emotions and social functioning. One hundred ninety participants described recent situations that evoked anger and sadness and how they regulated each emotion. Emotion regulation attempts for anger and sadness differed to some extent in both use and effectiveness. In addition, effective regulation of each emotion was associated with different aspects of social functioning. Effective anger regulation was associated with constructive conflict resolution style, and effective sadness regulation was associated with positive social relations. The findings suggest that global approaches to studying emotion regulation may be limited and emphasize the importance of moving toward a discrete emotions framework.     

The feeling of the story: Narrating to regulate anger and sadness

Admonitions to tell one's story in order to feel better reflect the belief that narrative is an effective emotion regulation tool. The present studies evaluate the effectiveness of narrative for regulating sadness and anger, and provide quantitative comparisons of narrative with distraction, reappraisal, and reexposure. The results for sadness (n?=?93) and anger (n?=?89) reveal that narrative is effective at down-regulating negative emotions, particularly when narratives place events in the past tense and include positive emotions. The results suggest that if people tell the “right” kind of story about their experiences, narrative reduces emotional distress linked to those experiences.     

Reports of bodily change in anxiety,sadness, and anger

In a series of studies, retrospective reports were used to assess differences in physiological symptoms associated with three emotions: Anxious, Angry, Sad. Symptom awareness, as measured by scores on the Autonomic Perception Questionnaire and the Somatic Perception Questionnaire, was significantly greater for Anxious than for the other emotions; reports for Angry and Sad were quantitatively similar. Qualitative analysis showed a different pattern. Sad was characterized as involving a low arousal state, while Anxious and Angry shared several distinguishing symptoms, most notably cardiac symptoms and general restlessness. Predicted gender differences were also observed. Males and females did not differ in overall reported level of awareness, but did differ in their reports of the specific symptoms constituting that awareness.     

Screaming, yelling, whining, and crying: categorical and intensity differences in vocal expressions of anger and sadness in children's tantrums

Young children's temper tantrums offer a unique window into the expression and regulation of strong emotions. Previous work, largely based on parental report, suggests that two emotions, anger and sadness, have different behavioral manifestations and different time courses within tantrums. Individual motor and vocal behaviors, reported by parents, have been interpreted as representing different levels of intensity within each emotion category. The present study used high-fidelity audio recordings to capture the acoustic features of children's vocalizations during tantrums. Results indicated that perceptually categorized screaming, yelling, crying, whining, and fussing each have distinct acoustic features. Screaming and yelling form a group with similar acoustic features while crying, whining, and fussing form a second acoustically related group. Within these groups, screaming may reflect a higher intensity of anger than yelling while fussing, whining, and crying may reflect an increasing intensity of sadness.     

The effects of subliminal anger and sadness primes on agency appraisals

Two studies examined whether appraisals can be differentially affected by subliminal anger and sadness primes. Participants from Singapore (Experiment 1) and China (Experiment 2) were exposed to either subliminal angry faces or subliminal sad faces. Supporting appraisal theories of emotions, participants exposed to subliminal angry faces were more likely to appraise negative events as caused by other people and those exposed to subliminal sad faces were more likely to appraise the same events as caused by situational factors. The results provide the first evidence for subliminal emotion-specific cognitive effects. They show that cognitive functions such as appraisals can be affected by subliminal emotional stimuli of the same valence.     

Differentiating the effects of anger and sadness: A perspective of spontaneous trait inference

In the present research, three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of anger and sadness on spontaneous trait inferences (STIs). Using a probe recognition paradigm, Experiment 1 revealed that angry participants made more errors in response to probes following trait‐implying behaviours than sad participants did. Using a false recognition paradigm, Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that angry participants made more errors in response to systematic pair trials than sad participants did. The three experiments provided convergent evidence that angry individuals were more inclined to form STIs than sad individuals were. The current research first demonstrated the different effects of specific negative mood states (anger vs. sadness) on STIs, providing further insight into the relationship between mood and STIs.     

Effects of age and competence type on the emotions: Focusing on sadness and anger

Abstract:  The effects of age and competence type on emotional reactions were demonstrated in this study. Participants: (362 junior high-school students, 658 senior high-school students, 407 undergraduates, and 1027 adults) were asked to rate the Assumed-competence Scale, second version (ACS-2) and Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale, which were prepared to classify the participants into four competence types: Omnipotent, Assumed, Self-respective, and Atrophy. They also rated their perceived emotional reactions toward negative personal and social events, and the responses were compared among age groups and competence types. Remarkable results showed that the Assumed and the Atrophy types were prominent in junior and senior high-school students. They tend to get angry toward negative personal events, and they also tend not to respond emotionally toward social events. Another result was that people in the Assumed and Omnipotent types were likely to get angry toward both personal and social events, and they were also less responsive toward social events.     

Intrusive thoughts and avoidance in breast cancer: Individual differences and association with psychological distress

Abstract Eighty-five women with newly diagnosed breast cancer were classified on the basis of high and low levels of cancer-related intrusive thoughts and avoidance at diagnosis, and their psychological adjustment was studied prospectively at 3 and 6 months post diagnosis. Patients who initially reported high levels of both intrusive thoughts and avoidance and those who reported high levels of intrusive thoughts but low avoidance experienced the highest levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, and continued intrusive thoughts and avoidance. Patients who were high in avoidance but low in intrusive thoughts also experienced adjustment problems, including increased intrusive thoughts, when compared with patients who were low in both types of symptoms. The findings highlight the value of considering subgroup differences in patterns of intrusion and avoidance as predictors of subsequent psychological adjustment to breast cancer.